WELCOME TO THE RETROFUTURE!

The Future That Never Was is an extended universe where Mars was terraformed before the Beatles sang Penny Lane, the Soviets colonized the asteroid belt and pirates plundered the rings of Saturn. In this alternate space age, humankind couldn't dream of a brighter future. Alas, the minute Earth turned into a nuclear wasteland, shadows already conspired from the heart of the Moon to the mysterious Planet Nine—and maybe beyond...

The book series includes numerous R-rated titles. All of them will be uploaded on Royal Road. Check the Index or the list below for the main stories.

🐈  KITTY KITTY - START READING

Join sassy space cat Lee and his Desert Eagle-toting, soda-swigging human partner, Ali, in a future stuck in the late 80s/early 90s. Board the dynamic duo’s ship, the mythical Kitty, as they bounty-hunt their way through a dystopian solar system—so lock and load, and shout Cowabunga! because it’s crime-fightin’ time! 

🪐  PACHINKO BLUES - Fall 2022 - LEARN MORE

Amid the chaos of the Rings Civil War, a disgraced pilot called Miles finds itself tangled in a vast vendetta involving a Lunar corporation, android mercenaries and data-cartels. From Saturn’s Plastic Fields to the fringes of Kuiper, Miles’s violent redemption is an 80s-esthetic space western filled with tears, blood and... ducks?

Other stories related to the first arc of The Future That Never Was:

• RADIO FREAK - Standalone biopunk short story featuring Ali Koviràn, the Data Maiden and Bill Murray

• STELLAR PATRIOTS - Special episodes with Braun Kamirov, linking KITTY KITTY to the upcoming DATA dilogy and CYBER MACHO

• DATA ONE & DATA ZERO - 2023

• CYBER MACHO - TBA

Do you want to support our work or simply read in better condition? Visit our amazon shop and Patreon!

Join our discord: https://discord.gg/ngawayz

In the year 2057, the world has become a corporate-run utopia for the super-rich, and a hellhole for all the rest. 

Catherine 'Cat' Leblanc is an orphan that is about as far from super-rich as one can be. When the Incursion alarms start blaring and the sky starts raining hungry xenos, it's just another blemish on an already piss-poor afternoon. 

A cyberpunk magical-girl alien-invasion LitRPG.

It’s exactly as wild as it sounds.

An anthology and companion piece of The Perfect Run, covering the question you've all asked once... what if?  

What if Quicksave had become a Psycho? What if Len Sabino had taken the Violet Elixir rather than the Blue? What if Jasmine had remembered? What if Ryan had gained a different power or fallen in love with someone else? Follow the Ultimate One as it guides you through these roads not taken. 

Updates on special occasions. 

When humanity first encountered alien life, we were judged and found wanting.  

The Galactic Consensus interviewed our leaders and subjected us to a battery of psychological tests to determine our progress as a society.  They found us to be selfish, wasteful, impulsive, and boorish neighbors.  Earth was blockaded and our collective encounter with our extrasolar neighbors rapidly faded from memory.

All they left behind was a hypercomm relay and a handful of subscriptions to a massively multiplayer game that participants played in their sleep.  The Consensus said that it would let us interact with our neighbors in a controlled setting.  That it would teach us to be better members of the galactic community.

The megacorporations that controlled Earth ignored the game until they learned that the powers earned from clearing dungeons were just as real when day broke.  Magic, supernatural abilities and rumors exploded from nothing and a subscription to The Tower of Somnus became a status symbol.

Katherine ‘Kat’ Debs doesn’t have much, but it could be worse.  Born in an arcology, she was assigned a job in the megacorporation that raised her almost as soon as she could work.  Despite the stability of her corporate life, she wanted something more.  A chance to claw her way up the rigid social and financial ladder to make something of herself.

A chance that wouldn’t come naturally to someone as familiar with dark alleyways and the glint of steel as she was with office work and corporate niceties.





