Chapter One: Zero Hour
Wade felt himself snap back into attention when he heard his name called. Suddenly, a balding man in his fifties wearing a brown suit came into view. He had a concerned look on his face and his lips were curled into a half-frown as he stared straight into Wade's eyes.
"Shall we do this another time?" His steely voice asked. Wade appreciated his attempt at trying to sound nice and not annoyed that he clearly was not interested in the conversation. Wade nodded, and the man made a swift gesture and a bunch of hologram documents that were floating in the air all disappeared back into a small projector that was built into the desk they sat at. He could barely remember what they were discussing about, his thoughts had been drifting about heading into the Oasis with Sam and slaying dragons.
"Please Percy, if we could. At your earliest convenience." Percy stood up almost immediately from the response, and smiled at Wade. He was the head of the law division for GSS, and he was a man who did not dwindle.
"You're the CEO of GSS, I make myself available to your earliest convenience. Remember?" He snorted friendlily, and Wade was reminded of why Ogden Morrow had mentioned his lawyer was like a pit bull. Wade let out a soft chuckle.
"Still getting used to this stuff, sorry." He apologized automatically, running his hands over his face as if trying to scrub off the sleep deprivation he felt.
"You don't have to apologize. In fact, you shouldn't. How about I send you a shout tomorrow and we can pick up afterwards?" Percy extended a hand, and his smile that had still not left his face became even warmer. A strange sight since Wade had witnessed first hand how aggressive, and tactfully savage Percy could be in a courtroom.
Wade took it and mentally flinched at how strong Percy's grip was. "Thank you" he said as Percy turned and briskly left Wade's office.
As soon as the door closed he leaned back in his chair, it reclined and a floorboard opened slightly to allow the chair to sink a bit into the floor to allow him to stretch as far back as he wished. The chair, was a Terraform-2500. It was mounted onto a sphere into the ground, and could transform into an omni directional harness that attached to an Oasis haptic suit. In fact, he appreciated the fact that the whole room, despite there being desks, chairs, a small kitchen, file cabinets, couches, tvs, and gaming equipment scattered everywhere, could be transformed into the best Oasis gaming hub money had to offer.
Suddenly, a soft electrical discharge sound filled his ears. He recognized it immediately as the sound effect for the BFG 9000 in the original Doom games. That was his designated communication tone for Aech. He flicked a finger towards him from his desk, and a user interface shot up from the projector that showed a myriad of information. The interface was split into two sections. One section had news bulletins and videos, stock exchange numbers, political bills that were being voted on, financial statements of various companies, GSS server load statistics, and other real world information. The other section was Oasis related information, from a map of the whole Oasis, Oasis news, community forums and pages, videos of random planet hotspots, current suspected hackers and bots, possible criminal activities within the Oasis, and an arsenal of buttons and tabs that allowed Wade to view, access, or do virtually anything to the Oasis. He easily found himself looking at the Oasis section more than the other.
"Open Aech's commlink." Wade spoke, making sure he enunciated clearly and a window enlarged to cover a good chunk of the Oasis section. A separate camera captured tiny chip implants that were embedded on Wade's clothes and the outline of his body. It projected him as his avatar to Aech, showing Parzival was sitting at a desk in a private room in Castle Anorak on Cthonia. He smiled at the sight of his best friend. Aech was lying on his back, in a tight space in what Wade could only guess was some sort of vehicle he was working on. Aech's immaculate, young, caucasian face was in a close up, some sludge on his cheek.
"Z!" Aech exclaimed first before Parzival could say anything.
"Whatsup Aech?" He replied softly, his tone tired but happy.
"Just checking up on my favorite ex-gunter." He happily chimed, then cocked his head sideways and raised an eyebrow. "You look like shit Z, and I would know, I had an intense bathroom sesh after some burritos from Pablos."
