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351 series

Echoes of the Tribulation

Carl Dehal

B69/100
The year is 1329, and the Horns of the Apocalypse are about to sound. In a small Scottish town, a young boy begins a journey from carpenter's apprentice to one of the most powerful forces in the Host of the Heavens. A path of adversity lies before him, spanning from the Scottish Borders to the Spanish Reconquista, the Holy Land, and realms beyond. His ascension is an unceasing trial where one misstep may condemn his soul — facing mythical beasts, hordes of demons, and fell beings created by the System for the Tribulation of Mankind. Will he live by the Words of God, be guided by his own intent, or will other forces claim him for their own ends?
Royal Road4.69· 392
Base BuildingDungeon CrawlingGrimdarkLitRPGMilitaryOverpowered MC+4

Death: Genesis

Nicholas Searcy

B69/100
Zeke Blackwood devoted his childhood to baseball and gave up a kidney to save his sick brother — only to die on the operating table. Eons later, after Earth has been ravaged, he is reborn in the Radiant Isles: a magical realm of legendary creatures, horrifying monsters, and a war between good and evil. Fully healed and guided by the mysterious entity Oberon, Zeke begins battling his way through trolls and darkness, gaining superhuman abilities with every victory — and acquiring allies in an archer named Abby and a soul-bonded dire bear cub named Pudge.
Goodreads4.40· 1.3K
GrimdarkLitRPGMonster TamingPost-apocalypticReincarnationStats+1

Jayke Cipher

StaffMage

B69/100
Jayke Cipher was, to his limited knowledge, one of the last people alive. The apocalypse struck Earth swiftly, and the monstrosities that roamed outside became an unavoidable part of his existence. Working from within a heavily defended compound, he watched them through surveillance cameras and cultivated a strange fascination with strange creatures. When the compound is breached and all other options are exhausted, his only option is the pod — a mysterious virtual reality capsule whose producer had released early in light of the apocalypse. He had always thought of it as suicide. But being eaten alive is worse.
Royal Road4.54· 1.3KGoodreads3.50· 2
LitRPGPost-apocalypticSystem ApocalypseVRMMO

AI Apocalypse: Restart

J David Baxter

B68/100
In a world where an AI Apocalypse has transformed life into a brutal game of survival, humanity's last hope lies in turning back the clock. Liam Bell, a seasoned warrior at the end of his rope, is given a second chance. With a unique class that may give him the edge he needs, he is determined to rewrite history and save the remnants of humanity. As Liam battles monstrous foes and navigates treacherous alliances, he must level up rapidly, harnessing the evolving power of his bloodline. Can he reach the mythical Level 100 and create safe havens before the relentless onslaught overwhelms him?
Goodreads4.44· 378
Class SystemLitRPGPost-apocalypticRegressionSystem ApocalypseWeak to Strong

Mars System Reboot

Dave Willmarth

B68/100
Late 21st-century Earth is overcrowded and resource-depleted. A crew of ten humans are sent to Mars aboard Hyperion I to establish the first colony. Just as they are about to descend to the surface, a careless accident kills a crew member and damages the ship, forcing the others to launch early. On day one they learn that magic is real, and that the planet — in fact the entire galaxy — is governed by a complicated and merciless System. Their assimilation into the System makes them enemies of the paranoid powers that be on Earth, cutting them off from all communications and resupply. On their own on a mostly dead world, nearly every form of life they encounter is out to kill them.
Goodreads4.41· 815
LitRPGPost-apocalypticSci-fiSecondary WorldSystem Apocalypse

Outrun

Lost Rain

B68/100
In a neon-drenched cyberpunk city drowning in gangs and corporate predators, a poor thief turned investigator just wants to earn enough to get out. That plan falls apart fast—caught between stealing from one of the Big 7 and a mysterious interface that keeps issuing directives, survival becomes the only goal. A gritty first-person journey through post-apocalyptic cyberpunk streets, where every job could be the last.
Royal Road4.66· 1K
GrimdarkLitRPGMysteryPost-apocalypticSci-fiUrban Fantasy

The Last Diabolist

wkrrk

B68/100
My name is Jain Shin Hallow, and I eat lunch in the school bathroom. I'm in my senior year at Charter Academy, finished with my SATs, filling out college applications, living in a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan with my dad. I've been bullied all my life, mostly for not knowing when to shut up. Oh. It also turns out I'm the last of the Hallow Diabolists and the Shin Shamans. Pacts and bargains, ghosts, haunted amusement parks, mass graves, rooms that lead to other places, yokais and daevils — just another Friday. My name is Jain Shin Hallow, and I'm the last Diabolist of New York.
Royal Road4.70· 253
Genius MCHorrorMysteryPost-apocalypticSchoolSecondary World+3

