Brimmed with joy, Alan rushed home as fast as he could. He could not wait to try his newly-bought video game cartridge. “Finally got this, been in line for 3 hours but it all pays off. Wait until the other club members see this, hope they don’t get envy”, he smirked.

“Hey, get lost nerd! Still not move on from your childhood?”, George yelled at him.

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that”, Alan responded. He has been a big fan of video games for over 20 years. Consoles, handhelds, or even PC games, he must have played them all. Missing playing any popular games means a disgrace for him. A true hardcore gamer, no matter what people say he would brush them aside.

“Come on Al, get a life and you’d better stop exalting that stuff”, George added. “Look at how old you are..”

“You asked me to get a life? Didn’t you see, this.. is my life!” Alan took out his new cartridge and showed it right in front of George’s face.

“I’m just wasting my breath here”. George walked away.

“Just mind your own business, muscle head!”. Alan responded

“Whatever, nerd!”. George continued walking..

At home, Alan quickly took off his shoes and went up stair. The game was so interesting that he forgot to have dinner, not even drinking a glass of water.

He rushed into his room and started tearing the cartridge cardboard. “Let’s see what I got here, a majestic action horror RPG game it is! Then he inserted the cartridge into his console. As an experienced gamer, his prediction was true. The game was satisfying for him. Excellent graphic, wide storyline, open play, and challenging difficulty.

“This is too good to be true. Time to set target, I’m gonna finish this in a week”. Everyone knew that every time Alan set the target, he would do it for real. “I have to finish what I started”, that was his usual respond.

Been 4 days since the game was bough..

He did not have enough sleep due to playing games.

One day, his mother came to his room to tell her that dinner was ready. She was shocked since he found out that Alan was holding his head.

“I’m dizzy!” He mumbled.

“Let’s see a doctor! You didn’t listen to me, did you? Mind your condition.”

“No, I don’t want to!” Alan responded.

“You have to..” Then she dragged him out, got in the car, and drove it to the nearest clinic.

After everything was done….

Done with the examination, Alan was reprimanded by his mother not to play video games too long. He needed to have enough rest. Her mother was worried because the doctor told her that one boy was discovered dead in his room due to playing games with the game still on.

Now that Alan had known the consequence, he promised that he would consider his own condition first.

“I need to be healthy all the time mom, there is so much thing to do in this world. Live longer, stay healthy, and have good relationship with people. And, don’t forget mom. I also want to stay healthy. More games await me, hehe” He chuckled.

“I see” Her mother smiled.

“Just drill that line into your mind, Al. So you always know when to stop”. She added

“You can count on me”. Alan promised.

By: RMRW