hello and welcome I'm hm friendly and today I would like to read to you one of my favorite books ready player one it's light-hearted and fun and I hope you'll enjoy listening to it as much as I've enjoyed recording it for you FYI this is a work in progress I haven't finished recording the whole book yet and it generally takes me a while to get these done around 35 hours to produce 1 hour of finished audio and that's in between work and school and life so you may find yourself in an unexpected Cliffhanger and having to wait a couple weeks for the next episode but if you're okay with that then I welcome [Music] you ready player one by Ernest kleene published in 2011 chapter zero everyone my age remembers where they were and what they were doing when they first heard about the contest I was sitting in my Hideout watching cartoons when the News Bulletin broke in on my video feed announcing that James Halliday had died during the night I'd heard of Halliday of course everyone had he was the video game designer responsible for creating the Oasis a massively multiplayer online game that had gradually evolved into the globally networked virtual reality most of humanity now used on a daily basis the unprecedented success uccess of the Oasis had made holiday one of the wealthiest people in the world at first I couldn't understand why the media was making such a big deal of the Billionaire's death after all the people of planet Earth had other concerns the ongoing energy crisis catastrophic climate change widespread famine poverty and disease half a dozen Wars you know dogs and cats living together Mass hysteria normally the news feeds didn't interrupt everyone's interactive sitcoms and soap operas unless something really major had happened like the outbreak of some new killer virus or another major city Vanishing in a mushroom cloud big stuff like that as famous as he was H's death should have warranted only a brief segment on the evening news so the unwashed masses could shake their heads in Envy when the newscasters announced the obscenely large amount of money that would be doled out to the rich man's heirs but that was the rub James holiday had no heirs he had died a 67-year-old bachelor with no living relatives and by most accounts without a single friend he'd spent the last 15 years of his life in self-imposed isolation during which time if the rumors were to be believed he'd gone completely insane so the real jaw-dropping news that January morning the news that had everyone from Toronto to Tokyo crapping in their corn flakes concerned the contents of holiday's last will and testament and the fate of his vast Fortune holiday had prepared a short video message along with instructions that it be released to the world media at the time of his death he'd also arranged to have a copy of the video emailed to every single Oasis user that same morning I still remember hearing the familiar electronic chime when it arrived in my inbox just a few seconds after I saw that first News Bulletin his video message was actually a meticulously constructed short film titled anor's invitation a famous eccentric holiday had harbored a lifelong obsession with the 1980s the decade during which he had been a teenager and anara invitation was crammed with obscure 80s pop culture references nearly all of which were lost on me the first time I viewed it the entire video was just over 5 minutes in length and in the days and weeks that follow followed it would become the most scrutinized piece of film in history surpassing even the zap rder film in the amount of painstaking frame by frame analysis devoted to it my entire generation would come to know every second of holiday's message by heart anor's invitation begins with the sound of trumpets the opening of an old song called Dead Man's Party the song plays over a dark screen for the first few seconds until the trumpets are joined by a guitar and that's when holiday appears but he's not a 67-year-old man ravaged by time and illness he looks just as he did on the cover of Time Magazine back in 2014 a tall thin healthy man in his early 40s with uncamp hair and his trademark horn rimmed eyeglasses he's also wearing the same clothing he wore in the time cover photo faded jeans and a vintage space invader t-shirt holiday is at a high school dance being held in a large gymnasium he's surrounded by teenagers whose clothing hairstyles and dance moves all indicate that the time period is the late 1980s careful analysis of this scene reveals that all of the teenagers behind Holiday are actually extras from various John Hughes teen films who have been digitally cut and pasted into the video holiday is dancing too something no one ever saw him do in real life grinning maniacally he spins in Rapid circles swing ining his arms and head in time with a song flawlessly cycling through several signature 80s dance moves but Halliday has no dance partner he is as the saying goes dancing with himself a few lines of text appear briefly at the lower leftand corner of the screen listing the name of the band the song's title the record label and the year of release as if this were an old music video airing on MTV Oingo Boingo dead Dead Man's Party MCA records 1985 when the lyrics kick in Holiday begins to lips sync along still [Music] gyrating up with to go walking with the dead man over my shoulder don't run way on me don't be afraid of what [Music] you he abruptly stops dancing and makes a cutting motion with his right hand silencing the music at the same moment the dancers and gymnasium behind him vanish and the scene around him suddenly changes holiday now stands at the front of a funeral parlor next to an open casket his surroundings are actually from a scene in the 1989 film Heathers holiday appears to have digitally recreated the funeral parlor set and then inserted himself into it a second much older holiday lies inside the casket his body emaciated and ravaged by cancer shiny quarters cover each of his eyelids high resolution scrutiny reveals that both quarters were minted in 198 84 the younger holiday gazes down at the corpse of his older self with mock sadness then turns to address the assembled MERS the MERS are actually all actors and Extras from the same funeral scene in Heathers Winona Ryder and Christian Slater are clearly visible in the audience sitting near the back holiday snaps his fingers and a scroll appears in his right hand he opens it with a flourish and it unfurls to the floor unraveling down the aisle in front of him he breaks the fourth wall addressing the viewer and begins to read I James Donovan H being of sound mind and disposing memory do hereby make publish and declare this instrument to be my last will and testament hereby revoking any and all wills and coils by me at any time here to for made he continues reading faster and faster plowing through several more paragraphs of legal ease until he speaking so rapidly that the words are unintelligible then he stops abruptly forget it he says even at that speed it would take me a month to read the whole thing sad to say I don't have that kind of time he drops the scroll and it vanishes in a shower of gold dust let me just give you the highlights the funeral parlor vanishes and the scene changes once again holiday now stands in front of an immense Bank vault door my entire estate including a controlling share of stock in my company gregarious simulation systems is to be placed in escrow until such a time as a single condition I have set forth in my will is met the first individual to meet that condition will inherit my entire Fortune currently valued in excess of $240 billion the vault door swings open and holiday walks inside the interior of the vault is enormous and it contains a huge stack of gold bars roughly the size of a large house here's the dough I'm putting up for grabs holiday says grinning broadly what the hell you can't take it with you right holiday leans against the stack of gold bars and the camera pulls in tight on his face now I'm sure you're wondering what do you have to do to get your hands on all this Moola well hold your horses kid I'm I'm getting to that he pauses dramatically his expression changing to that of a child about to reveal a very big secret Halliday snaps his fingers again and the Vault disappears in the same instant Halliday shrinks and morphs into a small boy wearing brown corduroys and a faded The Muppets Show t-shirt holiday now looks exactly as he did in a school photo taken in 1980 when he was 8 years old the Young holiday stands in in a cluttered living room with burnt orange carpeting wood panel walls and kitsy late '70s Decor a 21in Zenith television sits nearby with an Atari 2600 game console hooked up to it this was the first video game system I ever owned holiday says now in a child's voice an Atari 2600 I got it for Christmas in 1979 he plops down in front of the Atari picks up a joy sck and begins to play my favorite game was this one he says nodding at the TV screen where a small square is traveling through a series of simple mazes it was called Adventure like many early video games Adventure was designed and programmed by just one person but back then Atari refused to give its programmers credit for their work so the name of a game's Creator didn't actually appear anywhere on the packaging on the TV screen we see how holay use a sword to slay a red dragon although due to the game's crude low-resolution Graphics this looks more like a square using an arrow to stab a deformed duck so the guy who created Adventure a a man named waren Robin it decided to hide his name inside the game itself he hit a key in one of the game's labyrinths if you found this key a small pixel-sized gray dot you could use it to enter a secret room where robinet had hidden his name on the TV holiday guides his Square protagonist into the game secret room where the words created by Warren robinet appear in the center of the screen this holiday says pointing to the screen with genuine reverence was the very first video game Easter egg robinet hit it in his game's code without telling a soul and a aari manufactured and shipped Adventure all over the world without knowing about the secret room they didn't find out about the Easter egg's existence until a few months later when kids all over the world began to discover it I I was one of those kids and finding robinette's Easter egg for the first time was one of the coolest video game experiences of My Life The Young holiday drops his joystick and stands as he does the living room Fades away and the scene shifts again H now stands in a dim Cavern where light from unseen torches flickers off The Damp walls in the same instant holiday's appearance also changes once again as he morphs into his famous oasis Avatar anarak a tall robed wizard with a slightly more handsome version of the adult holiday's face minus the eyeglasses anarak is dressed in his trademark black robes with his Avatar's emblem a large calligraphic letter A embroidered on each sleeve before I died Anor says speaking in a much deeper voice I created my own Easter egg and hit it somewhere inside my most popular video game The Oasis the first person to find my Easter egg will inherit my entire Fortune another dramatic pause the egg is well hidden I didn't just leave it lying under a rock somewhere I suppose you could say that it's locked inside it safe that is buried in a secret room that lies hidden at the center of a maze located somewhere he reaches up to tap his right Temple somewhere up here but don't worry I've left a few Clues lying around to get everyone started and here's the first one anarak makes a grand gesture with his right hand and three keys appear spinning slowly in the air in front of him they appear to be made of copper Jade and clear crystal as the keys continue to spin anarak recites a piece of verse and as he speaks each line it appears briefly in flaming subtitles across the bottom of the screen three keys hidden open three gates wherein the errand will be tested for worthy traits and those with the skill to survive these traits will reach the end where the prize awaits as he finishes the Jade and Crystal Keys vanish leaving only the copper key which now hangs on a chain around anak's neck the camera follows anarak as he turns and continues farther into the dark Cavern a few seconds later he arrives at a pair of massive wooden doors set into the caverns Rocky wall these doors are banded with steel and there are Shields and Dragons carved into their surfaces I couldn't play test this particular game so I worry that I might have hidden my Easter I a little too well uh made it too difficult to reach I'm not sure if that's the case it's too late to change anything now so I I guess we'll see anarak throws open the double doors revealing an immense treasure room filled with piles of glittering gold coins and jewel encrusted goblets analysis reveals dozens of curious items hidden among the Mounds of treasure most notably several early home computers an 2E a Commodore 64 an Atari 800 XL and a TRS 80 color computer 2 dozens of video game controllers for a variety of game systems and hundreds of polyhedral dice like those used in Old tabletop roleplaying games then he steps into the open doorway and turns to face the viewer stretching out his arms to hold open the giant double doors a freeze frame of this scene appears nearly identical to a painting by Jeff Easley that appeared on the the cover of the dungeon Master's guide a Dungeons and Dragons rule book published in 1983 so without further Ado anarak announces let the hunt for holiday's Easter egg begin then he vanishes in a flash of light leaving the viewer to gaze through the open doorway at the glittering mounds of treasure that lay Beyond then the screen Fades to Black at the end of the video holiday included a link to his personal website night which had changed drastically on the morning of his death for over a decade the only thing posted there had been a short looping animation that showed his Avatar anarak sitting in a medieval Library hunched over a scarred worktable mixing potions and pouring over Dusty spell books with a large painting of a black dragon visible on the wall behind him but now that animation was gone and in its place there was a high score list like those that used to appear in old coin operator video games the list had 10 numbered spots and each displayed the initials J DH James Donovan holiday followed by a score of 6 zeros this high score list quickly came to be known as the scoreboard just below the scoreboard was an icon that looked like a small leatherbound book which linked to a free downloadable copy of anara Almanac a collection of hundreds of holidays updated journal entries the almanac was over a thousand pages long but it contained few details about holiday's personal life or his day-to-day activities most of the entries were a stream of Consciousness observations on various classical video games science fiction and fantasy novels movies comic books and 80s pop culture mixed with humorous diet tribes denouncing everything from organized religion to diet soda the hunt as the contest came to be known quickly wo its way into Global culture like winning the lottery finding holidays Easter egg became a popular fantasy among adults and children alike it was a game anyone could play and at first there seemed to be no right or wrong way to play it the only thing anarak Almanac seemed to indicate was that a familiarity with holiday's various obsessions would be essential to finding the egg this led to a global fascination with 1980s pop culture 50 years after the decade had ended the movies music games and Fashions of the 1980s were all the rage once again by 2041 spiked hair and acid washed jeans were back in style and covers of hit 80s pop songs by contemporary bands dominated the music charts people who had actually been teenagers in the 1980s all now approaching old age had the strange experience of seeing the fads and Fashions of their youth embraced and studied by by their grandchildren a new subculture was born composed of the millions of people who now devoted every free moment of their lives to searching for holiday's egg at first these individuals were known simply as egg hunters but this was quickly truncated to the nickname gunters during the first year of the hunt being a Gunter was highly fashionable and nearly every Oasis user claimed to be one when the first anniversary of holiday's death arrived the fervor surrounding the contest began to die down an entire year had passed and no one had found anything not a single key or gate part of the problem was the sheer size of the Oasis it contained thousands of simulated worlds where the keys might be hidden and it could take a Gunter years to conduct a thorough search of any one of them despite all of the professional gunters who boasted on their blogs that they were getting closer to a breakthrough every day the truth gradually became apparent no one really even knew exactly what it was that they were looking for or where to start looking for it another year passed and another still nothing the general public lost all interest in the contest people began to assume it was all just an outlandish hoax perpetrated by a rich Nut Job others believed that even if the egg really did exist no one was ever going to find it meanwhile The Oasis continued to evolve evolve and grow in popularity protected from takeover attempts and legal challenges by the Ironclad terms of holiday's will and the army of Rapid lawyers he had tasked with administering his estate holiday's Easter egg gradually moved into the realm of urban legend and the ever dwindling tribe of gunters gradually became the object of ridicule each year on the anniversary of holiday's death newscasters jokingly reported on their continued lack of pro press and each year more gunters called it quits concluding that holiday had indeed made the egg impossible to find and another year went by and another then on the evening of February 11th 2045 an Avatar's name appeared at the top of the scoreboard for the whole world to see after five long years the copper key had finally been found by an 18-year-old kid living in a trailer park on the out of Oklahoma City that kid was me dozens of books cartoons movies and miniseries have attempted to tell the story of everything that happened next but every single one of them got it wrong so I want to set the record straight once and for all chapter 1 I was jolted awake by the sound of gunfire in one of the neighboring Stacks the shots were followed by a few minutes of muffled shouting and screaming then silence gunfire wasn't uncommon in the stacks but it still shook me up I knew I probably wouldn't be able to fall back asleep so I decided to kill the remaining hours until dawn by brushing up on a few coin op Classics Galaga Defender asteroids these games were outdated digital dinosaurs that had become Museum pieces long before I was born but I was a Gunter so I didn't think of them as quaint low res antiques to me they were hallowed artifacts pillars of the pantheon when I played the classics I did so with a determined sort of reverence I was curled up in an old sleeping bag in the corner of the trailer's tiny laundry room wedged into the gap between the wall and the dryer I wasn't welcome in my aunt's room across the hall which was fine by me I preferred to crash in the laundry room anyway it was warm it afforded me a limited amount of privacy and the wireless reception wasn't too bad and as an added bonus the room smelled like liquid detergent and fabric softener the rest of the trailer wre of catpiss and abject poverty most of the time I slept in my Hideout but the temperature had dropped below zero the past few nights and as much as I hated staying at my aunt's place it still beat freezing to death a total of 15 people lived in in my aunt's trailer she slept in the smallest of its three bedrooms the deards lived in the bedroom adjacent to hers and the Millers occupied the large master bedroom at the end of the hall there were six of them and they paid the largest share of the rent our trailer wasn't as crowded as some of the other units in the stacks it was a double wide plenty of room for everybody I pulled out my laptop and powered it on it was a bulky heavy Beast almost 10 years old old I'd found it in a trash bin behind the abandoned strip mall across the highway I'd been able to coax it back to life by replacing its system memory and reloading the Stone Age operating system the processor was slower than a sloth by current standards but it was fine for my needs the laptop served as my portable research library video arcade and home theater system its hard drive was filled with old books movies TV show episodes song files and nearly every video game made in the 20th century I booted up my emulator and selected Robotron 2084 one of my all-time favorite games I'd always loved its frenetic pace and brutal Simplicity Robotron was all about Instinct and reflexes playing old video games never failed to clear my mind and set me at ease if I was feeling depressed or frustrated about my lot in life all I had to do was tap the player one button and my worries would would instantly slip away as my mind focused itself on the Relentless pixelated Onslaught on the screen in front of me there inside the game's two-dimensional universe life was simple It's Just You Against the Machine move with your left hand shoot with your right and try to stay alive as long as possible I spent a few hours blasting through wave after wave of brains spheroids quarks and hulks in my unending battle to save the last Human family but eventually my fingers started to cramp up and I began to lose my rhythm when that happened at this level things deteriorated quickly I burned through all my extra lives in a matter of minutes and my two least favorite words appeared on the screen game over I shut down the emulator and began to browse through my video files over the past 5 years I downloaded every single movie TV show and cartoon mentioned in a Almanac I still hadn't watched all of them yet of course that would probably take decades I selected an episode of Family Ties an 80s sitcom about a middleclass family living in central Ohio I downloaded the show because it had been one of holiday's favorites and I figured there was a chance that some clue related to The Hunt might be hidden in one of the episodes I'd become addicted to the show immediately and had now watched all 180 episodes multiple times I never seemed to get tired of them sitting alone in the dark watching the show on my laptop I always found myself imagining that I lived in that warm well-lit house and that those smiling understanding people were my family that there was nothing so wrong in the world that we couldn't sort it out by the end of a single half hour episode or maybe a two-parter if it was something really serious my own home life had never even remotely resembled the one to picted in Family Ties which was probably why I loved the show so much I was the only child of two teenagers both refugees who'd met in the stacks where ID grown up I don't remember my father when I was just a few months old he was shot dead while looting a grocery store during a power blackout the only thing I really knew about him was that he loved comic books I'd found several old flash drives in a box of his things containing complete runs of The Amazing Spider-Man the X-Men and Green Lantern my mom once told me that my dad had given me an alliterative name Wade wats because he thought it sounded like the secret identity of a superhero like Peter Parker or Clark Kent knowing that made me think he must have been a cool guy despite how he died my mother Loretta had raised me on her own we lived in a small RV in another part of the STA she had two full-time Oasis J jobs one as a telemarketer the other as an escort and an online brothel she used to make me wear earplugs at night so I wouldn't hear her in the Next Room talking dirty to tricks and other time zones but the earplugs didn't work very well so I would watch old movies instead with the volume turned way up I was introduced to the Oasis at an early age because my mother used it as a virtual babysitter as soon as I was old enough to wear a visor and a pair of hat AP aptic gloves my mom helped me create my first Oasis Avatar then she stuck me in a corner and went back to work leaving me to explore an entirely New World very different from the one I'd known up until then from that moment on I was more or less raised by the oasis's interactive educational programs which any kid could access for free I spent a big chunk of my childhood hanging out in a virtual reality simulation of Sesame Street singing songs with friendly Muppets and playing interactive games that taught me how to walk Talk add subtract read write and share once i' mastered those skills it didn't take me long to discover that the Oasis was also the world's biggest Public Library where even a penniless kid like me had access to every book ever written every song ever recorded and every movie television show video game and piece of art work 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 I found out the truth I don't know maybe your experience differed from mine for me growing up as a human being on the planet Earth in the 21st century was a real kick in the teeth existentially speaking the worst thing about being a kid was that no one told me the truth about my situation in fact they did the exact opposite and of course I believe them because I was just a kid and I didn't know any better I mean Christ my brain hadn't even grown to full size yet so how could I be expected to know when the adults were bullshitting me so I swallowed all of the Dark Ages nonsense they fed me some time passed I grew up a little and I gradually began to figure out that pretty much everyone had been lying to me about pretty much everything since the moment I emerged from my mother's womb this was an alarming Revelation it gave me trust issues later in life I started to figure out the Ugly Truth as soon as I began to explore the free Oasis libraries the facts were right there waiting for me hidden in old books written by people who weren't afraid to be honest artists and scientists and philosophers and Poets many of them long dead as I read the words they'd left behind I finally began to get a grip on the situation my situation our situation what most people referred to as the human condition it was not good news I wish someone had just told me the truth right up front as soon as I was old enough to understand it I wish someone had just said here's the deal Wade you're something called a human being that's a really smart kind of animal like every other animal on this planet we're descended from a single celled organism that lived millions of years ago this happened by a process called Evolution and you'll learn more about it later but trust me that's really how we all got here there's proof of it everywhere buried in the rocks that story you heard about how we were all created by a super powerful dude named God who lives up in the sky total the whole God thing is actually an ancient fairy tale that people have been telling one another for thousands of years we made it all up like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny oh and by the way there's no Santa Claus or Easter Bunny also sorry kid deal with it you're probably wondering what happened before you got here an awful lot of stuff actually once we evolved into humans things got pretty interesting we figured out how to grow food and domestic iate animals so we didn't have to spend all of our time hunting our tribes got much bigger and we spread across the entire planet like an Unstoppable virus then after fighting a bunch of wars with each other over land resources and our madeup Gods we eventually got all of our tribes organized into a global civilization but honestly it wasn't all that organized or civilized and we continued to fight a lot of wars with each other but we also figured out how to do science which helped us develop technology for a bunch of hairless Apes we've actually managed to invent some pretty incredible things computers medicine lasers microwave ovens artificial Hearts atomic bombs we even sent a few guys to the moon and brought them back we also created a Global Communications Network that lets us all talk to each other all around the world all the time pretty impressive right but that's where the bad news comes in our Global civilization came at a huge cost we needed a whole bunch of energy to build it and we got that energy by burning fossil fuels which came from dead plants and animals buried deep in the ground we used up most of this fuel before you got here and now it's pretty much all gone this means that we no longer have enough energy to keep our civilization running like it was before so we've had to cut back big time we call this the global energy crisis and it's been going on for a while now also it turns out that burning all of those fossil fuels had some nasty side effects like raising the temperature of our planet and screwing up the environment so now the polar ice caps are melting sea levels are rising and the weather is all messed up plants and animals are dying off in record numbers and lots of people are starving Liv and homeless and we're still fighting Wars with each other mostly over the few resources we have left basically kid what this all means is that life is a lot tougher than it used to be in the good old days back before you were born things used to be awesome but now they're kind of terrifying to be honest the future doesn't look too bright you were born at a pretty crappy time in history and it looks like things are only going to get worse from here on out human civilization is in Decline some people even say it's collapsing you're probably wondering what's going to happen to you that's easy the same thing is going to happen to you that has happened to every other human being who has ever lived you're going to die we all die that's just how it is what happens when you die well we're not completely sure but the evidence seems to suggest that nothing happens you're just dead your brain stops working and then you're not around to ask annoying questions anymore those stories you heard about going to a wonderful place called heaven where there is no more pain or death and you live forever in a state of Perpetual happiness also total just like all that God stuff there's no evidence of a heaven and there never was we made that up too wishful thinking so now you have to live the rest of your life knowing you're going to die someday and disappear forever sorry okay on second thought maybe honesty isn't the best policy after all maybe it isn't a good idea to tell a newly arrived human being that he's been born into a world of chaos pain and poverty just in time to watch everything fall to pieces I discovered all of that gradually over several years and it still made me feel like jumping off a bridge luckily I had access to the Oasis which was like having an escape hatch into a better reality The Oasis kept me sane it was my playground in my preschool a magical place where anything was possible the Oasis is the setting of all my happiest childhood memories when my mom didn't have to go to work we would log in at the same time and play games or go on interactive storybook adventures together she used to have to force me to log out every night because I never wanted to return to the real world because the real real world sucked I never blamed my mom for how things were she was a victim of fate and cruel circumstance like everyone else her generation had it the hardest she'd been born into a world of Plenty then had to watch it all slowly vanish more than anything I remember feeling sorry for her she was depressed all the time and taking drugs seemed to be the only thing she truly enjoyed of course they were what eventually killed her when I was 11 years old she shot a bad batch of something into her arm and died on a ratty foldout sofa bed while listening to music on an old MP3 player I'd repaired and given to her the previous Christmas that was when I had to move in with my mom's sister Alice Aunt Alice didn't take me in out of kindness or familial responsibility she did it to get the extra food vouchers from the government every month most of the time I had to find food on my own this usually wasn't a problem because I had a talent for finding and fixing old computers and busted Oasis consoles which I sold to pawn shops or traded for food vouchers I earned enough to keep from going hungry which was more than a lot of my neighbors could say the year after my mom died I spent a lot of time wallowing in self-pity and despair I tried to look on the bright side to remind myself that orphaned or not I was still better off than most kids in Africa and Asia and North America too I'd always had a roof over my head and more than enough food to eat and I had the Oasis my life wasn't so bad at least that's what I kept telling myself in a vain attempt to Stave off the Epic loneliness I now felt then the hunt for holidays Easter egg began that was what saved me I think suddenly I'd found something worth doing a dream worth chasing for The Last 5 Years the hunt had given me a goal and a purpose a quest to fulfill a reason to get up in the morning something to look forward to the moment I began searching for the egg the future no longer seemed so Bleak I was halfway through the fourth episode of my family ties mini marathon when the laundry room door creaked open and my aunt Alice walked in a malnourished Harpy in a house coat clutching a basket of dirty clothes she looked more Lucid than usual which was bad news she was much easier to deal with when she was high she glanced over at me with the usual look of disdain and started to load her clothes into the washer then her expression changed and she peaked around the dryer to get a better look at me her eyes went wide when she spotted my laptop I quickly closed it and began to shove it into my backpack but I knew it was already too late hand it over Wade she ordered reaching for the laptop I can pawn it to help pay our rent no I shouted twisting away from her come on anunt Alice I need it for school what you need is to show me some gratitude she barked everyone else around here has to pay rent I'm tired of you leeching off me you keep all of my food vouchers that more than covers my share of the rent the hell it does she tried again to grab the laptop out of my hands but I refused to let go of it so she turned and stomped back to her room I knew what was coming next so I quickly entered a command on my laptop that locked the keyboard and erase the hard drive Aunt Alice returned a few seconds later with her boyfriend Rick who was still half asleep Rick was perpetually shirtless because he liked to show off his impressive collection of prison tattoos without saying a word he walked over and raised a fist at me threateningly I flinched and handed over the laptop then he and Aunt Alice walked out already discussing how much the computer might fetch at a pawn shop losing the laptop wasn't a big deal I had two spares stowed in my hideout but they weren't nearly as fast and I would have to reload all of my media onto them from backup drives a total pain in the ass but it was my own fault I knew the risk of bringing anything of value back here the dark blue light of dawn was starting to creep in through the laundry room window I decided it might be a good idea to leave for school a little early today I dressed as quickly and quietly as possible pulling on the worn corduroys baggy sweater and oversized coat that comprised my entire winter wardrobe then I put on my backpack and climbed up onto the washing machine after pulling on my gloves I slid open the frost covered window the Arctic mourning air stung my cheeks as I gazed out over the uneven sea of trailer rooftops my aunt's trailer was the top unit in a stack 22 mobile homes High making it a level or two taller than the majority of the stacks immediately surrounding it the trailers on the bottom level rested on the ground or on their original concrete foundations but the units stacked above them were suspended on a reinforced Modular Scaffold a halfhazard metal lattice work that had been constructed peac meal over the years we lived in the Portland Avenue Stacks a sprawling Hive of discolored tin shoe boxes rusting on the shores of I40 just west of Oklahoma City's decaying skyscraper core it was a collection of over 500 individual Stacks all connected to each other by a makeshift network of recycled pipes girders support beams and foot Bridges the spires of a dozen ancient construction trains used to do the actual stacking were positioned around the stacks ever expanding Outer Perimeter the top level or roof of the stacks was blanketed with a patchwork array of old solar panels that provided supplemental power to the units below a bundle of hoses and corrugated tubing snaked up and down the side of each stack supplying water to each trailer and carrying away sewage luxuries not available in some of the other Stacks scattered around the city very little sunlight made it to the bottom level known as the floor the dark narrow strips of ground between the stacks were clogged with the skeletons of abandoned cars and trucks their gas tanks emptied and their exit routs blocked off long ago one of our neighbors Mr Miller once explained to me that trailer parks like ours had originally consisted of a few dozen mobile homes arranged in neat rows on the ground but after the oil crash and the onset of the energy crisis large cities had been flooded with refugees from surrounding suburban and rural areas resulting in a massive Urban housing shortage real estate within walking distance of a big city became far too valuable to waste on a flat plane of mobile homes so someone had cooked up the brilliant idea of as Mr Miller put it stacking the S to maximize the use of ground space the idea caught on in a big way and trailer parks across the country had quickly evolved into Stacks like this one strange hybrids of shanty towns squatter settlements and refugee camps they were now scattered around the outskirts of most major cities each one overflowing with uprooted rednecks like my parents who desperate for work food electricity and reliable Oasis access had fled their dying small towns and had used the last of their gasoline or their beasts of burden to haul their family RVs and trailer homes to the nearest Metropolis every stack in our Park stood at least 15 mobile homes high with the occasional RV shipping container Airstream trailer or VW micrus mixed in for variety in recent years many of the stacks had grown to a height of 20 units or more this made a lot of people nervous stack collapses weren't that uncommon and if the scaffold supports buckled at the wrong angle the domino effect could bring down four or five of the neighboring Stacks too our trailer was near the northern edge of the stacks which ran up to a crumbling Highway overpass from my vantage point at the laundry room window I could see a thin stream of electric vehicles crawling along the cracked asphalt carrying goods and workers into the city as I stared out at the Grim Skyline a bright sliver of the sun peaked over the horizon watching it rise I performed a mental ritual whenever I saw the sun I reminded myself that I was looking at a star one of over a 100 billion stars in our galaxy a Galaxy that was just one of billions of other galaxies in the observable universe this helped me keep things in perspective I'd started doing it after watching a science program from the early 80s called Cosmos I slipped out the window as quietly as possible and clutching the bottom of the window frame slid down the cold surface of the trailer's metal siding the steel platform on which the trailer rested was only slightly wider and longer than the trailer itself leaving a ledge about a foot and a half wide all the way around I carefully lowered myself until my feet rested on this ledge then reached up to close the window behind me I grabbed hold of a rope I'd strung there at waist level to serve as a handhold and began to S step along the ledge to the corner of the platform from there I was able to descend the ladder-like frame of the scaffolding I almost always took this route when leaving a returning to my aunt's trailer a rickety metal staircase was bolted to the side of the stack but it shook and knocked against the scaffolding so I couldn't use it without announcing my presence bad news in the stacks it was best to avoid being heard or seen whenever possible there were often dangerous and desperate people about the sword who would rob you rape you and then sell your organs on the black market descending the network of metal girs that always reminded me of old platform video games like Donkey Kong or Burger time I'd seized upon this idea a few years earlier when I coded my first Atari 2600 game a gun to right of passage like a Jedi building his first lightsaber it was a pitfall ripoff called the stacks where you had to navigate through a vertical Maze of trailers collecting junk computers snagging food voucher powerups and avoiding meth addicts and pedophiles on your way to school my game was a lot more fun than the real thing as I climbed down I paused next to the Airstream trailer three units below ours where my friend Mrs Gilmore lived she was a sweet old lady in her mid 7s and she always seemed to get up ridiculously early I peaked in her window and saw her shuffling around in her kitchen making breakfast she spotted me after a few seconds and her eyes lit up Wade she said cracking open her window good morning my dear boy good morning Mrs G I said I hope I didn't startle you oh not at all she said she pulled her robe tight against the draft coming in the window it's freezing out there why don't you come in and have some breakfast I've got some soy bacon and these powdered eggs aren't too bad if you put enough salt on them thanks but I can't this morning Mrs G I have to get to school all right rain check then she blew me a kiss and started to close the window Try Not To Break Your Neck climbing around out there okay Spider-Man we do see you later Mrs G I waved goodbye to her and continued my descent Mrs Gilmore was a tonal sweetheart she let me crash on her couch when I needed to although it was hard for me to sleep there because of all her cats Mrs G was super religious and spent most of her time in the Oasis sitting in the congregation of one of those big online mega churches singing hymns listening to sermons and taking virtual tours of the Holy Land I fixed her ancient Oasis console whenever it went on the fritz and in return she answered my endless questions about what it had been like for her to grow up during the 1980s she knew the coolest bits of' 80s trivia stuff you couldn't learn from books or movies she was always praying for me too trying her hardest to save my soul I never had the heart to tell her that I thought organized religion was a total Croc it was a pleasant fantasy that gave her hope and kept her going with which was exactly what the hunt was for me to quote the almanac people who live in Glass Houses should shut the up when I reached the bottom level I jumped off the scaffold and dropped the few remaining feet to the ground my rubber boots crunched into the slush and frozen mud it was still pretty dark down here so I took out my flashlight and headed east weaving my way through the dark maze doing my best to remain unseen while being careful to avoid tripping over a shopping cart engine block or one of the other pieces of junk littering the narrow alleys between the stacks I rarely saw anyone out at this time of the morning the commuter shuttles ran only a few times a day so the residents lucky enough to have a job would already be waiting at the bus stop by the highway most of them worked as day laborers in the giant factory farms that surrounded the city after walking about half a mile I reached a giant mound of old cars and trucks piled halfhazard along the stacks Eastern perimeter decades ago the cranes had cleared the park of as many abandoned vehicles as possible to make room for even more stacks and then they dumped them in huge piles like this one all around the settlement's perimeter many of them were nearly as tall as the stacks themselves I walked to the edge of the pile and after a quick glance around to make sure I wasn't being watched or followed I turned sideways to squeeze through a gap between two crushed cars from there I ducked clamored and sidestepped my way further and further into the ramshackle mountain of Twisted Metal until I reached a small open space at the rear of a buried cargo van only the rear third of the van was visible the rest was concealed by the other vehicles stacked on and around it two overturned pickup trucks lay across the van's roof at different angles but most of their weight was supported by the car stacked on either side creating a kind of protective Arch that had prevented the van from being crushed by the mountain of vehicles piled above it I pulled out a chain I kept around my neck on which there hung a single key in a stroke of luck this key had still been hanging from the van's ignition when IID first discovered it many of these vehicles had been in working condition when they were abandoned their owners had simply no longer been able to afford fuel for them so they just parked them and walked away I pocketed my flashlight and unlocked the van's rear right door it opened about a foot and a half giving me just enough room to squeeze inside I pulled the door closed behind me and locked it again the van's rear doors had no windows so I was hunched over in total darkness for a second until my fingers found the old power strip by duct taped to the ceiling I flipped it on and an old desk lamp flooded the tiny space with light the crumpled green roof of a compact car covered the crushed opening where the windshield had been but the damage to the van's front end didn't extend beyond the cab the rest of the Interior remained intact someone had removed all of the van seats probably to use as Furniture leaving a small room about 4T wide 4 ft high and 9 ft long this was my Hideout I discovered it four years earlier while searching for discarded computer parts when I first opened the door and gazed into the van's darkened interior I knew right away that I'd found something of immeasurable value privacy this was a place no one else knew about where I wouldn't have to worry about getting hassled or slapped around by my aunt or whatever loser she was currently dating I could keep my things here without worrying they'd be stolen and most important it was a place where I could access the Oasis in peace the van was my refuge my Batcave my Fortress of Solitude it was where I attended school did my homework read books watched movies and played video games it was also where I conducted my ongoing quest to find holiday's Easter egg I'd covered the walls floor and ceiling with Styrofoam egg cartons and pieces of carpeting in an effort to soundproof the van as much as possible several cardboard boxes of busted laptops and computer parts sat in the corner next to a rack of old car batteries and a modified exercise bike had rigged up as a recharger The Only Furniture was a folding lawn chair I dropped my backpack Shrugged off my coat and hopped on the exercise bike charging the batteries was usually the only physical exercise I got each day I pedal until the meter said the batteries had a full charge then sat down in my chair and switched on the small electric heater I kept beside it I pulled off my gloves and rubbed my hands in front of the filaments as they began to Glow bright orange I couldn't leave the heater on for very long or it would drain the batteries I opened the rat proof metal box where I kept my food cash and took out some bottled water and a packet of powdered milk I mixed these together in a bowl then dumped in a generous serving of fruit Rock cereal once i' wolfed it down I retrieved an old plastic Star Trek lunchbox I kept hidden under the van's crushed dashboard inside were my school issued Oasis console haptic gloves and visor these items were by far the most valuable things I owned far too valuable to carry around with me I pulled on my elastic haptic gloves and flexed my fingers to make sure none of the joints was sticking then I grabbed my Oasis console a flat black rectangle about the size of a paperback book it had a wireless network antenna built into it but the reception inside the van was for since it was buried under a huge mound of dense metal so I'd rigged up an external antenna and mounted it on the hood of a car at the top of the junk pile the antenna cable snaked up through a hole I'd punched in the van's ceiling I plugged it into a port on the side of the console then slipped on my visor it fits snugly around my eyes like a pair of swimmer's goggles blocking out all external light small earbuds extended from the visor temples and automatically plugged themselves into my ears the visor also housed two built-in stereo voice microphones to pick up everything I said I powered on the console and initiated the login sequence I saw a brief flash of red as the visor scanned my retinas then I cleared my throat and said my login passphrase being careful to enunciate you have been recruited by the star league to defend the frontier against Zur and the codan Armada my passphrase was also verified along with my voice pattern and then I was logged in the following text appeared superimposed in the center of my virtual display identity verification successful welcome to the Oasis paral login completed 07 5321 OST 210 2045 as the text faded away it was replaced by a short message just three words long this message had been embedded in the login sequence by James Halliday himself when he'd first programmed The Oasis as an homage to the simulations direct ancestors the coin operated video games of his youth these three words were all always the last thing an oasis user saw before leaving the real world and entering the virtual one ready player one chapter 2 my avatar materialized in front of my locker on the second floor of my high school the exact spot where I'd been standing when I'd logged out the night before I glanced up and down the hallway my virtual surroundings looked almost but not quite real everything inside the Oasis was beautifully rendered in three dimensions unless you pulled focus and stop to examine your surroundings more closely it was easy to forget that everything you were seeing was computer generated and that was with my crappy School issued Oasis console I'd heard that if you access the simulation with a new state-of-the-art immersion rig it was almost impossible to tell the Oasis from reality I touched my locker door and it popped open with a soft metallic click the inside was sparsely decorated a picture of Princess Leia posing with a blaster pistol a group photo of the members of Monty Python in their holy gra costumes James hel days Time Magazine cover I reached up and tapped the stack of textbooks on the Locker's top shelf and they vanished then reappeared in my Avatar's item inventory aside from my textbooks my avatar had only a few meager possessions a flashlight an iron shortsword a small bronze shield and a suit of banded leather armor these items were all non-magical and of low quality but they were the best I could afford items in the Oasis had just as much value as things in the real world sometimes more and you couldn't pay for them with food vouchers The Oasis credit was the coin of the realm and in these dark times it was also one of the world's most stable currencies valued higher than the dollar pound Euro or Yen a small mirror was mounted inside my locker door and I caught a glimpse of my virtual self as I closed it I designed my Avatar's face and body to look more or less like my own my avatar had a slightly smaller nose than me and he was taller and thinner and more muscular and he didn't have any teenage acne but aside from these Minor Details we looked more or less identical the school's strictly enforced dress code required that all student avatars be human and of the same gender and age as the student no giant two-headed hermaphrodite demon unicorn avatars were allowed not on school grounds anyway you could give your Oasis Avatar any name you liked as long as it was unique meaning you had to pick a name that hadn't already been taken by somebody else your Avatar's name was also your email address and chat ID so you wanted it to be cool and easy to remember celebrities had been known to pay huge sums of money to buy an avatar name they wanted from a cyber squatter who had already reserved it when I'd first created my Oasis account I'd named my avatar Wade the great after that I kept changing it every few months usually to something equally ridiculous but my avatar had now had the same name for over five years on the day the hunt began the day I decided to become a Gunter I'd renamed my avatar paral after the Knight of Arthurian Legend who had found the Holy Grail the other more common spellings of that Knight's name persal and persal had already been taken by other users but I preferred the name paral anyway I thought it had a nice ring to it people rarely used their real names online anonymity was one of the major perks of the Oasis inside the simulation no one knew who you really were unless you wanted them to much of the oasis's popularity and culture were built around this fact your real name fingerprints and retinal patterns were stored in your Oasis account but gregarious simulation systems kept that information encrypted and confidential even their own employees couldn't look up an Avatar's true identity back when holiday was still running the company G s had won the right to keep every Oasis user's identity private in a landmark Supreme Court ruling when I'd first enrolled in the Oasis public school system I was required to give them my real name Avatar name mailing address and social security number that information was stored in my student profile but only my principal had access to that none of my teachers or fellow students knew who I really was and vice versa students weren't allowed to use their avatar names while they were at school school this was to prevent teachers from having to say ridiculous things like pimp grease please pay attention or Big Wang 69 would you stand up and give us your book report instead students were required to use their real first names followed by a number to differentiate them from other students with the same name when I enrolled there were already two students at my school with the first name Wade so I'd been assigned to the student ID of Wade 3 that name floated above my Avatar's head whenever I was on school grounds the school bell rang and a warning flashed in the corner of my display informing me that I had 40 minutes until the start of first period I began to walk my avatar down the hall using a series of subtle hand motions to control its movement and actions I could also use voice commands to move around if my hands were otherwise occupied I strolled in the direction of my world history classroom smiling and waving to the familiar faces I passed I was going to miss this place when I graduated in a few months I wasn't looking forward to leaving school I didn't have the money to attend college not even one in the Oasis and my grades weren't good enough for a full scholarship my only plan after graduation was to become a full-time Gunter I didn't have much Choice winning the contest was my one chance at escaping the stacks unless I wanted to sign a 5-year indenturement contract with some Corporation and that was about as appealing to me as rolling around in broken glass in my birthday suit as I continued down the hallway other students began to materialize in front of their lockers ghostly apparitions that rapidly solidified the sound of chattering teenagers began to Echo up and down the corridor before long I heard an insult hurled in my direction hey hey if it isn't Wade three I Heard a Voice shout I turned and saw Todd 13 an obnoxious Avatar I recognized from my algebra 2 class he was standing with several of his friends you have great outfit slick he said where did you snag the sweet threads my avatar was wearing a black T-shirt in blue jeans one of the three default skins you could select when you created your account like his chromant friends Todd 13 wore an expensive Designer Skin probably purchased in some offworld Mall your mom bought them for me I retorted without breaking my stride tell her I said thanks the next time you stop at home to breastfeed and pick up your allowance childish I know but virtual or not this was still high school the more childish an insult the more effective it was my jab elicited laughter from a few of his friends and the other students standing nearby Todd 13 scowled and his face actually turned red a sign that he hadn't bothered to turn off his account's real time emotion feature which made your avatar mirror your facial expression and Body Language he was about to reply but I muted him first so I didn't hear what he said I just smiled and continued on my way the ability to mute my peers was one of my favorite things about attending school online and I took advantage of it almost daily the best thing about it was that they could see that you muted them and they couldn't do a damn thing about it there was never any fighting on school grounds the simulation simply didn't allow it the entire planet of lutus was a no PVP Zone meaning that no player versus player combat was permitted at this school the only real weapons were words so I'd become skilled at wielding them I'd attended School in the real world up until the sixth grade it hadn't been a very pleasant experience I was a painfully shy awkward kid with low self-esteem and almost no social skills a side effect of spending most of my childhood inside the Oasis online I didn't have a problem talking to people or making friends but in the real world interacting with other people especially kids my age made me a nervous wreck I never knew how to act or what to say and when I did work up the courage to speak I always seemed to say the wrong thing my appearance was part of the problem I was overweight and I had been for as long as I could remember my bankrupt diet of government subsidized sugar and starch Laden food was a contributing factor but I was also an aasis addict so the only exercise I usually got back then was running away from bully before and after school to make matters worse my limited wardrobe consisted entirely of ill-fitting clothes from thrift stores and donation bins even so I tried my best to fit in year after year my eyes would scan the lunchroom like a T1000 searching for a cleck that might accept me but even the other outcasts wanted nothing to do with me I was too weird even for the weirdos and girls talking to girls was out of the question to me they were like some exotic alien species both beautiful and terrifying whenever I got near one of them I invariably broke out in a cold sweat and lost the ability to speak in complete sentences for me school had been a darwinian exercise a daily Gauntlet of ridicule abuse and isolation by the time I entered sixth grade I was beginning to wonder if I'd be able to maintain my sanity until graduation still six long years away then one glorious day our principal announced that any student with a passing grade point average could apply for a transfer to the new Oasis Public School System the real Public School System the one run by the government had been an underfunded overcrowded train wreck for decades and now the conditions at many schools had gotten so terrible that every kid with half a brain was being encouraged to stay at home and attend school online I nearly broke my neck sprinting to the school office to submit my application it was accepted and I trans transferred to Oasis public school number 1873 the following semester prior to my transfer my Oasis Avatar had never left in cpio the planet at the center of sector 1 where new avatars were spawned at the time of their creation there wasn't much to do on in cpio except chat with other noobs or shop in one of the giant virtual malls that covered the planet if you wanted to go somewhere more interesting you had to pay a teleportation fair to get there and that cost money something I didn't have so my avatar was stranded on Incipio that is until my new school emailed me a teleportation voucher to cover the cost of my Avatar's transport to ludus the planet where all of the Oasis Public Schools were located there were hundreds of school campuses here on ludus spread out evenly across the planet's surface the schools were all identical because the same construction code was copied and pasted into a different location whenever a new school was needed and since the buildings were just pieces of software their design wasn't limited by monetary constraints or even by the laws of physics so every school was a grand palace of learning with polished marble hallways Cathedral likee classrooms zerog G gymnasiums and virtual libraries containing every school board approved book ever written on my first day at Ops number 1873 I thought I died and gone to heaven now instead of running a gauntlet of bullies and Drug addi on my walk to school each morning I went straight to my Hideout and stayed there all day best of all in the Oasis no one could tell that I was fat that I had acne or that I wore the same shabby clothes every week bullies couldn't Pelt me with spitballs give me Atomic wedgies or Pummel Me by The Bike Rack after school no one could even touch me and here I was safe when I arrived in my world history classroom several students were already seated at their desks their avatars all sat motionless with their eyes closed this was a signal that they were engaged meaning they were currently on phone calls browsing the web or logged into chat rooms it was poor Oasis etiquette to try and talk to an Engaged Avatar they usually just ignored you and you'd get an automated message telling you to piss off I took a seat at my desk and tapped the engage icon at the edge of my display my own Avatar's eyes slid shut but I could still see my surroundings I tapped another icon and a large two-dimensional web browser window appeared suspended in space directly in front of me Windows like this one were visible only to my avatar so no one could read over my shoulder unless I selected the option to allow it my homepage was set to the Hatchery one of the more popular Gunter message forums the Hatchery site interface was designed to look and operate like an old pre- interet diala bulletin board System complete with the Screech of a 300 B modem during the login sequence very cool I spent a few minutes scanning the most recent message threads taking in the latest Gunter news and rumors I rarely posted anything to the boards even though I made sure to check them every day I didn't see much of Interest this morning the usual Gunter Clan flame Wars ongoing arguments about the correct interpretation of some cryptic passage in anara Almanac highlevel avatars breaking about some new magic item or artifact they'd obtained this crap had been going on for years now in the absence of any real progress gunter's subculture had become mired in bravado and pointless infighting it was sad really my favorite message threads were those devoted to bashing the Sixers Sixers was the derogatory nickname gunters had given to employees of innovative online Industries ioi was a Global Communications conglomerate and the world's largest internet service provider a large portion of II's business centered around providing access to the Oasis and on selling goods and services inside it for this reason II had attempted several hostile takeovers of gregarious simulation systems all of which had failed now they were trying to seize control of GSS by exploiting a loophole in holiday's will II had created a new Department within the company that they called their uy division uy was originally defined as the science of studying bird's eggs but in recent years it had taken on a second meaning the science of searching for holiday's Easter egg II's uy division had but one purpose to win haliday's contest and seize control of his fortune his company and the Oasis itself like most gunters I was horrified at the thought of ioi taking control of the Oasis the company's PR machine had made its intentions Crystal Clear II believed that holiday never properly monetized his creation and they wanted to remedy that they would start charging a monthly fee for access to the simulation they would plaster advertisements on every visible surface user anonymity and Free Speech would become things of the past the moment II took it over the Oasis would cease to be the open-source virtual Utopia I'd grown up in it would become a corporate run dystopia an overpriced theme park for wealthy elitists ioi required its egg hunters which it referred to as urologists to use their employee numbers as their Oasis avatar names these numbers were all six digits in length and they also began with a numeral six so everyone began calling them the Sixers these days most gunters referred to them as the susor spelled of course in LEP s ux0 r z because they sucked to become a sixer you had to sign a contract stipulating among other things that if you found holiday's egg the prize would become the sole property of your employer in return II gave you a bonly paycheck food lodging health care benefits and a retirement plan the company also provided your avatar with high-end armor vehicles and weapons and covered all of your teleportation fairs joining the Sixers was a lot like joining the military Sixers weren't hard to spot because they all looked identical they they were all required to use the same hulking male Avatar regardless of the operator's true gender with close cropped dark hair and facial features left at the system's default settings and they all wore the same navy blue uniform the only way to tell these corporate drones apart was by checking the six-digit employee number stamped on their right breast just beneath the II corporate logo like most gunters I loathe the Sixers and was disgusted by their very existence by hiring an army of contract egg hunters ioi was perverting the entire Spirit of the contest of course it could be argued that all the gunters who had joined clans were doing the same thing there were now hundreds of Gunter Clans some with thousands of members all working together to find the egg each Clan was bound by an ironclad legal agreement stating that if one clan member won the contest all members would share the prize solos like me didn't care much for the Clans either but we still respected them as fellow gunters unlike the Sixers whose goal was to hand The Oasis over to an evil multinational conglomerate intent on ruining it my generation had never known a world without the Oasis to us it was much more than a game or an entertainment platform it had been an integral part of our lives for as far back as we could remember we'd been born into an ugly world and the Oasis was our one happy Refuge the thought of the simulation being privatized and homogenized by ioi horrified us in a way that those born before its introduction found difficult to understand for us it was like someone threatening to take away the Sun or charge a fee to look up at the sky the Sixers gave gunters a common enemy and sixer bashing was a favorite pastime in our forums and chat rooms a lot of highlevel gunters had a strict policy of killing or trying to kill every sixer who crossed their path several websites were devoted to tracking sixer activities and movements and some gunters spent more time hunting the Sixers than they did searching for the egg the bigger Clans usually held a yearly competition called 86 the suor with a prize for the clan who managed to kill the largest number of them after checking a few other Gunter forums I tapped a bookmark icon for one of my favorite websites Ary missives the blog of a female Gunter named Artemis spelled with a three instead E I discovered it about 3 years ago and had been a loyal reader ever since she posted these great rambling essays about her search for holiday's egg which she called a maddening McGuffin hunt she wrote with an endearing intelligent voice and her entries were filled with self-deprecating humor and witty sardonic asides in addition to posting her often hysterical interpretations of passages in the almanac she also linked to the books movies TV shows and mus music she was currently studying as part of her holiday research I assumed that all of these posts were filled with misdirection and misinformation but they were still highly entertaining it probably goes without saying that I had a massive cyber crush on emis she occasionally posted screenshots of her raven-haired Avatar and I sometimes okay always saved them to a folder on my hard drive her Avatar had a pretty face but it wasn't unnaturally perfect in the Oasis you got used used to seeing freakishly beautiful faces on everyone but artemis' features didn't look as though they'd been selected from a beauty drop down menu on some Avatar creation template her face had the distinctive look of a real person's as if her true features had been scanned in and mapped onto her Avatar big hazel eyes rounded cheekbones a pointy chin and a Perpetual smirk I found her unbearably attractive artemis's body was also somewhat unusual in the Oasis you usually saw one of two body shapes on female avatars the absurdly thin yet wildly popular supermodel frame or the topheavy WASP wasted porn Starlet physique which looked even less natural in the Oasis than it did in the real world but artemis's frame was short and rubenesque all curves I knew the crush I had on emis was both silly and Ill advised what did I really know about her she' never revealed her true identity of course or her age or location in the real world there was no telling what she really looked like she could be 15 or 50 a lot of gunters even question whether she was really female but I wasn't one of them probably because I couldn't bear the idea that the girl with whom I was virtually smitten might actually be some middle-aged dude named Chuck with back hair and male pattern baldness in the years since I'd first started reading Art's missives it had become one of the most popular blogs on the internet now logging several million hits a day and emis was now something of a celebrity at least in Gunter circles but Fame hadn't gone to her head her writing was still as funny and self-deprecating as ever her newest blog post was titled the John Hughes blues and it was an in-depth Treatise on her six favorite John Hughes teen movies which she divided into two separate trilogies the dorky girl fantasies Trilogy 16 Candles pretty and pink and some kind of wonderful and the dorky boy fantasies trilogy The Breakfast Club Weird Science and Ferris Beer's day off just as I'd finished reading it an instant message window popped up on my display it was my best friend H okay if you want to split hairs he's my only friend not counting Mrs Gilmore top of the morning Amigo he said hola Compadre I replied what are you up to just ser from the turf you I got the basement online come and hang out before school fool sweet I'll be there in a sec I closed the IM window and checked the time I still had about half an hour until class started I grinned and tapped a small door icon at the edge of my display then selected H's chat room from my list of favorites chapter 3 the system very ver ified that I was on the chat room's access list and allowed me to enter my view of the classroom shrank from the limits of my peripheral vision to a small thumbnail window in the lower right of my display allowing me to monitor what was in front of my avatar the rest of my field of vision was now filled with the interior of H's chat room my avatar appeared just inside the entrance a door at the top of a carpeted staircase the door didn't lead anywhere it didn't even open this was because the basement and its contents didn't exist as a part of the Oasis chat rooms were Standalone simulations temporary virtual spaces that avatars could access from anywhere in Oasis my avatar wasn't actually in the chat room it only appeared that way Wade 3/ paral was still sitting in my world history classroom with his eyes closed logging into a chat room was a little like being in two places at once H had named his chat room the basement he' programmed it to look like a large Suburban wreck room Circa the late 1980s old movie and comic book posters covered the wood paneled walls a vintage RCA television stood in the center of the room hooked up to a betamax VCR a laser dis player and several vintage video game consoles bookshelves lined to the far wall filled with roleplaying game supplements and back issues of dragon magazine hosting a chat room this large wasn't cheap but H could afford it he made quite a bit of dough competing in televised PVP arena games at after school and on the weekends H was one of the highest ranked combatants in the Oasis in both the death match and Capture the Flag leagues he was even more famous than Artemis over the past few years the basement had become a highly exclusive hangout for elite gunters H granted access only to people he deemed worthy so being invited to hang out in the basement was a big honor especially for a third level nobody like me as I descended the staircase I saw a few dozen other gunters Milling around with avatars that varied wildly in appearance there were humans cyborgs demons Dark Elves Vulcans and vampires most of them were gathered around the row of old arcade games against the wall a few others stood by the ancient stereo currently blasting the Wild Boys by Duran Duran browsing through H's giant rack of vintage cassette tapes H himself was sprawled on one of the chat room's three couches which were arrayed in a u-shape in front of the TV H's Avatar was a tall broad shouldered Caucasian male with dark hair and brown eyes I'd asked him once if he looked anything like his real Avatar in real life and he jokingly replied yeah but in real life I'm even more handsome as I walked over he glanced up from the intellivision game he was playing his distinctive Cheshire grin stretched from ear to ear Z he shouted what is up amigo he stretched out his right hand and gave me five as I dropped onto the couch opposite him H had started calling me Z shortly after I had met him he liked to give people singlet nicknames H pronounced his own Avatar's name just like the letter H what up humperdink I said this was a game we played I always called him by some random H name like Harry Hubert Henry or Hogan I was making guesses at his real first name which he'd once confided to me began with the letter H I'd known H for a little over 3 years he was also a student on ludus a senior at Ops number 1172 which was on the opposite side of the planet from my school we'd met one weekend in a public Gunter chat room and hid it off immediately because we all shared the same interests which is to say one interest a total all consuming obsession with holiday and his Easter egg a few minutes into our first conversation I knew H was the real deal an elite Gunter with some serious mental Kung Fu he had his 80s trivia down cold and not just the the cannon stuff either he was a true holiday scholar and he'd apparently seen the same qualities in me because he'd given me his contact card and invited me to hang out in the basement whenever I liked he hadd been my closest friend ever since over the years a friendly rivalry had gradually developed between us we did a lot of trash talking about which one of us would get his name up on the scoreboard first we were constantly trying to outgeek each other with our knowledge of obscure Gunter trivia sometimes we even conduct did our research together this usually consisted of watching cheesy 88s movies and TV shows here in his chat room we also played a lot of video games of course H and I had wasted countless hours on two-player Classics like Contra Golden Axe heavy barrel Smash TV and darari warriors aside from yours truly H was the best allround gamer I'd ever encountered we were evenly matched in most games but he could trounce me at certain titles especially anything in the first person shooter genre that was