Schemer's Paradise [Progression LitRPG]

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Devon, a college student and local chess prodigy, is pulled into a string of unnatural disappearances the world has called the takings.Deemed a cursed being by the guiding system, he'll have to learn to fight and surviveif he hopes to survive its tutorial.

However, Devon discovers that the overseers of the tutorial, meant to guide himself and his fellow initiates, actually mean to farm them for experience once their grace period expires. With the system crippling Devon's ability to gain power fast enough to stop the impending slaughter he'll have to rely on a profession the system itself seems to have forgotten exists to grow stronger.

He'll do anything to overcome the threat of the overseers and make it beyond the farce the system calls a tutorial, even if it means he has to manipulate everyone around him into creating a maelstrom of conflicting interests, motivations, and ideologies.

"...And upon that stage, that thin line that seperates life and death... I shall dance."

What to expect:

- Weak to strong story.

- MC who develops into an anti-hero.

- Mix of battle-related progression and scheme-related progression. (About an 80/20 split between action and scheming. This is a progression fantasy, after all.)

- No romance.

Irregular chapter updates.

2024 November Writathon Winner.

Updates Mon-Tues-Fri.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2024
Author: Xavier Rowland

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.3/ 5.0
Followers: 1,320
Views: 473,299

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

sypherRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I like it and want to support it.I dont know what to say to fill the word count but it captures the essence of primal hunter that it lost as time moved on.The system is set up to be the overarching plot and the mystery of his exp gain is curious.
Pace77Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I love that the side characters in this story feel more real than some one-dimensional picture as is often seen in these kinds of stories. They all have their own thoughts and goals instead of being nothing but a bag of xp for the mc to claim. As for the system, I am really interested in the potential behind writing the mc with a "forgotten" class
which seems to interact with the system directly. Additionally, those error codes hint at some interesting plots and rules occurring behind the scenes.
The Duke_2Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
First review, i apologise for eventual unprofessional review.
Let's start by the obvious. The grammar is good, i haven't noticed mistakes. The characters are plausibles, which is the first thing i'm looking for in a story. For me, it's a hit-or-miss. If, at some point, i'm starting to think :"Wait, that's completely stupid !", it's almost certainly a drop. So, good characters, nice. We had some really good chapters, like
The memory of the Cursed King.
The chapter i'm reading, the 41st, is where the story finally shine.
The first few chapters exposed the new world, then we got to learn the stakes, then the MC, and now, we see the path Devon will take. And, it got my blood boilin' ! So here it is ! My totally subjective view of this great (so far) novel ! I might come back when the story is over. 'Till then, go give it a try !
PS : I love to hate Eve, we all do.
Worst-answerRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Novel with a high potential, Seems well written (maybe the author is a native) . mc seems competent and interesting i'm pretty curios about his development .
aside from that i can't say much more for the few chapters. and i need to see the development in the long run to have a better idea
AtaxiaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
There's much to love about this novel. Characters seem realistic and natural, the mc definitely gives off death note and code geas vibes(cold, calculating, etc), and the pacing actually makes sense. No crazy time skips or inexplicable power ups.
No blatant grammar issues.
Gains are earned. MC has no qualms to exploit his peers for the greater good.
I'm sure it'll only get better as it goes on and the setting/scope broadens.
Mega hate for Eve.
Bercans2Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
It takes a small bit of time to get to the scheming, but this book is extremely good! The world and characters are interesting and fleshed out, with an interesting lead that feels pleasant to read about, as well as many other intriguing characters with their own thoughts and motivations. I am very excited to see where the story will go from here.
Being ReaderRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Good start. Really enjoying the read. Great potential. I am rooting for your success. Take your time and develop this story please. Let your imagination wild and don't take any shortcuts. Cook a damn well story as 5 star Michelin chef. This draft is really worth pitching. I'll be waiting for your future endeavours. Peace 🙏
ZenithPairRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Please be advised that the following review may contain a few spoilers(few plot related spoilers). Read at own risk:
The novel starts off slow for the first 5 or so chapters but really ramps up by chapter 20. The system is great, and the fights are intense. One note is that so far there hasn't been that much scheming however the MC is hinted at getting more and more ruthless which is shown in his willingness to kill and trap enemies as the system breaks him down.
This unfortunately is subverted for some reason when MC decides to share a lot of his secrets with the main female side character for no reason and is the reason for the missing 1/2 star. It goes against the character he is built up to have as he shares more with an antagonistic lady than his best friend and seems super out of place. Aside from that the only other detractor is that his 'cheat' is come to by luck and seems like it would be more common than they say in story. Perhaps this will be expanded on later, but the MC's logic doesn't hold water.
Aside from that, the writing is well done and there are decent stakes involved. Looking forward to more chapters where the MC shows his ruthlessness and planning. Hopefully we even get a backstab, but all in all the novel has been a fun experience.
Brenton LipfordRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
I really did like your start.In the fact that you made him have to work much harder than most mc It's cool but But chapter seven It's just crap No reason for him to take He's not that You just made him look like a
But I still hope you can clean this Mess up in a good way Still don't mean to rag on you It is a good story.I just personally hate the Protegant is getting For no reason
kmuRoyal Road
★★★ 2.5
I really enjoyed reading the book up to a point. After ch 40 the story got lost all the schemes that popped up was too confusing. The mc really did not grow as a villion or hero just very confusing. I really wanted the story to focus on after the tutorial but for some reason it took to long to get through it.