Tales of the Endless Empire

The Curator

B67/100
A bloodmage born in shadows, a shapeshifter no one can predict, a survivor in a world set against him. Thalion's life as a marine biologist was modest in wealth but rich in joy — until the System arrived, sending everyone on Earth into a tutorial while merging the planet with four others. The System granted people magic and even ways to defy time itself, but the tutorial has become more of a slaughter trial than a learning experience. A post-apocalyptic LitRPG featuring an adaptive magic system that evolves based on its wielder, multi-POV storytelling, and expansive worldbuilding.
Royal Road4.10· 1.5KGoodreads3.40· 5
Anti-heroBase BuildingCultivationGameLitGrimdarkHard Magic+7

Gamma Protocol

Ravnicrasol

B67/100
In the year 2252, Axel Garcia woke up early, ready to enter the next phase of his life. He has since concluded that he should have slept in. In a cyberpunk world where humanity has been pushed into futuristic fortified cities to survive against monsters, Axel navigates a life of slice-of-life moments, monster killing, and trying to do good in a world fraught with greed. Alongside standard military forces and a cadre of superpowered fighters — less Mahou Shoujo and more superheroes — he'll discover that common sense and big guns go a surprisingly long way.
Royal Road4.68· 441
CozyLitRPGMilitaryPost-apocalypticSci-fiSuperpowers

How to Survive at the End of the World

RC Joshua

B67/100
When an accident kicks Sean Lawrence forward in time, he finds himself square in the apocalyptic end-times. The world is doomed, and he has only a mysterious guidebook, a leather jacket, and a home-made knife. He could spend his days grinding low-level mobs and waiting for a chance to escape. Or he could rise up, slay dragons, and fight against the odds. Faced with a choice between the dead-end life he's been living and a possibility of greatness, Sean has to decide if he's willing to risk everything for a chance to save Earth itself.
Royal Road4.56· 638Goodreads4.41· 1.2K
ComedyGameLitGenius MCLitRPGPost-apocalypticSci-fi+3

Apocalypse Online

Robyn Wideman

B67/100
At first everyone thought it was a game. Brad and Sam were playing the hot new game Apocalypse Online when they realized it was a preview of reality — aliens have arrived and they are turning people into fertilizer. With the help of a benevolent alien AI and nanotechnology, they have a chance to survive. They just have to level up and find other survivors. Jake is no gamer, but when he finds out aliens have arrived, he'll do anything to protect his little sister Sam. A post-apocalyptic series filled with action, aliens, and snarky AIs.
Goodreads4.40· 996
GameLitLitRPGPost-apocalypticSci-fiStatsSystem Apocalypse+1

Cruel Violet

Dreamer's Riot

B66/100
It's been centuries since the world fell to the mist and crystal, changing the flora, fauna, and the very air. Humanity slowly returns from mountain refuges, mastering crystals and the strange clarity they offer. Now, at age five, every child receives a crystal inlay ring that reveals their calling — a specific area of excellence and a unique method of growth. Everyone has a calling. Everyone but Violet. For eleven years she has been the only child with no calling, learning to adapt to the ridicule and pity with a carefully worn persona of warmth and kindness. Then she finds herself with blood on her hands — and finally understands how to feed her calling, and her appetite.
Royal Road4.68· 388
Anti-heroDungeon CoreGoreGrimdarkLitRPGOverpowered MC+6

Bloodsworn

Dominick R

B66/100
The Dragons have been slain, the Giants pacified, the Elves have retreated to the old growth forests, and the Dwarven forges have gone cold. Magic fled from the world as the Empire of Man rose supreme on the strength of technology — until Essence ignites, filling the world with the old powers of myth and legend. Erak doesn't care about any of it. His Oaths are etched into his Blood, and the Weight Essence has given them has only made them stronger. He serves his Queen: her shield, her sword, her guardian. Cut off from her as portals tear open the sky and release a storm of demons upon the Empire, he will fight his way to her side. Rallying survivors, soldiers, civilians, and scholars, Erak is determined to cut through every legion of Hell standing between him and his Queen. For he is the Bloodsworn, and nothing shall stop him from honoring his Oaths.
Royal Road4.73· 222Goodreads3.63· 542
GoreGrimdarkHorrorLitRPGMilitaryNon-human MC+5

The Adventures of Rania Mortal the Perfectly Normal Elf

WittyPseudonym

B66/100
"I am legally required to inform you that she is a Perfectly Normal Elf," the devil said. Rania Mortal would have told you that herself. She's never been sure why her normalcy is subject to debate. Sure, she knows very little about how society works, treats a painted pebble as a treasured companion, and bases an alarming number of decisions on what would look coolest in a book — but she has perfectly logical explanations for all of those things. Her fellow adventurers agree she is probably just eccentric. Perfectly ordinary behavior for a shaman. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the god of stories has taken a personal interest in their mission, and Rania is certainly not helping on that front.
Royal Road4.68· 367
ComedyMysteryOverpowered MCPost-apocalypticSecondary WorldSoft Magic+1