his area of expertise after all I didn't know anything about who H was in the real world but I got the sense that his home life wasn't that great like me he seemed to spend every waking moment logged into the oasis and even though we'd never actually met in person he told me more than once that I was his best friend so I assumed he was just as isolated and lonely as I was so what' you do after you bailed last night he asked tossing me the other in television controller we'd hung out here in his chat room for a few hours the previous evening watching old Japanese monster movies NATA I said went home and brushed up on a few classic coinops unnecessary yeah but I was in the mood I didn't ask him what he'd done the night before and he didn't volunteer any details I knew he'd probably gone to G or somewhere equally awesome to speedrun through a few quests and rack up some XP he just didn't want to rub it in h could afford to spend a fair amount of time offworld following up leads and searching for the copper key but he never lorded this over me or ridiculed me for not having enough dough to teleport anywhere and he never insulted me by offering to loan me a few credits it was an unspoken rule among gunters if you were a solo you didn't want or need help from anyone gunters who wanted help joined a clan and H and I both agreed that clans were for suck asses and posers we'd both vowed to remain solos for life we still occasionally had discussion about the egg but these conversations were always guarded and we were careful to avoid talking about specifics after I beat H at three rounds of Tron deadly discs he threw down his television controller in disgust and grabbed a magazine off the floor it was an old issue of starlog I recognized Ru gauer on the cover in a lady Hawk promotional photo starlog eh I said nodding my approval yep downloaded every single issue from the Hatcher archive still working my way through them I was just reading this great piece on Ewoks the battle for Endor made for TV released in 1985 I recited Star Wars trivia was one of my specialties total garbage a real lowo in the history of the wars says you ass face it has some great moments no it doesn't I said shaking my head it's even worse than that first Ewok flick Caravan of Courage they should have called it Caravan of suck H rolled his eyes and went back to reading he wasn't going to take the bait I eyed the Magazine's cover hey can I have a look at that when you're done he grinned why so you can read the article on lady Hawk maybe I admitted man you just love that crap Burger don't you blow me H how many times you seen that safest I know you've made me sit through it at least twice he was baiting me now he knew lady Hawk was one of my guilty pleasures and that I'd seen it over two dozen times I was doing you a favor by making you watch it Noob I said I shoved a new cartridge into the in television console and started up a single player game of Astros smash you'll thank me one day wait and see Lady Hawk is Canon Canon was the term we used to classify any movie Book Game song or TV show of which holiday was known to have been a fan surely you must be joking H said no I'm not joking and don't call me Shirley I said a tcid reference to the 1980 movie Airplane he lowered the magazine and leaned forward there's no way holiday was a fan of lady hwk I guarantee it where's your proof I asked the man had taste that's all the proof I need then please explain to me why he owned lady Hawk on both VHS and Laser dis a list of all the films in holiday's collection at the time of his death was included in the appendices of Anar Almanac we both had the list memorized the guy was a billionaire he owned millions of movies most of which he probably never even watched he had DVDs of Howard the Duck and crawl too that doesn't mean he liked them ass hat and as sure as hell doesn't make them Cannon it's not really up for debate Homer I said lady Hawk is an 80s classic it's lame that's what it is those swords look like they were made out of tinfoil and that soundtrack is epically lame full of synthesizers and by the Allan Parson's Project lame arama Beyond lame Highlander 2 lame hey I fainted hurling my television controller at him now you're just being insulting lady Hawk cast alone makes the film Cannon Roy baddy Ferris buer and the dude who played Professor Falcon in war games I searched my memory for the actor's name John Wood reunited with Matthew brri yeah that was a real low point in both their careers he said laughing he loved arguing about old movies even more than I did the other gunters in the chat room were now starting to form a small crowd around us to listen in our arguments were often high in entertainment value you must be stoned I shouted lady Hawk was directed by Richard Doner The Goonies Superman the movie you're saying that guy sucks dude I don't care if Spielberg directed it it's a check fake disguised as a sword and sorcery picture the only genre film with left balls is probably freaking Legend anyone who actually enjoys lady honk is a Bonafide USDA Choice laughter from the peanut gallery I was actually getting a little pissed off now I was a big fan of Legend 2 and H knew it oh so I'm a you're the one with the Ewok fetish I snatched the star log out of his hands and threw it against revenge of the Jedi poster on the wall I suppose you think your extensive knowledge of Ewok culture is going to help you find the egg don't start on the endorian again man he said holding up an index finger I've warned you I will ban your ass I swear I knew this was a hollow threat so I was about to push the Ewok thing even further maybe give him some crap for referring to them as endorian but just then a new arrival materialized on the staircase a total Lamer by the name of irck I let out a groan iro in h attended the same school and had a few classes together but I still couldn't figure out why H had granted him access to to the basement irck fancied himself an elite Gunter but he was nothing but an obnoxious poser sure he did a lot of teleporting around the Oasis completing quests and leveling up his Avatar but he didn't actually know anything and he was always brandishing an oversized plasma rifle the size of a snowmobile even in chat rooms where it was totally pointless the guy had no sense of decorum are you Cox arguing about Star Wars again he said descending the steps and walking over to join the crowd around us that's is so pled out yo I turned to H if you want to ban someone why don't you start with this clown I hit reset on the television and started another game shut your ho penis vial iro replied using his favorite mispronunciation of my Avatar's name he doesn't ban me because he knows I'm aite ain't that right h no that ain't right H said rolling his eyes your's about a lead as my great-grandmother and she's dead well screw you h and your dead grandmother gee irck I muttered you always managed to elevate the intelligence level of the conversation the whole room just lights up the moment you arrive I'm so sorry to upset you captain no credits irck said hey shouldn't you be on CIO panhandling for change right now he reached for the second in television controller but I snatched it up and tossed it to H irck scowled at me prick poser poser penis vile is calling me a poser he turned to address the small crowd this chump is so broke that he has the bum rides to greyhawk just so he can kill Cobalts for copper pieces and he's calling me a poser this elicited a few Snickers from the crowd and I felt my face turn red under my visor once about a year ago I'd made the mistake of hitching a ride off world with iro to try and gain a few experience points after dropping me in a low-level Quest area on greyhawk the jerk had followed me I'd spent the next few hours slaying a small band of Cobalts waiting for them to respond and then slaying them again over and over my avatar was still only first level at the time and it was one of the only safe ways for me to level up irck had taken several screenshots of my avatar that night and labeled them penis vile the mighty Cobalt Slayer then he posted them to the Hatchery he still brought it up every chance he got he was never going to let me live it down that's right I called you a poser poser I stood up and got in his grill you're an ignorant know nothing twink just cuz your 14th level doesn't make you a Gunter you actually have to possess some knowledge word h said nodding his agreement we bumped fists more snickering from the crowd now directed at irck irck glared at us for a moment okay let's see who the real poso is he said check this out girls grinning he produced an item from his inventory and held it up it was an old Atari 2600 game still in the box he purpos F covered the name's title with his hand but I recognized the cover artwork anyway it was a painting of a young man and woman in ancient Greek attire both brandishing swords lurking behind them were a Minotaur and a bearded guy with an eye patch you know what this is hot ick said challenging me I'll even give you a clue it's the Natali game released as part of a contest it contains several puzzles and if you solved them you could win a prize sound familiar irck was always trying to impress us with some clue or piece of holiday lore he foolishly believed he'd been the first to uncover gunters loved to play the game of one upmanship and were constantly trying to prove they had acquired more obscure knowledge than everyone else but irck totally sucked at it you're joking right I said you just now discovered the sword Quest series I rock deflated you're holding sword Quest earthworld I continued the first game in the sword Quest series released in 1982 I smiled widely can you name the next three games in the series his eyes narrowed he was of course stumped like I said he was a total opposer anyone else I said opening the question up to the floor the gunters in the crowd eyed each other but no one spoke up fire World Water World and airor H answered bingo I said and we bumped fists again although airworld was never actually finished because Atari fell in hard times and canceled the contest before it was complet completed irck quietly put the game box back in his inventory you should join up with the suckur irck H said they could really use someone with your vast stores of knowledge iro flipped him the bird well if you two already knew about the sword Quest contest how come I never once heard you mention it come on irck H said shaking his head sword quest to earthworld was atari's unofficial sequel to Adventure every Gunter worth their salt knows about that contest how much more obvious can you get irok tried to save some face okay if you're both such experts who programmed all the sword Quest games Dan Hitchens and Todd fry I recited try asking me something difficult I got one for you H interjected what were the prizes Atari gave out to the winner of each contest aha good one I said let's see the prize for the earthworld contest was the Talisman of penultimate truth it was solid gold and encrusted with diamonds the kid who won it melted it down to pay for college as I recall yeah yeah quit stalling H prodded what about the other two I'm not stalling the firew world prize was the Chalice of light and the Water World prize was supposed to be the crown of life but it was never awarded due to the cancellation of the contest same goes for the airworld prize which was supposed to be a philosopher's stone H grinned and gave me a double high five then added and if the contest hadn't been canceled the winner wiers of the first four rounds would have competed for the grand prize the sword of ultimate sorcery I nodded the prizes were all mentioned in the sword Quest Comic book that came with the games comic books which happen to be visible in the treasure room in the final scene of anor's invitation by the way the crowd burst into Applause iro lowered his head in shame since I'd become a Gunter it had become obvious to me that holiday had drawn inspiration for his contest from The Sword Quest contest I had no idea if he'd borrowed any of the puzzles from them too but I had studied the games and their Solutions thoroughly just to be safe fine you win irck said but you both obviously need to get a life and you obviously need to find a new hobby I said because you clearly lack the intelligence and commitment to be a Gunter no doubt H said try doing some research for a change irok I mean do you ever hear a Wikipedia it's free douchebag irck turned and walked over to the long boxes of comic books stacked on the other side of the room as if he'd lost interest in the discussion yeah whatever he said over his shoulder if I didn't spend so much time offline getting laid I probably know just as much worthless as you two do H ignored him and turned back to me what are the names of the twins who appeared in the sword Quest comic books terara and Tor damn Z you're the man thanks h a message flashed on my display informing me that the three-minute warning Bell had just rung in my classroom I knew H and irck were seeing the same warning because our schools operated on the same schedule well time for another day of Higher Learning H said standing up dreg irck said see you losers he gave me the finger then his Avatar disappeared as he logged out of the chat room the other gunters began to log out and vanish too until only H and I remained seriously H I said why do you let that hang out here cuz he's fun to be at video games and his ignorance gives me hope how so because if most of the other gunters out there are as clueless as irck and they are as Z believe me this means that you and I really do have a shot at winning the contest I Shrugged I guess that's one way to look at it want to hang out after school again tonight around 7 or so I've got a few errands to run but then I'm going to tackle some of the stuff on my need to watch list a spaced Marathon perhaps Ah hell yes Count Me In I said we logged out simultaneously just just as the final Bell began to ring chapter 4 my Avatar's eyes slid open and I was back in my world history classroom the seats around me were now filled with other students and our teacher Mr renovich was materializing at the front of the classroom Mr A's Avatar looked like a portly bearded college professor he sported an infectious grin wire rimmed spectacles and a tweed jacket with patches on the elbows when he spoke he somehow always managed to sound like he was reading a passage from Dickens I liked him he was a good teacher of course we didn't know who Mr renovich really was or where he lived we didn't know his real name or even if he was really a man for all we knew he could have been a small Inuit woman living in Anchorage Alaska who had adopted this appearance and voice to make her students more receptive to our lessons but for some reason I suspected that Mr evanovich's Avatar looked and sounded just like the person operating it all of my teachers were pretty great unlike their real world counterparts most of the Oasis Public School teachers seem to genuinely enjoy their job probably because they didn't have to spend half their time acting as babysitters and disciplinarians the Oasis software took care of that ensuring that students remained quiet and in their seats all the teachers had to do was teach it was also a lot easier for online teachers to hold their students attention because here in the Oasis the classrooms were like holidex teachers could take their students on a virtual field trip every day without ever leaving the school grounds during our world history lesson that morning Mr renovich loaded up a standalone simulation so that our class could witness the discovery of King tutt's tomb by archaeologists in Egypt in ad. 192 22 the day before we'd visited the same spot in 1334 BC and had seen Tuten Common's Empire in all its glory in my next class biology we traveled through a human heart and watched it pumping from the inside just like in that old movie Fantastic Voyage in art class we toured the Lou while all of our avatars wore silly Berets in my astronomy class we visited each of Jupiter's moons we stood on the volcanic surface of IO while our teacher explained how the moon had organically formed as our teacher spoke to us Jupiter loomed behind her filling half the sky its Great Red Spot churning slowly just over her left shoulder then she snapped her fingers and we were standing on Europa discussing the possibility of extraterrestrial life beneath the moon's icy crust I spent my lunch period sitting in one of the Green Fields bordering the school staring at the simul ated scenery while I munched on a protein bar with my visor on it beat staring at the inside of my Hideout I was a senior so I was allowed to go off world during lunch if I wanted to but I didn't have that kind of spare dough to blow logging into the oasis was free but traveling around inside it wasn't most of the time I didn't have enough credits to teleport off world and get back to ludus when the last bell rang each day the students who had things to do in the real world would log out of the Oasis and vanish everyone else would head off world a lot of kids owned their own interplanetary Vehicles school parking lots all over ludus were filled with UFOs Tie fighters old NASA space shuttles vipers from battl Star Galactica and other spacecraft designs lifted from every sci-fi movie and TV show you can think of every afternoon I would stand on the school's front lawn and watch with Envy as these ships filled the sky zooming off to explore the simulation's endless possibilities the kids who didn't own ships would either hitch a ride with a friend or Stampede to the nearest transport terminal headed for some off-world dance club Gaming Arena or Rock concert but not me I wasn't going anywhere I was stranded on ludus the most boring planet in the entire Oasis the ontologically anthropocentric sensory immersive simulation was a big play when the Oasis had first been launched it contained only a few hundred planets for users to explore all created by GSS programmers and artists their environments ran the gamut from sword and sorcery settings to cyberpunk themed Planet wide cities to a radiated post-apocalyptic zombie infested wastelands some planets were designed with painstaking detail others were randomly generated from a series of templates each one was po populated with a variety of artificially intelligent NPCs non-player characters computer controlled humans animals monsters aliens and Androids with which Oasis users could interact GSS had also licensed pre-existing Virtual Worlds from their competitors so content that had already been created for games like EverQuest and World of Warcraft was ported over to the Oasis and copies of norath and Azeroth were added to the growing catalog of oasis planets other Virtual Worlds soon followed suit from the metaverse to the Matrix the Firefly Universe was anchored in a sector adjacent to the Star Wars Galaxy with a detailed Recreation of the Star Trek universe in the sector adjacent to that users could now teleport back and forth between their favorite fictional worlds Middle Earth Vulcan P oracus mcgraa discor midworld River World Ring World worlds upon worlds for the sake of zoning and navigation The Oasis had been divided equally into 27 cube-shaped sectors each containing hundreds of different planets the three-dimensional map of all 27 sectors distinctly resembled an 80s puzzle toy called a Rubik's Cube like most gunters I knew this was no coincidence each sector measured exactly 10 Li hours across or about 10 10.8 billion km so if you were traveling at the speed of light the fastest speed attainable by any spacecraft inside the Oasis you could get from one side of a sector to the other in exactly 10 hours that sort of longdistance travel wasn't cheap spacecraft that could travel at light speed were rare and they required fuel to operate charging people for virtual fuel to power their virtual spaceships was one of the ways gregarious simulation systems generated Revenue since accessing The Oasis was free but gss's primary source of income came from teleportation fairs teleportation was the fastest way to travel but it was also the most expensive traveling around inside the Oasis wasn't just costly it was also dangerous each sector was divided up into many different zones that varied in size and shape some zones were so large that they encompassed several planets While others covered only a few kilometers on the surface of a single World each Zone had a unique combination of rules and parameters magic would function in some zones and not in others the same was true of Technology If you flew your Technology based Starship into a Zone where technology didn't function your engines would fail the moment you cross the Zone border then you'd have to hire some silly gray bearded sorcerer with a spell powerered space barge to tow your gr back into a technology Zone dual zones permitted the use of both magic and technology and null zones didn't allow either there were pacifist zones where no player versus player combat was allowed and player versus player zones where it was every avatar for themselves you had to be careful whenever you entered a new zone or sector you had to be prepared but like I said I didn't have that problem I was stuck at school ludus had been designed as a place of learning so the planet had been created without a single Quest portal or gaming Zone anywhere on its surface the only thing to be found here were thousands of identical school campuses separated by Rolling Green Fields perfectly landscaped Parks Rivers Meadows and sprawling template generated forests there were no castles dungeons or orbiting space fortresses for my avatar to raid and there were no NPC villains monsters or aliens for me to fight so there was no treasure or magic items for me to plunder this totally sucked for a lot of reasons completing quests fighting NPCs and Gathering Treasure were the only ways a low-level Avatar like mine could earn experience points earning XP was how you increased your Avatar's power level strength and abilities a lot of Oasis users didn't care about their Avatar's power level or bother with the gaming aspects of the simulation at all they only use the Oasis for entertainment business shopping and hanging out with their friends these users simply avoided entering any gaming or PVP zones where their defenseless first level avatars could be attacked by NPCs or by other players if you stayed in safe zones like lutus you didn't have to worry about your avatar getting robbed kidnapped or killed I hated being stuck in a safe Zone if I was going to find holiday's egg I knew I would eventually have to venture out into the dangerous sectors of the Oasis and if I wasn't powerful or well armed enough to defend myself I wasn't going to stay alive for very long over the past 5 years I'd managed to slowly gradually raise my avatar up to third level this hadn't been easy i' done it by hitching rides offworld with other students mostly H who happen to be headed to a planet where my wuss Avatar could survive I'd have them drop me near a newbie level gaming Zone and spend the rest of the day or night or weekend slaying Orcs Cobalts or some other ply class of monster that was too weak to kill me for each NPC my avatar defeated I would earn a few meager experience points and usually a handful of copper or silver coins dropped by my slain foes these coins were instantly converted to credits which I used to pay the teleportation Fair back to ludus often just before the final school bell rang sometimes but not often one of the NPCs I killed would drop an item that was how ID obtained my Avatar's sword shield and armor I'd stopped hitching rides with h at the end of the previous school year his Avatar was now above 30th level and so he was almost always headed to a planet where it wasn't safe for my avatar he was happy to drop me on some Noob World along the way but if I didn't earn enough credits to pay for my fair back to ludus I'd wind up missing school because I was stuck on some other planet this was not an acceptable excuse I'd now racked up so many unexcused absences that I was in danger of being expelled if that happened I would have to return my school issued Oasis console and visor worse I'd be transferred back to school in the real world to finish out my senior year there I couldn't risk that so these days I rarely left ludus at all I was stuck here and stock at third level having a third level Avatar was a colossal embarrassment none of the other gunters took you seriously unless you were at least 10th level even though I'd been a Gunter since day one everyone still considered me a noob it was beyond frustrating in desperation I tried to find a part-time Afterschool job just to earn some walking around money I applied for dozens of tech support and programming jobs mostly grunt construction work coding parts of of Oasis malls and Office Buildings but it was completely hopeless millions of college educated adults couldn't get one of these jobs the Great Recession was now entering its third decade and unemployment was still at a record high even the fast food joints in my neighborhood had a 2-year waiting list for job applicants so I remained a stock at school I felt like a kid standing in the world's greatest video arcade without any quarters unable to do anything but walk around and watch the other kids play Chapter 5 after lunch I headed to my favorite class Advanced Oasis studies this was a senior year elective where you learned about the history of the Oasis and its creators talk about an easy a for the past 5 years I devoted all of my free time to learning as much as I possibly could about James Halliday I had exhaustively studied his life accomplishments and interests over a dozen different holiday biographies had been published in the years since his death and I'd read them all several documentary films had also been made about him and I'd studied those too I'd studied every word holiday had ever written and I'd played every video game he'd ever made I took notes writing down every detail I thought might be related to The Hunt I kept everything in a notebook which I'd started to call my Grail diary after watching the third Indiana Jones film The more I'd learned about holiday's life the more I'd groan to idolize him he was a God among Geeks a nerd Uber deity on the level of gaks garat and Gates he left home after high school with nothing but his wits and his imagination and he'd use them to attain worldwide Fame and a mass of vast Fortune he had created an entirely new reality that now provided an escape for most of humanity and to top it all off he turned his last will and testament into the greatest video game contest of all time I spent most of my time in advanced Oasis studies class annoying our teacher Mr ciders by pointing out errors in our textbook and raising my hand to interject some relevant bit of holiday trivia that I and I alone thought was interesting after the first few weeks of class Mr ciders had stopped calling on me unless no one else knew the answer to his question today he was reading excerpts from the Eggman a best-selling holiday biography that i' had already read four times during his lecture I kept having to resist the urge to interrupt him and point out all of the really important details the book had left out instead I just made a mental note of each omission and as Mr ciders began to recount the circumstances of holiday's childhood I once again tried to glean whatever Secrets I could from the strange way holiday had lived his life and from the odd clues about himself he had chosen to leave behind James Donovan Halliday was born on June 2nd 1972 in Middletown Ohio he was an only child his father was an alcoholic machine operator and his mother was a bipolar waitress by all accounts James was a bright boy but socially inept he had an extremely difficult time communicating with the people around him Des despite his obvious intelligence he did poorly in school because most of his attention was focused on computers comic books sci-fi and fantasy novels movies and above all else video games one day in junior high holiday was sitting alone in the cafeteria reading a Dungeons and Dragons players handbook the game fascinated him but he never actually played it because he'd never had any friends to played with a boy in his class named Ogden Morrow noticed what holiday was reading and invited him to attend one of the weekly DND gaming sessions held at his house there in Morrow's basement H was introduced to an entire group of Mega Geeks just like himself they immediately accepted him as one of their own and for the first time in his life James Halliday had a circle of friends Ogden Morrow eventually became halliday's business partner collaborator and best friend many would later liken the pairing of Morrow and H to that of jobs and wnac or Lenin and McCartney it was a partnership destined to alter the course of human history at age 15 Halliday created his first video game anax Quest he programmed it in basic on a TRS 0 color computer he'd received the previous Christmas though he'd asked his parents for the slightly more expensive Commodore 64 Anar Quest was an adventure game said in konia the fantasy world holiday had created for his high school Dungeons and Dragons campaign anarak was a nickname holay had been given by a female British exchange student at his high school he liked the name Anar so much that he used it for his favorite DND character the powerful wizard who later appeared in many of his video games Halliday created Ana's quest for fun to share with the guys in his DN gaming group they all found the game addictive and lost countless hours attempting to solve its intricate riddles and puzzles Ogden Morrow convinced H that anor's Quest was better than most of the computer games currently on the market and encouraged him to try selling it he helped holay create some simple cover art for the game and together the two of them hand copied anarak Quest onto dozens of 5 and a/4 inch floppy discs and stuck them into Ziploc bags along with a single photocopied sheet of instructions they began selling the game on the software rack at their local computer store before long they couldn't make copies fast enough to meet the demand Morrow and holiday decided to start their own video game company gregarious games which initially operated out of Morrow's basement holiday programmed new versions of anor's quest for the Atari 800 XL Apple 2 and Commodore 64 computers and Morrow began placing ads for the game in the back of several computer magazines within 6 months Anar Quest became a national best seller Halliday and Morrow almost didn't graduate from high school because they spent most of their senior year working on anax Quest 2 and instead of going off to college they both focused all of their energy on their new company which had now grown too large for Morrow's basement in 1990 gregarious games moved into its first real office located in a rundown strip mall in Columbus Ohio over the next decade the small company took the video game industry by storm releasing a series of best-selling action and adventure games all using a groundbreaking firstperson Graphics engine created by holiday gregarious games set a new standard for immersive gaming and every time they released a new title it pushed the envelope of what seemed possible on the computer hardware available at the time the rotund Ogden Morrow was naturally charismatic and he handled all of the companies business Affairs and public relations at every gregarious games press conference Morrow grinned infectiously from behind his unruly beard and wire rimmed spectacles using his natural gift for hype and hyperbole Halliday seemed to be Morrow's polar opposite in every way he was tall gaunt and painfully shy and he preferred to stay out of the Limelight people employed by gregarious games during this period say that Halliday frequently locked himself in his office where he programmed incessantly often going without food sleep or human contact for days or even weeks on the few occasions that Halliday agreed to do interviews his behavior came off as bizarre even by game designer standards he was hyperkinetic aloof and so socially inapt that the interviewers often came away with the impression that he was mentally ill holiday tended to speak so rapidly that his words were often unintelligible and he had a disturbing high-pitched laugh made even more so because he was usually the only one who knew what he was laughing about when H got bored during an interview or conversation he would usually get up and walk out without saying a word Halliday had many well-known obsessions Chief among them were classic video games sci-fi and fantasy novels and movies of all genres he also had an extreme fixation on the 1980s the decade during which he'd been a teenager Halliday seemed to expect everyone around him to share his obsessions and he often lashed out those who didn't he was known to fire longtime employees for not recognizing an obscure line of movie dialogue he quoted or if he discovered they weren't familiar with one of his favorite cartoons comic books or video games Ogden Morrow would always hire the employee back usually without holiday ever noticing as the years went on halliday's already stunted social skills seem to deteriorate even further several exhaustive psychological studies were done on holiday following his death and his obsessive adherence to routine and preoccupation with a few obscure areas of Interest led many psychologists to conclude that holiday had suffered from Asperger syndrome or from some other form of high functioning autism despite his excentricities no one ever questioned H's genius the games he created were addictive and wildly Popular by the end of the 20th century H was widely recognized as the greatest video game designer of his generation and some would argue of all time Ogden Morrow was a brilliant programmer in his own right but his true Talent was his knack for business in addition to collaborating on the company's games he masterminded all of their early marketing campaigns and shareware distribution schemes with astounding results when gregarious games finally went public their stock immediately shot into the Stratosphere by their 30th birthdays H and Morrow were both both multi-millionaires they purchased mansions on the same street Morrow bought a Lamborghini took several long vacations and traveled the world holiday bought and restored one of the original Deloreans used in the Back to the Future films continued to spend nearly all of his time welded to a computer keyboard and used his Newfound wealth to amass what would eventually become the world's largest private collection of classic video games Star Wars action figures vintage lunchboxes and comic books at the height of its success gregarious games appeared to fall dormant several years elapsed during which they released no new games Morrow made cryptic announcements saying the company was working on an ambitious project that would move them into an entirely New Direction rumors began to circulate that gregarius games was developing some sort of new computer gaming hardware and that this secret project was rapidly exhausting the company's considerable Financial Resources there were also indications that both Halliday and Morrow had invested most of their own personal fortunes into the company's new Endeavor word began to spread that gregarius games was in danger of going bankrupt then in December 2012 gregarius games rebranded itself as gregarious simulation systems and under this new Banner they launched their Flagship product the only product GSS would ever release the Oasis the ontologically anthropocentric sensory immersive simulation The Oasis would ultimately change the way people around the world lived worked and communicated it would transform entertainment social networking and even global politics even though it was initially marketed as a new kind of massively multiplayer online game The Oasis quickly evolved into a new way of life in the days before the Oasis massively multiplayer online games or MMOs were among the first shared synthetic environments they allowed thousands of players to simultaneously coexist in a simulated World which they connected to via the Internet the overall size of these environments was relatively small usually just a single world or a dozen or so small planets MMO players can only see these online environments through a small two-dimensional window their desktop computer monitor and they could only interact with it by using keyboards mice and other crude input devices gregarious simulation systems elevated the MMO concept to an entirely new level The Oasis didn't limit its users to just one planet or even a dozen The Oasis contained hundreds and eventually thousands of high resolution 3D worlds for people to explore and each one was beautifully rendered in meticulous graphical detail right down to bugs and Blades of grass wind and weather patterns users could circumnavigate each of these planets and never see the same terrain twice even in its first primitive Incarnation the scope of the simulation was staggering holiday and Morrow referred to the Oasis as an open-source reality a malleable online universe that anyone could access via the internet using their existing home computer or video game console you could log in and instantly escape the drudgery of your day today life you could create an entirely new persona for yourself with complete control over how you looked and sounded to others in the Oasis the fat could become thin the ugly could become beautiful and the shy extroverted or vice versa you could change your name age sex race height weight voice hair color and bone structure or you could cease Being Human altogether and become an elf ogre a alen or any other creature from movies literature or mythology in the Oasis you could become whomever and whatever you wanted to be without ever revealing your true identity because your anonymity was guaranteed users could also alter the content of the virtual worlds inside the Oasis or create entirely new ones a person's online presence was no longer limited to a website or a social networking profile in the Oasis you could create your own private Planet build a virtual mansion on it furnish and decorate it however you liked and invite a few thousand friends over for a party and those friends could be in a dozen different time zones spread all over the globe the keys to the success of the Oasis were the two new pieces of interface Hardware that GSS had created both of which were required to access the simulation The Oasis viser and haptic gloves the wireless one-size fits-all Oasis visor was slightly larger than a pair of sunglasses it used harmless low powerered lasers to draw the stunningly real environment of the Oasis right on to its wearers retinas completely immersing their entire visual field in the online world the visor was light years ahead of the clunky virtual reality goggles available prior to that time and it represented a paradigm shift in virtual reality technology as did the lightweight Oasis haptic gloves which allowed users to directly control the hands of their Avatar and to interact with their simulated environment as if they were actually inside it when you picked up objects open doors or operated Vehicles the haptic gloves made you feel those non-existent objects and surfaces as if they were really right there in front of you the gloves let you as the television ads put it reach in and touch the Oasis working together the visor and the gloves made entering the Oasis an experience unlike anything else available and and once people got a taste of it there was no going back the software that powered the simulation holiday's new Oasis reality engine also represented a huge technological breakthrough it managed to overcome limitations that had plagued previous simulated realities in addition to restricting the overall size of their virtual environments earlier MMOs had been forced to limit their virtual populations usually to a few thousand users per server if too many people were logged in at the same time the simulation would slow to a crawl and avatars would freeze in mid stride as the system struggled to keep up but the Oasis utilized a new kind of fault tolerance server array that could draw additional processing power from every computer connected to it at the time of its initial launch the Oasis could handle up to 5 million simultaneous users with no discernable latency and no chance of a system crash a massive marketing campaign promoted the laun of the Oasis the pervasive television billboard and Internet ads featured a lush green Oasis complete with palm trees and a pool of crystal blue water surrounded on all sides by a vast Barren desert gss's new Endeavor was a massive success from day one The Oasis was what people had been dreaming of for decades the virtual reality they had been promised for so long was finally here and it was even better than they had imagined The Oasis was an an online Utopia a holck for the home and its biggest selling point it was free most online games of the day generated Revenue by charging users a monthly subscription fee for Access GSS only charged a onetime signup fee of 25 for which you received a lifetime Oasis account the ads all used the same tagline The Oasis it's the greatest video game ever created and it only costs a quarter at a time of drastic social and cultural upheaval when most of the world's population longed for an escape from reality The Oasis provided it in a form that was cheap legal safe and not medically proven to be addictive the ongoing energy crisis contributed greatly to The oasis's Runaway popularity the skyrocketing cost of oil made airline in automobile travel too expensive for the average citizen and the Oasis became the only getaway most people could afford as the era of cheap abundant energy Drew to a close poverty and unrest began to spread like a virus every day more and more people had a reason to seek Solace inside Halliday in Morrow's virtual Utopia any business that wanted to set up shop inside the Oasis had to rent or purchase virtual real estate which Morrow dubbed sural estate from GSS anticipating this the company had set aside sector 1 as the simulations designated business Zone and began to sell and rent millions of blocks of surreal estate there city-sized shopping malls were erected in the blink of an eye and storefronts spread across planets like time-lapse footage of mold devouring an orange Urban Development had never been so easy in addition to the billions of dollars that GSS raked in selling land that didn't actually exist they made a killing selling virtual objects and vehicles The Oasis became such an integral part of people's day-to-day social lives that users were more than willing to Shell out real money to buy accessories for their avatars clothing Furniture houses flying cars magic swords and machine guns these items were nothing but ones and zeros stored on the Oasis servers but they were also status symbols most items only cost a few credits but since they cost nothing for GSS to manufacture it was all profit even in the throws of an ongoing economic recession The Oasis allowed Americans to continue engaging in their favorite pastime shopping The Oasis quickly became the single most popular use for the internet so much so that the terms Oasis and internet gradually became synonymous and the incredibly easy to use three-dimensional Oasis OS which GSS gave away for free became the sing single most popular computer operating system in the world before long billions of people around the world were working and playing in The Oasis every day some of them met fell in love and got married without ever setting foot on the same continent the lines of distinction between a person's real identity and that of their Avatar began to blur it was the dawn of a new era one where most of the human race now spend all of their free time inside a video game chapter 6 the rest of my school day passed quickly until my final class Latin most students took a foreign language they might actually be able to use someday like Mandarin or Hindi or Spanish I decided to take Latin because James Halliday had taken Latin he'd also occasionally used Latin words and phrases in his early adventure games unfortunately even with the Limitless possibilities of the Oasis at her disposal my Latin teacher Mrs rank still had a hard time making her lessons interesting and today she was reviewing a bunch of verbs I had already memorized so I found my attention drifting almost immediately while a class was in session the simulation prevented students from accessing any data or programs that weren't authorized by their teacher to prevent kids from watching movies playing games or chatting with each other instead of paying attention to the lesson luckily during my junior year I discovered a bug in the school's Online Library software and by exploiting it I could access any book in the school's Online Library including anax Almanac so whenever I got bored like right now I would pull it up in a window on my display and read over my favorite passages to pass the time over the last 5 years the almanac had become my Bible like most books nowadays it was only available in electronic format but I wanted to be able to read the almanac night or day even during one of the Stack's frequent power outages so I'd fixed up an old discarded laser printer and used it to print out a hard copy I put it in an old three- ring binder that I kept in my backpack and studied it until I knew Every Word by heart the almanac contained thousands of references to holiday's favorite books TV shows movies songs graphic novels and video games most of these items were over 40 years old and so free digital cop C of them could be downloaded from The Oasis if there was something I needed that wasn't legally available for free I could almost always get it by using gun torrent a file sharing program used by gunters around the world when it came to my research I never took any shortcuts over the past five years I'd worked my way down the entire recommended Gunter reading list Douglas Adams Kurt vaget Neil Stevenson Richard K Morgan Steph King Orson Scott Card Terry pratchet Terry Brooks bester Bradberry hemman heinan tolken Vance Gibson gaimon Sterling morock scy zaney I'd read every novel by every single one of holiday's favorite authors and I didn't stop there I also watched every single film he referenced in the almanac if it was one of holiday's favorites like War Games Ghostbusters Real Genius better off dead or Revenge of the Nerds I rewatched it until I knew every scene by heart I devoured each of what holiday referred to as the holy trilogies Star Wars original and prequel trilogies in that order Lord of the Rings The Matrix Mad Max Back to the Future and Indiana Jones holiday once said that he preferred to pretend that the other Indiana Jones films from Kingdom of the Crystal Skull onward didn't exist I tended to agree I also absorbed the complete filmographies of each of his favorite directors Cameron Gilliam Jackson Fincher kubri Lucas Spielberg Del Toro Tarantino and of course Kevin Smith I spent three months studying every John Hughes teen movie and memorizing all the key lines of dialogue only the meek get pinched the Bold survive you could say I covered all the bases I studied Monty Python and not just the Holy Grail either every single one of their films albums and books and every episode of the original B BBC series including those two lost episodes they did for German television I wasn't going to cut any Corners I wasn't going to miss something obvious somewhere along the way I started to go overboard I may in fact have started to go a little insane I watched every episode of The Greatest American Hero Airwolf The A Team Night Rider Misfits of Science and the Muppet Show what about the Simpsons you ask I knew more about Springfield than I knew about my own City Star Trek oh I did my homework to TNG DS9 even Voyager and Enterprise I watched them all in chronological order the movies too phasers locked on target I gave myself a crash course in 80s Saturday morning cartoons I learned the name of every last godamn Gobot and Transformer Land of the Lost thundar the Barbarian He-Man Schoolhouse Rock gii Joe I knew them all because knowing is half the battle who is my friend when things got rough HR puffing stuff Japan did I cover Japan yes yes indeed anime and liveaction Godzilla gamra starblazers the Space Giants and gForce Go Speed Racer go you got to look that up and do it I wasn't some dilatant I wasn't screwing around I memorized every last Bill Hicks standup routine music well covering all the music wasn't easy it took some time the 80s was a long decade 10 whole years in fact and holiday didn't seem to have had very Discerning taste he listened to everything so I did too pop rock New Wave Punk heavy metal from the police to journey to RM to The Clash I tackled it all I burned through the entire They Might Be Giants discography in under two weeks dvo took a little longer I watched a lot of YouTube videos of cute geeky girls playing 80s cover tunes on ukulele technically this wasn't part of my research but I had a serious cute geeky girls playing ukulele fetish that I can neither explain nor defend I memorized lyrics silly lyrics by bands with names like Van Halen Bon Joy de leopard and Pink Floyd I kept at it I burned the Midnight Oil did you know that Midnight Oil was an Australian band with a 198 seven hit titled Beds Are Burning I was obsessed I wouldn't quit my grade suffered I didn't care I read every issue of every comic book title holiday had ever collected I wasn't going to have anyone questioning my commitment especially when it came to the video games video games were my area of expertise my double weapon specialization my dream Jeopardy category I downloaded every game mentioned or referenced in the almanac from a calbath to Zon I played each title until I had mastered it then moved on to the next one you'd be amazed how much research you can get done when you have no life whatsoever 12 hours a day 7 days a week it's a lot of study time I worked my way through every video game genre and platform classic arcade coin Ops home computer console and handheld text based Adventures firsters Shooters third person RPGs ancient 886 and 32-bit classic written in the previous Century the harder a game was to beat the more I enjoyed it and as I played these ancient digital relics night after night year after year I discovered I had a talent for them I could Master most action titles in a few hours and there wasn't an adventure or role playing game I couldn't solve I never needed any walkthroughs or cheat codes everything just clicked and I was even better at the old arcade games when I was in The Zone on a high-speed classic like Defender I felt like a hawk in flight or the way I thought a shark must feel as it cruises the ocean floor for the first time I knew what it was to be a natural at something to have a gift but it wasn't my research into old movies Comics or video games that had yielded my first real clue that had come while I was studying the history of old pen and paper roleplaying games reprinted on the first page of anor's Almanac where the four rhyming lines of verse Halliday had recited in in the invitation video three keys hidden open three gates wherein the errant will be tested for worthy traits and those with the skill to survive these Straits will reach the end where the prize awaits at first this seemed to be the only direct reference to the contest in the entire Almanac but then buried among all those rambling journal entries and essays on pop culture I discovered a hidden message scattered through the text next of the almanac were a series of marked letters each of these letters had a tiny nearly invisible Notch cut into its outline I'd first noticed these notches the year after holiday died I was reading my hard copy of the almanac at the time and so at first I thought The Notches were nothing but tiny printing imperfections perhaps due to the paper or the ancient printer I'd used to print out the almanac but when I checked the electronic version of the book available on H's website I found the same notches on the exact same letters and if you zoomed in on one of these letters The Notches stood out plain as day holiday had put them there he'd Mark these letters for a reason there turned out to be 112 of these notched letters scattered throughout the book by writing them down in the order that they appeared I discovered that they spelled something I nearly died of excitement as I wrote it down in my Grail diary the copper key awaits explorers in a tomb filled with but you have much to learn if you hope to earn a place among the high scorers other gunters had also discovered this hidden message of course but they were all wise enough to keep it to themselves for a while anyway about 6 months after I discovered the hidden message this loudmouth MIT freshman found it too his name was Steven Pendergast and he decided to get his 15 Minutes of Fame by sharing his Discovery with the media the news feeds broadcast interviews with this for a month even though he didn't have the first clue about the message's meaning after that going public with a clue became known as pulling a Pendergast once the message became public knowledge gunters nicknamed it the limmerick the entire world had known about it for almost four years now but no one seemed to understand its true meaning and the copper key still had yet to be found I knew howay had frequently used similar Riddles In many of his early adventure games and each of these riddles had made sense in the context of its game so I devoted an entire section of my Grail diary to deciphering the Limer line by line the copper key awaits explorers this line seem pretty straightforward no hidden meaning that I could detect in a tomb filled with Horrors this line was trickier taking at face value it seemed to say that the key was hidden in a tomb somewhere one filled with horrifying stuff but then during the course of my research I discovered an old dungeons Dragon supplement called tomb of Horrors which had been published in 1978 from The Moment I Saw the title I was certain the second line of the limmerick was a reference to it Halliday and Morrow had played advanced Dungeons and Dragons all through High School along with several other pen and paper role playing games like gerps Champions Car Wars and role Master tomb of Horrors was a thin booklet called a module it contained detailed maps and room by room descrip descriptions of an underground Labyrinth infested with Undead monsters DND players could explore the Labyrinth with their characters as the dungeon master read from the module and guided them through the story it contained describing everything they saw and encountered along the way as I learned more about how these early role-playing games worked I realized that a DND module was the Primitive equivalent of a quest in the Oasis was the Primitive equivalent and DND characters were just like Avatar s in a way these old role-playing games had been the first virtual reality simulations created long before computers were powerful enough to do the job in those days if you wanted to escape to another world you had to create it yourself using your brain some paper pencils Dice and a few Rule books this realization kind of blew my mind it changed my whole perspective on the hunt for holidays Easter egg from then on I began to think of the hunt as an elaborate DND module and holiday was obviously the dungeon master even if he was now controlling the game from Beyond the Grave I found a digital copy of the 67-year-old tomb of Horrors module buried deep in an ancient FTP archive as I studied it I began to develop a theory somewhere in the Oasis hallay had recreated the tomb of Horrors and he' hidden the copper key inside it I spent the next few months studying the module and memorizing all of its maps and room descriptions in anticipation of the day I would finally figure out where I was located but that was the rub the limeric didn't appear to give any hint as to where holiday had hidden the damn thing the only clue seemed to be you have much to learn if you hope to earn a place among the high scorers I recited these words over and over in my head until I wanted to Howl in frustration much to learn yeah okay fine I have much to learn about what there were literally thousands of worlds in the Oasis and holiday could have hidden his Recreation of the tomb of Horrors on any one of them searching every planet one by one would take forever even if I had the means to do so a planet named GX in sector 2 seemed like the obvious place to start looking H had coded the planet himself and he' named it after Gary GX one of the creators of Dungeons and Dragons and the author of the original tomb of Horrors module according to gedia a Gunter Wiki the planet GX was covered with Recreations of old DND D modules but tomb of Horrors was not one of them there didn't appear to be a recreation of the Tomb on any of the other DND themed worlds in the Oasis either gunters had turned all of those planets upside down and scoured every square inch of their surfaces had a recreation of the tomb of Horrors been hidden on one of them it would have been found and logged long ago so the tomb had to be hidden somewhere else and I didn't have the first clue of where but I told myself that if I just kept at it and continued doing research I'd eventually learn what I needed to know to figure out the tomb's hiding place in fact that was probably what holade meant by you have much to learn if you hope to earn a place among the high scorers if any other gunters out there shared my interpretation of the limmerick so far they'd been smart enough to keep quiet about it I'd never seen any posts about the tomb of Horrors on any Gunter message boards I realized of course that this might be because my theory about the old D and D module was completely lame and totally off base so i' continued to watch and read and listen and study preparing for the day when I finally stumbled across the clue that would lead me to the Copper key and then it finally happened right while I was sitting there daydreaming in Latin class chapter 7 our teacher Mrs rank was standing at the front of the class slowly conjugating Latin verbs she said them in English first then in Latin and each word automatically appeared on the board behind her as she spoke it whenever we were doing tedious verb conjugation I always got the lyrics to an old Schoolhouse Rock song stuck in my head I get in action R to go to get to give that's where I find [Music] satisfaction I was quietly humming this tune to myself when Mrs rank began to conjugate the Latin for the verb to learn to learn deir she said now this one should be easy to remember because it's similar to the Engish English word discern which also means to learn hearing her repeat the phrase to learn was enough to make me think of the limeri you have much to learn if you hope to earn a place among the high scorers Mrs rank continued using the verb in a sentence we go to school to learn she said and then repeated the phrase in Latin and that was when it hit me like an anvil falling out of the sky directly onto my skull I gazed around at my classmates what group of people Paul has much to learn students high school students I was on a planet filled with students all of whom had much to learn what if the limmerick was saying that the tomb was hidden right here on ludus the very planet where I'd been twiddling my thumbs for the past 5 years then I remembered that ludus was also a Latin word meaning school I pulled up my Latin dictionary to double check the definition and that was when I discovered the word had more than one meaning ludus could mean school but it could also mean sport or game game I fell out of my folding chair and landed with a thud on the floor of my Hideout my Oasis console tracked this movement and attempted to make my avatar drop to the floor of my Latin classroom but the classroom conduct software prevented it from moving and a warning flashed on my display please remain seated during class I told myself not to get too excited I might be jumping to conclusions there were hundreds of private schools and universities located on other planets inside the Oasis the limmerick might refer to one of them but I didn't think so ludus made more sense James Halliday had donated billions to fund the creation of the Oasis Public School System here as a way to demonstrate the huge potential of the Oasis as an educational tool and prior to his death holade had set up a foundation to ensure that the Oasis Public School System would always have the money it needed to operate the holiday Learning Foundation also provided impoverished children around the globe with free Oasis hardware and internet access so that they could attend school inside the Oasis gss's own programmers had designed and constructed ludus and all of the schools on it so it was entirely possible that Halliday was the one who'd given the planet its name and he would also have had access to the planet's source code if he'd wanted to hide something here the realizations continued to dead in my brain like atomic bombs going off one after another according to the original DND module the entrance to the tomb of Horrors was hidden near a low flat topped Hill about 200 yard wide and 300 yard long the top of the hill was covered with large black stones that were arranged in such a way that if you viewed them from a great height they resembled the eye sockets nose holes and teeth of a human skull but if there was a hill like that hidden somewhere on ludus wouldn't someone have stumbled across it by now maybe not ludus had hundreds of large forests scattered all over its surface in the vast sections of empty land that stood between the thousands of school campuses some of these forests were enormous covering dozens of square miles most students never even set foot inside them because there was nothing of interest to do or see there like its fields and rivers and lakes lud's forests were just computer generated Landscaping placed there to fill up the empty space of course during my Avatar's long stay on ludus I'd explored a few of the forests within walking distance of my school out of boredom but all they contained were thousands of randomly generated trees and the occasional Bird rabbit or squirrel these tiny creatures weren't worth any experience points if you'd killed them I'd checked so it was entirely possible that somewhere hidden in one of lud's large unex LED patches of forest Land There was a small Stone covered Hill that resembled a human skull I tried pulling up a map of ludus on my display but I couldn't the system wouldn't let me because class was still in session the hack I used to access books in the school's Online Library didn't work for the Oasis Atlas software I blurted out in frustration the classroom conduct software filtered this out so neither Mrs rank nor my class mates heard it but another warning flashed on my display profanity muted misconduct warning I looked at the time on my display exactly 7 minutes and 20 seconds left until the end of the school day I sat there with clenched teeth and counted off each second my mind still racing ludus was an inconspicuous World in sector 1 there wasn't supposed to be anything but schools here so this was the last place a Gunter would ever think to look for the copper key it was definitely the last place I had ever thought to look and that alone proved it was a perfect hiding place but why would holiday have chosen to hide the copper key here unless he'd wanted a school kid to find it I was still reeling from the implications of that thought when the bell finally rang around me the other students began to file out of the room or vanish in their seats Mrs rank's Avatar also disappeared and in moments I was all alone in the class room I pulled up a map of ludus on my display it appeared as a three-dimensional Globe floating in front of me and I gave it a spin with my hand ludus was a relatively small planet by Oasis standards about a third the size of Earth's moon with a circumference of exactly 1,000 km a single contiguous continent covered the surface there were no oceans just a few dozen large legs placed here and there since Oasis planets weren't real they didn't have to obey the laws of nature on ludus it was perpetually daytime regardless of where you stood on the surface and the sky was always a perfect cloudless blue the stationary Sun that hung overhead was nothing but a virtual light source programmed into the imaginary sky on the map the school campuses appeared as thousands of identical numbered rectangles dotting the planet surface they were separated by Rolling Green Fields Rivers mountain ranges and forests fors the forests were of all shapes and sizes and many of them bordered one of the schools next to the map I pulled up the tomb of Horrors module near the front it contained a crude illustration of the Hill concealing the tomb I took a screenshot of this illustration and placed it in the corner of my display I frantically searched my favorite whereas sites until I found a high-end image recognition plug-in for the Oasis Atlas once I downloaded the software via gun torrent it took me a few more minutes to figure out how to make it scan the entire surface of ludus for a hill with large black Stones arranged in a skull-like pattern one with a size shape and appearance that matched the illustration from the tomb of horror module after about 10 minutes of searching the software highlighted a possible match I held my breath as I placed the close-up image from the ludus map beside the illustration from the DND module the shape of the hill and the skull pattern of the stones both matched the illustration perfectly I decreased the magnification on the map a bit then pulled back far enough to confirm that the northern edge of the Hill ended in a cliff of sand and crumbling gravel just like in the original Dungeons and Dragons module I let out a triumphant yell that echoed in the empty classroom and bounced off the walls of my tiny Hideout i' done it I'd actually found the tomb of Horrors when I finally managed to calm down I did some quick calculations the hill was near the center of of a large amoeba shaped forest located on the opposite side of ludus over 400 km from my school my avatar could run at a maximum speed of 5 km an hour so it would take me over 3 days to get there on foot if I ran non-stop the entire time if I could teleport I could be there within minutes the fair wouldn't be much for such a short distance maybe a few hundred credits unfortunately that was still more than my current Oasis account balance which was a big fat zero I considered my options H would lend me the money for the fair but I didn't want to ask for his help if I couldn't reach the tomb on my own I didn't deserve to reach it at all besides I'd have to lie to H about what the money was for and since I'd never asked him for a loan before any excuse I gave would make him suspicious thinking about H I couldn't help but smile he was really going to freak when he found out about this the tomb was hidden less than 70 kilometers from his school practically his backyard that thought triggered an idea one that made me leap to my feet I ran out of the classroom and down the hall not only had I figured out a way to teleport to the other side of ludus I knew how to get my school to pay for it each Oasis public school had a bunch of different athletic teams including wrestling soccer football baseball volleyball and a few other sports that couldn't be played in the real world like quidd and zero gravity captur the flag students went out for these teams just like they did at at schools in the real world and they played using elaborate Sports capable haptic rigs that required them to actually do all of their own running jumping kicking tackling and so on the teams had nightly practice held pep rallies and traveled to other schools on ludus to compete against them our school gave out free teleportation vouchers to any student who wanted to attend an away game so we could sit up in the stands and root for old Ops number 1873 I'd only taken Vantage of this once when our Capture the Flag team had played against H's School in the Ops championships when I arrived in the school office I scanned the activities schedule and found what I was looking for right away that evening our football team was playing in away game against Ops number 0571 which was located roughly an hour's run from the forest where the tomb was hidden I reached out and selected the game and a teleportation voucher instantly appeared in my avatar inventory good for one free round trip to Ops number 0571 I stopped at my locker long enough to drop off my textbooks and grab my flashlight sword shield and armor then I sprinted out the front entrance and across the expansive Green Lawn in front of the school when I reached the red borderline that marked the edge of the school grounds I glanced around to make sure no one was watching me then I stepped across the line as I did the Wade 3 Nam tap egg floating above my head changed to read paral now that I was off school grounds I could use my avatar name once again I could also turn off my name tag completely which was what I did now because I wanted to travel incognito the nearest transport terminal was a short walk from the school at the end of a cobblestone path it was a large domed Pavilion supported by a dozen Ivory pillars each pillar bore an oasis teleportation icon a capital t in the center of a blue hexagon school had only been out for a few minutes now so there was a steady stream of avatars filing into the terminal inside were long rows of blue teleportation booths their shape and color always reminded me of Doctor Who's Tardis I stepped into the first empty Booth I saw and the doors closed automatically I didn't need to enter my destination on the touchscreen because it was already encoded on my voucher I just slid the voucher into a slot and a world map of ludus appeared on the screen showing a line from my present location to my destination a flashing Green Dot next to Ops 0571 the booth instantly calculated the distance I would be traveling 462 kilm and the amount my school would be invoiced for the fair 103 credits the voucher was verified the fair showed as paid and my avatar vanished I instantly reappeared in an identical booth in inside an identical transport terminal on the opposite side of the planet as I ran outside I spotted Ops number 0571 off to the South it looked exactly like my own School except the surrounding landscape was different I spotted some students from my school walking toward the nearby football stadium on their way to watch the game and rout for our team I wasn't sure why they bothered they could just as easily have watched the game via vid feed and any empty seats in the stands would be filled with randomly generated NPC fans who would wolf down virtual sodas and hot dogs while cheering wildly occasionally they would even do the wave I was already running in the opposite direction across a Rolling Green Field that stretched out behind the school a small mountain range loomed in the distance and I could see the amoeba shaped Forest at its base I turned on my Avatar's auto run feature then opened my inventory and selected three of the items listed there my armor appeared on my body my shield appeared in a sling on my back and my sword appeared in its Scabbard hanging at my side I was almost to the edge of the forest when my phone rang the ID said it was H probably calling to see why I hadn't logged into the basement yet but if I answered the call he would see a live video feed of my avatar running across a field at top speed with Ops number 0571 shrinking in the the distance behind me I could conceal my current location by taking the call as Audio Only but that might make him suspicious so I let the call roll to my vid mail H's face appeared in a small window on my display he was calling from a PVP Arena somewhere dozens of avatars were locked in Fierce Combat on a multi-tiered Playing Field behind him yo Z what are you up to jerking off to Lady Hawk he flashed his Cheshire and give me a shout I'm still planning to pop some cor and have a space Marathon you down he hung up and His Image winked out I sent a Texton reply saying I had a ton of homework and couldn't hang tonight then I pulled up the tomb of Horrors module and began to read through it again Page by page I did this slowly and carefully because I was pretty sure it contained a detailed description of everything I was about to face in the far reaches of the world under a lost and Lonely Hill read the module's introduction lies the Sinister tomb of Horrors this labyrinthine cmpt is filled with terrible traps strange and ferocious monsters rich and magical treasures and somewhere within rests the evil demilich that last bit worried me aich was an undead creature usually an incredibly powerful wizard or King who had employed dark magic to bind his intellect to his own reanimated corpse thus achieving a perverted form of immortality I'd encountered liches in countless video games and fantasy novels they were to be avoided at all costs I studied the map of the Tomb and the descriptions of its many rooms the tomb's entrance was buried in the side of a crumbling Cliff a tunnel LED down into a Labyrinth of 33 rooms and Chambers each filled with a variety of vicious monsters deadly traps and mostly cursed treasure if you somehow managed to survive all of the traps and find your way through the Labyrinth you would eventually reach the Crypt of asak the demilich the room was littered with treasure but if you touched it the undead King asak appeared and opened up a cad of Undead whoopass on you if by some miracle you managed to defeat the Lich you could take his treasure and leave the dungeon mission accomplished Quest completed if holiday had recreated the tomb of Horrors just as it was described in the module I was in big trouble my avatar was a third level wimp with non-magical weapons and 27 measly H points nearly all of the traps and monsters described in the module could kill me easily and if I somehow managed to make it past all of them and reach the Crypt the ultra powerful Lich could kill my avatar in seconds just by looking at him but I had a few things going for me first I didn't really have much to lose if my avatar was killed I I would lose my sword shield and leather armor and the three levels I'd managed to gain over the past few years I'd have to create a new first level Avatar which would spawn at my last login location in front of my school locker but then I could just return to the tomb and try again and again and again every night collecting XP and increasing in levels until I finally figured out where the copper key was hidden there was no such thing as a backup Avatar Oasis users could have only one Avatar at a time it was possible for hackers to use modded visors to spoof their retinal patterns and thus create a second account for themselves but if you got caught you'd be banned from the Oasis for life and you'd also be disqualified from participating in holidays Contest no Gunter would ever take that risk my other Advantage I hoped was that I knew exactly what to expect once I entered the tomb because the module provided me with a detailed map of the entire Labyrinth it also told me where all the traps were located and how to disarm or avoid them I also knew which rooms contained monsters and where all of the weapons and treasure were hidden unless of course holiday had changed things around then I was screwed but at the moment I was far too excited to be worried after all I had just made the biggest most important discovery of my life I was just a few minutes away from The Hiding Place of the copper key I found finally reached the edge of the forest and ran inside it was filled with thousands of perfectly rendered Maples Oaks sprues and Tamaracks the trees looked as though they had been generated and placed using standard Oasis landscape templates but the detail put into them was stunning I stopped to examine one of the trees closely and saw ants crawling along the intricate ridges in its bark I took this as a sign I was on the right track there was no path through the forest so I kept the map in the corner of my