I signed the papers and stuffed them into Terence’s hands as I whipped down the hall. Art3mis, Shoto, and Aech had already returned to the haptic chambers. Terence tried to say something as I passed him, I could see an inquisitive finger float toward the ceiling as a slack jawed “uhmm” fell from his mouth. I didn’t even flinch. When I reaching the last empty chamber I gave the door a nice heave in exhibition of my indifference.

I slipped on my gear quickly, blood pumping furiously. I approached the haptic chair and let my feet fall from under me as the rig adjusted to cradle my body. Og must have programmed the chairs to react this way, the rig almost caught me in mid air. The sensation of being pulled in by the machine was a subtle thing but it made the process of logging in much more immersive. Then, I was slave to the machine. Without any conscious control, I closed my eyes and pulled on my visor. I exhaled exorbitantly and drew a quick breath, speaking my passphrase and opening my eyes to be scanned in one fell swoop.

There was no login sequence, just a blinding flash. I threw my arms up to shield my eyes and the light slowly subsided. My avatar’s forearm came into view as my eyes adjusted quickly to the stunning realism of the OASIS. I lowered my guard and saw a faint afternoon light spilling across the aged workbench in front of me. The detail of the wood grain was jarring. I could see flecks of petrified sap dance to the light. I dragged my fingers across its surface, and almost jerked my hands back in shock. The amount of detail programmed into the haptics floored me. I looked around the room to the books on the sagging inlet shelves and I stretched my neck back and forth just to remind myself I was not dreaming. The detail was unreal. Halliday must have spent years refining the code. Everything down to the oil stained stone work of the windowsill was staggeringly vibrant. I expect Halliday often stood gazing, hands feeling the rough precipice in deep thought. That, or he had such an intensity of imagination as Anorak, surely a pensive gazing wizard.

I passed from the work bench to the window, gently touching the stone work, and directed my reveling to the enormous bookshelf in the far corner. Scanning the spines I noticed a number of titles I was sure never existed beyond this room. Elegant calligraphy spelled out things like “The Cluge Bible” and “The New TMRC Dictionary”. Just next to a book titled “The Cryptonomicon” was the book I knew revealed a big red button behind the floor to ceiling shelf-work. The spine read “Foobar” in gold leaf against a crimson dyed binding. On the other side of it was a peculiarly unmarked spine. I pulled it off the shelf in curiosity, turned it over, and read the front cover, “The Manual vol. 187”. Strange. I have to say that I doubted Halliday would be so literal but flipping back the hard cover, I unearthed something utterly mind shattering. Hand written on the books fist page was a quote:

Driven up and down in circles Skidding down a road of black ice Staring in and out storm windows Driven to a fool’s paradise -Rush, Driven 1996

I frantically flopped over the next page. On the top margin was a date, October 16th 1996. And below that started an entry. Halliday was musing over the bad adaptation of Jurassic Park into a film and declared that he would never see The Lost World. I flipped to another page deeper into the book. There were crude hand-drawn logic trees, pages and pages of them. I dragged my thumb over what remained, the rectangles and diamonds animated like a flip-book missing frames. I was in utter shock as I eyed the rest of the immense bookcase, almost stretching to the domed tower’s keystone. The volumes on volumes of blank spines around this room were full of hand written scrawl, notes on the OASIS and more. The entirety of Anorak’s study was a secret appendix to the Almanac I had memorized every word of. My stomach sank as I scanned the rest of the room, equilibrium failing me.

I stepped back realizing that where I stood was smack in the middle of Halliday’s legacy. The floor creaked. There were a dozen shelves in the large study, each holding hundreds of books, some marked but most of them identical to “The Manual” I held tightly in my grip. The floor creaked again, snapping me out of my dizzy whirl. I shook my head in an effort to restabilize my self. As I moved to place volume 187 back on the shelf, the floor creaked again. Curiously, it seemed never to creak in the same place twice. I looked down suspiciously only to find Art3mis’s Chuck Taylors still equipped. Before I could even let my mind drift, I got an incoming vidcall from Aech. I dropped 187 and added it to my inventory mid air.

“Where the hell are you man!? I really need to stop volunteering to keep an eye on you.”

