Kim residence

Another quiet dinner was served around the table. Taehyung sat with furrowed brows and pursed lips after his strict father scolded him severely. His second oldest brother, Namjoon, three years his senior, unexpectedly spilled the beans that he had purchased new visors for the OASIS virtual reality game, where the majority of the population enjoyed spending time, a place where you could escape the tough realities of this current society.

Mr. Kim's brow furrowed, not impressed by Taehyung's useless pastime, which he claimed was taking too much time away from his actual studies.

Taehyung's older brother Seokjin regarded the stoic Taehyung with concern. The Oasis has almost completely distracted him these days. They are all aware of his current obsession with locating Bangs's hidden egg. Namjoon enjoyed playing in the Oasis, but only at university, away from their strict father's scrutiny.

Their mother also enjoys visiting the Oasis, where she had an avatar as a cool biker girl. She enjoys sharing her youngest's pastime, but her husband despises the Oasis obsession, especially after the well-publicized death of Bang and the hidden egg. So, she kept her gaming obsession a secret only her youngest son knows.

"Taehyung you must focus on your upcoming exams. Do you want to study at one of Seoul's most prestigious universities?  Seokjin graduated from Korea National University with the trophy for most outstanding achievements. Namjoon is currently Yonsei's youngest student president, and he has maintained an A+ in all modules. Your teacher called me about your current distractions." His father observed his aloof and blank demeanor. He just doesn't understand his youngest son no more

Taehyung took a deep breath and closed his eyes, staring at his father's chilly eyes. "Appa...?"

"You don't Appa me! Mrs. Choi informed me that you received an A- in economics and that your father pointed his finger at you with visible annoyance. Do you think you'll be able to get into the current competitive program amidst your low grades? That darn game and that Jennie-girl had your mind racing with rodents! Didn't I tell you that dating is out of the question during your senior year?" Taehyung was flushed as he stared blankly at his raving father. His mother gently placed her hand on his shoulder to calm him down.

"Please, Dong, calm down. Taehyung is well aware of his responsibilities. Economics is not one of his strong suits. He's already been studying for nearly six hours. The oasis gave him much-needed rest. He feels more at ease when he—-" she was rudely interrupted.

"Sumin... I don't care! He's unconcerned about his future. He is aware that marital arrangements will be finalized one of these days. "When his father receives an important call from a business associate, he scoffs and gets up from the table.

All his brothers are betrothed into arranged marriages. Seokjin will marry in two months. He already moved out and stay on his own. But he always visits on weekends.

Taehyung's eyes welled up with tears as he softly questioned, "Why can't APPA listen to me? I'm not interested in studying business. I want to be a game programmer and coder. And I...I like Jennie'Eomma. I want to be with her Eomma. I want to choose the girl I'm going to marry, not that annoying girly girl of Appa's business partner."

"Just understand your APPA, baby. He loves you, and the OASIS game that everyone at your school is obsessed with is taking over your life. You no longer want to be with your family." She appeared to be saddened by the fact.

"Eomma APPA is rigid," Seokjin says with a smile. Nobody is capable of changing his mind. Unfortunately, Taehyung's marriage will take place. Tae had known his fate for two years, but the girl had been blissfully unaware.

Taehyung inhaled deeply. "All I know is that I want to study business. I'm going to find the oasis egg, win billions of dollars, and launch a gaming company."

Namjoon smirked smugly "It's still business. Just go study that so you can be at peace with APPA and know the fundamentals of business ethics and principles required to start a successful company."

"You can't afford to irritate APPA," Seokjin says as he bites into his last piece of BBQ"How many visors and controllers have APPA confiscated or given away?"

Taehyung murmurs, 'Count less!"

Namjoon smirked, "You should thank your lucky stars because Seokjin designed a secret game room for you in our secret man cave. You can go with Seokjin. I'll inform Appa that Seokjin will assist you with that dreaded business subject. You can enter the cabinet and enter your game room."

"You can go ahead and set up your gaming station right now." Your mother suggests it with a smile.

Namjoon chuckled at your perplexed expression. "Because dad wanted to get rid of your gaming laptop, Mom and Seokjin banded together to get you a few monitors."

Taehyung's eyes shone brightly for the first time. His brothers simply shook their heads, knowing that gaming was a part of him. It's an escape from this world. It keeps him sane and helps him cope with his overwhelming feelings of oppression, suppression, and depression. 

Everything vanished when he grabbed his console. Where he can emerge into the Oasis in the current world's expectations Where his avatar can attend virtual school and meet like-minded souls who enjoy the buzz and excitement of a new challenge. Find the elusive egg in the Oasis.

After everyone has helped clean up the kitchen, he and Seokjin depart to the man cave in the basement. But his father is unaware that Seokjin has created a special room for him in the man cave behind a bookcase. He could just pull out a cookbook (Seokjins special: How to make the best saki) and he'd be transported to another world, leaving no trace of the A+ grade student, class president, drama club president, basketball protege, and avid photography student. He rose to become the most feared and skilled gamer of his generation while there.