display and followed it to the skull topped Hill that marked the tomb entrance it was right where the map said it would be in a large Glade at the center of the forest as I stepped into the clearing my heart felt like it was trying to beat its way out of my rib cage I climbed up onto the low Hilltop and it was like stepping into the illustration from the DND module holiday had reproduced everything exactly 12 massive black Stones were arranged on the hilltop in the same pattern resembling the features of a human skull I walked to the northern edge of the hilltop and ascended the crumbling Cliff face I found there by Consulting the module map I was able to locate the exact spot in the cliff where the entrance to the tomb was supposed to be buried then using my shield as a shovel I began to dig within a few minutes I uncovered the mouth of a tunnel that led into a dark underground Corridor the floor of the corridor was a mosaic of colorful stones with a winding path of red tiles set into it once again just like in the DND module I moved the tomb of horr's dungeon map to the top right corner of my display and made it slightly transparent then I strapped my shield to my back and took out my flashlight I glanced around once more to make sure no one was watching me then clutching my sword in my other hand I entered the tomb of Horrors chapter 8 the walls of the corridor leading into the tomb were covered with dozens of strange paintings depicting enslaved humans Orcs elves and other creatures each Fresco appeared in the exact location described in the original DND module I knew that hidden in the tiled Stone surface of the floor were several spring-loaded trap doors if you stepped on one it snapped open and dropped you into a pit filled with poisoned iron spikes but because the location of each hidden trapo was clearly marked on my map I was able to avoid all of them so far everything had followed the original module to the letter if the same was true for the rest of the Tomb I might be able to survive long enough to locate the copper key there were only a few monsters lurking in this dungeon a gargoyle a skeleton a zombie some asps a mummy and the evil demilich asak himself since the map told me where each of them was hiding I should be able to avoid fighting them unless of course one of them was guarding the copper key and I could already guess who probably had that honor I tried to proceed carefully as if I had no idea what to expect avoiding the sphere of annihilation located at the end of the corridor I located a hidden door beside the last pit trap it opened into a small sloping passageway my flashlight reached into the darkness ahead flickering off The Damp stone walls my surroundings made me feel like I was in a lowbudget sword and sorcery flick like Hawk the Slayer or The Beastmaster I began to make my way through the dungeon room by room even though I knew where all the traps were located I still had to proceed carefully to avoid them all in a dark forbidding chamber known as the chapel of evil I found thousands of gold and silver coins hidden in the pews right where they were supposed to be it was more money than my avatar could carry even with the bag of holding that I found I gathered up as many of the gold coins as I could and they appeared in my inventory the currency was automatically converted and my credit counter jump to over 20,000 by far the largest amount of money I'd ever had and in addition to the credits my avatar received an equal number of experience points for obtaining the coins as I continued deeper into the tomb I obtained several magic items along the way a plus one flaming sword a gem of seeing a plus one ring of protection I even found a suit of plus three full plate armor these were the first magic items my avatar had ever possessed and they made me feel Unstoppable when I put on the suit of magical armor it shrank to fit my avatar perfectly its gleaming Chrome appearance reminded me of the badass armor worn by the knights in Excalibur I actually switched to a third-person view for a few seconds just to admire how cool my avatar looked wearing it the farther I went the more confident I became the tomb's layout and contents continued to match the module description exactly down to the Last Detail that is until I reached the pillared throne room it was a large Square chamber with a high ceiling filled with dozens of massive stone columns a huge raised deis stood at the far end of the room a top which rested an obsidian throne inlaid with silver and ivory skulls all of this matched the module description exactly with one huge difference the throne was supposed to be empty but it wasn't the demilich asak was sitting on it glaring down at me silently a Dusty gold crown glinted on his withered head he appeared exactly as he did on the cover of the original tomb of Horrors module but according to its text asak wasn't supposed to be here he was supposed to be waiting in a burial chamber much deeper in the dungeon I considered running but decided against it if holay had placed the Lich in this room perhaps he'd place the copper key here too I had to find out I walked across the chamber to the foot of the deis from here I could see the Lich more clearly his teeth were two rows of pointed cut diamonds array in a lipless grin and a large Ruby was set in each of his eye sockets for the first time since entering the tomb I wasn't sure what to do next my chances of surviving one-on-one combat with a demilich were non-existent my wimpy plus one flaming sword couldn't even affect him and the two magic rubies in his eye sockets had the power to suck out my Avatar's life force and kill me instantly even a party of six or seven highlevel avatars would have a difficult time defeating him I silently wished not for the last time that the Oasis was like an old Adventure game and that I could save my place but it wasn't and I couldn't if my avatar died here it would mean starting over with nothing but there was no point in hesitating now if the Lich killed me I would come back tomorrow night and try again the entire tomb should reset when the Oasis server Clock Struck midnight if it did all of the hidden traps I disarmed would reset themselves and the treasure and magic items would reappear I tapped the record icon at the edge of my display so that whatever happened next would be stored in a vidcap file I could play back and study later but when I tapped the icon I got a recording not allowed message it seemed that holiday had disabled recording inside the tomb I took a deep breath raised my sword and placed my right foot on the bottom step of the deis as I did there was a sound like cracking bones as asak slowly lifted his head the rubies in his eye sockets began to Glow with an intense red light I took several steps backward expecting him to LEAP down and attack me but he didn't rise from his throne instead he lowered his head and fixed me with his chilling gaze greetings partal he said in a rasping voice what is it that you seek this caught me off guard according to the module the Lich wouldn't speak he was just supposed to attack leaving me with no choice but to kill him or run for my life I seek the copper key I replied then I remembered I was speaking to a King so I quickly bowed my head dropped to one knee and added Your Majesty of course you do asak said motioning for me to rise and you've come to the right place he stood and his mummified skin cracked like old leather as he moved I clutched my sword more tightly still anticipating an attack how can I know that you are worthy of possessing the copper key he asked holy how the hell was I supposed to answer that and what if I gave the wrong answer would he suck out my soul and incinerate me I racked my brain for a suitable reply the best I could come up with was allow me to prove my worth Noble [Laughter] asra the Lich leted out a long disturbing cackle that echoed off the chamber's stone walls very well he said You shall prove your worth by facing me in a Jou I'd never heard of an undead Lich King challenging someone to adjust especially not in Subterranean burial chamber all right I said uncertainly but won't we be needing horses for that not horses he replied stepping away from his throne Birds he waved a skeletal hand at his throne there was a brief flash of light accompanied by a transformation sound effect which I was pretty sure had been lifted from the old super friend's cartoon the throne melted and morphed into an old coin operated video game cabinet two joysticks protruded from its control panel one yellow and one blue I couldn't help but grin as I read the name on The Game's back lid Marquee Jou Williams Electronics 1982 best two out of three games asak rasped if you win I shall Grant you what you seek what if you win I asked already knowing the answer if I am victorious the Lich said the rubies in his eye sockets blazing even brighter then you shalln't die a ball of swirling orange flame appeared in his right hand he raised it threateningly of course I said that was my first guess I just wanted to double check the fireball in acara's hand vanished he stretched out his leathery Palm which now held two shiny quarters the games are on me he said said he stepped up to the Jou machine and dropped both quarters into the left coin slot the game emitted two low electronic Chimes and the credit counter jumped from zero to [Music] two asak took hold of the yellow joystick on the left side of the control panel and closed his bony fingers around it art thou already he croaked yeah I said and took a deep breath I cracked my Knuckles and grabbed the player two joystick with my left hand poisoning my right hand over the flap button asak rocked his head from left to right cracking his neck it sounded like a snapping tree branch then he slapped the two player button and the Jou began joust was a classic 80s arcade game with a strange premise each player controls a knight armed with a lance player one is mounted on an ostrich while player two is is mounted on a stor you flap your wings to fly around the screen and Jou with the other player and also against several computer controlled enemy Knights who are all mounted on buzzards when you crash into an opponent whoever's Lance is higher on the screen wins the joust the loser is killed and loses a life whenever you kill one of the enemy Knights his Buzzard craps out a green egg that quickly hatches into another enemy Knight if you don't scoop it up in time there's also a winged ter dactyl that appears once in a while to wreak havoc I hadn't played joust in over a year it was one of H's favorite games and for a while he'd had a Jou cabinet in his chat room he used to challenge me to a game whenever he wanted to settle an argument or some asinine pop culture dispute for a few months we' played almost every day in the beginning H was slightly better than I was and he had a habit of gloating over his victories this had really irked me so I started practicing joust on my own playing a few games a night against an AI opponent I honed my skills until I finally got good enough to beat H repeatedly and consistently then I began to gloat over him savoring my revenge the last time we'd played I'd rub his nose into feet so mercilessly that he'd flipped out and vowed never to play me again since then we'd use Street Fighter two to settle our disputes my gel skills were a lot rust than I thought I spent the first 5 minutes just trying to relax and to reacquaint myself with the controls and the rhythm of the game during this time asak managed to kill me twice mercilessly slamming his winged Mount into mine at the perfect trajectory he handled the game's controls with the calculated Perfection of a machine which of course was exactly what he was cutting edge NPC artificial intelligence programmed by holiday himself by the end of our first game the moves and tricks I'd picked up during all those Marathon bouts with h were starting to come back to me but asak didn't need a warm-up he was in perfect form from the outset and there was no way I could make up for my weak showing at the start of the game he killed off my last man before I even cleared 30,000 points embarrassing one game down parille he said flashing a Rus grin one more to go he didn't waste time by making me stand there and watch him play out the rest of his game he reached up and found the power switch at the rear of the game cabinet then flipped it off and back on after the screen cycled through its chromatic Williams electronic spot up sequence he snatched two more quarters out of thin air and dropped them into the game art thou ready he inquired again hunching over the control panel I hesitated a moment then asked actually would you mind if we switch sides I'm used to playing on the left it was true when H and I played in the basement I always took the ostrich side being on the right side during the first game had screwed up my rhythm a bit Asar appeared to consider my request for a moment then he nodded certainly he said he stepped back from the cabinet and we switched sides it suddenly occurred to me just how absurd this scene was a guy wearing a suit of armor standing next to an undead King both hunched over the controls of a classic arcade game it was the sort of surreal image you'd expect to see on the cover of an old issue of heavy metal or Dragon magazine asara slapped the two-player button and my eyes locked on the screen the next game started out badly for me too my opponent's movements were Relentless and precise and I spent the first few waves just trying to evade him I was also distracted by the incessant click of his skeletal index finger as he tapped his flap button I unclenched my jaw and cleared my mind forcing myself not to think about where I was who I was playing against or what was at stake I tried to imagine that I was back in the basement playing against H it worked I slipped into the zone and the tide began to turn in my favor I began to find the flaws in the lich's playing style the holes in his programming this was something I'd learned over the years years mastering hundreds of different video games there was always a trick to beating a computer controlled opponent at a game like this A Gifted human player could always triumph over the game's AI because software couldn't improvise it could either react randomly or in a limited number of predetermined ways based on a finite number of pre-programmed conditions this was an axiom in video games and would be until humans invented true artificial intelligence our second game came right down to the wire but by the end of it I'd spotted a pattern to the lich's playing technique by changing my ost's direction at a certain moment I could get him to slam his snork into one of the oncoming buzzards by repeating this move I was able to pick off his extra lives one by one I died several times myself in the process but I finally took him down during the 10th wave with no extra lives of my own to spare I stepped back from the machine and sigh with relief I could feel rivulet of sweat running down my forehead and around the edge of my visor I wiped my face with the sleeve of my shirt and my avatar mimicked this motion good game asak said then to my surprise he offered me his withered claw of a hand I shook it chuckling nervously as I did so yeah I replied good game man it occurred to me that in a weird way I was actually playing against holiday I quickly pushed the thought out of my head afraid I might psych myself out asak once again produced two quarters and dropped them into the J machine this one is for all the marbles he said art thou ready I nodded this time I took the liberty of slapping the two-player button myself our final tiebreaking game lasted longer than the first two combined during the final wave so many buzzards filled the screen that it was hard to move without getting dusted by one of them the Lich and I faced off one final time at the very top of the playing field both of us incessantly hitting our flap buttons while slamming our joysticks left and right asak made a final desperate move to avoid my charge and dropped a micrometer too low his final Mount died in a tiny pixelated explosion Player Two game over appeared on the screen and the Lich leted out a long blood curdling howl of Rage he smashed an angry fist into the side of the Jou cabinet shattering it into a million tiny pixels that scattered and bounced across the floor then he turned to face me congratulations paral he said bowing low you played well thank you Noble asak I replied resisting the urge to jump up and down and shake my ass victoriously in his general direction instead I saw solemnly returned his bow as I did the Lich transformed into a tall human wizard dressed in flowing black robes I recognized him immediately it was H's Avatar anarak I stared at him utterly speechless for years gunters had speculated that anara still roamed The Oasis now as an autonomous NPC holiday's ghost in the machine now your reward the wizard said speaking with H's familiar voice the chamber filled with the sound of a full Orchestra triumphant horns were quickly joined by a stirring string section I recognized the music it was the last track from John Williams original Star Wars score used in the scene where Princess Leia gives Luke and Han their medals and Chewbacca as you may recall gets the shaft as the music built to a crescendo Anar stretched out his right hand there resting in his open Palm was the copper key the item for which millions of people had been searching for the past five years as he handed it to me the music faded out and in the same instant I heard a chime sound I just gained 50,000 experience points enough to raise my avatar all the way up to 10th level farewell sir paral Anar said I bid you good luck on your quest and before or I could ask what I was supposed to do next or where I could find the first gate his Avatar vanished in a flash of light accompanied by a teleportation sound effect I knew was lifted from the old 80s Dungeons and Dragons cartoon I found myself standing alone on the empty deas I looked down at the Copper key in my hand and felt overcome with Wonder and Elation it looked just as it had in anor's invitation a simple antique copper key it's oval-shaped bow embossed with the Roman numeral one I turned it over in my Avatar's hand watching the torch light play across the Roman numeral and that was when I spotted two small lines of text engraved into the metal I tilted the key up to the light and read them aloud what you seek lies hidden in the trash on the deepest level of dearra I didn't even need to read it a second time I instantly understood its meaning I knew exactly where I needed to go and what I would have to do once I got there hidden in the trash was a reference to the ancient trs8 line of computers made by Tandy and Radio Shack in the 7s and 80s computer users of that era had given the TRS 80 the derogatory nickname of trash 80 what you seek lies hidden in the trash H's first computer had been a TRS 80 with a whopping 16k of RAM and I knew exactly where to find a replica of that computer in the o every Gunter did in the early days of the Oasis holiday had created a small planet named Middletown named after his hometown in Ohio the planet was the size of a meticulous Recreation of his hometown as it was in the late 1980s that saying about how you can never go home again Halliday had found a way Middletown was one of his pet projects and he'd spent years coating and refining it and it was well known to gunters at least that one of the most detailed and accurate parts of the Middletown simulation was the recreation of holiday's boyhood home I'd never been able to visit it but I'd seen hundreds of screenshots and vidcaps of the place inside holiday's bedroom was a replica of his first computer a trs8 color computer 2 I was positive that this was where he'd hidden the first gate and the second line of text inscribed on the copper key told me how to reach it on the deepest level of deth garath was a word in sindarin the Elvish language JRR tolkin had created for the Lord of the Rings the word dearth meant battle but tolken had spelled the word with just one G not two dearth with two G's could refer only to one thing an incredibly obscure computer game called dungeons of dearth released in 1982 the game had been made for just one platform the trs8 color computer H had written in anor's Almanac that dungeons of dearra was the game that made him decide he wanted to become a video game designer and dungeons of dearth was one of the games sitting in the shoe box next to the TRS 80 in the recreation of holiday's childhood bedroom so all I had to do was teleport to Middletown go to holiday's house sit down at his trs8 play the game reach the bottom level of the dungeon and that was where I would find the first gate at least that was my interpretation Middletown was in sector 7 a long way from ludus but I collected more than enough gold and treasure to pay for the teleportation fair to get there by my Avatar's previous standards I was now Filthy Rich I checked the time 11:03 p.m. OST Oasis server time which also happened to be Eastern Standard time I had 8 hours before I had to be at school that might be enough time I could go for it right now Sprint like hell back up through the dungeon to the surface then hight tail it back to the nearest transport terminal from there I could teleport directly to Middletown if I left right now I should be able to reach holidays TRS 80 in under an hour I knew I should get some sleep first I'd been logged into the oasis for almost 15 solid hours and tomorrow was Friday I could teleport to Middletown right after school and then I'd have the whole weekend to tackle the first gate but who was I kidding there was no way I would be able to sleep tonight or sit through school tomorrow I had to go now I began to Sprint for the exit but then stopped in the middle of the chamber through the open door I saw a long Shadow bouncing on the wall accompanied by the echo of approaching footsteps a few seconds later the silhouette of an avatar appeared in the doorway I was about to reach for my sword when I realized I was still holding the copper key in my hand I shoved it into a pouch on my belt and fumbled my sword out of its Scabbard as I raised my Blade the Avatar spoke chapter 9 who the hell are you the silhouette demanded the voice sounded like it belonged to a young woman one who is itching for a fight when I failed to answer a stocky female Avatar stepped up out of the shadows and into the chambers flickering torch light she had Raven hair styled Jona Arc short and appeared to be in her L te or early 20s as she got closer I realized that I knew her we'd never actually met but I recognized her face from the dozens of screenshots she'd posted to her blog over the years it was Artemis she wore a suit of scaled gunmetal blue armor that looked more sci-fi than fantasy twin Blaster pistols were slung low on her hips and quick draw holsters and there was a long curved Elish sword in a Scabbard across her back she wore fingerless road warrior style racing gloves and a pair of classic Rayband Shades overall she seemed to be going for a sort of mid 80s post-apocalyptic cyberpunk girl next door look and it was working for me in a big way in a word hot as she walked toward me the heels of her studded combat boots clicked on the Stone floor She halted just out of my sword's reach but did not draw her own blade instead she slid her Shades up onto her Avatar's forehead a blatant affectation since sunglasses didn't actually affect a player's vision and looked me up and down making a show of sizing me up for a moment I was too Star Struck to speak to break my paralysis I reminded myself that the person operating the Avatar in front of me might not be a woman at all this girl whom I'd been cyber crushing on for the past 3 years might very well be an obese hairy knuckled guy named Chuck once I'd conjured up that sobering image I was able to focus on my situation and the question at hand what was she doing here after 5 years of searching I thought it was highly improbable that we' both discovered the copper key hiding place on the same night too big of a coincidence cat got your tongue She asked I said who the the hell are you like her I had my Avatar's name tag Switched Off clearly I wanted to remain anonymous especially under the circumstances couldn't she take the hint greetings I said bowing slightly I am one senses Vos Ramirez she smirked Chief medal urges to King Charles I of Spain At Your Service I replied grinning she'd caught my obscure Highlander quote and thrown another right back at me it was Artemis all right cute she glanced over my shoulder up at the empty deis then back at me so spill it how did you do do it what jousting against asak she said as if it were obvious suddenly I understood this wasn't the first time she'd been here I wasn't the first Gunter to decipher the limmer and find the tomb of Horrors Artemis had beaten me to it and since she knew about the just game she'd obviously already faced the Lich herself but if she already had the copper key there wouldn't be any reason for her to come back here so she clearly didn't have the key yet she'd faced the Lich at Jou and he'd beaten her so she'd come back to try again for all I knew this could be her eighth or ninth attempt and she obviously assumed the Lich had beaten me too hello she said tapping her right foot impatiently I'm waiting I considered making a break for it just running right past her back out through the Labyrinth and up to the surface but if I ran she might suspect that I had the key and decide to try and kill me to get it the surface of ludus was clearly marked as a safe Zone on the Oasis map so no player versus player combat was allowed but I had no way of knowing if the same was true of this tomb because it was underground and it didn't even appear on the planet map emis looked like a formidable opponent body armor Blaster pistols and that Elish sword she was carrying might be vorpal if even half of the exploits she'd mentioned on her blog were true her Avatar was probably at least 50th level or higher if PVP combat was permitted down here she'd kick my 10th level ass so I had to play this cool I decided to lie I got creamed I saidj really isn't my game she relaxed her posture slightly that seemed to be the answer she wanted to hear yeah same here she said in a commiserating tone holiday programmed Old King asak with some pretty wicked AI didn't he he's insanely hard to beat she glanced down at my sword which I was still brandishing defensively you can put that away I'm not going to bite you I did my best not to think about Artemis biting me and I kept my sword raised is this tomb in a PVP Zone I don't know you're the first avatar I've ever run into to down here she tilted her head slightly and smiled I suppose there's only one way to find out she Drew her sword lightning fast and turned into a clockwise spin bringing its glowing blade around and down at me all in a single blur of motion at the last second I managed to tilt my own blade upward to awkwardly Parry the attack but both of our swords halted in midair inches apart as if held back by some invisible force a message flashed on my display player versus player combat not permitted here I breathed a sigh of relief I wouldn't learn until later that the keys were non-transferable you couldn't drop one of them or give them to another Avatar and if you were killed while holding one it vanished right along with your body well there you have it she said grinning this is an opvp Zone after all she whipped her sword around in a figure 8 pattern then smoothly replaced it in the Scabbard on her back very slick as she my own sword too but without any fancy moves H must not have wanted anyone to duel for the right to Jou the king I said yeah lucky for you she said grinning lucky for me I replied folding my arms how do you figure she motioned to the empty de ass behind me well you must really be hurting for hit points now after fighting Asar so if asak beat you at joust then you had to fight him good thing I won I thought or else I'd probably be creating a new Avatar right about now I've got hit points Galore I fibbed that Lich was a total wuss oh really she said suspiciously I'm 52nd level and he's nearly killed me every time I've had to fight him I have to stock up on extra healing potions every time I come down here she eyed me a moment then said I also recognize your sword and the armor you're wearing you got them both right here in this dungeon which means they're better than whatever your avatar had before you look like a low-level wimo to me Juan Ramirez and I think you're hiding something now that I knew she couldn't attack me I considered telling her the truth why not just whip out the copper key and show it to her but I thought better of it the smart move now was to split and head straight for Middletown while I still had a head start she still didn't have the key and might not get it for several more days if I hadn't already had so many hours of Jou practice under my belt God knows how many attempts it would have taken me to beat asak think what you want Shira I said moving past her maybe I'll run into your off world sometime we can doke it out then I gave her a small wave see around where do you think you're going she said following me home I said still walking but what about the Lich and the copper key she motioned to the empty de he'll respond in a few minutes when the Oasis server clock hits midnight the whole tomb resets if you wait right here you'll get another shot at beating him without having to make your way through all those traps again that's why I've been coming here just before midnight every other day so I can get in two attempts in a row back to back clever if I hadn't succeeded on my first try I wondered how long it would have taken me to figure that out I thought we could take turns playing against him I said I just played him so it'll be your turn at midnight okay then I'll come back after midnight tomorrow we can alternate days until one of us beats him sound fair I she said studying me but you should stick around anyway something different might happen if there are two avatars here at midnight anarak probably prepared for that contingency maybe two instances of the Lich will appear one for each of us to play or maybe I prefer to play in private I said let's just take turns okay I was almost to the exit when she stepped in front of me blocking my path come on hold up a second she said her voice softening please I could have kept walking right through her Avatar but I didn't I was desperate to get to Middletown and locate the first gate but I was also standing in front of the famous emis someone I'd fantasized about meeting for years and she was even cooler in person than I had imagined I was dying to spend more time with her I wanted as the80s poet Howard Jones would say to get to know her well if I left now I might never run into her again listen she said glancing at her boots I apologize for calling you a low-level wimp that was not cool I insulted you it's okay you right actually I'm only 10th level regardless you're a fellow Gunter and a clever one too or you wouldn't be standing here so I want you to know that I respect you and I acknowledge your skills and I apologize for the trash talk apology accepted no worries cool she looked relieved her Avatar's facial expressions were extremely realistic which usually meant and they were synced to those of their operator instead of controlled by software she must have been using an expensive rig I was just a little freaked out to find you here she said I mean I knew somebody else would find this place eventually just not this quickly I've had this tomb all to myself for a while now how long I asked not really expecting her to say she hesitated then began to ramble 3 weeks she said exasperated I've been coming here for three freaking weeks weeks trying to beat that stupid Lich at that S9 Game and his AI is ridiculous I mean you know I'd never even played just before this and now it's driving me out of my guard I swear I was this close to finally beating his ass a few days ago but then she raked her fingers through her hair in frustration I can't sleep I can't eat my grades are going down the tubes because I've been ditching to practice joust I was about to ask if she went to school here on ludus but she continued to talk faster and faster as if a flood gate had opened in her brain the words just poured out of her she was barely pausing to breathe and I came here tonight thinking this would be the night I finally beat that bastard and got the copper key but when I got here I saw that somebody had already uncovered the entrance so I realized my worst fear had finally come true someone else had found the tomb so I ran all the way down here totally freaking out I mean I wasn't too worried because I didn't think anyone could possibly beat asak on their first triy but still she paused to take a deep breath and stopped abruptly sorry she said a second later I tend to ramble when I'm nervous or excited and right now I'm sort of both because I've been dying to talk to someone about all this but obviously I couldn't tell a soul right you can't just mention in casual conversation that you she cut herself off again man I'm such a monor mouth a jabber jaw a liberty jibit she mimed zipping her lips locking them and tossing away the imaginary key without thinking I minded grabbing the key out of the air and unlocking her lips this made her laugh an honest genuine laugh that involved a fair amount of snorting which made me laugh too she was so Charming her geeky demeanor and hyperkinetic speech pattern reminded me of Jordan my favorite character in Real Genius I'd never felt such an instant connection with another person in the real world or in the Oasis not even with h i felt lightheaded when she finally got her laughter her under control she said I really need to set up a filter to edit out that laugh of mine no you shouldn't I said it's a pretty great laugh actually I was wincing at every word coming out of my mouth I have a dorky laugh too great Wade I thought you just called her laugh dorky real smooth but she just gave me a shy smile and mouth the words thank you I felt a sudden urge to kiss her simulation or not I didn't care I was was working up the courage to ask her for her contact card when she stuck out her hand I forgot to introduce myself she said I'm emus I I know I said shaking her hand I'm actually a huge fan of your blog I've been a loyal reader of it for years seriously her Avatar seemed to blush I nodded it's an honor to meet you I said I'm parsible I realized that I was still holding her hand and made myself let go paral eh she tilted her head slightly named after the Knight of the Round Table who found the Grail right very cool I nodded now even more smitten I almost always had to explain my name to people and emis was the Greek god of the hunt right right but the normal spelling was already taken so I had to use Elite spelling with the number three in place of the E I know I said you mentioned that once in your blog 2 years ago I almost cited the date of the actual blog entry before I realized it would would make me sound like even more of a cyberstalking super creep uh you you said that you still run into noobs who pronounced it art three Miss that's right she said grinning at me I did she stretched out a racing gloved hand and offered me one of her contact cards you could design your card to look like just about anything Artemis had coated hers to look like a vintage Kenner Star Wars action figure still in the blister pack the figure was a crude plas rendering of her Avatar with the same face hair and outfit tiny versions of her guns and sword were included her contact info was printed on the card above the figure Artemis 52nd level Warrior Mage vehicle sold separately on the back of the card were links to her blog email and phone line Not only was this the first time a girl had ever given me her card it was also by far the coolest contact card I had ever seen this is by far the coolest contact card I've ever seen I said thank you I handed her one of my own cards which I designed to look like an original Atari 2600 Adventure cartridge with my contact info printed on the label paral 10th level Warrior used with a joystick controller this is awesome she said looking it over What a wicked design thanks I said blushing under my visor I wanted to propose marriage I added her card to my inventory and it appeared on my item list right below the copper key seeing the key listed there snapped me back to reality what the hell was I doing standing here making small talk with this girl when the first gate was waiting for me I checked the time less than 5 minutes until midnight listen Artemis I said it was truly awesome to meet you but I got to get going the server is about to reset and I want to clear out of here before all of those traps and Undead respond oh okay she actually sounded disappointed I should probably prepare for my J match anyway but here let me hit you with a cure serious wound spell before you go before I could protest she laid a hand on my Avatar's chest and muttered a few Arcane words my hit point counter was already at maximum so the spell had no effect but Artemis didn't know that she was still under the assumption that I'd had to fight the Lich there you go she said stepping back thanks I said but you shouldn't have we're competitors you know I know but we can still be friends right I hope so besides she said the third gate is still a long way off I mean it took 5 years for the two of us to get this far and if I know holiday's game design strategy things are just going to get harder from here on out she lowered her voice listen are you sure you don't want to stick around I bet we can both play at once we can give each other josting tips I've started to spot some flaws in the king's technique now I was starting to feel like a jerk for lying to her that's a really kind offer but I have to go I searched for a plausible excuse I got school in the morning she nodded but her expression shifted back to one of Suspicion then her eyes widened as though an idea had just occurred to her her pupils began to Dart around focused on the space in front of her and I realized she was looking something up in a browser window a few seconds later her face contorted in Anger you lying bastard she shouted you dishonest sack of crap she made her web browser window visible to me and spun it around it displayed the scoreboard on holiday's website in all the excitement I'd forgotten to check it it looked just as it had for the past 5 years with one change my Avatar's name now appeared at the very top of the list in first place with a score of 10,000 points beside it the other nine slots still contained holiday's initials J DH followed by zeros holy I muttered when anarak had handed me the copper key I'd become the first Gunter in history to score points in the contest and I realized since the scoreboard was visible to the entire world my avatar had just become famous I checked the newsfeed headlines just to be sure every single one of them contained my Avatar's name stuff like mysterious Avatar paral makes history and paral finds copper key I stood there in a days forcing myself to breathe then emis gave me a shove which of course I didn't feel she did knock my avatar backward a few feet though you beat him on your first try I nodded he won the first game but I won the last two just barely though she screamed clenching her fists how the hell did you beat him on your first try I got the distinct impression she wanted to punch me in the face it's pure luck I said I used to play Jou all the time against a friend of mine so I'd already had a ton of preparation I'm sure if you'd have just as much practice please she growled holding up a hand do not patronize me okay she let out what I can only describe as a howl of frustration I don't believe this do you realize I've been trying to beat him for five goddamn weeks but a minute ago you said it was three weeks don't interrupt me she gave me another shove I've been practicing Jou non-stop for over a month now I'm seeing flying ostriches in my goddamn sleep that can't be pleasant I said and you just walk in here and nail it on the first try she started pounding her fist into the center of her forehead and I realized she was pissed at herself not me listen I said it really was luck I've got a knack for classic arcade games that's my special I Shrugged so stop hitting yourself like Rainman okay she stopped and stared at me after a few seconds she let out a long sigh why couldn't it be centipede or Mrs Pac-Man or Burger time then i' probably already have cleared the first gate by now well I don't know about that I said she glared at me a second then gave me a devilish smile she turned to face the exit and began to execute a series of elaborate gestures in the air in front of her while Whispering the words of some incantation hey hold on a sec what are you doing I said but I already knew as she finished casting her spell a giant stone wall appeared completely covering the chamber's only exit she'd cast a barrier spell I was trapped inside the room oh come on I shouted why' you do that well you seem to be in an awful big hurry to get out of here my guess is that when anarak gave you the key he also gave you some sort of clue about the location of the first gate right that's where you're headed next isn't it yeah I said I thought about denying it but what was the point now so unless you can nullify my spell and I'm betting you can't Mr 10th level Warrior that barrier will keep you in here until just after midnight when the server resets all those traps you disarmed on your way down here will reset that should slow down your exit considerably yes I said it will and while you're busy making your way back up to the surface I'll have another shot at defeating asak and this time I'm going to destroy him then I'll be right behind you mister I folded my arms if the King has been beating your ass for the past 5 weeks what makes you think you're finally going to win tonight competition brings out the best in me she replied it always has and now I've got some serious competition I glanced over at the magical barrier she'd created she was over 50 th level so it would remain in existence for the Spell's maximum duration 15 minutes all I could do was stand there and wait for it to dissipate you're evil you know that I said she grinned and shook her head chaotic neutral sugar I grinned back at her I'm still going to beat you to the first gate you know I said probably but this is just the beginning you'll still have to clear it and there are still two more keys to find and two more gates to clear plenty of time for me to catch up with you then leave you in the dust Ace we'll see about that lady she motioned to the window displaying the scoreboard you're famous now you realize what that means don't you I haven't had much time to think about it yet well I have I've been thinking about it for the past 5 weeks your Avatar's name on that scoreboard is going to change everything the public will become obsessed with the contest again just like when it first began the media is already going berserk by tomorrow par will be a household name that thought made me a little queasy you could become famous in the real world too she said if you reveal your true identity to the media I'm not an idiot good because there are billions of dollars up for grabs and now everyone is going to assume you know how and where to find the egg there are a lot of people who would kill for that information I know that I said and I appreciate your concern but I'll be fine but I didn't feel fine I hadn't really considered any of this maybe because I'd never really believed I would actually be in this position we stood there in silence watching the clock and waiting what would you do if you won she suddenly asked how would you spend all that money I had spent a lot of time thinking about that I daydreamed about it all the time H and I had made absurd lists of things we would do and buy if we won the prize I don't know the usual I guess move to a Mansion buy a bunch of cool not be poor wow big dreamer she said and after you buy your mansion and your cool what will you do with 130 billion you'll have left over not wanting her to think I was some shallow idiot I impulsively blurted out what I'd always dreamed of doing if I won it was something I'd never told anyone I'd have a nuclear powered Interstellar spacecraft constructed in Earth's orbit I said I'd stock it with a lifetime supply of food food and water a self-sustaining biosphere and a supercomputer loaded with every movie Book song video game and piece of artwork that human civilization has ever created along with a standalone copy of the Oasis then I'd invite a few of my closest friends to come aboard along with a team of doctors and scientists and we'd all get the hell out of Dodge leave the solar system and start looking for an extra Solar earthlike Planet I hadn't thought this plan all the way through yet of course I still had a lot of detail s to work out she raised an eyebrow that's pretty ambitious she said but you do realize that nearly half the people on this planet are starving right I detected No Malice in her voice she sounded like she genuinely believed I might not be aware of this fact yes I know I said defensively the reason so many people are starving is because we've wrecked the planet the Earth is dying you know it's time to leave that's a pretty negative outlook she said if I win that D I'm going to make sure everyone on this planet has enough to eat once we tackle world hunger then we can figure out how to fix the environment and solve the energy crisis I Ruled my eyes right I said and after you pull off that Miracle you can genetically engineer a bunch of Smurfs and unicorns to frolic around this new perfect world that you've created I'm being serious she said you really think it's that simple I said you can just write a check for $240 billion and fix all the world's problems I don't know maybe not but I'm going to give it a shot if you win right if I win just then the Oasis server Clock Struck midnight we both knew the second it happened because the throne reappeared at top the deis along with asak he sat there motionless looking just like he did when ID first entered the room emis glanced up at him then back to me she smiled and gave me a small wave I'll see you around Parell yeah I replied see she turned and began to walk toward the deas I called after her hey Artemis she turned back for some reason I felt compelled to help her even though I knew I shouldn't try playing on the left side I said that's how I won I think he might be easier to beat if he's playing the stor she stared at me for a second possibly trying to gauge whether I was messing with her then she nodded and ascended the deas aser came to life as soon as she set foot on the first step greetings emus his voice boomed what is it that you seek I couldn't hear her reply but a few seconds later the throne transformed into the J game just as it had earlier Artemis said something to the Lich and the two of them switched sides so that she was on the left then they began to play I watched them play From a Distance until a few minutes later when her barrier spell dissipated I cast one last glance up at emis then threw open the door and ran out chapter 10 it took me a little over an hour to make my way back through the tomb and up to the surface the instant I crawled outside a message's waiting indicator began to flash on my display I realized then that Halliday had placed the tomb inside a null communication Zone so no one could receive calls texts or email while they were inside probably to prevent gunters from calling for help or advice I checked my messages and saw that H had been trying to reach me since the moment my name appeared on the scoreboard he called over a dozen times and had also sent several text messages asking me what in the sweet name of Christ was going on and screaming at me in all caps to call him back right now just as I'd finished deleting these messages I receiv received another incoming call it was H trying once again to reach me I decided not to pick up instead I sent him a short text message promising to call as soon as I could as I ran out of the forest I kept the scoreboard up in the corner of my display so I'd know immediately if emis won her J match and obtained the key when I finally reached the transport terminal and jumped into the nearest Booth it was just after 2:00 in the morning I entered my destination on the booth touch screen and a map of Middletown appeared on the display I was prompted to select one of the planet's 256 Transport terminals as my arrival point when holiday had created Middletown he hadn't just placed a single Recreation of his hometown there he'd made 256 identical copies of it spread out evenly across the planet's surface I didn't think it would matter which copy of his hometown I went to so I selected one at random near the equator then I tapped confirm to pay the fair and my avatar vanished a millisecond later I was standing inside a vintage 1980s phone booth located inside an old Greyhound bus station I opened the door and stepped out it was like stepping out of a time machine several NPCs milled around all dressed in mid 1980s attire a woman with a giant ozone depleting haird bobbed her head to an oversized Walkman a kid in a gray membersonly jacket leaned against the wall working on a Rubik's Cube a mohawked punk rocker sat in a plastic chair watching a Riptide rerun on a coin operated television I located the exit and headed for it drawing my sword as I went the entire surface of Middletown was a PVP zone so I had to proceed with caution shortly after the hunt began this planet had turned into Grand Central Station and all 26 copies of holiday's Hometown had been scoured and ransacked by an endless parade of gunters all searching for keys and clues the popular theory on the message boards was that Halliday had created multiple copies of his hometown so that several avatars could search it at the same time without fighting over a single location of course all this searching had yielded a big fat donut no keys no clues no egg since then interest in the planet had waned dramatically but some gunters probably still came here on occasion if there was already another Gunter inside H's house when I got there my plan was to make a run for it then steal a car and drive 25 miles in any direction to the next identical copy of Middletown and then the next until I found an instance of holiday's house that was unoccupied outside the bus station it was a beautiful Midwestern day the reddish orange Sun hovered low in the sky even though I'd never been to Middletown before I'd done extensive research on it so I knew how holiday had coated the planet so that no matter when you visited or where you were on the surface it was always a perfect late Autumn afternoon Circa 1986 I pulled up a map of the town and traced a route from my current location to holiday's childhood home it was about a mile to the north I pointed my avatar in that direction and began to run looking around I was astounded at the painstaking attention to detail I'd read that holiday had done all of the coating himself drawn drawing on his memories to recreate his hometown exactly as it was during his childhood he' used old street maps phone books photographs and video footage for reference to make everything as authentic and accurate as possible the place reminded me a lot of the town in the movie Foot Loose small Rural and sparsely populated the houses all seemed incredibly big and were placed ridiculously far apart it astounded me that 50 years ago even lower inome fames had an entire house to themselves the NPC citizens all looked like extras from a John Cougar melon Camp video I saw people out wrecking leaves walking dogs and sitting on porches out of curiosity I waved at a few of them and got a friendly wave in return every time Clues as to the time period were everywhere NPC piloted cars and trucks cruised slowly up and down the Shady streets all of them gas guzzling antiques Dodge omn Trans Ams iro z28s and Kars I passed a service station and the sign said gasoline was only 93 cents a gallon I was about to turn down Halliday Street when I heard a Fanfare of trumpets my eyes shot over to the scoreboard window still hovering in the corner of my display Artemis had done it her name now appeared directly below mine her score was 9,000 points 1,000 points less than mine it appeared that I'd received a bonus for being the first avatar to obtain the copper key the full ramifications of the scoreboards existence occurred to me for the first time from here on out it would not only allow gunters to keep track of each other's progress it would also show the entire world who the current Front Runners were creating instant celebrities and Targets in the process I knew at that exact moment emis must be staring down at her own copy of the copper key reading the clue engraved on its surface I was sure she'd be able to decipher it just as quickly as I had in fact she was probably already on her way to Middletown right now that got me moving again I now had only an hour's head start on her maybe less when I reached Cleveland Avenue the street on which Halliday had grown up I sprinted down the crack sidewalk to the front steps of his childhood home it looked just like the photographs I'd seen a modest two-story Colonial with red vinyl sighting two late 70s Ford sedans were parked in the driveway one of them up on cinder blocks looking at the replica H had created of his old house I tried to imagine what it had been like for him to grow up there I'd read that in the real Middletown Ohio every house on this street had been demolished in the late 90s to make room for a strip mall but helay had preserved his childhood forever here in the Oasis I ran up the walkway and entered through the front door which opened into the living room I knew this room well because it appeared in Ana's invitation I recognized the simulated wood grain paneling the burnt orange Carpeting and garish furniture that looked like it had been scavenged from several disco era yard Sals the house was empty for whatever reason Halliday had decided not to place NPC Recreations of himself or his deceased parents here perhaps that would have been too creepy even for him however I did spot a familiar family photo on the living room wall this portrait had been taken at the local Kmart in 1984 but Mr and Mrs Halliday were still dressed in late 7s Fashions 12-year-old Jimmy stood between them glowering at the camera from behind thick eyeglasses the holidays looked like an ordinary American family there was no hint that the stoic man in the brown leisure suit was an abusive alcoholic that The Smiling woman in the floral pants suit was bipolar or that the young boy in The Faded asteroids t-shirt would one day create an entirely new universe looking around I wondered why holiday who had always claimed to have had a miserable childhood had later become so nostalgic for it I knew that if and when I finally escaped from the stacks I'd never look back and I definitely wouldn't create a detailed simulation of the place I glanced over at the bulky Zenith television and the Atari 2600 connected to it the simulated wood grain on the atari's plastic casing perfectly matched the simulated wood grain on the television cabinet and on the living room walls beside the Atari was a shoe box containing nine game cartridges combat Space Invaders Pitfall Kaboom star Raiders The Empire Strikes Back Star Master yars Revenge and ET gunters had attached a large amount of significance to the absence of Adventure the game holiday was seen playing on this very same Atari at the end of anak's invitation people had searched the entire Middletown simulation for a copy of it but there didn't appear to be one anywhere on the whole planet gunters had brought copies of Adventure here from other planets but when they tried to play them on holiday Atari they never worked so far no one had been able to figure out why I did a quick search of the rest of the house and made sure no other avatars were present then I opened the door of James halliday's room it was empty so I stepped inside and locked the door screenshots and Sim caps of this room had been available for years and I'd studied all of them closely but this was my first time standing inside the real thing I got chills the carpet was a horrendous mustard color so was the wallpaper but the walls were almost entirely covered with movie and rock band posters Real Genius War Games Tron Pink Floyd dvo Rush a bookshelf stood just inside the door overflowing with Science Fiction and Fantasy paperbacks all titles I'd read of course a second bookshelf by the bed was crammed to capacity with old computer magazines and Dungeons and Dragons Rule books several long boxes of comic books were stacked against the wall each carefully labeled and there on the battered wooden desk in the corner was James halliday's first computer like many home computers of its era it was housed in the same case as its keyboard prs80 color computer 2 16 kiloby of ram was printed on a label above the keys cables snaked out of the back of the machine leading to an audio cassette recorder a small color television a dot matrix printer and a 300 B modem I sat down and located the power switch for the computer and the TV I heard a crackle of static followed by a low hum as the TV warmed up a moment later the TRS 8's green startup screen appeared and I saw these words extended color basic 1.1 copyright 1982 by tandi okay below this was a flashing cursor cycling through every color of the spectrum i t typed hello and hit the enter key syntax error appeared on the next line hello wasn't a valid command in basic the only language the ancient computer understood I knew from my research that the cassette recorder functioned as the TRS 80s tape drive it stored data as analog sound on magnetic audio tapes when holiday had first started programming the poor kid hadn't even had access to a floppy disc drive he'd had to store his code on cassette tapes a shoe box sat beside the tape drive filled with dozens of these cassettes most of them were text Adventure Games raka 2 Bedlam pyramid and Madness and the Minotaur there were also a few ROM cartridges which fit into a slot on the side of the computer I dug around in the Box until I found a cartridge with dungeons of deth printed in crooked yellow text on its worn label the game's artwork depicted a firstperson view of a long long dungeon Corridor blocked by a hulking Blue Giant with a large Stone ax when a list of the games found in halliday's bedroom had first appeared online I'd made sure to download and master every single one of them so I'd already solv dungeons of dearra about 2 years earlier it had taken most of a weekend the graphics were crude but even so the game was fun and Incredibly addictive I knew from reading the message boards that during the past 5 years several gunters had played and solved dungeons of dearra right here on holidays TRS 80 some had solved every single game in the shoe box just to see if anything would happen and nothing had but none of those gunters had been in possession of the copper key my hands were trembling slightly as I powered off the trs8 and inserted The Dungeons of dearra cartridge when I turned the computer back on the screen flashed to black and a crude graphic of a wizard appeared accompanied by some ominous sound effects the wizard held a staff in one hand and Below him printed in all capital letters was the legend I dare ye enter the dungeons of dearra I laid my fingers on the keyboard and began to play as soon as I did a jam box sitting on top of holiday's dresser turned itself on and familiar music began to blast out of it it was based poori score for Conan the Barbarian that must be Ana's way of letting me know I'm on the right track I thought I quickly lost track of time I forgot that my avatar was sitting in holiday's bedroom and that in reality I was sitting in my Hideout huddled near the electric heater tapping at the empty air in front of me entering commands on an imaginary keyboard all of the intervening layers slipped away and I lost myself in the game within the game in dungeons of dearra you control your avatar by typing in commands like turn left or get torch navigating your way through a maze of vector graphic corridors while fighting off spiders stone giants blobs and wraiths as you descend deeper and deeper working your way down through the dungeon's five increasingly difficult levels it took a while for the commands and quirks of the game to come back to me but once they did the game wasn't that difficult to solve the ability to save my place at any time basically gave me infinite lives although saving and reloading games from the tape drive proved to be a slow and tedious process it often took several attempts and a lot of fiddling with the cassette deck's volume knob saving my game also allowed me to log out for bathroom breaks and to recharge my space heater while I was playing the Conan the Barbarian score ended and the jam boox clicked over and began to play the opposite side of the tape treating me to the synthesizer Laden score for lady [Music] Hawk I couldn't wait to rub H's nose in that I reached the last level of the D dungeon around 4:00 in the morning and faced off against the evil wizard of dearra after dying and reloading twice I finally defeated him using an Elish sword and a ring of ice I completed the game by picking up the Wizard's magic ring claiming it for myself as I did an image appeared on the screen showing a wizard with a bright star on his staff and robes the text below read behold Destiny awaits the hand of a new Wizard I waited to see what would happen for a moment nothing did then holiday's ancient dot matrix printer came to life and noisily ground out a single line of text the tractor feed spooled the page out of the top of the printer I tore the sheet off and read what was there congratulations you have opened the first gate I glanced around and saw that there was now a rot Iron Gate embedded in the bedroom wall in the exact spot where the war game poster had been a second before in the center of the gate was a copper plated lock with a keyhole I climbed on top of H's desk so I could reach the lock then slid the copper key into the keyhole and turned it the entire gate began to Glow as if the metal had become superheated and its double doors swung inward revealing a field of stars it appeared to be a portal into deep space my God it's full of stars I heard a disembodied voice say I recognized it as a sound bite from the film 2010 then I heard a low ominous hum followed by a piece of music from that film score also sprock zerth Thruster by Richard Strauss [Music] [Applause] [Music] I leaned forward and looked through the portal left and right up and down nothing but an endless field of stars in all directions squinting I could also make out a few tiny nebula and galaxies in the distance I didn't hesitate I jumped into the open gate it seemed to pull me in and I began to fall but I fell forward Ward instead of down and the stars seemed to fall with [Music] me chapter 11 I found myself standing in an old video arcade playing Galaga the game was already in progress I had double ships and a score of 41,7 180 points I glanced down and saw that my hands were on the controls after a second or two of disorientation I reflexively began to play moving the joystick left just in time to avoid losing one of my ships keeping one eye on the game I tried to make sense of my surroundings in my peripheral vision I was able to make out a digdug game on my left and a Zakon machine to my right behind me I could hear a cacophony of digital Combat coming from dozens of other vintage arcade games then as I finished clearing the wave on gallaga I noticed my reflection in the game screen it wasn't my Avatar's face I saw there it was Matthew broad's face a young pre Ferris buer and pre- ladyhawk Matthew broadrick then I knew where I was and who I was I was David Lightman Matthew bro's character in the movie War games and this was his first scene in the film I was in the movie I took a quick glance around and saw a detailed replica of 20 grand palace the combination arcade SL Pizza Joint featured in the film kids with feathered 80s hairstyles were clustered around each of the games others sat in booths eating pizza and drinking sodas video Fever by the beepers blasted out of a juke box in the corner everything looked and sounded exactly as it did in the movie helay had copied every last detail from the film and Rec created it as an interactive simulation holy I'd spent years wondering what challenges awaited me inside the first gate never once that I imagined this but I probably should have War Games had been one of holiday's all-time favorite movies which was why I had watched it over three dozen times well that and also because it was completely awesome with an old school teenage computer hacker as the protagonist and it looked like all of that research was about to pay off now I heard a repetitive electronic beeping it seemed to be coming from the right pocket of the jeans I was wearing keeping my left hand on the joystick I reached in my pocket and pulled out a digital watch the readout said 7:45 a.m. when I pushed one of the buttons to silence the alarm a warning flashed in the center of my display David you're going to be late for school I used a voice command to pull up my Oasis map hoping to learn where the gate had transported me but it turned out that Not only was I no longer on Middletown I was no longer in the Oasis at all my locator icon was in the middle of a blank screen which meant I was otm off the map when I stepped into the gate it had transported my avatar into a standalone simulation a virtual location separate from the Oasis it seemed that the only way I could get back would be to clear the gate by completing the quest but if this was a video game how was I supposed to play it if this was a quest what was my goal I continued to play Galaga while pondering these questions a second later a young boy walked into the arcade and came over to me hi David he said his eyes fixed on my game I recognized this kid from the movie his name was Howie in the film Matthew brc's character hands his gallaga game off to hoe when he rushes off to school hi David the boy repeated in the exact same tone as he spoke this time his words also appeared as text superimposed across the bottom of my display like subtitles below this flashing red were the words final dialog warning I began to understand the simulation was warning me that this was my final chance to deliver the next line of dialogue from the film if I didn't say the line I could guess what would probably happen next game over but I didn't panic because I knew the next line I'd seen War gam so many times that I knew the entire film by heart hey OE I said but the voice I heard in my earphones was not my own it was Matthew br's voice and as I spoke the line the warning on my display vanished and a score of of 100 points appeared superimposed at the top of my display I racked my brain trying mentally to replay the rest of the scene the next line came to me how's it going I said and my score jumped to 200 points pretty good hoe replied I started to feel guilty this was incredible I was totally inside the movie Halliday had transformed a 50-year-old film into a real-time interactive video game I wondered how long it had taken him to program this thing another warning flashed on my display you're going to be late for school David hurry I stepped away from the Galaga machine you want to take this over I got to go I asked hoe sure he replied grabbing the controls thanks a Green Path appeared on the floor of the arcade leading from Where I Stood to the exit I started to follow it then remembered to run back and grab my my textbook off the digdug game just like David had in the movie as I did this my score jumped another 100 points and action bonus appeared on my display bye David Howe shouted bye I shouted back another 100 points this was easy [Music] damn how's it going good you want to take this over I got to go sure I followed the Green Path out of 20 grand palace and up the busy street a few blocks I was now running along a treelined Suburban Street I rounded a corner and saw that the path led directly to a large brick building the sign over the door said snow homet High School David's school and the setting of the next few scenes of the movie my mind was racing as I ran inside if all I had to do was rattle off lines of dialogue from war games on Q for the next two hours this was going to be a breeze without even knowing it I totally overprepared I probably knew War Games even better than I knew Real Genius and better off dead as I ran down the empty school hallway another warning flashed in front of me you're late for your biology class I continued to Sprint at top speed following the Green Path which was now pulsing brightly it eventually led me to the door of a classroom on the second floor through the window I could see that class was already in session the teacher was up at the board I saw my seat the only empty one in the room it was right behind Ali shidi I opened the door and tiptoed inside but the teacher spotted me right away seeds that are germinated in water before they are planted will what Runway Sprout roots oh David nice of you to join us oh David I have a little present for you making it all way to the end of the movie wound up being a lot harder than I anticipated it only took me about 15 minutes to figure out the rules of the game and to sort out how the scoring system worked I was actually required to do a lot more than simply recite dialogue I also had to perform all the actions that broad's character performed in the film in the correct way and at the correct moment it was like being forced to act the leading role in a play you'd watched many times but had never actually rehearsed for most of the movie's first hour I was on edge constantly trying to think ahead to have my next line of dialogue ready whenever I flubbed a line or didn't perform an action at the right moment my score decreased and a warning flashed on my display when I made two mistakes in a row a final warning message appeared I wasn't sure what would happen if I got three strikes in a row but my guess was that I'd either be expelled from the gate or that my avatar would simply be killed I wasn't eager to find out which it would be whenever I correctly performed seven actions or recited seven lines of dialogue in a row the game would award me a qcard power up the next time I blanked on what to do or say I could select the Q card icon and the correct action or line of dialogue would appear on my display sort of like a teleprompter during scenes that didn't involve my character the simulation cut to a passive third-party perspective and all I had to do was sit back and watch things play out sort of like watching a cut scene in an old video game during these scenes I could relax until my character came on screen again during one of these breaks I tried to access a copy of the movie from my Oasis consoles hard drive with the intention of playing it in a window on my display so I could refer to it but the system wouldn't let me in fact I found that I couldn't open any windows at all while inside the gate when I tried I got a warning no cheating try to cheat again and it's game over luckily it turned out that I didn't need any help once I'd collected the maximum number of five qard powerups I began to relax and the game actually started to be fun it wasn't hard to enjoy being inside one of my favorite flicks after a while I even discovered that I could earn bonus points by delivering ing a line in the exact tone and with the same inflection as in the film I didn't know it at the time but i' just become the first person to play an entirely new type of video game when GSS got wind of the war game simulation inside the first gate and they did a short time later the company quickly patented the idea and began to buy up the rights to old movies and TV shows and convert them into immersive interactive games that they dubbed flick syns flick syns became wildly popular there turned out to be a huge Market for games that allowed people to play a leading role in one of their favorite old movies or TV series by the time I reached the final scenes of the movie I was starting to get Twitchy from exhaustion I'd now been up for over 24 hours straight jacked in the entire time the Last Action I had to perform was instructing the Whopper supercomputer to play itself at Tic Tac Toe since every game The Who played ended in a tie this had the improbable effect of teaching the artificially intelligent computer that global thermonuclear war 2 was a game in which the only winning move is not to play this prevented the Whopper from launching all of the United States icbms at the Soviet Union I David Lightman a teenage computer geek from Southern Seattle had single-handedly prevented the end of human civilization the NORAD Command Center erupted in celebration and I waited for the movie's end credits to roll but they didn't instead all the characters around me vanished leaving me alone in the giant war room when I checked my Avatar's reflection in a computer monitor I saw that I no longer looked like Matthew brck I changed back into paral I glanced around the empty NORAD Command Center wondering what I was supposed to do next then then all of the giant video display screens in front of me went blank and four lines of glowing green text appeared on them it was another riddle the captain conceals the Jade key in a dwelling long neglected but you can only blow the whistle once the trophies are all collected I stood there for a second staring at the words in stunned silence then I snapped out of my days and quickly took several screenshots of the text as I was doing this the copper gate reappeared embedded in a nearby wall the gate was open and through it I could see holiday's bedroom it was the exit the way out I'd done it I'd cleared the first gate I glanced back up at the riddle on The View screens it had taken me years to decipher the limmerick and locate the copper key at first glance this new riddle about the Jade key looked like it might take just as long to figure out I didn't understand the word of it but I was also dead on my feet and in no condition for further puzzle solving I could barely keep my eyes open I jumped through the exit and landed with a thud on the floor of holiday's bedroom when I turned around and looked at the wall I saw that the gate was now gone and the war games poster had reappeared in its place I checked my avatar stats and saw that I'd been awarded several hundred th000 exper erience points for clearing the gate enough to raise my avatar from 10th level up to 20th in one shot then I checked the scoreboard my score had increased by 100,000 points and a copper colored gate icon now appeared beside it the media and everyone else had probably been monitoring the scoreboard since last night so now the whole world would know that I'd cleared the first gate I was too exhausted to consider the implications all I could think about was sleep I ran downstairs and into the kitchen the keys to the Halliday family car were on a peg board next to the refrigerator I grabbed them and rushed outside the car the one that wasn't up on blocks was a 1982 Ford Thunderbird the engine started on the second try I backed out of the driveway and drove to the bus station from there I teleported back to the transport terminal next to my school on ludus then I went to my locker and dumped all of my Avatar's new found treasure armor and weapons inside before finally logging out of the Oasis when I pulled off my visor it was 6:17 a.m. I rubbed my bloodshot eyes and gazed around the dark interior of my Hideout trying to wrap my head around everything that had just happened I suddenly realized how cold it was in the van I'd been using the tiny space heater of been on all night and had drained the batteries I was way too tired to get on the exercise bike and recharge them and I didn't have the energy to make the track back to my aunt's trailer either but the sun would be up soon so I knew I could crash there in my Hideout