System Lost: My Own Best Friend

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Sometimes the only one who can save you—is you. Allison is a normal girl who enjoys spending time with her friends, going out to parties and clubs, and just generally enjoying college life. So when she wakes up in a strange underground complex full of candles, weird creatures, and no memory of how she ended up there, it's safe to say she's a little out of her element. She has no survival skills, no ability to fight, and absolutely no hecking clue what all these weird words and numbers floating around in her head are supposed to mean! It seems like a hopeless situation until, in her desperation, she finds an unlikely ally in...herself?! Another her with different knowledge, skills, and personality. Together, they might have a chance of making it out alive, but there's a catch—they still share the same body. What to expect: Yeah, I'm not doing that.System Lostis my second series, and my first new project after four years of writing my previous story,Fates Parallel. I've learned a lot from that experience, and I'm excited to put those lessons to work in this new story. If you're familiar with my previous work, then you can expect a familiar focus on characterization and personal growth, with a newly refined style and brand new themes and setting. If not, then just know that I've spent the last four years consistently writing one story until it was finished, with only a handful of pauses each less than a month long. I am committed to seeing my projects through to the end, and I offer proof rather than promises that this story will not be abandoned. Additionally, I plan to keepSystem Lostfreely available for as long as possible, or even indefinitely if I can afford to do so. I'm not going to make a promise I might have to break, but it is my sincere hope that I will not ever have to move this story to Kindle Unlimited. System Lostupdates everyMonday, Wednesday, and Fridayat5 PM EST. Cover arts by Fuyudust and Sagior. Character designs by Tsuu and Mjeow. Chibi characters by Alice (of TsurotArtistry).

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2025
Author: DarkTechnomancer

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.7/ 5.0
Followers: 3,241
Views: 1,026,320

What readers say about System Lost: My Own Best Friend

“Absolutely adored this, enough to make an account just to rate it! The characters instantly wormed their way into my heart, and I can't wait for more! Getting plural rep this good also just fills me with immense joy, and it feels just right, feels establish…”
MarieFeyRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“Delightful so far. Allison is great, her internal commentary on the situations faced are very in depth and witty, so there's laughs to be had as we read her navigating her new environment and uncover her background/how she ended up here, there's lots of ind…”
AlanharhaRoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

MarieFeyRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Absolutely adored this, enough to make an account just to rate it!
The characters instantly wormed their way into my heart, and I can't wait for more!
Getting plural rep this good also just fills me with immense joy, and it feels just right, feels established from the get-go with both some of the good and the bad represented, and I can feel the love the girls have for each other, in their own ways!
AlanharhaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Delightful so far. Allison is great, her internal commentary on the situations faced are very in depth and witty, so there's laughs to be had as we read her navigating her new environment and uncover her background/how she ended up here, there's lots of indications of a very complicated worldbuilding system, and from what we know of DarkTechnomancer's work, this is gonna be good!
AsteristicRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
fucking incredible.
stories with explicitly, intentionally plural protagonists are few and far between, and it's always a breath of fresh air to find one, especially one as well-written as this. the characterization is excellent on all three of the girls, and the author does an amazing job of getting across the experience of being plural in a way that can (I assume) make sense to a singlet audience without paring away any of the true complexities that come with the neurotype.
on the story side, I don't read a ton of litRPGs (yes, I know, I'm on the wrong website :p ) but this one seems to be a pretty good one. it certainly manages to ride the balance between "ooh! neat game design!" and actual plot/action well, and the way that the game mechanics are integrated into the metaphysics of the world is solid.
Laranja MaracujaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
For the first five or so chapters I did not really connect with the story. But when it started going, it became absolutely addictive. That is when the author's strongest points started to shine.One is interpersonal (intrapersonal?) relationships. Good dialogue, good dynamics, characters that don't feel like petrified tropes but also don't liquify and lose all quirks upon going through the first life lesson.Two is playing with the expectations and "meta" of genre conventions without being the typical mainstream media "you asked for a burger, I punched you in the face, isn't that a subversion of expectations? Hmm?"Allison and the other one, alone, would be good characters but also archetypes we have seen in other LitRPGs, but them together, however? Make them share a book, a body, the same system, and the same shoes (well not really) and of course things start to get fun.I have seen scenes where a MC discusses with the system as if it was a person, noting the silliness of certain classes but later using that to their advantage. I have seen power player MCs deepen their understanding of the system to find the minmax route to maximize its potential. I have seen cheater MCs who want to break the system rather than play with its strengths. But all of them together? Playing off, against and with each other, where the typical 'I almost destroyed myself mastering a skill' moment has heavy consequences for everyone sharing that body? That is new and interesting.
BlindedWithScienceRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I pretty much inhaled the story in one sitting. The prose is great, the characters are interestng and all have their own realistic flaws and strenghts. I can tell author isn't afraid to take their premises and go with them as far as they can. What is more, they have the necessary skills to do so.Big recommend. Go and read it immediately, you can tell whether you will love it or hate it from a few initial chapters, the whole first volume is very consistent.
Ava of flowersRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
First, the story notes: The characters are good, the magic system is interesting and the characters find fun ways to break it. The world is interesting and its mysteries are introduced at a good pace and in such a way that each new answer leaves you with many new questions, which I always enjoy. But none of that's the truly unique selling point of this story - it's just why you should read it even if you don't care about the next part.
This story has actually good plural rep. There are some other areas where it's not perfect at intersectionality (it uses 'sociopath' as an insult a few times and some stuff around gender could be better), but it's generally amazing. The characters start out in the standard three roles, but they quickly gain layers and differences and personalities outside of being a simple archetype. I've never actually read good plural rep outside of specific genre fiction before, and I can say with near certainty there's nothing else of this quality on royal road. If you like plural rep, read it <3
CrimCatRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Fates Parallel, the author's previous work, is hands down my favorite cultivation series that I've read to date. But any time an author completes one work and starts another, there's always some uncertainty—can they bottle lightning twice?
DarkTechnomancer faced that question and answered it with a definitive yes.
System Lost shares the same core as Fates Parallel: scared girls just trying their best to survive the situation they find themselves thrust into. It's a tiny piece of commonality, but it works in entirely different ways with each series. And there is a lot of joy in those differences.
The highest praise I can give System Lost is to highlight one of its greatest strengths: pay attention to the details. This is one of the rare series that truly rewards an inquisitive reader that thinks the implications through and doesn't take the prose at face value. It's something I've always aspired to, yet DarkTechnomancer pulls it off with aplomb time and time again.
Unsurprisingly, given the author's past work, the cast of System Lost feel like real people. Each of them has their own priorities, fears, and aspirations—even sometimes to their own detriment. The narration of the main characters is colored by their personalities and beliefs—again, a clever reader is rewarded by seeing moments where what the narrator claims may not be the literal truth—and they have enough depth to surprise the reader as they confront new situations.
Not all journeys provide every resource a girl could want, and not every advantage is as absolute as they seem.
I look forward to experiencing the journey as it unfolds!
BirdNamedTealRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Isekai/Soft-LitRPG with a slower-building skill/power set ("she has unusually strong skills for this level" trope—but OP status is still awhile away.) World-building is gradual, but it feels organic and rich.
BUT the real star of the show is CHARACTER DEV!!! You quickly find out that (SPOILER) MC is a System, so she has multiple individuals sharing the same headspace. And each one is so great and unique! They each have their own character growth paths and growth isn't linear!
The other characters in the story have been fun and engaging in their own time, but I can't wait for them to get to their next stop in the journey.
Bleh :3Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
We’re genuinely so happy we found this book. /gen Plural rep is awesome /gen /pos we hardly see it anywhere without it being ‘oh no the murder personality is coming out ahhh’. /negAlso, I love the headspace, and my favorite character is definitely River. She’s a lot like one of our headmates who watches over our headspace and memories.The aspect of headspace having things that relate to memories or things from their world is also accurate to our system, though I’m not going to depth for privacy reasons. I myself am really excited to see where this goes!!I’ve never actually seen median system rep anywhere to be honest, so that’s another awesome thing! Violet, Maggie, Allison, and River are like the median headmates and Eva is the only more partionary one in our eyes, possibly.All this to say I’m in love with this book!!!- Noli (he/they)
Michael SpriggsRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I like it, and I wanna read more of it. There is some mystery and some interesting characterization. It reminds me of Legend of Grimrock in a good way. Now that I’ve said that, I really wish there was a game based on these mechanics(The mechanics aren’t similar to Grimrock), and that I had time to play it.