Book One is up on Kindle Unlimited as of 7/6/22 - https://www.amazon.com/Foundations-LitRPG-Adventure-Tower-Somnus-ebook/dp/B0B2X3L8H5

At the District One Invitational, a rookie eSports team defied all odds and reached the finals. Their underdog story and humble beginnings elevated them to worldwide acclaim. Media corporations dubbed them, The Paragons. With their main competition eliminated from the tournament during the semifinals, the rookie team sailed through the live finals and won by a landslide. Their prize was to become the first ever players in the most exclusive VR game yet, Abidden. 

The Paragons never celebrated that semi-final victory. They lost a friend in that match, who never appeared online again. Ten years later, the gaming landscape has changed and Abidden with it. Helena is the last remaining Paragon. Her team now consists of celebrities, influencers and musicians. Abidden has been reduced to a shadow of its former glory, but is the most streamed and viewed game in the world, despite having only a handful of players.

None of this matters to James Sylvester. Finally out of hospital, things aren't good for James. He's found himself crippled with medical debt, his gaming licence has been revoked and he's permanently lost his place in society. He now spends his days competing in illegal slum arcades to manage the repayments. When a high-profile job comes along, James gets temporary backdoor access to his blacklisted gaming account. After reactivating it for the first time in ten years, James receives an invitation that could change his life forever.

Disclaimer: This story is in no way or form associated with the works of George R. R. Martin and has no link to the popularised series, Wild Cards. This is a LitRPG story of my own creation that shares that name.   

Charles Snippy finds himself lost and alone at the end of the world. He makes a wish for a friend and meets Zee Captain, an eccentric lunatic luminary, who drags him on an adventure through the eldritch, deadly, questionable and limitless post-apocalyptic world of tomorrow, a place where Goodness makes the rules and everything has purpose and passion.

~A post-apocalyptic, dark comedy webcomic that I've been working on since 2005 by myself at first and then with friends from all around the world.

Discord: https://discord.gg/ngawayz

Eight Thousand Years after the Glassing of Earth, Terran Descent Humanity has largely become a post-scarcity society based on consent and enjoying life. With the discovery of another ancient race beyond the "Great Gulf", events and history collide to draw the Terran Confederacy into war against a hundred million year old empire that has always won and believes it always will. With allies and enemies of multiple species, the Orion Galactic Arm Spur will be wracked by warfare the likes of which have not been seen. Cracked, harried, wounded, and damaged, Terran Descent Humanity willfully throws itself against the universe itself.

"The universe hates you and will take away everything you love, laughing while it does so." - Terran belief.

A wiki is available (although under construction) at: https://fcgestalt.fandom.com/wiki/First_Contact_Gestalt_Archive_Wiki

Told largely from the viewpoint of other species, the story is currently ongoing. It involves graphic depictions of violence, war, adult language and situations, drug use, and other mature topics.

The story will be updated on weekdays, so keep an eye on this page for more chapters.

The story is 700+ chapters, and repeating characters do not start appearing until the Vuxten chapters. If you're in a hurry for repeating characters then this story will not be enjoyable to you. The interwoven plot is not based on a single person but the entire war, with its effects upon multiple people.

[participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge for April 2022]

Given his first weapon when he was still a child, Edward Lee lived a life full of violence in a nation torn by war.

Tormented by the demons of his past, he believed Death would free him.

But through the games of beings beyond his understanding, his death turned out to be the starting point of a new life in a strange world of magic and monsters, as a young teenager.

Beyond simply finding a way to survive the dangers of his new life, Edward will soon realize that there is still a price to pay for his past actions.

Cover art isn't mine.

 Derrick is no ones hero.  He is barely dealing with his mundane life when all of humanity is forced to confront the extraordinary. Overnight, all across the world, mysterious machines appear. They offer people the chance to purchase almost anything they can think of. Weapons, medicine and even super human abilities are offered, seemingly for free.

