Chapter 4: Winner is Blank

Chapter 4: Winner is Blank

~Liam POV~

Fuck!

FUCK!!

FUUUK!!!

I HATE HORROR GENRES!!!

Running around the fucking maze of this so called death trap and nightmares of different elements I hate this moment in my life!

Slender Man.

Creepy Twin girls.

Ghosts.

Michael Myers.

Five Nights of Freddy.

Jason.

And so much worse…

*Shiver*

I question the fate of humanity after this but…

But anyway I managed to finally get to room 237 where the next key is located where I can find Kira… no not the killer but the girl this guy wanted to bang but didn't get the courage to dance with the girl.

Glancing at a remembering door in front of me of the movie I began to open the door I see a bunch of ghosts dancing around as I float around knowing what the next step to this plan to get rich.

Halliday's greatest fear wasn't The Shining or any book or movie.

His biggest fear was kissing a girl.

That's the leap he couldn't take if the movie was accurate enough.

That's the zombie circle level in Mayhem Mansion, one of Halliday's first games.

The whole Shining tribute is a diversion if people didn't figure that out but fuck those creepy things and twin girls.

Checking the time limit in this place I have about one minute left.

Time to take the leap of fate.

As I was now in front of Kira herself I began to clearly ask the girl ghost of Kira out, "Cool if I lead? Care to dance?"

Kira Ghost looked at me in surprise before she finally replied to my request in joy from the tone of her voice, "Do you know how long I've been waiting for you to ask?"

*Ding*

Like that she and the rest of the ghosts were now gone as the old wizard is now in front of me as he began to speak while giving me the Jade Key in the process, "Well, well, well. So you found... my... jade... key. Imagine that."

Da dun da dun!

Yup, that's the second key I got as I'm about to end this race soon enough as I managed to buy another teleportation crystal just to finish my speed run of this race to the finish and get me that money!

*CRACK*

*Vroom*

Cracking another crystal sphere I began to be enveloped in smoke as I was suddenly at my next destination to get the final Key to winning this so-called game at…

Planet Doom.

The third challenge is found in Castle Anorak on Planet Doom, where players must guess Halliday's favorite Atari 2600 game to earn the Crystal Key.

Planet Doom if I recall was from the Voltron series if I remember correctly as it was a popular series at the time of its appearance so it wasn't that bad and I could take some time to enjoy myself watching the series.

*Swoosh*

Bloody hell it's fucking cold though…

Wait isn't this whole entirely digital how does it... you know what don't question it.

Shaking my head I began to hurry up and begin to turn on the module of the Atari 2600 game to earn that Crystal Key.

Ah. How convenient for me to have the options of what video games to play in as I remember the main character chooses to play Adventure, winning the Crystal Key by locating Warren Robinett's Easter egg.

When I got closer to the game and started to play Adventure -

*Beep*

*Beep*

Until suddenly I saw a window pop up open as I see a person avatar I immediately recognized the main antagonist from the movie and owner of IOI currently Nolan Sorrento pop up as a big boss.

I let it happen as I'm already playing Adventure already doing the easter egg to find it.

Nolan Sorrento is the head of Innovative Online Industries and the main antagonist of Ready Player One. His objective is to find Halliday's Easter Egg by any means necessary so that he may take over and monetize the OASIS.

Sorrento is a cold, ruthless, manipulative, and calculating individual with the bare minimum regard for human life. He will employ underhanded or even illegal tactics to ensure that he (or any one of his employees under his command) gains control of the OASIS.

Along with blocking access to areas where keys and gates are located, as well as using rigged visors to switch control to another user or feed him information when he cannot solve a puzzle or complete a task, Sorrento will even plan and authorize the murders of any people who come closer to finding the egg than he does, as shown with the failed attempt at Wade's life and the successful attempt at Daito's life.

In other words… his a piece of shit.

A very wealthy piece of shit.

*DING*

"INCOMING LIVE STREAM!"

"[___] PLAYS FOR CRYSTAL KEY!"

"WILL [___] UNLOCK THE SECRET TO GSS?"

