Alex Keemen’s "Battle Royale" Summary Automatic translate

This 2021 novel transports the reader to a harsh dystopia where military service devolves into a slaughterhouse within a virtual reality system. This book is a satirical action thriller, heavily spiced with reflections from ancient thinkers. A philosophy student joins the army and takes command of a small squad of three women. Together, they survive in brutal digital arenas. The pain of injuries is cranked up to maximum, and wealthy foreigners pay for safari subscriptions to hunt disenfranchised Russian conscripts.

Arrival at the unit and virtual training

Ivan Dubov fails his exam, is expelled from university, and is immediately conscripted into military service. Vanya is assigned to military unit 13666, where base commander Colonel Payalnikov and Warrant Officer Mukhomorov explain the specifics of the job to the new recruits. The soldiers are implanted with chips, and all military training takes place in the virtual simulation "Royale Battle." The army sells Western gamers the opportunity to shoot live soldiers, but the soldiers are unable to leave the simulation at will. The pain level in the game reaches 150 percent.

In the barracks, Ivan meets three female conscripts. The radical feminist Nata openly despises men, the shy blonde Katya is hiding from her domineering ex-husband, and the unflappable Japanese woman Yuka is an expert swordswoman. During their first training session at the digital training ground, instructor Dimon bullies the new recruits and shoots Ivan with a machine gun. The girls violate regulations and kill the sadist, after which the corporal is reinstated at the base and hands them over to the angry mob. Ivan takes the machine gun, mows down dozens of his fellow soldiers, and saves his comrades.

For this daring act, Vanya is brutally beaten in the real world. He ends up in the medical ward with broken bones, where Katya visits him and brings him sweet ice cream. Soon, Lieutenant Varenukha transfers Ivan to a separate women’s quarters. The soldiers are to become a single combat group, and Yuka and Katya readily accept him as their leader, while Natasha reluctantly agrees. That night, Vanya is awakened by a tender kiss, but he can’t see the face of the girl who has come to him.

Formation of the squad and the first battle

The squad heads into their first real battle. The action unfolds on a map replicating a German village. The team parachutes near an abandoned barn, finds civilian clothes, and advances to a safe constriction zone. Soon, they are attacked by a group of foreigners, and Ivan is shot in the stomach. Yuka draws a decorative katana and cuts down the enemies, Nata injects the commander with a medical stimulant, and Katya takes the sniper rifle.

They find a strange white grand piano right in the bushes. Game mechanics allow female squads to activate a special skill. Naked Nata sits down at the instrument and masterfully performs Ludwig van Beethoven’s "Ode to Joy." The music paralyzes a squad of American gamers who were attempting to rape the bound girls. Then the giant instrument falls from the sky, crushing the gamers, and Ivan shoots the remnants of the enemy group. The surviving soldiers take a trophy sniper rifle with unique characteristics and win the match.

In reality, the soldiers are given leave. Before entering the city, Vanya must sell a captured rifle to a secret agent. Vasiliev, a secret service officer, is hiding behind a female avatar named Lisa, but due to a minor password error, Ivan hands the weapon over to a third-party player. The real captain is furious, threatens the soldiers with a court martial, and then leaves them alone. That evening, near the checkpoint, the soldiers are met by Katya’s ex-husband, who forces her to sign papers. Ivan pushes the aggressor away and declares, "I am the commander and immediate superior of this unit."

Mysterious Helmet and Zombie Hunting

The second landing takes place in Avignon, France, where the team commandeers an old car. Katya accurately shoots enemies through a telescopic sight, and Yuka cuts down enemies with a long sword. They search an abandoned hospital, and Ivan finds a locked safe under the reception desk. He uses the year Pablo Picasso painted the painting as a code and discovers a basement access card inside. They open an iron door, find a strange metal cube, and drop notes with questions inside the "Chinese Room."

A zombie with the face of René Descartes lurks inside, biting Ekaterina’s leg. She begins writhing in pain and turning into the undead, so Ivan runs to another floor of the hospital for a vaccine. A spy for foreign corporations, Christina, bursts into the lab, ties up the girls, and takes Ivan captive. She demands the unique loot and promises to secretly transport the soldiers to the United States. Ivan categorically refuses the deal and knees the spy in the face.

The girl falls to the floor, and Yuka frees herself from the plastic zip ties and finishes off Kristina with a bladed weapon. Natasha uses her ability to summon a white grand piano, and the enormous musical instrument crashes down on the heads of the enemy guards. Katya receives a dose of the vaccine and returns to normal. The team retrieves a secret Kevlar helmet with a thermal imaging scope, takes an armored yellow container, and leaves the combat zone alive. In the barracks, they are interrogated again by Officer Vasiliev, after which the friends stroll through the evening city.

Musical battle in Manhattan

The third landing turns into a nightmare in Manhattan. Due to a technical error on the servers, the location is filled with thousands of hungry undead, and the players are forced to abandon their mutual hunt. Ivan saves Dimon from a zombie bite, and Yuka cuts off a corporal’s infected hand with her blade. American cadets from the military academy join the squad, and together they retreat to the subway station. The survivors encounter a horde of rotten monsters and flee back to the street. They use heavily armored jeeps to ram the living wall of flesh.

The remnants of several squads barricade themselves in the empty museum while the dead storm the glass doors. Ivan finds an exhibition stand dedicated to the German thinker Friedrich Nietzsche and deduces the algorithm’s hidden purpose. The system has hidden a musical cue in the lyrics of "Thus Spoke Zarathustra," suggesting that art heals monsters and grants them salvation. The soldiers climb to the roof of the building and, using assault rifles, construct a zipline over the heads of the snarling monsters. The soldiers slide along the cables and descend safely onto the lawns of Central Park.

Natasha sits down at the piano, and the black drummer Sam and the violinist join her. The undead break through the perimeter and run toward the impromptu orchestra. Ivan, Katya, and Yuka fire their machine guns and hold back the onslaught of the creatures. The musical piece reaches its climax, the sky above the city is illuminated by the northern lights, and all the zombies fall to the grass, transforming into ordinary gamers. The server crashes and completely reboots. Vanya comes to, clutching a golden chip with a white rabbit on its surface.