Forgotten Lands [A Regression Deckbuilding Story]

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

A fast-paced fantasy GameLit adventure with an overpowered protagonist. Let the game turn into reality.

Regret filled Zayn as he witnessed the crumbling remnants of a once vibrant world. The sight in front of him was the result of numerous sacrifices. The blood, sweat, and tears of millions…only to lose everything in the end.

As death claimed him, angry and remorseful, Zayn reflected on the meager extension of his existence, a mere prolongation of the inevitable that came at the cost of countless lives and sacrifices.

Unbeknownst to the dwindling remains of humanity, their sacrifices had not been in vain. Their collective efforts left an undeniable mark, causing sustainable damage to their adversaries, the Primordial Pantheon, forcing the ancient deities to alter the very fabric of time itself.

In a mysterious turn of events, Zayns finds himself catapulted in time, back to the start of the initialization, days before the terror of humanity, Forgotten Lands, was released as a mere VRMMORPG

Can Zayn rewrite the future by changing the course of fate, or will he fail once again?

Cover is AI generated

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2024
Author: HideousGrain

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.2/ 5.0
Followers: 2,480
Views: 938,053

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

Yeehaw13Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This book is highly engaging, with a quick growth, smart game plan of how to change the future, and all the things you’re looking for in a good book.
So sad it was never finished. I hope this will be a project the other returns to one day so we can see where the story is meant to go, the project was paused right when the story got started.
RingostraussRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I started reading Litrpg it seems like a decade ago. I've enjoyed it ever since. While this story has some rough edges editing wise, they don't detract from the enjoyment I'm getting from reading it.
It blends elements familiar with just enough new to make a really enjoyable read. It feels like I'm reading some of the original regression mmo stories I read on translation sites.
The story is your classic online mmorpg that was actually a preparation for a system style invasion/apocalypse. The main character made it to the climax but everyone around him had died, then the universe was rewound in time due to exterior elements and the main character kept his knowledge of the future. He wasn't planning for it and he doesn't have perfect knowledge of events or the game, so it makes his progress feel more earned.
The story pulled me in well enough that I blew through the currently available chapters in one sitting
In short if you like regression litrpg I think you'll definitely enjoy this. The only downside is I'm done and now I have to wait for the next 200 chapters.
But I will end with a thank you to the author for sharing his take on the genre and I look forward to seeing him grow as an author.
AzothTreatyRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
I love regression stories because I get to experience optimized builds and a sense of urgency making sure the story stays on point. This novel hits all that.
He uses his knowledge to gain money and uses that money to help him progress in-game. I cannot stress how important this is to a regression story and I love that this novel does it perfectly. I think this novel is the most perfect example of a regression novel.
1. Optimized actions influenced by knowledge of future events.
2. Consequences of using that information(barely since the novel went on a hiatus just as it about to get schwifty)
3. Characters are written well with relatable back stories and understandable motivations
AzureWhaleRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
For my taste, stories that make Grimdark look tame are not fun. Fortunately, this is NOT one of them. This author has avoided the common practice of thinking that more blood and gore and angst makes a better story. This author has clearly understood that the story is what is important, not the trappings. If the story is well told, then the rest isn't all that important.
So, my congratulations on telling a compelling story. I'm looking forward to seeing more development of the secondary characters as it progresses. Other than some recurring spelling problems, that is the only thing lacking (and I suspect that the author has plans to fill us in now that the introduction is complete).
NekraxRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
hum, i've started the story and hop chapter 40, i can't tell you why i don't give this last star, i feel like it missing something, the plot is good, the mc is smart, it is a good reincarnation story,nothing really new, but if you like that, you will love this story.
ThomassinRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Very good story. At the moment the secondary characters are a bit one-dimensional but not to the point where we don't want to see them. The biggest flaw I find is that I can't get involved in the "stop the game from descending" plot as it is beyond obvious that it will fail, one way or the other. Even the MC is planning many things for after the integration and his actions wouldn't make any sense if the game remained a game.