As he walked into the neon-lit room, he smiled. His domain, world, and life. He started up his monitors with a wide smile on a somewhat blank expression. Although every student at school received the consoles sponsored by H.Y.B.E Simulation Systems, Seokjin, the Vice-President of their family company, got him the latest monitors.

By modern standards, his confiscated computer processor was slower than a sloth, but it was adequate for his needs. His laptop doubled as a mobile research library, video arcade, and home theater system for me. Its hard drive was full of old books, movies, kdramas, Spotify song files, and nearly every video game released in the twentieth century.

He was always eager to play his favorite games, such as League of Legends, which Riot Games released in 2009. It includes a competitive team-based game mode based on strategy and outplaying opponents. Players work together to break the enemy Nexus before the enemy team does. He frequently played it with Namjoon during university breaks or even during the week when Namjoon was available to play at university.

When he was depressed or frustrated with his lot in life, it never failed to clear his mind and put him at ease. All he had to do was press the Player One button, and his worries would vanish as his mind focused on the relentless onslaught on him on the screen in front of him.

Life was simple inside the game's two-dimensional universe: it was just you versus the machine. Move with your left hand, shoot with your right, and try to survive as long as you can.

He could spend hours and hours blasting through your battleground's waves. The team was tenacious in its defense of your towers.

After about an hour of battling through lanes, his fingers began to cramp, which led to his least-favorite words appearing on the screen: game over.

Taehyung sighs and browses through his vast video library. He'd downloaded every movie, TV show, and cartoon mentioned in Anorak's Almanac over the previous five years. Of course, he hadn't seen all of them yet. That would most likely take decades.

He chose an episode of Family Ties, an '80s sitcom about a middle-class family from central Ohio. I'd downloaded the show because it was one of Bangs' favorites, and I figured there was a chance that a clue related to the Hunt was hidden in one of the episodes. He became acquainted with the OASIS at a young age because his brother, Seokjin, used it as a virtual babysitter to keep him company while he brought his date over to the house and he had to look after him while his parents were away on business. 

As soon as he was old enough to wear a visor and a pair of haptic gloves, Seokjin helped him create his first OASIS avatar. Then he locked him in his room's corner desk and went back to spend time with his girlfriend, leaving him to explore an entirely new world, very different from the one he'd known up until that point.

From that moment on, he, Taehyung, was more or less raised by the OASIS's interactive educational programs, which any kid could access for free. He spent a big chunk of my childhood hanging out in a virtual-reality simulation of Korean online games like "Arrest the Burglar!" and educational games that taught you Korean, maths, etc.

Once he'd mastered those skills, it didn't take him long to discover that the OASIS was also the world's biggest public library, where Even penniless kids had access to every book ever written, every song ever recorded, and every movie, television show, videogame, and piece of artwork ever created. The collected knowledge, art, and amusements of all human civilization were there, waiting for me. But gaining access to all of that information turned out to be something of a mixed blessing. Because that was when he found out the truth.

 He had access to the OASIS, which was like a portal into a better reality. He stayed sane thanks to the OASIS. It was his playground and preschool all rolled into one, a magical place where anything was possible.

All of his happiest childhood memories take place in the OASIS. When his brothers weren't too preoccupied with their school activities, they'd all log in at the same time and play games or go on interactive storybook adventures together. His father had to force him to log out every night because he didn't want to return to reality because the real world was bad.

He never blamed his dad for the way things were. They had the hard reality called life. They had to work hard, and he had the OASIS. His life wasn't so bad outside. They had everything their hearts desired because they were rich. He was the poor little rich kid. His relationship with his dad was deteriorating because of his high expectations of his sons. At least that's what he kept telling himself, in a vain attempt to stave off the epic loneliness he now felt because of high expectations and the huge distance in his relationship with his strict dad.

The hunt for Bangs' Easter egg then began. He believes that is what saved him. Suddenly, he'd discovered something worthwhile to do. A goal worth pursuing. For the past five years, The Hunt had given him a goal and a purpose. A mission to complete. A reason to get out of bed in the morning. Something to anticipate, not only studying for tests.

The future no longer seemed so bleak once he started looking for the egg.

Seokjin, his brother, built that space for him, his own universe, cosmos, Batcave, and Fortress of Solitude. He went to school, did his homework, read books, watched movies, and played video games there. It was also where he continued his search for Bangs' Easter egg.

His school-issued OASIS console, haptic gloves, and visor were all inside. These were by far the most valuable items he possessed. Far too valuable to carry around with him... against his safe haven's enemy...his father.

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Hope you like the first attempt at a sci-fi short story. 

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A big shout out to all the 'sparkles who always support different book series.