A South Korean couple was arrested by local authorities when it was found that their baby starved to death while they were nurturing a virtual baby on an online network game.

The couple reportedly fed their toddler approximately once a day, in between trips to a local internet cafe to play Prius Online, a fantasy role-playing game played online. The couple had been busy making their in-game characters develop and gain new skills and experience during their regular marathon playing stretches.

“I wish that she hadn’t got sick and that she will live well in heaven forever,” the unnamed 41-year-old father from Suwon apologizes, according to a report by CNN. “And as the father, I am sorry.”

Investigations uncovered that the couple just recently lost their jobs, and seemed to be ‘escaping’ into an alternate reality inside the online game. “(The couple) played an online game in which they raised a virtual character so as to escape from reality, which led to the death of their real baby,” according to Chung Jin-Won, a local police officer.

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