READY PLAYER TWO

(A fanfiction based on the characters and events of the novel READY PLAYER ONE by Earnest Cline)

PROLOGUE

My name is Terry Keats and I'm a "gunter". Well, I used to be. I'm not one anymore, although I wish I was. Neither is anyone else. You see, seven years ago, like everybody else in the OASIS, I found a personalized email from Mr. Halliday himself in my message inbox. I watched the postmortem delivered video of the creator of the OASIS explaining the rules and prize for the grand contest and what was entailed. Gates, keys, riddles and challenges. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and hearing. The whole shebang was up for grabs and I was part of it as much as anyone else. I was part of the "grand contest", the search for halliday's egg and the prize of winning control of the OASIS. And like everyone else I scoured the virtual worlds for clues and signs of the hidden keys and gates set aside in the corners of hundreds of worlds in hopes of being the one to solve the puzzles and become the number one name on the scoreboard. Those were exciting times. I still remember it like it was yesterday. In a way, I kinda wish it was seven years ago, because maybe things wouldn't be so boring around here.

People don't talk about the contest much anymore. They really don't. It's been over about two years now, why bother? Anytime its brought up in conversation on boards or chats, people reminisce about the high points of the hunt and where they were when it ended, but other than that, there's not much to discuss. Everybody in the world knows about Parzival beating IOI through the final gate and claiming the egg. Everyone saw the interviews with the winners that took place afterwards and got to hear ad infintium about what they had to go through to come out on top. It was a grand finale and it was everything I wanted it to be.

But now it's over.

In the first interview after winning the contest, Wade Watts announced he'd use his vast wealth to help people through wide sweeping programs, but no one has seen a cent of it. So, until that proverbial carrot shows up, we're still left with just the stick. There was a silver lining in that he said he was going to keep the OASIS free to everyone and not monetize access. So, that's good. The OASIS is still around and any spare time people can manage to get away when they're not trying to find food to sustain their real bodies in the real world is spent there. The OASIS is great and all, but the world is still struggling with an energy crisis. And that's just the start of it. If the waking reality of frequent rolling brownouts, looting, scams, murder, and worldwide poverty weren't enough, people are even more restless now that they don't have the dream of winning Halliday's contest to hold on to. And that's made things more dangerous. Unless you have that damn egg in your hands, everyday life still sucks a metric ton of ass.

I don't have anyone I could call a true friend outside of the OASIS, but there's a few I trust once I connect. Like most, my small clan and I were behind the learning curve on how to figure out Halliday's riddles and we ultimately did what everyone else did; we followed the leaders as they crashed the scoreboard.

This is life after the contest, so get your quarters ready and nimble up those fingers because there's still one "winner take all" side quest left for the rest of us. One last chance to make an impact.

Get Ready Player Two.

CHAPTER ONE

PLANET MINECRAFT:

The five of us were stacked on top of one another like a totem pole as we burrowed deeper and deeper into the blocky planet. The shaft of square dirt and stone was barely wide enough to accommodate our largest member as the makeshift drill finally reached the designated depth. When the digital readout on the drill we were standing on top of read "318", Teega took her hand off the controls and the machine came to a grinding halt.

"That's it!" She exclaimed. "Three hundred and eighteen meters below sea level, on the dot!" Being the group techie and gadget nerd, it wasn't surprising that Teega's appearance made her look like a mad steampunk scientist's assistant. The brass goggles, workers apron, steel toe boots and thick brown hair tied into a ponytail behind her head made her look like a posterchild for an 1890's industrial revolution ad.

"It's about time." Ghast grunted from above. "I'm getting bored holding the rest of these lightweights." Standing seven foot eight, Ghast's chrome golem of an avatar was standing over Teega with one foot on each side as she sat atop her makeshift machine. Above him, his tree trunk sized arms supported the remaining three of the clan. Merry, the perpetually clueless puzzle and code expert, Rex, the team heavy gunner, and myself, the de facto leader. I never asked for the position, but I usually end up being the final decision maker when everyone else wants to argue. Sometimes it feels more like a professional cat wrangler or babysitter than an actual leader. It's not hard being the leader, really. Clan Leadership 101: Don't do anything stupid to get yourself killed and don't do anything that might let others get killed, and don't let anyone do something that might get just them killed. If you die in the Oasis, you're done. Considering everyone in the group but Ghast was under level ten, we didn't start too many fights.

