Battle Island
“Uh, that VR headset is mine...”
“Ah, right. Well, Seonhui said she wanted to play a game together, so—”
He had forgotten, in the confusion, that the device he’d just used wasn’t his daughter’s after all, but his son Jaemin’s.
No matter that he was the father, and no matter that Jaemin was still a minor under his parents’ care—touching someone else’s property without permission was a violation of privacy.
Wanting to keep the misunderstanding from growing any worse, Yeongho hurriedly offered an explanation, words tumbling over one another in his fluster.
“Well... I guess that makes sense. Sorry for yelling like that without knowing you were there, Dad.”
“Don’t apologize. Here—you used it well.”
After hearing him out, Jaemin bowed his head and took the VR headset before heading out of the room.
Watching his son’s back, Yeongho spoke before he could stop himself.
“Hey, Jaemin.”
“Yes?”
His son was younger, yet more composed than his older sister, Seonhui—steady, dutiful, and earnest in everything he did.
Of course he loved both of his children, but if he was honest, Jaemin was the one who hurt most in his heart.
He still remembered taking his daughter out to play whenever he could, at least until she was old enough for kindergarten. But by the time his second child had started walking, Yeongho had been too busy trying to earn more and more money to spend much time at home.
That was why they had so few memories together, father and son.
“I tried VR gaming myself, and it was pretty fun. What do you think—want to try playing together?”
This might be the last chance he had to make memories with his child while he was stuck resting because of his injury.
And since he’d enjoyed the new experience of streaming with his daughter so much, he looked at Jaemin with quiet anticipation.
“You want to game with Dad? Um... I’m not sure. Not right now, really...”
“I-I see? Then... g-go do what you need to do.”
But his son didn’t seem all that interested, his eyes shifting this way and that with what almost looked like caution.
Yeongho felt a stab of disappointment and was about to retreat with an awkward laugh when—
“Well, I could probably spare a little time. Do you want to try?”
“Huh?”
At the sudden voice from behind him, Yeongho, who had been about to step back into the master bedroom, turned around at once, his face lighting up.
* * *
Park Jaemin, fourteen years old, a middle school student who dreamed of becoming a pro gamer.
Right now, he was chasing a debut in Legend of War, the most popular game in the world.
The season had just reset, and after finishing his placement matches, Jaemin had landed in Emerald 1.
He was desperate to rank up again as quickly as possible.
“Damn it, Park Seonhui! Did she come into my room while I was out?”
Because he’d had a bad run in the placement matches that decided his starting rank for the season, he’d been assigned a lower tier than he deserved.
If he wanted to hit Diamond as soon as possible and aim for Master after that, every spare game mattered.
So when his headset was missing from his room, he’d stormed into his sister’s with frustration, sure he’d found the culprit.
Instead, he’d found his father holding his VR headset, and the shock had nearly made his jaw drop.
And when his father actually suggested they play together, he’d wondered if he’d heard wrong.
What’s with this all of a sudden? Did my sister say something about me? That traitor!
He had never told his family that he wanted to become a pro gamer, but he had talked with his noisy sibling about games enough times that she probably had a rough idea of what he was aiming for.
If his father, who rarely ever talked to him in the first place, was suddenly behaving strangely, then it had to be because of that.
Mom would obviously get angry and ask what kind of nonsense becoming a pro gamer is, and Dad... he’d probably oppose it too.
Since he hadn’t clearly stated his intentions yet, maybe his father wanted to have a talk first and make sure of what was going on.
Maybe that was why he’d offered to play together—to avoid bluntly telling him no from the outset.
Once that guess popped into his head, Jaemin’s desire to dodge the conversation surged, and he’d given what was almost a refusal.
But then he saw his father turn away, his face openly crestfallen, and guilt pricked at him.
So, almost reflexively, he changed his answer.
Damn it. What do I do? Playing LoW with Dad is kind of...
After pulling out his sister’s VR headset and leading his father into his own room, an awkward silence settled heavily between them.
Originally, he’d planned to log straight into Legend of War and queue solo ranked as soon as he got home.
Dad’s never played a game like this before, so explaining skills and items one by one would be way too much...
This was a five-player team game, and one where victory often depended on coordination. If a complete newbie got involved, the entire match could become a mess.
Jaemin was serious about Legend of War; he didn’t want to rack up a loss record even in a normal match.
And if his father, for whatever reason, had heard bad things about pro gamers, there was always the chance he might say something negative about the dream Jaemin was clinging to.
So he’d rather hide the game he cared about as much as possible.
In other words, LoW was out.
“What game did you play with my sister?”
“Oh, what was it called again? You run around a city fighting monsters... there are zombies everywhere too.”
“Escape City?”
“That’s the one! That was it.”
Jaemin knew the game.
He just hadn’t bought it because he wasn’t particularly interested in that genre.
The games he usually played, Legend of War included, were competitive multiplayer titles where you fought against other players by default.
Still, since it was a shooting game, he figured he could pick something similar.
“I don’t own Escape City, so how about Battle Island?”
Battle Island.
A battle royale survival game where a hundred players dropped onto a deserted island and fought until only one remained.
It was something he played now and then when he wanted a break from Legend of War.
Yeongho’s face brightened as he nodded after hearing the explanation.
“Sounds fun. Then let’s give it a try.”
“I’ll set things up, so just relax—uh... maybe lie down on the bed or something.”
