“Hahaha how unfair can the devs be to make a broken boss like that!?” I shouted in a spout of anger.

The clicking of the mouse and the ticking sound of my keyboard were like a background melody for my headphoned ears. They were muffled, almost imperceptible yet my brain picked them up. But of course it would! After all the years I spent in front of a computer my brain thought it automatic that when something’s pressed a sound comes out.

Ever since I can remember I spent my time in front of a computer. I was amazed by them, especially games. That’s why I grew up with my eyes fixed on a screen. The outside world had nothing valuable to offer me. My family wasn’t that rich to begin with so my classmates felt the need to remind me of that fact constantly. Bullying, pranks, isolation…nothing was new to me even when the time for highschool came. But it did not matter.

In fact, I took it all surprisingly lightly. By the time I was sixteen I began to see the “outside” world simply as a break from my games, much like sleeping.

It was only after highschool ended that the gap between me and the world turned ito a ravine. My family pressured me to keep studying. “Study jurisprudence like your father” they said, “It’s a chance for a new life” they said, “You can make a future out of it” they said. All words to the wind. I had no intention of studying, nor to follow my father’s steps and make a career out of it. No, whatever was outside my computer’s screen didn’t interest me.

Not even after a year, my family kicked me out of the house. “Having a taste of real life will do you good!” was the excuse they gave me, though the truth was that they couldn’t bear the presence of a “failure”. And just like that I packed the few things I owned and left for the capital at nineteen.

From that point on my life was a bliss. I remember how I thanked every kind of god in existence for the opportunity of being kicked out of my house, a strange thing to be thankful for. Though for everyone my life seemed a waste, for me it was total heaven.

I lived in a very tiny apartment on the outskirts with just one room packed with a bed and something similar to a kitchen. It didn’t even have a single window. I loved it. I felt more at home in that little hole than I ever felt in my family’s place. 

Though my sole life’s focus was on games, I was never a stupid guy. I knew that even if the rent was dirt cheap, sooner or later I would have ran out of money so I came prepared. First thing I did the morning after I settled in the apartment was to apply to as many game tester jobs as possible. Whether they’d be international firms, local ones or worldwide famous I applied to anything. And not much later, I was taken in by a gaming company as a game tester with a bunch of other people.

From then, the flow of life slowed down. I woke up to play and considered it work, I ate then played and considered it work, then after dinner I played again and finally went to bed. I repeated this routine for the next seven years. The only times I went out of my room were to buy groceries and to speak to the higher ups in the company. 

My world shrunk up to the four walls of my apartment. After all, what did I even need to do outside? I made enough money to live there without a care, food was usually delivered and I took care of other necessities, such as energy drinks, once a month and best of all I could live off my greatest passion! It was all I could ever wish for. Though, as everything in this world does, there was a catch.

The company I worked for did pay me well but they also were absurdly strict with the deadlines. They wanted us testers to play the full game, completely from start to end, in the least time possible. Which would usually mean a couple of weeks or a month on rare occasions. Of course it wasn’t only just one game but rather multiple at the same time. I found out later on the years that the contract I signed basically made me a tester for the affiliated companies too.

It was impossible work for a human being. A normal one that is, though I was totally far from what’s considered to be normal so the job fit me like a glove. It was simple. The company sent me the games I had to test, I worked on them and sent a report once I was done. After that, depending on the speed it took me to complete the game, I would have the rest of the days until the next game free. Which pretty much meant a non-stop marathon of whatever game I felt like playing. Whether they’d be a Sci-Fi game, a fantasy RPG, a turn based MMO or even a dating sim, I played them all.

That is until I received the most absurd deadline of my entire career.

It happened one morning, around a week after my last report. The email came unexpectedly fast, the deadline was due two days prior so I found it rather strange for them to make us tester work so soon on another project. It turned out the developers were late on the game itself while the company assured the public that it’d be in the shops in a month. They had to rush. It was a game that took the company around ten years to complete, it was tested soo many times that the senior testers called it “black hole”, though it’s real title was different. This time the deadline was a single week.

As soon as I received the mail I started the download and, while the pc was at it, I rushed down to the grocery store to refill on precooked food, canned food and energy drinks. I felt the massive pressure that was placed on us testers but at the same time I felt excited. It was a challenge. One that would especially bring me a lot of money, which in return meant more games for me and more pc parts.

By the time it finished downloading I was already set up and ready to be stuck on my chair for the entire week. And so I did. I played, played and played. From morning to night and night to morning. Only sleeping for a few hours and going to the bathroom only when strictly necessary.

By the time I reached the five days mark my eyes had already turned red as bags of a black darker than the night exerted their pressure upon my cheeks. The room was a filthy mess of empty cans and bottles together with packs of chips and other junk food. Under all that rubbish there was something still edible so the entire room began smelling like a sewer.

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The only things keeping me awake were the endless supply of energy drinks and the sheer adrenaline of the challenge. The game itself didn’t really matter nor did the story told by the game. All I was focused on was reaching max level and end the game.

On the sixth day I lost control over my legs. They were shaky as if possessed and the more I tried to control them the more it seemed impossible to fix their jittering.

