Black Start: A Gridwright LitRPG Apocalypse

When a derecho tears through Calder, Iowa, the power grid does not just fail - it becomes the first contact point for a global System and an alien energy lattice.

Evan Mercer is a union lineworker, not a wizard. Trapped with an injured apprentice inside a substation whose safety rules no longer match reality, he has minutes to build one survivable boundary. The System rewards the rescue with the Gridwright class, but every ability still demands physical contact, real power, materials, and a price.

As hospital generators, water pumps, radios, and cold storage run down, Evan must coordinate crews and institutions that cannot hand their authority to one man. Adaptive lattice predators learn from every repair. Northbank Mutual, a relief network with batteries and fuel, sees the blackout as a chance to own the city's recovery.

To keep 180,000 people alive, Evan must turn scattered generators, batteries, and human expertise into an island grid - and learn that restoring power is not the same as controlling it.