1 Dying

Adam is a normal teen at the start of the 22nd century. That is to say, he is obsessed with online games, online social networks, and translated Chinese light novels.

And when I say obsessed I do mean it. Whenever he starts reading a novel he will not stop until there is nothing new to read. He contacts the author and at some point even pitched in as voluntary to review the translations before they are released, just to get a sneak peek.

The same thing with games, he has to research everything about the game, find the secret missions and loopholes, get the secret-mega-hardcore-way-off-the-beaten-path item that breaks the game. Then he gets bored and usually never finishes the main storyline. Weird, right?

So to summarize, Adam is kind of OCD, obsessed with stories but tends to avoid following the mainstream ones, likes niche pursuits, and flaky on finishing things. Completely normal for his generation, don't you think so?

Today Adam is on his third straight night on a binge of the latest online iteration of "Daemon's Anima" a game marketed as being the hardest ever and super realistic. The game is played by using VR goggles that can interact directly with the player's brain. For Adam, this is not enough and he has found a way to increase the difficulty by lowering the safeties the game had placed to avoid injuring the player's brain.

Adam was at the same time engaged in a super intense fight with a giant dark knight with a wicked metallic armor and also laying in bed covered in sweat, not having moved for the last 70 hours.

I know you may think this is the moment when a sudden bolt of lightning strikes his house, it magically only goes to his device, making him enter the game, starting a whole world of adventure. Sadly that is not what happened to Adam. He just died. His heart gave out due to exhaustion and stress.