Parzival broke out into a fit of laughter. Aech always knew what to say to make the mood lighter. "You're eating at Pablos, when you have enough money to buy Pablos?" He asked. "I may look like shit, but you're eating it."
"What can I say? I've got a weakness for cheap mexican food. So?" Aech responded, a bright electrical light suddenly exploded from somewhere off the camera, showering Aech with sparks. "Damnit!" He cussed, moving along what appeared to be the underside of some vehicle. "The parameters of this model didn't say there would be an electronic current there, what the balls?" Parzival watched as Aech opened up an interface off screen and scrolled through it.
"Oh duh!" Aech smacked his forehead. "I forgot that when they updated from 1.7 to 1.74 they implemented a few current pipes to offset the weak circulation to the frontal turrets due to cost effective wiring!" Aech chuckled to himself, rolling his eyes pretending to be an idiot at Parzival who raised an eyebrow. Aech smirked and gave him a sideways look. "Can you guess what I'm working on with just that much info?"
Parzival sighed and leaned back in his chair again, putting his hands behind his head as he kicked his feet up on the desk. Though there were literally billions of items in Oasis, only a very small number were exactly in the 1.7 iterations, and only one blueprint had information about any sort of electrical logistic patchwork. He fired back a confident look at his best friend.
"I'm guessing a Star Wars Republic LAAT Gunship?" Parzival asked, heavily confident in his answer. Aech grinned back at him. "Your noted interest with the Clones is your downfall." He added slyly.
"You got me!" Aech exclaimed, eyebrows squinting as he appeared to focus on something. "I'm just adding an interesting mod to the two personnel turrets attached to the side of the ship."
"You know Aech, you could just buy a new ship, equipped with whatever you want. You've got the dough."
"Yeah, but you know that's not my style. I like building things with my own hands, feels more personal, teaches me new things, ups my stats, and lets me add customizable things." He noted with a mischievous tone. "I might even get lucky with a legendary stat!"
"Customizable things like those huge saws on your Bigfoot monster truck?" Parzival asked, a teasing tone evident. He was referring to Aech's truck that he used whenever he rarely went deathmatch racing. The last memory was of Aech talking about racing courses similar to the one Halliday had created that they initially thought were a part of his hunt.
"Exactly my man!" Aech replied. "You get me!"
"You're the head of the creative department here, but you know if the stats on whatever you're doing don't check out I gotta balance it out right?" Parzival said, his tone first proud and friendly then noticeably dipping in enthusiasm.
"I know, Z don't worry. I've been crafting custom mods on vehicles for years. Years man! I know how it works. There's a credit to size, mass, power, abilities, and function ratio and if it exceeds certain predetermined thresholds it's flagged for review by the balance department. That of course, is in respect to level, rarity, and artifact bonuses. Which prevents rich bung-holes from just having the most powerful equipment available but still allows OP gear on the market. Old news!"
"Sorry, just a bit out of it. I should've known you knew what you were doing." Aech stopped what he was doing and gave Parzival a worried look.
"You do look really out of it Z, what's going on?" Parzival instantly felt a bit bad for how worried Aech sounded in his voice. He sighed, his eyes glazing over as he recounted his last couple of days.
"So much corporate stuff I have to deal with. Now I know why Halliday went into isolation and let the company run itself. I'm on the brink of doing it myself!" Parzival said, suddenly feeling his frustration leak out of his mouth. The words just came out one after another and he was greatful Aech calmly took it all in.
"IOI is still on my nerves, they're doing everything they can to exploit the terms and conditions of using the Oasis, battling any decision we make with an army of lawyers. Probably because they're salty about us shutting down their internment camps. Other companies are taking suit and using predatory sales practices and manipulative campaigns to rake in the dough while we're fighting IOI. There is a slew of deep web hackers and activity happening within the Oasis that our hackers and administrators can barely keep up with, not to mention the amount of criminal activity that happens in Oasis and on illegal private servers that promote dangerous sex practices and drug trade." Parzival found himself suddenly out of breath, everything he said coming out a mile a minute. Aech just nodded in sympathy.
