be 20 y/o Moscow student
gf situation goes sideways
decides he’ll “prove he’s a real man” by running off into the >forests of Novosibirsk Oblast
takes a buddy with him on the train + supplies
buddy gets cold feet (literally), bails back to civilization
OP stays because pride/obsession/“I have to do this”
temperature hits ~-20°C
he starts posting from his phone on a survival / hermit forum >asking how not to die out there
people tell him to turn back ASAP
he replies basically “either I survive here or I die here; not a joke”
signal/battery dies
searches go on for a long time, nothing
later a hunter finds the camp: crude shelter, student ID/phone nearby, body

and the bleakest part: it wasn’t deep wilderness. it was comparatively close to a major road.
this is what “main character syndrome + nature” looks like.

thread question: how often do you think this happens now, but with GPS + chats instead of forums?