[Day 2, Hour 43 of the Goon Arc.]
The room reeked of instant noodles, sweat, and stale air.
Curtains drawn. Lights off. The only illumination came from three glowing monitors — each streaming something different.
A muted anime. A full playthrough of Mythos Eternal Remastered. A wiki deep dive on obscure NPC dialogue trees.
Liam sat hunched in his gaming chair, legs folded up, eyes bloodshot.
He hadn't moved in hours.
He hadn't blinked in minutes.
Liam:
"Okay... so if you choose the sarcastic dialogue option before talking to the blacksmith's wife—"
(He squints.)
"That triggers the jealousy flag, which unlocks the secret questline..."
His stomach growled. He didn't notice.
His phone buzzed. He ignored it.
Somewhere on the floor, an unopened message from his mom said:
"Anak, kumain ka naman. Please reply..."
("Son, please eat. Please reply…")
Liam:
"Almost there... I just need to rewatch Episode 31. That's when the foreshadowing starts. Then the novel—no—the manhwa contradicts the lore, but if I blend the gacha game timelines—"
(He rubs his temples.)
"I can predict the next update."
This wasn't just a game.
This was his world.
His safe space. His comfort. His control.
Out there? He was a nobody.
Social anxiety kept him locked indoors. His "real life" was a blank save file.
But in here? He was a scholar. A theorist. A god-tier loremaster.
He scratched at his unshaven chin and leaned back, surrounded by crumpled wrappers and half-empty soda bottles.
Liam:
"You know what? Screw sleep."
(He lifts a trembling hand toward the monitor.)
"One more episode. One more dungeon. One more wiki hole..."
Hour 44.
He's cross-referencing item stats, anime timelines, and untranslated dev interviews from six years ago.
Hour 45.
He tries to stand.
His legs don't move.
A cockroach scuttled past his keyboard and paused near his old drawing tablet.
They stared at each other for a moment.
Liam:
"Yo. You live here too?"
It stopped.So did he.
Liam:"Just don't crawl on my mousepad and we're chill."
He went back to watching a 12-minute video essay on side quest dialogue trees.
Hour 48.Eyes bloodshot. Legs numb. Vision tunnelling.
Liam was in the middle of an intense gooning session — the kind where every twitch of his hand synced perfectly with the anime "Plot" unfolding on screen. His heart raced. His breath was shallow and uneven. The room was a humid, sticky haze of shame and desperation.
His hand twitched one last time, muscles trembling like they'd forgotten how to cooperate.
Suddenly, a sharp pain squeezed his chest like a malfunctioning boss attack.
Liam:"Wait... wait, hold on—"(His voice cracked, eyes fluttering like a lagging animation.)
His vision warped. Colors bled from the screen like bad CGI. The glorious finale he was chasing... turned into a blurry, dizzying mess.
His body gave out. With a pathetic thud, he slumped off his chair, landing half on the floor, half tangled in a nest of empty soda cans and instant noodle wrappers.
The video on the monitor didn't skip a beat, narrating a side quest boss monologue as if nothing weird just happened.
Liam died.
Cause of death: Gooning too hard.
Duration: About 48 hours of questionable life choices.
Reward: ???