without worrying that I would freeze to death I slid off my chair and onto the floor then curled up in my sleeping bag as I closed my eyes I began to ponder the riddle of the Jade key but sleep swallowed me whole a few seconds later I had a dream I was standing alone in the center of a scorched Battlefield with several different armies arrayed against me an army of Sixers stood in front of me and several different Gunter Clans surrounded me on all other flanks brandishing swords and guns and weapons of powerful magic I looked down at my body it wasn't paro's body it was my own and I was wearing armor made of paper in my right hand was a toy plastic sword and in my left was a large glass egg it looked exactly like the glass egg that causes Tom Cruz's character so much grief in Risky Business but somehow I knew that in the context of my dream it was supposed to be holidays Easter Egg and I was standing there out in the open holding it for all the world to see in Unison the armies of my enemies let out a Fierce battlecry and charged toward me they converged on my position with bared teeth and blood in their eyes they were coming to take the egg and there was nothing I could do to stop them I knew I was dreaming so I expected to wake up before they reached me but I didn't the dream continued as the egg was ripped from my grasp and I felt myself being torn to shreds chapter 12 I slept for over 12 hours and missed school entirely when I finally woke up I rubbed my eyes and lay there in silence a while trying to convince myself that the events of the previous day had actually occurred it all seemed like a dream to me now far too good to be real eventually I grabbed my visor and got online to find out out for sure every single Newsfeed seemed to be showing a screenshot of the scoreboard and my Avatar's name was there at the top in first place Artemis was still in second place but the score beside her name had now increased to 109,000 points just 1,000 points less than mine and like me she had a copper colored gate icon beside her score now too so she'd done it while I'd slept she deciphered the inscription on the copper key then she'd gone to Middletown located the gate and made it all the way through war games just a few hours after I had I no longer felt quite so impressed with myself I flipped past a few more channels before stopping on one of the major Newsfeed networks where I saw two men sitting in front of a screenshot of the scoreboard the man on the left some middle-aged intellectual type build as Edgar Nash Gunter expert appeared to be explaining the scores to the newsfeed ER beside him it appears that the Avatar named paral receives slightly more points for being the first to find the copper key Nash said pointing to the scoreboard then early this morning baral's score increased another 100,000 points and a copper gate icon appeared beside his score the same change occurred to artemis' score a few hours later this seems to indicate that both of them have now completed the first of the three gates the famous three gates that James holiday spoke of in the anara in invitation video the very same but Mr Nash after 5 years how is it that two avatars accomplished this feed on the same day within just a few hours of each other I think there's only one plausible answer these two people paral and Artemis must be working together they're probably both members of what is known as a Gunter Clan these are groups of egg hunters who I frowned and changed the channel surfing the feeds until I saw an overly enthusiastic reporter interviewing Ogden Morrow via satellite the Ogden Morrow joining us live from his home in Oregon thanks for being with us today Mr Morrow no problem Morrow replied it had been almost 6 years since Morrow had last spoken to the media but he didn't seem to have aged a day his wild gray hair and long beard made him look like a cross between Albert Einstein and Santa Claus that comparison was also a pretty good description of his personality the reporter cleared his throat obviously a bit nervous let me start off by asking what your reaction is to the events of the last 24 hours were you surprised to see those names appear on holidays scoreboard surprised yes a little I suppose but excited is probably a better word like everyone else I've been watching and waiting for this to happen of course I wasn't sure if I'd still be alive when it finally did I'm glad that I am it's all very exciting isn't it do you think these two gunters paral and emis are working together I have no idea I suppose it's possible as you know gregarious simulation systems keeps all Oasis user records confidential so we have no way of knowing their true identities do you think either of them will come forward and reveal themselves to the public not if they're smart they won't Morrow said adjusting his wire rim spectacles if I were in their shoes I'd do everything possible to remain anonymous why do you say that because once the world discovers who they really are they'll never have A Moment's Peace afterward if people think you can help them find holiday's egg they'll never leave you alone trust me I know from experience yes I suppose you do the reporter flashed a fake smile however this network has contacted both parsal and emis via email and we've extended generous monetary offers to each of them in return for an exclusive interview either in the Oasis or here in the real world I'm sure they're receiving many such offers but I doubt they'll actually accept Moro said then he looked straight into the camera and I felt as if he was now speaking directly to me anyone smart enough to accomplish what they have should know better than to risk everything by talking to the vultures in the media the reporter chuckled uncomfortably Mr Morrow I really don't think that's called for Morrow Shrugged that's too bad I do the reporter cleared his throat again well moving on do you have any predictions about what changes we might see on the scoreboard in the weeks to come I'm betting that those other eight empty slots will fill up pretty quickly what makes you think so one person can keep a secret but not two he replied staring directly into the camera again I don't know maybe I'm wrong but I am sure of one thing the Sixers are going to use every dirty trick at their disposal to learn the location of the copper key and the first gate you're referring to the employees of innovative online Industries yes II the Sixers their sole purpose is to exploit loopholes in the contest rules and subvert the intention of Jim's will the very soul of the Oasis is at stake here the last thing Jim would have wanted is for his creation to fall into the hands of a fascist multinational conglomerate like II Mr Morrow II owns this network of course they do Morrow shouted gleefully they own practically everything including you pretty boy I mean did they tattoo a UPC code on your ass when they hired you to sit there and spout their corporate propaganda the reporter began to stutter glancing nervously at something off camera quick Morrow said you better cut me off before I say anything else he broke up into gales of laughter just as the network cut his satellite feed the reporter took a few seconds to regroup then said thank you again for joining us today Mr Morrow unfortunately that's all the time we have to speak with him now let's go back to Judy who is standing by with a panel of renowned holiday Scholars I smiled and closed the vid feed window pondering the old man's advice I'd always suspected that Morrow knew more about the contest than he was letting on Morrow and Halliday had grown up together founded a company together and changed the world together but Morrow had led a very different life from holidays one involving a much greater connection to humanity and a great deal more tragedy during the mid90s back when gregarious simulation systems was still just gregarious games Morrow had moved in with his high school sweetheart Kira Underwood Kira was born and raised in London her birth name was Karen but she'd insisted on being called Kira ever since her first viewing of the Dark Crystal Morrow met her when she spent her junior year as an exchange student at his high school in his autobiography Morrow wrote that she was the quintessential geek girl unabashedly obsessed with Monty Python comic books fantasy novels and video games she and Morrow shared a few classes at school and he was smitten with her almost immediately he invited her to attend his weekly Dungeons and Dragons gaming sessions just as he done with holiday a few years earlier and to his surprise she accepted she became the lone female in our weekly gaming group moral wrote and every single one of the guys developed a massive Crush on her including Jim she was actually the one who gave him the nickname anarak a British slang term for an obsessive geek I think Jim adopted it as the name of his D and D character to impress her or maybe it was his way of trying to let her know that he was in on the joke the opposite sex made Jim extremely nervous and Kira was the only girl I ever saw him speak to in a relaxed manner but even then it was only in character a zanak during the course of our gaming sessions and he would only address her as luia the name of her D and D character Ogden and Kira began dating by the end of the school year when it was time for her to return home to London the two of them had openly declared their love for each other they kept in touch during their remaining year of school by emailing every day using an early pre- internet computer bulletin board Network called phonet when they both graduated from high school Kira returned to the states moved in with Morrow and became one of gregarius game's first employees for the first two years she was their entire art department they got engaged a few years after the launch of the Oasis they were married a year later at which time Kira resigned from her position as an artistic director at GSS she was a millionaire now too thanks to her company stock options Morrow stayed on at GSS for five more years then in the summer of 2022 he announced he was leaving the company at the time he claimed it was for personal reasons but years later moral wrote in his autobiography that he left GSS because we were no longer in the video game business and because he felt that the Oasis had evolved into something horrible it had become a self-imposed prison for Humanity he wrote a pleasant place for the world to hide from its problems while human civilization slowly collapses primarily due to neglect rumors also surfac that Morrow had chosen to leave because he'd had a huge falling out with holiday neither of them would confirm or deny these rumors and no one seemed to know what sort of dispute had ended their long friendship but sources within the company had said that at the time of Morrow's resignation he and Halliday had not spoken to each other directly in several years even so when Morrow left GSS he sold his entire share of the company directly to Holiday for an undisclosed sum Ogden and Kira retired to their home in Oregon and started a nonprofit educational software company hedonia interactive which created free interactive adventure games for kids I'd grown up playing these games all of which were set in the Magical Kingdom of house Adonia Morrow's games had transported me out of my Grimm surroundings as a lonely kid growing up in the stacks theyd also taught me how to do math and solve puzzles while building my self-esteem in a way the moral were among my very first teachers for the next decade Ogden and Kira enjoyed a peaceful happy existence living in working in relative seclusion they tried to have children but it wasn't in the cards for them they'd begun to consider adoption when in the winter of 2034 Kira was killed in a car accident on an icy Mountain Road just a few miles from their house after that Ogden continued to run hedonia interactive on his own he managed to stay out of the Limelight until the morning of H's death when his home was besieged by the media as H's former closest friend everyone assumed he alone could explain why the deceased billionaire had put his entire Fortune up for grabs Morrow eventually held a press conference just to get everyone off his back it was the last time he'd spoken to the me media until today I'd watched the video of that press conference many many times Morrow had begun it by reading a brief statement saying that he hadn't seen or spoken to Holiday in over a decade we had a falling out he said and that is something I refuse to discuss now or in the future suffice it to say I have not communicated with James Halliday in over 10 years then why did Hall leave you his vast collection of classic coin operated video games a reporter asked all of his other material possessions are to be auctioned off if you're no longer friends why are you the only person he left anything too I have no idea Morrow said simply another reporter asked Morrow if he planned on looking for holidays Easter egg himself since he'd known holiday so well and therefore probably had a better chance than anyone of finding it Morrow reminded the reporter that the contest rules laid out in holiday's will stated that no one who who had ever worked for gregarious simulation systems or anyone in their immediate families was eligible to take part in the contest did you have any idea what helay was working on all those years he was in seclusion another reporter asked no I suspected he might be working on some new game Jim was always working on a new game for him making games was as necessary as breathing but I never imagined he was planning something of this magnitude as the person who knew James holiday the best do you have any advice for the millions of people who are now searching for his Easter egg where do you think people should start looking for it well I think Jim made that pretty obvious Morrow replied tapping a finger against his Temple just as holiday had in the anara invitation video Jim always wanted everyone to share his obsessions to love the same things he loved I think this contest is his way of giving the entire world an incentive to do just that I closed my file on Morrow and checked my email the system informed me that I'd received over 2 million new unsolicited messages these were automatically filed in a separate folder so I could sore through them later only two new messages were left in my inbox from people on my authorized contact list one was from H the other was from emus I opened H's message first it was vid mail and his Avatar's face appeared in a window holy he shouted I don't believe this now you've cleared the first gate and you still haven't phoned me call my ass now the second you get this I considered waiting a few days to call H back but quickly abandoned that idea I needed to talk to someone about all this and H was my best friend if there was anyone I could trust it was him he picked up on the first ring and his Avatar appeared in a new window window in front of me you dog he shouted you brilliant Sly devious dog ah I said trying to dead pan it what's new what's new what's new you mean other than you know seeing my best friend's name appear at the top of the scoreboard other than that you mean he leaned forward so that his mouth completely filled the vid feed window and shouted other than that not much not much new at all I laughed sorry it took me a while to call you I kind of had a late night no you had a late night he said look at you how can you be so calm don't you realize what this means this is huge this is beyond epic I mean congrats you freaking relations man he began to Bow repeatedly I'm not worthy I'm not worthy cut it out okay it's really not a big deal I haven't actually won anything yet not a big deal he cried not a big deal are you kidding me you're a legend now man you just became the first Gunter in history to find the copper key and clear the first gate you are a god From This Moment forth do you not realize this fool seriously stop it I said I'm already freaked out enough as it is have you seen the news the whole world is freaking out and the gun boards are going apeshit and everyone is talking about you Amigo I know listen I hope you're not pissed at me for keeping you in the dark I felt really weird about not returning your calls or telling you what I was up to oh come on he rolled his eyes dismissively you know damn well that if I'd been in your shoes I would have done the same thing that's how the game is played his tone grew more serious but I am curious to know how that Artemis chick happened to find the copper key and clear the gate right after you did everyone seems to think you two were working together but I know that's hor so what happened was she following you or something I shook my head no she found the keys hiding place before I did last month she said she just wasn't able to obtain the key until now I was silent for a second I can't really go into the details without you know AG held up both of his hands no worries I totally understand I wouldn't want you to accidentally drop any hints he flashed his trademark Cheshire grin and his gleaming white teeth seemed to take up half of the vid feed window actually I should let you know where I am right now He adjusted his vid feed's virtual camera so that it pulled back from a tight shot of his face to a much wider shot that revealed where he was standing next to the flat topped Hill just outside the entrance to the tomb of Horrors my jaw dropped how in the hell well when I saw your name all over the newsfeeds last night it occurred to me that for as long as I've known you you've never had had the dough to do much traveling any traveling really so I figured that if you'd found the hiding place of the copper key it probably had to be somewhere close to ludus or maybe even on ludus well done I said and I meant it not really I spent hours racking my p- sized brain before I finally thought to search the map of ludus for the surface features described in the Tomb of Horrors module but once I did everything else clicked into place and here I am congratulations yeah well it's pretty easy Once you pointed me in the right direction he glanced back over his shoulder at the tomb I've been searching for this place for years and all this time it was within walking distance of my school I feel like a total for not figuring it out on my own you're not a I said you deciphered the limeri on your own otherwise you wouldn't even know about the tomb of Horrors module right so you're not pissed he said that I took advantage of my inside info I shook my head no way I would have done the same thing well regardless I owe you one and I won't forget it I nodded toward the tomb behind him have you been inside yet yeah I came back here to call you while I wait for the server to reset at midnight the tomb is empty right now because your friend Artemis already blew through here earlier today we not friends I said she just showed up a few minutes after I got the key huh did you guys throw down no the tomb is a no PVP Zone I glanced at the time time looks like you've still got a few hours to kill before the reset yeah I've been studying the original D and module trying to prepare myself he said want to give me any tips I grinned no not really I didn't think so he was silent for a few seconds listen I have to ask you something he said does anyone at your school know your Avatar's name no I've been careful to keep it a secret no one there knows me as Parable not even the teachers good he said I took the same precaution unfortunately several of the gunters who frequent the basement know that we both attend school on ludus so they might be able to connect the dots I'm worried about one in particular I felt a rush of panic irck H nodded he's been calling me non-stop since your name appeared on the scoreboard asking what I know I played Dumb and he seemed to buy it but if my name shows up on the scoreboard too you can bet he'll start bragging that he knows us and when he starts telling other is that you and I are both students on ludus I cursed then every Gunter in the Sim will be headed here to search for the copper key right and before long the location of the Tomb will be common knowledge I sigh well then you better get the key before that happens I'll do my best he held up a copy of the tomb of Horrors module now if you'll excuse me I'm going to reread this thing for the hundredth time today good luck H I said give me a call once you cleared the gate if if I clear the gate you will I said and when you do we should meet in the basement to talk you got it Amigo he waved goodbye and was about to end the call when I spoke up hey h yeah you might want to brush up on your jousting skills I said you know between now and midnight he looked puzzled for a moment then a smile of understanding spread across his face H I got you thanks pal good luck as his vid feed window winked out I found myself wondering how H and I would remain friends through everything that lay ahead neither of us wanted to work as a team so from here on out we would be in direct competition with each other would I eventually regret helping him today or come to resent that I'd unwittingly led him to the Copper Keys hiding place I pushed these thoughts aside and opened the email from Artemis it was an oldfashioned text message dear paral congrats see you're famous now just like I said although it looks like we've both been thrust into the Limelight kind of scary huh thanks for the tip about playing on the left side you're right somehow they did the trick but don't go thinking I owe you any favors Mister the first gate was pretty wild wasn't it not at all what I expected it would have been cool if holiday had given me the option to play Ali shidi instead but what can you do the new riddle is a real heads scratcher isn't it I hope it doesn't take us another 5 years to decipher it anyway I just wanted to say it was an honor to meet you I hope our paths cross again soon sincerely emis P.S enjoy being number one will you can it won't last for long I reread her message several times grinning like a Dopey school boy then I typed out my reply dear emis congratulations to you too you weren't kidding competition clearly brings out the best in you you're welcome for the tip about playing on the left you totally owe me a favor now smiley face the new riddle is a cinch I think I've already got it figured out actually what's the hold up on your end it was an honor to meet you too if uh if you ever feel like hanging out in the chat room let me know mtfb w a paral PS are you challenging me bring the pain woman after rewriting it a few dozen times I tapped the send button then I pulled up my screenshot of the Jade key riddle and began to study it syllable by syllable but I couldn't seem to concentrate no matter how hard I tried to focus my mind kept drifting back to Artemis chapter 13 H cleared the first gate early the next day his name appeared on the scoreboard in third place with a score of 108,000 points the value of obtaining the copper key had dropped another 1,000 points for him but the value of clearing the first gate remained unchanged at 100,000 points I returned to school that same morning I'd considered calling in sick but was concerned that my absence might raise suspicions when I got there I realized I shouldn't have worried due to the sudden renewed interest in the hunt over half of the student body and quite a few of the teachers didn't bother showing up since everyone at school knew my avatar by the name Wade 3 no one paid any attention to me roaming the Halls unnoticed I decided that I enjoyed having a secret identity it made me feel like Clark Kent or Peter Parker I thought my dad would probably have gotten a kick out of that that afternoon irck sent emails to H and me attempting to Blackmail us he said that if we didn't tell him how to find the copper key in the first gate he would post what he knew about us to every Gunter message board he could find when me refused he made good on his threat and began telling anyone who had listen that H and and I were both students on ludus of course he had no way of proving that he really knew us and by that time there were hundreds of other gunters claiming to be our close personal friends so H and I were hoping his posts would go unnoticed but they didn't of course at least two other gunters were sharp enough to connect the dots between ludus the limmerick and the tomb of Horrors the day after irck let the cat out of the bag the name Dao appeared in the fourth slot on the scoreboard then then less than 15 minutes later the name Shoto appeared in the fifth slot somehow they' both obtained a copy of the copper key on the same day without waiting for the server to reset at midnight then a few hours later both Dao and shotto cleared the first gate no one had ever heard of these avatars before but their names seemed to indicate they were working together either as a duo or as part of a clan Shoto and daato were the Japanese names for the short and long swords worn by Samurai when worn as a set the two swords were called Dao and this quickly became the nickname by which the two of them were known only four days had passed since my name had first appeared on the scoreboard and one new name had appeared below mine on each subsequent day the secret was out now and the hunt seemed to be shifting into high gear all week I was unable to focus on anything my teachers were saying luckily I only had two months of school left and I'd already earned enough credits to graduate even if I coasted from here on out so I drifted from one class to the next in a days puzzling over the Jade key riddle reciting it again and again in my mind the captain conceals the Jade key in a dwelling long neglected but you can only blow the whistle once the trophies are all collected according to my English Lit textbook a poem with four lines of text and an alter line rhyming scheme was known as the quatrain so that became my nickname for the riddle each night after school I logged out of the Oasis and filled the blank pages of my Grail diary with possible interpretations of the quatrain what Captain was anac talking about Captain Kangaroo Captain America Captain Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and where in the hell was this dwelling long neglected that part of the clue seemed maddeningly non-sp Pacific holiday's boyhood home on Middletown couldn't really be classified as neglected but maybe he was talking about a different house in his hometown that seemed too easy and too close to the hiding place of the copper key at first I thought the neglected dwelling might be a reference to the Revenge of the Nerds one of holiday's favorite films in that movie The Nerds of the title rent a dilapidated house and fix it up during a classic80s music montage I visited a Rec creation of the Revenge of the nerd's house on the planet skullnick and spent a day searching it but it proved to be a dead end the last two lines of the quatrain were also a complete mystery they seem to say that once you found the neglected dwelling you would have to collect a bunch of trophies and then blow some kind of whistle or did that line mean blow the whistle in the colloquial sense as in to reveal a secret or alert someone to a crime either way it didn't make any sense to me but I continued to go over each line word by word until my brain began to feel like Aquafresh toothpaste that Friday after school the day daato and Shoto cleared the first gate I was sitting in a secluded spot a few miles from my school a steep hill with a solitary tree at the top I like to come here to read to do my homework or to simply enjoy the view of the surrounding Green Fields I didn't have access to that kind of view in the real world as I sat under the tree I sorted through the millions of messages still clogging my inbox I'd been sifting through them all week I'd received notes from people all over the globe letters of congratulation please for help death threats interview requests several long incoherent diet tribes from gunters whose quest for the egg had clearly driven them insane I'd also received invitations to join four of the biggest Gunter Clans the Raptors Clan Destiny the key Masters and team bansai I told each of them thanks but no thanks when I got tired of reading my fan mail I sorted out all of the messages that were tagged as business related and began reading through those I discovered that IID received several offers from movie studios and book publishers all interested in buying the rights to my life story I deleted them all because I decided never to reveal my true identity to the world at least not until after I found the egg I'd also received several endorsement deal offers from companies who wanted to use parzival's name and face to sell their services and products an Electronics retailer was interested in using my avatar to promote their line of Oasis immersion Hardware so they could sell paral approved haptic rigs gloves and visors I also had offers from a pizza delivery chain a shoe manufacturer and and an online store that sold custom avatar skins there was even a toy company that wanted to manufacture a line of paral lunchboxes and action figures these companies were offering to pay me an oasis credits which would be transferred directly to my Avatar's account I couldn't believe my luck I replied to every single one of the endorsement inquiries saying that I would accept their offers under the following conditions I wouldn't have to reveal my true identity and I would only do business business through my Oasis Avatar I started receiving replies within the hour with contracts attached I couldn't afford to have a lawyer look them over but they all expired within a year's time so I just went ahead and signed them electronically and emailed them back along with a three-dimensional model of my avatar to be used for the commercials I also received requests for an audio clip of my Avatar's voice so I sent them a synthesized clip of a deep baritone that made me sound like one of those guys who did voiceovers for movie trailers once they received everything my Avatar's new sponsors informed me that they'd wire my first round of payments to my Oasis account within the next 48 hours the amount of money I was going to receive wouldn't be enough to make me Rich not by a long shot but to a kid who'd grown up with nothing it seemed like a fortune I did some quick calculations if I lived frugally I would have enough to move out of the STA and rent to small efficiency apartment somewhere for a year at least the very thought filled me with nervous excitement I had dreamed of escaping the stacks for as long as I could remember and now it appeared that dream was about to come true with the indorsement deals taken care of I continued to sort through my email messages when I sorted the remaining messages by sender I discovered that I'd received over 5,000 emails from Innovative online Industries actually they sent me 5,000 copies of the same email they'd been resending the same message all week since my name first appeared on the scoreboard and they were still resending it once every minute the Sixers were mailbombing me to make sure they got my attention the emails were all marked maximum priority with the subject line urgent business proposition please read immediately the second I opened one a delivery confirmation was sent back to II letting them know that I was finally reading their message after that they stopped resending it dear paral the email began first allow me to congratulate you on your recent accomplishments which we at Innovative online Industries hold in the highest regard on behalf of II I wish to make you a highly lucrative business proposition the exact details of which we can discuss in a private chat link session please use the attached contact C to reach me at your earliest convenience regardless of the day or hour given our reputation within the gun Community I would understand if you are hesitant to speak with me however Please be aware that if you choose not to accept our proposal we intend to approach each of your competitors at the very least we hope you'll do us the honor of being the first to hear our generous offer what have you got to lose thank you for your kind attention I look forward to speaking with you sincerely Nolan sarento head of operations Innovative online Industries despite the messages reasonable tone the threat behind it was crystal clear the Sixers wanted to recruit me or they wanted to pay me to tell them how to find the copper key and clear the first gate and if I refused they would go after Artemis then H daato Shoto and every other Gunter who managed to get their name up on the scoreboard these Shameless corporate SLE bags wouldn't stop until they found someone dumb enough or desperate enough to give in and sell them the information they needed my first impulse was to delete every single copy of the email and pretend I'd never received it but I changed my mind I wanted to know exactly what II was going to offer and I couldn't pass up the chance to meet Nolan sento the Sixers Infamous leader there was no danger meeting with him via chat link as long as I was careful about what I said I considered teleporting to Incipio before my interview to buy a new skin for my avatar maybe a tailored suit something flashy and expensive but then I thought better of it I had nothing to prove to that corporate asset after all I was famous now I would roll into the meeting wearing my default skin and a off attitude I would listen to their offer then tell them to kiss my simulated ass maybe I'd record the whole thing and posted on YouTube I preed for the meeting by pulling up a search engine and learning everything I could about Nolan sento he had a PhD in computer science prior to becoming head of operations at ioi he'd been a high-profile game designer overseeing the creation of several third-party RPGs that ran inside the Oasis I'd played all of his games and they were actually pretty good he'd been a decent coder back before he sold his soul it was obvious why I I had hired him to lead their Lackey they figured a game designer would have the best chance of solving holiday's Grand video game puzzle but sento and the Sixers had been at it for over 5 years and still had nothing to show for their efforts and now that Gunter avatar names were appearing on the scoreboard left and right the ioi brass had to be freaking out sento was probably catching all kinds of heat from his superiors I wonder if it had been sento's idea to try to recruit me or if he'd been ordered to do it once I'd done my homework on sento I felt like I was ready to sit down with the devil I pulled up the contact card attached to sento's email and tapped the chat link invitation icon at the bottom chapter 14 as I finished connecting to the chat link session my avatar materialized on a grand observation deck with a stunning view of over a dozen Oasis worlds suspended in Black space beyond the curved window I appeared to be on a space station or a very large transport ship I couldn't tell which chatlink sessions work differently from chat rooms and they were a lot more expensive to host when you opened a chat link an insubstantial copy of your avatar was projected into another Oasis location your avatar wasn't actually there and so it appeared to other AV avars as a slightly transparent Apparition but you could still interact with the environment in a limited way walking through doors sitting in chairs and so forth chat links were primarily used for business purposes when a company wanted to host a meeting in a specific Oasis location without spending the time and money to transport everyone's avatars to it this was the first time I had ever used one I turned around and saw that my avatar was standing in front of a large c-shaped reception desk the ioi corporate logo giant overlapping Chrome letters 20 ft tall floated above it as I approached the desk an impossibly beautiful blonde receptionist stood to greet me Mr parville she said bowing slightly welcome to Innovative online Industries just a moment Mr sarento is already on his way to greet you I wasn't sure how that could be since I hadn't warned them I was coming while I waited I tried to activate my avatar as vid feed recorder but ioi had disabled recording in this chatlink session they obviously didn't want me to have video evidence of what was about to go down so much for my plan to post the interview on YouTube less than a minute later another Avatar appeared through a set of automatic doors on the opposite side of the observation deck he headed right for me boots clicking on the polished floor it was sarento I recognized him because he wasn't using a standard issue sixer Avatar one of the perks of his position his Avatar's face matched the photos of him I'd seen online blonde hair and brown eyes a hawkish nose he did wear the standard sixer uniform a navy blue bodysuit with gold illetes at the shoulders and a silver ioi logo on his right breast with his employee number printed beneath it 655321 at last he said as he walked up grinning like a jackal the famous parsal has graced us with his presence he extended a gloved right hand Nolan sento chief of operations it's an honor to meet you yep I said doing my best to sound aloof likewise I guess even as a chatlink projection my avatar could steal mime shaking his outstretched hand instead I just stared down at it as if he were offering me a dead rat he dropped it after a few seconds but his smile didn't falter it broadened please follow me he led me across the deck and back through the automatic doors which slid open to reveal a large launching Bay it contained a single interplanetary shuttlecraft emblazoned with the II logo sarento began to board it but I halted at the foot of the ramp why bother bringing me here via chat link I asked motioning to the Bay around us why not just give me your sales pitch in a chat room please indulge me he said this CH link is a part of our sales pitch we want to give you the same EXP experience you'd have if you came to visit our headquarters in person right I thought if I had come here in person my avatar would be surrounded by thousands of Sixers and I'd be at your mercy I joined him inside the shuttle the ramp retracted and we launched out of the bay through the ship's wraparound windows I saw that we were leaving one of the Sixers orbital space stations looming directly ahead of us was the planet ii1 a massive Chrome Globe it reminded me of the killer floating spheres in the fantasm films gunters referred to II 1 as the sixer home World their company had constructed it shortly after the contest began to serve as II's online base of operations our shutle which seemed to be flying on automatic pilot quickly reached the planet and began to skim its mirrored surface I stared out the window as we did one complete orbit as far as I knew no Gunter had ever been given this kind of tour from pole to pole II was covered with armories bunkers warehouses and vehicle hangers I also saw airfields dotting the surface where rows of gleaming gunships spacecraft and mechanized battle tanks stood waiting for Action sarento said nothing as we surveyed the sixer Armada he just let me take it all in I'd seen screenshots of ii1 surface before but they'd been low resed and taken from high orbit just beyond on the planet's impressive defense grid the larger Clans had been openly plotting to Nuke the sixer operations complex for several years now but they'd never managed to get past the defense Grid or reach the planet's surface as we completed our orbit the II operations complex swung into view ahead of us it consisted of three mirror surfaced Towers two rectangular skyscrapers on either side of a circular one seen from above these three buildings formed the ioi logo the shuttle slowed and hovered above the o-shaped tower then spiraled down to a small landing pad on the roof impressive digs wouldn't you agree sento said finally breaking his silence as we touched down in the ramp lowered not bad I was proud of the calm in my voice in truth I was still reeling from everything I'd just seen this is an oasis replica of the real II towers located in Downtown Columbus right I said sarento nodded yes the Columbus complex is our company headquarters most of my team Works in this central tower our close proximity to GSS eliminates any possibility of system lag and of course Columbus doesn't suffer from the Rolling power blackouts that plague most major US cities he was stating the obvious gregarious simulation systems was located in Columbus and so was their main Oasis server vault redundant mirror servers were located all around the world but they were all linked to the main node in Columbus this was why in the decades since the simulation launch the city had become a kind of high-tech Mecca Columbus was where an oasis user could get the fastest most reliable connection to the simulation most gunters dreamed of moving there someday me included I followed sarento off the shuttle and into an elevator adjacent to The Landing Pad you have become quite the celebrity these past few days he said as we began to descend must be very exciting for you probably a little scary too huh knowing you now possess information that millions of people would be willing to kill for I'd been waiting for him to say something like this so I had a reply prepared do you mind skipping the scare tactics and the head games just tell me the details of your offer I have other matters to attend to he grinned at me like I was a precocious child yes I'm sure you do he said but please don't jump to any conclusions about our offer I think you'll be quite surprised then with a sudden Touch of Steel in his tone he added in fact I'm certain of it doing my best to hide the intimidation I felt I rolled my eyes and said whatever man a tone sounded as we reached the 106th floor and the elevator door swished open I followed sarento past another receptionist and down a long brightly lit Corridor the decor was something out of a utopian sci-fi flick Hightech and immaculate we passed several other sixer avatars as we walked and the moment they saw sento they each snapped to rigid attention and saluted him as if he were some high-ranking general sento didn't return these salutes or acknowledge his underlings in any way eventually he led me into a huge open room that appeared to occupy most of the 106th floor it contained a vast sea of high-walled cubicles each containing a single person strapped into a high-end immersion rig welcome to ioi zoology division sento said with obvious Pride so this is suur Central is it I said glancing around there's no need to be rude sento said this could be your team really would I get my very own cubicle I said mockingly no you'd have your very own office with a very nice view he grinned not that you'd be spending much time looking at it I motion to one of the new habasha immersion rigs nice gear I said and it really was too stateof the-art yes it is nice isn't it he said our ersing rigs are heavily modified and they're all networked together our systems allow multiple operators to control any one of our aists avatars so depending on the obstacles an avatar encounters during their Quest control can be instantly transferred to the team member with the skills best suited to deal with the situation yeah but but that's cheating I said oh come on now he said rolling his eyes there's no such thing holidays contest doesn't have any rules that's one of the many colossal mistakes the old fool made before I could reply sarento started walking again leading me on through the Maze of cubicles all of our aists are Voice Link to a support team he continued composed of holiday Scholars video game experts pop culture historians and cryptologists they all work together to help each of our avatars overcome any Challenge and solve every puzzle they encounter he turned and grinned at me as you can see we've covered all the bases parsal that's why we're going to win yeah I said you guys have been doing a bang-up job so far Bravo Now why is it that we're talking again all right you guys have no clue where the coer key is and you need my help to find it is that right sento narrowed his eyes then he began to to laugh I like you kid he said grinning at me you bright and you've got konas two qualities I greatly admire we continued walking a few minutes later we arrived in sarento's enormous office its Windows afforded a stunning view of the surrounding City the sky was filled with air cars and spacecraft and the planet's simulated sun was just beginning to set sarento sat down behind his desk and offered me the chair directly across from him here we go I thought as I sat down play it cool Wade so I'll just cut to the Chase he said II wants to recruit you as a consultant to assist with our search for holidays Easter egg you'll have all of our company's vast resources at your disposal money weapons magic items ships artifacts you name it it's yours what would my title be chief oologist he replied you'd be in charge of the entire division second in command only to me I'm talking about 5,000 highly trained combat ready avatars all taking orders directly from you sounds pretty sweet I said trying hard to sound nonchalant of course it does but there's more in exchange for your services we're willing to pay you $2 million a year with a $1 million signing bonus up front and if and when you help us find the egg you'll get a $25 million bonus I pretended to add all of those numbers up on my fingers wow I said trying to sound impressed can I work from home too sarento couldn't seem to tell whether or not I was joking no he said I'm afraid not you'd have to relocate here to Columbus but we'll provide you with excellent living quarters here on the premises and a private office of course your own state-of-the-art immersion rig hold on I said holding up a hand you mean I'd have to live in the ioi skyscraper with you and all of the other sexologists he nodded just until you help us find the egg I resisted the urge to gang what about benefits would I get health care dental vision keys to the executive washroom like that of course he was starting to sound impatient so what do you say can I think about it for a few days I'm afraid not he said this could all be over in a few days we need your answer now I leaned back and stared at the ceiling pretending to consider the offer sarento waited watching me intently I was about to give him my prepared answer when he raised a hand just listen to me a moment before I answer sento said I know most gunters cling to the Absurd notion that ioi is evil and that the Sixers are ruthless corporate drones with no honor and no respect for the true Spirit of the contest that we're all sellouts right I nodded barely resisting the urge to say that's putting it mildly well that's ridiculous he said flashing an avuncular grin that I suspected was generated by whatever diplomacy software he was running the Sixers are really no different than a Gunter Clan albe it a well-funded one we share all the same obsessions as gunters and we have the same goal what goal is that I wanted to shout to ruin the Oasis forever to pervert and defile the only thing that has ever made our lives bearable sento seem to take my silence as a cue that he should continue you know contrary to popular belief The Oasis really won't change that drastically when iI takes control of it sure we'll have to start charging everyone a monthly user fee and increase the Sims advertising Revenue but we also plan to make a lot of improvements Avatar content filters stricter Construction guid lines we're going to make the Oasis a better place no I thought you're going to turn it into a fascist corporate theme park where the few people who can still afford the price of admission no longer have an ounce of Freedom I'd heard as much of this jerk sales pitch as I could stand okay I said Count Me In sign me up whatever you guys call it I'm in sento looked surprised this clearly wasn't the answer he'd been expecting he smiled widely and was about to offer me his hand again when I cut him off but I have three minor conditions I said first I want a $50 million bonus when I find the egg for you guys not 25 is that doable he didn't even hesitate done what are your other conditions I don't want to be second in command I said I want your job sento I want to be in charge of the whole shabang chief of operations el numero uno oh and I want everyone to have to call me el numero uno too is that possible my mouth seemed to be operating independently of my brain I couldn't help myself sento's smile had vanished what else I don't want to work with you I leveled a finger at him you give me the creeps but if your superiors are willing to fire your ass and give me your position I'm in it's a done deal silence sarento's face was a stoic mask he probably had certain emotions like anger and rage filtered out on his facial recognition software could you check with your bosses let me know if they'll agree to that I asked or are they monitoring us right now I'm betting they are I waved the invisible cameras hi guys so what do you say there was a long silence during which sarento simply glared at me of course they're monitoring us he said finally and they've just informed me that they're willing to agree to each of your demands he didn't sound all that upset really I said great when can I start and more importantly when can you leave immediately he said the company will prepare your contract and send it to your lawyer for approval then we they will fly you here to Columbus to sign the paperwork and close the deal he stood that should conclude actually I said I held up a hand cutting him off again I've spent the last few seconds thinking this over a bit more and I'm going to have to pass on your offer I think I'd rather find the egg on my own thanks anyway I stood up you and the other suckur can all go a duck sento began to laugh a long hearty laugh that I found more than a little disturbing oh you're good that was so good you really had us going in there kid when his laughter tapered off he said that's the answer I was expecting so now let me give you our second proposal there's more I sat back down and put my feet up on his desk okay shoot we'll wire $5 million directly to your Oasis account right now in exchange for a walkth through up to the first gate that's it all you have to do is give us detailed stepbystep instructions on how to do what you've already done we'll take it from there you'll be free to continue searching for the egg on your own and our transaction will remain a complete secret no one need ever know of it I admit I actually considered that for a couple of seconds $5 million would set me up for life and even if I helped the Sixers clear the first gate there was no guarantee they'd be able to clear the other two I still wasn't even sure if I would be able to do that trust me son sento said you should take this offer well you can his paternal tone irked me to no end and that helped steal my resolve I couldn't sell out to the Sixers if I did and and they somehow managed to win the contest I'd be the one responsible there was no way I'd be able to live with that I just hoped that H emis and any other gunters they approached felt the same way I'll pass I said I slid my feet off of his desk and stood thanks for your time sento looked at me sadly then motioned for me to sit back down actually we're not quite done here we have one final proposal for you paral and I save the best for last can't you take a hint you can't buy me so piss off adios goodbye sit down Wade I froze had he just used my real name that's right sarento barked we know who you are Wade Owen Watts born August 12th 2024 both parents deceased and we also know where you are you reside with your aunt in a trailer park located at 700 Portland Avenue in Oklahoma City 56k to be exact according to our surveillance team you were last seen entering your aunt's trailer 3 days ago and you haven't left since which means you're still there right now a vid feed window opened directly behind him displaying a live video image of the stacks where I lived it was an aerial view maybe being shot from a plane or a satellite from this angle they could only monitor the trailer's two main exits so they hadn't seen me leave through the laundry room window each morning or return through it each night they didn't know I was actually in my Hideout right now there you are sarento said his Pleasant condescending tone had returned you should really get out more Wade wats it's not healthy to spend all of your time indoors the image magnified a few times zooming in on my aunt's trailer then it switched over to thermal imaging mode and I could see the glowing outlines of nearly a dozen people children and adults sitting inside nearly all of them were motionless probably logged into the oasis I was too stunned to speak how had they found me it was supposed to be impossible for anyone to obtain your Oasis account information and my address wasn't even in my Oasis account you didn't have to provide it when you created your avatar just your name and retinal pattern so how had they found out where I lived somehow they must have gotten access to my school records your first instinct right now might be to log out and make a run for it sarento said I urge you not to make that mistake your trailer is currently wired with a large quantity of high explosives he pulled something that looked like a remote control out of his pocket and held it up and my fingers on the Detonator if you log out of this chatlink session you will die within a few seconds you understand what I'm saying to you Mr Watts I nodded slowly trying desperately to get a grip on the situation he was bluffing he had to be bluffing and even if he wasn't he didn't know that I was actually half a mile away in my Hideout sento assumed that one of the glowing thermal outlines on the display was me if a bomb really did go off in my aunt's trailer I'd be safe down here under all of these junk cars wouldn't I besides they would never kill all those people just to get to me how that was all I could get out how do we find out who you are and where you live he grinned easy you screwed up kid when you enrolled in the Oasis Public School System you gave them your name and address so they can mail you your report cards I suppose he was right my Avatar's name my real name and my home address were all stored in my private student file which only the principal could access it was a simple mistake but I'd enrolled the year before the contest even began before I became a Gunter before I learned to conceal my real world identity how did you find out I attended School online I asked I already knew the answer but I needed to stall for time there's been a rumor circulating on the Gunter message bars the past few days that you and your pal h both go to school on ludus when we heard that we decided to contact a few Ops administrators and offer them a bribe do you know how little a school administrator makes a year Wade it's scandalous one of your principles was kind enough to search the student database for the Avatar named par and guess what another window appeared beside the live video feed of the stacks it displayed my entire student profile my full name Avatar name student Alias Wade three date of birth social security number and home address my school transcripts it was all there along with an old yearbook photo taking over five years ago right before I transferred to school in the Oasis we have your friend H's School records too but he was smart enough to give a fake name and address when he enrolled so finding him will take a bit longer but we will find him he paused to let me reply but I remained silent my pulse was racing and I had to keep reminding myself to breathe so that brings me to our final proposal sento rubbed his hands together excitedly like he was a kid about to open a present tell us how to reach the first gate right now or we will kill you you're bluffing I heard myself say but I didn't think he was not at all no Wade I'm not think about it with everything else that's going on in the world do you think anyone will care about an explosion in some ghetto trash rat Warren in Oklahoma City they'll assume it was a drug lab accident or maybe a domestic terrorist s trying to build a homemade bomb either way it'll just mean that there are a few hundred less human cockroaches out there collecting food vouches and using up precious oxygen no one will care and the authorities won't even blink he was right and I knew it I tried to stall for a few seconds so I could figure out what to do you'd kill me I said to win a video game contest don't pretend to be naive Wade sento said there are billions of dollars at stake here along with control of one of the world's most profitable corporations and of the Oasis itself this is much more than a video game contest it always has been he leaned forward but you can still come out a winner here kid if you help us we'll still give you the 5 million you can retire at age 18 and spend the rest of your days living like royalty or you can die in the next few seconds it's your call but ask yourself this question if your mother was still alive what would she want you to do that last question would have really pissed me off if I hadn't been so scared what to stop you from killing me after I give you you want I asked regardless of what you may think we don't want to have to kill anybody unless it's absolutely necessary besides there are two more gates right he Shrugged we might need your help to figure those out too personally I doubt it but my supervisors feel differently regardless you don't really have a choice at this point do you he lowered his voice as if you were about to share a secret so here's what's going to happen next you're going to give me stepbystep instructions on how to obtain aain the copper key and clear the first gate and you're going to stay logged into this chat link session while we verify everything you tell us log out before I say it's okay and your whole world goes boom understand now start talking I considered giving them what they wanted I really did but I thought it through and I couldn't come up with a single good reason why they would let me live even if I helped them clear the first gate the only move that made sense was to kill me and take me out of the running they sure as hell weren't going to give me $5 million or leave me alive to tell the media how ioi had blackmailed me especially if there really was a remote controlled bomb planted in my trailer to serve as evidence no the way I saw it there were really only two possibilities either they were bluffing or they were going to kill me whether I helped them or not I made my decision and summoned my courage sarento I said trying to hide the fear in my voice listen carefully I want you and your bosses to know something you never going to find holiday's egg you know why because he was smarter than all of you put together it doesn't matter how much money you have or who you try to Blackmail you're going to lose I tapped my log out icon and my avatar began to dematerialize in front of him he didn't seem surprised he looked at me sadly and shook his head stupid move kid he said just before my visor went black I sat there in the darkness of my Hideout winsing and waiting for the detonation but a full minute passed and nothing happened I slid my visor up and pulled off my gloves with shaking hands as my eyes began to adjust to the darkness I let out a tentative sigh of relief it had been a bluff after all sento had been playing an elaborate mind game with me an effective one too as I was gulping down a bottle of water I realized that I should log back in and warn H and emis the Sixers would go after them next I was pulling my gloves back on when I heard the explosion I felt the shock wave a split second after I heard the detonation and instinctively dropped to the floor of my hideout with my arms wrapped over my head in the distance I could hear the sound of rening metal as several trailer Stacks began to collapse ripping free of their scaffolding and crashing against one another like massive dominoes these horrific sounds continued for what seemed like a very long time then it was silent again I eventually overcame my paralysis and opened the rear door of the van in a nightmare like days I made my way to the outskirts of the junk pile and from there I could see a giant pillar of smoke and Flames rising from the opposite end of the stacks I followed the stream of people already running in that direction along the northern perimeter of the stacks the stack ConEd my aunt's trailer had collapsed into a fiery smoking ruin along with all of the stacks adjacent to it there was nothing there now but a pile of Twisted flaming metal I kept my distance but a large crowd of people had already gathered up ahead of me standing as close to the blaze as they dared no one bothered trying to enter the wreckage to look for survivors it was obvious there weren't going to be any an ancient propane tank attached to one of the crush trailers detonated in a small explosion causing the crowd to scatter and die for cover several more tanks detonated in Rapid succession after that the onlookers moved much F farther back and kept their distance the residents who lived in the nearby Stacks knew that if the fire spread they were in big trouble so a lot of people were already scrambling to fight The Blaze using garden hoses buckets empty Big Gulp cups and whatever else they could find before long the Flames were contained and the fire began to die out as I watched in silence I could already hear the people around me murmuring saying that it was probably another meth lab accident or that some idiot must have been trying to build a homemade bomb just as sento had predicted that thought snapped me out of my days what was I thinking the Sixers had just tried to kill me they probably still had agents lurking here in the stacks checking to make sure I was dead and like a total idiot I was standing right out in the open I faded away from the crowd and hurried back to my Hideout being careful not to run constantly glancing over my shoulder to make sure I wasn't being followed once I was back inside the van I slammed and locked the door then curled into a quivering ball in the corner I stayed like that for a long time eventually the shock began to wear off and the reality of what just happened started to sink in my Aunt Alice and her boyfriend Rick were dead along with everyone who had lived in our trailer and in the trailers below and around it including sweet old Mrs Gilmore and if I had been at home I would be dead too I was jacked up on adrenaline unsure of what to do next overcome by a paralyzing mixture of fear and rage I thought about logging into the oasis to call the police but then I considered how they would react when I told them my story story they'd think I was a raving Nut Job And if I called the media they'd react the same way there was no way anyone would believe my story notless I revealed that I was paral and maybe not even then I didn't have a shred of proof against sarento and the Sixers all traces of the bomb they' planted were probably melting into slag right now revealing my identity to the world that I could accuse one of the world's most powerful corporations of blackmail and murder didn't seem like the smartest move no one would believe me I could barely believe it myself ioi had actually tried to kill me to prevent me from winning a video game contest it was insane I seemed to be safe in my Hideout for the moment but I knew I couldn't stay in the stacks much longer when the Sixers found out I was still alive they would come back here looking for me I needed to get the hell out of Dodge but I couldn't do that until I had some money and my first endorsement checks wouldn't be deposited for another day or two I would just have to lie low until then but right now I needed to talk to H to warn him that he was next on the Sixers H list I was also desperate to see a friendly face chapter 15 I grabbed my Oasis console and powered it on then pulled on my visor and gloves as I logged in my avatar reappeared on ludus on the hilltop where I'd been sitting prior to my chat room session with sento the moment my audio kicked in I heard the earsplitting Roar of engines coming from somewhere directly overhead I stepped out from under the tree and looked up I saw a squadron of sixer gunships flying in formation zooming South at low altitude their sensors scanning the surface as they went I was about to duck back under the tree out of sight when I remember remembered that all of ludus was a no PVP Zone the Sixers couldn't harm me here even so my nerves were still on edge I continued to scan the sky and quickly spotted two more sixer gunship squadrons off near the Eastern Horizon a moment later several more squadrons dropped in from orbit to the north and west it looked like an alien invasion an icon flashed on my display informing me that I had a new text message from H where the hell are you call me ASAP I tapped his name on my contact list and he answered on the first ring his Avatar's face appeared in my vid feed window he was wearing a grim expression did you hear the news he asked what news the Sixers are on ludus thousands of them more arriving every minute they're searching the planet looking for the tomb yeah I'm in ludus right now sixer gunships are everywhere H scow when I find irck I'm going to kill him slowly and then when he creates a new Avatar I'm going to hunt him down and kill him again if that had kept his mouth shut the Sixers never would have thought to look here yeah his Forum posts were what tipped them off I said sento said so himself sento as in Nolan sento I told him everything that had happened in the past few hours they blew up your house actually it was a trailer I said in a trailer park they killed a lot of people here H it's probably already on the news feeds I took a deep breath I'm freaking out I'm scared I don't blame you he said thank God you weren't home when it happened I nodded I almost never log in from home luckily the Sixers didn't know that what about your family it was at my aunt's Place she's dead I think we weren't very close this was a huge understatement of course my aunt Ellice had never shown me much kindness but she still hadn't deserved to die but most of the wrenching guilt I now felt had to do with Mrs Gilmore and the knowledge that my actions had gotten her killed she was one of the sweetest people I had ever known I realized that I was sobbing I muted my audio so H wouldn't hear then took several deep breaths until I got myself under control again I can't believe this H growled those evil Pricks they're going to pay Z count on it we will make them pay for this I couldn't see how but I didn't argue I knew he was just trying to make me feel better where are you right now h asked do you need help like a place to stay or something I can wire you some money if you need it no I'm okay I said but thanks man I appreciate the offer denata Amigo listen did the Sixers send you the same email they sent me yeah thousands of them but I decided it was best to ignore them I frowned yeah I wish I'd been smart enough to do that dude you had no way of knowing they were going to try and kill you besides they already had your home home address if you'd ignored their emails they probably would have set off that bomb anyway listen H sarento said that your school records contained a fake home address and they don't know where to find you but he might have been lying you should leave home go somewhere safe as soon as possible don't worry about me Z I stay mobile those bastards will never find me if you say so I replied wondering exactly what he meant but I need to warn emis too and Dao and shotto if I can reach them the Sixers are doing everything they can to learn their identities too huh that gives me an idea he said we should invite all three of them to meet us in the basement later tonight say around midnight a private chatlink session just the five of us my mood brightened at the prospect of seeing emis again do you think they'll all agree to come yeah if we let them know their lives depend on it he smirked and we're going to have the world's top five gunters together in one chat room who's going to s that out I sent Artemis a short message asking her to meet us in H's private chat room at midnight she replied just a few minutes later promising to be there H told me he'd managed to reach daato and shotto and they had both also agreed to attend the meeting was set I didn't feel like being alone so I logged into the basement about an hour early H was already there surfing the news feeds on the ancient RCA television without saying a word he got up and gave me a hug even though I couldn't actually feel it I found it surprisingly comforting then we both sat down and watched the news coverage together while we waited for the others to arrive every channel was airing Oasis footage showing the hordes of Sixers spacecraft and troops that were currently arriving on ludus it was easy for everyone to guess why they were there and now every Gunter in the simulation was also headed for ludus Transport terminals all over the planet were jammed with incoming avatars so much for keeping the tomb's location secret I said shaking my head it bound to leak out eventually H said shutting off the TV I just didn't think it would happen this fast we both heard an entrance alert chime as emis materialized on the top of the staircase she was wearing the same outfit she'd had on the night we met she waved to me as she descended the steps I waved back then made introductions H meet emis Artemis this is my best friend H it's a pleasure to meet you Artemis said extending her right hand H shook it likewise he flashed his Cheshire grin thanks for coming are you kidding me how could I miss it the very first meeting of the high five the high five I said yeah H said that's what they're calling us in all the message boards now we hold the top five high score slots on the scoreboard so we're the high five right I said at least for the time being Artemis grinned at that then turned and began to wander around the basement admiring the 80s Decor H this is by far the coolest chat room I have ever seen thank you kind of you to say he bowed his head she stopped to browse through the shelf of role playing game supplements you've recreated Morrow's basement perfectly every Last Detail I want to live here well now you got a permanent spot on the guest list log in and hang out anytime really she said clearly delighted thank you I will you're the man H yes it's true I am he said smiling they really seemed to be hitting it off and it was making me crazy jealous I didn't want emis to like H or vice versa I wanted her all to myself Dao and Shoto logged in a moment later appearing simultaneously at the top of the basement staircase Dao was the taller of the two and appeared to be in his late teens Shoto was a foot shorter and looked much younger maybe about 13 both avatars look Japanese and they bore a striking resemblance to one another like snapshots of the same young man taken five years apart they wore matching suits of traditional samurai armor and each had both a short wakazashi and a longer Katana strapped to his belt greetings the tall Samurai said I am aato and this is my little brother Shoto thank you for the invitation we are honored to meet all three of you they bowed in unison H and Artemis returned the bow and I quickly followed suit as we each introduced ourselves daato and Shoto bowed to us once again and once again we returned to the gesture all right H said once all the Bowing had ended let's get this party started I'm sure you've seen the news the Sixers are swarming all over ludus thousands of them they're conducting a systematic search of the entire surface of the planet even if they don't know exactly what they're looking for it still won't be long till they find the entrance of the Tomb actually Artemis interrupted they already found it over 30 minutes ago we all turned to look at her that hasn't been reported on the news feeds yet Dao said are you sure she nodded I'm afraid so when I heard about the Sixers this morning I decided to hide an Uplink camera and some trees near the tomb entrance to keep an eye on the area she opened a vid feed window in the air in front of her and spun it around so the rest of us could see it showed a wide shot of the flat topped Hill and the clearing around it looking down from a spot in one of the trees high above from this angle it was easy to see that the large black stones on top of the hill were arranged to look like a human skull we could also see that the entire area was crawling with Sixers and more seemed to be arriving every second but the most disturbing thing we saw on the viit feed was the large transparent Dome of energy that now covered the entire Hill son of a H said is that what I think it is Artemis nodded a force field the Sixers installed it just after the first of them arrived so from here on out G said any gun who find the tomb won't be able to get inside not unless they can somehow get through the force field actually they've put up two force fields emis said a small field with a larger field over it they lower them in sequence whenever they want to let more Sixers into the tomb like an airlock she pointed to the window watch they're doing it now a squadron of Sixers marched down the loading ramp of a gunship parked nearby they were all lugging equipment containers as they approached the outer force field it vanished revealing a smaller domed field inside the first as soon as the Squadron reached the wall of the inner force field the outer field reappeared a second later the inner force field was dropped allowing the Sixers to enter the tomb there was a long silence while we all contemplated this new development I suppose it could be worse H said finally if the new Tomb were in a PVP Zone those would have already had laser cannons and robot sentries mounted everywhere to vaporize anyone who approached the area he was right since ludus was a safe Zone the Sixers couldn't harm gunters who approached the tomb but there was nothing to stop them from erecting a force field to keep them out so that was exactly what they'd done the Sixers have obviously been planning for this moment for some time now emis said closing her vid feed window they won't be able to keep everyone out for very long H said when the Clans find out about this it'll be all out War there will be thousands of gunters attacking that force field with everything they got RPGs Fireballs cluster bombs nukes it's going to get ugly they'll turn that Forest into a wasteland yeah but in the meantime sixer avatars will be farming the copper key and then filing their avatars through the first gate one after another in a freaking congol line but how can they do this Shoto asked his young voice brimming with rage he looked to his brother it's not fair they are not playing Fair they don't have to there are no laws in the Oasis little brother Dao said the Sixers can do whatever they please they want to stop until someone stops them the Sixers have no honor Sho said scowling you guys don't know the half of it h said that's why Parell and I asked yall here he turned to me Z do you want to tell him what happened I nodded and turned to the others first I told them about the email I'd received from II they'd all received the same invitation but had wisely ignored it then I related the details of my chat room session with sarento doing my best not to leave anything out finally I told them how our conversation had ended with a bomb detonating at my home address by the time I'd finished their avatars all wore looks of stunned disp belief Jesus emis whispered no joke they tried to kill you yeah and they would have succeeded too if I'd been at home I was just lucky now yall know how far the Sixers are willing to go to stop us from beating them to the egg H said if they're able to locate any one of us we dead meat I nodded so you should all take precautions to protect yourselves and your identities I said if you haven't already they all nodded there was another long silence there still still one thing I don't understand emis said a moment later how did the Sixers know to look for the tomb on ludus did someone tip them off she glanced around at each of us but there was no hint of accusation in her voice they must have seen the rumors about paral and H that were posted on all