<h1>Prologue: The Inferno</h1>


    On the 31st of December, 2016, I died.


    How did I die?


    I’d like to say I died rescuing a cute girl from a burning building. Or maybe struggling to the death against a crazed gunman, buying time for innocent civilians to reach safety. Even pushing a child out of the way of an oncoming truck would have made for a fine tale.


    I wish I were that type of person.


    No, all I spent all my time at home in front of my computer in a pitch black room, grinding MMORPG’s eighteen hours a day. My meals consisted of cup noodles and take away, with a side of cola and energy drinks. My parents thought I was diligently studying while they were away on business, trying my hardest to enter a good university, when in actual fact I was skipping school to play games. I didn’t have many friends, let alone a girlfriend, and I had but one purpose in my life.


    I lived for the sake of holding my place at the top of the rankings, in whatever game I was playing.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    My username was <Inferno>, the embodiment of hell. People called me many things: aimbotter, hacker, cheater. I was none of those.


    I was simply a boy who dedicated more time to a virtual world than to real life.


    Maybe that was why I’d been chosen to die, right on New Year’s Eve.


    How did I die?


    I guess there’s no avoiding it. I can’t exactly say something like ‘It’s a long story.’


    I died because I ran out of cup noodles.


    It was a busy night, full of normies and their wild drinking and partying. The fireworks bloomed like flowers in the sky, a sight for my sore eyes. I remember walking out of the convenience store with a plastic bag full of cup noodles and Red Cow energy drinks.


    It just so happened that I placed my foot wrongly on a stray alcohol bottle and slipped.


    Yep. I died because I slipped on a piece of litter and hit my head too hard, all for cup noodles.


    Pathetic, right?


    The legendary Inferno meeting his end for such a trivial reason.


    But I guess I can’t really complain too much, because that was when my life really began.