Rafe didn’t ask to be a leader. He just refused to let people die in the lanes.
The depot is holding—barely. Pallet shields. Rebar spears. Quiet-mile rules. A wall of ordinary people trained not to run, because running is how the monsters win.
But the city’s real predators have finally stopped circling.
Ribbon and Choir have joined forces. One spine. One clock. One offer:
Join… or be cleared as hostile.
And under the depot, something worse is waking. The Deep isn’t just a place anymore—it’s an intelligence. It learns rhythm. It pushes panic like a command. It can frighten even the System’s ‘teeth’ into dying in heaps.
Now Rafe is trapped between two wars:
A human one—paper, permits, cadence control, and an incoming strike meant to take him out.
And a subterranean one—cold seams creeping upward, routes that close, and a Source waiting below that wants the whole depot to break and run.
The clock has started.
First Delve is a gritty, action-packed LitRPG survival thriller packed with brutal corridor fights, tense politics, hard-won doctrine, and monsters built to punish mistakes. If you like street-level leadership, dark humor under pressure, and ‘boring competence’ victories that cost blood, you’re in the right lane.
Don’t run.
Genre: GameLit
The depot is holding—barely. Pallet shields. Rebar spears. Quiet-mile rules. A wall of ordinary people trained not to run, because running is how the monsters win.
But the city’s real predators have finally stopped circling.
Ribbon and Choir have joined forces. One spine. One clock. One offer:
Join… or be cleared as hostile.
And under the depot, something worse is waking. The Deep isn’t just a place anymore—it’s an intelligence. It learns rhythm. It pushes panic like a command. It can frighten even the System’s ‘teeth’ into dying in heaps.
Now Rafe is trapped between two wars:
A human one—paper, permits, cadence control, and an incoming strike meant to take him out.
And a subterranean one—cold seams creeping upward, routes that close, and a Source waiting below that wants the whole depot to break and run.
The clock has started.
First Delve is a gritty, action-packed LitRPG survival thriller packed with brutal corridor fights, tense politics, hard-won doctrine, and monsters built to punish mistakes. If you like street-level leadership, dark humor under pressure, and ‘boring competence’ victories that cost blood, you’re in the right lane.
Don’t run.
Genre: GameLit
Used availability for Craig Zerf's First Delve