But following these machines, come the Scourges. The most dangerous creatures, diseases and machines that infest the universe. Ever growing and battling, these empires of horror and hunger will overhelm and devour the Earth and its inhabitants. Unless Derrick and humanity can stand against all the horrors that battle between the stars.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 

My first Story, an attempt to turn the standard fantasy litrpg apocalypse into a Sci Fi. Trying for a slower build to power for the MC, so don't expect him to have cheat powers. I delight in helpful crticism so no holding back plz.

Kragathor is the final guardian of the world’s deepest dungeon. He is an immortal pinnacle of existence that is otherwise known as an ancient dragon. And he is terribly bored. His sole source of amusement comes from scrying on the adventurer teams that are in the upper levels of his dungeon.

Through spying on adventurers, Kragathor hears of a new magic item, called a Virmo, that allows one to project their mind into a fictional world in some sort of grand-scale game.  Recognizing these Virmo games as a potential diversion for his endless boredom, he orders a minion to infiltrate the nearby town and acquire some of these games. Once the minion returns, he logs into a game set in a world that runs on the twin magics of ‘science’ and ‘technology’, and embarks on his new journey as Bob, the Level 1 Human with no class.

Release Schedule:  As I wrap up the end of the first major arc, I will publish the chapters as they're completed.  However, as I transition into the next arc, I will go with a two or three times a week release schedule, since I will be splitting time between this story and Chimera.

 Discord Server

When a down on his luck machine shop owner ends up coming into possession of a rundown suit of power-armor, he sees an opportunity to make some quick cash.

Unfortunately for him, the world of Capes is not one that you may enter and leave at will.

What should have been a quick sale to pay off his debts quickly grows into an ongoing series of events that serve only to drag him deeper and deeper into the criminal underbelly of the city he calls home...

Christopher Hall's life was utterly uneventful - until one day he suddenly found himself in the far future. One in which Mankind spread among the stars... and is fighting a centuries long war against its own nature.

Now something claiming to be an angel has given him a mission. If he fails, disaster will befall Mankind. If he succeeds, he can get his old life back. Unfortunately, telling Christopher what exactly he is supposed to do wasn't a part of the plan.

Join him as he figures out figure out how to survive in a universe where Mankind branched out into dozens of religions, ideologies and biologies, all at war with each other. Universe as familiar as it is foreign - and as dangerous as it is vast.

[Updated every friday/saturday, depending on circumstances]

In a dark alley of the ancient desert metropolis of Wellspring City, a man is quietly vaporized by something he will never understand. Magic is to blame, and the technocratic Dynamic Brotherhood will hold the entire city’s arcane community accountable with a broken-door inquisition if the culprit is not found. Baffled by the blackened body, the Wellspring City Watch calls the Beast of Sector Sixteen - the notorious (and broke) mutant mercenary Baulric Featherlight. With time running out, no other choice, and the lives of his friends against the wall, it falls to the half-ton manhunter to leverage his magic, cybernetics, instincts, and wits to plumb the depths of the Thousandfold Polis and unearth the perpetrator, before the Brotherhood cuts its own justice from the hides of thousands.

(Cover art by SLAVIIIK. You can find more of his beautiful works here.)

(obligatory extra note: im an internet busker who subsists on the generosity of readers like you. if you haven't done your good deed for the day and you think my work is worth paying for, why not tip some spare change into my hat? i'd be awful appreciative ♥)

[premium game of the year DLC edition edit: if you've read the whole thing for free and want to buy a copy for yourself, this dang ol' story is available for purchase on amazon now. showing your support by buying it would make writing new ones a lot easier. thanks a million billion for reading either way ♥]

Sci-fi dungeon crawler.

Set in the far future when humanity has reached the stars and finds it is not the first to do so. Alien technology has been left behind by a long dead race. Ancient cities, abandoned starships, temples and fortified bunkers all contain artefacts and devices far in advance of what humans have been able to produce. Technology that feels more akin to magic, so powerful it can allow a single person to dominate a star system. But these relics of another time have been left well-defended and behind bewildering and impenetrable security measures. 

There are those who are compatible with the alien technology, who can augment themselves to face the evermore extreme protocols in the depths of the alien ruins, and by doing so attain greater power. And there are those who just want to sell what they find to the highest bidder.

