Life: 99% Complete

A boy wakes up to find a faint progress bar hovering above his bed, reading “Life: 99%

complete.” He feels perfectly healthy, but nothing he does changes the number—eating, running,

calling friends, even going to the hospital. Panicked, he spends the entire

day trying to avoid danger, locking himself in his room as the bar creeps to 99.9%.

Only when he finally opens his door to hug his crying mother, whispering that he loves her and

is sorry for wasting the day afraid, does the bar complete—then vanish—and a new one appears: “Lifetime

lived honestly today: 1 percent