Dystopian Litrpg

Seventeen-year-old Truth Medici scavenges for scraps to eat; weathers his parents' abuse; and battles derelicts, killer pimps, and demons in the soul-crushing stretch of desperation he calls home. Even the cops steer clear of the toxic Harban slums. But just across the canal live the magical elite, with their wealth, flying carpets, gorgeous mages, and custom spell beasts, all thanks to the patronage of the almighty Starbrite Corporation. Getting there, and taking his three vulnerable siblings with him, is Truth's only dream.

Everyone becomes prey when Earth is swallowed up and transmuted to a bestial landscape, the first stage of induction into Elysium's multiverse and a new galaxy in the making. In the blink of any eye, the bloodthirsty creatures of Riven Thane's worst nightmares are unleashed as he; his sister, Allie; and his friend Jose scramble amid the carnage to live another hour. But on this nothing of a planet, Riven is more special than he knows. He's among a select few with a singular bloodline, and the Elysium system has its eye on Riven in particular.

Surviving the first days of the apocalypse, William is a wreck and hiding in an attic. The daily acid storms, floating elementals, and bizarre mutated animals are the least of his problems. The reality-warping apocalypse has rules and a system much like those in video games. To survive, he must learn how the new uncooperative system works, choose a class without any real knowledge of what it does and create a place safe from the spawning horrors.

Truth Medici has three questions: Can he rescue his siblings from the clutches of the evil Starbrite Corporation? What will it require of him? And where does he need to go next to make it happen? When he meets Justinian Merkovah—a strangely ageless spellcaster, teacher of religious law, and nomadic exorcist—he's one step closer to discovering the answers. With his experience providing security to the rich and terrible, Truth accepts a gig as Merkovah's bodyguard. What better way for Truth to grow as a mage?

Juliet Bianchi was once just another working drone, struggling to survive in a world where megacorporations reigned, information was power, and that power was worth killing for. Then she stumbled upon a kidnapping gone wrong and ended up with a stolen AI chip that took her from the bottom of the barrel to a top-tier realm of mercs, freelancers, and assorted unsavory folk.

After the arrival of the multiversal monopoly BuyMort, life got brutal. All systems were through BuyMort. All currency was through BuyMort. All sales were through BuyMort. You could resist, you could compete, but it didn’t really matter because in the end you used BuyMort—or you perished. BuyMort be praised. But not everyone’s happy with the new system. Some, even, want to see it destroyed. It’s quick. It’s convenient. And it will help people kill you and your family as readily as it will help them sell you knickknacks for a quick mortie.

Since leaving the orphanage, Esil has spent the past year toiling in the data mines of Pangea while watching the wealthy elite traverse its myriad of game worlds. His luck changes forever when he discovers a legendary Developer's Chest. The Premium Worldpass inside grants him unlimited access to all of Pangea. With his newfound fortune, he enters a tournament to compete against some of the most skilled adventurers Pangea has to offer. He’s a long shot to win, but for the first time in his life, being a kid from the slums has its advantages.

If Truth Medici has learned anything, it’s that the country isn’t neatly divided into safe and dangerous zones. Everywhere is a battlefield and a hunting ground. Everyone is both predator and prey, slumrats on the run from bigger rats. Truth is finally one of the bigger rats, so elite that ordinary people can’t even see him. But though he may be a walking ghost, he’ll be acknowledged one way or another. Truth holds the power to slay the very oppressors who made him what he is. And he’s resolved to wield this power toward a righteous end.

In a world where deceit shaped its history, a new era of rifts dawns. Red rifts, harbingers of divine wrath, bring forth gods and monsters, challenging humanity's very existence. As anarchy rises, the remnants of humanity cling to survival, relying on the Hunters who brave these rifts to keep them at bay. Amidst the chaos, the so-called heroes maintain their rule over the fractured land, backed by the powerful Association that seeks to control the coming change. But change is inevitable, and Sloan will be at the heart of it.

For Daniel, a zombie apocalypse couldn’t have happened at a worse time. If he’d been back at the farm, he might have stood a better chance than most. Instead, Daniel woke up in a distant hotel room armed with nothing but a hangover.

