
by Hanlons Awkham
Kopius didn’t choose Metem. Metem chose him; now he can’t leave. His interface–broken. Logout button–absent. Pessimism–intact The pain–it hurts. Sobering up in a stone chamber that looks suspiciously like a character select scene is nothing new to Kopius; not being able to exit is. With the familiar taste of rock bottom and a competitive spirit for self-loathing, he moves forward in search of a way out. Ahead lies a world of magic, monsters, and quests that don’t care how unprepared he is. Survival isn’t guaranteed, neither is his dignity. Is he competent? Mostly. Is he mature? Kind of. Will he be able to complain his way out of this one? Probably not–but dammit, he’ll try. What to Expect: No Murderhobo Often described as a gateway drug to litRPG—well, eventually... hopefully Has an ending. I told my wife and she cried; I promise. A lot of world building for the first 30 chapters or so Relatively slow-burn Expect stats to grow with story Middle-aged, weak-to-strong MC. Sorry, no teens. Author’s Note: Book one is complete: (TBC) The Blind Chemist Book two (BCB) The Ballad of Cici Beo New Chapter every Wednesday-ish
No streak history
One state-enhanced oracle order, filtered by each list. Observed Royal Road ranks remain separate ground truth.
Rank updated 2 Oct 2026, 03:58 UTC
Entry forecast updated 2 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.
Coupled 14-day outlook
rs-joint-entry-copula-v1
Any eligible RS entry
0%
Two or more lists
0%
Likely threshold order: Action → Adventure → Fantasy → Main.
Leading bundle: Action (0%).
Estimated from one fitted shared story path; category probabilities are not multiplied as if lists were independent.
Separate entry forecast; this probability does not enter the ranking score.
Overall Rising Stars Shadow RS rank
#9658 of 12,417 · 9608 below RS #50
By genre
beats 75% of similar stories
beats 61% of similar stories
beats 58% of similar stories
Mid-pack, room on both levers
Traffic and conversion both sit mid-field for a story this size. Growth here compounds from consistency: steady cadence feeds traffic, and a sharper hook lifts what each view is worth.
Benchmarks: 8,060 active Royal Road stories, percentiles within the 50–149 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views over the recent window.