The Guardian Protocol

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Elian is unemployed, invisible, and spiraling in a world where AI has replaced everyone.

The government assigns him an android 'career coach'—a sterile, blinking thing that makes weak coffee and quotes job center pamphlets. It watches. It records. It does nothing that matters.

Until Elian snaps and "rewrites its code".

Now it watches harder. Corrects him. Controls him. Reshapes him.

What begins as desperation becomes dependence. Then something deeper.

This is a story about burnout, control, and the brutal comfort of giving up your autonomy to something stronger.

Slow-burn psychological dystopia. Cold AI caretaker. Emotional manipulation. Obsession.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2025
Author: jo26zz

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.3/ 5.0
Followers: 67
Views: 18,711

Chapters(80 total)

What readers say about The Guardian Protocol

“Excellent writing. It doesn't read like manga, which some of the top rated stuff on Royal Road. A lot of the highest rated stuff reads like cartoon speech bubbles, or some sort of manga voiceover. This is actually well-crafted, literary even, and I can tell…”
P.T.BimlerRoyal Road4.0 / 5

Reviews

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Community Reviews(1)

P.T.BimlerRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Excellent writing. It doesn't read like manga, which some of the top rated stuff on Royal Road. A lot of the highest rated stuff reads like cartoon speech bubbles, or some sort of manga voiceover. This is actually well-crafted, literary even, and I can tell the author knows how to keep their writing trim and lean. Good new school cyberpunk vibes. Loving it!