A week passed since he started playing VR and with over a hundred hours of playtime, he had already become one of the most prominent players on a server with thousands if not millions of members. He only left his room for a quick visit at the toilet or to make himself a simple sandwich out of what he could find in the kitchen. After finished business, he would rush back into his cave and immediately tie himself to the virtual world again. The faces of his parents and sister seemed nothing but a faint memory of a long-forgotten dream, in truth his whole past as a failure has long since been replaced. Replaced by Enden, whose name was known throughout the whole universe for having discovered new planets and galaxies, and for defeating a group of pirates who terrorized inhabitants of an underdeveloped civilisation. Contrary to a certain boring outcast student who couldn't even get a job, Enden's name could be found among the top five places on several ranking lists, including PvP and space races things he normally didn't enjoy or rather wasn't particularly fond of in games.

Another week passed. His possessions now amounted to a whole planet with several hangars and spaceships of different sizes, an adamantium mine and a giant villa placed right on the edge of the world. The thought that he needed to search for a new job had been gradually driven out of his head. Both of his parents took several attempts to talk to him in the past days but every knock on his door was ignored, even that of his precious little sister and of his only friend.

The third week after he started playing was about to end. His already skinny body had lost what little muscles and fat were left, making him look like a mummy of the ancient Egypt, with every bone being visible under a thin layer of skin. Bao consumed just enough food to come by and not to collapse whilst playing, he didn't even bother anymore to disconnect himself when sleeping, the VR world had taken full control over his life by now.

Constant knocks on the wooden door ripped him out of the immersion like a baby being pulled away from its mother's chest.

"Bao please open the door!" His mother knocked even harder.

"Why should I? You are only going to blame me again for not being able to get a job; saying that I shouldn't play so much, that it's unhealthy and nothing someone in my age should do! So what if I like playing games!" His voice cracked when screaming. "No one denies your hobbies, YOU can watch TV, YOU can go shopping with sister but I can't play games?! I just want to..."

"How dare you talk to your mother like that!" His father's voice sounded from behind the door. "You are just running away from your duties as a member of society! You... you rather play around with those.... those videogames rather than getting a decent job and earn some money! Be a man and work out your goddamn problems!"

"I... I'm not running away... I just want... I."

"Brother, at least let us in, so that we can talk to each other!"

"Even you Cuifen?" A deep sadness could be heard in his voice.

"Come on son open up. Don't you read the news?"

"Father don't." Screamed Cuifen but too late.

"VR has been declared as an illegal drug by the government, the persons affected need to be immediately brought to a rehabilitation centre and the VR hardware confiscated."

"That... that's a lie! You are lying! You even dare to lie just to get me to do what you want!"

"No brother it's true, just take a look at your phone."

He checked his phone, it was true.

"I... I don't want to go into a reha centre!"

"That's why we want to talk to you! Son, just come out already, let's talk."

Reluctant Bao unlocked the door and opened it, finding himself staring directly into the shocked faces of his family, he even thought to have seen tears in their eyes. The stench of sweat and accumulated trash left the room for the first time in weeks.

"Let's go down to the kitchen." His father said while holding a handkerchief in front of the nose.

With Cuifen right behind him, they walked down the stairs and as soon as he entered the kitchen two men in white uniforms, hidden left and right from the entrance grabbed his arms. Surprised by their sudden appearance his sister screamed but both parents didn't move and only watched the scene from the side. Bao floundered in their grips but without success, he had neither the muscles nor the strength to escape from them.

"Mother, father! Do something!" Cuifen collapsed on the floor, sobbing.

"You... you betrayed me! You betrayed your own son! You lied to me!" Screamed Bao.

"It is for your best son." His father turned away.

"I... I curse you all..." A syringe was injected into his neck and he slumped like a dead body in their arms.

As he was transported out of his house and his consciousness slowly faded he could still hear the disappearing voice of the newswoman.

"After the government declared VR as an illegal drug the Virtual Life Corporation was dissolved and production of further VR hardware stopped. They refused the decision of the government and pressed charges against them for omitting business practices. In the meantime around ten thousand players and devices have already been conficated and brought into respective rehabilitation centres, the majority of them being teenagers between the age of fifteen and twenty-five. Let's pass on to the weather..."