A mysterious entity decides to bestow certain individuals with a powerful tattoo. With it, anything becomes possible. The world is changing... and it has yet to be determined if it is for better or worse.
Two friends who grew up together, Ace and Vincent, decide to use the tattoo to do what they always dreamed of.
My Opinion: 212 pages, $3.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
This novel is a real world LitRPG slice of life story. It has two main characters (MC), Ace and Vincent, exploring and fighting a bunch of enemies using a newly discovered RPG system.
Some people are going to find the writing really dry. It reads like you’re listening to two people argue and brainstorm about what it would be like if they had RPG powers in real life. What kind of system would it be? What powers would they take? How would that impact the larger social world? What would bad people do with it and what would be good people’s response?
The game mechanics are familiar. Quests are called tasks or challenges and can when completed provide points that can be used to purchase numerous rewards. Tasks start out as things like: do 1000 push ups in an hour, or drive for 1000 miles. But as the two unlock advanced features become tasks like: Kill 100 skeletons. Some rewards include: improved stats, new magic powers, buying equipment. Better rewards costs more points. But many of the unused rewards feel like they were just made up on the spot since they also include things like learning how to travel at the speed of light for 1 trillion points.
While the story was an interesting speculative exploration in the beginning, after the 50% mark the characters got too overpowered and the story shifts to them just fighting, training, upgrading their powers and repeating that cycle. Which for me, is just a bit boring. There’s an added element of community building but it’s kind of a reason to pump up the points they use to upgrade powers and wasn’t that interesting for me.
Overall, I liked the first half of the story. But I’ve been known to chat with friends over what it would be like to have RPG mechanics in real life. Many people will find the writing hard to get through. The last half just wasn’t as interesting for me.
Score: 6 out of 10