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And then there was IOI.

And somewhere in the OASIS, on a forgotten server, a 1980s van flickered to life. Its radio played "Rebel Yell" by Billy Idol. And inside, two avatars held hands, watching the sun rise over a digital world that had just become worth saving.

He handed me a single golden contract. The deed to the OASIS.

"You're the first one who didn't come to win," he said, smiling sadly. "You came to understand." ready-player-one

And standing between me and it was the Sixer army.

I was Wade Watts, known as Parzival in the simulation. And like everyone else, I was hunting for Halliday's egg.

But I'd studied Halliday's journal. Every movie, every song, every Zork command he'd ever loved. And then there was IOI

What followed was the largest digital battle in history. Mechagodzilla fought a Sixer dreadnought. Aech piloted the Serenity from Firefly . I summoned the Gundam from Mobile Suit Gundam —a 60-foot robot that punched through Sorrento's flagship.

I called Art3mis. Her real name was Samantha. She lived in Canada. She picked up on the first ring.

I went to the Third Gate: a perfect replica of Halliday's childhood bedroom in Middletown, Ohio. The gate wasn't locked by a riddle. It was locked by regret. I had to play a perfect game of Tempest —Halliday's favorite—while watching a hologram of his younger self crying over a lost friendship with his partner, Ogden Morrow. And inside, two avatars held hands, watching the

I reached the egg as the battle raged. Sorrento's avatar tackled me at the last second, his sword at my throat.

I got it. Third line, third word—"shoulder," not "shoulders." Halliday would have known.

Behind me, the sky filled with avatars. Art3mis. Aech. Daito and Shoto. And then hundreds. Thousands. Millions.