Richard Royal has a hard life. He lives in a corrupt, church-controlled dystopia, his family is soon broken, and the only joy to be had comes from the escapism of his full-immersion gaming. Introduced to a new and very illegal game, he finds himself in the body of a dragon, on a quest to find a dark and evil power to serve. But the game is more than it seems, and the dragon is more than a beast. Soon Rich's life is far, far more complicated than he ever expected. And the threats against him grow, both in-game and in realspace.

Surviving in a tough situation is not always the best option; sometimes dying is much better than staying alive. The Academy showed Paladin Yaropolk what makes the world go round: pragmatism and personal gain. Restart was set in motion, but it only makes players more frantic. Now everyone plays only for themselves. Yaropolk faces the same dilemma: be like all of them, or keep his humanity and be known as an odd duck. Because there is only one rule in this world: kill or be killed....

Coral joined the immersive virtual reality video game Travail Online because her waitressing job, like so many other jobs, was automated by a growing robot workforce. She starts as a Seamstress, hoping to craft useful clothing in-game to sell for real life cash. The game, however, has other ideas. She soon discovers a knack for peeling the skins off creatures she never thought she'd lay hands on and crafting grotesque wearables from them instead.

Zee and his friends didn’t expect that after they survived recovering the legendary First Player’s Sword that OVR World Online would announce it to the whole world. Even though no one knows about the secrets that the Sword protects it’s still a powerful one-of-a-kind game item that everyone wants. To make matters worse, they’ve reached Level 5 and the party has to depart the Orientation Zone. Outside of the OZ, Player-vs-Player combat isn’t just allowed, it’s encouraged.

For Grey, life was in a good place. He'd just finished his service and had settled into a job he loved. But the difference between a good place, and a great place lays in the adventure. And Grey? Grey has so much more adventure in front of him. An adventure that starts with a chance encounter with a young woman named Billie at Mrs. Butterson's Buttery Bakery and Bistro, where he worked, and they quickly bond over warm treats and cinnamon rolls. Billie has a secret, and it's more than just a love of sugary things.

In the sun-scorched future of 2442, survival takes the form of a game—Krieg Chess. More than a simple board game, it's a high-tech fusion of strategy and combat, demanding intellect and brute force in equal measure. Players wield advanced technologies and unearth latent abilities, transforming from pawns to knights, rooks to kings in a brutal ballet of power and progression. Against this backdrop emerge two extraordinary players: Charoen and his sister, Jessie, refugees from a camp outside Oslo, lifted from obscurity by the enigmatic billionaire Virgil.

These were dark times for Tailyn Vlashich, the 12-year-old alchemist. He'd been banished from the empire. The academy had summarily dismissed him. A deadly killer had been dispatched to hunt him. He'd been dropped all the way down to level one. But while there weren't many adults who would have been able to cope with the litany of problems Tailyn was facing, they weren't him. And he had help - two mentors, his girl, and a friend.

Hundreds of years ago, the realm walls collapsed, and Earth was flooded with mythical creatures. Now, dungeons dot the landscape, releasing demons that terrorize and destroy everything in their path. If they aren’t stopped, humans won’t be the only endangered species. To preserve life and win the war against demons, protectors from different species all over the world have downloaded level-up programs to help them fight.

My arrival in the capital saw me accused of murdering the little Prince, and being taken into custody. Now I'm facing life in exile on Freedom Island—a prison island, where the most horrible criminals in the entire Empire end up: from Faceters and Black-Bookmen to murderers and rapists. An island from which, according to rumor, only three people have ever managed to escape.

In the real world, it’s 2027, and disgruntled, lone-wolf, data analyst Adam Harker works for a corporation he hates. In this dystopian future, many seek to lose themselves in virtual reality games, but Adam is dead set against playing Darkworlds, until he's tempted by two quite different people. In the game, it's 1927, and Adam Harker is in London battling against the minions of Cthulhu, but then come hints and suggestions that something else stirs - something wicked and secret, something new, rising up and replicating itself within the code, and taking on the form of ageless evil.