Ferrum Online [VR LitRPG]

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Taken from their homes without warning, thousands now find themselves in the unforgiving world of Ferrum.

On October 1st, 2035, three hundred thousand people excitedly logged in to play the gameFerrum Onlineon its opening day. Little did they know, a malevolent entity had laid a trap within the game's code. Through the use of the fully immersive "Kabuto" VR system, the enigmatic GM trapped all of these players in the game. Now, these players can only escape by killing GM, but he has no intention of making it easy for them.

[REVISIONS COMPLETED]

There are heavy modern war elements in this story, and the RPG system works in tandem with the modern weapons. A player may shoot his rifle in some circumstances and cast a fireball in others. Ferrum is a world where magic and post-industrial technology coexist, though neither holds a clear advantage. Any intelligent denizen of Ferrum knows to make use of both the magic and the mundane.

The story continues withThe Reluctant Apostle.

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2023
Author: Abraham-DeWitt

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.2/ 5.0
Followers: 350
Views: 101,907

Chapters(67 total)

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(8)

lance_myRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Been awhile since I’ve read anything this well written. Meticulous and finely crafted story, the story flows from paragraph to the next with care and precision. I’d rate it a lot higher if at all possible, I just wish there were more chapters released so I can enjoy it more.
I can’t wait for the other chapters to come out.
Character-Bike4Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Overall: Five stars. I liked it so much that I made an account to write this review.
Style: Abraham DeWitt has a very dense style. He's able to pack a lot of information into a handful of words. The highlight of Ferrum has to be the combat scenes. The characters fight with the brutality that I really look for in stories like this.
Grammar: There were no problems as far as I could see.
Story: Characters die in this story. Some of their deaths are seriously unexpected.
Melkior, a character I really thought would become a major character, dies in chapter 1. Dendrite dies in chapter 7. Enzo, the main character, dies in chapter 8. There are enough characters that their deaths don't destroy the story. After Enzo's death, you really get the sense that Enzo was just setting up the real main character, Tantalus.
The world-building is very nicely done. The audience learns information as the characters do. There are some short exposition dumps but they're diegetic. The story makes you see the world through the characters.
Character: The characters are very realistic. I can totally imagine real people talking to each other like how they talk in the story.
DabossUnberogenRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I like how this story has actual real world consequences for the players of the game, whereas in many other such VR based LitRPGs it is literally like reading a twitch streaming feed or some some other sort of gameplay account that was transcribed to writing. Not so with this story.
The style is very sharp and visceral, and it packs in a lot of information in each sentence. The way that everything in the world is described is great, and I like the imagery. I loved how there was a little picture at the end of each chapter.
The story is one of the best parts of the entire fiction. Normally LitRPGs in which the MC is merely a player in a game and not actually in a world with game like elements there is very little lore, at least initially. In this story little lore drops are there off the bat, with one of the characters even commenting on it.
The grammar was perfect, at least as far as I could tell.
The characters are well fleshed out and seem realistic, but sometimes they are lacking a certain depth. I feel that this might because they are interacting through video game avatars rather than in real life, and it's just a stylistic preference for me.
All in all, it was highly engaging and definitely worth checking out.
ThatWriterGuyRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I have the say, the author has a great story going. He's hitting a niche that is very neglected by the site's fantasy dominant meta. This will sound weird, but imagine World of Warcraft met Call of Duty met LitRPG. I'll explain later on. But I have to give an applause to the author for making a story that appeals to those of us wanting to read a post-medieval LitRPG story.
Style: 5/5. It's easy to read and satisfying to do so. There's no awkward wordings or infodumps. There's one issue that's still very apparent, but I'm saving that for the grammar section since it has more to do with that. But on the topic of style, the author nails it.
Story: 5/5. What can I say? I'm a sucker for stories with post-medieval combat. The modern warfare feel gives the story a chilling feeling. And because all the players are trapped in the game, it's a powerful feeling to see characters die. And it gives me World War 2 vibes with the brutal fighting, urban warfare, and sight of modern cities becoming ruins. This scratches an inch you never knew you had.
Grammar: 4.5/5. Here's where I found a major problem that needed to be pointed out. The story isn't filled to the brim with typos or using grammatically incorrect sentences. No, the problem here is that sometimes I noticed the narrative using words like "me", "my", and "I." Which is odd since the rest of the story is told in third-person. But it's nothing a quick readthrough can't fix.
Character: 5/5. The characters are realistic and relatable. I can especially relate to Enzo since I too would be skeptical about hearing an AI say everything is real while everyone else immediately accepts it. And the author has the bravery to kill characters that look like they'll be main characters. Melkior, a character we are introduced to early, dies. The new Chapter 2 flashes forward to show that Enzo dies as well. The only true main character I see is Tantalus since he a prologue before it was edited out.
All in all, a great story and I look forwar
mOrphiRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Reviewed at latest chapter as of 9/22.
Overall this story is a fun read and I can recommend. Not usually a fan of a video game based story but I think this one does it well.
Style - Author has a strong writing style for drawing you in and keeping you there. Each paragraph and chapter pack a lot of information but it doesn't feel too lore dumpy. The author does a great job writing combat scenes. The action is fast paced and well described.
Grammar - No real issues of note. Author has a clean writing style.
Story - Good story and world building so far. no spoilers here but there are some unexpected deaths early on in the plot. I am particularly fond of this style of character threat but it was a surprise and well done. I can see this upsetting some readers and being a turn off.
Characters - MC is written well and is easy to relate too. Conversations with other characters are well done and easy to read. Excited to learn more about other characters in the future. Overall good story that I will be following for the future. Solid read that fans of VRMMO will certainly enjoy, as will most RR readers.
alSeenRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Okay so just started, and I am on chapter 9. I have to say, this is one of the best litrpgs “trapped inside a game” beginnings I have read so far. The initial development has been slow, but not in a bad way. Chapters are short enough that it doesn’t feel like characterization is dragging or anything. The author so far has done an amazing job luring you and promises decent payoff. Also I like how the more famous gamers are being utilized, which I have found lacking in other stories (as in many, it is the MC himself who is the best or one of the best gamers around for these events).
edit: so all caught up and my god. It deserves the 5/5 even more.
edit edit: it gets better. And the number of chapters this author throws out is a godsend.
AtrakinRoyal Road
★★★★ 3.5
I wanted to like the story, especially since the cast of characters seem well fleshed out and quite interesting, but I just cannot focus with the dumps the author keeps throwing at my face. There's no such thing as organically revealing the world, instead there's just exposition, which is not very good for immersion, let me tell you that.
If you're fine with exposition and info dumps, read this. from the dozen chapters I've read, it seems to be heading in a good direction.
If you're not fine with exposition, I suggest looking elsewhere.
The CollinsRoyal Road
★★ 2.0
So, it starts out just like sword art online and everybody gets stuck in the game where they have to clear it or die. OK. Fighting starts up right away and people might die very quickly and the MC wants to help out OK fine.
But now, 7 chapters in, it is everybody else doing things, except for this person who is supposed to be a main character. It feels like you are watching everybody else get stuff done but from his perspective and he kinda just does something once and a while. He is not in charge, he has nothing special about him, and he hasn't done anything except decide that he wants to help, O! and he shot a few things that one time (but so did everybody else that one time). There are no cool weapons, no cool skills, just normal people with guns (not very game like). I just didn't gain any interest in the story, the characters, or the world for that matter. I just have no reason to press the "next chapter" button for chapter 8 because I have no attachment to anything and quite frankly it is taking to long for that to happen and I am no longer interested.