Tribulation Apocalypse: Penitent System

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

The fully editedbook #1 is on Amazonif you'd like to read and support me that way; otherwise, I hope you enjoy it!

We're into Book 2 now.

Average-Guy Tom was expecting to have a fun, and romantic, camping trip with his girlfriend Casey. That was until the world turned everything upside down and he found himself in the middle of the Tribulation. The biblical prophecy of the end times is real and Tom has no clue what to expect or how to survive it. Maybe the Bible had some clues, but if he had one of those, he probably wouldn’t still be stuck down here, would he?

His only hope lies in using his head, cobbled together plans, and the Penitent System, an obtuse thing that enhances your own natural abilities, empowers you with skills, and grants rewards all for the low low cost of performing memorable Feats. There's only one problem though, and it's kind of a biggy. The Penitent System isn't exactly... user-friendly, and why would it be? It was built for heathens and comes filled with its own hidden dangers and pitfalls that will trip him up unless he can piece together enough information to avoid them while still, somehow, growing stronger.

As he faces threats from nature, beasts, and other humans, Tom must make hard choices and find his faith in a godless world. Or, at least, learn to survive in it.

What are Feats? What are the dangers of the Penitent System? Well, I can't really tell you because this junky piece of crap system didn’t exactly come with a manual.

Uh hey, sorry about that, my name’s Tom.

Except for the last part, the start of my memoirs came out pretty nice if I do say so myself. Even if It does sound sort of grim. Well yeah, I mean it kinda is, but it doesn’t all suck. Granted, I’m still waiting for the ‘not-sucking’ part to pan out, but I'm sure it will.

First things first, I gotta get out of my car.

"Will you shut up out there!"

Even though Tom isn't a 'believer', there are also, OBVIOUSLY, Christian themes in this work. If you can't be mature when reading those, then please, for both our sakes, don't proceed pastGo(or this point, right here).

I couldn't include it on this page, but heads up, Tom uses coarse language. I haven't decided if this is the final route I want to take, but as of now, it's how it's written. There's also some... fighting with animals. Some household ones, some wild ones. So if you're sensitive about Fido turning feral and getting stabbed... then you should probably skip this one.

I'd especially welcome feedback about tone, style, pacing, and other overarching concepts. Typos and bit-by-bit stuff? Not so much. Since I'm doing my final edit on a separate file from here. On RR I'mpublishing rough-draft (single-pass through) chapters here 4 times a week, Tuesday-Friday. We're publishing book 2 here and I'm working on book 3 right now.

Chapters are typically 2000-2500+. I reserve the right to publish more or less, story dependent. That said, I know people want meat on the bone so each chapter should have progress or move something forward (beware there will be a few 'stat heavy' chapters).

How long will it take Tom to get System access?

Chapter 3 intro, chapter 8-12 access and exploring it.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2023
Author: Christopher Jude

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.1/ 5.0
Followers: 458
Views: 156,859