"But you know what's really bugging me Aech? Ever since I won the competition interest in the '80s and the pop-culture of then is fading. Now that everyone isn't just hooked on everything Halliday was into, there are so many new tv shows, games, stories, gadgets, music and I'm stuck here living in the past. What little time I have to catch-up I feel is pointless." He remained leaning back in his chair, his eyes welling up and a little watery but he fought his hardest to keep them from building up anymore.
Aech fell silent, thinking about what he said. He slid out from under the gunship, and walked over to a workbench, leaning over it still looking directly at Parzival.
"Listen Z, the times are changing, new fads and public interest is gonna shift no matter what we do. There are so many trends that even though I have an infinite amount of free time more than you I still can't keep up! But that doesn't mean we're alone. Millions of ex-gunters who still enjoy Back to the Future, Robocop, The Jeffersons, Legos, Garfield, Centipede, Double Dragon, Gundam, Astroboy, all the big 80s things! Hell, Art3mis, Shoto and I still do!"
He took a moment, before continuing.
"Just because we're getting older, or our interests are outdated, doesn't mean we're wrong to like them. Halliday and Og enjoyed Dungeons and Dragons during a time where everyone loved sports and partying. Just because people don't like the same things you like, doesn't devalue the quality of what you love."
Parzival took a moment to let that sink in, and smiled at his friend. "Thanks Aech, you always know what to say." Aech nodded at him, his lips stretching back into his infamous cheshire grin.
"You just now figured that out?" Aech said, confidence spiking to an all time high. A second later, an exclamation mark popped into view on the side bar of Parzival's display and an alarm sound pinged throughout the office.
"Shit, gotta go Aech. Talk to you later." Aech straightened himself up, the camera following his face. He understood this happened often in their chats that the company required his attention.
"Let me know if you ne-" He was cut off when his chat window immediately shut off and a new window came out from the exclamation mark, replacing Aech. His avatar feed dissipated as he automatically logged off, and a live video call replaced it. A display of a young, petite woman who had her long blonde hair back in a ponytail appeared before Wade. She had a girl next door appearance. She was wearing a black space invaders t-shirt, blue jeans, and was sitting at a glass desk with the back wall behind her fully decorated with 80s themed pictures, pins, collectible action figures, and insignia. A sleek metallic name-tag was pinned to her shirt, with bright small letters showing "Andrea Porter, chief of hacker division."
"Good afternoon mister Watts, I'm sorry to interrupt you in the middle of your meeting but I'm afraid I have some pressing matters." She spoke professionally, her voice soft and a bit nervous.
"Hi Andrea, again, call me Wade or Parzival. Whatsup?" She blinked nervously, gulping as her cheeks tinged a little pink.
"I'm sorry mist-uh, Parzival," she hastily corrected herself mid-sentence opting for gamer tag which he was infamous for. "I need you to come down to the server floor as soon as you can, we have a huge problem."
Wade mentally groaned in his head. It was one thing after another. He just wanted to log into the Oasis and unwind with some fragging or something.
"What kind of problem?" He asked, unable and unwilling to hide the annoyance in his voice. Andrea's lip quivered slightly as her eyes looked away for a moment, and never really came back to meet his gaze though it landed somewhere on his face.
"Uhm, you see sir. We suspect Arthur Magellan created an unauthorized sector, planet, and has tampered with the Oasis source code." She spoke, looking on edge as she finished what she stated. Wade felt a pang of fear well up in his stomach. Arthur Magellan was one of three head programmers who actively worked for GSS, apart of a select few who had direct access to the Oasis code, and lead the team that was responsible for content, bug fixes, and balance. He also was one of the smartest people he knew, possibly even better at coding than Halliday. His thoughts began racing back and forth. Did he just go rogue?