Jaemin’s room was a little smaller than Seonhui’s, and once you removed the desk and bed there wasn’t much space left, so there wasn’t really anywhere comfortable to play a VR game.
Usually he just lay on the bed and played, but with his father there, he’d have to put up with the discomfort and use the chair instead.
“Should I lie down with you?”
“...No, I’ll use the chair.”
“R-right, of course.”
The bed was narrow enough already, but imagining himself lying side by side with his father made him stiffen up on the spot.
Yeongho immediately thought better of it too, so he shut his mouth and quietly lay down on the bed.
As the sounds of Jaemin setting up the equipment filled the room, an excruciatingly awkward silence drifted between father and son as they watched one another out of the corners of their eyes.
Then, a little later—
for the first time, the two of them began a game together.
* * *
“There are a lot of people here.”
“Yep. This is the waiting room. It’s where players gather before moving to the actual battlefield map.”
After finishing the brief tutorial, Yeongho met up with his son, who had been waiting for him, and joined a party.
This was only his second VR game, but the scenery was still so lifelike it was hard to separate from reality, and he couldn’t hide how amazed he was.
“When the place changes in a little while, just follow me. What kind of gun feels best in your hands?”
“Huh? When I played with Seonhui, I only used a pistol.”
“Just a pistol? Hmm, the tutorial should’ve recommended a bunch of different weapons...”
“Oh, that. It was a long time ago, but I did shoot rifles in the army, and I had you waiting, so I just hurried and wrapped it up.”
“There are shotguns, submachine guns, sniper rifles—so many different kinds. It would’ve been better to try a few...”
Jaemin frowned as if troubled, then nodded and spoke up.
“It’s fine. It’s just a public match anyway, so there probably won’t be many good players. It’s the first game, so just think of it as getting a feel for things and stick close behind me.”
His expression made it obvious that he wasn’t expecting anything from his father at all.
Since Yeongho really was a complete beginner when it came to VR games, he quietly nodded, deciding to do whatever his son told him.
And then the location changed, and the game began.
“Dad, we’re going that way. Follow me carefully.”
“Got it.”
The two of them leapt from the aircraft with their parachutes strapped on.
Battle Island had twenty different maps, and which one you got was random, but no matter the map, the urban areas full of buildings always had plenty of loot. That was why so many players crowded there early, making survival much harder right from the start.
On the other hand, smaller towns had relatively few competitors and made for a safer opening.
If you weren’t confident in your ability to shine in chaotic firefights, then it was also a valid strategy to avoid the crowd and slowly farm, waiting patiently for your chance—the so-called turtle play.
No choice. We’ll have to go outer ring.
Jaemin glanced toward his father and then steered the parachute, plotting out his looting route in his head.
To keep the game from turning into an endless, boring stalemate where someone simply sat in an advantageous position forever, Battle Island had a rule: as time passed, radiation levels in each area would rise, forcing players to relocate periodically.
Where the safe zone, untouched by that radiation, would appear was completely random.
Since the closer you got to the island’s center, the more likely you were to be caught by the radiation as it shifted, starting too far out on the edge carried its own risks too. Normally, Jaemin didn’t prefer that kind of start.
But today, with a beginner at his side, he didn’t really have a choice.
“Huh! Those bastards?”
But from the very beginning, Jaemin’s plan went sideways.
There were players dropping after them in a little-used outer area that should have been empty of competition.
Worse, the way they positioned themselves with their parachutes made their intention painfully clear: they meant to surround and wipe them out.
Teaming up from the start...? Ah—wait, the duo setting! You idiot!
Battle Island had three modes: Solo, where you fought enemies alone; Duo, where two players formed a team; and Squad, where four players formed a party.
For fairness, solo matched with solo and duo with duo.
But even in squad mode, where up to four players could be on a team, it was still possible to queue as a solo or as a duo if you wanted.
The difficulty increased sharply because your side was understaffed compared with full teams, but players confident in their skill tended to enjoy that kind of hard mode challenge.
Jaemin himself usually played squad mode alone, so because he hadn’t changed the setting out of habit, they had accidentally entered squad mode as a duo this time.
That meant his side was two players, while the enemy team naturally had four.
With double the numbers, they must have figured the odds were in their favor, which was why they’d followed them down to this unpopular landing zone.
“Dad! Go around to the second floor!”
“O-oh, right.”
After landing in front of a two-story house, Jaemin pushed Yeongho’s back toward the stairs and quickly checked the first-floor rooms.
The enemy assault was bound to start any second, so he had to grab at least one weapon as fast as possible.
SKS? Tch. Of all things...
SKS.
A semi-automatic rifle, but not an assault rifle—one that could also be classed as a sniper rifle because of its high-rate fire potential.
Its damage was solid, but the recoil was brutal when firing repeatedly, which made it a difficult weapon to use, so it wasn’t especially popular.
And in the current situation, where he had to prepare for a fight against more enemies indoors, a sniper rifle brought far more disadvantages than advantages.
But if this was the only weapon that had spawned, what could he do?
Jaemin moved to the window and cautiously leaned out, eyes flicking quickly as he tried to figure out the enemies’ entry route.
Front door? Back door? If they split up and come in from both sides, then I just need to take down at least one guy first—
He was quietly simulating the battle in his head when—
-[DEAD] HP
...Huh?
The kill log that had suddenly popped up, and the father’s ID written there.
Jaemin’s head filled with question marks.