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

ClearoadRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The story is great and the system is intriguing, not becoming a mess of meaningless numbers, the protagonist's relationship with his girlfriend is a high point and I must admit that Gabriel got me a few laughs.
Why there are no LitRPGs based on the biblical apocalypse has always been a question that intrigued me, and reading this work I found out why, some people just don't seem to have the emotional maturity to deal with the topic
Worst-answerRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
in general it's pretty cool , the only annoying thing, is that there are a low number of chapters.
Story= basically a system apocalypse biblical inspired. We have our mc who will work to understand better the system in this early chapters, and some fights. The fights are pretty well done, the system pretty interesting, obviously the author put alot of thought in it. The whole thing gives the feeling of a slow burn. Oh, and being a grimdark things will probably be darker by going forward. Violence on animals doesn't have much effect on me,But i'm assuming it's not as dark as it can get( worst stuff is going to happen, I THINK, i HOPE).
Characters= So far , Thomas is the most important one, He is a pretty compent guy, pretty creative when there is a need. But isn't op atm, i mean he is someone that probably the average guy can see himself him, but with plenty of potential . and who probably will become badass (considering how he is handling being damned, i'd say he already is one) .
grammar = it's good , there doesn't seem to be any particular errors.
edit: i forgot to mention that it doesn't assume preaching tone. so even someone who dislikes religion might potentially enjoy it
GezornenRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Gabby got saddled with dealing with all those who did not get ruptured.
These are the people that were the reason for the apocalypse in the first place.
Why would Gabriel be nice to them (us)?
I'm not sure if the author has the whole story roughly planned out or not. I'm going to bet as the MC redemption meter goes from negative 10 to zero to hopefully positive in later books Gabriel goes from unhelpful to helpful.
But I still feel Gabriel's behavior attitude is a reaction to Humanity's fall from grace, not a baseline.
Gabriel already said be glad it's me and not Michael.
That said. I like the story, characters, and the system makes sense. Can't wait for book 2.
YopiterRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I really like the current pace (up to end of book 2 atm) of the story, no sudden explosions of the MC into becoming OP, making every situation more interesting and balanced.
The plot has a lot of potential with the wide variety of potential future conflicts between both "natural enemies" and inter-human fighting. Very nice balance of comedic writing and serious content so far.
Side characters could maybe be written in more depth, but it still feels fine.
The topic is obviously Christian in nature, but there has been absolutely no preaching of any kind, nothing is shoved into my face and I don't feel like this theme is more than a background flavour, so I can't understand why people would freak out about any of it.
Would 100% recommend this story!
anapRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
First things first though, this isn't some edgy reddit athiest crap so if that was something you wanted you better move on, no matter how funny it would be to see more seething
Anyway so far the Grammer has been good and it doesn't fall into the pitfalls of stats making things goofy
Story has been interesting and he's also set up future arcs for later pretty early in., And the religious elements make things very interesting too
The character doesn't seem unrealistic, his actions don't break suspension of disbelief, at least so far.
Also I find it funny that the athiest mc is in California, it just makes smile lol.
James KohosRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
System isnt as obtuse as the one in second chance apocalypse (no options like "think of a black square, now make it blue while calculating the cube root of 18000"), but the purpose behind the design really comes across.
I like the main character, and it is nice to see a system that actually has a purpose behind it.
Oh, and Gabby is a d*ck
TorenRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Through Ch17 - This story is working for me, but it is still in the solo-round portion of experiencing the world.
The introduction of how the wider world is dealing with this calamity is going to be the litmus test on the longevity of this one.
I'm also very curious if the reordering of the pecking order is going to somehow have erased the familial bonds between pets and owners.
EnkRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
I can't see how the author won't have *every* internet posse after him for this interesting tale - it's got something for (almost) everyone!
(-1/2 star for the ...um...pseudo-god-script's excessive niceness.)
I'm definitely rewatching Cats & Dogs after this. But not Babe. Nuh uh.
It's early days, and things look bleak (*mentally crosses off all zombie and spider movies*), looking forward to a sliver of hope somewhere (*mentally adds Animal Farm*), though it may involve shotguns and baseball bats; there's not much magic to be had that isn't held by the Enemy (*my dog is looking at me funny....
MomolardRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
So, general view, this is good, more than good actually, this story is funny, dark, well paced, and has a lovable prick archangel. The religous side of the story is very present but NOT in a "religious lecture" or "This is why you should be christian" kind of way, the religion is just an aspect of this universe like the magic or the system.
Style: The style is great, the pacing is good, the combat scenes are most of the times clear and energetic, the jokes are wonderfull and the worldbuilding is an masterpiece. I do have a problem thought, sometimes in long combat scenes I eneded up losing important actions or the place of the batle and have to re-read the scene, the information is there, but sometimes it's kinda hidden between other details, and as a fast reader I lost those pieces(happened like 5 times until here)
Story: IT'S AWESOME, I lack words and time do describe everything, but the worldbuilding is incredible, it's a vast and well thought world that while show itself slowy every bit of information add to the universe. The story, has a pacing that varied from, slow to fucking fast in multiple ways and timeframes, you will not get bored reading this.
Grammar: So I noticred a few errors, most of them are typos or letters swaped, one or two per chapter, not big or things that spoil the uderstanding of the story. Oh and there are swear worlds, a lot of them, It doesn't bothers me and I quite like them, but that is my taste.
Characters: NOT A SINGLE FALT, even when they are annoying or dumb as fuck you get why they are this way and grew found of them, their motivations fell real, they are funny and even the one dimentional ones have some dept or background, in this note GABBY IS A PRICK! and WHY I CAN'T FIND MY DUCK. If you don't understand these phrases go read and you will understand.
Thank you Jude for the amazing read and story, and as I said in the last post, I want MOAR. Have a good life all of you.
Myriad_MythsRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
This story is really good, like really good. For one, the main character is one of the most likable characters I've read on RR, and his relationship with his girlfriend is now in my top 3 cutest relationships on RR. Aside from the good character work, the plot is pretty good. A little slow for my liking, but still very solid. The "blue boxes" are okay, I'm a very big fan of lots of numbers and skills and such, and this story has less than I would like, but still plenty for the average reader I'd guess. The story is unique, tying LitRPG into a Rapture plot line is really cool. I'm a Christian myself and it saddens me to hear that people hate on this story because they disagree with the Christian themes. This story is obviously fiction, and it's fun to see how people could maybe interpret Christianity in a more brutal way, even if I personally don't see it that way. My one critique, which may be just something I missed, is that Feats and how they tie into stats gained and feat points gained is very confusing. I kind of understand, but still not really. Regardless, I would recommend this story highly, and I plan on continuing to read for as long as there are chapters!