The rewards are high, but you have to be prepared to go further and risk more to discover the greatest secrets of a civilisation that vanished long before the first human walked upright. Secrets that could irrevocably change humanity's future, or end it.

-- A System Apocalypse from the invader's perspective. A monster evo story with cultivation. --

Nic has been Selected. Chosen to adventure out to a new world, and help the System break the natives into submission. To become an Invader of worlds fighting for the Integration of a planet called 'Earth.'

Selected to leave his body behind and become a monster. Selected to live or die on his own wits, his own strengths.

In Savlop-2, no one has ever seen the sun.

It is a city beneath a black sky, isolated by catastrophe and ridden with crime, sustained through the power of technology and the cruelty of its rulers.

In one of the city's worst slums, a young woman loses her job and makes a few bad decisions. Forced into a corner, she accepts an offer she cannot refuse. Now, she must make her way in the city's criminal underbelly with nothing but a diamond-edged powersaw and her own baser instincts-but life in D-block is quick and brutal, and these may not  be enough...

Updates about once a week; 3000 to 6000 word chapters.

If you enjoy Menschenjaeger, you can boost it on Topwebfiction here!

This story is only posted here on RR and is provided free of charge. If you find it somewhere else and/or someone's trying to charge money for it, they've stolen my work and are trying to scam you.

Cover is a photo by the author, with font by DO Diseno Grafico.

ALL HUMANKIND died thousands of years ago...

…but the xenos still worship them as GODS.

Today, hundreds of alien civilizations thrive in the gods’ lost cities and fallen megastructures. One Empire has learned to harness the remains of humanity's forgotten technology to reconnect the distant worlds... and dominate them.

Eolh is an old, jaded, avian thief who lives in the dark underbelly of a conquered city. When the Empire first opened the gate between worlds, they stormed his home, killed his gang, and burned everything he held dear.

But that was a long time ago.

Now, the resistance is dead. No one dreams of fighting back—for the Empire wields the weapons of the gods: warships that fly, robotic constructs that hunt, and rare mysteries scavenged from the tombs of the gods. Eolh lives a half-life, thieving, running jobs, and selling his services as a freelance listener for the last gangs of Lowtown. He trusts no one, and only looks out for himself.

When an unusual heist takes a deadly turn, Eolh must bargain with an overzealous android who carries an impossible secret—one that will shake the foundations of the universe.

There is one last hope for salvation. For his people, or maybe just for himself…

Read this series if you love Dune, Star Wars, or stories about prophecies and long-forgotten technology.

Take a journey across far-flung worlds filled with alien cultures and impossible technology. This epic Space Opera mixes elements of science fiction and fantasy, and features a cast of underdog characters who find untold strength as they awaken the ancient wonders buried by time.

All this was foretold... One day, a human god will return.

Now a Published Novel!

Buy a Copy Here or keep reading on RoyalRoad :)

Dyna Graves grew up thinking she was special. An exception to the average. Not necessarily above her peers, but simply outside their context. However, toward the end of her high school life, she started to realize that nobody was really special. At least not in any fantastical way.

Just as she started trying to figure out what she wanted to do with the rest of her life, she got an invitation. A psychic institute scoped her out, realized her psychic potential, and asked if she would undergo psionic training at the Carroll Institute.

Almost immediately, Dyna realized that she wasn’t quite up to the same level as many of her peers. Surrounded by clairvoyants and mind readers displaying obvious abilities made her own lack of ability all the more apparent.

That was, up until the researchers and scientists of the facility realized that there was a bit more to Dyna Graves than met the eye. After an explosive incident during what should have been a routine experiment, Dyna quickly found herself wrapped up in a world of cutthroat espionage.

The story can also be viewed on my website, https://www.towercurator.com/collective-thinking/. Cover art by Zoern.

Waking up alone in a floating wreck, Alex is forced to rely on an artificial voice in her head while she scrambles to put the pieces together.

Not currently updating. I decided to leave this up for those who liked what little there is available.