The story The Gate Traveler appeared one day on Royal Road and Scribble Hub, with links all over social media: Facebook, Reddit, Twitter (X), Zero Hedge, Prepper., SurvivalistBoards., Rumble, BitChute, InfoWars, and tless other forums.

  This is not a fantasy!Verify the facts given iet ready to survive.The Gate Traveler

  The reas and opinions varied. Some hailed the story as a brilliant narrative, while others dismissed it as poorly written fi. For most, it was just aale of adventure. But for a few, it became something more—a call to prepare.

  DreamWorld Forum

  DragonSyer99: “Wow, such a fantastiarrative! I loved every minute of it, but I wish they’d move on to another world already.”

  ElfQueen88: “Totally agree! Mana waves and crumbling teology sound terrifying. I hope the author writes a spinoff to show what happens oh. Best LitRPG I’ve read in ages.”

  Swordsman Sam: “Part of me wishes it were real, even though I know it’s fi. Imagine crossing Gates with magical abilities!”

  DarkMage42: “Has anyone else felt a bit nervous after reading this? The details are so ving. I might start practig with my bow again—just for fun.”

  IoKnow12: “This has me worried. I checked old news stories. Dr. John Rue disappeared oember 3, 2022. He called a taxi from his Frankfurt hotel, told the driver his friends were pig him up, and vanished. Just in case... I think I’m signing up for HEMA training.”

  Critical Writer: “Am I the only one who found the writing off? Pag was erratic, the MC was insistent, and the dialogue felt unnatural. Three out of ten.”

  GrammarGeek: “Agreed. I noticed several grammatical errors that pulled me out of the story. It needs a peteor.”

  Goodreads Reviews

  Reviewer: PrepperGeek: ???? “I know it’s fi, but the sario is so well thought out that it got me thinking about real-life preparedness. Might start reading up on survival skills, just for fun.”

  Reviewer: RealistRandy: ??? “Eaining, but let’s not get carried away. It’s an okay story, but that’s all it is—a story. o dig bunkers.”

  Reviewer: PlotCritic: ?? “Iing cept, poor execution. The plot holes and insistencies were hard to ignore.”

  Reviewer: SyntaxSkeptic: ??? “Good ideas, but the writing could use a thh edit.”

  Royal Road Reviews

  ?? Novel idea, sloppy executionREVIEWED AT: Chapter 65—Friends Are AwesomeBY nemesi8s, 5/29/2031, 6:23 AMThe premise is iing, but the writing is repetitive and basic. The dialogue feels forced, like it exists only to vey information. The characters often act out of character. The grammar, at least, is good.

  ????? Slice of life blissREVIEWED AT: Chapter 54—I Think I’m Good at ThisBY JJB4335_80_8155, 5/14/2031, 2:19 PMI’m loving this story about John, who, after losing his wife, discovers he travel to other worlds. It’s refreshing to see a character who actually pns ahead. The magic system, with both mental and physical pos, is unique. Incredible flow!

  Despite the general sensus that The Gate Traveler was fial, a handful of readers couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that there might be some truth to it. Across the globe, a quiet wave of preparation began.

  Japan

  Kenji Nakamura, an IT specialist by day and itted LitRPG enthusiast by night, fihe story in his tiny Tokyo apartment, his mind spinning. Leaning ba his chair, he muttered to himself, “Better safe than sorry.”

  Over the year, Kenji transformed his apartment into a survival ter. He joined a kendo dojo, training daily, moving up the ranks faster than most. His small space became a fortress, equipped with an indarden, water filters, and enough supplies to st months.

  He practiced swordpy obsessively, perfeg each strike, each stance. He didn’t know what tomorrow would bring, but he was going to be ready.

  Hawaii

  Keoni stared at the s, unsure of what to think. His mi pletely bnk in stunned silence. Whe Al, he thought their retionship ecial, both emotionally and physically. Al’s decision to tinue sailing with his friends instead of staying in Hawaii to see if they could build a future together left Keoated.

  He fided in his best friends, Kai and Ini, about Al and his two friends, John and Maya, and their giant dog, Rue. Two weeks ago, I him a link to an oory on Royal Road and insisted he read it. After a feters, he told her he didn’t want to ti wasn’t his style. He preferred Robert Ludlum and John Grisham, not some weird fantasy with numbers and levels. I pushing him to keep reading.

