REAL WORLD – Tokyo, Japan
December 6th, 2025 – 2:34 AM
Max's eyes snapped open, and he immediately regretted it.
His head pounded like someone was using his skull as a drum. His muscles ached—real, physical aches that shouldn't exist from a virtual experience but did anyway. The NeuroSync's neural feedback had been running for over eight hours straight, and his body was paying the price.
He groaned, pulling off the headset.
The room spun slightly. His mouth was dry as sand. His stomach felt hollow and nauseous simultaneously.
This is what neural fatigue feels like, Max thought distantly. This is what happens when you push VR too hard.
His phone was buzzing—had been buzzing for who knows how long. The screen showed 47 missed calls, 283 Discord notifications, 12 text messages.
Max stared at the numbers, his brain too fried to process them.
He should check his messages. Should respond to people. But he couldn't. His body simply refused to cooperate.
Max stood slowly, using the desk for support. His legs felt like jelly, and his vision swam with dark spots. He stumbled toward the door, catching himself on the frame.
The apartment was dark and silent. His mother's door was closed—she would be at the hospital for her night shift, wouldn't be home until morning.
Max shuffled to the kitchen like a zombie. He opened the refrigerator, the light painfully bright, and grabbed the first thing he saw: a bottle of sports drink his mother had bought.
He drank half of it in one long gulp, the cold liquid shocking his system back toward consciousness. Then he grabbed leftover rice from the fridge and ate it cold, straight from the container, not even bothering with a bowl or chopsticks.
His body needed calories. Needed hydration.
Max leaned against the counter, slowly eating, his mind still struggling to process what had happened.
He had soloed a mythic boss.
Level 23 now.
Legendary sword.
15,000 gold.
Full guild membership.
The numbers felt unreal. Like something that happened to someone else in a dream.
His phone buzzed again on the kitchen counter. Max glanced at it.
A message from Velara: You okay? You passed out hard. Message me when you wake up.
Another from Kaito: Rest well. Guild meeting tomorrow at noon to discuss the clear and media strategy. Your presence is mandatory.
One from his mother, sent an hour ago: Saw the Phoenix Guild announcement on the news at the hospital. Everyone's talking about the Obsidian Depths clear. Are you part of that? Please tell me you're sleeping and safe.
Max's fingers were too unsteady to type a response. He would message them all later, when his brain was functional.
He finished the rice, drank the rest of the sports drink, and grabbed a second one from the fridge. His body was screaming for more food, but his stomach couldn't handle much more right now.
The kitchen clock read 2:47 AM.
He had been in VR from 8 PM to past 2 AM. Six-plus hours. The dungeon had taken the entire time—eight attempts, countless deaths, that final desperate battle that had nearly broken him.
Max shuffled back to his room, his body moving on autopilot. He collapsed onto his bed without even bothering to change clothes or pull back the covers.
His last conscious thought was of Night—his loyal shadow warrior—and the two demonic slaves he had summoned. The brutal, desperate battle against impossible odds.
Then exhaustion claimed him completely, and Max fell into dreamless, heavy sleep.
7:23 AM
Max's phone alarm went off, and he slapped it silent without opening his eyes.
Five more minutes.
9:47 AM
Max finally woke for real, his body still protesting but functional. The headache had reduced to a dull throb, and his muscles no longer felt like they were made of lead.
He grabbed his phone and immediately saw the chaos he'd missed.
Discord had exploded. The Phoenix Guild channels were going insane—hundreds of messages per minute, people celebrating, sharing clips, analyzing the dungeon clear.
The main gaming news sites had already posted articles:
"PHOENIX GUILD CLEARS OBSIDIAN DEPTHS—4TH WORLDWIDE COMPLETION"
"Unknown Player 'MaxThorne' Solos Final Boss Phase in Historic Raid Clear"
"Level 23 Soulbinder Achieves Impossible Victory Against Mythic-Tier Boss"
Max scrolled through the articles with growing disbelief. They had video clips—someone had been recording the raid, and footage of the final battle had already been posted online.
He watched himself fighting the Overlord. Saw the moment he summoned the Shadow Slaves—though the video showed nothing but the boss reacting to invisible attacks. Saw his desperate final strike that killed the boss.
The video had 2.3 million views already and was trending on multiple platforms.
Comments were flooded:
"How is a level 20 soloing a level 45 mythic boss???"
"Soulbinder is secretly OP and nobody realized"
"Phoenix Guild carried by a level 20 lmaooo"
"That's not normal gameplay. Has to be an exploit or bug"
"Most clutch gaming moment I've ever seen"
Max set his phone down, his hands shaking slightly.
He was famous.
Within hours of the clear, he'd become one of the most talked-about players in Aetheria Online.
His phone buzzed with a call. His mother.
Max answered. "Mom?"