2 years ago an MMO player locked himself in a virtual cage of his own making – "after 10,000 hours" he is finally free

In April 2023, YouTuber and Old School RuneScape player Agile Tom knowingly signed up for a challenge that, even among MMO players who enjoy self-imposed limitations and long grinds, stood out as patently absurd. The best evidence of this is the simple fact that it wasn't until this month, on June 13, 2025, that he finally completed that challenge "after 10,000 hours," per his triumphant finale video. I say finale, but Tom quickly began another grindy challenge.

After 10,000 Hours I FINALLY Completed My Starting Chunk - YouTube

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Tom decided to make a new Old School RuneScape (OSRS) account and limit it to an incredibly small portion of the game's world – a Chunk, per the rules of the Xtreme OneChunk game mode from fellow mad lad Limpwurt. He could not leave this space, a tiny sum of land, for any reason until he finished all the challenges possible within it.

For this Chunk rule set, that includes things like completing all available quests and achievements, clearing the highest-level challenges tied to any available skills, and acquiring all the unique items and monster drops possible.

Ordinarily, Chunk playthroughs start with a roulette of some kind, with players relying on a combination of a client plugin and external tools or websites to select and track chunks. But for his starting chunk, Tom deliberately chose Chunk 4,919, the site of Old School RuneScape's first raid, the Chambers of Xeric.

As a raid, the Chambers of Xeric is naturally balanced for high-level players with strong gear and skills. Tom entered the raid site at base level, fresh out of the game's tutorial, while playing as an Ironman account that can't accept items from other players. This is where the 10,000-hour sentence comes in.

The Xeric Chunk is typically regarded as a "Death Chunk" by fans of this rule set. If you happen to randomly roll a Death Chunk as your next home, you're sure to spend thousands of hours there completing demanding, likely RNG-riddled grinds. That's where Tom started, tackling some of the hardest content in the game with absolutely nothing to his name. The equivalent would be going to the gym for the first time and loading six plates on the bar. You can't leave until you do 10 reps.

The good news is that Chambers of Xeric uses a lot of different skills, not just combat skills, so Tom was able to find his footing even in episode one of this Chunk series. The bad news is that this means there were a lot of skill challenges to clear before finishing this Chunk. To make things exponentially worse, acquiring every item in the raid – like prayer scrolls, weapons, robes, and a notoriously rare boss pet – can take thousands of hours even on a strong, non-limited account, making Tom's journey especially dire.

This is primarily why this journey took more than two years. Tom not only had to finish the Xeric raid collection and all accompanying challenges, he had to do it after – and sometimes during – the arduous process of building up a new account under extremely suboptimal and limiting conditions. By the end, he had an enviable stash of raid loot including dozens of valuable but useless prayer scrolls – toilet paper, he came to call them – stuffed in the bank.

With zero quests completed, lopsided gear combining some of the best weapons in the entire game with the kind of noob getup that would get you mocked at school lunch tables, and two pet drops, Tom ended up with one of the most unique accounts in the history of OSRS. He managed to clear the raid 2,000 times – aided but not simply carried by teammates, as Ironman accounts can do this group content – as a Chunk player, which feels kind of like seeing a 100-pound first-timer walk into the gym and squat six plates.

"I actually think this is the most insane chunk anyone has completed," reads a comment from Chunk enthusiast Fray. "Amazing work. You've spent longer in this chunk than I have on my entire account - insane."

"One of the most incredible chunking achievements to date, congratulations," says OSRS creator Lunitar.

"Genuinely one of the greatest achievements of all time," adds OSRS community pillar Soup.

"Two years of grinding has led to this moment," Tom said of the finale, finally free to explore new Chunks for the first time in years (and promptly roll another, smaller time-sink Chunk). "A moment that, at some points, I thought never would happen."

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