Ready Player One

As the Sixers transport Wade, he sees “people clustered on every street corner and in every vacant lot, huddled around burning barrels and portable fuel-cell heaters” (276). He reaches 101 IOI Plaza, where he is processed as an “indentured employee.” He and the other indents receive aptitude tests to see how they might be useful to IOI. Wade makes “sure to ace all of the tests on OASIS software, hardware, and networking,” but he intentionally fails the tests that are “designed to gauge [his] knowledge of James Halliday” (278). Test results allow him to become an OASIS technical support representative.

Wade signs his contract, then endures more processing: cleaning, blood tests, and inoculations. He receives an anklet that can shock him for disobedience and an ear device for receiving commands and surveillance. His new living space resembles a coffin; it is under 24-7 surveillance and is outfitted with a TV that provides “a nonstop stream of company-related 

Wade works twelve hours a day in an empty cubicle in IOI’s technical support department. He struggles to maintain composure in his job, where he takes calls from people with questions about the OASIS. Like all indentured workers, Wade’s schedule is highly regimented, down to timed bathroom breaks. Having sabotaged the cameras and his earpiece, he is able to experience some freedom when he is in his apartment.

Months earlier, Wade had obtained IOI intranet passwords from a black market site which can only be used by an actual employee or indent of IOI. Using these, he is able to hack into the IOI system and create an admin account. After six nights of work, he gets past IOI’s firewalls into their Oology division files. He finds “data related to Castle Anorak and the forces the Sixers had positioned in and around it” as well as information about the Sixer army and the artifact they are using to create a shield around the castle (290). He also finds footage of the Sixers attempting to open the Third Gate, confirming that they haven’t figured it out yet.

Wade finds a restricted area in the database that contains detailed dossiers on the High Five. They have transcripts of Art3mis’s conversations and recorded video of Daito’s murder. The Sixers only lack information on Aech, who doesn’t seem to reside in a permanent location. Wade finds a recent memo from Sorrento proposing to send “agents to abduct Art3mis and Shoto from their homes to force them to help IOI open the Third Gate,” after which “Art3mis and Shoto would be ‘disposed of’” (293). Wade decides that he needs to escape IOI earlier than planned in order to save Art3mis and Shoto. 

Wade copies as much data as he can from the database before his shift the next morning. He zeroes out his debt with IOI and disables his eargear and anklet. Putting on a maintenance uniform he has obtained, he leaves his apartment and heads for the lobby. Wade knows that he is being recorded by a surveillance video and that it “would be scrutinized when this was all over” and says he “looked directly into the lens of the camera, smiled, and scratched the bridge of my nose with my middle finger” (297). Escaping into the freezing cold, Wade goes to a post office rental location where he has a portable OASIS rig waiting for him.

Wade messages Art3mis, Shoto, and Aech and tells them that the Sixers are watching them. He gives them their stolen dossiers and asks them to meet in Aech’s chat room, then he erases his assumed identity and reclaims his real identity as Wade Watts. He purchases clothes and real-world weapons for self-defense. Avoiding all IOI-owned companies, Wade makes his way to an independent OASIS parlor and rents the fastest, most deluxe OASIS bay he can, where he starts uploading his stolen Sixer data. He emails major news channels “a detailed account of how IOI had tried to kill [him], how they had killed Daito, and how they were planning to kill Art3mis and Shoto” (303). He also sends the camera footage of Daito’s murder and a recording of his first meeting with Sorrento. 

Wade meets Aech, Art3mis, and Shoto in Aech’s chat room and confirms that each of them has moved to a safe location. He explains how he obtained the Sixer data, but Art3mis accuses Wade of spying on them by reading their personal files. Wade tells them that the Sixers haven’t figured out how to open the Third Gate yet and shows them footage of Sorrento trying and failing to open the gate. Wade’s team realizes that the words engraved over the Third Gate reference a song from Schoolhouse Rock!—an 80s educational cartoon show—called “Three is a Magic Number.” Wade concludes, “This might be Halliday’s way of telling us how many keys are required to open the Third Gate” (308).

Wade explains how his team will get to the gate. He says that the shield around the castle will drop in thirty-six hours. He shows Art3mis, Aech, and Shoto an email he has composed, signed by the four of them, to every gunter in the OASIS, asking them to band together against the Sixers. With their plan solidified, the team discuss what to do about being on the run. Og materializes inside Aech’s chat room and asks, “Have any of you been to Oregon?” (312).