Unheroic Life of a Certain Cape

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

"A novel filled with sheer violence, where I channel all my darkest thoughts." -Alfir2 Who was Nick? Nobody important. Just an ordinary, tightly wound kid who learned early how to keep his head down, make excuses, and let bad choices happen to him instead of owning them. Eclipse was different. Eclipse was everything Nick refused to look at—every cowardly thought, every ugly impulse—given shape. Not a hero. Not even a proper villain. Just the worst parts of him, finally allowed to act. Together, they made one unheroic cape, drifting through a city that never noticed him unless it wanted something taken, broken, or blamed. Nick had the power to slip through walls, bullets, and consequences... to become untouchable. Funny thing was, the more intangible he became, the more the world found ways to hurt him anyway. He kept ending up in the wrong place at the wrong time. He learned lessons too late. And every time he swore to do better, he somehow managed to make a worse choice than before, until the person he started as no longer mattered. Maturity didn’t come with wisdom. It came with the quiet understanding that sometimes the world isn’t fair, isn’t kind, and isn’t interested in letting you win. So Nick learned a different lesson. If the world insisted on screwing him over, then maybe the only way forward was to screw it back. This is the story of an unheroic life—a cape in a world of heroes and villains, where intangibility doesn’t make you invisible, and right and wrong were never as solid as they looked. Give Book 1 a chance. Character growth is gonna be an important element of the story. Chances are, if you finish Book 1, you are gonna like it. It has a satisfying ending.

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2025
Author: Alfir2

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.1/ 5.0
Followers: 591
Views: 354,739

What readers say about Unheroic Life of a Certain Cape

“The story of a angry young man with a particular talentand very few sh1ts to give and a love hate relationship with luck.I finished up the first two books at a decent clip. The story does tend towards gratuitous violence and heist mechanics at times, with s…”
Stone o'MountainRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“I’m giving such high scores now so it’ll hit rising stars faster.The story follows a dude named Alfir2 who commits crimes to survive and get a better life.Im currently at ch 7 I personally haven’t seen any grammar issues and the style flows smoothly in my h…”
MtlKillsMyBrainRoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