As I was busy beating the game Nolan began to talk to me in a frantic tone of his voice seeing how close I was to beating the game, "YOU! How did you figure out the key locations! How does a nobody like you just come up and walk to this and get it all!"

Progressing through Adventure I humored the large CEO of IOI to buy for some time as I shrugged my shoulders mocking him, "Hmm… not much really. I mean a literal kid could've figured this out. It was all elementary baby bitch. But that big money is all mine you superman knock off."

Glaring at me through the screens of my window his face was visibly angry as he didn't know how to get the other two keys as he tried to bargain with me, "How about this? If you win this for IOI as part of our employee and no even better! I'll give you 50 million in your account name right now! "

Yeah… no.

Why have 50 million when I can get 500 billion for winning this game?

Seriously how is he a big CEO or whatever in his company?

That is really bad business his doing.

But ignoring the man I have a game to win.

Warren Robinett was proud of Adventure.

He wanted people to know who was behind this.

That's why he created the first digital easter egg.

And to find it, you didn't even have to win.

You just had to blindly play.

Searching around.

In rooms for... an invisible... dot.

You took the dot back to the main screen and... that's when you found the first easter egg ever put in a video game.

The creator's name.

"WE HAVE A WINNER!"

The look on his face as the man paled through his avatar as I managed to fully distract him long enough for me to get the final Crystal Key as I spoke, "Yeah… nope. Why the hell would I ever do that? I mean who in their right mind would want 50 million when I can have half of a trillion dollars. So do me kindly and fuck off from your friendly neighborhood legend and speedrunner BLANK."

Before leaving the shocked guy I gave him the middle finger as a sign of fuck you.

It was the only polite way to do it.

For a self-centered asshole like him.

Like that a door suddenly appeared as I began to get inside hurrying up as I got the Crystal Key placed all the three keys I got.

When I did that the door soon fell down as I cancel the talk with Nolan but not as I enjoyed the look of despair on his face as I enter inside while I commented about the place, "Not bad. All the looks here is really cool."

*Fwoosh*

At that moment the avatar creator as he pointed me at the desk as he talks to me to sign the contract, "Now, you just sign this paper and the OASIS is yours. You will be its sole proprietor."

Shaking my head to the man as he smiles as he vanishes and another door appeared out of nowhere and I entered inside to see a normal room that has Halliday's avatar or A.I. in this place as he goes on about me being in control of the whole server of the OASIS.

Like that my time in this world would be all over soon enough as Halliday began to talk about the end of his life and control over the OASIS, "So now, it's the time for you to receive your prize because you won all three keys. Once you take this egg, the game... will be over. The egg. We know what you did here. You turn around, walk out of here while you still can."

Then the avatar of Halliday began to walk around till he finally reached the entrance or exit of this place as he began to talk to me about the reason why he created the OASIS, "I... I created the OASIS because I never felt at home in the real world. I just didn't know how to... connect with the people there. I was afraid for all my life. Right up until the day I knew my life was ending. Do you know that? That was when I realize that... as terrifying and painful as reality can be, it's also... the only place that... you can get a decent meal. Because... reality... is real. You understand what I'm saying?"

I just nodded agreeing to him easily enough as he shows me the egg and I got hold of it.

Like that it was Game Over.

…

…

*Vroom*

Once I took off the headgear to the game as I stretch out my body I next saw a flood of people I don't recognize I began to talk to myself about this, "Talk about damn time. Next up I should get the money from different regions of the states. That could be helpful enough."

At the outside of my window, I saw the guy Ogden Morrow appears, revealing that he is the Curator.

I couldn't help but smirk at this as this was simply the first step to becoming rich and replaying the events in another parallel world to get another half of a trillion dollars for me to have and I'll be good.

Then do it over again till I have a trillion dollars in other money regions with the minimal risk and speed run them.

Rinse and repeat.

Better use this time to have a plan of what to do next for the year and learn those languages…

Sigh…

Being a dimensional or multiverse shifter is rough.

Although time to spend some money!