Wade shifted uncomfortably in his seat, hunching forward towards the display. "Where is he now?"
Andrea's eyes darted around her empty desk, and gently tugged at her lip. In a way, Wade thought she looked kind of cute when she was really nervous. A strange thought to be entering his mind when this whole situation seemed dire, and he buried it quickly.
"I'm not sure. Time clock has him punching in sometime around nine AM, security feeds however don't show him exiting the floor. But when I checked in his office, he wasn't there. I'm guessing he also tampered with the security."
Wade narrowed his eyes, but sighed and nodded his head, "I'll be there." He spoke firmly and closed the window, making a wave with his hand and the display center turned off. His heart began pounding in his chest, incredibly worried about where this will lead. He stood up out of his chair and made his way out of his office, the only room on the top floor of the GSS headquarters and briskly paced to the elevator. From his office to the elevator was a long marbled room that was littered with arcade games, snack and drink machines, a bathroom, and plenty of top of the line Oasis bays in the middle of the room. At the end of the hallway, two armed guards wearing iconic terminator sunglasses, black leather jacket and pants stood at guard with assault rifles. As he approached them, they both stood up straighter nodding to Wade.
"Nice night for a walk, eh?" One of them said, his voice grizzled. Wade knew these two guards very well, and responded promptly the next line of dialogue of Terminator.
"Nice night for a walk." He replied. Their faces were chiseled, their frames stout and muscular conveying brute men who did not mess around. But in this particular moment, both of them gave him a huge smile. Wade was comforted that his beefy guards seemed friendly and human enough, even if only for a second. The ding of the console alerted him that the elevator reached his floor, and he entered, turning around as the doors closed to face them.
"Server Floor, B13." He said aloud, and the words 'Server Floor B13' appeared on a display above the door.
"C-C-Clearance required for that floor bucko!" a glitchy albeit cheery business sounding voice emanated from the elevator. Wade smiled, he had installed the system agent software as the program running most non-confidential tasks in the GSS building. It was modeled after Max Headroom, and was the voice he had grown accustomed to over the years when he was hunting for Halliday's egg. He had used Max to maintain his morning routine and private base operations on Oasis for so long, he couldn't get rid of him.
"Shove it Max." Wade quipped quickly. There was a flash of light as the elevator scanned the holding room just to make sure it was Wade, in that millisecond tiny sensor cameras embedded in the corners captured his skin and voice pattern, posture, hair color, fingerprint, retina scan, and even his odor.
"Meanie." The voice replied suddenly ridiculously high pitched, and the elevator began to descend to floor B13.
The elevators walls were made of glass, and in an odd way, Wade felt like the building was swallowing him as if he was in a food capsule sinking through the GSS HQ building. Floors whizzed passed him of various types. GSS was not your average building, though there were floors dedicated to standard departments including legal, marketing, customer service, human resources, accounting, and research. Every other floor was dedicated to quality of life. On one floor was an entire swim park, another was dedicated to real sports courts like tennis and basketball (though Wade preferred the Oasis versions), a myriad of cafeterias and restaurants, amusement park rides (Wade admitted it seemed superfluous since you could ride much better contraptions in the Oasis but you couldn't simulate the real force of gravity without using a lot of space), and even parks!
As the elevator began to pass the ground floor and the glass windows of the elevator filled with dirt, Wade felt the chill of cooler temperature seep into the compartment. Reinforced steel doors whizzed passed his view before the elevator slowed down, eventually to a crawl as he reached floor B13.
"We've arrived at your d-d-destination!" Max cheerfully stuttered. A series of mechanical gears began loudly churning as the unlocking sequence of the complicated network of locks and pistons initiated. Wade waited patiently for the door to open, only doing so for those who were allowed to open it. "Server Floor B13!" Max exclaimed as Wade exited onto the floor.
