Schemer's Paradise
Xavier Rowland
Devon, a college student and local chess prodigy, is pulled into a string of unnatural disappearances the world has called the Takings. Deemed a cursed being by the guiding system, he must fight to survive its tutorial - then discovers the tutorial's overseers mean to farm him and his fellow initiates for experience once their grace period expires. With the system crippling his growth, he turns to a profession the system itself forgot, manipulating everyone around him into a maelstrom of conflicting interests. Weak-to-strong anti-hero progression fantasy; 2024 November Writathon winner.
Progression: System-apocalypse tutorial LitRPG. A guiding system ranks initiates, brands Devon a cursed being (crippling his rate of power gain), and runs a tutorial with a grace period after which overseers harvest initiates for experience. Growth comes through combat/battle progression plus scheme-driven progression via a system-forgotten profession Devon exploits, manipulating overseers and fellow initiates. Explicit weak-to-strong arc; author labels it progression fantasy with an 80/20 action-to-scheming split.
Royal Road