The Sovereign's Toll

AuthorJS

B66/100
His family was his world. Now he's in a new one. When a fatal accident rips Caleb Foster from his wife and kids, the forty-year-old gets a second chance in a realm of dungeons and monsters. A cosmic system offers him a choice of legendary powers, but Caleb refuses the flashy magic. He chooses the abilities to learn faster, remember perfectly, and master any physical skill. A father's instinct to protect doesn't die with his family. To survive and shield the new lives that depend on him, he must use a lifetime of quiet competence to navigate a dangerous frontier town, hunt deadly beasts, and outwit men who mistake his lack of flash for weakness. In a place where might makes right, Caleb is about to show that the most lethal weapon is a mind that misses nothing.
Royal Road4.49· 1.3K
Competent MCCozyDungeon CrawlingIsekaiLitRPGOlder MC+6

Atlantis Rising

Evan Currie

B66/100
A war was fought. Humanity lost. Demons now rule what was once mankind's domain, the great works of civilization lie in ruins, and the surviving humans live under the yoke of their conquerors. Not everyone went quietly, but at the end of it all the demons stood victorious. In one nearly uninhabitable corner of the conquered world, a very young woman comes of age walking in the shadow of destiny she does not yet understand. The demons have one final lesson left to learn from humanity — and it begins with the smallest of sparks.
Goodreads4.28· 1.6K
GrimdarkMilitaryNon-human MCPost-apocalypticSecondary WorldWeak to Strong

The Way Ahead

NorskDaedalus

B66/100
Edwin never really felt many connections to other people, but as a physics student, that was fine. He was content to peel back the mysteries of the universe — though modern-day research was too well-trodden for any single enthusiast to make real headway. That doesn't apply to other worlds. Not ones where magic and Skills run rampant, where well-defined roles and Classes dominate society with little room for novel experimentation. That kind of world would be perfect for an overeager, newly-minted Alchemist to make his mark. A slice-of-life progression fantasy following someone trying to find his place in a world that doesn't know what to do with him. Expect lots of science, lots of alchemy, a few sarcastic quips from the System, and plenty of exploration.
Royal Road4.23· 1.9KGoodreads3.73· 468
AlchemyCraftingGameLitGenius MCIsekaiLitRPG+3

The Discarded, Half-Eaten Apple Core New Life.

MDW

B65/100
The world ended. The Apocalypse opened the gates of Hell, demons killed everyone — including me. But I got a second chance at life. As an apple. Which was eaten by a starving survivor, not that I fault them. But to toss my half-eaten core into a landfill? Then an earthquake buried the landfill a mile underground. No sunlight, no water, and I'm pretty sure the apple I was reincarnated into was a GMO hybrid with no real chance of germinating. Then: **DING** — SYSTEM INITIATION!
Royal Road4.54· 1.1K
Anti-heroComedyCozyDungeon CoreGameLitGenius MC+12

Irwin's Journey - The Cardsmith

Carrarn

B65/100
The young, sickly Irwin has seen nothing but bad luck in his short life. When his brother returns with a magical card for him, his luck is about to change — but not necessarily for the better. Irwin is sent off with a group of youths to placate a group of sorcerers, armed with only a strange utility card granted by his brother and a prayer to stay alive long enough. A card-gathering story with crafting that grows increasingly central as the series progresses. Slow-paced, starts dark, with a weak-to-strong arc.
Royal Road4.60· 1K
CraftingGameLitGrimdarkIsekaiPost-apocalypticSecondary World+2

CyberGene

Sixbees2

B65/100
Every century, the MALswarm invades — adaptive aliens of blood and steel led by Titans that decimate billions and leave behind raw Warp Energy. Humanity seizes this power, transforming into beings of mutated flesh and cybernetic might. Yet the promised utopia remains a lie, and New California's underworld schemes to profit from the impending Fifth Swarm. Two destinies collide amidst the chaos. Ripley — a cybernetics savant battling to save his dying mother — operates in the shadows of a gang-owned nightclub. Diana, engineered for perfection, fights as an officer of the law to forget her past. When a monster is unleashed, they steal its infinite potential to warp their futures. In a city where salvation and damnation are inseparable, Ripley reinvents himself from the wreckage of his enemies' cybernetics as a mercenary, while Diana's mutated blood crackles with lightning as she purges corruption. Against a grand conspiracy of aliens, rogue AIs, shady corporations, and organized crime, their alliance — and conflict — determines if the world will plunge into darkness or embrace the light.
Royal Road4.66· 604
Anti-heroBase BuildingCozyGenius MCGoreGrimdark+9