{"id":2651,"date":"2026-01-03T22:41:59","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T22:41:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/ready-player-two-cline-ernest\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T22:41:59","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T22:41:59","slug":"ready-player-two-cline-ernest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/ready-player-two-cline-ernest\/","title":{"rendered":"Ready Player Two – Cline, Ernest"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Book Preview<\/h3>\n
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\"Cutscene\"<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n

After I won Halliday\u2019s contest, <\/span>I remained offline for nine straight days\u2014a new personal record.<\/p>\n

When I finally logged back in to my OASIS account, I was sitting in my new corner office on the top floor of the GSS skyscraper in downtown Columbus, Ohio, preparing to start my gig as one of the company\u2019s new owners. The other three were still scattered across the globe: Shoto had flown back home to Japan to take over operations at GSS\u2019s Hokkaido division. Aech was enjoying an extended vacation in Senegal, a country she\u2019d dreamed of visiting her whole life, because her ancestors had come from there. And Samantha had flown back to Vancouver to pack up her belongings and say goodbye to her grandmother, Evelyn. She wasn\u2019t due to arrive here in Columbus for another four days, which seemed like an eternity. I needed to distract myself until our reunion, so I decided to log back in to the OASIS and try out a few more of the superuser abilities my avatar now possessed.<\/p>\n

I climbed into my brand-new top-of-the-line OASIS immersion rig, a Habashaw OIR-9400, then put on my visor and haptic gloves and initiated the login sequence. My avatar reappeared where I\u2019d last logged out, on the planet Chthonia, standing outside the gates of Castle Anorak. As I\u2019d anticipated, there were thousands of other avatars already gathered there, all waiting patiently for me to make an appearance. According to the newsfeed headlines, some of them had been camped out there all week\u2014ever since I\u2019d resurrected them in the aftermath of our epic battle against the Sixers.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

In my first official act as one of GSS\u2019s new owners, just a few hours after the fight ended, I\u2019d authorized our admins to restore all the items, credits, and power levels those heroic users had lost, along with their avatars. I thought it was the least we could do to repay them for their help, and Samantha, Aech, and Shoto had agreed. It was the first decision we\u2019d voted on as the company\u2019s new co-owners.<\/p>\n

As soon as the avatars in my vicinity spotted me, they began to run in my direction, closing in on me from all sides at once. To avoid getting mobbed, I teleported inside the castle, into Anorak\u2019s study\u2014a room in the highest tower that I alone could enter, thanks to the Robes of Anorak I now wore. The obsidian-black garment endowed my avatar with the godlike powers Halliday\u2019s own avatar had once possessed.<\/p>\n

I glanced around the cluttered study. Here, just over a week ago, Anorak had declared me the winner of Halliday\u2019s contest and changed my life forever.<\/p>\n

My eyes fell upon the painting of a black dragon that hung on the wall. Beneath it stood an ornate crystal pedestal with a jewel-encrusted chalice resting on top of it. And cradled within the chalice was the object I\u2019d spent so many years searching for: Halliday\u2019s silver Easter egg.<\/p>\n

I walked over to admire it, and that was when I noticed something strange\u2014an inscription on the egg\u2019s otherwise pristine surface. One that definitely hadn\u2019t been there when I\u2019d last seen it, nine days earlier.<\/p>\n

No other avatars could enter this room. No one could\u2019ve tampered with the egg. So there was only one way that inscription could\u2019ve gotten there. Halliday himself must have programmed it to appear on the egg\u2019s surface. It could have appeared right after Anorak gave me his robes, and I\u2019d just been too distracted to notice.<\/p>\n

I bent down to read the inscription: GSS\u201413th Floor\u2014Vault #42\u20138675309.<\/i><\/p>\n

My pulse suddenly thudding in my ears, I immediately logged out of the OASIS and scrambled out of my rig. Then I bolted out of my new office, sprinted down the hall, and jumped into the first elevator to arrive. The half dozen GSS employees inside all avoided making direct eye contact. I could guess what all of them were thinking: Meet the new boss, weird as the old boss.<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

I gave them all a polite nod and pressed the \u201c13\u201d button. According to the interactive building directory on my phone, the thirteenth floor was where the GSS archives were located. Of course<\/i> Halliday had put them there. In one of his favorite TV shows, Max Headroom,<\/i> Network 23\u2019s hidden research-and-development lab was located on the thirteenth floor. And The Thirteenth Floor<\/i> was also the title of an old sci-fi film about virtual reality, released in 1999, right on the heels of both The Matrix<\/i> and eXistenZ<\/i>.<\/p>\n

