by ZOOE
The year is 3050. Humanity survived a century-long war against an alien civilization by creating monsters so terrifying that the invaders fled Earth. The victory came at an unimaginable cost, only one-third of the planet's population remained, and the world rebuilt itself under the rule of a unified global government. For sixteen years, Zane has never been allowed to leave his home. When the government police force known as C.I.V.I.C. finally finds him, he's torn away from the only life he's has ever known and thrust into a place where survival depends on intelligence rather than strength. Surrounded by strangers, forced into deadly games, and unable to trust anyone, Zane must outwit both the system that stole his freedom and the people willing to betray each other to stay alive. In a world built on sacrifice, the greatest enemy isn't always the one trying to kill you but it's the one standing beside you.
No streak history
One state-enhanced oracle order, filtered by each list. Observed Royal Road ranks remain separate ground truth.
Rank updated 9 Oct 2026, 03:58 UTC
Entry forecast updated 9 Oct 2026, 03:58 UTC
Ranking model: rs-public-oracle-state-v1
Forecast model: rs-model-entry-v1
Chart history contains only this ranking model's runs; legacy points are not spliced in.
Not enough recent follower history to estimate a shadow rank yet.
beats 73% of similar stories
not enough data yet
beats 7% of similar stories
Hidden gem — exposure is the bottleneck
Readers who find this story follow it at a high rate; there just aren't enough of them. In our cohort data, near-daily posting lifted the odds of reaching 25 followers from ~0% to 17% — more chapters, shoutout swaps and ads buy the eyeballs this conversion deserves.
Benchmarks: 8,060 active Royal Road stories, percentiles within the 5–9 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views lifetime.