  As he read the chapter where John rescued Mahya and noticed the strange, pronounced “h,” arm bells went off in his mind, though their ringing was still faint.

  Whe to the chapter where John and the gang arrived in Austria to meet Alfohe arm bells grew louder. He tried to vince himself there was no way it could be real and that he was just imagining things. But when he read the chapter about Hawaii, he had to admit, at least to himself, that these were the same people. He remembered that versation word for word.

  The thought that he had sex with an alien prince blew his mind. He didn’t know what to think. He sat in front of the puter, staring at the s, his mind pletely bnk. The only thing he could do for a long time was blink.

  After he recovered from the shock, and following a long versation with Ini, they heeded the warning and started preparing. Kai initially thought they were crazy but agreed to cooperate. All three enrolled in self-defense csses: Keoni and Mike took up sword fighting, Ini joined archery, and they all took first aid and attended every medical workshop they could find. They also stocked up on food, water, and first aid supplies. True or not, fi or real life, they got ready.

  Brazil

  Lucas Silva, a lifelong fantasy fan in Rio de Janeiro, closed his e-reader and gnced around his cluttered apartment. "This could be a sign," he murmured, his gaze settling on the pile of unpyed video games.

  Over the year, Lucas threw himself into preparing for the worst. He learned how to grow vegetables on his baly, set up a tiny aquaponics system, and became a fixture at the local martial arts gym, practig Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Capoeira. His small apartment transformed into a vertical garden, with shelves lined with survival books.

  The once-avid gamer now spent his days sparring and his nights urban survival tips on YouTube. “You never know,” he’d say with a grin, “but it’s always better to be ready.”

  A Small Town in Maine

  Tony Bianchi, formerly Tony Pantero, spotted the link on InfoWars, and something in his gut urged him to click it. Throughout his life, Tony had trusted his instincts. He processed everything with his intellect, but he always listeo his gut.

  He read the story and stumbled upon a literary genre he’d never entered before—and to his surprise, he liked it. It was light, flowing, and didn’t demand much thought. It became a perfect way to unwind at the end of the day with a beer, rather than mindlessly stare at the TV.

  When Tony reached the chapter Looter Extraordinaire, he froze for a moment, then burst into ughter. He ughed so hard and for so long that tears streamed from his eyes. This wasn’t a spiraor an atta the syndicate, or on him personally. A girl wanted rifle bullets, and the king fell.

  For half the night, he shook his head in dismay, occasionally bursting into ughter. The day, he signed up for archery lessons. They might have taken down the King of Las Vegas, but they had saved Tony Bianchi's life.

  Russia

  Anya Petrov, a petitive fencer from Moscow, read the manuscript with a skeptical eye. But as she observed strange occurrences around the city—teological glitches, unexpined phenomena—she began to wonder.

  "Why not be ready for anything?" she reasoned.

  Over the year, Anya sharpened her skills. Feng was no longer just a sport—it was survival training. She enrolled in martial arts courses, studied tactical bat, and dove into urban survival strategies. Her apartment became a training ground, her bookshelf filled with books on military strategy.

  ada

  Luna Bouchard, a traditional bookbinder, heard a kno the door. It S driver with an envelope. Inside was a thick manuscript with a short handwritten note:

  I promised you answers, and I always keep my promises.—Joharted reading the story, and after three pages, she looked at the manuscript with furrowed brows.

  What the hell is this nonsense?

  The memory of the straters that made her eyes slip over them, the headaches, and the odd dreams her, urgio keep reading. She slogged through the manuscript, battling with herself to tinue. Luna preferred romantiovels—stories about overing obstacles and personal growth, not fantasy. But still, she kept going.

  It took her a week to finish, with plenty of breaks. When she finally did, she sat and thought for a long, long time. On one hand, it was bizarre—illogical, disected from reality, and so far-fetched that she could barely believe it might be real. But those letters...

  After much deliberation, she joined a meditation group. If Mana was real, she was sure she’d be able to feel it. If not, at least she’d learn to rex.

  Uates

  Ethan Crke leaned ba his old, worn-out leather reer, the faint glow from his puter s casting shadows across the shelves of ed goods and gold s behind him. As a lifelong prepper, he was always ready for anything. But The Gate Traveler struck a chord deep inside him.

  Clig the link had been a whim, but as he read, his unease grew. The talk of mana iion, the colpse of advaeology, and the rise of magic csses—it all seemed eerily pusible.