When I stepped off the elevator, the armed guards at the security station snapped to attention. As a formality, one of them scanned my retinas to verify my identity, then he led me past the security station and through a set of armored doors, into a maze of brightly lit corridors. Eventually we reached a large room, its walls lined with dozens of numbered doors, like extra-large safety-deposit boxes, each with a number stenciled on its front.<\/p>\n

I thanked the guard and told him he could go as I scanned the doors. There it was: number 42. Another of Halliday\u2019s jokes\u2014according to one of his favorite novels, The Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide to the Galaxy,<\/i> the number 42 was the \u201cUltimate Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

I just stood there for a few seconds, reminding myself to breathe. Then I punched in the seven-digit combination from the egg\u2019s inscription into the code pad beside the vault door: 8-6-7-5-3-0-9,<\/i> a combination no self-respecting gunter would have trouble remembering. Jenny, I\u2019ve got your number. I need to make you mine\u2026.<\/i><\/p>\n

The lock disengaged with a thud and the door swung open, revealing the vault\u2019s cube-shaped interior\u2014and a large silver egg sitting inside. It looked identical to the virtual egg on display in Anorak\u2019s study, except this one had no inscription on its surface.<\/p>\n

I wiped my sweaty palms on my thighs\u2014I did not<\/i> want to drop this\u2014and removed the egg, then set it on a steel table in the center of the room. The bottom of the egg was weighted, so it wobbled slightly before standing perfectly upright\u2014like a Weeble. (Weebles wobble, but they don\u2019t fall down.<\/i>) As I leaned in to examine the egg more closely, I spotted a small oval-shaped thumb scanner pad near the top, flush with its curved surface. When I pressed my thumb to it, the egg split in half and hinged open.<\/p>\n

Inside it, resting in form-fitting blue velvet, was some sort of headset.<\/p>\n

I lifted it out and turned it over in my hands. The device had a segmented central spine that appeared to stretch from a wearer\u2019s forehead to the nape of their neck, with a row of ten C-shaped metal bands attached to it. Each band was comprised of jointed, retractable segments, and each segment had a row of circular sensor pads on its underside. This made the whole sensor array adjustable, so that it could fit around heads of all shapes and sizes. A long fiber-optic cable stretched from the base of the headset, with a standard OASIS console plug at the end of it.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

My heart had been thudding against my rib cage, but now it almost stopped. This had to be some sort of OASIS peripheral\u2014one unlike any I\u2019d ever seen before, and light-years more advanced.<\/p>\n

A short electronic beep emanated from the egg and I glanced back over at it. A flash of red swept across my vision as a tiny retinal scanner verified my identity a second time. Then a small video monitor embedded in the egg\u2019s open lid turned itself on and the GSS logo appeared for a few seconds, before it was replaced by the withered face of James Donovan Halliday. Judging by his age and emaciated features, he\u2019d made this video recording shortly before his death. But despite his condition, he hadn\u2019t used his OASIS avatar to record this message like he had with Anorak\u2019s Invitation<\/i>. For some reason, he\u2019d chosen to appear in the flesh this time, under the brutal, unforgiving light of reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe device you now hold in your hands is an OASIS Neural Interface, or ONI.\u201d He pronounced it Oh-En-Eye. \u201cIt is the world\u2019s first fully functional noninvasive brain-computer interface. It allows an OASIS user to see, hear, smell, taste, and feel their avatar\u2019s virtual environment, via signals transmitted directly into their cerebral cortex. The headset\u2019s sensor array also monitors and interprets its wearer\u2019s brain activity, allowing them to control their OASIS avatar just as they do their physical body\u2014simply by thinking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo fucking way,\u201d<\/i> I heard myself whisper.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just for starters,\u201d Halliday said, as if he\u2019d heard me. \u201cAn ONI headset can also be used to record its wearer\u2019s experiences in the real world. All sensory input received by their brain is digitized and stored as a .oni (dot-oh-en-eye) file on an external data drive attached to their headset. Once that file is uploaded to the OASIS, the entire experience can be played back and reexperienced by the person who recorded it, or by any other ONI user with whom they choose to share the file.\u201d<\/p>\n

Halliday managed a thin smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn other words, the ONI allows you to relive moments of other people\u2019s lives. To see the world through their eyes, hear it through their ears, smell it through their nose, taste it with their tongue, and feel it through their skin.\u201d Halliday gave the camera a matter-of-fact nod. \u201cThe ONI is the most powerful communication tool humans have ever invented. And I think it\u2019s also probably the last one we will ever need to invent.\u201d He tapped the center of his forehead. \u201cNow we can plug right in to the old noodle.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

