Sleeper

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

I closed my eyes and saw another place. A place where my entire world was nothing more than a game. Now that I know the truth, my rise to power will begin!

No Rift can stop my progress. No dungeon boss will be match for my strength! My OPness will shake the heavens!

Except this isn't my story. I've woken up.

And I can't go back to sleep.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2021
Author: AweksLear

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.3/ 5.0
Followers: 80
Views: 55,194

Reviews

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Community Reviews(4)

JahnesRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is definitely not a read you should pass up on. It's well written and will grip your attention like a vice.
The main character is in a constant struggle for his life. Whether it is strife, suffering or treachery, our main character Adam will do all it takes to stay alive.
RAGRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
In terms of story content I don't have much to say besides "It's very good, I quite enjoy it" so this review will focus on aspects of technical writing skill within the work.
One of the hardest things to do when working with the start of a story in an original universe is controlling flow of information to the reader. Specifically, not vomiting detail all over them in a wave of exposition. Which is why I'm so pleased that, with this story, the reader can seamlessly follow along what's happening without a problem. We get just enough detail to understand what's happening without it feeling like you're summarizing a history book (aside from a moment in Back at Base)
For that alone I'd likely give this story at least a solid 3 stars.
On top of that, the author manages to work-in game mechanics and scenarios from the 'out of game' universe to the 'in game' universe narratively, which does a lot to make it feel much less artificial. And, in turn, makes it more jarring/impactful when said artificiality is exposed.
Also, inside of a handful of paragraphs in the first chapter, gave a sympathic protagonist and a clear conflict/problem without being overwrought or summarizing.
Oh, and the power-up mechanic is interesting, and shouldn't scale past the rest of the setting too quickly if ever. And has a nice creeping horror element to it too.
Reader X1Royal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
If you are reading this story, its probably because of the author's most well known work, Relevance and A World Flying Off The Tracks.
Stop now.
Because this story, other than sharing the same author, has nothing in common with the earlier work.
RAAWFOTT was strange, but the author has continued to chug down more and more crazy juice as the years passed. Sleeper is the result of concentrated crazy and not crazy in the fun way. Crazy in the "have dark thoughts" way.
So the plot. The world at first glance mirrors many korean web novels, modern or near future setting, but with dungeons ("rifts" in this novel) suddenly spawning and guilds having been formed to exploit the resources the dungeons provide.
The protag, Adam, is an adventurer who is employed by the largest guild in town. Adam suffers a near death experience very early on and awakens his cheat skill, the ability to drain someone of their "potential", a kind of nebulous concept which comprises of both life force and skills.
And then the issues many people have with this novel start.
Adam is a terrible person.
Not terrible in a mustache twirling way. He's terrible in a banal, all too realistic way that can be painful at times.
Adam is not a successful adventurer. He's the nameless mob in the korean adventure novel. Except he doesn't have the bravery, luck or skills to really ascend further. He really is an everyman, doing a job he's OK at, but not good enough to stand out. Adam knows this as well and there is an air of resignation about him.
But, wait he gets a cheat skill, doesn't he?
Not exactly. Adam's cheat skill is tied to a concept called the "fated end". What is the fated end? Basically Adam's death.
You see, the novel is vague about the actual mechanics, but basically Adam was never meant to survive the opening chapters. By using his cheat skill on others, Adam steals their lifespan, extending his own by a little. The cost of course being, the person he steals from dies.
And Adam is a terrible person. H
NewbageRoyal Road
★★★ 2.5
It's somwhat telling that the description of this novel is so aggressively vague and non-descriptive. The plot and setting are metaphysical clusterfucks. I usually don't like checking out fictions before knowing what it is essentially about, and thus usually just hard pass on fictions with descriptions like these. But sometimes I get adventurous. And given the other positive reviews, I though it was worth a gamble. I am sorry to report that the gamble has yet to pay off. The prose is competent. But overall, this novel has been a pretty mixed bag.
Initially, the confusion makes you want to keep reading to figure out what's going on. But as the metaphysical clusterfuckery continues, and answers remain perpetually elusive, it gets exhausting and unsatisfying.
Since the synopsis is decidedly lacking in an actual description, I'll give it a shot here - - which is something I wish another reviewer had done before me so I wasn't as blind going in:
In the opening chapters the MC is about to die, and somehow absorbs another person's fate/potential, which causes reality to shift and merge the MC's backstory with that of the person he absorbed. Except there's also some confusing flashes of someone (maybe an alt world version of the MC or just a person who the MC is getting memories from) playing a game that features the world that the MC is in, and where the MC is the Player's character. Based on that, you might think the MC is either a transmigrated soul of a person who played a video game that resembles the MC's world, or maybe the MC is a sapient AI that's getting flashes of his Player. But it is clearly not that simple. There's no solid evidence whether the world is real, some computer simulation, some alt-reality that is somehow based on a game, or something else entirely.
The setting is a bit post-apocalyptic, with rifts opening around the world, dumping exotic radiation and making flying non-viable. But there is a pretty functional society, so it's not like fallout or m