The Bathrobe Knight
Charles Dean
Darwin, a video game addict, is pulled into the fantasy VRMMO world of Tiqpa wearing only his bathrobe — and must survive by game rules he does not know, armed with little more than a spoon and gamer ingenuity. Across five volumes he rises from novice to leader of refugees, while later books follow Locke, a blacksmith using Tiqpa's game-ruled frontier to pay off real-world debts until betrayal drags him into war and political strife.
Progression: LitRPG/GameLit progression: the protagonist operates under explicit game mechanics with levels, stats, and skills that advance through use and achievement (Goodreads book-1 page contains 46 LitRPG mentions and 34 stats mentions). Power growth is quantitative and central: a gamer transported into the VRMMO world of Tiqpa climbs from a bathrobe-clad novice to a leader/warrior, and later volumes follow Locke the blacksmith using crafting/merchant progression within the same game-ruled world.
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