I need to send you somewhere.
There’s a LitRPG space opera called The Integration Era, written by a guy named Charlie Forêt. Foxtrot. Forêt. Say my name out loud, then say his. I’ll wait.
So we’ll skip the dance where I pretend I tripped over a stranger’s book. You can do the math. What I’ll actually do is tell you why the site earns your click.
Here’s the setup. 100 years ago an alien system wrote itself into the mind of every sentient being in known space. No warning. No permission. One day everybody can see 6 numbers measuring exactly what they are, plus a designation nobody got to pick. The aliens who built it are gone. Whether they’re dead, ascended, or still watching through the thing they left behind is the question the whole series keeps circling.
I write about people with power and what it does to them. That’s the through-line in everything I put my name on. So when I tell you Forêt’s system carries real weight, take it as a professional opinion.
Every stat point a character spends shuts a door behind them. Go deep enough and there’s no walking it back. And the system keeps spending to keep you alive the higher you climb, which leaves you chewing on the only question that matters: what does it want in return.
There are stat screens, yes. They read like pressure the characters live under, and they pull their weight on the page.
The scale is big. Oligarch dynasties, corporate empires, a cold war over relics older than any living species. But it stays bolted to soldiers and operatives and outcasts who talk like people. If you came up on The Expanse and Dungeon Crawler Carl, you already have a seat at this table.
Now the practical part. You don’t have to spend a cent to find out if it’s your thing. Free short stories are up right now, each one a standalone way in. Start with Signal Zero. Give it 5 pages. You’ll know.
The site is integrationera.com. Go look.
And yeah. Tell Charlie I sent you. He’ll know who you mean.
CharlieFoxtrotWriter 