"What now, Doc?" Rex asked me, brandishing a plasma cannon almost as big as himself. They started calling me "Doctor McCoy" because my avatar wears an electric blue shirt, sort of looks like Dr. McCoy from the original television show Star Trek, but eventually it got truncated to just 'Doc.'

"Doc?" He asked again. "Come on, what's the plan? I'm getting claustrophobic in this stupid pothole!"

"Take it easy, we can't rush this." I told him. "You know what's on the other side of that wall, so keep your voice down."

"Are we really that close?" Merry asked in a whisper.

"Less than a meter from the chamber." Teega said, keeping her own voice low.

"This is what we've been working for." I told them. "Has everybody got their escapipe I gave them hot keyed? If something happens down there, and we run into trouble, activate your escapipe like we planned and you'll be teleported back to the public transportation hub where we arrived."

"These things look ancient as hell, Doc, do they even work?" Rex said, turning the 16-bit rendered, cylindrical item over in his hand. "I'm not trying to get myself in a situation where I have to depend on janky hardware and I get hosed."

"Says the guy that still keeps his copper key equipped." Teega added with a smirk.

"Shut up, gear head." He said without looking at her.

"No, you shut up, you teamkilling noobtuber." She hissed back."

"NO YOU-"

"Would you keep it down?!" I said as my avatar kicked Rex's cannon to break up the fight. "We don't know how sensitive these things are to sound."

"If they're sensitive to sound, the noise created by the drill would've already attracted them." Teega said.

"Good point." I told her. "Look, the items are fine. Just because it comes from an old game like Phantasy Star doesn't mean its abilities are diminished. Believe me, I paid way more than I wanted to get my hands on five of them let alone one. If you want to play it safe and stay topside while we go in you're welcome to, but the clan rules you agreed to apply. What's the rule, Merry?"

"No risk, no reward. If you don't put in, you don't get out."

"Exactly." I told him. "If things get hairy, we're going to need your firepower. Besides, I've never seen you back away from a fight."

"I'm not backing out of anything." Rex sounded more excited. "If shit gets hairy, you noobs are going to be screwed without me. I'm ready."

Team leading 101, lesson two: Reverse psychology sometimes works.

"Just stick to the plan. Stealth is going to be key. The last thing we want is a fight." Everyone nodded in agreement except for Ghast who grunted his approval. "Teega, open it up."

The steampunk girl raised her fist and tapped it against the dirt three times. With the third strike, a block of the wall of dirt disintegrated and vanished. Where there should have been more pixelated dirt on the other side, only blackness stared back. No one moved a millimeter we all listened and watched the hole for signs of life. If avatars could sweat, the five of us would be soaked. We waited but nothing came. Teega looked up at me and I gave her an affirmative nod. She in turn reached inside the folds of her leather trenchcoat and produced a small wooden wand. Extending her arm towards the hole, he whispered a single word. "Lumos". Instantly, the end of the wand emitted an intense steady glow from the tip. On hands and knees she leaned forward, pushing the wand through to illuminate the area beyond the shaft. Before I could ask her what she saw, she gasped and recoiled back inside.

"What? What is it?"

"The cavern." She whispered. "It's full of them."

"How many?" Rex asked. "Ten? Twenty?"

"No, hundreds." Everyone looked at me.

"That can't be right. Merry? What did the code scanner say the active count of that chamber was?" The smaller avatar dressed like a renaissance fair pick-pocket reached around his back and pulled out the scanner around on its carrying strap. Being a total "trekkie", Merry had modded his code reader to look like a tricorder from the original Star Trek Television show. Its little lights blinked back and forth for show as he brought up the results we'd gained when we first did a recon on the area. Every set of eyes watched him nervously tapping at the screen.

"I'm pretty sure the code scanner said 'OB1010', that's ten right? Yeah, here it is… Um, uh oh."

"What is uh oh?" Ghast grunted.

"Uhhh I think I read it wrong."

"Give it here." I said. "Let me see." Merry handed over the tricorder and I flipped it about to see what made him flinch. After reading the code for myself I flipped the lid closed and tossed it back to him.

"Yeah, he read it wrong. It reads '0B11001000'."