“Sorry about that, I am still in Anorak’s study. My study now I guess… Where are you?”

“The basement dumbass. Stop huffing pixie dust and get down here?”

I hung up and logged into the basement right away. I walked down the stairs to find Aech, Shoto, and Art3mis sitting in a circle on the floor.

“Sorry I’m late. I got distracted by Anorak’s study. I half expected to spawn on Falco.”

“Have you seen the boards?”, Art3mis said hurriedly.

“Not yet, I…”

Art3mis cut me off, “The OASIS is down in more than 200 major cities. People are freaking out. Public access is overloaded.” She jumped to a standing position. “Adding insult to injury, Gunters from all over the world are reporting that they can’t build new avatars even when they do finally get reliable connections.”

“IOI must have had a kill switch,” Aech added.

I sat down between Aech and Shoto, glancing at them both. Shoto nodded, “It is a no-man’s land out there.”

Art3mis opened a vid feed window and projected it on the wall of the basement. It showed multiple news channels picture-in-picture. They were all running stories about the unrest around the globe. One station was interviewing a man with a thick Brooklyn accent, “I can’t get nothing done around here. All the warehouse software is run through the OASIS and none of my remote lift operators can log in. I am seriously thinking about shipping ’em all out here in person, and God knows I can’t spare that kind of cash.” Another feed showed a flooded tube station in London. Yet another reported massive blackouts in metropolitan centers across the globe. We all scanned the feeds for a moment in total silence. Art3mis switched them off a few minutes later and we were back at attention. “We have to do something!” she said.

“What can we do?” Shoto replied.

“I am not sure but we’re billionaires now, right? Who do we need to call?”

Aech and I shared a look, both of us choking back our inhibition to blurt out “Ghostbusters”. I replied calmly, “How are we even logged in right now?”

“Og must have a special connection. I am looking now and it seems many people with direct link to GSS servers are able to connect without issue,” Shoto added staring through a translucent browser window. I opened a news feed in my view and caught a ticker reading “OASIS access reverted to version 3, all IOI services failing.”

“Check this out,” I said, projecting the feed onto the wall. “V3 was when? I don’t even remember that.”

Art3mis looked on and answered blankly, “V3 was when I was a kid. Maybe 2030 or even before…I can’t remember exactly either.”

“Was V3 all that bad?”

“Nobody here knows what happened? Did you all zone out in OASIS history or what?,” Art3mis looked at us all in awe. She was met with shrugs all around. Her eyes started darting back and forth while she looked something up and began to tell us what happened, “V3 is a login process, it was the first version to have the full voice print identification. Right when GSS launched V3 there were issues. People were getting locked out of their accounts all over the place. Fraud detection kept throwing false positives and some accounts got deleted.” She paused and projected her window. It was a wiki page explaining the outcry that followed V3. The year was 2029 and the first line of the summary mentioned that Innovative Online Industries saved GSS’s skin. She went on, “That marked the rise of IOI. GSS didn’t have the infrastructure it needed to handle the new ID process. Crunching all that voice data in addition to retinal scans clogged the pipes, crippled the authentication servers in Columbus. IOI offered to help, renting out processing power at the edge to divert the load…” She trailed of, raising an eyebrow at something behind us.

Seemingly from nowhere, a bright orb of blue light appeared that slowly grew and engulfed the room. It became blindingly white and a cyclone ripped through the basement, throwing dust and comics all around. A bean bag chair burst from the gale force, sending tiny styrofoam nibblets into a frenzy. The orb transformed into a gash of light like a lightning bolt trapped in stasis. We were all taking cover as best we could when it abruptly stopped and there was a big thud. The next thing I heard was Aech, “What the hell man!” As each of us stood, brushing dust and debris from our clothes, we saw Og on his back next to a toppled La-Z-Boy (burnt sienna). His long gray beard was full of styrofoam peas. “He sure knows how to make an entrance,” Shoto added as we all burst into laughter, except Aech who simply crossed her arms and huffed. Og groaned as he got to his feet and tipped the ugly chair back into an upright position. “Sorry about that. I thought I should be a little more obvious than last time.”

“A little…” added Aech through gritted teeth, tilting her head sardonically to one side.

“I saw the news while we were eating and hoped you would all follow me here,” Og explained.

