Level 1 Hero

A Reality-Hacking LitRPG Harem Lit Adventure

He didn’t ask for a sword. He got the Developer Keys.

Jake Mercer just wanted a boring life. A failed game designer turned retail tech-support clerk, his only goal was to survive the daily grind of New Harbor without getting noticed.

Then the violet pulse hit.

The world didn't just end; it rebooted. Skyscrapers turned into dungeons, physics became a suggestion, and the population was assigned Classes. But while everyone else became Warriors or Mages, Jake got something broken. Something dangerous.

Class Assigned: [Admin: Provisional]

Now, Jake can see the code behind reality. He can edit the friction of a floor to zero, mute the volume of a screaming warlord, and "noclip" through walls. But in a world ruled by the tyrannical Paragon Corporation, having Admin access makes him Public Enemy Number One.

Hunted by General Stone and his elite Hunter units, Jake is forced to build a team to survive. He allies with Nina, a rogue super-soldier running hot on kinetic energy, and Daphne, a traumatized technopath who speaks to machines.

To keep them alive, Jake must utilize the Affinity Network—a system mechanic that links them through deep emotional and physical bonds. The closer they get, the stronger they become.

Jake doesn't want to save the world. He just wants to patch the glitches. But when the server is this corrupted, the only way to fix it is to rewrite the rules.

Level 1 Hero launches the Level Up Hero series—a high-stakes LitRPG saga featuring a strategic protagonist, game-breaking powers, and a spicy, slow-burn harem dynamic that is integral to the system itself.

I liked the narrative of powers and the harem combination

Solid book where’s part 2. Would love to read a full set. Overall great book, would like a lil more spice but I think it was a solid book 1

Like a Work that Could Have Been

Honestly, it was an interesting set up, but the writing was overwhelmed with too much figurative language leading to a trite, cluttered narrative. I find it unlikely the author actually wrote this, but more likely relied on an AI to write far too much of the narrative.

A decent set up

It's a nice start to an action novel with engaging characters but far too short. I only listened because it was in the plus catalog. The author should package the two as one novel.

Really bad performance

This is an AI generated voice reading this book. I feel I could do better myself.
The story has potential, but the listening experience drastically reduces the pleasure due to what is basically a bad reading job. Real acting ability would make a world of difference. As for the rating style, there is an overuse of similes, and things just do not flow.

Disappointing

I had high hopes for a fun system story like I’ve seen in the pay to read apps but there’s a reason this one is free. The writing style is pretentious and wordy. The author overuses similes and metaphors until the story is lost in a muck of irrelevant analogies that he thinks are clever but actually do nothing to advance the characters, setting or plot. The use of choppy sentence structure doesn’t come off the way the author intends, terse and professional, but instead reads as contrived. After 6 chapters I had had enough. The story started badly and only got worse as the author started to preach about consent and ethics in every other sentence. Bottom line, it’s not worth the listen.