"That's not ten, you space case." Teega rolled her eyes. "That's two hundred!"

"You brainstem deficient, muggle!" Rex said as he began beating his head against the buttstock of his plasma cannon. "How can you be the intel guy and not know the damn difference between ten and two hundred? There's like half a dozen digits difference between the two."

"I'm sorry!" Merry tried to apologize.

"Shut up. Just shut up!" Rex hissed, rising from his spot. Before he could reach Merry I moved between them to keep a melee from breaking out.

"Stop." I said. "Just stop, it's my fault. I should've checked the numbers myself. Blame me." Rex eased up little but then went back to banging his head on the buttstock of his weapon.

"This is getting us nowhere." Ghast interjected.

"The big guy is right, Doc." Teega said. "What's the call, do we stay or abort?"

"I can't squeeze past Ghast to reach the opening and see through. Look again and tell me what you see. If we make the hole bigger, is there enough room on the other side for all of us to climb in without touching one of them?"

"Are you kidding? The cavern in there is the size of an airplane hanger."

"Ok. Enough of this sitting around. Make the hole just big enough for the rest of us to get past Ghast."

"I'm the strongest of the group." The big guy protested. "I should go first."

"Stay where you are. You're the strongest but you're also the biggest and the rest of us have projectile weapons. If you step inside first you're going to be directly in our fields of fire. I'll take point with Rex and Teega on my flanks. She'll keep that magic light on since we don't want to use flares or torches if we can help it. Once we set up a perimeter then Merry will follow and activate the motion sensor. When we're sure everyone's still asleep you make with the quiet entrance."

"What if they wake up?" Merry asked.

"They shouldn't wake up."

"And if they do?"

"Then we fall back and use the escapipes. No heroes on this one unless one of you wants to get pwned, lose their gear and go back to level one."

"I ain't going back to level one." Rex mumbled.

"Good. Follow me."

Teega tapped her knuckles against the wall in wider and wider arcs around the hole and the soil fell away in blocky chunks before vanishing into tinier and tinier pixels. Once it was at least half my height, I squatted and entered. Once through, the cavern opened wide. From the residual light coming from the shaft I could see a little but not much. We'd entered the eastern wall at the ground floor and the walls raised higher and higher out of sight. With a little more widening, Rex managed to squeeze that monster cannon through before following it. The plating and gauntlets on his armor made way more sound than I wanted to be comfortable with. Teega continued widening the hole until Ghast said it was the right size before joining us. With her wand on this side of the wall, the arc of light spread out in every direction illuminating the chamber. And just like Teega said, there were hundreds of still forms waiting in the dark. "Holy shit." Teega said. "Look at them all." As she moved closer from behind, the light revealed a larger, more grim scene. Side by side in a uniform grid formation, frozen grotesque faces stared back at us.

"Fuck me…" Rex whispered as his head whipped about. "I've never seen this many creepers at once. There's at least two hundred of them. Hey Doc, what's to keep us from just pitching a grenade down here and fragging them all at once?"

"Think about it. Each one of them has a gut full of TNT. If one goes off, it'll start the mother of all chain reactions. Two hundred packs of dynamite would create a hole the size of a football stadium and vaporize the artifact we're after." Heavy footsteps approached from the rear.

"What is the artifact?" Ghast asked.

"I don't know. It's signal shows it as being at the other end of the cavern. We'll have to find it. Merry's tricorder has the exact coordinates."

"Oh, that's just great." Rex shrugged the weight of his cannon to wave it about the room." If the coordinates were in binary, he's going be telling us to pack up a damn creeper and haul it back."

"Lay off him, I said it was my fault for not double checking. Besides, he's the only one of us who has the equipment to track the artifact. We got lucky. Without him, we'd be as lost as the rest of the people trying to track the 'rares'".

"I heard some chick cross-modded the crystal ball from the movie Labyrinth with a marauders map and MADE herself an artifact finder."

"Sure she did." Teega rolled her eyes. "If you believe that then I've got some ocean front property on planet Arakkis I can sell you." A single path eight feet wide divided the room down the middle between the figures.