“How did you s…” Shoto was cut off.

“I have AR lenses that feed me updates.” said Og tapping his temple in a gesture befitting of a clever but clumsy wizard, “They also read out notifications when the house’s security system spots suspicious activity. Terence must have seen the news as well. His eavesdropping tipped the AI security cameras. He was probably concerned over the contracts.”

I cut in, “So what does this all mean? V3 and all … .”

“It means IOI didn’t need the egg to execute their plan.”

Art3mis’s eyes slowly widened as she realized something, “IOI was really going to destroy the OASIS? Why?”

Og just stared at us, gauging the reactions.

Art3mis continued, “Wait. They weren’t going to…,” but didn’t find her words.

She trailed off again and Aech finished the thought, “IOI has a tight enough grip on major IRL industries to survive without the OASIS and take claim of the global economy in the wake. Without the OASIS, everyone would need IOI for basics the world over.” Og remained silent for a moment.

“IOI has been shut down, Nolan Sorento and his superiors have been abducted for questioning by the FBI. A cohort of diplomats are descending on Columbus as we speak,” Og said toneless.

“With your papers signed, I would advise you all to log into the private chat as well. I am sure they will want to hear from you. I have added special access artifacts to your inventories. I wish I could explain more but the presentation is about to begin.”

He signed out of the basement. We all looked at each other for a moment, some styrofoam still settling around us. I checked my inventory and palmed what appeared to be a gold cassette tape. I saw the rest of the team pull out theirs as well. Aech picked up a walkman that had fallen off a shelf after Og’s flamboyant entrance. She placed the tape inside, put the headphones over her ears. And clicked the play button. As soon as she did so, she began to dematerialize. Shoto followed, catching the blue cassette player before it hit the ground. I was suddenly alone with Art3mis for the first time since the hedge maze. I was about to speak when she went for the Walkman. As she put the headphones on she hesitated and asked, “Are you okay?”. I wasn’t, of course, but I knew we didn’t have the time to talk. Our gaze locked for a brief moment in understanding. I just nodded and said, “I will be”. She clicked play and vanished. I mentally repeated to myself, “I will be,” as I picked the walkman up off the floor. I took a brief look at the basement, knowing Aech would just reset it tomorrow to clean up the debris. I put the headphones on and savored the mechanical clunk of the play button.

I found myself in a strange view as if I were floating over the long conference table below. I tried to look around and saw no sign of the others. I was logged in as an observer-only for the chat. I quickly messaged Aech and she confirmed she was in observer-only mode as well.

The conference table was a sanitary white with 16 seats around it. Standing at the head of the room was Og, in all his wizardly glory. He addressed the room:

“Thank you all for coming here on such short notice. By now you have all seen the news that login protocols to the OASIS have reverted to version 3.0.13. I have been briefed by GSS as part of the effort to bring critical services back online. When Nolan Sorento was apprehended by the FBI he was seen entering a command on his mobile phone that released a worm through the IOI computer system. It encrypted everything in its path making critical IOI assets impossible to recover.”

Og projected a slide onto the large blank wall behind him.

“This is a map of the United States alone.”

It showed a vast web of connections bleeding red with faint blue lines running across what I assumed were major information highways. Many running out of Colombus, San Francisco, L.A., NYC, and so on.

“Logins can only be routed through the blue servers here. The map is even more devastating internationally.”

He slowly turned the map with a raised hand. The two dimensional image contorted into a 3D globe as he crossed the Pacific to show Asia and then Europe.

“You can see that login traffic is still being routed through the US. The situation is grave and it is global. I have been asked to help GSS in a full-scale investigation since my avatar has legacy admin privileges. As many of you know, only two avatars of this kind exist. Until very recently that access level was with James Halliday’s ghost, Anorak. It now belongs to Wade Watts, Parzival.”

A few of the seated attendees looked at each other and muttered some hush words across the table.

“I have invited Parzival and the other Endgamers to this chat session. You can see them on the log in observation-only.”

Og waved right toward our isometric angle.

“Welcome Parzival, Art3mis, Aech, and Shoto.”

Some attendees looked in our direction others simply brought up the chat log’s attendee window. I did the same, realizing the audience of this chat was in the hundreds. Every major world leader was on this list, most I had never heard of.