I heard the words, but I couldn\u2019t process them. Was Halliday for real? Or had he been delusional when he made this recording, losing his grip on reality as he entered the final stages of his illness? The technology he was describing was still the stuff of science fiction. Yes, millions of physically disabled people used brain-computer interfaces every day, to see or hear or move paralyzed limbs. But these medical miracles could still only be achieved by cutting a hole in the patient\u2019s skull and sticking implants and electrodes directly into their brain.<\/p>\n

The concept of a brain-computer interface headset that allowed you to record, play back, and\/or simulate a human being\u2019s entire sensory experience had appeared in a bunch of Halliday\u2019s favorite sci-fi novels, TV shows, and movies. There was SimStim\u2014the fictional Simulated Stimulation technology William Gibson had envisioned in Neuromancer<\/i>. And a similar form of experience-recording technology had also been featured in Brainstorm<\/i> and Strange Days,<\/i> two of Halliday\u2019s favorite films\u2026<\/p>\n

If the ONI could do everything Halliday claimed, then he\u2019d once again done the impossible. Through sheer force of will and brainpower, he\u2019d once again turned science fiction into science fact, without much regard for the long-term consequences.<\/p>\n

I also wondered about the name Halliday had chosen for his invention. I\u2019d seen enough anime to know that oni<\/i> was also a Japanese word for a giant horned demon from the pits of hell.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ONI\u2019s software and documentation have already been emailed to your private OASIS account,\u201d Halliday continued. \u201cAlong with complete schematics of the headset and the 3-D printer files necessary to fabricate more of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Halliday paused and stared into the camera for a moment before continuing.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you\u2019ve tested the ONI yourself, I think you\u2019ll realize\u2014just as I did\u2014that this invention has the power to drastically alter the nature of human existence. I think it could help humanity. But it could also make things even worse. It will all depend on the timing, I think. That\u2019s why I\u2019m entrusting its fate to you, my heir. You must decide when\u2014or if\u2014the world is ready for this technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

His frail body shook with a coughing fit. Then he took a rasping breath and spoke one final time.<\/p>\n

\u201cTake all the time you need to decide,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd don\u2019t let anyone rush you. Once Pandora\u2019s box has been opened, there\u2019s no closing it again. So\u2026choose wisely.\u201d<\/p>\n

He gave the camera a small wave goodbye. Then the recording ended and a VIDEO FILE DELETED<\/span> message appeared on the monitor just before it powered itself off.<\/p>\n

I sat there for a long time. Could this be some sort of posthumous practical joke? Because the alternative didn\u2019t seem to make any sense. If the ONI really could do everything he said it could, then it would<\/i> be the most powerful communication tool ever invented. Why would he have kept it a secret? Why not just patent it and release it to the world?<\/p>\n

I glanced back down at the headset in my hands. It had been locked away in this vault for the past eight years, waiting patiently for me to find it. And now that I had, there was really only one thing left for me to do.<\/p>\n

I put the headset back inside the egg, then I turned around and carried it out of the archives, planning to walk back to the elevator at a calm, dignified pace. But my self-control evaporated in seconds, and I began to run as fast as my legs would carry me.<\/p>\n

The employees I encountered as I hurried back upstairs were treated to the sight of their wild-eyed boss sprinting through the hallowed halls of Gregarious Simulation Systems, clutching a giant silver egg.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n\"\"<\/span><\/div>\n

Back in my office, I locked the door, lowered the blinds, and sat down at my desktop computer to read over the ONI documentation Halliday had emailed me.<\/p>\n

I was grateful that Samantha wasn\u2019t there. I didn\u2019t want to give her the opportunity to talk me out of testing the ONI. Because I was worried she might try to, and if she did, she would\u2019ve succeeded. (I\u2019d recently discovered that when you\u2019re madly in love with someone they can persuade you to do pretty much anything.)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