"Stow the chatter. Now tighten up and keep your eyes open for movement. They look dormant but we can't chance any surprises." No one made a sound as we advanced further into the chamber. Teega's wand was the only light to guide us. I could've used one of the flares in my inventory to help us, but again, that would introduce something fire-based to a room full of things whose sole purpose was to explode. The creepers stood in perfect ranks and like a military formation, their expressions too poorly rendered to look alive or dead. Half way there. Checkpoint. If avatars could feel chills, now would be the time for it to happen. Our shadows shifted past the files of our stoic hosts.

"I think we can relax." Merry whispered. "My scanner says the creepers are in "standby" mode. The code of the chamber reads that they stay dormant until someone destroys one above ground and another can spawn in to take its place."

"Fine, you relax." Rex remarked. "I'm not. This whole planet is one big PVP zone which means they're still lethal." Teega looked cautiously about the room.

"What happens if someone does kill one on the surface, what then?"

"There's a chamber at the far end of the cavern." He pointed ahead of the group. "When one is needed, it stirs from its standby mode, moves to the teleportation chamber at the end and gets put into play on the surface." Just as he said that, a single high pitched tone chirped from somewhere out of sight. Ahead of us, a singular red light began to glow over a huge, glass cube. We froze. "Oh shit, Doc," He said. "I'm detecting movement."

"Where?"

"Everywhere." The formation of the party collapsed around Ghast as a singular growl emanated from the end of the formation. A creeper was moving. Rex raised this weapon level with the ground to sight the thing.

"Rex, don't you fucking dare." Teega hissed

"Easy." I told him, reaching out to push the barrel slightly away. "It's moving but it's not moving toward us." The creeper waddled its way forward on its simple limbs and made a perfect ninety degree turn down the aisle towards the glass cube. Further and further it sauntered until it stepped into the waiting chamber. Once it was fully inside, a small flash of blue pixelated light enveloped it and it was gone.

"Well!" Marry said. "That was intense." As soon as he said that, every silent figure in the room that wasn't one of us, shifted one space to the right. In perfect unison, eighty creepers sidestepped to their right to fill the vacant spot. Too startled to know how to react, the team fell over one another in a panic. To our relief, once the creepers took the open spots, they fell silent. The red light went out, and the room became tomblike again.

"Stop pressing against me, Merry." Teega said, shoving him. "Are the rest of you done shitting yourselves or do you need a minute to wipe? You guys are the absolute worst. The only one of you that wasn't ready to trample me to reach the exit is Ghast. Right, big guy?"

"I have to admit," The Golem frowned with its chiseled features. "My butthole may have puckered a little."

Our laughter echoed in the cavern and once stifled, we managed to carry on a little less afraid. Past the last file of creepers we moved. An open area at the end of the formations allowed us to spread out so that we weren't on top of one another. At the end of the ranks, a single pedestal stood next to the far wall. Three feet tall and cylindrical, it waited with a small item seated atop it.

"Is that it?" Teega asked. Merry raised his tricorder and aimed it in the pedestals general direction.

"Six meters? Yeah, that's it."

"What is it?" She asked as we crowded closer.

"Is…is that a baseball?" Rex asked with a tone of disappointment.

"It looks like a baseball." Ghast said, moving his giant head within a breaths distance from the white sphere. "Did we really come all the way down here for a baseball?" Everyone looked to me.

"Maybe it's a magic baseball." I offered. Rex's avatar rolled its eyes.

"Well, magic or not, it better bring a hefty price on the seller's market. I didn't come down here for a non-magic baseball. The more time we waste down here, the less we have to get ahead of the rest of the other hunters." Teega looked surprised.

"Wow, Rex, that's the most intelligent thing you've said all session. He's right, guys. Grab the item and let's bail. This place gives me the creeps."

"Sounds good to me." I said, reaching out to grab it.

"I wouldn't do that!" An unknown voice said from behind. Startled, the whole group wheeled about with weapons drawn to see who or what had spoken.

"Who's there?" Rex barked. At the edge of the illumination shed by Teega's light spell, next to the far wall, the outline of another avatar emerged. It began to move toward us. As it got closer, its generic, easily identifiable features became more visible. Merry identified it first

"A sixer!" He said. "Light that guy up!"

"I'm not armed!" the avatar said with it's hands in the air.

"Bullshit." Rex growled, raising his cannon "No one enters a PVP zone unarmed."

"Well, I am armed, but nothing's equipped."