“I called you all here today so that we might take the first steps to remedy our unfortunate circumstances. I would now like to introduce you all to a close friend of mine, Ken Irish, the director of the FBI who is leading the investigation into the IOI incident.”

Ken stood. His avatar looked remarkably similar to Sorento’s, posh suite and subtle name tag on the left breast pocket, with one difference. His tie was loose around his neck and he had a few buttons open. If he had a fedora he would have fit the 1920’s private eye trope with a capital T.

“Thank you Ogden. As pleased as I am to be addressing you as one force for the first time in recorded history, I must be frank and I must be quick. There will be no formalities here. I have added a brief to every one of your inventories. You may follow along if you would like. As a matter of international emergency we will be distributing this brief in just a few moments to the UN security council and NATO. Interpol already has this in hand as do local law enforcement in each of your countries, red notice attached to the cover. Beyond the immediate seizure of all IOI assets globally, the brief calls for a proposed treaty drafted by myself and the secretary of state.”

Deep looks were passed between the members visible at the table. They must have been placed on mute because I could see some mouths attempting to address the director but no audible words.

“The agreement establishes a consortium we have called the International Augmented Reality Consortium, or I-ARC. Membership is automatic if you agree to the wider terms of the treaty. You can see the detailed requirements on page 23. As a member, you are entitled to bid for IOI assets, locally seized and otherwise. Distribution of assets will be dependent on your ability to recover critical services and help us pick up the pieces as quickly as possible.”

There was clear outrage in the room but the mute system reduced everyone to angry pantomimes.

“I ask that you take some time to review this agreement. I should add that the UN security council, NATO, and INTERPOL have been asked to establish independent task forces to provide aid to each of your countries in both seizing remaining IOI assets as well as setting up local services to prop up their continued operations on a temporary basis. Our goal here is to hit the global conflict pause button to get the OASIS, and the services it supports, back online within the matter of days, not months, not years. Days.”

The director spoke a little louder and calm slowly spread through the room.

“I am willing to take some questions submitted through Mandarac text interface.”

A flurry of hands began twiddling away infront of faces around the table.

“Mr. prime minister Knut of Norway asks, ‘What is going to prevent the same destruction from happening again? With a centralized OASIS and a redistribution of services, GSS will have too much power over I-ARC members’. What is the long term incentive to join?’” The director answered, “We have agents in the GSS office as we speak that are addressing this issue. Obviously, as key members to this agreement, GSS will also need to relinquish some control of its critical assets. We have initiated the conversations needed to both protect their intellectual property but also allow for a more appropriate balance of power across I-ARC member nations.”

More frantic typing, a silent orchestra with a dozen conductors.

“I have one here from president Tsion of larger Eritrea. ‘How will the bidding process take place? And how will you ensure smaller nations like Larger Eritrea will receive a fair set of assets’.”

The director was on point, “As I said before, and this is in your packets, international aid will be deployed to prop up whatever you seize as part of the red notice and then it is on you locally. This chat room will double as a command center once we end this quorum and you will be able to view the status of services globally. I should add that you can appoint members of your staff to enter this room as well.”

A few heads bobbed with pursed lips, looking impressed. Irish continued, “The command center will clearly indicate where services are not being properly maintained. We will replicate the same scoring system IOI used to centralize the management of their subsidiaries and when one part of the infrastructure falls below an acceptable score, bidding will automatically open. I realize that doesn’t answer your question exactly but you can see the selection criteria for a winning bid on page 80.”

The director looked around the room for a moment before starting his conclusion.

“All of us want the OASIS back online, and this time for good. It has become critical to our primary and it is on us to keep it in check. The goal of I-ARC is to create a more robust OASIS so that one day we may find a more fair equilibrium between our primary and alternate. Thank you.”

A few avatars stood up, other froze as the logout sequence began. Og looked up in our direction and we all got booted. I appeared back in Aech’s basement, cassette tape in hand. I turned it over in my hand a few times and saw it was unwound. I don’t know if I hand’t noticed it before but now there was a prominent etching on one side that read “Side B”. I looked up from the tape to see Art3mis, Aech, and Shoto all staring at their tapes.