  Ethan sprang into a. His , already well-stocked, became a fortress. He doubled his food supply, added water purifiethods, and built a bunker deep in the woods. His arsenal, already substantial, grew even rger as he added close-bat ons and traps.

  Every m, he trained in close-quarters bat, sshing through dummies with machetes and staffs. He taught his family how to survive without modern venieheir drills growing more plex with each passing day.

  Ethan knew he might be preparing for something no one else believed in. But deep dowrusted his instincts—and his instincts told him to get ready.

  Germany

  In the heart of Berliera Kus Weber of the Bu für Verfassungsschutz received a worn envelope with urn address. With a sigh, he tore it open, expeg another spiracy theory to debunk. Instead, he found The Gate Traveler, a manuscript about the impending iion of Earth into a mana system.

  He sed the pages, eyebrows furrowed in disbelief. Mana? Portals? Colpse of teology? It read like a fantasy novel, and Kus had seen enough spiracy theories to know a wild story when he read one. But as he read on, his skepticism deepened.

  The details were... uling.

  Three days ter, after reading through it all, Kus tossed the manuscript into the shredder with a decisive whirl. He had real threats to haerrorist groups, cyber threats, political espio fantastical cims about magic.

  Ior Hiroshi Tanaka

  In Tokyo, Ior Hiroshi Tanaka approached the manuscript with his usual precision. He was meticulous, analytical—a man who had solved many plex cases. But The Gate Traveler challenged everythihought he knew.

  Reports of unexpined phenomena around Japan—teological glitches near shrines, rapid pnt growth, yokai sightings—matched the manuscript’s cims. With eaew i, Tanaka’s skepticism chipped away.

  He brought his findings to his superior, Chief Superinte Nakamura, but his s were dismissed. “Fairy tales,” Nakamura had said.

  Uerred, Tanaka formed a small, secret study group. Together, they iigated, blending sce with a Japanese mysticism. As months passed, the phenomena grew more frequent, and Tanaka’s quiet preparations intensified.

  Captain Dave Ramsey

  Captain David “Dave” Ramsey of the Los Angeles Fire Department sat in his cluttered office, staring at the manuscript that had just arrived. Years of fighting wildfires ahquakes had honed his instincts, and they were screaming at him now.

  At first, he didn’t take it seriously, but something about the details g him. His Scottish roots were full of stories about seers in the family line, about intuition and things unseen. What if it was real?

  He started preparing, quietly. He ordered extra supplies for the station—medical rations, tranquilizers, batons—all uhe guise of “emergency preparedness.” He ran disaster drills with his team, introdug sarios they’d rained for before.

  His lieutenants joked about aliens and monster invasions, but Dave remaieady. “Better to be over-prepared than caught off guard,” he’d say with a tight smile.

  The sighere—small, but unmistakable. He didn’t know when or if the mana iion would happen, but he was ready for whatever came .

  Chief Ior Thomas Hardy

  Chief Ior Thomas Hardy of Sd Yard was ner te cases. But when he read The Gate Traveler, a chill ran down his spine.

  Stone circles glowing in Gstonbury. Accelerated pnt growth in Avebury. Teological glitches across London’s AI systems. The manuscript’s descriptions matched the odd reports flooding in.

  His superior, Assistant issioner Margaret Thompson, dismissed it as fantasy. “Take a holiday,” she’d said, waving him off. But Hardy couldn’t ighe signs.

  He gathered a small team, prepping i. Supplies, survival skills, meditation to sense mana—it all seemed ridiculous, but Hardy trusted his gut. The world was ging, and they o be ready.

  CIA Analyst Daniel Reynolds

  Deep within CIA headquarters, Senior Analyst Daniel Reynolds sifted through a mountain of reports. The manuscript on his desk caught his eye. The Gate Traveler. The ached told him to read certain chapters first.

  He did—and his arm grew with every page. The descriptions of the Area 51 i were unnervingly accurate. How could aside the base know those details?

  Daniel khis was more than fi. He called his superior, Deputy Direily Hargrove, and together they built a case. Quietly, they pulled in favathered evidence, and rallied support. The world o prepare for what was ing, and they would be the oo guide that effort.

  As the mana level rose, the world braced itself for the unknown. Across tries and tis, a handful of people—those who believed—were ready.

  TravelingDreamer