After struggling with blurbs for a few weeks now and endlessly overthinking, I just decided to damn the torpedoes and be 100% myself. This is the new blurb and a link to the book on RR.
I’m learning to accept that I’m not good at writing blurbs. Luckily this book isn’t a blurb.
This book is not something you’re used to reading on Royal Road. It’s “off meta.”
It’s also entertaining.
Think equal parts fun loving and brutal.
If you’ve been wanting something fresh and different, but still with progression elements, a new take on what the System is and how it interacts with the characters, and a willingness not just to engage in brutal violence but to ask when and how that kind of violence is justified (and even offer several competing stabs at the answer), this is probably the book for you.
You’re going to spend some time with Marcus and Tansy. They’re in their 20s. Marcus is listlessly existing after college, working back of house at a pizza place. Tansy is working a good job in cybersecurity but feels unfulfilled and spends most of her days dodging her trauma by online ordering anime merch. They start the book on their first date and, by foolishly scanning a QR code with an embedded hack that exploits zero day vulnerabilities on their phone (those are previously undiscovered bugs or flaws in the software), both of them end up with a mysterious game added on their home screen: Vermifuge.
(A vermifuge is a medicine for curing parasites)
Turns out it’s an ARG; like Pokemon Go but for revolutions.
You’ll follow along as the game quickly escalates the situations it puts them in, testing them and giving them new power and gear (you can select in-game rewards and items and the game will mail them to you in real life), until they’re confronting the oligarchs who are directly profiting off harming people.
If you’re tired of living in a world where the overlords can ruin your life by changing a line on a spreadsheet, you might enjoy this book.
Marcus and Tansy have a relationship but I didn’t want to write smut for this one, so that’s left off the page. What’s on the page is the real evolution of their relationship in this crazy situation. If you like realistic and complicated relationships, you might enjoy this book.
People of all kinds have different strengths and weaknesses. There are bad dudes kicking ass in this book, and there are strong women who pick up weapons and fight alongside them. If you like competent people kicking ass without OP MC or girlboss tropes, you might enjoy this book.
It all takes place in downtown Denver, Colorado in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, an area of town famous for having misfits, weirdos, punks, rebels, and people who are unapologetically and openly being themselves. If you like people who fight on and struggle despite life kicking them down, you might enjoy this book.
By the end, they’re not just passively reacting, they’re finding strength in community and fighting for what they believe to be right, refusing to let the worst people in the world continue to run everything. If you long for a revolution, you might enjoy this book.
I don’t know if I did a good job writing it, that’s up to you, but if you give it a shot, you might find that there is a whole new genre of books for you to enjoy. Unless I suck, in which case RR will happily let you tell me that in the comments, and I’ll just be thankful that you tried it out.
Just be warned, this is a real story with real stakes, and reality doesn’t respect the fact that some characters have names and fan followings. I make no promises as to who will make it out unhurt.
Good luck and have fun.
Release Cadence: Big launch on Friday 8/14 with multiple chapters dropping throughout the day, then one chapter a day for two weeks, then M-F until September 25th where the last two chapters drop.
This book is complete and edited, with a planned sequel starting in the late fall/early winter (think later in October).
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/185811/vermifuge-zero-day