[It’s fine-] I thought [-I’ll just deal with whatever the consequences are later]

The seventh morning the jittering stopped so I believed it resolved. Though I didn’t notice that I couldn’t feel either of my legs. Furthermore, my arms and back began aching with pain. A stinging one, as if something was burning inside of them, and to top it all off headaches began striking me. I tried ignoring it all, “it’s already the last day” I told myself, but the pain was too deconcentrating so instead I filled myself with painkillers and called it fixed.

The following hours were crucial. The last day was pressing upon me and I had yet to finish testing the game. I had never once sent a late report and I intended to keep the record going. 

Around 10pm. I began facing off against the last boss of the game. A totally broken, overpowered and unpredictable boss. I had never seen something like it. It was a mess. It had no attack pattern and the scale of it’s statistics was completely unbalanced. It was born to be an unbeatable boss. A mountain that none could climb. That's why it was so exciting, mandatory and adrenaline inducing for me.

An hour later my trembling hands were typing my report. I had beaten the game. After an entire hour of struggling against all odds I had won. My head was drenched in sweat that dripped down and fated the clothes I was wearing to change into their darker shade.

With excitement and satisfaction equal to those of a kid after unpacking it’s christmas gifts, I looked at my trembling index finger as I pressed the “send” button on my keyboard.

“It’s done…-” I whispered in a hoarse voice full of pain “-IT’S DOOONE!”

In the spout of excitement I tried standing up….unsuccessfully. My legs weren’t responding. No, my entire lower body wasn’t answering.

I panicked. I tried standing up again and again and again. I tried moving my legs myself, I tried hitting them, shaking them…nothing worked. The adrenaline and painkillers ceased their effects in the worst of moments.

The burning pain began roasting me away, stronger than before, hotter than before while the headache felt like it gained intellect and was trying to split my head in half. I tried to scream but no sound came out of my open and bleeding lips. No one could hear me.

[The phone…I must reach the phone]

I had to call the ambulance, the police, the firefighters…whoever I could call I would have. I wasn’t thinking straight but I had to call for help. I looked around, searching for the device responsible for my salvation. The phone sat on the cabinet close to the door. The farthest place possible.

I purposely placed it there in order not to get distracted by it during the test. An unwise decision in hindsight.

I threw myself off the chair with whatever strength I had left in my arms, believing that they'd break under that pressure. Upon hitting the ground I felt as if spikes of hot iron had pierced my chest. My mouth filled with the sour taste of blood after hitting the hard ground with my chin.

I was weak. Weak yet tenacious. I felt my life slipping away from me yet I didn’t want to die. There were still so many games I had yet to play, so many worlds I could see, stories I could experience. It was too soon.

I crawled towards the cabinet. 

With all my might I crawled. One hand after the other. Gripping on the hard, wooden floor with my fingernails. Choking on my own blood and with my sight slowly becoming misty.

[One more push!...I’m almost there!]

I stretched my arm trying to reach the top of the cabinet. My eyes were now getting tired, my ears feeling muffled and a sense of welcoming cold pervading my body, down to my very core.

[Yes! That’s it!]

My hand touched something, something hard. “It must be the phone” I thought and put all my strength in that stretched arm, desperately trying to grab whatever my hand was touching.

Though unfortunately, instead of my cell phone, what my hand grabbed was nothing but a shelf of the cabinet. I didn't realize it but my sense of touch had already gone awry at that time.

I heard the sound of metal and plastic falling, followed by the dull sound of furniture moving.

The cabinet fell on me.

I was helpless. My body wasn’t answering me. Liquid began flowing copiously from my mouth as the sour and salty taste vanished. Cold began flowing through my veins instead of blood.

[I’m dying…]

I only accepted it then, even though I realized it much earlier. I was dying. No, I was already dead.

No one would help me. No one would call an ambulance for me. No one would be there to keep me company…No one was ever there…No one…

I closed my eyes and let the sweet embrace of dizziness take over me. My headache stopped. My non coherent breathing slowed and slowed and slowed until finally…my eyes closed.

I died in my room. I died dirty, covered in junk and filthy, pressed by a cabinet. I died alone in the cold embrace of my floor.

Indeed cold was the last sensation I remembered…yet my body felt hot, scorching hot at it. My head, my arms, my chest, my legs, everything felt as hot as a burning fire. The back of my hands were ticklish. Something thin and light was slightly moving underneath them.

[How…strange…is this…after?]

My thoughts were slow yet they were thoughts for sure. How? How could I think if I had died? I was trying to make heads or tails out of that situation when a blinding light began flooding my eyes until…a piercing pain spread as fast as water in a tub from my abdomen onwards.

I painfully opened my eyes, trying not to get blinded by that light, only to see two hooded figures towering me. They were tall, at least two meters, the tallest people I had ever seen. Yet something was wrong about them, something ominous, something unknown. Their clothes were made out of dirty, reddish rags covered in sand and dust with a turban that covered both their heads and their stretched faces. I was bewildered and confused.

“It’s good haul.-” Said the one to the right in a slow and bubbly voice “-Bring back base and sell, rare it’s seeing in good condition like this one”

“Yes boss” Answered his companion.

“S-sorry, where ar-”

My words were cut short by a heavy hit on the head by the same pole that poked my abdomen before. The last thing I recalled was the coarse, rough and irritating sensation of the sand getting inside my ears….What the hell was happening to me?