the gor message boards shotto said that's how we know to look there daato winced then punched his little brother in the shoulder didn't I tell you to keep quiet he hissed shotto looked looked sheepish and clammed up what rumors Artemis asked she looked at me what's he talking about I haven't had time to check the boards in a few days several posts were made by gunters who claimed to know possible and H saying they were both students on Ludas he turned to H and I my brother and I have spent the last two years searching for the tomb of Horrors we've scoured dozens of Worlds looking for it but we never thought to look on ludus not until we heard that you attended school there it never occurred to me that attending school on ludus was something I needed to keep secret I said so I didn't yeah and it's lucky for us that he didn't H said he turned to the others paral unintentionally tip me off about the tombs location too I never thought to look for it on Ludas either until his name appeared on the scoreboard daato nudged his younger brother and they both faced me and bowed you were the first to find the tomb's hiding place so we owe you our gratitude for leading us to it I turned the bow thanks guys but actually emis here found it first totally on her own a month before I did yeah for all the good it did me Artemis said I couldn't defeat the Lich at joust I'd been at it for weeks when this Punk showed up and did it on his first try she explained how we met and how she finally managed to beat the king the following day right after the server reset at midnight I have H here to thank for my josting prowess I said we used to play all the time here in the basement that's the only only reason I beat the King on my first attempt ditto H said he stretched out his hands and we bumped fists Dao and Shoto both smiled it was the same with us Dao said my brother and I have been playing Just against one another for years because the game was mentioned in anara ELC great emis said throwing up her hands good for you guys you are all prepared in advance I'm so happy for you Bravo she gave gave us all a sarcastic golf clap which made everyone laugh now can we adjourn the mutual admiration society and get back to the topic at hand sure H said smiling what was the topic at hand uh the Sixers Artemis offered right of course H rubbed the back of his neck while biting his lower lip something he always did when he was trying to gather his thoughts you said that they found the tomb less than an hour ago right so any minute now they'll reach the throne room and face off against the Lich but what do you think happens when multiple avatars enter the burial chamber at the same time I turned to Dao and Shoto your names appeared on the scoreboard on the same day only a few minutes apart so you entered the throne room together didn't you daato nodded yes he said and when we step on the Das two copies of the king appeared one for each of us to play great Artemis said so it might be possible for hundreds of Sixers to jous with a copper key at the same time or even thousands yeah but to get the key each sixer has to beat the L at Jo which we all know isn't easy Shoto said the Sixers are using hacked immersion rigs I said sento was boasting about it to me they've got it set up so that different users can control the actions of every one of their avatars so they can just have their best jous players take control of each sixer Avatar during the match against asak one after the other that was cheating bastards H said the Sixers have no honor daato repeated shaking his head yeah Artemis said rolling her eyes we've established that it gets worse I said every sixer has a support team made up of holiday Scholars video game experts and cryptologists who are there to help them beat every Challenge and solve every puzzle they encounter playing through the war game simulation will be a piece of cake for them someone will just feed them the dialogue that's unbelievable H muttered how are we supposed to compete with that we can't Artemis said once they have the copper key they'll probably locate the first gate just as quickly as we all did it won't take them very long to catch up with us and once they have the riddle about the Jade key they'll have their Eggheads working around the clock to decipher it if they find the Jade Key's hiding place before we do they'll barricade it too I said and then the five of us will be in the same boat everyone else is right now emis nodded H kicked the coffee table in frustration this isn't even remotely Fair he said the Sixers have a huge advantage over us they got an endless supply of money weapons vehicles and avatars there are thousands of them all working together right I said and each of us is on our own well except for you two I nodded at Dao and shotto but you know what I mean they've got us outnumbered and outgunned and that isn't going to change anytime soon what are you suggesting daato asked he suddenly sounded uneasy I'm not suggesting anything I said I'm just stating the facts as I see them good Dao replied because it sounded like you were about to propose some sort of alliance between the five of us H studied him carefully so would that be such a terrible idea yes it would Dao said curtly my brother and I hunt alone we don't want or need your help oh really AG said a second ago you admitted needing parel's help to find the tomb of Horus Dao's eyes narrowed we will have found it on our own eventually right H said probably would only taken you another 5 years come on H I said stepping between them this isn't helping H and daato glared at each other in silence while Shoto stared up at his brother unly emis just stood back and watched looking somewhat amused we didn't here to be insulted da said finally we are reaving hold on Dao I said just wait a second will you let's just talk this out we shouldn't part as enemies we're all on the same side here no we not Dao said you are all strangers to us for all we know anyone of you could be a sixo spy emis laughed out loud at that then covered her mouth daato ignored her this is pointless he said only one person can be the first to find the egg and win the prize and that person will be either me or my brother and with that daato and Shoto both abruptly logged out that went well emis said once their avatars had vanished I nodded yeah real smooth H way to build Bridges what did I do he said defensively Dao was being a complete besides it's not like we're asking him to team up anyway I'm an avowed solo and so are you an aremis looks like the Lone Wolf type too guilty is charged she said grinning but even so there is an argument to be made for forming an alliance against the Sixers maybe H said but think about it if you find the Jade key before either of us do are you going to be generous and tell us where it is Artemis smirked of course not yeah me neither H said so there's no point in discussing an alliance emis Shrugged well then looks like the meeting is over I should probably get going she winked at me the clock is ticking right boys tick talk I said good luck fellas she gave us both a wave see you around see you see you we both answered in unison I watched her Avatar slowly disappear then turned to find H smiling at me what are you grinning about I asked you got a crush in there don't you what on aremis no don't deny it Z you're making googly eyes at her the whole time she was here he did an impression of this clasping both hands to his chest and batting his eyelashes like a silent film star I recorded the whole chat session you want me to play it back for you so you can see how silly you looked stop being a dick I said it's understandable man that girl is super cute so have you had any luck with a new riddle I asked deliberately changing the subject that quatrain about the Jade key quatrain a poem or stanza with four lines and an alternating rhyme scheme I recited it's called a quatran h rolled his eyes you're too much man what that's the proper term for it ass head it's just a riddle dude and no I haven't had any luck figuring it out yet me neither I said so we probably shouldn't be standing around jabbering at each other time to put our noses to the grindstone I concur he said but just then a stack of comic books on the other side of the room slid off the end table where they were piled and crashed to the floor as if something had knocked them over H and I both jumped then exchanged confused looks what the hell was that I said I don't know H walked over and examined the scattered Comics maybe a software glitch or something I've never seen a chat room glitch like that I said scanning the empty room could someone else be in here an invisible Avatar EES dropping on us H rolled his eyes no way Z you're getting way too paranoid this is an encrypted private chat room no one can enter without my permission you know that right I said still freaked out relax it was just a glitch he rested a hand on my shoulder listen let me know if you change your mind about needing a loan or a place to crash okay I'll be all right I said but thanks amigo we bumped fists again like the Wonder winds activating their powers I'll catch you later good luck Z same to you H chapter 16 a few hours later the remaining slots on the scoreboard began to fill up one after another in Rapid succession not with avatar names but with ioi employee numbers each would appear with a score of 5,000 points which now appeared to be the fixed value for obtaining the copper key then the score would jump by another 100,000 points a few hours later once that sixer had cleared the first gate I recognized the first sixer employee number to appear because I'd seen it printed on sarento's uniform he had probably insisted that his Avatar be the first to obtain the copper key and clear the gate but I had a hard time believing he' done it on his own there was no way he was that good a joust or that he knew War Games by heart but I now knew that he didn't have to be when he reached a challenge he couldn't handle like winning at joust he could just hand control of his Avatar off to one of his underlings and during the war games challenge he'd probably just had someone feeding him all of the dialog via his hacked immersion rig once the remaining empty slots were filled the scoreboard began to grow in length to display rankings Beyond 10th place before long 20 avatars were listed on the scoreboard then 30 over the next 24 hours over 66er avatars cleared the first gate meanwhile ludus had become the most popular destination in the Oasis Transport terminals all over the planet were spitting out a steady stream of gunters who then swarmed across the globe creating chaos and disrupting classes on every school campus The Oasis Public School Board saw the writing on the wall and the decision was quickly made to evacuate ludus and relocate all of its schools to a new location an identical copy of the Planet ludus 2 was created in the same sector a short distance away from the original all students were given a day off from school while a backup copy of the planet's original source code was copied over to the new site minus the tomb of Horrors code Halliday had secretly added to it at some point classes resumed on ludus 2 the following day and ludus was left for the Sixers and gunters to fight over news spread quickly that the Sixers were encamped around a small flat topped Hill at the center of a remote Forest the tomb's exact location appeared on the message boards that evening along with screenshots showing the force field the Sixers had erected to keep everyone else out these screenshots also clearly showed the skull pattern of the stones on the hilltop in a matter of hours the connection to the tomb of Horrors D and D module was posted to every single Gunter Message Board then it hit the news feeds all of the larger Gunter Clans immediately banded together to launch a full scale assault on the Sixers forcefield trying everything they could think of to bring it down or circumvent it the Sixers had installed teleportation disruptors which prevented anyone from transporting inside the force field via technological means they had also stationed a team of highlevel wizards around the tomb these magic users cast spells around on the clock keeping the entire area encased in a temporary null magic Zone this prevented the force fields from being bypassed by any magical means the Clans began to bombard the outer force field with rockets missiles nukes and harsh language they laid Siege to the tomb all night but the following morning both force fields remained intact in desperation the Clans decided to break out the heavy artillery they pulled their resources and purchased two two very expensive very powerful antimatter bombs on eBay they detonated both of them in sequence just a few seconds apart the first bomb took out the outer shield and the second bomb finished the job the moment the second force field went down thousands of gunters all unharmed by the bomb blasts due to the no PVP Zone swarmed into the tomb and clogged the corridors of the dungeon below soon thousands of gunters and Sixers had crammed into the bar chamber all ready to challenge the Lich King to a game of joust multiple copies of the king appeared one for every Avatar who set foot on the deis 95% of The gunters Who challenged him lost and were then killed but a few gunters were successful and at the bottom of the scoreboard listed after the high five and the dozens of II employee numbers new avatar names began to appear within a few days the list of avatars on the scoreboard was over 100 names long now that the area was full of gunters it became impossible for the Sixers to put their force field back in operation gunters were mobbing them and destroying their ships and equipment on site so the Sixers gave up on their barricade but they continued to send avatars into the tomb of Horrors to farm copies of the copper key no one could do anything to stop them the day after the explosion in the stacks there was a brief story about it on one of the local newsfeeds they showed a video clip of volunteers sifting through the wreckage for human remains what they did find couldn't be identified it seemed that the Sixers had also planted a large amount of drug manufacturing equipment and chemicals at the scene to make it look like a meth lab in one of the trailers had exploded it worked like a charm the cops didn't bother to investigate any further the stacks were so dense around the pile of crushed and charred trailers that it was too dangerous to try and clear them out with one of the old construction cranes they just left the wreckage where it was to slowly rust into the Earth as soon as the first endorsement payout arrived in my account I bought a one-way bus ticket to Columbus Ohio set to depart at 8: the following morning I paid extra for a first class seat which came with a comfier chair and a high bandwidth Uplink Jack I plan to spend most of the long ride East logg into the oasis once my trip was booked I inventoried everything in my Hideout and packed the items I wanted to take with me into an old ruck sack my school issued Oasis console visor and gloves my dogeared print out of anax Almanac my Grail diary some clothes my laptop everything else I left behind when it got dark I climbed out of the van locked it and hurled the keys off into the junk pile then I hoisted The Rock sack and walked out of the stacks for the last time I didn't look back I kept to busy streets and managed to avoid getting mugged on the way to the bus terminal a battered customer service kiosk stood just inside the door and after a quick retinal scan it spat out my ticket I sat by the gate reading my copy of the almanac until it was time to board the bus it was a double decker with armor plating bulletproof windows and solar panels on the roof a rolling for I had a window seat two rows behind the driver who was encased in a bulletproof plexiglass box a team of six heavily armed guards rode on the bus's Upper Deck to protect the vehicle and its passengers in the event of a hijacking by Road agents or scavengers a distinct possibility once we ventured out into the Lawless bad lands that now existed outside of the safety of the large cities every single seat on the bus was occupied most of the pass ERS put on their visors the moment they sat down I left mine off for a while though long enough to watch the city of my birth reced from view on the road behind us as we rolled through the Sea of wind turbines that surrounded it the bus's electric motor had a top speed of about 40 m an hour but due to the deteriorating interstate highway system and the countless stops the bus had to make at charging stations along the way it took several days for me to reach my destination I I spent nearly all of that time logged into the oasis preparing to start my new life the first order of business was to create a new identity this wasn't that difficult now that I had some money in the Oasis you could buy almost any kind of information if you knew where to look and who to ask and if you didn't mind breaking the law there were plenty of desperate and corrupt people working for the government and for every major corporation and these people often sold information on the Oasis Black Market my new status as a world famous Gunter gave me all kinds of Underworld credibility which helped me get access to a highly exclusive illegal data auction site known as the leite haxor warehouse and for a shockingly small amount of money I was able to purchase a series of access procedures and passwords for the uscr the United States citizen registry using these I was able to log into the database and access my existing citizen profile which had been created when I enrolled for school I deleted my fingerprints and retinal patterns then replac them with those of someone deceased my father then I copied my own fingerprints and retinal patterns into a completely new identity profile that I had created under the name Bryce Lynch I made Bryce 22 years old and gave him a brand new social security number an Immaculate credit rating and a bachelor's degree in computer science when I wanted to become my old self again all I had to do was delete the Lynch identity and copy my prints and retinal patterns back over to my original file once my new identity was set up I began searching the Columbus classifi for a suitable apartment and found a relatively inexpensive room in an old high-rise Hotel A Relic from the days when people physically traveled for business and pleasure the rooms had all been converted into one room efficiency apartments and each unit had been modified to meet the very specific needs of a full-time Gunter it had everything I wanted low rent a high-end security system and steady reliable access to as much electricity as I could afford most importantly it offered a direct fiber optic connection to the main Oasis server vault which was located just a few miles away this was the fastest and most secure type of Internet connection available and since it wasn't provided by ioi or one of its subsidiaries I wouldn't have to be paranoid about them monitoring my connection or trying to trace my location I would be safe I spoke with a rental agent in a chat room and he showed me around a virtual mockup of my new digs the place looked perfect I rented the room under my new name and paid six months rent up front that kept the agent from asking any questions sometimes during the late hours of the night as the bus slow slowly hummed along the crumbling highway I removed my visor and stared out the window I'd never been outside of Oklahoma City before and I was curious to see what the rest of the country looked like but the view was perpetually Bleak and each decaying overcrowded City we rolled through looked just like the last finally after it felt we'd been crawling along the highway for months the Columbus Skyline appeared on the horizon glittering like AZ at the end of the yellow brick road we arrived around Sunset and already there were more electric lights burning in the city than IID ever seen at one time I'd read that giant solar arrays were positioned throughout the city along with two heliostat power plants on its own skirts they drank in the sun's power all day stored it and fed it back out each night as we pulled into the Columbus bus terminal my Oasis connection cut out as I pulled off my visor and filed off the bus with the other passengers the reality of my situation finally began to hit home I was now a fugitive living under an assumed name powerful people were out looking for me people who wanted me dead as I stepped off the bus I suddenly felt as though a heavy weight were resting on my chest I was having a hard time breathing maybe I was having a panic attack I forced myself to take deep breaths and tried to calm down all I had to do was get to my new apartment set up my rig and log back into the oasis then everything would be all right I would be back in familiar surroundings I would be safe I hailed an auto cab and entered my new address on the touch screen the synthesized voice of the Cab's computer told me the drive would take an estimated 32 minutes with the current traffic conditions during the ride I stared out the window at the dark city streets I still felt laded and anxious I kept glancing up at the meter to see how much further we had to go finally the cab pulled up in front of my new apartment building a slate gray monolith on the banks of the Coto just at the edge of the Twin Rivers ghetto I noticed a discolored outline on the building's facade where the Hilton logo used to be back when the place had been a hotel I thumbed my fair and climbed out of the cab then I took one last look around inhaled one final breath of fresh air and carried my bag through the front door and into the lobby when I stepped inside the security checkpoint cage my fingerprints and retinal patterns were scanned and my new name flashed on the monitor a green light lit up and the cage door slid open allowing me to continue on to the elevators my apartment was on the 42nd Floor number 4211 the security lock mounted outside required another retinal scan then the the door slid open and the interior light switched on there was no furniture in the cube-shaped room and only one window I stepped inside closed the door and locked it behind me then I made a silent vow not to go outside again until I had completed my quest I would abandon the real world altogether until I found the egg level two I'm not crazy about reality but it's still the only place to get a decent meal grocho marks chapter [Music] 17 paral are you there yes hey I can't believe you finally responded to one of my chat requests only to ask you to cut it out it's a bad idea for us to start chatting why I thought we were friends you seem like a great guy but we're competitors rival gunters sworn enemies you know the drill we don't have to talk about anything related to The Hunt everything is related to The Hunt paral come on at least let's give it a shot let's start over hi Artemis how are you fine thanks for asking and you outstanding listen why are we using this ancient Texton chat interface I can host a virtual chat room for us I prefer this why as you may recall I tend to ramble in real time when I have to type out everything I want to say I come off as less of a flibberty jibit I don't think you're a filiberty jibbit you're enchanting did you just use the word enchanting uh what I typed is right there in front of you isn't it that's very sweet but you're full of crap I am totally and completely serious so how's life at the top of the scoreboard Hot Shot sick of being famous yet I don't feel famous are you kidding the whole world is dying to find out who you really are you're a rock star man you're just as famous as I am and if I'm such a rock star how come the media always portrays me as some unwashed geek who never goes outside I take it you saw the SNL skit they did about us yes why does everyone assume I'm some antisocial nut job you're not antisocial no well maybe okay yes but I have excellent personal hygiene at least they got your gender correct everyone thinks I'm a man and life that's because most gunters are male and they can't accept the idea that a woman has beaten and or outsmarted them I know neanderthals so you're telling me definitively that you are a female IRL you should have already figured that out on your own cluso I did I I have have you yes after analyzing the available data I've concluded that you must be a female why must I because I don't want to find out that that I've got a crush on some 300lb dude named Chuck who lives in his mother's basement in Suburban Detroit you've got a crush on me well you should have already figured that out on your own cluso what if I were a 300b gal named Charlene who lives in her mom's basement in Suburban Detroit would you still have a crush on me then I don't know do you live in your mom's basement no well yeah then I still probably would so I'm supposed to believe you're of those mythical guys who only cares about a woman's personality and not about the package it comes in why is it that you assume I'm a man please it's obvious I get nothing but boy Vibes coming from you boy Vibes what do I use masculine scented structure or something don't change the subject you were saying you had a crush on me I've had a crush on you since before we even met from reading your blog and watching your POV I've been cyberstalking you for years but you still don't really know anything about me or my real personality this is the Oasis we exist as nothing but raw personality in here I beg to differ everything about our online personas is filtered through our avatars which allows us to control how we look and sound to others The Oasis lets you be whoever you want to be that's why everyone is addicted to it so IRL you're nothing like the person I met that night in the Tomb that was just one side of me the side I choose to show you you well I like that side and if you showed me your other sides I'm sure I'd like them too you say that now but I know how these things work sooner or later you demand to see a picture of the real me I'm not the sort who makes demands besides I'm definitely not going to show you a photo of me why are you butt ugly wow you're such a hypocrite so answer the question Claire are you ugly I must why the female of the species have always found me repellent I don't find you repellent of course not that's because you're an obese man named Chuck who likes to chat up ugly young boys online so you're a young man relatively young relative to what to a 53-year-old guy like you Chuck does your mom let you live in the basement rentree or what is that really what you're picturing if it were I wouldn't be chatting with you right now so what do you imagine I look like then like your avatar I suppose except without the guns armor and glowing sword you're kidding right that's the first rule of online romances pal no one ever looks anything like their Avatar uh are we going to have an online romance cross his fingers no way Ace sorry why not I've got no time for love Dr Jones my cyberporn addiction eats up most of my free time and searching for the Jade key takes up the rest that's what I should be doing right now in fact yeah so should I but talking to you is more fun how about you how about me what do you have time for an online romance I've got time for you you're too much I'm not even laying it on thick yet you have a job or are you still in high school high school I graduate next week you shouldn't reveal stuff like that Jesus I could be a sixer spy trying to profile you the Sixers already profiled me remember they blew up my house well it was a trailer but they blew it up I know I'm still freaked out about that I can only imagine how you feel revenge is a dish best serve cold G Appetit what do you do when you're not hunting I refuse to answer any more questions until you start reciprocating fine quid proquo Dr Lecter we'll take turns asking questions go ahead do you work or go to school college studying what it's my turn what do you do when you're not hunting nothing hunting is all I do I'm hunting right now in fact multitasking all over the goddamn Place well same here really I'll keep an eye on the scoreboard then just in case you do that Ace what are you studying in college poetry and creative writing that makes sense you're a fantastic writer thanks for the compliment how old are you just turned 18 last month you don't you think we're getting a little too personal now not even remotely 19 ah an older woman that's hot that is if I am a woman are you a woman it's not your turn fine fine how well do you know AG he's been my best friend for 5 years now spillet are you a woman and by that I mean a human female who's never had a sex change operation that's pretty specific answer the question Claire I am and always have been a human female have you ever met H IRL no do you have any siblings no you no you got parents no they died the flu so I was raised by my grandparents do you got parentage no mine are dead too it kind of sucks doesn't it not having your parents around yeah but a lot of people are worse off than me I tell myself that all the time too so are you an H working as a Duo here we go well are you no he asked me the same thing about you and me you know because you cleared the first gate a few hours after I did which reminds me why did you give me that tip about changing sides on the game I felt like helping you well you shouldn't make that mistake again because I'm the one who's going to win you do realize that right uh-huh yeah yeah we'll see about that you're not holding up your end of our Q&A goof you're like five questions behind fine what color is your hair IRL brunette eyes blue just like your avatar huh do you have the same face and body too as far as you know okay what's your favorite movie of all time it changes right now probably Highlander really you've got great taste lady I know I have a thing for evil bald guys the Kyan is too sexy oh I'm going to shave my head right now and start wearing leather send photos listen I got to go in a few minutes Romeo you can ask me one last question then I need to get some sleep when can we chat again after one of us finds the egg that could take years so be it can I at least keep emailing you that's not a good idea you can't stop me from emailing you actually I can I can block you on my contact list you wouldn't do that though would you not if you don't force me to harsh unnecessarily harsh good night paral farewell aremis sweet dreams chat log ends 227 2045 0251 38 OST I started emailing her at first I showed restrained and only wrote her once a week to my surprise she never failed to respond usually it was with just a single sentence saying she was too busy to reply but her replies eventually got longer and we began to correspond a few times a week at first then as our emails grew longer and more personal we started writing each other at least once a day sometimes more whenever an email from her arrived in my inbox I dropped everything to read it before long we were meeting in private chat room sessions at least once a day we played vintage board games watched movies and listened to music we talked for hours long rambling conversations about everything under the sun spending time with her was intoxicating we seemed to have everything in common we shared the same interests we were driven by the same goal she got all of my jokes she made me laugh she made me think she changed the way I saw the world I'd never had such a powerful immediate connection with another human being before not even with h i no longer cared that we were supposed to be Rivals and she didn't seem to either we began to share details about our research we told each other what movies we were currently watching and what books we were reading we even began to exchange theories and to discuss our interpretations of specific passages es in the almanac I couldn't make myself be cautious around her a little voice in my head kept trying to tell me that every word she said could be disinformation and that she might just be playing me for a fool but I didn't believe it I trusted her even though I had every reason not to I graduated from high school in early June I didn't attend the graduation ceremony I'd stopped attending classes altogether when I fled the stacks as far as I knew the Sixers thought I was dead and I didn't want to tip them off by showing up for my last few weeks of school missing finals wasn't a big deal since I already had more than enough credits to receive my diploma the school emailed a copy of it to me they snail mailed the actual diploma to my address in the stacks which no longer existed so I don't know what became of it when I finished school I'd intended to devote all of my time to the hunt but all I really wanted to do was spend time with Artemis when I wasn't hanging out with my new online pseudo girlfriend I devoted the rest of my time to leveling up my avatar gunters called this making the climb to 99 because 99th level was the maximum power level an avatar could attain Artemis and H had both recently done it and I felt compelled to catch up it actually didn't take me very long I now had nothing but free time and I had the money and the means to fully explore the Oasis so I began to complete every Quest I could find sometimes jumping five or six levels in one day I became a split class Warrior SL Mage as my stats continued to increase I honed my Avatar's combat and spellcasting abilities while collecting a wide array of powerful weapons magic items and vehicles Artemis and I even teamed up for a few quests we visited the planet gundock and finished the entire goon's quest in just one day Arty played through it as Martha plimpton's character Steph while I played as Mickey sha aston's character it was entirely too much fun I didn't spend all of my time goofing off I tried to keep my head in the game really I did at least once a day I would pull up the quat train and try once again to decipher its meaning the captain conceals the Jade key in a dwelling long neglected but you can only blow the whistle once the trophies are all collected for a while I thought that the whistle in the third line might be a reference to a late 60s Japanese TV show called the Space Giants which had been dubbed in English and rebroadcast in the United States in the 70s and 80s the Space Giants called maguma tesi in Japan featured a family of transforming robots who lived in a volcano and battled an evil alien villain named named rhak holiday referred to this show several times in anax Almanac citing it as one of his childhood favorites one of the show's main characters was a boy named Mo who would blow a special whistle to summon the robots to his Aid I watched all 52 Ultra cheesy episodes of the Space Giants back to back while wolfing down corn chips and taking notes but when the viewing Marathon was over I still wasn't any closer to understanding the quatrain meaning I'd hit another dead end I decided that holiday must be referring to some other whistle then one Saturday morning I finally made a small breakthrough I was watching a collection of vintage80s Serial commercials when I paused to wonder why serial manufacturers no longer included toy prizes inside every box it was a tragedy in my opinion another sign that civilization was going straight down the tubes I was still pondering this when an old Captain Crunch commercial came on and that was when I made a connection between the first and third lines of the quatrain the captain conceals the Jade key but you can only blow the whistle once the trophies are all collected holiday was alluding to a famous 70s hacker named John Draper better known by the Alias Captain Crunch Draper was one of the first phone freaks and he was famous for discovering that the toy plastic whistles found as prizes in boxes of Captain Crunch cereal could be used to make free long-distance phone calls because they emitted a 2600hz tone that tricked the old analog phone system into giving you free access to the line the captain conceals the Jade key that had to be it the captain was Captain Crunch and the whistle was the famous toy plastic whistle of phone freak lore maybe the Jade key was disguised as one of those toy plastic whistles and it was hidden in a box of Captain Crunch cereal but where was that cereal box hidden in a dwelling long neglected I still didn't know what long neglected dwelling that line referred to or where to look for it I visited every neglected dwelling I could think of Recreations of The Adams Family House the abandoned Shack in the Evil Dead Trilogy Tyler Duran's Flop House in Fight Club and the Lars Homestead on Tatooine no lock finding the Jade key inside any of them dead end after dead end but you can only blow the whistle once the trophies are all collected I still hadn't deciphered the meaning of that last line either what Trophies did I have to collect or was that some kind of half-ass metaphor there had to be a simple connection I wasn't making a Sly reference that I still wasn't clever or knowledgeable enough to catch since then I'd failed to make any more progress every time I Revisited the quatrain my ongoing infatuation with Artemis would undermine my ability to focus and before long I would close my Grail diary and call her up to see if she wanted to hang out she almost always did I convinced myself that it was all right to slack off a bit because no one else seemed to be making any progress in their search for the Jade key the scoreboard remained unchanged everyone else seemed to be just as stumped as I was as the weeks continued to pass Artemis and I spent more and more time time together even when our avatars were doing other things we were sending emails and instant messages to each other a river of words flowed between us I wanted more than anything to meet her in the real world face to face but I didn't tell her this I was certain that she had strong feelings for me but she also kept me at a distance no matter how much I revealed about myself to her and I wound up revealing just what everything including my real name she always L refused to reveal any details about her own life all I knew was that she was 19 and that she lived somewhere in the Pacific Northwest that was all she would tell me the image of her that formed in my mind was the most obvious one I pictured her as a physical manifestation of her Avatar I imagined her with the same face eyes hair and body even though she told me repeatedly that in reality she looked almost nothing like her Avatar and that she she wasn't nearly as attractive in person when I began to spend most of my time with Artemis H and I began to grow apart instead of hanging out several times a week we chatted a few times a month H knew I was falling for Artemis but he never gave me too much grief about it even when I would bail on him at the last minute to hang out with her instead he would just shrug tell me to be careful and say I sure help you know what you're doing Z I didn't of course my whole relationship with Artemis was in defiance of all common sense but I couldn't help falling for her somehow without my realizing it my obsession with finding holiday's Easter egg was gradually being supplanted by my obsession with Artemis eventually she and I began to go out on dates taking day trips to Exotic Oasis locals and exclusive night spots at first Artemis protested she thought I should keep a low profile because as soon as my avatar was spotted in public the Sixers would know that their attempt to kill me had failed and I'd be back on their hit list but I told her I no longer cared I was already hiding from the Sixers in the real world and I refused to continue hiding from them in the Oasis too besides I had a 99th level Avatar now I felt Invincible maybe I was just trying to impress emis by acting Fearless if so I think it worked we still disc IED our avatars before we went out because we knew there would be tabloid headlines Galore if paral and emis started showing up in public together on a regular basis but there was one exception one night she took me to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show in a huge stadium-sized movie theater on the planet transsexual where they held the most highly attended and longest running weekly screening of the movie in the Oasis thousands of avatars came to every show to sit in the stands and revel in the audience participation normally only long-standing members of The Rocky Horror fan club were permitted to get up on stage and help act out the film in front of the giant movie screen and only after they'd passed a grueling audition process but Artemis used her Fame to pull a few strings and she and I were both allowed to join the cast for that night's show the whole planet was in a no PVP zone so I wasn't worried about getting ambushed by the Sixers but I did have a serious case of stage fright when the show began emis played a note perfect Colombia and I had the honor of playing her Undead love interest Eddie I altered my Avatar's appearance so that it looked exactly like meatloaf did in the roll but my performance and lip syncing still kind of sucked luckily the audience got me a lot of slack because I was the famous Gunter paral and I was clearly having a BL last that night was easily the most fun I'd ever had in my life up until that point I told Artemis so afterward and that was when she leaned over and kissed me for the first time I couldn't feel it of course but it still set my heart racing I had heard all the cliched warnings about the Perils of falling for someone you only knew online but I ignored them I decided that whoever emis really was I was in love with her I could feel it deep in the the soft chewy caramel center of my being and then one night like a complete idiot I told her how I felt chapter [Music] 18 it was a Friday night and I was spending another solitary evening doing research working my way through every episode of Whiz Kids an early 80s TV show about a teenage hacker who uses his computer skills to solve Mysteries I just finished watching the episode deadly access a crossover with Simon and Simon when an email arrived in my inbox it was from Ogden Morrow the subject line read we can dance if we want to there was no text in the body of the email just a file attachment an invitation to one of the most exclusive gatherings in the Oasis Ogden Morrow's birthday party in the real world Morrow almost never made public appearances and in the Oasis he came out of hiding only once a year to host this event the invitation featured a photo of Morrow's world famous Avatar the Great and Powerful Aug the gray bearded wizard was hunched over an elaborate DJ mixing board one headphone pressed to his ear buding his lower lip in auditory ecstasy as his fingers scratched ancient vinyl on a set of silver turntables his record crate bore a Don't Panic sticker and an anti- sixer logo a yellow number six with a red circle and slash over it the text at the bottom read Ogden Morrow's 80s dance party a celebration of his 73rd birthday tonight 1 p.m. OST at the distracted Globe at m 1 I was flabbergasted Ogden Morrow had actually taken the time to invite me to his birthday party it felt like the greatest honor I'd ever received I called AR and she confirmed that she'd received the same email she said she couldn't pass up an invitation from Aug himself despite the obvious risks so naturally I told her I would meet her there at the club it was the only way I could avoid looking like a total wuss I knew that if Aug had invited the two of us he'd probably also invited the other members of the high five but H probably wouldn't show up because he competed in a globally televised Arena death match every Friday night and Shoto and Dao never entered a PVP Zone unless it was absolutely necessary the distracted Globe was a famous zerogravity dance club on the planet neon Noir in sector 16 Ogden Morrow had coded the place himself decades ago and was still its sole owner I'd never visited the globe before I wasn't much for dancing or for socializing with the twinked out wannabe Gunter fiber dorks who were known for frequenting the place but aug's birthday party was a special event and so the usual clientele would be banished for the evening tonight the club would be packed with celebrities movie stars musicians and at least two members of the high five I spent over an hour tweaking my Avatar's hair and trying on different skins to wear to the club I finally settled on some classic 80s era attire a light gray suit exactly like the one Peter Weller wore in Buckaroo bonsai complete with a red bow tie along with a pair of vintage white Adidas high Toops I also loaded my inventory with the best suit of body armor and a large amount of Weaponry one of the reasons the globe was such a hip exclusive Club was because it was located in a PVP Zone one where both magic and technology functioned so it was extremely dangerous to go there especially for a famous Gunter like me there were hundreds of cyberpunk themed worlds spread throughout the Oasis but Neo Noir was one of the largest and oldest seen from orbit the planet was a shiny Onyx marble covered in overlapping spiderwebs of pulsating light it was always night on new Noir the world over and its surface was an uninterrupted grid of interconnected cities packed with impossibly large skyscrapers its skies were filled with A continuous stream of flying vehicles woring through the vertical cityscapes and the streets below teamed with leather clad NPCs and mirror shaded avatars all sporting high-tech weaponry and subcutaneous implants as they spouted City speak straight out of Neuromancer the distracted Globe was located at the Western Hemisphere intersection of the Boulevard and the Avenue two brightly lit streets that stretched completely around the planet along its equator and prime meridian the club itself was a massive cobalt blue sphere 3 km in diameter floating 30 m off the ground a floating Crystal staircase led up to the club's only entrance a circular opening at the bottom of the sphere I made a big entrance when I arrived in my flying DeLorean which ID obtained by completing a Back to the Future Quest on the planet zamus the DeLorean came outfitted with a non-functioning flux capacitor but I'd made several additions to its equipment and appearance first I'd installed an artificially intelligent onboard computer named kit purchased in an online auction into the dashboard along with a matching red Night Rider scanner embedded in the delorean's grill then I'd outfitted the car with an oscillation over Thruster a device that allowed it to travel through solid matter finally to complete my 80s super vehicle theme i' slapped a Ghostbusters logo on each of the delorean's gwing doors then added personalized plates that read Ecto 88 I'd had it only a few weeks now but my time traveling ghost busting night riding matter penetrating DeLorean had already become my Avatar's trademark I knew that leaving my sweet ride parked in a PVP Zone was an open invitation for some to try and boost it the DeLorean had several anti- theft systems installed and the ignition system was booby trapped Max Rocka stancy style so that if any other Avatar tried to start the car the plutonium chamber would detonate in a small thermonuclear explosion but keeping my car safe wouldn't be a problem here on neon Noir as soon as I climbed out of the DeLorean I cast a shrink spell on it instantly reducing it to the size of a Matchbox car then I put the DeLorean in my Pocket magic zones had their advantages thousands of avatars were packed up against the Velvet Rope force fields that kept everyone without an invitation at Bay as I walked through the entrance the crowd bombarded me with a mix of insults autograph requests death threats and tearful Declarations of undying love I had my body Shield activated but surprisingly no one took a shot at me I flashed the cyborg doorman my invitation then mounted the long Crystal staircase leading up into the club entering the distracted Globe was more than a little disorienting the inside of the giant sphere was completely Hollow and its curved interior surface served as the club's bar and Lounge area the moment you passed through the entrance the laws of gravity changed no matter where you walked your Avatar's feet always adhered to the interior of the sphere so you could walk in a straight line up to the top of the club then back down the other side ending up right back where you started the huge open space in the center of the sphere served as the club's zero gravity Dance Floor you reached it simply by jumping off the ground like Superman taking FL night and then swimming through the air into the spherical zerog Groove Zone as I stepped through the entrance I glanced up or in the direction that was currently up to me at the moment and took a long look around the place was packed hundreds of avatars milled around like ants crawling around the inside of a giant balloon others were already out on the Dance Floor spinning flying twisting and tumbling in time with the music which thumped out of floating spherical speakers that drifted throughout the club in the middle of all the dancers a large clear bubble was suspended in space at the absolute center of the club this was the booth where the DJ stood surrounded by turntables mixers checks and dials at the center of all that gear was the opening DJ R2-D2 hard at work using his various robotic arms to work the turntables I recognized the tune he was playing the 88 remix of new orders Blue Monday with a lot of Star Wars droid samples mixed [Music] in how does it feel to Tre as I made my way to the nearest bar the Avatar as I passed all stopped to stare and point in my direction I didn't pay them much notice because I was busy scanning the club for Artemis when I reached the bar I ordered a Pang Galactic gargo Blaster from the female Klingon bartender and downed half of it then I grinned as R2 queued up another classic 80s tune Union of the snake [Music] [Applause] [Music] I recited mostly out of habit Duran Duran 1983 not bad Ace said a familiar voice speaking just loud enough to be heard over the music I turned to see Artemis standing behind me she was wearing evening attire a gunmetal blue dress that looked like it was spray painted on her Avatar's dark hair was styled in a page boy cut perfectly framing her gorgeous face she looked devastating she showed it at the barkeep Glenn manangi on the Rocks I smiled to myself Connor mccloud's favorite drink man did I love this girl she winked at me as her drink appeared then she clinked her glass against mine and downed its contents in one swallow the chattering of the avatars around us grew in volume word that parel and Artemis were here chatting each other up at the bar was already spreading through the entire Club Artemis glanced up at the dance floor then back at me so how about it Percy she said feel like cutting a rug I scowled not if you keep calling me Percy she laughed just then the current song ended and the club grew silent All Eyes turned upwards toward the DJ booth where R2D2 was currently dissolving in a shower of light like someone beaming out in an original Star Trek episode then a huge cheer went up as a familiar gray haired Avatar beamed in appearing behind the turntables it was Aug hundreds of vid feed Windows materialized in the air all over the club each displayed a live close-up image of Aug in the booth so that everyone could see his Avatar clearly the old wizard was wearing baggy jeans sandals and a faded Star Trek the Next Generation t-shirt he waved to the assembled then queued up his first track a dance remix of Rebel Yale by Billy Idol [Music] last a cheer swept across the dance floor I love this song emis shouted her eyes darted up to the dance floor I looked at her uncertainly what's wrong she said with mock sympathy can't the boy dance she abruptly locked into the beat bobbing her head gyrating her hips then she pushed off from the floor with both feet and began to float upwards drifting toward the groove Zone I stared up at her temporarily Frozen mustering my courage all right I whispered to myself what the hell I bent my knees and pushed off hard from the floor my avatar took flight drifting upward and sliding alongside emis the avatars who were already on the Dance Floor moved aside to clear a path for us a tunnel leading to the center of the Dance Floor I could see hog hovering in his bubble just a short distance above us he was spinning around like a dervish remixing the song on the Fly while simultaneously adjusting the gravity Vortex of the dance floor so that he was actually spinning the club itself like an ancient vinyl disc emis winked at me and then her legs melted together to form a mermaid's tail she flapped her new fin tail once and shot ahead of me her body undulating and thrusting in time with the machine gun beat as she swam through the air then she spun back around to face me suspended and floating smiling and holding out her hand beckoning me to join her her hair floated like a halo around her head like she was underwater when I reached her she took my hand as she did her mermaid tail vanished and her legs reappeared whirling and scissoring to the beat not trusting my instincts any further I loaded up a piece of high-end Avatar dance software called travola which I downloaded and tested earlier that evening the program took control of parzival's movements syncing them up with the music and all four of my limbs were transformed into undulating cosine waves just like that I became a Dancing Fool artemis's eyes lit up in Surprise and delight and she began to mirror my movements the two of us orbiting each other like accelerated electrons then emis began shape-shifting her Avatar lost its human form and dissolved into a pulsing amorphous blob that changed its size and color in sync with the music I selected the mirror partner option in my dance software and began to do the same my Avatar's Limbs and torso began to flow and spin like taffy encircling Artemis while strange color patterns flowed and shifted across my skin I looked like plastic man if he were tripping out of his mind on LSD then everyone else on the Dance Floor began to shape shift melting into Prismatic Blobs of light soon the center of the club looked like some otherworldly Love Lamp when the song ended OG took a bow then queued up a slow song Time After Time by Cindy [Music] loer all around us avatars began to pair up I gave Artemis a courtly bow and stretched out my hand she smiled and took it I pulled her clothes and we began to drift together Aug set The Dance Floor's gravity on a counterclockwise spin making all of our avatars slowly rotate around the club's invisible Central axis like moats of dust floating inside a snow globe and then before I could stop myself the words just came out I'm in love with you Arty she didn't respond at first she just looked at me in shock as our avatars continued to drift in orbit around each other moving on autopilot then she switched to a private voice channel so no one could EES drop on our conversation you aren't in love with me Z she said you don't even know me yes I do I insisted I know you better than I've ever known anyone in my entire life you only know what I want you to know you only see what I want you to see she placed a hand on her chest this isn't my real body Wade or my real face I don't care I'm in love with your mind with the person you are I couldn't care less about the packaging you're just saying that she said there was an unsteadiness in her voice trust me if I ever let you see me in person you would be repulsed why do you always say that because I'm hideously deformed or I'm a paraplegic or I'm actually 63 years old take your pick I don't care if you're all three of those things tell me where to meet you and I'll prove it I'll get on a plane right now and I'll fly to wherever you are you know I will she shook her head you don't live in the real world z from what you've told me I don't think you ever have you're like me you live inside this illusion she motioned to our virtual surroundings you can't possibly know what real love is don't say that I was starting to cry and didn't bother hiding it from her is it because I told you I've never had a real girlfriend and that I'm a virgin because of course not she said that isn't what this is about at all then what is it about tell me please the hunt you know that we've both been neglecting our quest to hang out with each other we should be focused on finding the Jade key right now you can bed that's what sento and the Sixers are doing and everyone else to hell with the competition and the I shouted didn't you hear what I just said I'm in love with you and I want to be with you more than anything she just stared at me or rather her Avatar stared blankly back at my avatar then she said I'm sorry Z this is all my fault I let this get way out of hand it has to stop what do you mean what has to stop I think we should take a break stop spending so much time together I felt like I'd been punched in the throat are you breaking up with me no Z she said firmly I am not breaking up with you that would be impossible since we are not together there was suddenly Venom in her voice we've never even met so then you're just going to stop talking to me yes I think that would be for the best for how long until the Hunt is over but already that could take years I realized that and I'm sorry but this is how it has to be so winning that money is more important to you than me it's not about the money it's about what I could do with it right saving the world you're so Noble Don't Be a Jerk I've been searching for the egg for over five years so have you now we're closer than ever to finding it I can't just throw my chance away I'm not asking you to yes you are even if you don't realize it the Cindy Lopper song ended and queued up another dance track James Brown is dead by La style Jam Brown is dead the club erupted in Applause I felt like a large wooden steak had been driven through my chest emis was about to say something more goodbye I think when we heard a thunderous boom directly up above us at first I thought it was Aug train wrecking into a new dance track but then I looked up and saw large chunks of rubble tumbling at high speed onto the dance floor as Avatar scattered to get out of the way a gaping hole had just been blasted into the roof of the club near the top of the globe and a small army of Sixers was now pouring through it swooping into the club on jetpacks firing Blaster pistols as they came total chaos broke out half of the avatars in the club swarmed toward the exit while the other half Drew weapons or began to cast spells firing laser bolts bullets and Fireballs back at the invading Sixers there were more than a 100 of them all armed to the teeth I couldn't believe the Sixers bravado why would they be dumb enough to attack a room full of highlevel gunters on their own turf they might kill a few of us but they were going to lose some or all of their own avatars in the process and for what then I realized that most of the Sixers incoming fire seemed to be directed at me and Artemis they were here to kill the two of us the news that Artemis and I were here must have already hit the newsfeeds and when sarento had learned that the top two gunters on the scoreboard were hanging out in an unshielded PVP Zone he must have decided that it was too juicy a Target to pass up this was the Sixers chance to take out their two biggest competitors in one shot it was worth wasting a 100 or so of their highest level avatars I knew my own recklessness had brought them down on us I cursed myself for being so foolish then I drew my blasters and began to unload them at the cluster of Sixers nearest to me while also doing my best to dodge their incoming fire I glanced over at Artemis just in time to see her incinerate a dozen Sixers in the space of 5 Seconds using balls of blue plasma that she hurled out of her Palms while ignoring the steady stream of laser bolts and Magic missiles ricocheting off her transparent body Shield I was taking heavy fire too so far my own body Shield was holding up but it wasn't going to last much longer failure warnings were already flashing on my display and my hit point counter was starting to plummet in seconds the situation escalated into the largest confrontation I'd ever witnessed and it already seemed clear that Artemis and I were going to be on the losing side I noticed that the music still hadn't stopped I glanced up at the DJ booth just in time to see it crack open as the Great and Powerful Aug emerged from within he looked really really annoyed you J think you can crash my birthday party he shouted is Avatar was still wearing a mic so his words blasted over the club speaker array reverberating in like the voice of God the melee seemed to Halt for a split second as all eyes turned to look at OG who is now floating at the center of the Dance Floor he stretched out his arms as he turned to face the onslaught of Sixers a dozen times of red lightning erupted from each of aug's fingertips launching out in all directions each time struck a different sixer Avatar in the chest while somehow arcing harmlessly around everyone else in a millisecond every single sixer in the club was completely vaporized their avatars froze and glowed bright red for a few seconds then simply vanished I was arru it was the most incredible Display of Power by an avatar I'd ever seen nobody busts into my joint Uninvited Aug shouted his voice echoing through the now silent Club the remaining avatars the ones who hadn't fled the club in Terror or been killed in the brief battle let out a Victorious cheer Aug flew back into the DJ booth which closed up around him like a transparent cocoon now let's get this party going again shall we he said dropping a needle onto a techno remix of atomic by blonde [Music] it took a moment for the shock to wear off but then everyone started to dance again I looked around for emis but she seemed to have vanished then I spotted her Avatar flying out of the new exit the sixer attack had created she stopped and hovered outside a moment just long enough to glance back at me chapter [Music] 19 my computer woke me up just before Sundown and I began my daily ritual I'm up I shouted out the darkness in the week since Artemis had dumped me I'd had a hard time getting out of bed in the morning so I disabled my alarm snooze feature and instructed the computer to blast wake me up before you go go by Wham my heart you my soul SK High when you love starts into bra go to bang bang bang till my feet do the same wake me up before you go go don't leave me I hated that song with every fiber of my being and getting up was the only way to silence it it wasn't the most Pleasant way to start my day but it got me moving the song cut off and my haptic chair reshaped and reoriented itself transforming from a bed back into his chair configuration Lifting me up into a sitting position as it did so the computer began to bring the lights up slowly allowing my eyes to adjust no outside light ever penetrated my apartment the single window had once provided a view of the Columbus Skyline but I had spray painted it completely black a few days after IID moved in I decided that everything outside the window was a distraction from my quest so I didn't need to waste time staring at it I didn't want to hear the outside world either but I hadn't been able to improve upon the apartment's existing soundproofing so I had to live with the muffled sounds of wind and rain and of Street and air traffic even these could be a distraction at times I'd slip into a kind of Trance sitting with my eyes closed oblivious to the passage of time listening to the sounds of the world outside my room I'd made several other modifications to the apartment for the sake of security and convenience first I replaced the flimsy door with a new airtight armor plated vacuum sealed War door whenever I needed something food toilet paper New Gear I ordered it online and someone brought it right to my door deliveries worked like this first the scanner mounted outside in the hallway would verify the delivery person's identity and my computer would confirm they were delivering something IID actually ordered then the outer door would unlock it itself and slide open revealing a steel reinforced airlock about the size of a shower stall the delivery person would place the parcel pizza or whatever inside the airlock and step back the outer door would hiss shut and relock itself then the package would be scanned x-rayed and analyzed eight ways from Wednesday its contents would be verified and delivery confirmation would be sent then I would unlock and open the inner door and receive my Goods capitalism would inch forward without my actually having to interact face to face with another human being which was exactly how I preferred it thank you the room itself wasn't much to look at which was fine because I spent as little time looking at it as possible it was basically a cube about 10 m long on each side a modular shower and toilet Unit were embedded in one wall opposite the small ergonomic kitchen I'd never actually used the kitchen to cook anything my meals were all Frozen or delivered microwave brownies were as close as I ever got to cooking the rest of the room was dominated by my Oasis immersion rig I'd invested every spare scent I had in it newer faster or more versatile components were always being released so I was constantly spending large chunks of my meager income on upgrades the Crown Jewel in my rig was of course my customized o console the computer that powered my world I'd built it myself piece by piece inside a modded mirror black Odin Weare sphere chassis it had a new overclocked processor that was so fast its cycle time bordered on precognition and the internal hard drive had enough storage space to hold three digitized copies of everything in existence I spend the majority of my time in my shapik technology HC 5000 fully adjustable haptic chair it was suspended by two jointed robotic arms anchored to my apartment's walls and ceiling These Arms could rotate the chair on all four axes so when I was strapped into it the unit could flip spin or shake my body to create the Sensation that I was falling flying or sitting behind the wheel of a nuclear-powered rocket sled hurling at mock 2 through a canyon on the fourth Moon of alter 6 the ch worked in conjunction with my shapik boot suit a full body haptic feedback suit it covered every inch of my body from the neck down and had discreet openings so I could relieve myself without removing the entire thing the outside of the suit was covered with an elaborate exoskeleton a network of artificial tendons and joints that could both sense and inhibit my movements built into the inside of the suit was a webike network of miniature actuators that made contact with my skin every few centimeters these could be activated in small or large groups for the purpose of tactile stimulation to make my skin feel things that weren't really there they could convincingly simulate the sensation of a tap on the shoulder a kick to the shin or a gunshot to the chest built-in safety software prevented my rig from actually causing me any physical harm so a simulated gunshot actually felt more like a weak punch I had an identical backup suit hanging in the moshh cleaning unit in the corner of the room these two haptic suits made up my entire wardrobe my old street clothes were buried somewhere in the closet collecting dust on my hands I wore a pair of state-of-the-art okagami Idle Hands haptic data gloves special tactile feedback pads covered both Palms allowing the gloves to create the illusion that I was touching objects and services that didn't actually exist my visor was a brand new pair of Tatro rlr 7800 Rec specs featuring a top-of-the-line virtual retinal display the visor drew the Oasis directly onto my retinas at the highest frame rate and resolution perceptible to the human eye the real world looked washed out and blurry by comparison the rlr 7800 was a not yet available to the plean masses prototyp type but I had an endorsement deal with the nro so they sent me free gear shipped to me through a series of relay Services which I used to maintain my anonymity my abound Sound audio system consisted of an array of ultra thin speakers mounted on the apartment walls floor and ceiling providing 360° of perfect spatial pin drop sound reproduction and the Moler subwoofer was powerful enough to make my back teeth vibrate the AL fatrick smell Tower in the corner was capable of generating over 2,000 discernable odors a Rose Garden salty ocean wind burning cordite the tower could convincingly recreate them all it also doubled as an industrial strength air conditioner SLP purifier which was primarily what I used it for a lot of jokers like to code really horrific smells into their simulations just to mess with people who owned smell Towers so I usually left the odor generator disabled unless I was in a part of the Oasis where I thought being able to smell my surroundings might prove useful on the floor directly underneath my suspended haptic chair was my okagami runaround omnidirectional treadmill no matter where you go there you are was the manufacturer's slogan the treadmill was about 2 m square and 6 cm thick when it was activated I could run at top speed in any direction and never reach the edge of the platform if I change direction the treadmill would sense it and its rolling surface would change direction to match mine always keeping my body near the center of the platform this model was also equipped with built-in lifts and an amorphous surface so that it could simulate walking up inclines and staircases you could also purchase an ACD anatomically correct haptic doll if you wanted to have more intimate encounters inside the Oasis acds came in male female and dual sex models and were available with a wide array of options realistic latex skin servomotor driven endoskeletons simulated musculature and all of the attendant appendages and orifices one would imagine driven by loneliness curiosity and raging teen hormones i' purchased a mid-range ACD the shapik Uber Betty a few weeks after Artemis stopped speaking to me after spending several highly unproductive days inside a standalone brothel simulation called the pleasure Dome I'd gotten rid of the doll out of a combination of Shame and self-preservation I'd wasted thousands of credits missed a whole week of work and was on the verge of completely abandoning my quest for the egg when I confronted the Grim realization that virtual sex no matter how realistic was really nothing but glorified computer assisted masturbation at the end of the day I was still a virgin all alone in a dark room humping a lubed up robot so I got rid of the ACD and went back to Spanking the Monkey the old fashioned way I felt no shame about masturbating thanks to anara Almanac I now thought of it as a normal bodily function as necessary and natural as sleeping or eating entry log AA 2041 87 I would argue that masturbation is the human animals most important adaptation the very Cornerstone of our technological civilization our hands evolve to grip tools all right including our own you see thinkers inventors and scientists are are usually Geeks and Geeks have a harder time getting laid than anyone without the built-in sexual release valve provided by masturbation it's doubtful that early humans would ever have mastered the secrets of fire or discover the wheel and you can bet that Galileo Newton and Einstein never would have made their discoveries if they hadn't first been able to clear their heads by slapping the salami or knocking a few protons off the old hydrogen Adam the same goes for Marie Curry before she discovered radium you can be certain she first discovered the little man in the canoe it wasn't one of holiday's most popular theories but I liked it as I shuffled over to the toilet a large flat screen monitor mounted on the wall switched on and the smiling face of Max my system agent software appeared on the screen I'd program Max to start up a few minutes after I turned on the lights so I could wake up a little bit before he started jabbering to me good morning Wade Max stuttered cheerily rise and shine running system agent software was a little like having a virtual personal assistant one that also functioned as a voice activated interface with your computer system agent software was highly configurable with hundreds of pre-programmed personalities to choose from I'd programmed mine to look sound and behav like Max Headroom the ostensibly computer generated star of a late 80s talk show a groundbreaking cyberpunk TV series and a slew of coat commercials uh good morning Max I replied groly I think you mean good evening Rumple stillin it's 7:18 p.m. Oasis stand Standard Time Wednesday December 30th Max was programmed to speak with a slight electronic stutter in the mid 1980s when the character of Max Headroom was created computers weren't actually powerful enough to generate a photorealistic human figure so max had been portrayed by an actor the brilliant Matt fruer who wore a lot of rubber makeup to make him look computer generated but the version of Max now smiling at me on the monitor was pure software with the best simulated Ai and voice recognition sub routines money could buy I'd been running a highly customized version of Max Headroom 3.4.1 for a few weeks now before that my system agent software had been modeled after the actress Aaron gray of Buck Rogers and silver spoon Fame but she'd proven to be way too distracting so I'd switch to Max he was annoying at times but he also cracked me up he did a pretty decent job of helping me from feeling Lonesome too as I stumbled into the bathroom module and emptied my bladder Max continued to address me from a small monitor mounted above the mirror uh-oh it appears you've sprung a leaks you've sprung run run run run run [Music] run get a new joke I said any news I should know about just the usual Wars rioting famine nothing that would interest you any messages he rolled his eyes a few but to answer your real question no Artemus still hasn't called or written you back lover boy I've warned you don't call me that Max you're begging to be deleted touchy touchy honestly Wade when did you get so s sensitive I'll erase you Max I mean it keep it up and I'll switch back to will M Dearing or I'll try out the disembodied voice of mayel Barrett Max made a pouty face and spun around to face the shifting digital wallpaper behind him currently a pattern of multicolored Vector lines Max was always like this giving me grief was part of his pre-programmed personality I actually sort of enjoyed it because it reminded me of hanging out with h and I really missed hanging out with h a lot my gaze dropped to the bathroom mirror but I didn't much like what I saw there so I closed my eyes until I finished urinating I wondered not for the first time why I hadn't painted the mirror black too when I'd done the window the hour or so after I woke up was my least favorite part of each day because I spent it in the real world this was when I dealt with the tedious business of cleaning and exercising my physical body I hated this part of the day because everything about it contradicted my other life my real life inside the Oasis the sight of my tiny one room apartment my immersion rig or my reflection in the mirror they all served as a harsh reminder that the world I spent my days in was not in fact the real one retract chair I said as I stepped out of the bathroom the aptic chair instantly flattened itself again then retracted so that it was flush against the wall clearing a large empty space in the center of the room I pulled on my visor and loaded up the gym a standalone simulation now I was standing in a large modern fitness center lined with exercise equipment and weight machines all of which could be perfectly simulated by my haptic suit I began my daily workout sit-ups stomach crunches push-ups aerobics and training occasionally Max would shout words of encouragement get those legs up you feel the burn I usually got a little exercise while logged into the oasis by engaging in physical combat or running around the virtual landscape on my treadmill but I spent the vast majority of my time sitting in my haptic chair getting almost no exercise at all I also had a habit of overeating when I was depressed or frustrated which was most of the time as a result I gradually started to put on some extra pounds I wasn't in the best