Stone o'MountainRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The story of a angry young man with a particular talentand very few sh1ts to give and a love hate relationship with luck.I finished up the first two books at a decent clip. The story does tend towards gratuitous violence and heist mechanics at times, with some characters that seem a bit two dimensional, but when viewed through the narrative lens it makes sense makes sense.The language is easy to read and follow, with few mistakes to be found by the time I got here.Well worth a read
MtlKillsMyBrainRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I’m giving such high scores now so it’ll hit rising stars faster.The story follows a dude named Alfir2 who commits crimes to survive and get a better life.Im currently at ch 7 I personally haven’t seen any grammar issues and the style flows smoothly in my head.The Main character Alfir2 is a down on his luck kid with a super power committing crimes to survive while trying to hide his powers cause society apparently shuns people with powers unless your a cape(super hero) or something?By down on his luck I mean the mc Alfir2 suffers from the following:Being poorBeing an orphanDaddy debt issuesGangstersBeing unlovedAlcoholic momBeing bullied by rich kid with powerful familyHaving no friends/loversInsomnia due to superpowersBeing a dropoutAccidentally killing powerful peopleBeing Hunted by powerful people for killing said powerful peopleParanoia (is it really paranoia if you’re being hunted?)So as you can see Alfir2’s life sucks and doesn’t become a hero for money for whatever reason idk not explained yet prob cause he’s a dropout or something idk or gangs that would kill to have another super under their thumb idk
Opaque DragonRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Breezy, conversationalist prose that works well in the bite-sized chunks of Royal Road chapters. The "speaking to the reader" trope can be difficult to pull of without sounding like a parody of the genre, but this does it well.
The protagonist is likable and his power set (at least to start -- I'm writing this review before reading the entirety of the story to date) is limited in a way that serves up fun plot mechanics.
Overall, this stands out from a crowded field, which is a laudable feat in an of itself. I'm excited to read a lot more from the author.
MayosonRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
It’s peak 🙌
I am gaining new forms of depression from it, and I know full well I will get many more (gotta catch em all am I right) but I know I’ll keep reading it.
the power leveling is neat and well written.
my only concern/issue is that the plot seems to be a bit less planned lately, and it’s gotten fairly difficult to tell what is going on and what I should focus on.
GreenthumbRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Something like this isn't my usual cup of tea and I will admit there were a few chapters I considered dropping the story. But happily, I didn't.The story isn't quite grimdark but it definitely isn't a light read. I empathize with the MC because he's in a grim place with bad choices...and worse choices. Surrounded by people that want things he can't give. Alone, unsupported, and misunderstood, he ends up taking drastic choices that make the "good" guys think he's a villain.He is unashamedly the villain. He's the villian fighting against worse villians- after trying to remain an independent mercenary and then being played and manipulated.There are some supporting characters - they generally die. Fortunately they are around long enough to earn some reader empathy and support the general development of the MC. They are not cardboard cutout characters.Grammer is clear and clean. Style is good with some good adjective use. Fights are slightly more graphic than the average for Royal Road.There has been one sexual scene. While not fade-to-black it wasn't explicit. I found it fairly tastefully executed especially contrasted to the more graphic fight scenes.Overall, I appreciate the execution of the superhero or is it supervillain...or antihero story. It's definitely more gritty than the average story of this type on RR but definitely worth my time to read. I find I'm looking forward to every chapter and the author has a frequent posting schedule. I hope you'll read along with me.
Nines41Royal Road
★★★★ 4.0
I will start by saying this novel is enjoyable and has hooked me even when it is not at its best. The power initially seems lame for a protagonist but comes out very interesting and unique. The world definitely expands after the first while which feels a little jarring (and I would not call the worldbuilding genius by any means) but it works and contributes overall enjoyably to the story.The pacing is the strangest thing to me, a new world level threat can be introduced and then faced within like 2 chapters, there is not a lot of foreshadowing or buildup in many cases.Overall I am hooked it is very entertaining.
Reader1606Royal Road
★★★★ 3.5
Mc has superpowers in a world a minority has superpowers and being super is looked down upon because they can be dangerous. He has a bad start to life and decides to be villain instead. It is questionable if there really isn't any other ways left, but it was a nice start to story. He has guts, courage and patience, he is able to strategize to an extent. Great, great, everything we like. And fights were realistic. Okay, cool.
Whats the problem then? He keeps repeating same thoughts again and again. It gives me My Vampire System vibes, from writing style. It also had weird repeating thoughs of mc with very little to no reason behind them. In this story, there are mostly very superficial reasons for why he thinks that or does this. It feels like mc doesn't like thinking hard about things but it's really weird because we just read five paragraphs of him thinking.
Crow (gang leader) is eccentric said 10 times in different ways. Pride (a gang) is run by people care aboyt status and race (?) at least 7 times. How he is okay with killing some guy because of X 5 times. He trained his powers said 5 times or so. To be honest one time he gave us details about how he punched a tree in woods and there were marks in ground because he keeps standing same place. But how he trained for parkour? We just know he did because it has been said 3 times.
Also he somehow got information from an intelligence brooker but how he met with them is missing.
Anyways. I don't like style of narrator, which is mc. Some things like did he tried the caviar he stole, or what does he thinks about leaving superhero naked in public are missing. But he repeats same things, which makes up paragraphs. I would skip and go to action but that feels dry. I decided I didn't liked this book much, even though it's not actually bad.
NxSythRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
This story stays true to the title with an anti-hero MC, in a well thought out world, the world and concept have potential.
1.Style (2), The writing style is bland with little variability. The use of AI is grating, creating writing that could have been done in a more human manner, without the robotic language common to AI writing. This includes the use of intangible concepts where, something more tangible could have been used, for example "mix of detachment and curiosity", instead of showing how the character feels through their actions. The over explanation of decisions also common to AI writing appears quite commonly in this writing. For example, "She wasn’t the fastest, but she was persistent, her aerial manoeuvres giving her a clear advantage." instead of just omitting this, since the character was obviously almost as fast as him, another example of this is this passage, “My stamina was running low. Every time I ******, it felt like I was pulling from a dwindling well", once again telling the audience instead of showing.
Grammar (5) The grammar is perfect, since the writing is obviously AI assisted.
Story (2) Some decisions made by the main character are illogical, events are also illogical. Furthermore, the development of minor/side characters is lacklustre, only allowing the reader to get the barest glimpse into minor/side characters. The world building could also have been done, a lot better if the story was set before the main events described in this writing, this may also have helped develop the characters.
Character (2)
In setting the story when the main character was in high school, age (15) and maybe bringing the awakening thing forward a bit, so that the readers get to experience the main character's discovery of his powers. Regarding the illogical decisions the MC made, firstly stealing from a family, which is rumoured to kill people seems illogical, along with the fact that he knows a person belonging to this family, could result in the authority fig
JujubeanzRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
It’s all good until he dabbled in Human Trafficking. Now everything is too edgy for my tastes. I’m not really rooting for anyone in this novel anymore, the fights and conflicts are great though. Fitting romance into this through those means was a mistake in my honest opinion. Not to mention it being kind of thrusted onto the audience. Looking forward to better characters coming down the way with a healthier dynamic but… yeah I can’t enjoy the read anymore
Vagrant4Royal Road
★★★ 3.0
This webnovel reminds me alot about worm and the social dynamic taylor had with her classmates and "friends" in general. Especially the first three chapters, whilst this novel has alot moments that make me stop and think about things that should be there and vice versa.
I believe the fundamental thing you need to do is to drop the date on each chapter. it ruins the immersion quite a bit and makes me feel like i am reading a diary. While it can be used to show off new places and different timezones if the character is travelling or something sneaky is happening, we the audience can go and piece together the timeszones and other red lines.
another thing i have seen you do is that you include the chapter name, in the chapter like for example
Chapter 4 Yes, You Did
or this
Chapter 5 Loner Goner
It makes your novel feel less "novelly" i dont really know how to describe it, but it grates me for some reason. i am sorry if i am nitpicking here.
so it summarize what i have said shortly, dont write the time in the novel unless it serves a purpose, i.e intorducing places, people, memories and other obscure details. Drop the double titles.
what more can i say... yeah. look into how proffesionall authors diversify the perspective of the novel. what do other characters think of the mc? maybe even pov change sometimes? create more character dynamics,
opposing views + opposing themes = interesting clashes = interesting plots and subplots.