Like Clockwork: A Superhero LitRPG

The Augment's Code, Book 2

De: Zane Emerson

Narrado por: Johnathan McClain

A city under siege, a hero overwhelmed—the mysterious game governing the world is only getting wilder in the second book of this thrilling LitRPG adventure.

Nate Mercer—better known as Loophole—has outlived the chaos of Infinite Ascension's Phase One, becoming something greater than a mere street-level fighter. Armed with a complex skill set and pure luck, he's now diving deeper into the game to expose and destroy one of the insidious developers trying to control it.

But reality has never been so fractured. Superpowers abound, dictated by an insane AI and a megalomaniacal tech Augment who calls himself the Clockwork Tyrant. Not only has he laid siege to New York with a robotic army; he's also imprisoned hundreds of thousands of hostages in bunkers throughout the city. And with the stronger, more experienced Augments already eliminated, it's up to Loophole and his new team to stop him.

Setting up a base in Central Park, they form Fortune's Cadence, an invaluable alliance including a brilliant technician; a ferocious brawler; and Loophole's calming healer, Swansong. But as they train their otherworldly abilities and devise an attack strategy, a far more personal threat shadows Loophole: An unexpected avenger from his past is back, and he's willing to burn down the entire game to take Loophole down with it.

Now, to defeat these supervillains and restore peace to his devastated home, Loophole will need to keep his friends alive amidst the coming onslaught—or risk being forever changed by the true cost of playing hero . . .

The second volume of the hit LitRPG adventure series—with more than a million views on Royal Road—now available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook!

Tropes include: wrong place, wrong time; secret identity; and reluctant hero.

©2026 Zane Emerson (P)2026 Podium Audio

I liked this but...

I liked this but... I do have some complaints first off a major new super power is introduced and used multiple times how ever with this particular power the rules need to be set up perfectly for it to work and this was not the rules for it weren't explained well and it caused a lot of confusion and worse it became a magical McGuffin and solved a bunch of problems it was quite lazy to be honest second some of the voices are still like nails on a chalkboard luckily Angie didn't talk too much this book but hydra elemental did a lot more and he is even worse I loved all the moments with freak he was cool so was swan I liked them shadow boy was ok not set up quite well enough and the fact that we were shown who was good and bad before the reveal while suspenseful was dragged on way too long yes there where plenty of problems with this book but I'll still read book 3 so if that doesn't pull me back in I'll drop the series but who knows we will see

Great Listen!

Like Clockwork was a solid sequel to Secrets, Serpents, and Superpowers. Continuing the story along at a decent pace, we have Loophole unraveling more of TechWarden's plan and building his team. Like Clockwork delivers more of the outlandish banter between characters that made book 1 hilarious. I generally struggle with fight scenes in books because they tend to lag, but Emerson does an impeccable job of not making them feel drawn out while still mixing in character interactions. Can't wait for book 3!