shape to begin with so I quickly reached a point where I could no longer fit comfortably in my haptic chair or squeeze into my extra- large haptic suit soon I would need to buy a new rig with components from the Husky line I knew that if I didn't get my weight under control I would probably die of sloth before I found the egg I couldn't let that happen so I made a snap decision and enabled the voluntary Oasis Fitness lockout software on my rig I'd regretted it almost immediately from then on my computer monitored my Vital Signs and kept track of exactly how many calories I burned during the course of each day if I didn't meet my daily exercise requirements the system prevented me from logging into my Oasis account this man that I couldn't go to work continue my quest or in a fact live my life once the lock out was engaged you couldn't dis a it for 2 months and the software was bound to my Oasis account so I couldn't just buy a new computer or go rent a booth in some public Oasis Cafe if I wanted to log in I had no choice but to exercise first this proved to be the only motivation I needed the lockout software also monitored my dietary intake each day I was allowed to select meals from a preset menu of healthy low calorie foods the software would order the food for me online line and it would be delivered to my door since I never left my apartment it was easy for the program to keep track of everything I ate if I ordered additional food on my own it would increase the amount of exercise I had to do each day to offset my additional calorie intake this was some sadistic software but it worked the pounds began to melt off and after a few months I was in near perfect health for the first time in my life I had a flat stomach and muscles I also had twice the energy and I got sick a lot less frequently when the two months ended and I was finally given the option to disable the fitness lockout I decided to keep it in place now exercising was a part of my daily ritual once I finished with my weight training I stepped onto my treadmill begin morning run I said to Max by Frost track the virtual gym vanished now I was standing on a semi-transparent running track curving looped ribbon suspended in a starry nebula giant ringed planets and multicolored moons were suspended in space all around me the running track stretched out ahead of me Rising falling and occasionally spiraling into a helix an invisible barrier prevented me from accidentally running off the edge of the track and plummeting into the starry Abyss the bifrost track was another Standalone simulation one of several hundred track designs stored on my console's hard drive as I began to run Max fired up my 80s music playlist as the first song began I quickly rattled off its title artist album and year of release from memory A Million Miles Away the plim souls everywhere at once 1983 then I began to sing along reciting the lyrics [Music] having the right 80s song lyric memorized might save my Avatar's life someday when I finished my run I pulled off my visor and began removing my haptic suit this had to be done slowly to prevent damaging the suit's components as I carefully peeled it off the contact patches made tiny popping sounds as they pulled free of my my skin leaving tiny circular marks all over my body once I had the suit off I placed it inside the cleaning unit and laid my clean spare suit on the floor Max had already turned on the shower for me setting the water temperature right where I liked it as I jumped into the steam filled stall Mac switched the music over to my shower Tunes playlist I recognized the opening riffs of Change by John weight from The Vision Quest soundtrack geffin records 1985 people talking and they're saying that you're leaving we the shower worked a lot like an old car wash I just stood there while it did most of the work blasting me from all angles with jets of soapy water then rinsing me off I had no hair to wash because the shower also dispensed a non-toxic hair removing solution that I rubbed all over my face and body this eliminated the need for me to shave or cut my hair both hassles I didn't need having smooth skin also helped to make sure my haptic suit fits snugly I looked a little freaky without any eyebrows but I got used to it and there was nobody else around to laugh at me when the rinse Jets cut off the blow drve kicked on blasting the moisture off of my skin in a matter of seconds I stepped into the kitchen and took out a can of sludge a high protein vitamin D infused breakfast drink to help counteract my sunlight deprivation as I gulped it down my computer's sensors silently took note scanning the barcode and adding the calories to my total for the day with breakfast out of the way I pulled on my clean haptic suit this was less tricky than taking the suit off but it still took time to do properly once I had the suit on I ordered the haptic chair to extend then I paused and spent a moment staring at my immersion rig I'd been so proud of all this high-tech Hardware when I'd first purchased it but over the past few months I'd come to see my rig for what it was an elaborate Contraption for deceiving my senses to allow me to live in a world that didn't exist each component of my rig was a bar in the cell where I had willingly imprisoned myself standing there under the Bleak fluoresence of my tiny one room apartment there was no escaping the truth in real life I was nothing but an antisocial hermit a recluse a pale skinned pop culture obsessed geek an agoraphobic shut in with no real friends family or Genuine human contact I was just another sad lost lonely Soul wasting his life on a glorified video game but not in the Oasis in there I was the great paral world famous Gunter an international celebrity people asked for my autograph I had a fan club several actually I was recognized everywhere I went but only when I wanted to be I was paid to endorse products people admired and looked up to me I got invited to the most exclusive parties I went to all the hippest clubs and never had to wait in line I was a pop culture icon a VR rock star and in Gunter circles I was a legend nay a God I sat down and pulled on my gloves and visor once my identity was verified the gregarious simulation systems logo appeared in front of me followed by the login prompt greetings paral please speak your P phrase I cleared my throat and recited my P phrase each word appeared on my display as I said it no one in the world ever gets what they want and that is beautiful there was a brief pause and then I let out an involuntary sigh of relief as the Oasis faded into existence All Around Me chapter 20 my avatar slowly materialized in front of the control panel in my strongholds command Center the same spot where I'd been sitting the night before engaged in my evening ritual of staring blankly at the quadrin until I drifted off to sleep and the system logged me out I'd been staring at the damn thing for almost 6 months now and I still hadn't been able to decipher it no one had everyone had theories of course but the Jade key still remained unfound and top rankings on the scoreboard remained static my command center was was located under an armored Dome embedded in the Rocky surface of my own private asteroid from here I had a sweeping 360° view of the surrounding cratered landscape stretching to the Horizon in all directions the rest of my stronghold was below ground in a vast Subterranean complex that stretched all the way to the asteroids core I'd Co the entire thing myself shortly after moving to Columbus my avatar needed a stronghold and I didn't want any neighbors so i' bought the cheapest planetoid I could find this tiny Barren asteroid in sector 14 its designation was S14 a316 but I'd renamed it Falco after the Star Fox character I wasn't a huge Star Fox fan or anything I just thought it sounded like a cool name Falco had only a few square kilom of surface area but it still cost me a pretty penny it had been worth it though when you owned your own world you could build whatever you wanted there and no one could visit it unless I granted them access something I never gave to anyone my stronghold was my home inside the Oasis my avatar Sanctuary it was the one place in the entire simulation where I was truly safe as soon as my login sequence completed a window popped up on my display informing me that today was an election day now that I was 18 I could vote in both the Oasis elections and the elections for US government officials I didn't bother with the latter because I didn't see the point the once great country into which I'd been born now resembled its former self and name only it didn't matter who was in charge those people were rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic and everyone knew it besides now that everyone could vote from home via the Oasis the only people who could get elected were movie stars reality TV personalities or radical televangelists I did take the time to vote in the Oasis elections however because their outcomes actually affected me the voting process only took me a few minutes because I was already familiar with all of the major issues GSS had put on the ballot it was also time to elect the president and VP of the Oasis user Council but that was a no-brainer like most gunters I voted to Corey Dr o and will weaton again there were no term limits and those two geezers had been doing a kickass job of protecting user rights for over a decade when I finished voting I adjusted my haptic chair slightly and studied the command console in front of me it was crammed with switches buttons keyboards joysticks and display screens a bank of security monitors on my left were linked to Virtual cameras placed throughout the interior and exterior of my stronghold to my right another bank of monitors displayed all of my favorite news and entertainment vid feeds among these was my own Channel paral TV broadcasting obscure eclectic crap 247365 earlier that year GSS had added a new feature to every Oasis users account the POV personal Oasis vid feed it allowed anyone who who paid a monthly fee to run their own streaming television network anyone logged into the simulation could tune in and watch your plv channel from anywhere in the world what you aired on your channel and who you allowed to view it were entirely up to you most users chose to run a Voyer Channel which was like being the star of your own 24-hour reality show hovering virtual cameras would follow your avatar around the Oasis as you went about your day-to-day activities you could limit access to your channel so that only your friends could watch or you could charge viewers by the hour to access your POV a lot of second tier celebrities and pornographers did this selling their virtual lives at a per minute premium some people use their POV to broadcast live video of their real world selves or their dog or their kids some people programmed nothing but old cartoons the possibilities were endless and the variety of available seem to grow more Twisted each day non-stop foot fetish videos broadcast out of Eastern Europe amateure porn featuring deviant soccer moms in Minnesota you name it every flavor of weirdness the human psyche could cook up was being filmed and broadcast online the vast Wasteland of Television programming had finally reached its Zenith and the average person was no longer limited to 15 minutes of fame now every one could be on TV every second of every day whether or not anyone was watching paral TV wasn't a oy your channel in fact I never showed my Avatar's face on my vid feed instead I programmed a selection of classic 80s TV shows retro commercials cartoons music videos and movies lots of movies on the weekends I showed old Japanese monster flicks along with some vintage anime whatever struck my fancy it didn't really matter what I programmed my avatar was still one of the high five so my vidy Drew millions of viewers every day regardless of what I aired and this allowed me to sell commercial time to my various sponsors most of paral TV's regular viewers were gunters who monitored my vid feed with the hope that I'd inadvertently reveal some key piece of information about the Jade key or the Egg itself I never did of course at the moment paral TV was wrapping up a Non-Stop 2-day Kiker Marathon Kiker was a late 7s Japanese action show about a red and blue Android who beat the crap out of rubber suited monsters in each episode I had a weakness for vintage Kaiju and tokusatu shows like Spectre man the Space Giants and supaman I pulled up my programming grid and made a few changes to my evening lineup I cleared away the episodes of rip tide and misfits of science i' had programmed and dropped in a few back-to-back flicks starring gamra my favorite giant flying turtle I thought they should be real crowd-pleasers then to finish off the broadcast day I added a few episodes of Silver Spoons Artemis also ran her own vid feed Channel Artemis vision and I always kept one of my monitors tuned to it right now she was airing her usual Monday evening Fair an episode of square pegs after that would be Electra woman and Dino girl followed by back-to-back episodes of Isis and Wonder Woman her programming lineup hadn't changed in ages but it didn't matter she still got killer ratings recently she'd also launched her own wildly successful clothing line for full figured female avatars under the label art three Miss she was doing really well for herself after that night in the distra Ed Globe emis had cut off all contact with me she blocked all of my emails phone calls and chat requests she also stopped making posts to her blog I tried everything I could think of to reach her I sent her Avatar flowers I made multiple trips to her Avatar's stronghold an armored Palace on benitar the small Moon she owned I dropped mixtapes and notes on her Palace from the air like Lovick bombs once in a supreme Supreme Act of desperation I stood outside her Palace gates for two solid hours with a boom box over my head blasting in Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel at full volume she didn't come out I don't even know if she was home I'd been living in Columbus for over 5 months now and it had been eight long torturous weeks since I'd last spoken to emis but I hadn't spent that time moping around and feeling sorry for myself well not all of it anyway I tried to enjoy my new life as a world famous sector hopping Gunter even though I'd maxed out my Avatar's power level I continued to complete as many quests as possible to add to my already impressive collection of weapons magic items and vehicles which I kept in a vault deep within my stronghold questing kept me busy and served as a welcome distraction from the growing loneliness and isolation I felt I tried to reconnect with h after Miss dumped me but things weren't the same we'd Grown Apart and I knew it was my fault our conversations were now stilted and reserved as if we were both afraid of revealing some key piece of information the other might be able to use I could tell he no longer trusted me and while I'd been off obsessing over Artemis it seemed H had become obsessed with being the first Gunter to find the Jade key but it had been almost half a year since we'd cleared the first gate and the Jade Keys location still remained a mystery I hadn't spoken to H in almost a month my last conversation with him had devolved into a shouting match which had ended when I reminded H that he never even would have found the copper key if I hadn't led him straight to it he glared at me in silence for a second then logged out of the chat room stubborn Pride kept me from calling him back right away to apologize and now it seemed like too much time had passed yeah I was on a roll in less than 6 months I'd managed to Rack both of my closest friendships I flipped over to H's Channel which he called the H feed he was currently showing a WWF match from the late 80s featuring Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant I didn't even bother checking Dao and shoto's channel the die show because I knew they'd be showing some old Samurai movie that's all those guys ever air a few months after our confrontational first meeting in H's basement I'd managed to form a tenuous friendship with dto and Shoto when the three of us teamed up to complete an extended quest in sector 22 it was my idea I felt bad about how our first encounter had ended and I waited for an opportunity to extend some sort of Olive Branch to the two Samurai it came when I discovered a hidden highlevel Quest called Shai uro toroman on on the planet tokusatu the creation date in the quest kfon said that it had been launched several years after H's death which meant it couldn't have any relation to the contest it was also a Japanese language Quest created by gss's hakao division I could have tried to complete it on my own using the mandrax real-time translator software installed in all Oasis accounts but it would have been risky Mandara had been known to garble or misinterpret Quest instructions and cues which could easily lead to fatal mistakes daato and Shoto lived in Japan they'd become national heroes there and I knew that they both spoke Japanese and English fluently so i' contacted them to ask if they were interested in teaming up with me just for this one Quest they were skeptical at first but after I described the unique nature of the quest and what I believed the payoff for solving it might be they finally agreed read the three of us met outside the quest gate on tokusatu and entered it together the quest was a recreation of all 39 episodes of the original Ultram Man TV series which had aired on Japanese television from 1966 to 1967 the show's storyline centered around a human named hayata who is a member of the Science Patrol an organization devoted to fighting the hordes of giant godzilla-like monsters that were con stly attacking earth and threatening human civilization when the Science Patrol encountered a threat they couldn't handle on their own hayata would use an alien device called the beta capsule to transform into an alien super beinging known as Ultraman then he would proceed to kick the monster of the week's ass using all sorts of Kung Fu moves and energy attacks if I'd entered the quest gate by myself I would have automatically played through the entire series storyline as but because shotto daato and I had all entered at once we were each allowed to select a different Science Patrol team member to play we could then change or swap characters at the start of the next level or episode the three of us took turns playing hayata and his Science Patrol teammates hosino and arashi as with most quests in the Oasis playing as a team made it easier to defeat the various enemies and complete each of the levels it took us an entire week often playing over 16 hours a day before we were finally able to clear all 39 levels and complete the quest as we stepped out of the quest gate our avatars were each awarded a huge amount of experience points and several thousand credits but the real prize for completing the quest was an incredibly rare artifact hayat's beta capsule a small metal cylinder allowed the Avatar who possessed it to transform into Ultram man once a day for up to 3 minutes since there were three of us there was a debate over who should be allowed to keep the artifact posal shall have it Shoto had said turning to his older brother he found this Quest we wouldn't even have known about it were it not for him of course Dao had disagreed and he would not have been able to complete the quest without our help he said the only fair thing to do would be to auction off the beta capsule and split the proceeds but there was no way I could allow that the artifact was far too valuable to sell and I knew it would end up in the hands of the Sixers because they purchased nearly every major artifact that went up for auction I also saw this as an opportunity to get on da Show's good side you two should keep the beta capsule I said oror man is Japan's greatest superhero his powers belong in Japanese hands they were both surprised and humbled by my generosity especially daato thank you Ausable son he said bowing low you are a man of Honor after that the three of us had parted as friends if not necessarily allies and I considered that an ample reward for my efforts a chime sounded in my ears and I checked the time it was almost 8:00 time to make the donuts I was always hard up for cash no matter how Frugal I tried to be I had several large bills to pay each month both in the real world and in the Oasis my real world expenses were pretty standard rent electricity food water Hardware repairs and upgrades my Avatar's expenses were far more exotic spacecraft repairs teleportation fees power cells ammunition I purchased my ammo and bulk but it still wasn't cheap and my monthly teleportation expenses were often astronomical my search for the egg required constant travel and GSS kept raising their teleportation faires I'd already spent all of my remaining product endorsement dough most of it went to the cost of my rig and buying my own asteroid I earned a decent amount of money each month by selling commercial time on my POV Channel and by auctioning off any unneeded magical items armor or weapons that I acquired during my travels but my primary source of income was my full-time job doing Oasis technical support when I created my new Bryce Lynch identity I'd given myself a college degree along with multiple technical certifications and a long Sterling work record as an oasis programmer and app developer however despite my Sterling bogus resume the only job I'd been able to get was as a tier one technical support representative at helpful Help Desk Incorporated one of the contract firms GSS used to handle Oasis customer service and support now I worked 40 hours a week helping morons reboot their Oasis consoles and update the drivers for their haped gloves it was grueling work but it paid the rent I logged out of my Oasis account and then used my rig to log into a SE seate Oasis account I'd been issued for work the login process completed and I took control of a happy help desk Avatar a cookie cutter Kendall that I used to take tech support calls this Avatar appeared inside a huge virtual call center inside a virtual cubicle sitting at a virtual desk in front of a virtual computer wearing a virtual phone headset I thought of this place as my own private virtual hell helpful help de Incorporated took millions of calls a day from all over the world 247365 one angry befuddled after another there was no downtime between calls because there were always several hundred morons in the CQ all of them willing to wait on hold for hours to have a tech rep hold their hand and fix their problem why bother looking up the solution online why try to figure the problem out on your own when you could just have someone else do your thinking for you as usual my 10-hour shift passed slowly it was impossible for help desk avatars to leave their cubicles but I found other ways to pass the time my work account was rigged so that I couldn't browse outside websites but I'd hacked my visor to allow me to listen to music or stream movies off my hard drive while I took calls when my shift finally ended and I logged out of work I immediately logged back into my own Oasis account I had thousands of new email messages waiting and I could tell just by their subject lines what had happened while I'd been at work Artemis had found the Jade key chapter 21 like other gunters around the globe I'd been dreading the next change on the scoreboard because I knew it was going to give the Sixers an un Fair Advantage a few months after we'd all cleared the first gate an anonymous Avatar had placed an ultra powerful artifact up for auction it was called fur's tablet of finding and it had unique powers that could give its owner a huge advantage in the hunt for holidays Easter egg most of the virtual items in the Oasis were created by the system at random and they would drop when you killed an NPC or completed a quest the rarest such items were artifacts super powerful magic items that gave their owners incredible abilities only a few hundred of these artifacts existed and most of them dated back to the earliest days of the Oasis when it was still primarily an MMO game every artifact was unique meaning that only one copy of it existed in the entire simulation usually the way to obtain an artifact was to defeat some Godlike Villain at the end of a highlevel quest if you got lucky the bad guy would drop an artifact when you killed him you could also obtain an artifact by killing an avatar who had one in its inventory or by purchasing one in an online auction since artifacts were so rare it was always big news when one went up for auction some had been known to sell for hundreds of thousands of credits depending on their powers the record had been set 3 years ago when an artifact called the cataclyst was auctioned off according to its auction listing the cataclyst was a sort of magical bomb and it could be used only once when it was detonated it would kill every single Avatar and NPC in the sector including its owner there was no defense against it if you were unlucky enough to be in the same sector when it went off you were a goner regardless of how powerful or well protected you were the cataclyst had sold to an anonymous bidder for just over a million credits the artifact still hadn't been detonated so its new owner still had it sitting around somewhere waiting for the right time to use it it was something of a running joke now when a Gunter was surrounded by Avatar she didn't like she would claim to have the cataclyst in her inventory and threaten to detonate it but most people suspected that the item had actually fallen into the Sixers hands along with countless other powerful artifacts fur's tablet of finding wound up selling for even more than the catlist according to the auction description the tablet was a flat circle of polished black stone and it had one very simple power once a day its owner could write any Avatar's name on its surface and the tablet would display that Avatar's location at that exact moment however this power had range limitations if you were in a different Oasis sector than the Avatar you were trying to find the tablet would tell you only which sector your target was currently in if you were already in the same sector the tablet would tell you what planet your target was currently on or closest to if they were out in space if you were already on the same Planet as your target when you use the tablet it would show you their exact coordinates on a map as the artifacts seller made sure to point out in his auction listing if you used the tablet's power in conjunction with the scoreboard it arguably became the most valuable artifact in the entire Oasis all you had to do was watch the top rankings on the scoreboard and wait until someone's score increased the second that happened you could write that Avatar's name on the tablet and it would tell you where they were at at that exact moment thus revealing the location of the key they just found or the gate they just exited due to the artifacts range limitations it might take two or three attempts to narrow down the exact location of a key or a gate but even so that was still information a lot of people would be willing to kill for when fur's tablet of finding went up for auction a huge bidding war broke out between several of the larger Gunter Clans but when the auction finally ended the tablet wound up selling to the Sixers for almost 2 million credits sarento himself used his own ioi account to bid on the tablet he waited until the last few seconds of the auction and then outbid everyone he could have bid anonymously but he obviously wanted the world to know who now possessed the artifact it was also his way of letting those of us in the high five know that from that moment forward whenever one of us found a key or cleared a gate the Sixers would be tracking us and there was nothing we could do about it at first I was worried that the Sixers would also try to use the tablet to hunt down each of our avatars and kill us one at a time but locating our avatars wouldn't do them any good unless we happened to be in a PVP Zone at the time and were stupid enough to stay put until the Sixers could reach us and since the tablet could only be used once a day they would also run the risk of missing their window of opportunity if the scoreboard changed on the same day they tried to use the tablet to locate one of us they didn't take the chance they kept the artifact in reserve and waited for their moment less than half an hour after artemis's score increase the entire sixer fleet was spotted converging on sector 7 the moment the scoreboard changed the Sixers had obviously used fur's tablet of finding to try to ascertain artemis' exact location luckily the sixer Avatar using the tablet probably sarento himself happened to be in a different sector from Artemis so the tablet didn't reveal what planet she was on it only told the Sixers which sector she was currently in and so the entire sixer Fleet had immediately hightailed it to sector 7 thanks to their complete lack of subtlety the whole world now knew the Jade key must be hidden somewhere in that sector naturally thousands of gunters began to converge upon it too the Sixers had narrowed the search area for everyone luckily sector 7 contained hundreds of planets moons and other worlds and the Jade key could have been hidden on any one of them I spent the rest of the day in shock reeling at the news that I'd been dethroned that was exactly how the news news feeds headlines put it paral dethroned emis new number one Gunter Sixers closing in once I finally got a grip I pulled up the scoreboard and made myself stare at it for 30 solid minutes while I mentally berated myself it said emis 129,000 points paral 110,000 points you've got nobody to blame but yourself I told myself you let success go to your head you slacked off a your research what did you think lightning would strike twice that eventually you just stumble across the clue you needed to find the Jade key sitting in first place all that time gave you a false sense of security but you don't have that problem now do you asked head no because instead of buckling down and focusing on your quest like you should have you pissed away your lead you wasted almost half a year screwing around and pining over some girl you've never even met in person the girl who dumped you the same girl who's going to end up beating you now get your head back in the game find that key suddenly I wanted to win the contest more than ever not just for the money I wanted to prove myself to Artemis and I wanted the hunt to be over so that she would talk to me again so that I could finally meet her in person see her true face and try to make sense of how I felt about her I cleared the scoreboard off my display and opened up my gray old diary which had now grown into a vast mountain of data containing every scrap of information I'd collected since the contest began it appeared as a jumble of cascading Windows floating in front of me displaying text Maps photos and audio and video files all indexed cross referenced and pulsing with life I kept the Quadra open in a window that was always on top four lines of text 24 words 34 syllables I stared at them so often and for so long that they nearly lost all meaning looking at them again now I had to resist the urge to scream in Rage and frustration I knew that the answer was right there in front of me Artemis had already figured it out I read over my notes about John Draper AKA Captain Crunch and the toy plastic whistle that had made him famous in the annals of hacker lore I still believed that these were the captain and whistle Halliday was referring to but the rest of the quatran meaning remained a mystery but now I possessed a new piece of information the key was somewhere in sector 7 so I pulled up my Oasis Atlas and began to search for planets with names I thought might somehow be related to the quatran I found a few worlds named after famous hackers like w and mnik but none named after John Draper sector 7 also contained hundreds of Worlds named after old uset groups and on one of these the planet Al dot freaking there was a statue of Draper posing with an ancient rotary phone in one hand and a Captain Crunch whistle in the other but the statue had been erected 3 years after H's death so I knew it was a dead end I read through the quatrain yet again and this time the last two lines jumped out at me but you can only blow the whistle once the trophies are all collected trophies somewhere in sector 7 I needed to find a collection of trophies in sector 7 I did a quick search of my files on Halliday among the many honors he'd received were the five game designer of the Year Awards he'd won around the turn of the century these trophies were still on display in the GSS Museum in Columbus but there were replicas of them on display inside the Oasis on a planet called Arcada and Arcada was located in sector 7 the connection seemed thin but I still wanted to check it out at the very least it would make me feel like I was doing something productive for the next few hours I glanced over at Max Who currently doing the samba on one of my command center monitors Max Prep the vonet for takeoff if you're not too busy Max stopped dancing and smirked at me you got it Eland chero I got up and walked over to my strongholds elevator which I'd modeled after the turbo lift on the original Star Trek series I rode down down four levels to my Armory a massive Vault filled with storage shelves display cases and weapon racks I pulled up my Avatar's inventory display which appeared as a classic paper doll diagram of my avatar onto which I could drag and drop various items and pieces of equipment Arcada was located in a PVP zone so I decided to upgrade my gear and wear my Sunday Best I put on my gleaming plus 10 hail Male Powered armor then strapped on my favorite set of blaster pistols and slung a pump action pistol grip shotgun across my back along with a plus five waral Bastard Sword I also grabbed a few other essential items an extra pair of anti-gravity boots a ring of magic resistance an amulet of protection some gauntlets of giant strength I hated the idea of needing something and not having it with me so I usually ended up carrying enough equipment for three gunters when I ran out of room on my Avatar's body I stored the additional gear in my backpack of holding once I was properly outfitted I hopped back on the elevator and a few seconds later I arrived at the entrance of my hanger located on the bottom level of my stronghold pulsing blue lights lined the runway which ran up the center of the hanger to a massive pair of armored doors at the far end these doors opened into the launch tunnel which led up to to a matching set of armored door set into the asteroid surface standing on the left side of the runway was my battle warn X-Wing Fighter parked on the right side was my DeLorean sitting on the runway itself was my most frequently used spacecraft the vaget max had already powered up the engines and they emitted a low steady Roar that filled the hanger the vaget was a heavily modified Firefly class transport vessel modeled after the Serenity in the classic Firefly TV series the ship had been named the Kaye when ID first obtained it but I'd immediately recrent it after one of my favorite 20th century authors Kurt vaget its new name was stencl on the side of its battered gray Hall I looted the vaget from a contree of Obi Raptor clansmen who had foolishly attempted to hijack my X-Wing while I was cruising through a large group of worlds in sector 11 known as the Weeden BST the OB Raptors were cocky bastards with no clue who it was they were messing with I was in a foul mood even before they' opened fire on me otherwise I probably would have just evaded them by jumping to light speed but that day I decided to take their attack personally ships were like most other items in the Oasis each one had specific attributes weapons and speed capabilities my X-Wing was far more maneuverable than the over Raptor's large transport courtship so it was no trouble for me to avoid the barrage from their aftermarket guns while I bombarded them with laser bolts and proton torpedoes after I disabled their engines I boarded the ship and proceeded to kill every Avatar there the captain tried to apologize when he saw who I was but I wasn't in a forgiving mood after I dispatched the crew I parked my X-Wing in the cargo hold and then cruised home in my new ship as I approached the vaget the loading ramp extended to the hanger floor by the time I reached the cockpit the ship was already lifting off I heard the landing gear retract with a thud just as I seated myself at the controls Max lock up the house and set a course for Arcada I I captain Max stuttered from one of the cockpit monitors the hanger door slid open and the vaget rocketed out of the launch tunnel and up into the Starry Sky as the ship cleared near the surface the armored tunnel doors slam closed behind it I spotted several ships camped out in a high orbit above Falco The Usual Suspects crazed fans wannabe disciples and aspiring bounty hunters a few of them the ones currently turning to follow me were Tagalongs people who spend most of their time trying to tail prominent Gunter and gather Intel on their movements so they could sell the information later I was always able to to lose those idiots by jumping to light speed a lucky thing for them if I couldn't lose someone who was trying to tail me I usually had no choice but to stop and kill them as the vaget made the jump to light speed each of the planets on my view screen became a long streak of light light speed engaged Captain Max reported ETA to Arcada is estimated at 53 minutes 15 if you want to use the nearest Stargate Stargates were strategically located throughout each sector they were really just giant spaceship sized teleporters but since they charged by the mass of your ship and the distance you wanted to travel they were normally used only by corporations or extremely wealthy avatars with credits to burn I was neither but under the circumstances I was willing to splurge a little let's take the Stargate Max we're kind of in a hurry chapter 22 the vaget dropped out of light speed and Arcada suddenly filled the cockpit view screen it stood out from all the other planets in the area because it wasn't Cod to look real all of the neighboring planets were perfectly rendered with clouds continents or impact craters covering their curved surfaces but Arcada had none of these features because it was home to the oasis's largest CL classic video game Museum and its appearance had been designed as a tribute to the vector graphic games of the late '70s and early 80s the planet's only surface feature was a web of glowing green dots similar to the ground lights on an Airport runway they were spaced evenly across the globe in a perfect grid so that from orbit Arcada resembled the vector graphic death star from atari's 1983 Star Wars arcade game as Max piloted the vaget down to the surface I prepared for the possibility of combat by charging up my armor and buffing my avatar with several potions and nanop packs Arcada was both a PVP Zone and a chaos Zone which meant that both magic and Technology functioned here so I made sure to load up all of my combat contingency macros the vagad's perfectly rendered steel loading ramp lowered to the ground standing out in sharp contrast against the digital Blackness of arc's surface as I stepped off the ramp I tapped a keypad on my right wrist the ramp retracted and there was a sharp hum as the ship security system activated a transparent Blue Shield appeared around the vag's hull I gazed out at the Horizon which was just a jagged green Vector line denoting mountainous trrain here on the surface Arcada looked exact actly like the environment of the 1981 game Battle Zone another Vector graphic classic from Atari in the distance a triangular volcano spewed green pixels of lava you could run toward that volcano for days and never reach it it always remained at the Horizon just like in an old video game the scenery never changed in Arcada even if you circumnavigated the globe following my instructions Max had said the vonet down in a landing lot near the equator in the Eastern hemisphere the lot was empty and the surrounding area appeared deserted I headed toward the nearest Green Dot as I approached I could see that it was actually the mouth of an entrance tunnel a neon green circle 10 m in diameter leading below ground Arcada was a hollow planet and the museum exhibits were all located beneath the surface as I approached the nearest tunnel entrance I heard loud music emanating from below I recognized the song as Pour Some Sugar On Me by De leopard off their hysteria album Mercury records [Music] 1987 I reached the edge of the glowing green ring and jumped in as my avatar plummeted down into the museum the green Vector graphic theme disappeared and I found myself in high resolution full color surroundings everything around me looked completely real once again below its surface Arcada housed thousands of classic video arcades each one a loving Recreation of an actual arcade that had once existed somewhere in the real world since the dawn of the Oasis thousands of elderly users had come here and painstakingly coded virtual replicas of local arcades they remembered from their childhood thus making them a permanent part of the museum and each of these simulated game rooms bowling alleys and pizza joints was lined with classic arcade games there was at least one copy of every coin operated video game ever made down here the original game ROMs were all stored in the planet's Oasis code and their wooden game cabinets were each coded to look like the antique Originals hundreds of shrines and Exhibits devoted to various game designers and Publishers were also scattered throughout the museum the Museum's various levels were comprised of vast Caverns linked by a network of subterranean streets tunnels staircases elevators escalators ladders slides trap doors and SE secret passageways it was like a massive underground multi-level Labyrinth the layout made it extremely easy to get lost so I kept a three-dimensional holographic map on my display my Avatar's present location was indicated by a flashing Blue Dot I'd entered the museum next to an old arcade called Aladdin's Castle close to the surface I touched a point on the map near the core of the planet indicating my destination and and the software mapped the quickest route for me to get there I ran forward following it the museum was divided into layers here near the planet's mantle you could find the last coin operated video games ever made from the first few Decades of the 21st century these were mostly dedicated simulator cabinets with first generation haptics vibrating chairs and tilting hydraulic platforms lots of networked stock car simulators that allowed people to race each other these games were the last of their kind by that era home video game consoles had already made most coin op games obsolete after the Oasis went online they stopped making them all together as you ventured deeper into the museum the games Grew Older and more archaic turn of the century coin Ops lots of head-to-head fighting games with blocky polygon rendered figures beating the crap of each other on large flat screen monitors shooting games played with crude haptic light guns dancing games once you reached the level below that all the games began to look identical each was housed in a large rectangular wooden box containing a cathode picture tube with a set of crude game controls mounted in front of it you used your hands and your eyes and occasionally your feet to play these games there were no haptics these games didn't make you feel anything and the deeper I descended the cruder the game Graphics got the Museum's bottom level located in the planet core was a spherical room containing a shrine to the very first video game tennis for two invented by William Higginbotham in 1958 the game ran on an ancient analog computer and was played on a tiny oscilloscope screen about 5 in in diameter next to it was a replica of an ancient pdp1 computer running a copy of space War the second video game ever made created by a bunch of students at MIT in 1962 like most gunters I'd already visited Arcada a few times I'd been to the core and had played tennis for two in space War until I'd mastered them then I'd wandered around the museums many levels playing games and looking for Clues holiday might have left behind but I'd never found anything I kept running farther and further down until I reached the gregarious simulation systems Museum which was located just a few levels above the planet core I'd been here once before too so I knew my way around there were exhibits devoted to all of gss's most popular games including several arcade ports of titles they'd originally released for home computers and consoles it didn't take me long to find the exhibit where holiday's five game designer of the Year trophies were displayed next to a bronze statue of the man himself within a few minutes I knew I was wasting my time here the GSS Museum exhibit was coed so that it was impossible to remove any of the items on display so the trophies could not be collected I spent a few minutes trying in vain to cut one of them free from its pedestal with a laser welding torch before Calling it Quits another dead end this whole trap had been a waste of time I took one last look around and headed for the exit trying not to let my frustration get the best of me I decided to take a different route on my way back up to the surface through a section of the museum I'd never fully explored on my previous visits I wandered through a series of tunnels that led me into a giant cavernous chamber it contained a kind of underground round City comprised entirely of pizza joints bowling alleys convenience stores and of course video arcades I wandered through the Maze of empty streets then down a winding back alley that dead ended by the entrance of a small pizza shop I froze in my tracks when I saw the name of the place it was called Happy Time Pizza and it was a replica of a small family Run Pizza Joint that had existed in holidays hometown in the mid 1980s Halliday appeared to have copied the code for Happy Time Pizza from his Middletown simulation and hidden a duplicate of it here in the Arcada Museum what the hell was it doing here I'd never seen its existence mentioned on any of the Gunter message boards or strategy guides was it possible that no one had ever noticed it before now holiday mentioned Happy Time Pizza several times in the almanac so I knew he had fonded memories of this place he'd often come here after school to avoid going home the interior recreated the atmosphere of a classic80s pizza parlor and video arcade in loving detail several NPC employees stood behind the counter tossing dough and slicing pies I turned on my alatri tower and discovered that I could actually smell the tomato sauce the shop was divided into two halves the game room and the dining room the dining room had video games in it as well all of the glass top tables were actually sit down arcade games known as cocktail cabinets you could sit and play Donkey Kong on the table while you ate your pizza if I'd been hungry I could have ordered a real slice of pizza at the counter the order would have been forwarded to a pizza vendor near my apartment complex the one I'd specified in my oasis's accounts Food Service preference settings then a slice would have been delivered to my door in a matter of minutes and the cost including tip would have been deducted from my Oasis account balance as I walked into the game room I heard a Brian Adams song blasting out of the speakers mounted on the carpeted walls Brian was singing about how everywhere he went the kids wanted to [Music] rock radio sound like a disco C get me off Everywhere I Go kids W I pressed my thumb to a plate on the change machine and bought a single quarter I scooped it out of the stainless steel tray and headed to the back of the game room taking in all of the simulations little details I spotted a handwritten note taped to the Marquee of a Defender game it read beat the owner's high score and win a free large pizza a Robotron game game was currently displaying its high score list Robotron allowed its all-time best player to enter an entire sentence of text beside their score instead of just their initials and this machine's top dog had used his precious Victory space to announce that Rooney eats it I continued farther into the dark electronic cave and walked up to a Pac-Man machine at the very back of the room wedged between a Galaga and a digdug the black and yellow cabinet was covered with with chips and scratches and the garish side art was peeling the Pac-Man game's monitor was dark and there was an UD of order sign taped to it why would Halliday include a broken game in this simulation was it just another atmospheric detail intrigued I decided to investigate further I pulled the game cabinet out from the wall and saw that the power cord was unplugged I plugged it back into the wall socket and waited for the game to boot up it seemed to work fine as I was shoving the cabinet back into place I spotted something at the top of the game resting on the metal brace that held the glass Marquee in place was a single quarter the date on the coin was 1981 the year Pac-Man had been released I knew that back in the 80s placing your quarter on a game's Marquee was how you reserved the next turn on the machine but when I tried to remove the quarter it wouldn't budge like it was welded in place weird I slapped the out of order sign on the neighboring Galaga cabinet and looked up at the startup screen which was listing off the game's villainous ghosts Inky Blinky Pinky and Clyde the high score at the top of the screen was 3 Milli 333,000 points several things were strange about this in the real world Pac-Man machines didn't save their high score if they were unplugged and the high score counter was supposed to flip over at a million points but this machine displayed a high score of 3,333 350 points just 10 points shy of the highest Pac-Man score possible the only way to beat that score would be to play the perfect game I felt my pulse Quicken I'd uncovered something here some sort of Easter egg hidden inside this old Coop video game it wasn't the Easter egg just an Easter egg some sort of challenge or puzzle one I was almost certain had been created and placed here by holiday I didn't know if it had anything to do with the Jade key it might not be related to the egg at all but there was only one way to find out I would have to play a perfect game of Pac-man this was no easy feat you had to play all 256 levels perfectly all the way up to the final split screen and you had to eat every single single dot Energizer fruit and ghost possible along the way without ever losing a single life less than 20 Perfect Games had been documented in the game's 60-year history one of them the fastest perfect game ever played had been accomplished by James Halliday in just under 4 hours he' done it on an original Pac-Man machine located in the gregarious games breakroom because I knew holiday loved the game I'd already done a fair amount of research on Pac-Man but I'd never managed to play a perfect game of course I'd never really made a serious attempt up until now I'd never had a reason to I opened my gry old diary and pulled up all of the Pac-Man related data I'd ever collected the original game code the unabridged biography of the designer Toro eatini every Pac-Man strategy guide ever written every episode of the Pac-Man cartoon series the ingredients for Pac-Man cereal and of course patterns I had Pac-Man pattern diagrams of the wazo along with hundreds of hours of archived video of the best Pac-Man players in history I'd already studied a lot of this stuff but I skimmed over it again now to refresh my memory then I closed my Grail diary and studied the Pac-Man machine in front of me like a gunfighter sizing up an opponent I stretched my arms rolled my head and and neck around on my shoulders and cracked my Knuckles when I dropped a quarter into the left coin slot the game emitted a familiar electronic I tapped the player one button and the first maze appeared on the screen I wrapped my right hand around the joystick and began to play guiding my pizza-shaped protagonist through one maze after another my synthetic surroundings faded away as I focused on the game and lost myself in its ancient two-dimensional reality just as with dungeons of dearra I was now playing a simulation within a simulation a game within a game I had several false starts I would play for an hour or even two then I'd make one tiny mistake and I'd have to reboot the machine and start all over but I was now on my eighth attempt and I'd been playing for 6 hours straight I was rocking like dawen this game had been Iceman perfect so far 255 screens in and I still hadn't made a single mistake I'd managed to nail all four ghosts with every single power pill until the 18th maze when they stopped turning blue Al together and I'd snagged every bonus fruit bird Bell and key that had appeared without dying once I was having the best game of my life this was it I could feel it everything everything was finally falling into place I had the glow there was a spot in each maze just above the starting position where it was possible to hide Pacman for up to 15 minutes in that location the ghosts couldn't find him using this trick I'd been able to take two quick food and bathroom breaks during the past 6 hours as I chomped my way through the 255th screen the song Pac-Man Fever began to blast of the game room [Music] stereo I got a pocket full of quarters and I'm headed to the arcade cuz I got Pacman fever fever a smile crept onto my face I knew this had to be a small tip of the hat from holiday sticking to my tried and TR pattern one last time I whipped the joystick right slid into the secret door then out the opposite side and straight down to snag the last few remaining dots clearing the board I took a deep breath as the outline of the blue maze began to pulse white and then I saw it staring me in the face the fabled split screen the end of the game then in the worst case of bad timing imaginable a scoreboard alert flashed on my display just a few seconds after I began to play through the final screen the Top 10 rankings appeared superimposed over my view of the Pac-Man screen and I glanced at them just long enough to see that H had now become the second person to find the Jade key his score had just jumped 19,000 points putting him in second place and knocking me into third by some miracle I managed not to flip out I stayed focused on my Pac-Man game I gried the joystick tighter refusing to let this rack my concentration I was nearly finished I only had to milk the final 6,760 possible points from this last garbled Maze and then I would finally have the high score my heart pounded in time with the music as I cleared the unblemished left half of the maze then I ventured into the Twisted terrain of the right half guiding Pac-Man through the pixelated on screen refu of the game's depleted memory hidden underneath all of these junk Sprites and garbled Graphics were nine more dots worth 10 points each I couldn't see them but I had their locations memorized I quickly found and ate all nine gaining 90 more points then I turned and ran into the nearest ghost Clyde and committed pack aide Dying For the First Time In the game Pac-Man froze and withered into nothingness with with an extended each time Pac-Man died on this final maze the nine hidden dots reappeared on the deformed right half of the screen so to achieve the game's maximum possible score I had to find and eat each of these dots five more times once with each of my five remaining lives I did my best not to think about H who I knew must be holding the Jade key at that very moment right now he was probably reading whatever clue was etched into its surface I pulled the joystick to the right weaving through the digital debris one final time I could have done it blindfolded by now I fish hooked around pinky to grab the two dots near the bottom then another three in the center and then the last four near the top I'd done it I had the new high score 3,333 360 points a perfect game I took my hands off the controls and watched as all four ghosts converged on Pac-Man game over flashed in the center of the maze I waited nothing happened after a few seconds the game's ATT track screen came back up showing the four ghosts their names and their nicknames my gaze shot to the quarter sitting on the edge of the Marquee brace earlier it had been welded in place unmovable but now it tumbled forward and fell end over end Landing directly in the palm of my Avatar's hand then it vanished and a message flashed on my display informing me that the quarter had automatically been added to my inventory when I tried to take it back out and examine it I found that I couldn't the quarter icon remained in my inventory I couldn't take it out or drop it if the quarter had any magical properties they weren't revealed in its item description which was completely empty to learn anything more about the quarter I would have to cast a series of highlevel divination spells on it that would take days and require a lot of expensive Spell components and even then there was no guarantee the Spells would tell me anything but at the moment I was having a hard time caring all that much about the mystery of the undroppable quarter all I could think about was that H and emis had now both beaten me to the Jade key and getting the high score on this Pacman game and Arcada obviously hadn't gotten me any closer to finding it myself I really had been wasting my time down here I headed back up to the planet's surface just as I was sitting down in the vaget cockpit an email from H arrived in my inbox I felt my pulse Quicken when I saw its subject line payback time holding my breath I opened the message and read it dear paral you and I are officially even now you got it I consider my debt to you hereby paid in full better hurry the Sixers must already be on their way there good luck H below his signature was an image file he'd attached to the message it was a highresolution scan of the instruction manual cover for the text Adventure game zorc the version released in 1980 by personal software for the TRS 80 model 3 I'd played in solve zor once a long time ago back during the first year of the hunt but I'd also played hundreds of other classic text Adventure Games that year including all of zor sequels and so most of the details of the game had now faded In My Memory most old text Adventure Games were pretty self-explanatory so I'd never actually bothered to read the zoric instruction manual I now knew that this had been a colossal mistake on the Manual's cover was a painting depicting a scene from the game a swashbuckling Adventurer wearing armor and a winged helmet stood with a glowing blue sword raised over his head preparing to strike a troll cowering before him the adventurer clutched several Treasures in his other hand and more Treasures lay at his feet scattered among human bones a dark fanged creature lurked just behind the hero glowering malevolently all of this was in the paintings foreground but my eyes had instantly locked on what was was in the background a large wide house with its front door and windows all boarded up a dwelling long neglected I stared at the image a few more seconds just long enough to curse myself for not making the connection on my own months ago then I fired the vaget engines and set a course for another planet in sector 7 not far from ARCA it was a small world called fobos that was home to a detailed Recreation of the game or it was also I now knew the hiding place of the Jade key chapter 23 fras was located in a group of several hundred rarely visited worlds known as the XY zzyy cluster these planets all dated back to the early days of the Oasis and each one recreated the environment of some classic text adventure game or mud multi-user dungeon each of these worlds was a kind of shrine an interactive tribute to the oasis's earliest ancestors text Adventure Games often referred to as interactive fiction by modern Scholars used text to create the virtual environment the player inhabited the game program provided you with a simple written description of your surroundings then asked what you wanted to do next to move around or interact with your virtual surroundings you keyed in text commands telling the game what you wanted your avatar to do these instructions had to be very simple usually composed of just two or three words such as go south or get sworded if a command was too complex the game's simple parsing engine wouldn't be able to understand it by reading and typing text you made your way through the virtual world collecting treasure fighting monsters avoiding traps and solving puzzles until you finally reach the end of the game the first text Adventure game IID ever played was called Colossal Cave and initially the text only interface had seemed incredibly simple and crude to me but after playing for a few minutes I quickly became immersed in the reality created by the words on the screen somehow the game's simple two sentence room descriptions were able to conjure up Vivid images in my mind's eye Zork was one of the earliest and most famous text adventur games according to my gra diary I'd played the game through to the end just once all in one day over four years ago since then in a shocking display of unforgivable ignorance I'd somehow forgotten two very important details about the game number one zor began with your character standing outside a shuttered White House number two inside the living room of that white house there was a trophy case to complete the game every every treasure you collected had to be returned to the living room and placed inside the trophy case finally the rest of the quatrain made sense the captain conceals the Jade key in a dwelling long neglected but you can only blow the whistle once the trophies are all collected decades ago zor and its sequels had all been licensed and recreated inside the Oasis as stunning three-dimensional immersive simulations all located on the planet frobot which was named after a character in the zoric universe so the dwelling long neglected the one I'd been trying to locate for the past 6 months had been sitting right out in the open on froba this entire time hiding in plain sight I checked the ship's navigational computer traveling at light speed it would take me just over 15 minutes to reach fobos there was a good chance the Sixers would beat me there if they did there would probably already be a small arm ma of sixer gunships waiting in orbit around the planet when I dropped out of light speed I would have to fight my way through them to reach the surface and then either lose them or try to find the Jade key with them still breathing down my neck not a good scenario luckily I had a backup plan my ring of teleportation it was one of the most valuable Magic items in my inventory looted from the horde of a red dragon i' had slain on GX the ring allowed my avatar to teleport once a month to any location in the Oasis I only used it in dire emergencies as a last ditch means of Escape or when I needed to get somewhere in a big hurry like right now I quickly programmed the vaget onboard computer to autopilot the ship to fobos I instructed it to activate its cloaking device as soon as it dropped out of hyperspace then locate me on the planet's surface and land somewhere nearby if I was lucky the Sixers wouldn't detect my ship and blast it out of the sky before it could reach me if they did I'd be stuck on froba with no way to leave while the entire sixer Army closed in on me I engaged the vaget autopilot then activated my ring of teleportation by speaking the command word brundle when the ring began to Glow I said the name of the planet where I wished to teleport a world map of fras appeared on my display it was a large world and like the planet Middletown its surface was covered with hundreds of identical copies of the same simulation in this case Recreations of the Zork playing field there were 512 copies of it to be exact which meant there were 512 white houses spaced out evenly across the planet's surface I should be able to obtain the Jade key at any one of them so I selected one of the copies at random on the map my ring emitted a blinding Flash flash of light and a split second later my avatar was there standing on the surface of fobos I opened my Grail diary and located my original notes on how to solve zorc then I pulled up a map of the game's playing field and placed it in the corner of my display surveying the skies I didn't see any sign of the Sixers but that didn't mean they hadn't already arrived Sorento and his underlings had probably just teleported to one of the other playing Fields everybody knew that the Sixers had already been camped out in sector 7 waiting for this moment as soon as they saw H's score increase they would have used fur's tablet of finding and learned that he was currently on fobos which meant the entire sixer Armada would already be on its way here so I needed to get to the key as quickly as possible then get the hell out of Dodge I took a look around my surroundings were eerily familiar the opening text description in the game zorc reads as follows west of house you are standing in an open field west of a white house with a boarded front door there is a small mailbox here my avatar now stood in that open field just west of the White House the front door of the old Victorian Mansion was boarded up and there was a mailbox just a few yards away from me at the end of the walkway leading to the house the house was surrounded Ed by a dense fog forest and Beyond it I saw a range of jagged mountain peaks glancing off to my left I spotted a path leading to the north right where I knew it should be I ran around to the back of the house I found a small window there slightly a jar and I forced it open and climbed inside as expected I found myself in the kitchen a wooden table sat in the center of the room and on it rested a large Brown Sack and a bottle of water a chimney stood nearby and a staircase led up to the attic a hallway off to my left led to the living room just like in the game but the kitchen also contained things that weren't mentioned in the game's text description of this room a stove a refrigerator several wooden chairs a sink and a few rows of kitchen cabinets I opened the fridge it was full of junk food fossilized Pizza snack puddings lunch meat and a wide array of condiment packets I checked the cupboards they were filled with canned and dry goods Rice pasta soup and cereal one entire cupboard was crammed with boxes of vintage breakfast cereals most of which had been discontinued before I'd been born Froot Loops Honeycombs Lucky Charms count chocula quisp Frosted Flakes and hidden way at the back was a lone box of Captain crme crun printed clearly on the front of it were the words free toy whistle inside the captain conceals the Jade key in a dwelling long neglected I dumped the contents of the box out on the counter scattering golden cereal nuggets everywhere then I spotted it a small plastic whistle encased in a clear cellophane envelope I tore off the cellophane and held the whistle in my hand it was yellow in color with the cartoon face of Captain and crunch molded on one side and a small dog on the other the words cap and crunch BOS and whistle were embossed on the side I raised the whistle to my Avatar's lips and blew into it but the whistle emitted no sound and nothing happened you can only blow the whistle once the trophies are all collected I pocketed the whistle and opened the sack on the kitchen table I saw a clove of garlic inside and I added it to my inventory then I ran West into the living room the floor was covered with a large Oriental rug antique furniture the kind I'd seen in films from the 1940s was positioned around the room a wooden door with odd characters carved into its surface was set into the West wall and against the opposite wall there was a beautiful glass trophy case it was empty a battery powered lantern sat on top of the case and a shining sword was mounted on the wall directly above it I took the Sword and the lantern then rolled up the oriental rug uncovering the trapo I already knew was hidden underneath I opened it revealing a staircase that led down into a darkened Cellar I turned on the lamp as I descended the staircase my sword began to Glow I continued to refer to the Zork notes in my gra diary which reminded me exactly how to make my way through the game's Labyrinth of rooms passageways and puzzles I collected all 19 of the game's Treasures as I went returning repeatedly to The Living Room in the White House to place them in the trophy case a few at a time along the way I had to do battle with several NPCs a troll a cyclops and a really annoying Thief as for the legendary grw lurking in the dark waiting to dine upon my flesh I simply avoided him aside from the cap and crunch whistle hidden in the kitchen I found no surprises or deviations from the original game to solve this immersive three-dimensional version of zorc I simply had to perform the exact same actions required to solve the original text based game by running at top speed and by never stopping to sitec or second guess myself I managed to complete the game in 22 minutes shortly after I collected the last of the games 19 Treasures a tiny brass bubble a notice flashed in my display informing me that the Monet had arrived outside the autopilot had just landed the ship in the field to the west of the White House its cloaking device was still engaged and its shields were up if the Sixers were already here in orbit around the planet I was hoping they hadn't spotted my ship I ran back to the living room of the White House one last time and placed the final treasure inside the trophy case just as in the original game a map appeared inside the case directing me to a hidden barrel that marked the end of the game but I wasn't concerned with the map or with finishing the game all of the trophies were now collected in the case so I took out the captain and crunch whistle it had three holes across the top and I covered the third one to generate the 2600 Hertz tone that had made this whistle famous in the annals of hacker history then I blew one clear shrill note the whistle transformed into a small key and my score on the scoreboard increased by 18,000 points I was back in second place a mere 1,000 points ahead of h a second later the entire zor simulation reset itself the 19 items in the trophy case vanished returning to their original locations and the rest of the house and the gamees playing field returned to the same state in which ID found them as I stared at the key in the palm of my hand I felt a brief jolt of panic the key was silver not the Milky green color of Jade but when I turned the key over and examined it more closely I saw that it actually appeared to be wrapped in silver foil like a stick of gum or a bar of chocolate I carefully peeled the wrapper away and a key made of polished green stone was revealed inside the Jade key and just like the copper key I saw that it had a clue edged into its surface continue your quest by taking the test I reread it several times but had no immediate Revelations as to its meaning So I placed the key in my inventory then examined the wrapper it was silver foil on one side and white paper on the other I didn't see any markings on either side just then I heard the muffled Roar of approaching spacecraft and I knew it must be the Sixers it sounded like they were here in force I pocketed the rapper and ran out of the house overhead thousands of sixer gunships filled the sky like an angry swarm of metal wasps the ships were separating into small groups as they descended heading off in different directions as if to blanket the entire surface of the planet I didn't think the Sixers would be foolish enough to try to barricade all 512 instances of the White House that strategy had worked for them on ludus but only for a few hours and they'd only had one location to barricade the entire planet of fobos was in a PVP Zone and both magic and Technology functioned here which meant that all Bs were off there would be hordes of gunters arriving here soon armed to the teeth and if the Sixers tried to keep all of them at Bay it would mean war on a scale never before seen in the history of the Oasis as I continued running across the field and up the ramp of my ship I spotted a large Squadron of gunships about a 100 or so descending from the sky directly above my location they appeared to be headed straight for me Max had already powered up the vag's engines so I shouted for him to lift off as soon as I was aboard when I reached the cockpit controls I threw the throttle wide open and the descending swarm of sixer gunships banked hard to follow me as my ship blasted its way Skyward I began to to take heavy fire from several directions but I was lucky my ship was fast and my shields were top of the line so they managed to hold up long enough for me to reach orbit but they failed a few seconds later and the vaget hull suffered an alarming amount of damage in the handful of seconds it took me to make the jump to light speed it was a close call the bastards almost got me my ship was in bad shape so instead of returning directly to my my stronghold I headed to Joe's Garage an orbital Starship repair shop over in Sector 10 Joe's was an honest NPC operated establishment with reasonable rates and lightning fast service I used them whenever the vaget needed repairs or upgrades while Joe and his boys worked on my ship I sent h a brief email to say thanks I told him that whatever debt he felt he owed me was now most definitely paid in full I also CED to being a colossally insensitive self-centered and begged him to forgive me as soon as the repairs to my ship were finished I headed back to my stronghold then I spent the rest of the day glued to the newsfeeds the word about fobos was out and every Gunter with the means had already teleported there thousands of others were arriving by spacecraft every minute to do battle with the Sixers and secure their own copy of the Jade key the news feeds were airing live coverage of the hundreds of large scale battles breaking out on fras around nearly every instance of the dwelling long neglected the big Gunter Clans had once again banded together to launch a coordinated attack on the Sixers forces it was the beginning of what would come to be known as the Battle of fobos and casualties were already mounting on both sides I also kept a close eye on the scoreboard waiting to see evidence that the Sixers had begun to collect copies of the Jade key while their forces held the opposition at Bay as I feared the next score to increase was the one besides sento's II employee number it jumped 177,000 points moving him into fourth place now that the Sixers knew exactly where and how to obtain the Jade key I expected to see their other Avatar scores begin to jump as sento's underlings followed his lead but to my surprise the next Avatar to snag the Jade key was none other than shotto he did it less than 20 minutes after sento somehow Shoto had managed to evade the hordes of Sixers currently swarming all over the planet enter an instance of the White House collect all 19 of the required treasures and obtain his copy of the key I continued to watch the scoreboard expecting to see his brother Dao's score increase as well but that never happened instead a few minutes after Shoto obtained his copy of the key Dao's name disappeared from the scoreboard entirely there was only one possible explanation daato had just been killed chapter 24 over the next 12 hours chaos continued to rain on fobos as every Gunter in the Oasis scrambled to reach the planet and join the fry the Sixers had dispersed their Grand Army across the globe in a bold attempt to blockade all 512 copies of the zor playing field but their forces as vast and well equipped as they were were spread far too thin this time only seven more of their avatars managed to obtain the Jade key that day and when the Gunter Clans began their coordinated attack on the Sixers forces the boobs in blue began to suffer