"What do you want?" I asked. "What are you doing standing in the dark?"

"I'm waiting for others to fail in retrieving the baseball." He said, continuing to walk towards us with his hands raised to the sky. As he drew close enough, his avatar's name became visible. It read 'XS'. "Worst case scenario, you blow yourselves to bits and I'll claim your items when the chamber resets."

"What's going on, Doc?" Teega said. "What's he talking about?"

"I don't know." I aimed by weapon at the avatar's head. "What's your game, Excess? What do you want?"

"I want that orb." He said. "But there's just one problem." With hands still raised he stepped between us to stand before the small pillar. "You see, if you touch this baseball," He lowered his hand to within a few inches. You'll release a hidden trigger in its code and it ignites the TNT in all the creepers at the same time."

"Again, I call bullshit." Rex grumbled.

"Really? You think so?" XS said dryly as he withdrew his hand. "You think I was just standing here in the dark for my health?"

"I think Rex is right." I told him. "I think you just got here."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because Merry scanned this place before we came in. If someone was in here we would've known it."

"Really? You could've detected me with a second rate, low-tier, scanner modded to look like a star trek prop? You're lucky I'm not hostile or you five would've been waxed before the big moose on your team even stepped through that opening." Ghast stiffened and stood at his full height. I'd only seen him bristle like that once before and it was when we tangled with another clan in a PVP zone. Two swings of those big chrome fists and the avatar he was targeting bit the dust. If 'Excess' didn't watch his step he was going to get his Hit Points decimated by the party's bruiser before Rex opened up with his ridiculous energy cannon.

"I'd watch the lip if you want to keep it." Ghast said.

"Look, my towering friend." He moved away to stand before Ghast without a hint of fear. His avatars head had to actually crane back backwards at an awkward angle to look up at Ghast's face. "You, I, and all your friends will lose more than just our lips if you touch that artifact. Now, I've tried more than a dozen methods of acquiring the baseball, but none have proven fruitful. In addition, I've watched from that same dark spot as clans both more numerous and better armed than you have failed to claim it. As soon as they touch the artifact this whole place goes 'kablooey'". Something didn't make sense.

"Wait." I said. "If you were here to see others get blown up how did you survive to know what happened?"

"Yeah, how?" Rex chimed in.

"Because I'm a sixer, noobtube. I've got the whole "Oology" department of IOI backing me up. I'm twice the level of any three in this group and believe me, you don't want me equipping any of the goods we've got a thousand of back at the arsenal. I can teleport at will."

"Again with the bullshit." I said. "The 'Oology' department was decommissioned after Parzival found the egg. You can't have a department studying to find an egg that's already been found."

"We're not looking for Halliday's egg." He said dryly. "We're looking for easter eggs in general."

"Why are you telling us all of this?" Teega asked. "Why not let us just touch the egg and then take our items?"

"Ah, the first intelligent question I've heard from the group so far." He said. "To answer that, you only need look at yourselves and the situation the OASIS has become. There's no more contest to win. Why are any of you here? Because you're like everyone else. You're trying to walk away from this digital game show with a parting gift before they're all gone. My time is very valuable and it would actually be less profitable to wait and raid your goods from the blast crater before it resets. So I don't need your toys and if I did, I would be at a stage of desperation so unredeemable I'd rather just be shot in the face."

"I'd be happy to oblige." Rex grunted before I pushed the barrel of his weapon back.

"So answer her question." I told him. "Why tell us anything? Why not let us fail?"

"Because I want you to get the artifact and share it with me."

"Share? Why would we share with you?" Teega asked.

"Because, look at me. I'm a sixer. I'm obligated by contract to turn over every item and artifact I find to IOI. If it was me that took possession of the baseball, then IOI would have it and I would have nothing."

"Wait, wait, wait." Merry said as he climbed down from Ghast's shoulder. "You get better food, housing, and a paycheck to work for IOI, why risk losing it working with us if you could be fired for it? Aren't you being monitored right now?"