There was no way I could pass up such a historic opportunity. It would\u2019ve been like passing up the chance to be the first person to walk on the moon. Besides, I wasn\u2019t worried about the ONI being dangerous. If using the headset was potentially harmful, Halliday would\u2019ve warned me. After all, I\u2019d just won the contest to become his sole heir. He wouldn\u2019t have wanted any harm to come to me.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what I kept telling myself as I plugged the ONI headset into my OASIS console and placed it gently on my head. Its telescoping bands retracted automatically, pressing the array of sensor and transmitter pads mounted on them firmly against the unique contours of my cranium. Then its metal joints tightened up and the whole spiderlike device locked itself onto my skull so that its pads couldn\u2019t be jostled or removed while the device was interfacing with my brain. According to the ONI documentation, forcibly removing the headset while it was in operation could severely damage the wearer\u2019s brain and\/or leave them in a permanent coma. So the titanium-reinforced safety bands made certain this couldn\u2019t happen. I found this little detail comforting instead of unsettling. Riding in an automobile was risky, too, if you didn\u2019t wear your seatbelt\u2026<\/p>\n

The ONI documentation also noted that a sudden power loss to the headset could also cause potential harm to the wearer\u2019s brain, which was why it had an internal backup battery that could power the device long enough to complete an emergency logout sequence and safely awaken the wearer from the artificially induced sleeplike state it placed them in while the headset was in use.<\/p>\n

So I had nothing to worry about. Nothing at all. Just a giant metal spider locked onto my skull, about to interface with my brain.<\/p>\n

I lay down on the blue velvet couch in the corner of my office and made sure that my body was in a comfortable sleeping position, as per the instructions. Then I took a deep breath and powered everything on.<\/p>\n

I felt a slight tingling sensation on my scalp. From reading the ONI documentation, I knew that the headset was performing a scan of my brain to map its unique geography. This scan would then be saved to my account so that it could be used to verify my identity in the future, in lieu of a retinal scan. A synthesized female voice prompted me to speak my passphrase. I recited it slowly, being careful to enunciate: Everybody wants to rule the world<\/i>.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Once it was verified, a tiny augmented reality display extended from the front of the headset and then locked into place in front of my left eye, like a monocle. Several paragraphs of text appeared, floating in the air in front of me, superimposed in the center of my vision:<\/p>\n

\n

Warning! For safety reasons, the OASIS Neural Interface headset can only be used for a maximum of twelve consecutive hours at a time. When this limit has been reached, you will be logged out of your account automatically, and you will be unable to use your ONI headset again until twelve hours of downtime have elapsed. During this mandatory downtime you are still free to access the OASIS using conventional immersion hardware. Tampering with or disabling your ONI headset\u2019s built-in security safeguards to exceed the daily usage limits can result in Synaptic Overload Syndrome and permanent neural tissue trauma. Gregarious Simulation Systems will not be held responsible for any injuries caused by improper use of the OASIS Neural Interface.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I\u2019d seen this safety warning in the headset\u2019s documentation, but I was surprised that Halliday had embedded it in the login sequence. It looked as though he\u2019d already made all of the necessary preparations to release the ONI to the public over eight years ago. But he\u2019d never actually done it. Instead, he\u2019d taken the secret of the ONI\u2019s existence with him to the grave. And now I had inherited that secret.<\/p>\n

I reread the warning a few times, working up my nerve. The part about permanent brain damage was unsettling, but it wasn\u2019t like I was being used as a guinea pig. According to the ONI documentation, GSS had already conducted a series of independent human safety trials on the ONI headset over a decade ago, and they\u2019d all shown that using it was completely safe, as long as the user adhered to the twelve-hour daily usage limit. And the headset firmware\u2019s built-in safety features made sure they did. So, I reminded myself once again, I had absolutely nothing to worry about\u2026.<\/p>\n

I reached out and tapped the Agree button beneath the safety warning. The system finished logging me in and text flashed in the center of my field of vision:<\/p>\n

\n

Identity verification successful.<\/p>\n

Welcome to the OASIS, Parzival!<\/p>\n

Login Completed: 11:07:18 OST\u20141.25.2046<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

As the timestamp faded away, it was replaced by a short message, just three words long\u2014the last thing I would see before I left the real world and entered the virtual one.<\/p>\n

But they weren\u2019t the three words I was used to seeing. I\u2014like every other ONI user to come\u2014was greeted by a new message Halliday had created, to welcome those visitors who had adopted his new technology:<\/p>\n

\n

READY PLAYER TWO<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Read the full book by downloading it below.<\/p>\n

DOWNLOAD EPUB<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Book Preview After I won Halliday\u2019s contest, I remained offline for nine straight days\u2014a new personal record. When I finally logged back in to my OASIS account, I was sitting in my new corner office on the top floor of the GSS skyscraper in downtown Columbus, Ohio, preparing to start my gig as one of … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[153],"class_list":["post-2651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ernest-cline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}