heavy casualties and were forced to pull back within a matter of hours the sixer High command decided to deploy a new strategy it had quickly become obvious that they wouldn't be able to maintain over 500 different blockades or fend off the massive influx of gunters so they regrouped all of their forces around 10 adjacent instances of the zor playing field near the planet South Pole they installed powerful force Shields over each of them and stationed armored battalions outside the shield walls this scaled down strategy worked and the Sixers forces proved to be sufficient to hold down those 10 locations and prevent any other gunters from getting inside and there wasn't much reason for other gunters to try since over 500 other instances of Zork now stood wide open and unprotected now that the Sixers could operate undisturbed they basically formed 10 lines of Avatar guars outside each White House and began to run them through the process of obtaining the Jade key one after another everyone could plainly see what they were doing because the digits beside each ioi employee number on the scoreboard began to increase by 15,000 points at the same time hundreds of Gunter scores were increasing as well now that the location of the Jade key was public knowledge deciphering the quatrain and figuring out how to main the key was relatively easy it was there for the taking to anyone who had already cleared the first gate as the Battle of fobos Drew to a close the rankings on the scoreboard stood like this Artemis 129,000 points paral 128,000 points H 127,000 points II 655321 which was Nolan sento's Avatar number 12 2,000 points shotto also had 122,000 points and the rest of the top 10 were filled with other II employee numbers each with 120,000 points even though Shoto had matched sento's score of 122,000 points Sorento had achieved that Score first which must be the reason he' remained in the higher slot the relatively small Point bonuses Artemis H Shoto and I had received for being the first to to reach the copper and Jade keys were what kept our names in the hollowed high five slots sento had now earned one of these bonuses too seeing his ioi employee number above shoto's name made me cringe scrolling down I saw that the scoreboard was now over 5,000 names long with more being added every hour as new avatars finally managed to defeat asak at joust and collect their own instance of the copper key no one on the message board seemed to know what had happened to daato but the common assumption was that he'd been killed by the Sixers during the first few minutes of the battle of fobos rumors about exactly how he had died were running rampant but no one had actually been witnessed to his demise except for maybe Shoto and he'd vanished I'd sent him a few chat requests but got no reply like me I assumed he was focusing all of his energy on finding the second gate before the Sixers did I sat in my stronghold staring at the Jade key and reciting the words etched into its spine over and over like a maddening Mantra continue your quest by taking the test yes but what test what test was I supposed to take the kobashi Maru the Pepsi challenge could the clue have been any more vague I reached under my visor and rubbed my eyes in frustration I decided I needed to take a break and get some sleep I pulled up my Avatar's inventory and placed the Jade key back inside as I did I noticed the silver foil wrapper in the inventory slot beside it the wrapper that had covered the Jade key when it first appeared in my hand I knew the secret to deciphering the riddle must involve the rapper in some way but I still couldn't sort out how I wonder if it might be a reference to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory but then decided against it there hadn't been any golden ticket inside the wrapper it must have some other purpose or meaning I stared at the wrapper and pondered this until I could no longer keep my eyes open then I logged out and went to sleep a few hours later at 6:12 a.m. OST I was jolted awake by the gut-wrenching sound of my scoreboard alarm alerting me that one of the top rankings had changed again filled with a growing sense of dread I logged in and pulled up the scoreboard unsure of what to ECT maybe Artemis had finally cleared gate 2 or perhaps H or Shoto had achieved that honor but all of their scores remained unchanged to my horror I saw that it was sento's score that had increased by 200,000 points and two gate icons now appeared beside it sarento had just become the first person to find the second gate as a result his Avatar now stood in first place at the top of the scoreboard I sat there Frozen staring at sento's employee number silently weighing the repercussions of what had just happened upon exiting the gate sarento would have been given a clue as to the location of the crystal key the key that would open the third and final gate so now the Sixers were the only ones who possessed that clue which meant they were now closer to finding holidays Easter egg than anyone had ever been before I suddenly felt ill and I was also having a difficult time breathing I realized I must be having some sort of panic attack a total and complete freak out a massive mental meltdown whatever you want to call it I went a little nuts I tried calling age but he didn't pick up either he was still pissed off at me or he had other more pressing matters to attend to I was about to call Shoto but then I remembered that his brother's Avatar had just been killed he probably wasn't in a very receptive mood I considered flying to benitar to try and get Artemis to talk to me but then I came to my senses she' had the Jade key in her possession for several days and she still hadn't been able to clear the second gate learning that the Sixers had done it in less than 24 hours had probably driven her into a psychotic Rage or maybe a catatonic stuper she probably didn't feel like talking to anyone right now least of all me I tried calling her anyway as usual she didn't answer I was so desperate to hear a familiar voice that I resorted to talking to Max in my current state even his glib computer generated voice was somehow comforting of course it didn't take Max long to run out of pre-programmed replies and when he started to repeat himself the illusion that I was talking to another person was shattered and I felt even more alone you know you've totally screwed up your life when your whole world turns to and the only person you have to talk to is your system agent software I couldn't go back to sleep so I stayed up watching the news feeds and scanning the Gunter message boards the sixer Armada remained on fras and their avatars were still farming copies of the Jade key sarento had obviously learned from his previous mistake now that the Sixers alone knew the location of the second gate they weren't going to be stupid enough to reveal its location to the World by trying to barricade it with their Armada but they were still taking full advantage of the situation as the day progressed the Sixers continued to walk additional avatars through the second gate after sarento made it through another 10 Sixers cleared it during the following 24 hours as each Sixers score increased by 200,000 points Artemis H Shoto and I were all pushed farther and farther down the scoreboard until we'd been knocked out of the top 10 entirely and the scoreboards main page displayed nothing but ioi employee numbers the Sixers now Ruled The Roost then when I was sure things couldn't possibly get any worse they got much much worse two days after he cleared the second gate sento's score jumped another 30,000 points indicating that he had just acquired the Crystal Key I sat there in my stronghold staring at the monitors watching all of this unfold in stunned horror there was no denying it the end of the contest was at hand and it wasn't going to end like I'd always thought it would with some Noble worthy Gunter finding the egg and winning the prize I'd been kidding myself for the past 5 and a half years we all had this story was not going to have a happy ending the bad guys were going to win I spent the next 24 hours in a frantic fight obsessively checking the scoreboard every 5 Seconds expecting the end to come at any moment sento or one of his many holiday experts had obviously been able to decipher the riddle and locate the second gate but even though the proof was right there on the scoreboard I still had a hard time believing it up until now the Sixers had only made progress by tracking Artemis H or me how had those same clueless ass hats found the second gate on their own maybe they'd just gotten lucky or perhaps they' discovered some new and Innovative way to cheat how else could they have solved the riddle so quickly when Artemis hadn't been able to do it with several days Head Start my brain felt like hammered Playdoh I couldn't make any sense of the clue printed on the Jade key I was completely out of ideas even lame ones I didn't know what to do or where to look next as the night went on the Sixers continued to acquire copies of the Crystal Key each time one of their scores increased it was like a knife in my heart but I couldn't make myself stop checking the scoreboard I was utterly transfixed I felt myself inching towards complete hopelessness my efforts over the past 5 years had been for nothing I'd foolishly underestimated sento and the Sixers and I was about to pay the ultimate price for my hubris the those soulless corporate Lackey were closing in on the egg at this very moment I could sense it with every fiber of my being I'd already lost emis and now I was going to lose the contest too I'd already decided what I was going to do on it happened I would choose one of the kids in my official fan club someone with no money and a first level newbie Avatar and give her every item I owned then I would activate the self-destruct sequence on my stronghold hold and sit in my command center while the whole place went up in a massive thermonuclear explosion my avatar would die and game over would appear in the center of my display then I would rip off my visor and leave my apartment for the first time in 6 months I would ride the elevator up to the roof or maybe I would even take the stairs get a little exercise there was an arboretum on the roof of my apartment building I had never visited it but I'd seen photos and admired The View via webcam a transparent plexiglass barrier had been installed around the ledge to keep people from jumping but it was a joke at least three determined individuals had managed to climb over it since I'd moved in I would sit up there and breathe the unfiltered City air for a while feeling the wind on my skin then I would scale the barrier and hurl myself over the side that was my current plan I was trying to decide what tune I should whistle as I plummeted to my death when my phone rang it was Shoto I wasn't in the mood to talk so I let his call roll to vid mail then watched as shotto recorded his message it was brief he said he needed to come to my stronghold to give me something something Dao had left to me in his will when I returned his call to arrange a meeting I could tell Shoto was an emotional wreck his quiet voice was filled with pain and the depth of his despair was apparent on the features of his Avatar's face he seemed utterly despondent he was in even worse shape than I was I asked Shoto why his brother had bothered to make out a will for his Avatar instead of just leaving his possessions in shoto's care then daato could simply create a new Avatar and reclaim the items his brother was holding for him but Shoto told me that his brother would not be creating new Avatar not now or ever when I asked why he promised to explain when he saw me in person chapter 25 Max alerted me when Shoto arrived an hour or so later I granted his ship clearance to enter Falco's airspace and told him to park in my hanger shoto's vessel was a large interplanetary tler named the Kurosawa modeled after a ship called the Bop in the classic anime series Cowboy Bop Dao and Shoto had used it as their mobile base of operations for as long as I'd known them the ship was so big that it barely fit through my hanger doors I was standing on the runway to greet Shoto as he emerged from the kerawa he was dressed in black morning robes and his face bore the same inconsolable expression I'd seene when we spoke on the phone POS he said bowing low Shoto I returned the bow respectfully then stretched out my palm a gesture he recognized from the time we'd spent questing together grinning he reached out and slipped me some skin but then his dark expression immediately resurfaced this was the first time I'd seen Shoto since the quest we'd shared on takus satu not counting those Dao energy drinks commercials he and his brother appeared in and his Avatar seemed to be a few inches taller than I remembered I led him up to one of my strongholds rarely used sitting rooms a recreation of the living room setad from Family Ties Shoto recognized the decor and nodded his silent approval then ignoring the furniture he seated himself in the center of the floor he sat Caesar style folding his legs under his thighs I did the same positioning myself so that our avatars faced each other we sat in silence for a while when Shoto was finally ready to speak he kept his eyes on the floor the SOS killed my brother last night he said almost Whispering at first I was too stunned to reply you mean they killed his Avatar I asked even though I could already tell that wasn't what he meant shodo shook his head no they broke into his apartment pulled him out of his haptic chair and and threw him off of his balcony he lived on the 43rd floor Shau opened a browser window in the air beside us it displayed a Japanese Newsfeed article I tapped it with my index finger and the mandra software translated the text to English the headline was another otaku suicide the brief article below said that a young man toshiro yoshiaki aged 22 had jumped to his death from his apartment located on the 43r thir floor of a converted hotel in shinoku Tokyo where he lived alone I saw a school photo of toshiro beside the article he was a young Japanese man with long unkempt hair and bad skin he didn't look anything like his Oasis Avatar when Shoto saw that I'd finished reading he closed the window I hesitated a moment before asking are you sure he didn't really commit suicide because his Avatar had been killed no shotto said Di did not commit sabuku I'm sure of it the Sixers broke into his apartment while we were engaged in combat with them on robots that's how they were able to defeat his Avatar by killing him in the real world I didn't know what else to say I knew he was telling the truth my real name is akah he said I want you to know my true name I smiled then bowed briefly pressing my forehead to the floor I appreciate you trusting me with your true name I said my true name is Wade I could no longer see the point in keeping secrets thank you with shodo said returning the bow you're welcome akihi he was silent for a moment then he cleared his throat and began to talk about daato the words poured out of him it was obvious that he needed to talk to someone about what had happened about what he'd lost DA's real name was toshiro yoshiaki I didn't even know that until last night until I saw the news article but I thought you were his brother I'd always assumed that daato and Shoto lived together that they shared an apartment or something my relationship with da is difficult to explain he stopped to clear his throat we were not Brothers not in real life just in the Oasis do you understand we only knew each other online and never actually met him he slowly raised his eyes to meet my gaze to see if I was judging him I reached out and rested a hand on his shoulder believe me shotto I understand H and Artemis are my two best friends and I've never met either of them either in real life in fact you are one of my closest friends too he bowed his head thank you I could tell by his voice that he was crying now we're gunters I said trying to fill the awkward silence we live here in the Oasis for us this is the only reality that has any meaning akah nodded a few moments later he continued to talk he told me about about how he and toshiro had met 6 years ago when they were both enrolled in an oasis support group for hikiko young people who had withdrawn from society and chosen to live in total isolation hikiko Mor locked themselves in a room red manga and cruised The Oasis all day relying on their families to bring them food there had been hikiko Mor in Japan since back before the turn of the century but their number had skyrocketed after the hunt for holidays Easter egg began millions of young men and women all over the country had locked themselves away from the world they sometimes called these children the missing millions akah and doshiro became best friends and spent almost every day hanging out together in the Oasis when the hunt for holidays Easter egg began they'd immediately decided to join forces and search for it together they made a perfect team because toshiro was a prodigy at video games while the much younger akah was well-versed in American pop culture ak's Grandmother Had attended school in the United States and both of his parents had been born there so akah had been raised on American movies and television and he'd grown up learning to speak English and Japanese equally well akah and toshiro's mutual love of Samurai movies served as the inspiration for their avatars names and appearances shotto and daato had had grown so close that they were like brothers so when they created their new Gunter identities they decided that in the Oasis they were brothers from that moment on after Shoto and daato cleared the first gate and became famous they gave several interviews with the media they kept their identities a secret but they did reveal that they were both Japanese which made them instant celebrities in Japan they began to endorse Japanese products and had a cartoon in a liveaction TV series based on their exploits at the height of their Fame Shoto had suggested to daato that perhaps it was time for them to meet in person daato had flown into a rage and stopped speaking to shotto for several days after that Shoto had never suggested it again eventually Shoto worked his way up to telling me how Dao's Avatar had died the two of them had been aboard the kosaa cruising between planets and sector seven when the scoreboard informed them that H had obtained the Jade key when that happened they knew the Sixers would use fur's tablet of finding to pinpoint H's exact location and that their ships would soon be converging on it in preparation for this daato and Shoto had spent the past few weeks planting microscopic tracking devices on the halls of every sixer gunship they could find using these devices they were able to follow the gunships when they all all abruptly changed course and headed for fobos as soon as shotto and daato learned that fobos was the Sixers destination they' easily deciphered the meaning of the quatran and by the time they'd reached fobos just a few minutes later they'd already figured out what they needed to do to obtain the Jade key they landed the kirawa next to an instance of the White House that was still deserted Shoto ran inside to collect the 19 treasures and get the key while remained outside to stand guard Shoto worked quickly and he had only two Treasures left to collect when Dao informed him by commlink that 10 sixer gunships were closing in on their location he told his brother to hurry and promised to hold off the enemy until Shoto had the Jade key neither of them knew if they'd have another chance to reach it as shotto scrambled to get the last two treasures and place them in the trophy case he remotely activated one of the kosa external cameras and used it to record a short video of Dao's confrontation with the approaching Sixers sto opened a window and played this video clip for me but he averted his eyes until it was over he obviously had no desire to watch it again on the vid feed I saw daato standing alone in the field beside the White House a small Fleet of sixer gunships was descending out of the sky and they began to fire their laser cannons as soon as they were within range a hail storm of fiery red bolts began to rain down all around daato behind him in the distance I could see more sixer gunships sitting down at each one was offloading squadrons of power armored ground troops daato was surrounded the Sixers had obviously spotted the Kurosawa during its descent to the planet's surface and they'd made killing the two Samurai a priority Dao didn't hesitate to use the ace up his sleeve he pulled out the beta capsule held it aoft in his right hand and activated it his Avatar instantly changed into alterman a glowing eyed red and silver alien superhero as his Avatar transformed he also grew to a height of 156 ft the sixer Ground Forces closing in on him froze in their tracks staring up and frightened awe as Ultraman daato snatched two gunships out of the sky and smashed them together like a giant child playing with two tiny metal toys he dropped the Flaming wreckage to the ground and began to swat other sixer gunships out of the sky like bothersome flies the ships that escaped his deadly grasp banked around and sprayed him with laser bolts and machine gun fire but both deflected harmlessly off his armored alien skin daato let out a booming laugh that echoed across the landscape then he made a cry cross with his arms intersecting at the wrists a glowing energy beam blasted forth from his hands vaporizing half a dozen gunships unlucky enough to fly through its path daato turned and swept the beam over the sixer Ground Forces around him frying them like terrified ants under a magnifying glass daato appeared to be enjoying himself immensely so much so that he paid little attention to the warning light embedded in the center of his chest which had now began flash bright red this was a signal that his 3 minutes as Ultraman had nearly elapsed and that his power was almost depleted this time limit was Ultram man's primary weakness if daato failed to deactivate the beta capsule and return to human form before his 3 minutes were up his Avatar would die but it was obvious that if he changed back into his human form right now in the middle of the massive sixer Onslaught he'd be killed instantly too and show would never be able to reach the ship I could see sixer troops around daato screaming into their C links for backup and additional sixer gunships were still arriving in droves daato was blasting them out of the sky one at a time with perfectly aim bursts of his specium Ray and with each blast he fired the warning light on his chest pulsed faster then shotu emerged from the White House and told his brother via C link that he'd acquired the Jade key in that same instant the sixer Ground Forces spotted Shoto and sensing a much easier Target they began to redirect their fire at his Avatar Shoto made a Mad Dash for the kiraa when he activated the boots of speed he was wearing his Avatar became a barely visible blur racing across the open field as Shoto ran Dao repositioned his giant form to provide him with as much cover as possible still firing energy blasts he was able to keep the Sixers at Bay then Dao's voice broke in on the Comm link Sho he shouted I think someone is here someone is [Applause] inside his voice cut off at the same moment his Avatar froze as if he'd been turned to stone and a log out icon appeared directly over his head logging out of your Oasis account while you were engaged in combat was the same thing as committing suicide during the logout sequence your avatar froze in place for 60 seconds during which time you were totally defenseless and susceptible to attack the log out sequence was designed this way to prevent avatars from using it as an easy way to escape a fight you had to stand your ground or Retreat to a safe location before you could log out Dao's logout sequence had been engaged at the worst possible moment as soon as his Avatar froze he began to take heavy laser and gunfire from all directions the red warning light on his chest began to flash faster and faster until finally it went solid red when that happened Dao's giant form fell over and collapsed as he fell he barely missed crushing Shoto in the kosaa as he hit the ground his Avatar's body transformed and shrank back to its normal size and appearance then it began to disappear altogether slowly fading out of existence when Dao's Avatar vanished completely it left behind a small pile of spinning items on the ground everything he'd been carrying in his inventory including the beta capsule he was dead I saw another blur of motion on the vid feed as Shoto ran back to collect Dao's items then he looped around and ran back aboard the carawa the shamp lifted off and blasted into orbit taking heavy fire the entire way I was reminded of my own desperate escape from fras luckily for Shoto his brother had wiped out most of the sixer gunships in the vicinity and reinforcements had yet to arrive Shoto was able to reach orbit and Escape by making the jump to light speed but just barely the video ended and shotto closed the window how do you think the Sixers found out where he lived I asked I don't know Shoto said D was a careful he covered his tracks if they found him they might be able to find you too I said I know I've taken precautions good Shoto removed the beta capsule from his inventory and held it out to me daato would have wanted you to have this I held up a hand no I think you should keep it you might need it Shoto shook his head I have all of his other items he said I don't need this and I don't want to he held out the capsule to me insistent I took the artifact and examined it it was a small metal cylinder silver and black in color with a red activation button on its side its size and shape reminded me of the lightsabers I owned but lightsabers were a dime a dozen I had over 50 in my collection there was only one beta capsule and it was a far more powerful weapon I raised the capsule with both hands and bowed thank you shosen thank you posal he said returning the bow thank you for listening he stood up slowly everything about his body language seemed to Signal defeat you haven't given up yet have you I asked of course not he straightened his body and gave me a dark smile but finding the egg is no longer my goal now I have a new Quest a far more important one and that is Revenge I nodded then I walked over and took down one of the samurai swords mounted on the wall and and presented it to Shoto please I said accept this gift to Aid you in your new Quest Shoto took the sword and Drew its ornate blade a few inches from the Scabbard aasam he asked staring at the blade in wonder I nodded yes and it's a plus five waral blade too shotto bowed again to show his gratitude Arigato we rode the elevator back down to my hanger in silence just before he boarded his ship sh turned to me how long do you think it will take those Sixers to clear the third gate he asked I don't know I said hopefully long enough for us to catch up with them it's not over until the fat lady is singing right I nodded it's not over until it's over and it's not over yet chapter 26 I figured it out later that night a few hours after Shoto left my stronghold I was sitting in my command center holding the Jade key and endlessly reciting the clue printed on its surface continue your quest by taking the test in my other hand I held the silver foil wrapper my eyes darted from the key to the wrapper and back to the key again as I tried desperately to make the connection between them I'd been doing this for hours and it wasn't getting me anywhere I sighed and put the key away then laid the wrapper flat on the control contr panel in front of me I carefully smoothed out all of its folds and wrinkles the wrapper was Square in shape 6 in Long at each Edge silver foil on one side dull white paper on the other I pulled up some image analysis software and made a high resolution scan of both sides of the wrapper then I magnified both images on my display and studied every micrometer I couldn't find any markings or writing anywhere on either side of the rapper's surface I was eating some corn chips at the time so I was using voice commands to operate the image analysis software I instructed it to demagnify the scan of the rapper and center the image on my display as I did this it reminded me of a scene in Blade Runner where Harrison Ford's character Deckard uses a similar voice controlled scanner to analyze a photograph I held up the wrapper and took another look at it as the virtual light reflected off its foil surface I thought about folding the wrapper into a paper airplane and sailing it across the room that made me think of origami which reminded me of another moment in Blade Runner one of the final scenes in the film and that was when it hit me the Unicorn I whispered the moment I said the word unicorn aloud the wrapper began to fold on its own there in the palm of my hand the square piece of foil bent itself in half diagonally creating a silver triangle it continued to bend and fold itself into smaller triangles and even smaller diamond shapes until at last it formed a four-legged figure that then sprouted a tail a head and finally a horn the wrapper had folded itself into a silver origami unicorn one of the most iconic images from Blade Runner I was already riding the elevator down to my hanger and Shing at Max to prep the vagade for takeoff continue your quest by taking the test now I knew exactly what test the line referred to and where I needed to go to take it the origami unicorn had revealed everything to me Blade Runner was referenced in the text of anax Almanac no less than 14 times it had been one of holiday's top 10 all-time favorite films and the film was based on a novel by Philip K dick one of holiday's favorite authors for those reasons I'd seen Blade Runner over four dozen times and had memorized every frame of the film and every line of dialogue as the vaget strink through hyperspace I pulled the director's cut of Blade Runner up in a window on my display then jumped ahead to review two scenes in particular the movie released in 1982 is set in Los Angeles in the year 2019 in a sprawling hyper technological future that had never come to pass the story follows a guy named Rick Deckard played by Harrison Ford Deckard works as a Blade Runner a special type of cop who hunts down and kills replicants genetically engineered beings that are almost indistinguishable from real humans in fact replicants look and act so much like real humans that the only way a Blade Runner can spot one is by using a polygraph like device called a void comp machine to test them void comp machine appear in only two scenes in the movie both of these take place inside the Tyrell building an enormous double pyramid structure that houses the Tyrell Corporation the company that manufactures the replicants Recreations of the Tyrell building were among the most common structures in the Oasis copies of it existed on hundreds of different planets spread throughout all 27 sectors this was because the code for the building was included as a free built-in template in the o is World Builder construction software along with hundreds of other structures borrowed from various science fiction films and television series so for the past 25 years whenever someone used the World Builder software to create a new planet inside the Oasis they could just select the Tyrell building from a drop- down menu and insert a copy of it into their simulation to help fill out the skyline of whatever futuristic city or landscape they were coding as a as a result some worlds had over a dozen copies of the Tyrell building scattered across their surfaces I was currently hauling ass at light speed to the closest such World a cyberpunk themed planet in sector 22 called aeronox if my suspicion was correct every copy of the tyrail building on aronox contained a hidden entrance into the second gate through the void comp machines located inside I wasn't worried about running into the Sixers because there was no way they could have barricaded the second gate not with thousands of copies of the Tyrell building on hundreds of different worlds once I reached aeronox finding a copy of the tyril building took only a few minutes it was pretty hard to miss a massive pyramid-shaped structure covering several square kilometers at its base it towered above most of the structures adjacent to it I zeroed in on the first instance of the building I saw and headed straight for it my ship's cloaking device was already engaged and I left it activated when I set the vaget down on one of the Tyrell buildings landing pads then I locked the ship and activated all of its security systems hoping they'd be enough to keep it from getting stolen until I returned magic didn't function here so I couldn't just shrink the ship and put it in my pocket and leaving Your Vessel parked out in the open on a cyberpunk themed world like astronauts was like asking for it to get ripped off the vaget would be a target for the first leather clad booster gang that spotted it I pulled up a map of the Tyrell building templates layout and used it to locate a roof access elevator a short distance from the platform where ID landed when I reached the elevator I punched in the default security code on the code pad and crossed my fingers I got lucky the elevator doors hissed open whoever had created this section of the aronox cityscape hadn't bothered to reset the security codes in the template I took this as a good sign it meant they'd probably left everything else in the template at the default setting too as I rode the elevator down to the 440th floor I powered on my armor and Drew my guns five security checkpoints stood between the elevator and the room I needed to reach unless the template had been altered 50 NPC Tyrell security guard replicants would be standing between me and my destination the shooting started as soon as the elevator door slid open I had to kill seven skin jobs before I could even make it out of the elevator car and into the hallway the next 10 minutes played out like the climax of a John Woo movie one of the ones starring Chow Yun fat like hardboiled or the killer I switched both of my guns to Auto fire and held down the triggers as I moved from one room to the next mowing down every n PC in my path the guards returned fire but their bullets pinged harmlessly off my armor I never ran out of ammo because each time I fired round a new round was teleported into the bottom of the clip my bullet bill this month was going to be huge when I finally reached my destination I punched in another code and locked the door behind me I knew I didn't have much time claxons were blaring through the building and the thousands of NPC guards station on the floors below were probably already on their way up here to find me my footsteps echoed as I entered the room it was deserted except for a large owl sitting on a golden perch it blinked at me silently as I crossed the enormous cedral likee room which was a perfect Recreation of the office of the Tyrell corporation's founder Elden Tyrell every detail from the film had been duplicated exactly polished Stone floors giant marble pillars the entire West Wall was a massive floor to ceiling window offering a breathtaking view of the vast cityscape outside a long conference table Stood Beside the window sitting on top of it was a void com machine it was about the size of a briefcase with a row of unlabeled buttons on the front next to three small data monitors when I walked up and sat down in front of the machine it turned itself on a thin robotic arm extended a circular device that looked like a retinal scanner which locked into place directly level with the pupil of my right eye a small Bellow was built into the side of the machine and it began to rise and fall giving the impression that the device was breathing I glanced around wondering if an NPC of Harrison Ford would appear to ask me the same questions he' asked sha young in the movie I'd memorized all of her answers just in case but I waited a few seconds and nothing happened the machine's Bellows continued to rise and fall in the distance the security claxons continued to wail I took out the Jade key the instant I did a panel slid open in the surface of the Void comp machine revealing a keyhole I quickly inserted the Jade key and turned it the machine and the key both vanished and in their place the second gate appeared it was a door-like portal resting on top of the conference table its edges glowed with the same milky Jade color as the key and just like the first gate it appeared to lead into a vast field of stars I leapt up on the table and jumped inside I found myself standing just inside the entrance of a seedy looking bowling alley with disco era Decor the carpet was a garish pattern of green and brown swirls and the molded plastic chairs were a faded orange color the bowling lanes were all empty and unlit the place was deserted there weren't even any NPCs behind the front counter or the snack bar I wasn't sure where I was supposed to be until I saw Middletown Lanes printed in huge letters on the wall above the bowling lanes at first the only sound I heard was the low hum of the fluorescent lights overhead but then I noticed a series of faint electronic chirs emanating from off to my left I glanced in that direction and saw a darkened Al Cove just beyond the snack bar over this cave likee entrance was a sign eight bright red neon letters spelled out the words game room there was a violent Rush of wind and the Roar of what sounded like a hurricane tearing through the bulling alley my feet began to slide across the carpet and I realized that my avatar was being pulled toward the game room as if a black hole had opened up somewhere in there as the vacuum yanked me through the game room entrance I spotted a dozen video games inside all from the mid to late 80s crime Fighters heavy barrel vigilante Smash TV but now I could see that my avatar was being drawn towards one game in particular a game that stood alone at the very back of the game room Black Tiger Capcom 1987 a swirling Vortex had opened in the center of the game's Monitor and it was sucking in bits of tra crash paper cups bowling shoes everything that wasn't nailed down including me as my avatar neared it I reflexively reached out and grabbed the joystick of a time pilot machine my feet were instantly lifted off the floor as the vortex continued to pull my avatar inexorably towards it at this point I was actually grinning in anticipation I was all prepared to Pat myself on the back because I'd mastered black tiger long ago during the first year of the hunt in the Years prior to his death when holiday had been living in seclusion the only thing he' posted on his website was a brief looping animation it showed his Avatar andara sitting in his Castle's Library mixing potions and pouring over Dusty spell books this animation had run on a continuous loop for over a decade until it was finally replaced by the scoreboard on the morning holiday died in that animation hanging on the wall behind Anar you could see a large painting of a black dragon gunters had filled countless Message Board threads arguing about the meaning of the painting about what the black dragon signified or whether it signified anything at all but I'd been sure of its meaning from the start in one of the earliest journal entries in anara Almanac holiday wrote that whenever his parents would start screaming at each other he would sneak out of the house and ride his bike to the local bowling alley to play Black Tiger because it was a game he could beat on just one quarter anax almanac 23-34 for one quarter black tiger lets me escape from my rotten existence for three glorious hours pretty good deal black tiger had first been released in Japan under its original title Boku Dagon black dragon the game had been renamed for its American release deduced that the black dragon painting on the wall of anarak study had been a subtle hint that boru duragon would play a key role in the hunt so I'd studied the game until like holiday I could reach the end on just one credit after that I continued to play it every few months just to keep from getting rusty now it looked as if my foresight and diligence were about to pay off I was only able to hold on to the time pilot joystick for a few seconds then I lost my grip and my avatar was sucked directly into the black tiger games monitor everything went black for a moment then I found myself in surreal surroundings I was now standing inside a narrow dungeon Corridor on my left was a high gray Cobblestone wall with a mammoth dragon skull mounted on it the wall stretched up and up banishing into the Shadows above I couldn't make out any ceiling the dungeon floor was composed composed of floating circular platforms arranged end to end in a long line that stretched out into the darkness ahead to my right Beyond the platform's Edge there was nothing just an endless empty black void I turned around but there was no exit behind me just another high Cobblestone wall stretching up into the infinite Blackness overhead I looked down at my Avatar's body I now looked exactly like the hero of black tiger a muscular half- naked Barbarian Warrior dressed in an armored thong and a horned helmet my right arm disappeared in a strange metal Gauntlet from which hung a long retractable chain with a spiked metal ball on the end my right hand deafly held three throwing dgar when I hurled them off in the black void at my right three more identical daggers instantly appeared in my hand when I tried jumping I discovered that I could leap through 30 ft straight up and land back on my feet with catlike Grace now I understood I was about to play Black Tiger all right but not the 50-year-old 2D sidescrolling platform game that I had mastered I was now standing inside a new immersive three-dimensional version of the game that holiday had created my knowledge of the game's original mechanics levels and enemies would definitely come in handy but the game play was going to be completely different and it would require an entirely different set of skills the first gate had placed me inside one of holiday's favorite movies and now the second gate had put me inside one of his favorite video games while I was pondering the implication of this pattern a message began to flash on my display go I looked around an arrow etched into the stone wall on my left pointed the way forward I stretched my arms and legs cracked my knuckles and took a deep breath then readying my weapons I ran forward leaping from platform to platform to confront the first of my adversaries holiday had Faithfully recreated every detail of black Tiger's eight-level dungeon I got off to a rough start and lost a life before I even cleared the first boss but then I began to acclimate to playing the game in three dimensions and from a firstperson perspective eventually I found my groove I pressed onward leaping from platform to platform attacking in midair dodging the Relentless onslaught of blobs skeletons snakes mummies minotaurs and yes ninjas each enemy I vanquished dropped a pile of zeni coins that I could use later to purchase armor weapons and potions from one of the bearded wise men scattered throughout each level these wise men apparently thought setting up a small shop in the middle of a monster infested dungeon was a fine idea there were no timeouts and no way for me to pause the game once you entered a gate you couldn't just stop and log out the system wouldn't allow it even if you removed your visor you would remain logged in the only way out of a gate was to go through it or die I managed to clear all eight levels of the game in just under 3 hours the closest I came to death was during my battle with the final boss the black dragon who of course looked exactly like the Beast depicted in the painting in anarak study I'd used up all of my extra lives and my Vitality bar was almost at zero but I'd managed to keep moving and stay clear of the dragon's fiery breath while I slowly knocked down his life meter with a steady barrage of throwing daggers when I struck the final killing blow the crumbled into digital dust in front of me I let out a long exhausted sigh of relief then with no transition whatsoever I found myself back in the bowling alley game room standing in front of the Black Tiger game in front of me on the game's monitor my armored barbarian was striking a heroic pose the following text appeared below him you have returned peace and prosperity to our nation thank you black tiger congratul ations on your strength and wisdom then something strange happened something that had never happened when I'd beaten the original game one of the wise men from the dungeon appeared on the screen with a speech balloon that said thank you I am indebted to you please accept a giant robot as your reward a long row of robot icons appeared below the wise man stretching across the screen horizontally by moving the joystick left or right I found but I was able to scroll through a selection of over a hundred different giant robots when one of these robots was highlighted a detailed list of its stats and weaponry appeared on the screen beside it there were several robots I didn't recognize but most were familiar I spotted Gigantor transor Z The Iron Giant Jet Jaguar the sphin headed giant Robo from Johnny sooko and his flying robot the entire Shogun Warriors toy line and many of the Macs featured in both the Macross and Gundam anime series 11 of these icons were grayed out and had a red X over them and these robots could not be identified or selected I knew they must be the ones taken by sarento and the other Sixers who had cleared this gate before me it seemed possible that I was about to be awarded a real working Recreation of whichever robot I selected so I studied my options carefully searching for the one I thought would be the most powerful and well-armed but I stopped cold when I saw lepridon the giant transforming robot used by subaman the Incarnation of Spider-Man who appeared on Japanese TV in the late 1970s I discovered supaman during the course of my research and had become somewhat obsessed with the show so I didn't care if leopardon was the most powerful robot available I had you have him regardless I highlighted that icon and tapped the fire button a 12in tall replica of lepridon appeared on top of the black tiger cabinet I grabbed it and placed it in my inventory there were no instructions and the item description field was blank I made a mental note to examine it later when I got back to my stronghold meanwhile on the black tiger monitor the end credits had begun to scroll over an image of the game's Barbarian hero sitting on a throne with a slender princess at his side I respectfully read each of the programmers names they were all in Japanese except for the very last credit which read Oasis Port by JD holiday when the credits ended the monitor went dark for a moment then a symbol slowly appeared in the center of the screen a glowing red circle with a five-pointed star inside it the points of the star extended just beyond the outer edge of the circle a second later an image of the Crystal Key appeared spinning slowly in the center of the glowing red star I felt a rush of adrenaline because I recognized the red star symbol and I knew where it was meant to lead me I snapped several screenshots just to be safe A Moment later the monitor went dark and the Black Tiger game cabinet melted and morphed into a door- shaped portal with glowing Jade edges the exit I let out a triumphant cheer and jumped through it chapter 27 when I emerged from the gate my avatar reappeared back inside tyrrell's office the void comp machine had reappeared in its original location resting on the table beside me I checked the time over 3 hours had passed since I'd first entered the gate the room was deserted safe for The Owl and the security claxons were no longer wailing the NPC guards must have busted in and searched this area while I was still inside the gate because they no longer appeared to be looking for me the coast was clear I made my way back to the elevator and up to The Landing platform without incident and thanks be to crom the vaget was still parked right where I left it its cloaking device still engaged I ran on board Bo and left astronauts jumping to light speed as soon as I reached orbit as the vaget strink through hyperspace headed for the nearest Stargate I pulled up one of the screenshots I'd taken of the red star symbol then I opened my Grail diary and accessed the subfolder devoted to the legendary Canadian rock band Rush Rush had been H's favorite band from his teens onward he'd once revealed in an interview that he' coded every single one of his video games including the Oasis while listening exclusively to Rush albums he often referred to Rush's three members Neil per Alex lion and Getty Lee as the Holy Trinity or the gods of the North in my Grail diary I had every single Rush song album bootleg and music video ever made I had highr scans of all of their liner notes and album artwork every frame of Rush concert footage in existence every radio and television interview the band had ever done unabridged biographies on each band member along with copies of their side projects and solo work I pulled up the band's discography and selected the album I was looking for 2112 Russia's classic Sci-fi themed concept album a highresolution scan of the album's cover appeared on my display the band's name and the album's typ title were printed over a field of stars and below that appearing as if reflected in the surface of a Rippling Lake was the symbol I'd seen on the black tiger games monitor a red five-pointed star enclosed in a circle when I placed the album cover side by side with the screenshot of the game screen the two symbols matched exactly 2112 title track is an epic seven-part song over 20 minutes in length the song tells the story of an anonymous Rebel living in the year 201112 a time when creativity and self-expression have been outlawed the red star on the album's cover was the symbol of the solar Federation the oppressive Interstellar Society in the story The Solar Federation was controlled by a group of priests who are described in part two of the song titled the temples of shrinkx its lyrics told me exactly where the Crystal Key was hidden we are the priests of the temples of snx our great computers fill the hollowed Halls all the gifts of Life are held within our [Music] walls are the of the [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] there was a planet in sector 22 named singx that was where I was headed now the Oasis Atlas described shrinks as a desolate world with Rocky terrain and no NPC inhabitants when I accessed the planet's colofon I saw that shrink's author was listed as Anonymous but I knew the planet must have been coded by Halliday because its design matched the world described in 2012's liner notes 2112 was originally released in 1976 back when most music was sold on 12in vinyl records the records came in cardboard sleeves with artwork and a track listing printed on them some album sleeves opened up like a book and included more artwork and liner notes inside along with lyrics and information about the band as I pulled up a scan of 212s original foldout album sleeve I saw that there was a second image of the red star symbol on the inside this one depicted a naked man cowering in front of the Star both his hands raised in fear on the opposite side of the record sleeve were the printed lyrics to all seven parts parts of the 2112 Suite the lyrics for each section were preceded by a paragraph of Pros that augmented The Narrative laid out in the lyrics these brief vignettes were told from the point of view of 22's Anonymous protagonist the following text preceded the lyrics to Part One I lie awake staring out at the bleakness of meadon city and Sky become one merging into a single plane a vast sea of unbroken gray the twin moons just two pale orbs as they trace their way across the Steely Sky when my ship reached singx I saw the twin moons Bor and snow dog that orbited the planet their names were taken from another classic Rush song and down below on the planet's Bleak gray surface there were exactly 1,24 copies of Megadon the HED City described in the liner notes that was twice the number of zor instances there had been on fras so I knew the Sixers couldn't barricade them all with my cloaking device engaged I selected the nearest instance of the city and landed the vaget just outside the wall of its Dome watching my scopes for other ships megadon was anchored at top a rocky Plateau on the edge of an immense Cliff the city appeared to be in Ruins its massive transparent Dome was riddled with cracks and looked as though it might collapse at any moment I was able to enter the City by squeezing through one of the largest of these cracks at the base of the Dome the city of Megadon reminded me of an old 1950s sci-fi paperback cover depicting the crumbling ruins of a once great technologically advanced civilization in the absolute center of the city I found a towering Bisk shaped temple with wind blasted gray walls a giant red star of the solar Federation was emblazoned above the entrance I was standing before the Temple of strings it wasn't covered by a force field or surrounded by a Detachment of Sixers there wasn't a soul in sight I drew my guns and walked through the entrance of the temple inside Mammoth Obelisk shaped supercomputers stood in Long rows filling the giant cathedral-like Temple I wandered along these rows listening to the Deep hum of the machines until I finally reached the center of the temple there I found a raised Stone altar with the five pointed red star etched into its surface as I stepped up to the altar the humming of the computers ceased and the Chamber grew silent it appeared I was supposed to place something on the altar an offering to the the Temple of shrinkx but what kind of offering the 12in leopardon robot I'd acquired after completing the second gate didn't seem to fit I tried placing it on the altar anyway and nothing happened I placed the robot back in my inventory and stood there for a moment thinking then I remembered something else from the 2112 liner notes I pulled them up and scanned over them there was my answer in the text that pre receded part three Discovery behind my beloved waterfall in the little room that was hidden beneath the cave I found it I brushed away the dust of the years and picked it up holding it reverently in my hands I had no idea what it might be but it was beautiful I learned to lay my fingers across the wires and to turn the keys to make them sound differently as I struck the wires with my other hand I produced my first harmonious sounds and soon my own music I found the waterfall near the southern edge of the city just inside the curved wall of the atmospheric Dome as soon as I found it I activated my jet boots and flew over the foaming River below the Falls then passed through the waterfall itself my hatic suit did its best to simulate the sensation of torrents of falling water striking my body but it felt more like someone pounding on my head shoulders and back with a bundle of sticks once IID passed through the falls to the other side I found the opening of a cave and went inside the cave narrowed into a long tunnel which terminated in a small cavernous room I searched the room and discovered that one of the stgm mites protruding from the floor was slightly worn around the tip I grabbed the STG Mite and pull pulled it toward me but it didn't budge I tried pushing and it gave bending as if on some hidden hinge like a lever I heard a rumble of grinding stone behind me and I turned to see a trap door opening in the floor a hole had also opened in the roof of the cave casting a brilliant shaft of light down through the open trapdoor into a tiny hidden chamber below I took an item out of my inventory a wand that could detect hidden traps magical or otherwise I used it to make sure the area was clear then jumped down through the trapo and landed on the dusty floor of the Hidden chamber it was a tiny cubed shaped room with a large rough heed Stone standing against the north wall embedded in the stone neck first was an electric guitar I recognized its design from the 2112 concert footage I'd watched during the trip here it was a 1974 Gibson Leal the exact guitar used by Alex lion during the 212 tour I grinned at the Absurd Arthurian image of the guitar in the stone like every Gunter I'd seen John borman's film Excalibur many times so it seemed obvious what I should do next I reached out with my right hand grasp the neck of the guitar and pulled the guitar came free of the stone with a prolonged metallic as I held the guitar over my head the metallic ringing segue into a guitar power chord that echoed throughout the cave I stared down at the guitar about to activate my jet boots again to fly back up through the trapdoor and out of the cave but then an idea occurred to me and I froze James Halliday had taken guitar lessons for a few years in high school that was what had first inspired me to learn to play I'd never held an actual guitar but on a virtual axe I could totally shred I searched my inventory and found a guitar pick then I opened my Grail diary and pulled up the sheet music for 2112 along with the guitar tabulature for the song discovery which describes the hero's discovery of the guitar in a room hidden behind a waterfall as I began to play the song the sound of the the guitar blasted off the chamber walls and back out through the cave despite the absence of any electricity or amplifiers when I finished playing the first measure of Discovery a message briefly appeared carved into the Stone from which I pulled the guitar the first was ringed in red metal the second in green stone the third is clear as Crystal and cannot be unlocked alone in seconds the words began to vanish fading from the stone along with the strains of the last note I'd played on the guitar I quickly snapped a screenshot of the riddle already trying to sort out its meaning it was about the third gate of course and how it could not be unlocked alone had the Sixers played the song and discovered this message I seriously doubted it they would have pulled the guitar from the stone and immediately returned it to the temple if so they probably didn't know that there was some sort of trick to unlocking the third gate and that would explain why they still hadn't reached the egg I returned to the temple and placed the guitar on the altar as I did the Towering computers around me began to emit a cacophony of sound like a grand Orchestra tuning up the noise built to a deafening Crescendo before ceasing abruptly then there was a flash of light on the Altar and the guitar trans formed into the Crystal Key when I reached out and picked up the key a chime sounded and my score on the scoreboard increased by 25,000 points when added to the 200,000 I'd received for clearing the second gate that brought my total score up to 353,000 points 1,000 points more than sarento I was back in first place but I knew this was no time to celebrate I quickly examined the Crystal Key tilting it up to study its glittering faceted surface I didn't see any words inched there but I did find a small monogram etched into the center of the key Crystal handle a single caligraphic letter A that I recognized immediately that same letter A appeared in the character symbol box on James holiday's first Dungeons and Dragons character sheet the very same monogram also appeared on the dark Robes of his famous oasis Avatar anarak and I knew that same emblematic letter adorned the front Gates of Castle anarak his Avatar's impregnable stronghold in the first few years of the hunt gunters had swarmed like hungry insects to any Oasis location that seemed like a possible hiding place for the three keys specifically planets originally coded by helay himself Chief among these was was the planet cthonia a painstaking Recreation of the fantasy world helay had created for his high school Dungeons and Dragons campaign and also the setting of many of his early video games konia had become the gunters mecca like everyone else I'd felt obligated to make a pilgrimage there to visit Castle anarak but the castle was impregnable and always had been no Avatar but Anar himself had never been able to pass through its entrance but now I knew there must be a way to enter Castle anarak because the third gate was hidden somewhere inside when I got back to my ship I blasted off and set a course for cthonia in Sector 10 then I began to scan the news feeds intending to check out the media frenzy my return to first place was generating but my score wasn't the top story no the big news that afternoon was that the hiding place of holiday's Easter egg had at long last finally been revealed to the world it was the news anchors said located somewhere on the planet cthonia inside Castle anarak they knew this because the entire sixer Army was now encamped around the castle they'd arrived earlier that day shortly after I'd cleared the second gate I knew the timing couldn't be a coincidence my progress must have prompted the Sixers to end their covert attempts to clear the third gate and make its location public by barricading it before I or anyone else could reach it when I arrived at cthonia a few minutes later I did a cloaked flyby of the castle just to gauge the lay of the land for myself it was even worse than I'd imagined the Sixers had installed some type of magical Shield over castle and ARA a semi-transparent dome that completely covered the castle and the area around it encamped inside the shield wall was the entire sixer Army a vast collection of troops tanks weapons and vehicles surrounded the castle on all sides several Gunter clans were already on the scene and they were making their first attempts to bring down the shield by launching high yield nukes at it each detonation was followed by a brief Atomic light show and then the blast would dissipate harmless ly against the Shield the attacks on the shield continued for the next few hours as the news spread and more and more gunters arrived on cthonia the Clans launched every type of weapon they could think of at the shield but nothing affected it not nukes not fireballs and not magic missiles eventually a team of gunters tried to dig a tunnel into the Dome wall and that was when it was discovered that the shield was actually a complete sphere here surrounding the castle above and below ground later that night several highlevel Gunter Wizards finished casting a series of divination spells on the castle and announced on the message boards that the shield around the castle was generated by a powerful artifact called the orb of oox which could only be operated by a wizard who was 99th level according to the artifacts item description it could create a spherical shield around found itself with a circumference of up to half a kilometer this Shield was impenetrable and indestructible and could vaporize just about anything that touched it it could also be kept up indefinitely as long as the wizard operating the orb remained immobile and kept both hands on the artifact in the days that followed gunters tried everything they could think of to penetrate The Shield magic technology Transportation teleportation counter spells other artifacts nothing worked there was no way to get inside an air of hopelessness quickly swept through the Gunter Community solos and clansmen alike were ready to throw in the towel the Sixers had the crystal key and exclusive access to the third gate everyone agreed that the end was near that the hunt was all over but the crying during all of these developments I somehow managed to keep keep my cool there was a chance the Sixers hadn't even figured out how to open the third gate yet of course they had plenty of time now they could be slow and methodical sooner or later they would stumble upon the solution but I refused to give up until an avatar reached holiday's Easter egg anything was still possible like any classic video game The Hunt had simply reached a new more difficult level and a new level off required an entirely new strategy I began to formulate a plan a bold outrageous plan that would require epic amounts of luck to pull off I set this plan in motion by emailing Artemis H and shotto my message told them exactly where to find the second gate and how to obtain the Crystal Key once I was sure all three of them had received my message I initiated the next phase of my plan this was the part that terrified me because I knew there was a good chance it was going to end up getting me killed but at this point I no longer cared I was going to reach the third gate or die trying level three going outside is highly overrated anara Almanac 17 verse 32 chap chapter 28 when the II corporate police came to arrest me I was right in the middle of the movie Explorers 1985 directed by Joe Dante it's about three kids who build a spaceship in their backyard and then fly off to meet Aliens easily one of the greatest kid flicks ever made I'd gotten into the habit of watching it at least once a month it kept me centered I had a thumbnail of my apartment building's external security camera feed at the edge of my display so I saw the II indentured servant retrieval transport pull up out front siren wailing and lights flashing then four Jack booted Riot helmeted drop cops jumped out and ran into the building followed by a guy in a suit I continued to watch them on the lobby camera as they waved their ioi badges blew past the security station and filed onto the elevator now they were on their way up to my floor Max I muttered noting the fear in my own voice execute security macro number one calm strong in his Mountain this voice command instructed my computer to execute a long series of pre-programmed actions both online and in the real world you got it Chief Max replied cheerfully and a split second later my apartment security system switched into lockdown mode my reinforced plate titanium War door swung down from the ceiling slamming and locking into place over my apartment's built-in security door and on the security camera mounted in the hallway outside my apartment I watched the four drop cops get off the elevator and Sprint down the hallway to my door the two guys in front were carrying plasma welders the other two held industrial strength volt jolt stun guns the suit who brought up the rear was carrying a digital clipboard I wasn't surprised to see them I knew why they were here they were here to cut open my apartment and pull me out of it like a chunk of spam being removed from a can when they reached my door my scanner gave them the once over and their ID data flashed on my display informing me that all five of these men were ioi credit officers with a valid indenturement arrest warrant for one Bryce Lynch the occupant of this apartment so in keeping with local state and federal law my apartment building security system immediately opened both of my security doors to grant them entrance but the war door that had just slammed into place kept them outside of course the drop cops expected me to have redundant security which is why they'd brought plasma welders the ioi Drone in the suit squeezed past the drop cops and gingerly pressed his thumb to my door intercom his name and corporate title appeared on my display Michael Wilson II credit and collections division employee number iy- 4812 31 Wilson looked up into the lens of my hallway camera and smiled pleasantly Mr Lynch he said my name is Michael Wilson and I'm with the credit and collections divisions of innovative online Industries he consulted his clipboard I'm here because you have failed to make the last three payments on your II Visa card which has an outstanding balance in excess of $20,000 our records also show that you are currently unemployed and have therefore been classified as impecunious under current federal law you're now eligible for mandatory indenturement you will remain indentured until you have paid your debt to our company in full along with all applicable interest processing and late fees and any other charges or penalties that you incur henceforth Wilson motioned toward the drop cops these gentlemen are here to assist me in apprehending you and escorting you to your new place of employment we request that you open your door and grant us access to your residence Please be aware that we are authorized to seize any personal belongings you have inside the sale value of these items will of course be deducted from your outstanding credit balance as far as I could tell Wilson recited all of this without taking a single breath speaking in the flat monotone of someone who repeats the same sentences all day long after a brief pause I replied through the intercom yeah sure thing guys just give me a minute to get my pants on that'll be right out Wilson frowned Mr Lynch if you do not grant us access to your residence within 10 seconds we are authorized to enter by force the cost of any damage resulting from our forced entry including all property damage and repair labor will be added to your outstanding balance thank you Wilson stepped away from the intercom and nodded to the others one of the drop cops immediately powered up his welder and when the tip began to Glow molten orange he began cutting through my War doors titanium plating the other welder moved a few feet farther down and began to cut a hole right through the wall of my apartment these guys had access to the building security specs so they knew the walls of each apartment were lined with steel plating and a layer of concrete which they could cut through much more quickly than the titanium War door of course I'd taken the precaution of reinforcing my apartment's walls floors and ceiling with a titanium alloy Sage cage which I'd assembled piece by piece once they cut through my wall they would have to cut through the cage too but this would buy me only five or six extra minutes at the most then they would be inside I'd heard that drop cops have a nickname for this procedure cutting an indent out of a fortif ified resident so they could arrest him they called it doing a C-section I dry swallowed two of the anti-anxiety pills I had ordered in the preparation for this day I had already taken two earlier that morning but they didn't seem to be working inside the Oasis I closed all the windows on my display and set my account security level to maximum then I pulled up the scoreboard just to check it one last time and reassure myself that nothing had changed and that the Sixers still hadn't won the Top 10 rankings had been static for several days now in first place was Artemis followed by myself then sarento H then three unnamed ioi employees shotto and another two suor emis H and shotto had all cleared the second gate and obtained the Crystal Key within 48 Hours of receiving my email when Artemis received the $25,000 points for reaching the Crystal Key it had put her back in first place due to the point bonuses she'd already received for finding the Jade key first and the copper key second Artemis H and shotto had all tried to contact me since receiving my email but I hadn't answered any of their phone calls emails or chat requests I saw no reason to tell them what I intended to do they couldn't do anything to help me and would probably just try to talk me out of it there was no turning back now anyway I closed the scoreboard and took a long look around my stronghold wondering if it was for the last time then I took several quick deep breaths like a deep sea diver preparing to submerge and tap the log out icon on my display the Oasis vanished and my avatar reappeared inside my Virtual Office a standalone simulation stored on my console's hard drive I opened a console window and keyed in the command word to activate my computer's self-destruct sequence storm a progress meter appeared on my display showing that my hard drive was now being zeroed out and wiped clean goodbye Max I whispered Wade Max said just a few seconds before he was deleted sitting in my haptic chair I could already feel the heat coming from the other side of the room when I pulled off my visor I saw smoke pouring in through the holes being cut in the door and the wall it was starting to get too thick for my apartment's purifiers to handle I began to cough the drop cop working on my door finished cutting his hole the smoking circle of metal fell to the floor with a heavy metallic boom that made me jump in my chair as the welder stepped back another drop cop stepped forward and used a small canister to spray some some sort of freezing foam around the edge of the hole cooling off the metal so they wouldn't burn themselves when they crawled inside which was what they were about to do clear one of them shouted from out in the hallway no visible weapons one of the stun gun wielding drop cops climbed through the hole first suddenly he was standing right in front of me his weapon leveled at my face don't move he shouted or you get the juice understand I nodded that yes I understood it occurred to me then that this cop was the first visitor I'd ever had in my apartment in all the time I'd lived there the second drop cop to crawl inside wasn't nearly as polite without a word he walked over and jammed a ball gag in my mouth this was standard procedure because they didn't want me to issue any more voice commands to my computer they needn't have bothered the moment the first drop cop had entered my apartment an incend device had detonated inside my computer it was already melting to slag when the drop cop finished strapping on the bul egg he grabbed me by the exoskeleton of my haptic suit yanked me out of my haptic chair like a rag doll and threw me on the floor the other drop cop hit the kill switch that opened my War door and the last two drop cops rushed in followed by Wilson the suit I curled into a ball on the floor and closed my eyes I started to shake involuntarily I tried to prepare myself for what I knew was about to happen next they were going to take me outside Mr Lynch Wilson said smiling I hereby place you under corporate arrest he turned to the drop cops tell the repo team to come on up and clear this place out he glanced around the room and noticed the thin line of smoke now pouring out of my computer he looked at me and shook his head that was stupid we could have sold that computer to help pay down your debt I couldn't reply around the ball gegg so I just Shrugged and gave him the finger they tore off my haptic suit and left it for the repo team I was totally naked underneath they gave me a disposable slate gray jumpsuit to put on with matching plastic shoes the suit felt like sandpaper and it began to make me itch as soon as I put it on they'd cuffed my hands so it wasn't easy scratch they dragged me out into the Hall the harsh fluorescence sucked the color out of everything and made it look like an old black and white film as we rode the elevator down to the lobby I hummed along with the musac as loudly as I could to show them I wasn't afraid when one of the drop cops waved his stun gun at me I stopped they put a hooded winter coat on me in the lobby they didn't want me catching pneumonia now that I was company property a human resource then they led me outside and sunlight hit my face for the first time in over a year it was snowing and everything was covered in a thin layer of gray ice and slush I didn't know what the temperature was but I couldn't remember ever feeling so cold the wind cut right to my bones they herded me over to the transport truck two new indents already sat in the Back strapped into plastic seats both wearing visors people they'd arrested earlier that morning the drop cops were like garbage collectors making their daily rounds the indent on my right was a tall thin guy probably a few years older than me he looked like he might be suffering from malnutrition the other indent was morbidly obese and I couldn't be sure of the person's gender I decided to think of him as male his face was obscured by a mop of dirty blonde hair and something that looked like a gas mask covered his nose and mouth a thick black tube ran from the mask down to a nozzle on the floor I wasn't sure of its purpose until he lurched forward drawing his restraints tight and vomited into the mask I heard a vacuum activate sucking the indents regurgitated Oreos down the tube and