"Not if the chamber you're inhabiting has a rare artifact or side quest. Remember the egg hunt and how no one could listen in on Parzival or the others when they were challenging a gate or finding a key? This is the same kind of zone. I've already tested it with IOI, they cant see or hear anything I do here. Hell, they can't track me either, and they've tried. That's why I think that baseball is important. Nobody, especially James Halliday builds a special chamber if they're not going to put something inside it. Look, IOI has been making gradual layoffs since the Sorento scandal hit. IOI is doing everything they can to keep their head above water but major cuts have been made. I need to produce but if the whole thing goes down, I need to have a backup plan to live if I can't stay employed. The world is becoming a more dangerous place all the time. If I help you get the baseball, you give me a share of whatever it sells for."

"Why the hell would we trust a sixer?" Rex said. "Why would I give you a single credit for my crew's hard work?"

"Aren't you listening?" XS said. "If I claim the baseball, it goes into my inventory and becomes IOI property. If you get it, we split the prize equally, fifty-fifty."

"Fifty-fifty?" Teega laughed. "I might've gone to school in the real world but even at that ramshackle barn I know there's six people here. You must think we're a special kind of stupid."

"That remains to be seen." He crossed his arms.

"Real cute." She sneered. "If we help you, IF we decide to help you, you're getting a sixth, the same as the rest."

"Yeah." Ghast added. "A sixth."

"Are you really so daft?" XS's voice got more shrill. "If it wasn't for me warning you, one of would've touched the artifact by now and been atomized by the creepers!"

"I think he's bluffing." Rex said. "I think we just barely beat him here and he's trying to fast talk us out of the prize. He might be able to take a few of us but if Ghast grabs the baseball, there's no way he can take the big guy down fast enough to get it before we smoke his sixer ass."

"I think he's bluffing too." Teega said

"Me too." Said Merry

"Me three." Said Ghast "What about you, Doc?" To be honest, I wasn't sure. He had a convincing case but it seemed really far fetched. Better not to chance it. It's been real, Xs but I think Ghast is going to snag the baseball and wwe'll just use our escapipes to get out before the creepers go critical mass."

"You're a fool. Any teleportation item in the OASIS short of Anaorak's personal gear doesn't work in special zones, so I hope you didn't pay a lot of credits to get those escapipes with the plan of just grabbing the artifact and jetting because it won't work."

"It'll work." I said.

"you're really going to do this, huh?"

"Yeah." Rex grinned. "I think we are."

"In that case I wish you a speedy recovery. Enjoy level one, idiots." He said. And with that, he began to glow with an ethereal white light. After a few seconds, he vanished.

"What an asshole." Merry remarked. "C'mon, grab the baseball and let's get out of here."

"Yeah." I said. "Good idea. Everyone got their escapipes equipped?" The party members nodded to the affirmative. "Good. Let's get out of here." All eyes were on me as I held my escapipe in one hand and reached out to grab the baseball. Where I thought there might've been some grand transition or warning or blaring claxon from taking the artifact. There was nothing. It was like Indiana Jones grabbing the golden idol from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Once I had it in my possession, I immediately activated the blue button the end of my teleporter. But nothing happened. I paused but anxiously clicked the button again. Everyone did the same but no one teleported. The looks on the faces of everybody's avatar turned to one of surprise.

"Mine's not working!" Ghast grunted. "It's not activating!"

"None of them are!" said Teega.

At first there was only the clicking of buttons in the dark cavern, but from that grew a slow but steady hissing. Teega raised her wand and raised the amount of luminance in the chamber. The hissing grew louder.

"Doc!" Shouted Merry. "Look!" To our collective horror, we all watched as every creeper in the room turned in place…to face us. The hiss grew louder and louder, increasing in volume and intensity. It sounded like the inside of the angriest hornet's nest in existence.

"They're gonna blow!" Rex said. "We gotta get outta here!"

"Run!" I yelled. "Get back to the shaft! Get out! Get-"

First there was a flash on the far side of the room. It was a bang like a heavy book being dropped to the floor. But then the flash doubled and tripled in size as more explosions joined in. It started slow, but built in speed like a crashing wave as the blast radius claimed the creepers in the aisles next to them to fuel the next. There was no running that was going to get us safely out. We were trapped. XS was right and we didn't listen. I…didn't listen. The blinding wall of whiteness began to envelop us, first Merry, then Ghast, Teega, Rex. In shock I flutily tried to press the escapipe button one last time, in hopes that somehow there was some kind of delay the seller might've neglected to tell me about. There came only a singular muted click before the blast claimed me as well.