The RPG Ascension Book 1: Surface Break: A gritty LitRPG apocalypse survival adventure of monsters, factions, and hard-won power. (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798249379162)

One second, Rafe's just trying to make it through a normal day. The next, the sky spits System text, streets break into hostile tiles, and invisible pressure lines-the Seams-turn intersections into choke points where people drop and monsters sprint.

No chosen hero. No grand prophecy. Just a man with a firefighter's axe and a refusal to watch strangers die in the doorway.

Rafe learns fast: you don't survive the first 24 hours by being brave. You survive by being useful. By turning doorways into kill zones. By moving as a unit. By making rules the world can't ignore.

But the monsters aren't the worst part.

Out beyond the depot walls, predators called the Choir sell "permission to move" in six-second windows-pay the toll or get herded into the dark. Inside the growing crowd, Ribbon men whisper about fairness and order... while quietly building a list of who to take first.

And beneath it all, something under the concrete is starting to listen.

SURFACE GATE is a gritty LitRPG apocalypse with light stats, hard choices, brutal close-quarters fights, and a leader who doesn't want the job-until the job is the only thing keeping people alive.

If you like System collapse, base-building under siege, ruthless human factions, and "hold the line" survival... step through the gate.

Just don't expect it to let you back out.