into the floor I wondered if they stored it in an external tank or just dumped it on the street probably a tank ioi would probably have his vomit analyzed and put the results in his file you feel sick one of the drop cops asked as he removed my ball gag tell me now and I'll put a mask on you I I feel great I said not very convincingly okay but if I have to clean up your puke I'll make sure you regret it they shoved me inside and strapped me down directly across from the skinny guy two of the drop cops climbed into the back with us stowing their plasma welders in a locker the other two slammed the rear doors and climbed into the cab up front as we pulled away from my apartment complex I craned my neck to look through the transport's tinted rear windows up at the building where I lived for the past year I was able to spot my window up on the 42nd Floor because it was spray painted with black glass the repo team was probably already up there by now all of my my gear was being disassembled inventoried tagged boxed and prepared for auction once they finished emptying out my apartment custodial Bots would scour and disinfect it a repair crew would patch the outer wall and replace the door ioi would be build and the cost of the repairs would be added to my outstanding debt to the company by midafternoon the lucky Gunter who was next on the apartment building's waiting list would get get a message informing him that a unit had opened up and by this evening the new tenant would probably already be moved in by the time the sun went down all evidence that I'd ever lived there would be totally erased as the transport swung out onto High Street I heard the tires Crunch and the salt crystals covering the Frozen asphalt one of the drop cops reached over and slapped a visor on my face I found myself sitting on a Sandy white Beach watching ing the sunset while waves crashed in front of me this must be the simulation they used to keep indents calm during the ride downtown using my cuffed hand I pushed the visor up onto my forehead the drop cops didn't seem to care or pay me any notice at all so I craned my head again to stare out the window I hadn't been out here in the real world for a long time and I wanted to see how it had changed chapter 29 a thick film of neglect still covered everything in sight the streets the buildings the people even the snow seemed dirty it drifted down in Gray flakes like ash after a volcanic eruption the number of homeless people seemed to have increased drastically tents and cardboard structures lined the streets and the the public parks I saw seemed to have been converted into refugee camps as the transport rolled deeper into the city's skyscraper core I saw people clustered on every street corner and in every vacant lot huddled around burning barrels and portable fuel cell heaters others waited in line at the free solar charging stations wearing bulky outdated visors and haptic gloves their hands made small ghost gestures as they interacted with the far more pleasant reality of the Oasis via one of gss's free wireless access points finally we reached 101 iioi Plaza in the heart of downtown I stared out the window in silent apprehension as the corporate headquarters of innovative online Industries Incorporated came into view two rectangular skyscrapers flanking a circular one forming the II corporate logo the ioi skyscrapers were the three tallest buildings in the city Mighty towers of Steel and mirrored glass joined by connective walkways and elevator trams the top of each Tower disappeared into the sodium vapor drenched Cloud layer above the buildings looked identical to their headquarters in the Oasis on ii1 but here in the real world they seemed much more impressive the transport rolled into a parking garage at the base of the circular Tower and descended a series of concrete ramps until we arrived in a large open area resembling a loading dock a sign over a row of wide bay doors read ioi indentured employee induction Center the other indents and I were hered off the transport where a squad of stun gun armed security guards was waiting to take custody of us our handcuffs were removed then another guard began to swipe each of us with a handheld retinal scanner I held my breath as he held the scanner up to my eyes a second later the unit beeped and he read off the information on its display Lynch Bryce age 22 FSE citizen ship no criminal record credit default indenturement he nodded to himself and tapped a series of icons on his clipboard then I was led into a warm brightly lit room filled with hundreds of other new dense they were all shuffling through a maze of guide ropes like weary overgrown children at some nightmarish amusement park there seemed to be an equal number of men and women but it was hard to tell because nearly everyone shared my pale complexion and total lack of body hair and we all wore the same gray jumpsuits and gray plastic shoes we looked like extras from THX 1138 the line fed into a series of security checkpoints at the first checkpoint each indent was given a thorough scan with a brand new meta detector to make sure they weren't hiding any electronic devices on or in their persons while I waited for my turn I saw several people pulled out of line when the scanner found a subcutaneous mini computer or a voice controlled phone installed as a tooth replacement they were led into another room to have the devices removed by force a dude just ahead of me in line actually had a top-of-the-line miniature sinatro Oasis console concealed inside a prosthetic testicle talk about balls once I cleared a few more checkpoints I was ushered into the testing area a giant room filled with hundreds of small soundproof cubicles I was seated in one of them and given a cheap visor and an even cheaper pair of haptic gloves the gear didn't give me access to the Oasis but I still found it comforting to put on I was then given a battery of increasingly difficult aptitude tests intended to measure my knowledge and abilities in every area that might conceivably be of use to my new employer these tests were of course cross referenced with the fake educational background and work history that I'd given to my bogus Bryce Lynch identity I made sure to a all of the test tests on Oasis software hardware and networking but I intentionally failed the tests designed to gauge my knowledge of James Halliday and the Easter egg I definitely didn't want to get placed in ioi Zoology division there was a chance I might run into sarento there I didn't think he'd recognize me we never actually met in person and now I barely resembled my old school photo ID but I didn't want to risk it I was already tempted fate more than anyone in their right mind ever would hours later when I finally finished the last exam I was logged into a virtual chat room to meet with an enterment counselor her name was Nancy and in a hypnotic monotone she informed me that due to my exemplary test scores and impressive employment record I had been awarded the position of Oasis technical support representative 2 I would be paid 28,500 $ a year minus the cost of my housing meals taxes Medical Dental Optical and Recreation services all of which would be deducted automatically from my pay my remaining income if there was any would be applied to my outstanding debt to the company once my debt was paid in full I would be released from enterment at that time based on my job performance it was possible I would be offered a permanent position position with II this was a complete joke of course indents were never able to pay off their debt and earn their release once they got finished slapping you with pay deductions late fees and interest penalties you wound up owing them more each month instead of less once you made the mistake of getting yourself indentured you would probably remain indentured for Life a lot of people didn't seem to mind this though they thought of it as job security if also meant they weren't going to starve or freeze to death in the streets my indenturement contract appeared in a window on my display it contained a long list of disclaimers and warnings about my rights or lack thereof as an indentured employee Nancy told me to read it sign it and proceed to indent processing then she logged out of the chat room I scrolled to the bottom of the contract without bothering to read it it was over 600 pages long I signed the name Bryce Lynch then verified my signature with a retinal scan even though I was using a fake name I wondered if the contract might still be legally binding I wasn't sure and I didn't really care I had a plan and this was part of it they led me down another Corridor into the indenturement processing area I was placed on a conveyor belt that carried me through a long series of stations first they took my jumpsuit and shoot and incinerated them then they ran me through a kind of human car wash a series of machines that soaped scrubbed disinfected rinsed dried and deloused me afterward I was given a new gray jumpsuit and another pair of plastic slippers at the next station a bank of machines gave me a complete physical including a battery of blood tests luckily the genetic Privacy Act made it illegal for II to sample my DNA then I was given a series of inoculations with an array of automated needle guns that shot me in both shoulders and both ass cheeks simultaneously as I inched forward along the conveyor flat screen monitors mounted overhead showed the same 10-minute training film over and over on an endless loop indentured servitude your fast track from debt to success the cast was made up of d-list television stars who cheer spouted corporate propaganda while relating the minuche of II's and detriment policy after five viewings I had every line of the damn thing memorized by the 10th viewing I was mouthing the words along with the actors what can I expect after I complete my initial processing and get placed in my permanent position asked Johnny the training film's main character you can expect to spend the rest of your life as a corporate slave Johnny I thought but but I kept watching as once again The Helpful ioi Human Resources rep pleasantly told Johnny all about the day-to-day life of an indent finally I reached the last station where a machine fitted me with a security anklet a padded metal band that locked around my ankle just above the joint according to the training film this device monitored my physical location and also granted or denied me access to different areas of the II office complex if I tried to escape remove the anklet or cause trouble of any kind the device was capable of delivering a paralyzing electrical shock if necessary it could also administer a heavyduty tranquilizer directly into my bloodstream after the anklet was on another machine clamped a small electronic device onto my left ear piercing it in two locations I winced in pain and shouted a stream of profanity I knew from the training film that I'd just been fitted with an O ooc stood for observation and communication tag but most indents just referred to it as ear gear it reminded me of the tags environmentalists used to put on endangered animals to track their movements in the wild the ear gear contained a tiny Comm link that allowed the main ioi Human Resources computer to make announcements and issue commands directly into my ear it also contained a tiny forward-looking camera that led ioi supervisors see whatever was directly in front of me surveillance cameras were mounted in every room in the ioi complex but apparently that wasn't enough they also had to mount a camera to the side of every indent head a few seconds after my ear gear was attached and activated I began to hear the Placid monotone of the HR Mainframe droning in struct s and other information The Voice drove me nuts at first but I gradually got used to it I didn't have much Choice as I stepped off the conveyor the HR computer directed me to a nearby cafeteria that looked like something out of an old prison movie I was given a lime green tray of food a tasteless soy Burger a lump of runny mashed potatoes and some unrecognizable form of cobbler for dessert I devoured all of it in a few few minutes the HR computer complimented me on my healthy appetite then it informed me that it was now permitting me to make a 5minute visit to the bathroom when I came out I was directed onto an elevator with no buttons or floor indicator when the door slid open I saw the following stencl on the wall indent Hab block 05 Tech Stop reps I shoveled off the elevator and down the carpeted hallway it was quiet and dark the only illumination came from small path lighting embedded in the floor I lost track of the time it seemed like days had passed since I'd been pulled out of my apartment I was dead on my feet your first technical support shift begins in 7 hours the HR computer Dron softly in my ear you have until then to sleep turn left at the intersection in front of you and proceed to your assigned Hab unit number 42g I continue to do as I was told I thought I was already getting pretty good at it the hab block reminded me of a mausoleum it was a network of vaulted hallways each lined with coffin-shaped sleeping capsules row after row of them stacked to the ceiling 10 high each column of Hab units was numbered and the door of each capsule was lettered a through J with Unit A at the bottom I eventually reached my unit near the top of column number 42 as I approached it the hatch irised open with a hiss and a soft blue light winked on inside I ascended the narrow AIS ladder mounted between the adjacent rows of capsules then stepped on to the short platform beneath the hatch to my unit when I climbed inside the capsule the platform retracted and the hatch Iris shut at my feet the inside of my Hab unit was an eggshell white injection molded plastic coffin a meter high a meter wide and 2 m long the floor of the capsule was covered with a gel foam mattress pad and pillow they both smelled like burned rubber so I assumed they must be new in addition to the camera attached to the side of my head there was a camera mounted above the door of my Hab unit the company didn't bother hiding it they wanted their indents to know they were being watched the unit's only amenity was the entertainment console a large flat touchscreen built into the wall a wireless visor was snapped into a holder beside it I ta the touch screen activating the unit my new employee number and position appeared at the top of the display Lynch Bryce T Oasis Tech rep 2 II employee number 33864 a menu appeared below listing the entertainment programming to which I presently had access it took only a few seconds to peruse my limited options I could view only one channel iy n the company's 24-hour News Network it provided a Non-Stop stream of company related news and propaganda I also had access to a library of training films and simulations most of which were geared toward my new position as an oasis technical support representative when I tried to access one of the other entertainment libraries vintage movies the system informed me that I wouldn't be granted access to a wider selection of entertainment options until I had received an above average rating in three consecutive employee performance reviews then the system asked me if I wanted more information on the indentured employee entertainment reward program I didn't the only TV show I had access to was a company produced sitcom called Tommy Q the synopsis said it was a wacky situation comedy chronicling the Misadventures of Tommy a newly indentured Oasis Tech rep struggling to achieve his goals of financial Independence and on the job Excellence I selected the first episode of Tommy Q then unsnapped the visor and put it on as I expected the show was really just a training film with a laugh track I had absolutely no interest in it I just wanted to go to sleep but I knew I was being watched and that every move I made was being scrutinized and logged so I stayed awake as long as I could ignoring one episode of Tommy Q after another despite my best efforts my thoughts drifted to emus regardless of what I'd been telling myself I knew she was the real reason I'd gone through with this lunatic plan what the hell was wrong with me there was a good chance I might never escape from this place I felt buried under an avalanche of self-doubt had my dual obsessions with the egg and emis finally driven me completely insane why would I take such an idiotic risk to win over someone I'd never actually met someone who appeared to have no interest in ever talking to me again where was she right now did she miss me I continued to mentally torture myself until I finally drifted off to sleep Chapter 30 I's technical support call center occupied three entire floors of the headquarters Eastern eye-shaped Tower each of these floors contained a maze of numbered cubicles mine was stuck back in a remote Corner Far From Any Windows my cubicle was completely empty except for an adjustable office chair chair bolted to the floor several of the cubicles around me were unoccupied awaiting the arrival of other new indents I wasn't permitted to have any decorations in my cubicle because I hadn't earned that privilege yet if I obtained a significant number of perk points by getting high productivity and customer approval ratings I could spend some of them to purchase the privilege of decorating my Cube perhaps with a potted plant or an inspirational poster of a kitten hanging from a clothes line when I arrived in my cubicle I grabbed my company issued visor and gloves from the rack on the bare Cube wall and put them on then I collapsed into my chair my work computer was built into the chair's circular base and it activated itself automatically when I sat down my employee ID was verified and I was automatically logged into my work account on the ioi internet I wasn't allowed to have any outbound access to the Oasis all I could really do was read work related emails view the support documentation and procedural manuals and check my call time statistics that was it and every move I made on the internet was closely monitored controlled and logged I put myself in the co que and began my 12-hour workshift I'd been an indent for only 8 days now but already it felt like I'd been imprisoned here for years the first caller Avatar appeared in front of me in my support chat room his name and stats also appeared floating in the air above him he had the astoundingly clever name of hotc 007 I could see that it was going to be another fabulous day hotc 007 was a hulking bald Barbarian with studded black leather armor and lots of demon tattoos covering his arms and face he was holding a gigantic Bastard Sword nearly twice as long as his Avatar's body good morning Mr hotc 007 I droned thank you for calling Technical Support I'm Tech R number 3 38645 how may I help you this evening the customer courtesy software filtered my voice altering its tone and inflection to ensure I always sounded cheerful and upbeat uh yeah hotc 007 began I just bought this badass sword and now I can't even use it I can't even attack nothing with it what the hell is wrong with this piece of is it broke sir the only problem is that you're complete I said I heard a familiar warning buzzer and a message flashed on my display courtesy violation Flags comma last response muted violation law II's patented customer courtesy software had detected the inappropriate nature of my response and muted it so the customer didn't hear what IID said the software also logged my courtesy violation and forwarded it to Trevor my section supervisor so that he could bring it up during my next bi-weekly performance review sir did you purchase the sword in an online auction yeah hotc 007 replied I paid out the ass for it too just a moment sir while I examine the item I already knew what his problem was but I needed to make sure before telling him or I'd get hit with a fine I tapped the sword with my index finger selecting it a small window opened and displayed the items properties the answer was right there on the first line this particular magic sword could only be used by an avatar who was 10th level or higher Mr hotc double 7 was only seventh level I quickly explained this to him what that ain't Fair the guy who sold it to me didn't say nothing about that sir it's always advisable to make sure your avatar can actually use an item before you purchase it God damn it he shouted well what am I supposed to do with it now you could shove it up your ass and pretend you're a corn dog courtesy violation response muted violation logged I tried again sir you might want to keep the item stored in your inventory until your avatar has attained 10th level or you may wish to put the item back up for auction yourself and use the proceeds to purchase a similar weapon one with a power level commen your it to that of your avatar huh hotc 007 responded what do you mean save it or sell it oh can I help you with anything else today sir no I don't guess great thank you for calling technical support have an outstanding day I taed the disconnect icon on my display and hotc 7 vanished call time 2 minutes 7 Seconds as the next customer's Avatar appeared a red-skinned large breasted alien female named VX the customer satisfaction rating that hotc 007 had just given me appeared on my display play it was a six out of a possible score of 10 the system then helpfully reminded me that I needed to keep my average score above 8.5 if I wanted to get a raise after my next review doing tech support here was nothing like working from home here I couldn't watch movies play games or listen to music while I answered the endless stream of Bain calls the only distraction was staring at the clock or the ioi stock ticker which was always at the top of every indents display you couldn't get rid of it during each shift I was given three5 minute restroom breaks lunch was 30 minutes I usually ate in my cubicle instead of the cafeteria so I wouldn't have to listen to the other Tech reps about their calls or boast about how many perk points they'd earned I'd grown to despise the other indents almost as much as the customers I fell asleep five separate times during my shift each time when the system saw that I drifted off it sounded a warning claxson in my ears jolting me back awake then it noted the infraction in my employee data file my narcolepsy had become such a consistent problem during my first week that I now was being issued two little red pills each day to help me stay awake I took them too but not until after I got off work when my shift finally ended I ripped off my headset and visor and walked back to my Hab unit as quickly as I could this was the only time each day I ever hurried anywhere when I reached my tiny plastic coffin I crawled inside and collapsed on the mattress face down in the same exact position as the night before and the night before that I lay there for a few minutes staring at the time readout on my entertainment console out of the corner of my eye when it reached 7 07 p.m. I rolled over and sat up lights I said softly this had become my favorite word over the past week in my mind it had become synonymous with freedom the lights embedded in the Shell of my Hab unit shut off plunging the tiny compartment Into Darkness if someone had been watching either of my Live security vid feeds they would have seen a brief flash as the cameras switched to night vision mode then I would have been clear cly visible on their monitors once again but thanks to some sabotage I'd performed earlier in the week the security cameras in my Hab unit and my ear gear were now no longer performing their assigned tasks so for the first time that day I wasn't being watched that meant it was time to rock I tapped the entertainment center consol's touch screen it lit up presenting me with the same choices I'd had on my first night here a handful of training films and simulations including the complete run of Tommy Q episodes if anyone checked the usage logs for my entertainment center they would show that I watched Tommy Q every night until I fell asleep and that once I'd worked my way through all 16 episodes I'd started over at the beginning the logs would also show that I fell asleep at roughly the same time every night but not at exactly the same time time and that I slept like the dead until the following morning when my alarm sounded of course I hadn't really been watching their inaine corporate shitcom every night and I wasn't sleeping either I'd actually been operating on about 2 hours of sleep at night for the past week and it was beginning to take its toll on me but the moment the lights in my Hab unit went out I felt energized and wide awake my exhaustion seemed to vanish as I began to navigate through the entertainment center operation menus from memory the fingers of my right hand dancing rapidly across the touch screen about 7 months earlier I'd obtained a set of ioi Internet passwords from the lead hacko Warehouse the same black market data auction site where I'd purchase the information needed to create a new identity I kept an eye on all the black market data sites because you never knew what might be up for sale on them Oasis server exploits ATM hacks celebrity sex tapes you name it I'd been browsing through the lead hackurus Warehouse auction listings when one in particular caught my eye ioi internet access passwords back doors and system exploits the seller claimed to be offering classified proprietary information on iois internet architecture along with a series of administrative access codes and system exploits that could give a user cart blanch inside the company Network I would have assumed the data was bogus if it had not been listed on such a respected site the anonymous seller claimed to be a former ioi contract programmer and one of the lead architects of its company internet he was probably a turncoat a programmer who intentionally coded back doors and security holes into a system he designed so that he could later sell them on the black market it it allowed him to get paid for the same job twice and to Salve any guilt he felt about working for a demonic multinational corporation like ioi the obvious problem which the seller didn't bother to point out in the auction listing was that these codes were useless unless you already had access to the company internet ioi's internet was a high security Standalone network with no direct connection to the Oasis the only way to gain access to II's internet was to become one of their legitimate employees very difficult and timeconsuming or you could join the company's ever growing ranks of indentured servants I had decided to bid on the ioi access codes anyway on the off chance that they might come in handy someday since there was no way to verify the data's authenticity the bidding stayed low and I won the auction for a few thousand credits the codes arrived in my inbox a few minutes after until the auction ended once I'd finished decrypting the data I examined it all thoroughly everything looked legit so I filed the info away for a rainy day and forgot about it until about 6 months later when I saw the sixer barricade around Castle anarak the first thing I thought of was the II access codes then the wheels in my head began to turn and my ridiculous plan began to take shape I would alter the financial records on my bogus Bryce Lynch identity and allow myself to become indentured by ioi once I infiltrated the building and got behind the company firewall I would use the Internet passwords to hack into the Sixers private database then figure a way to bring down the shield they directed over anara Castle I didn't think anyone would anticipate this move because it was so clearly insane I didn't test the II passwords until the second night of my indenturement I was understandably anxious because if it turned out I'd been sold bogus data and none of the passwords worked I would have sold myself into lifelong slavery with no chance of Escape keeping my ear gear camera pointed straight ahead away from the screen I pulled up the entertainment consoles viewer settings menu which allowed me to make adjustments to the displays audio and video output volume and balance brightness and hint I cranked each option up to its highest setting then tapped the apply button at the bottom of the screen three times I set the volume and brightness controls to their lowest settings and tapped the apply button again a small window appeared in the center of the screen prompting me for a maintenance tech ID number and access password I quickly entered the ID number and the long alpha numeric password that I had memorized I checked both for errors out of the corner of my my eye then to my great relief the following message appeared maintenance control panel access granted I now had access to a maintenance service account designed to allow repairmen to test and debug the entertainment units various components I was now logged in as a technician but my access to the internet was still pretty limited still it gave me all the Elbow Room I needed using an exploit key left by one of the programmers I was now able to create a bogus admin account once that was set up I had access to just about everything my first order of business was to get some privacy I quickly navigated through several dozen submenus until I reached the control panel for the indent monitoring system when I entered my employee number my indent profile appeared on the display along with a mug shot theyd taken of me during my initial processing the profile listed my indent account balance pay grade blood type current performance review rating every scrap of data the company had on me at the top right of my profile were two vid feed Windows one fed by the camera in my ear gear the other linked to the camera in my Hab unit my ear gear vid feed was currently aimed at a section of the wall the hab unit camera window showed a view of the back of my head which I had positioned to block the entertainment mment centers display screen I selected both vid feed cameras and accessed their configuration settings using one of the turn coats exploits I performed a quick hack that caused my ear gear and habun cameras to display the archived video for my first night of IND detriment instead of a live feed now if someone checked my camera feeds they'd see me lying asleep in my Hab unit not sitting up all night furiously hacking my way through the company internet then I programmed the cameras to switch to the pre-recorded feeds whenever I shut out the lights in my Hab unit the split-second jump cut in the feed would be masked by the momentary video Distortion that occurred when the camera switched into night vision mode I kept expecting to be discovered and locked out of the system but it never happened my passwords continued to work I'd spent the past six nights laying Siege to the ioi internet digging deeper and deeper into the network I felt like a convict in an old prison movie returning to my cell each night to Tunnel through the wall with a teaspoon then last night just before I'd succumb to exhaustion I'd finally managed to navigate my way through the internet's Labyrinth of firewalls and into the main uy division database the mother load the Sixers private file pile and tonight I would finally be able to explore it I knew that I needed to be able to take some of the Sixers data with me when I escaped so earlier in the week I used my internet admin account to submit a bogus Hardware requisition form I had had a zetabyte flash drive delivered to a non-existent employee Sam Lowry in an empty cubicle a few rows away from my own making sure to keep my ear gear camera pointed in the other direction I ducked into the cube grabbed the tiny Dr Drive pocketed it and smuggled it back to my Hab unit that night after I shut off the lights and disabled the security cameras I unlocked my entertainment units maintenance access panel and installed the flash drive into an expansion slot used for firmware upgrades now I could download data from the internet directly to that drive I put on the entertainment center visor and gloves then stretched out on my mattress the visor presented me with a three-dimensional view of the Sixers database with dozens of overlapping data Windows suspended in front of me using my gloves I began to manipulate these windows navigating my way through the databases file structure the largest section of the database appeared to be devoted to information on holiday the amount of data they had on him was staggering it made my Grail diary look like a set of cliffnotes they had things I had never seen things I didn't even know existed holiday's grade school report cards home movies from his childhood emails he'd written to fans I didn't have time to read over it all but I copied the really interesting stuff over to my flash drive to hopefully study later I focused on isolating the data related to Castle anarak and the forces the Sixers had positioned in and around it I copied all of the intel on their weapons vehicles gunships and Troop numbers I also snagged all of the data I could find on the orb of oox the artifact they were using to generate the shield around the castle including exactly where they were keeping it and the employee number of the sixer wizard they had operating it then I hit the jackpot a folder containing hundreds of hours of Oasis simap recordings documenting the Sixers initial discovery of the third gate and their subsequent attempt s to open it as everyone now suspected the third gate was located inside Castle anarak only avatars who possessed a copy of the Crystal Key could cross the threshold of the Castle's front entrance to my disgust I learned that sento had been the first avatar to set foot inside castle anarak since holiday's death the castle entrance led into a massive foyer whose walls floors and ceilings were all made of gold at the North End of the chamber a large Crystal Door was set into the wall it had a small Keyhole at its very center the moment I saw it I knew I was looking at the third gate I fast forwarded through several other recent simap files from what I could tell the Sixers still hadn't figured out how to open the gate simply inserting the Crystal Key into the keyhole had no effect they'd had their entire team trying to figure out why for several days now now but still hadn't made any progress while the data and video on the third gate was copying over to my flash drive I continued to delve deeper into the sixer database eventually I uncovered a restricted area called the Star Chamber it was the only area of the database I couldn't seem to access so I used my admin ID to create a new test account then gave that account super user access and full administrator privilege it worked and I was granted access the information inside the restricted area was divided into two folders mission status and thread assessment I opened the thread assessment folder first and when I saw what was inside I felt the blood drain from my face there were five folders labeled paral Artemis H Sho and daato Dao's folder had a large red X over it I I opened the parz folder first a detailed dossier appeared containing all of the information the Sixers had collected on me over the past few years my birth certificate my school transcripts at the bottom there was a link to a Sim cap of my entire chatlink session with sarento ending with the bomb detonating in my ant's trailer after I'd gone into hiding they lost track of me they had collected thousands of screenshots and vidcaps of my Avatar over the past year and loads of data on my stronghold on felco but they didn't know anything about my location in the real world my current whereabouts were listed as unknown I closed the window took a deep breath and open the file on Artemis at the very top was a school photo of a young girl with a distinctly sad smile to my surprise she looked almost identical to her Avatar the same dark hair the same hazel eyes and the same beautiful face I knew so well with one small difference most of the left half of her face was covered with a reddish purple birth mark I would later learn that these types of birth marks were sometimes referred to as port wine stains in the photo she wore a sweep of her dark hair down over her left eye to try to conceal the mark as much as possible Artemis had led me to believe that in reality she was somehow hideous but now I saw that nothing could have been further from the truth to my eyes the birthmark did absolutely nothing to diminish her beauty if anything the face I saw on the photo seemed even more beautiful to me than that of her Avatar because I knew this one was real the data below the photo said that her real name was Samantha Evelyn cook that she was a 20-year-old Canadian citizen 5' 7 in tall and that she paid 168 lb the file also contained her home address 2206 Green Leaf Lane Vancouver British Columbia along with a lot of other information including her blood type and her school transcripts going all the way back to kindergarten I found an unlabeled video link at the bottom of her dossier and when I selected it a live vid feed of a small suburban house appeared on my display after a few seconds I realized I was looking at the house where emis lived as I dug further into her file I learned that they'd had her under surveillance for the past 5 months they had her house bugged too because I found hundreds of hours of audio recordings made while she was logged into the oasis they had complete text transcripts of every audible word she'd spoken while clearing the first two gates I opened shoto's file next they knew his real name akah karatu and they also appeared to have his home address an apartment building in Osaka Japan his file also contained a school photo showing a thin stoic boy with a shaved head like Dao he looked nothing like his Avatar H seemed to be the one they knew the least about his file contained very little information and no photo just a screenshot of his Avatar his real name was listed at as Henry Swanson but that was an alias used by Jack Burton in Big Trouble in Little China so I knew it must be a fake his address was listed as mobile and below it there was a link labeled recent access points this turned out to be a list of the wireless node locations H had recently used to access his Oasis account they were all over the place Boston Washington DC new New York City Philadelphia and most recently Pittsburgh now I began to understand how the Sixers had been able to locate emis and shotto II owned hundreds of regional telecom companies effectively making them the largest internet service provider in the world it was pretty difficult to get online without using a network they owned and operated from the looks of it II had been illegally eavesdropping on most of the world's internet traffic in an attempt to locate and identify the handful of gunters they considered to be a threat the only reason they hadn't been able to locate me was because I'd taken the paranoia induced precaution of leasing a direct fiber optic connection to the Oasis from my apartment complex I closed H's file then opened the folder labeled dto already dreading what I might find there like the others they had his real name toshiro yoshiaki and his home address two news articles about his suicide were linked at the bottom of his dossier along with an unlabeled video clip timestamped on the day he died I clicked on it it was handheld video camera footage showing three large Men In Black ski masks one of whom was operating the camera waiting silently in a hallway they appeared to receive an order via their radio earpieces then used a key card to open the door of a tiny one room apartment Dao's apartment I watched in horror as they rushed in yanked him out of his haptic chair and threw him off of the balcony the bastards even filmed him plummeting screaming to his death probably at sarento's request a wave of nausea washed over me when it finally passed I copied the contents of all five dossier over to my flash drive then opened the mission status folder it appeared to contain an archive of the uy division Stannis reports intended for the sers top brass the reports were arranged by date with the most recent one listed first when I opened it I saw that it was a directive memo sent from Nolan sento to the II Board of Executives in it sento proposed sending agents to abduct Artemis and shotto from their homes to force them to help II open the third gate once the Sixers had obtained the egg and won the contest emis and shotto would be disposed of I sat there and stunned silence then I read the memo again feeling a combination of rage and panic according to the timestamp serento had sent the memo just after 8:00 less than 5 hours ago so his superiors probably hadn't even seen it yet when they did they would still want to me to discuss sento's suggested course about action so they probably wouldn't send their agents after emis and shotto until sometime tomorrow I still had time to warn them but to do that I would have to drastically alter my Escape Plan before my arrest I'd set up a timed funds transfer that would deposit enough money in my ioi credit account to pay off my entire debt forcing II to release me from enterment but that transfer wouldn't happen for another 5 Days by then the Sixers would probably have Artemis and shotto locked in a windowless room somewhere I couldn't spend the rest of the week exploring the sixer database like I'd planned I had to grab as much data as I could and make my Escape now I gave myself until dawn chapter 31 chapter 31 I worked frantically for the next 4 hours most of that time was spent copying as much data as possible from the sixer database to my stolen flash drive once that task was complete I submitted an executive uist Supply requisition order this was an online form that sixer commanders used to request weapons or equipment inside the Oasis I selected a very specific item then scheduled its delivery for noon 2 days from now when I finally finished it was 6:30 in the morning the next tech support shift change was now only 90 minutes away and my Hab unit neighbors would start waking up soon I was out of time I pulled up my indenturement profile accessed my debt statement and zeroed out my outstanding balance money I'd never actually borrowed to begin with then I selected the indentured servant observation and Communications tag control settings submenu which operated both my ear gear and security anklet finally I did something I'd been dying to do for the past week I disabled the Locking mechanisms on both devices I felt a sharp pain as the ear gear clamps retracted and pulled free of the cartilage on my left ear the device bounced off my shoulder and landed in my lap in the same instant the shackle on my right ankle clicked open and fell off revealing a band of a braided red skin I'd now passed the point of no turn ioi security Texs weren't the only ones who had access to my ear gears vid feed the indentured servant Protection Agency also used it to Monitor and record my daily activities to ensure that my human rights were being observed now that IID removed the device there would be no digital record of what happened to me from this moment forward if ioi security caught me before I made it out of the building carrying a stolen flash drive filled with highly incriminating company data I was dead the Sixers could torture and kill me and no one would ever know I performed a few final tasks related to my escape plan then logged out of the II internet for the last time I pulled off my visor end gloves and opened the maintenance access panel next to the entertainment center console there was a small empty space below the entertainment module between the prefab wall of my Hab unit and the one adjacent to it I removed the a thin neatly folded bundle light had hidden there it was a vacuum sealed ioi maintenance Tac uniform complete with a cap and ID badge like the flash drive I'd obtained these items by submitting an internet requisition form then had them delivered to an empty cubicle on my floor I pulled off my indent jumpsuit and used it to wipe the blood off my ear and neck then I removed two Band-Aids from under my mattress and slapped them over the holes in my ear lope once I was dressed in my new maintenance tech threads I carefully removed the flash drive from its expansion slot and pocketed it then I picked up my ear gear and spoke into it I need to use the bathroom I said the hab unit door irised open at my feet the hallway was dark and deserted I stuffed my ear gear and indent jumpsuit under the mattress and put the ank lid in the pocket of my new uniform then reminding myself to breathe I crawled outside and ascended the ladder I passed a few other indents on my way to the elevators but as usual none of them made eye contact this was a huge relief because I was worried somebody might recognize me and notice that I didn't belong in a maintenance Tac uniform when I stepped in front of the express elevator door I held my breath as the system scanned my maintenance tech ID badge after what felt like an eternity the door slid open good morning Mr Tuttle the elevator said as I stepped inside floor please Lobby I said hely and the elevator began to descend Harry Tuttle was the name printed on my maintenance tech ID badge I'd given the fictional Mr Tuttle complete access to the entire building then reprogrammed my indent anklet so that it was encoded with a Tuttle ID making it function just like one of the security bracelets that maintenance TCH worn when the doors and elevators scanned me to make sure I had the proper security clearance the anklet in my pocket told them that yes I sure did instead of doing what it was supposed to which was zap my ass with a few thousand volts and incapacitate me until the security guards arrived I rode the elevator down in silence trying not to stare at the camera mounted above the doors then I realized the video being shot of me would be scrutinized when all this was over sento himself would probably see it and so would his superiors so I looked directly into the lens of the camera smiled and scratched the bridge of my nose with my middle finger the elevator reached the lobby and the door slid open I half expected to find an army of security guards waiting for me outside their guns leveled at my face but there was only a crowd of II middle management drones waiting to get on the elevator I stared at them blankly for a second then stepped out of the car it was like crossing the border into another country a steady stream of over caffeinated office workers scurried across the lobby and in and out of the elevators and exits these were regular employees not indents they were allowed to go home at the end of their shifts they could even quit if they wanted to I wondered if it bothered any of them knowing that thousands of indentured slaves lived and toiled here in the same building just a few floors away from them I spotted two security guards stationed near the reception desk and gave them a wide birth weaving my way through the thick crowd crossing the immense Lobby to the long row of automatic glass doors that led outside to freedom I forced myself not to run as I pushed through the arriving workers just a maintenance tech here folks heading home after a long night of rebooting routers that's all I am definitely not an indent making a daring escape with 10 zettabytes of stolen company data in his pocket no sir halfway to the doors I noticed an odd sound and glanced down at my feet I was still wearing my disposable plastic indent slippers each footfall made a shrill squeak on the waxed marble floor standing out amid the rumble of sensible business Footwear every step I took seemed to scream hey look over here a guy wearing plastic slippers but I kept walking I was almost to the door as when someone placed a hand on my shoulder I froze sir I heard someone say it was a woman's voice I almost bolted out of the door but something about the woman's tone stopped me I turned and saw the concerned face of a tall woman in her mid-40s dark blue business suit briefcase sir your ear is bleeding she pointed at it wincing a lot I reached up and touched my earlobe and my hand came away red at some point the Bandaids i' had applied had fallen off I was paralyzed for a second unsure of what to do I wanted to give her an explanation but I couldn't think of one so I simply nodded muttered thanks then turned around and calmly as possible walked outside the Frozen morning wind was so Fierce that it nearly knocked me over when I re gained my balance I bounded down the teared steps pausing briefly to drop my anklet into a trash receptacle I heard it hit the bottom with a satisfying thud once I reached the street I headed north walking as fast as my feet would carry me I was somewhat conspicuous because I was the only person not wearing a coat of some kind my feet quickly went numb because I also wasn't wearing socks under my plastic indent slippers my entire body was shivering by the time I finally reached the warm confines of the mailbox a post office box rental Outlet located four blocks from the ioi plaza the week before my arrest ID rented a post office box here online and had a top-of-the-line portable Oasis rig shipped to it the mailbox was completely automated so there were no employes to contend with and when I walked in there were no customers either I located my box punched in the key code and retrieved the portable Oasis rig I sat down on the floor and ripped open the package right there I rubbed my frozen hands together until the feeling returned to my fingers then put on the gloves and visor and used the rig to log into the oasis gregarious simulation systems was located less than a mile away so I was able to use one of their complimentary wireless access points instead of one of the City nodes owned by ioi my heart was pounding as I logged in I'd been offline for eight whole days a personal record as my avatar slowly materialized on my strongholds observation deck I looked down at my virtual buddy admiring it like a favorite suit I hadn't worn in a while a window immediately appeared on my display informing me that I'd received several messages from H and shotto and to my my surprise there was even a message from Artemis all three of them wanted to know where I was and what the hell had happened to me I replied to Artemis first I told her that the Sixers knew who she was and where she lived and that they had her under constant surveillance I also warned her about their plans to abduct her from her home I pulled a copy of her dossier off the flash drive and attached it to my message as proof then I politely suggested that she leave home immediately and get the hell out of Dodge don't stop to pack a suitcase I wrote Don't say goodbye to anyone leave right now and get somewhere safe make sure you aren't followed then find a secure Noni controlled internet connection and get back online I'll meet you in H's basement as soon as I can don't worry I have some good news too at the bottom of the message I added a short postcript PS I think you look even more beautiful in real life I sent similar emails to Shoto and H minus the postcript of course along with copies of their sixer dossier then I pulled up the United States citizen registry database and attempted to log in to my great relief the passwords I'd purchased still worked and I was able to access the fake Bryce Lynch citizen profile I'd created it now contained the ID photo taken during my indent processing and the words wanted fugitive were superimposed over my face ioi had already reported Mr Lynch as an escaped indent it didn't take me very long to completely erase the Bryce Lynch identity and copy my fingerprints and retinal patterns back over to my original citizen profile when I logged out of the database a few minutes later Bryce Lynch no longer existed I was Wade Watts once again I hailed an autoab outside the mailbox making sure to select one operated by a local cab company and Nod a super cab which was a wholly owned subsidiary of ioi when I got in I held my breath as I pressed my thumb to the ID scanner the display flashed green the system recognized me as Wade Watts nod as The Fugitive indent Bryce Lynch good morning Mr Watts the autocab said where to I gave the cab the address of a clothing store on High Street close to the OSU campus it was a place called threads which specialized in high-tech Urban Street Wear I ran inside and bought a pair of jeans and a sweater both items were dichotomy wear meaning they were wired for Oasis use they didn't have haptics but the pants and shirts could link up with my portable immersion rig letting it know what I was doing with my torso arms and legs making it easier to control my avatar then with a gloves only interface I also bought a few packs of socks and underwear a simulated leather jacket a pair of boots and a black knit Wool Cap to cover my freezing stubble covered Noggin I emerged from the store a few minutes later dressed in my new threads as The Frigid wind enveloped me again I zipped up my new jacket and pulled on the Wool Cap much better I tossed the maintenance tech jumpsuit and and plastic indent shoes in a trash can then began to walk up High Street scanning the storefronts I kept my head down to avoid making eye contact with the stream of sullen University students filing past me a few blocks later I ducked into a vendol franchise inside there were rows of vending machines that sold everything under the sun one of them labeled defense dispenser offered self-defense equipment lightweight body armor chemical repellants and a wide selection of handguns I tapped the screen set into the front of the machine and scrolled through the catalog after a moment's deliberation I purchased a flak vest and a Glock 47c pistol along with three clips of ammo I also bought a small canister of Mace then paid for everything by pressing my right palm to a hand scanner my identity was verified and my criminal record was checked name Wade Watts outstanding warrants none credit rating excellent purchase restrictions none transaction approved thank you for your business I heard a heavy metallic thunk as my purchases slid into the steel tray near my knees I pocketed the mace and put the Flack vest on underneath my new shirt then I removed the Glock from its clear plastic blister packaging this was the first time I'd ever held a real gun even so the weapon felt familiar in my hands because I'd fired thousands of virtual firearms in the Oasis I pressed a small button set into the barrel and the gun emitted a tone I held the pistol grip firmly for a few seconds first in my right hand then my left the weapon emitted a second tone letting me know it had finished scanning my handprints I was now the only person who could fire it the weapon had a built-in timer that would prevent it from firing for another 12 hours a cooling off period but I still felt better having it on me I walked to an oasis parlor located a few blocks away a franchise Outlet called the plug the dingy back llit sign which featured a smiling anthropomorphic fiber optic cable promised lightning fast Oasis access cheap gear rental and private immersion Bays open 247365 I'd seen a lot of banner ads for the plug online they had a reputation for high prices and outdated Hardware but their connections were supposed to be fast reliable and leg free for me their major selling point was that they were one of the few Oasis parlor chains not owned by Ian or one of its subsidiaries the motion detector emitted a beep as I stepped through the front door there was a small waiting area off to my right currently empty the carpet was stained and worn and the whole place ReRe of industrial strength disinfectant a vacant eyed clerk glanced up at me from behind a bulletproof plexiglass barrier he was in his early 20s with a mohawk and dozens of facial piercings he was wearing in a bifocal visor which gave him a semi-transparent view of the Oasis while also allowing him to see his real world surroundings when he spoke I saw that his teeth had all been sharpened to points welcome to the plug he said in a flat monotone we have several Bays free so there's no waiting package pricing information is displayed right here he pointed to the display screen mounted on the counter directly in front of me then his eyes glazed over as he refocused his attention on the world inside of his visor I scanned my choices a dozen immersion rigs were available of varying quality and price economy standard Deluxe I was given detailed specs on each you could rent by the minute or pay a flat hourly rate a visor and a pair of haptic gloves were included in the rental price but a haptic suit cost extra the rental contract contained a lot of fine print about the additional charges you would incur if you damage the equipment and a lot of legal stating that the plug could not be held responsible for anything you did under any circumstances especially if it was something illegal I'd like to rent one of the deluxe rigs for 12 hours I said the clerk raised his visor you have to pay in advance you realize I nodded I also want to rent a fat pipe connection I to upload a large amount of data to my account uploading costs extra how much data 10 zettabytes damn he whispered what are you uploading the Library of Congress I ignored the question I also want the Mondo upgrade package I said sure thing the clerk replied wearily uh your total comes to 11,000 big ones just put your thumb on the drum and we'll get you all fixed up he looked more than a little surprised when the transaction cleared then he Shrugged and handed me a key card a viser and some gloves Bay 14 last door on your right the restroom is at the end of the hall if you leave any kind of mess in the bay we'll have to keep your deposit vomit urine CM that kind of thing and I'm the guy who has to clean it up so do do me a solid and show some restrain will you you got it I said and Die thanks Bay 14 was a soundproof 10x10 room with a late model haptic rig in the center I locked the door behind me and climbed into the rig the vinyl on the haptic chair was worn and cracked I slid the data drive into a slot on the front of the Oasis console and smiled as it locked into place Max I said to the empty air once I'd logged back in this booted up a backup of Max that I kept stored in my Oasis account Max's smiling face appeared on all of my command center monitors hey there Compadre he stuttered how goes it things are looking up pal now strap in we got a lot of work to do I opened up my Oasis account manager and initiated the upload from my flash drive I paid GSS a monthly fee for unlimited data storage on my account and I was about to test its limits even using the plugs high bandwidth fiber optic connection the total estimated upload time for 10 zaby of data was over 3 hours I reordered the upload sequence so the files I needed access to right away would get transferred first as soon as data was uploaded to my Oasis account I had immediate access to it and could transfer it to other users instantaneously first I emailed all of the major news feeds a detailed account of how II had tried to kill me how they had killed daato and how they were planning to kill emus and shotto I attached one of the video clips I'd retrieved from the sixer database to this message the camera footage of Dao's execution I also attached a copy of the memo sento had sent to the ioi board suggesting that they abduct emis and shto finally I attached the Sim cap of my chatlink session with sarento but I bleeped the part where he had said my name and blurred the image of my school photo I wasn't yet ready to reveal my true identity to the world I plan to release the unedited video later once the rest of my plan had played out then it wouldn't matter I spent about 15 minutes composing one last email which I addressed to every single Oasis user once I was happy with the wording I stored it in my drafts folder then I logged into H's basement when my avatar car appeared inside the chat room I saw chapter 32 z h shouted as my avatar appeared what the hell man where have you been I've been trying to reach you for over a week so have I Shoto added where were you and how did you get those files from the sixer database it's a long story I said first things first I addressed shotto and damus have you two left your home hom s they both nodded and you're each logged in from a safe location yes shotto said I'm in a manga Cafe right now and I'm at the Vancouver airport Artemis said it was the first time I'd heard her voice in months I'm logged in from a germ-ridden public Oasis Booth right now I ran out of my house with nothing but the clothes on my back so I hope that sixer data you sent us is legit it is I said trust me how can you be sure of that Shoto asked because I hacked into the sixer database and downloaded it myself they all stared at me in silence H raised an eyebrow and how exactly did you manage that Z I assumed a fake identity and masquerad as an indentured servant to infiltrate II's corporate headquarters I've been there for the past eight days and I just now escaped holy shto whispered seriously I nodded dude you have balls of solid adamantium H said respect thanks I think let's assume you're not totally bullshitting us emis said how does a lowly indent get access to secret sixer dossier files and Company memos I turned to faer indents have limited access to the company internet via their hunit entertainment system from behind the ioi firewall from there I was able used a series of back doors and system exploits left by the original programmers to Tunnel through the network and hack directly into the Sixers private database Sho looked at me in awe you did that all by yourself that is correct sir it's a miracle they didn't catch you and kill you aremis said why would you take such a stupid risk why do you think to try to find a way to get through their shield and reach the third gate I Shrugged it was the only plan I could come up with on such short notice z h said grinning you are one crazy son of a he walked over and gave me a high five but that's why I love you man emis scowled at me of course when you found out that they had secret files on each of us you just couldn't resist looking at them could you I had to look at them I said to find out how much they knew about each of us you would have done the same thing she leveled a finger at me no I wouldn't have I respect other people's privacy aremis chill out H interjected it probably saved your life you know she seemed to consider this fine forget it she said but I could tell she was still pissed off I didn't know what to say so I kept plowing forward I'm sending you each a copy of all the sixer data I smuggled out 10 zettabytes of it you should have it now I waited while each of them checked to their inbox the size of their database on holiday is unreal his whole life is in there they've collected interviews with everyone holiday ever knew it could take months to read through them all I waited for a few minutes watching their eyes scan over the data waa Sho said this is incredible he looked over at me how the hell did you escape from ioi with all this stuff by being extra sneaky of course H is Right aremis Said shaking her head you are certifiably nuts she hesitated for a second and then added thanks for the warning Z I owe you one I opened my mouth to say you're welcome but no words came out yes PTO said so do I thanks don't mention it guys I finally managed to say well hit us with a bad news already H said how close are the Sixers to clearing the third gate dig this I said grinning they haven't even figured out how to open it yet Artemis and Shoto stared at me in disbelief H smiled wide then began to Bob his head and press his palms to the sky as if dancing to some unheard RAV track oh yes oh yeah he sang you are kidding right shotto said I shook my head you're not kidding emis said how is that even possible sarento has the crystal key and he knows where the gate is all he has to do is open the damn thing and step inside right that was true for the first two gates I replied but gate three is different I opened a large bitfeed window in the air beside me check this out it's from the Sixers video archive it's a vidcap of their first attempt to open the gate I hit play the video clip opened with a shot of sento's Avatar standing outside the front Gates of Castle larak the Castle's front entrance which had been impregnable for so many years swung open as sarento approached like an automatic door at a supermarket the castle entrance will open for an avatar who holds a copy of the Crystal Key I explained if an avatar doesn't have a copy of the key he can't cross the threshold and enter the castle even if the doors are already open we all watched the vidcap as sento passed through the entrance and into the large large goldlined foyer that lay Beyond sento's Avatar crossed the polished floor and approached the large Crystal Door set into the north wall there was a keyhole in the very center of the door and directly above it three words were etched into the door's glittering faceted surface charity hope faith sarentos stepped forward holding out his copy of the Crystal Key he slid the key into the keyhole and turned it nothing happened sento glanced up at the three words printed on the gate charity hope faith he said reading them aloud once again nothing happened sento removed the key recited the three words again then reinserted the key and turned it still nothing I studied H emis and shotto as they watched the video their excitement and curiosity had already shifted into concentration as they attempted to solve the puzzle before them I pause the video whenever sento is logged in he has a team of consultants and researchers watching his every move I said you can hear their voices on some of the vidcaps feeding him suggestions and advice through his Comm link so far they haven't been much help watch on the video sento was making another attempt to open the gate he did everything exactly as before except this time when he inserted the Crystal Key he turned it counterclockwise instead of clockwise they try every asinine thing you can imagine I said sento recites the words on the gate in Latin and Elvish and Klingon then they get hung up on reciting 1 Corinthians 13:13 a Bible verse that contains the words charity Hope and Faith apparently charity Hope and Faith are also the names of three martyred Catholic saints the Sixers have been trying to attach some significance to that for the past few days morons H said holiday was an atheist they're getting desperate now I said sento has tried everything but genuflecting doing a little dance and sticking his pinky finger in the keyhole that's probably next up on his agenda shotto said grinning charity hope Faith emis said reciting the words slowly she turned to me where do I know that from yeah those words do sound familiar H said it took me while to place them too I said they all looked at me expectantly say them in reverse order I suggested better yet sing them in reverse order artemis's eyes narrowed faith hope charity she said she repeated them a few times recognition growing in her face then she sang Faith and Hope and charity H picked up the next line the heart and the brain and the body give you three as a magic number shotto finished triumphantly Schoolhouse Rock they all shouted in unison see I said I knew you guys would get it you're a smart Bunch three is a magic number music and lyrics by Bob Doro Artemis recited as if pulling the information from a mental encyclopedia written in 1973 I smiled at her I have a theory I think this might be holiday's way of telling us how many keys are required to open the third gate Artemis grinned then [Music] sang Three is a magic number yes it is it's a magic number the past and the present and the future Faith and Hope and charity the heart and the brain and the body give you three as a magic number every triangle has three corners every triangle has three sides no more no less you don't have to guess when it's three you can see it's a magic number I took out my own copy of the crystal key and held it up the others did the same we have four copies of the key if at least three of us can reach the gate we can get it open and what then H asked do we all enter the gate at the same time what if only one of us can enter the gate once it's open Artemis said he's toyed with us every step of the way and now he's doing it again why else would he require three copies of the crystal key to open the final gate maybe because he wanted to force us to work together I suggested or he just wanted the contest to end with a big dramatic finale H offered think about it if three avatars enter the third gate at the exact same moment then it becomes a race to see who can clear the gate and reach the egg first holiday was one crazy sadistic bastard aremis muttered yeah H said nodding you got that right look at it this way shodo said if H hadn't set up the third gate to require three keys the Sixers might have already found the Eggman now but the Sixers have a dozen copies of the Crystal Key H said they could open the gate right now if they were smart enough to figure out how dilatant Artemis said it's their own fault for not knowing all the Schoolhouse Rock lyrics by heart how did those fools even get this far by cheating I said remember oh that's right I keep forgetting she grinned at me and I felt my knees go all rubbery just because the Sixers haven't opened the gate yet doesn't mean they won't figure it out eventually shotto said I nodded shoto's right sooner or later they'll make the Schoolhouse Rock connection so we can't waste any more time well what are we waiting for Sho said excitedly we know where the gate is and how to open it so let's do it and may the best gun to win yeah you're forgetting something shoan H said paral here still hasn't told us how we're going to get past that Shield fight our way through the Sixers Army and get inside the castle he turned to me you do have a plan for that don't you Z of course I said I was just getting to that I made a sweeping gesture with my right hand and a three-dimensional hologram of Castle anarak appeared floating in the air in front of me the transparent blue sphere generated by the orb of oox appeared around the castle surrounding it both above and below ground I pointed to it this Shield is going to drop on its own at noon on Monday about 36 hours from now and then we're going to just walk right through the Castle's front entrance easy The Shield is going to drop on its own emis repeated the Clans have been lobbing nukes at that Sphere for the past 2 weeks and they haven't even scratched it how are you going to get it to drop on its own I've already taken care of it I said you guys are just going to have to trust me I trust you z h said but even if that Shield does drop to reach the castle we'll still have to F our way through the largest army in the Oasis he pointed to the Hologram which showed the six or true positions around the castle just inside the sphere what about these fools and their tanks and their gunships obviously we're going to need a little help I said um a lot of help emis clarified and who exactly are we going to convinced help us wage war against the entire sixer Army H asked everyone I said every single Gunter on the grid I opened another window displaying the brief email I'd composed just before logging into the basement I'm going to send this message out toight night to every single Oasis user I read the email to them fellow gunters it is a dark day after years of deception exploitation and navy the Sixers have finally managed to buy and cheat their way to the entrance of the third gate as you know ioi has barricaded Castle anarak in an attempt to prevent anyone else from reaching the egg we've also learned that they've used illegal methods to uncover the identities of gunters they consider a threat with the intention of abducting and murdering them if gunters around the world don't join forces to stop the Sixers they'll reach the egg and win the contest and then the Oasis will fall under ioi's imperialistic rule the time is now our assault on the sixer Army will begin tomorrow at noon OST join us sincerely H Artemis paral and shto navy emis said were you using a thesaurus when you wrote this I was trying to make it sound you know Grand official I said H me like e z h said it really gets the blood stirring thanks H so that's it this is your plan Artemis said spam the entire Oasis for help yeah more or less yeah that's the plan and you really think everyone will just show up and help us fight the Sixers just for the hell of it yes I do H nodded he's right no one wants the Sixers to win the contest and they defin don't want ioi to take control of the Oasis people will jump at a chance to bring the Sixers down and what Gunter is going to pass up a chance to fight in such an epic history-making battle but won't the Clans think we are just trying to manipulate them so that we can reach the gate ourselves shotto said of course I said but most of them have already given up everybody knows the end of the Hunt is at hand don't you think most people would rather see one of us win the contest instead of sento in the Sixers Artemis considered it for a moment you're right that email just might work Z you are an evil Sublime genius H said slapping me on the back when that email goes out the media will go apeshit the word will spread like wildfire by this time tomorrow every Avatar in the Oasis will be headed to cthonia let's hope so I said oh they'll show up all right but how many of them will actually fight once they see who we're up against aremis said most of them will probably set up lawn chairs and eat popcorn while they watch us get our asses kicked that's definitely a possibility I said but the Clans will help us for sure they've got nothing to lose and we don't have to defeat the entire sixer Army we just have to punch a hole through it get inside the castle and reach the gate three of us have to reach the gate H said if only one or two of us Mak it inside were screwed correct I said so we should all try extreme hard not to get killed emis and H both laughed nervously shotto just shook his head even if we got the gate open we still have to contend with the gate itself he said it's bound to be harder to clear than the first two let's worry about the gate later once we reach it I said fine let's do this thing shto said I second that H said so you two are actually going to go along with this emus said you got a better idea sister H asked she Shrugged not really okay then H said it's settled I closed the email I'm sending each of you a copy of this message I said start sending it out tonight to everyone on your contact list post it in your blogs broadcast it on your POV channels we've got 36 hours to spread the word that should be enough time for everyone to gear up and get their avatars to cthonia as soon as the Sixers catch wind of this they'll start aren't preparing for an assault Artemis said they're going to pull out all the stops they might just laugh it off I said they think their Shield is impregnable it is Artemis said so I sure hope you're right about being able to shut it down don't worry I said why would I be worried emis snapped maybe youve forgotten but I'm homeless and on the run from my life right now I'm currently logged in from a public terminal at an airport paying for bandwidth by the minute I can't fight a war from here much less try to clear the third gate and I don't have anywhere to go shto nodded I don't think I can stay where I am either I'm in a rented booth at a public manga Cafe in Osaka I don't have much privacy and I don't think is safe for me to stay here if a six have agents out looking for me Artemis looked at me any suggestions I hate to break it you guys but I'm homeless and logged in from a public terminal now too I said I ' been hiding out from the Sixers for over a year remember all right well I've got an RV H said you're all welcome to crash with me but I don't think I can make it to Columbus Vancouver and Japan in the next 36 hours I think I might be able to help you guys out a deep voice said we all jumped and turned around just in time to see a tall male gray-haired Avatar appear directly behind us it was the Great and Powerful Aug Ogden Morrow's Avatar and he didn't materialize slowly the way an avatar normally did when logging into a chat room he simply popped into existence as if he had been there all along and had only now decided to make himself visible have any of you ever been to Oregon he said it's lovely this time of year