Overall it's not a masterpiece but it's a fun read. The universe is interesting. A deserved 4/5 for me.
KaminRoyal Road
★★★★ 3.5
The story is decent. The premise is fairly normal/average, quite similar to "Return of the SSS-Class Ranker." My main issues with the story is there is way too much repetitive and filler text. I'm reading like 2 paragraphs that could be summed into 4 sentences, and on chapter 18 there is a wall of text about cooking that really does not need to be there as it doesn't add anything to the story. Other than that though it's a fine read, but man those two things can make reading it really hard.
VarionRoyal Road
★★★★ 3.5
There is an interesting story here, but freqently incorrect word choice, strange syntax errors, and similar grammatically issues make it jarringly hard to read through for me. The dialogue is often stilted and flat, while the descriptions of locations, enemies, and events are incomplete at best or entirely skipped at worst, leaving it entirely up to the reader to fill the in blanks with whatever they perceive as correct for the story. This has the upside of allowing the plot to progress reasonably quickly.
As of now, there are two authorial decisions which I view as completely immersion breaking. The first is the idea that reaching the next tier of the character's stat progression causes intense pain, or really any pain at all. I would never play a game, no matter how good, if it tortured me for progressing. This makes it very hard to believe that the game could maintain a player base at all or if the player base would progress rapidly.
Second, the credit values tossed around seem roughly synonomous to an American Dollar or an English Pound, although it's inspecific enough to be either. At this price point, players are paying at minimum 1000 credits for a gaming console, but typicallly 10000 or 100000 dollars. Then they are paying 100s of dollars for mere guides about the game. Granted, the game has a real money economy that can't be duplicated in reality, so I find this less difficult to believe than anyone willingly playing a torture game, but it still beggers belief that a large population of players would ever be successfully established. Real world games that are incredibly popular have up to half a million players. This imaginary game will have over 6 million players, if I recall correctly. The amount of money changing hands boggles the mind.
This story is worth a read through and is typically a good twist on the traditional VRMMO/System Apocalypse genre, but it needs some severe editing at all levels.
LegolastheLeglessRoyal Road
★★ 2.0
This story started out with an interesting concept. I really enjoy this genre of writing, and despite the abysmal sentence construction and borderline lack of a writing style, I persevered in the hopes that the author got better over time. However, he’s now midway through the second book at the time of review, and I just can’t do it anymore. This is one of the first books I’ve ever dropped for poor spelling and grammar, as opposed to poor plot. If there was a mass edit done, maybe I’d come back, but it might take a full rewrite to salvage this.
CosmorosRoyal Road
★★ 2.0
The story itself is nothing unique. Similar premise and circumstances can be easily found elsewhere. It's way too short to give any definitive review of the story due to the lack of chapters as of now.
Style: It reminds me of way too much other stories I read already. Also, this novel is copying system from other novel.
Also, the fact it is just a system novel, but with renamed variables stats-stars, cards-skills. This makes this story read as something written on a whim, rather than something that took a long time to create.
Story: Was somewhat an interesting read. But further you go, the less interest you have in the story.
Latest chapters decided that being a copy paste novel with nothing original is not enough. Now we have also trash talking player hunters with no ability to strategise or plan an ambush. MC is no better on that front.
The world already has multiple plot and cohesion issues because of the currency interchange between the game and real life mentioned by the author. How people get stronger and the general tech level of the world.
Unless the interchange is fully player based, I believe this will be used to just make rich people as antagonists who can use whatever amount of coins they want. The moment the game shows that it's not a game, the interchange market is going to collapse the economy.
VR segment is poorly though through and mostly skimmed by me. Whole synchronization part makes no sense, neither does the VR interfaces production part. Basically, VR could have just not existed at all.
It is mentioned that gods made full immersion VR technology and are spreading VR pods and other things. This fact makes the pricing of this machinery make no sense. If the goal is to spread it as much as possible, why make them cost much more than an entire house? Actually entire premise of how they are coming makes little to no sense.
Grammar: Standard quality grammar, basically mass produced quality of a story. Nothing special.
Characters: As of now I can only