MTL - The Crimson Dragon - Chapter 166

The Heavenly Voice was bestowed upon the world, and so the calendar of the Great Dao began. The world entered a new age of digitized cultivation. Humanity activated the immortal destiny seal to become cultivators.

A wonder falling down from heaven! A boy possessed by strange blood! Gods tremble! Demons flee! A boy from the land of Dong Zhou. A pink skull as his sworn friend until death. A story of a determined warrior struggling for power. A legend that shakes the galaxy and disturbs the worlds of god, demon and man.

- Description from Novelupdates

I became the childhood friend of the protagonist in a novel. The childhood friend who died from taking drugs.