His initial intent was to investigate Arthur's office and he had a bad feeling about what he was going to find there. When the doors opened, he was greeted with towering banks of state of the art servers, sleek and shining matte black. Interlaced on the outer shell were glowing blue and red lit tiny coils that blew cold air into the servers in dust-clearing directions, and red coils were exhaust vacuums. Together they kept the servers relatively cool, in addition to the cool temperature controlled room. There were dozens upon dozens of rows of them in this singular room, and they helped run the majority of GSS functions, and limited Oasis networks. Halliday had made sure that Oasis was a peer-to-peer styled service, where the load of the servers were shared with the rigs of each player who was logged on, borrowing their networking and processing power to ensure the Oasis never failed. He was happy for that.
Two guards armed with automatic rifles stood posted at the elevator door, flanking Wade as he stepped out onto the floor. Both nodded in unison to greet the CEO of GSS curtly. Cameras above eyed him on a heavily protected in-circuit feed, along with armed robotic drones that flew above patrolling the room for any unauthorized personnel.
Standing in front of him, digital clipboard in hand was Andrea and two other similarly dressed black space invader t-shirted middle aged men. Wade had not enforced a dress code onto his hackers/programmers, but he offered a credit incentive if they uniformly dressed like Halliday. It was small touches like these here and there that he did to pay homage to the man who gave him everything.
"Mister-" Andrea started, before Wade loudly interjected with a cough, walking past her and towards Arthur's office. She followed him, the other two men following behind her as she struggled to keep up with Wade. A security drone detached from the wall above them and automatically escorted them. The purr of its motors buzzing overhead kept Wade at ease despite the growing feeling of despair in his stomach.
"Sorry. Parzival. Our programmers have been trying to figure out how he implemented his code outside of the normal security protocols. The code he entered into the Oasis has been intertwined into vital Oasis source code, he's used methods I've never even seen before."
"I've double-checked the other two head-programmers and they still have their security keys so he was able to tamper with the code outside of the implementation process." said one of the middle aged men, who reminded Parzival of a battle toad with his extremely slanted eyebrows, popping eyes, and long mouth.
Whenever patch updates would roll-out into the Oasis, after they of course were heavily scrutinized by the many departments of GSS, they had to be implemented to the source code in a very particular manner. The manner, which included a series of complicated steps involving a separate secure room with it's own defense matrix, had the only computer that could tamper with the source code. That computer, could only be unlocked if all 3 keys were inserted into a console before the computer would come out of it's lock box. Wade had made it this way, to honor Halliday's hunt. All 3 keys were replicas of the keys in the hunt, with Arthur owning the Crystal Key. Being the brilliant hacker he was, Wade's surprise that he was able to access the mainframe outside of this procedure was not unimaginable.
"Evidence that backdoor methods were used?" Wade asked as they made their way through the network of servers. He was suspicious that GSS somehow had contracted hackers who sold backdoor programs out on the black market like IOI did. Though the maze of server banks was huge, he could still orient himself to the right direction because of the color coding of the ceiling. On the North, East, and West sides of the floor were hallways that led to the offices of the programmers, hackers, game developers, and other important staff. Arthur was in the Northern wing.
"None sir, we've triple checked with third-party code protection software, along with personal checks with Evelyn and Dexter. They're in his office right now trying to break into some encrypted files he has on his hard drive. They just started a couple minutes ago, but there's been no progress so far." The other middle-aged hacker said, a balding man with thick glasses and a bulging stomach. Wade felt that bad feeling begin to stir again in his stomach if his other two head programmers Evelyn and Dexter had checked and found no visible vulnerabilities within the security systems.
"You said he created a new sector and planet? Show me." Wade mentioned and Andrea tapped something on her clipboard and a bright light shined out of her clipboard in front of them as they walked.
The display had a miniature view of the entire Oasis universe, in a 3x3x3 grid reminiscent of a Rubik's cube. The way Halliday intended it to be. Wade scanned the area, his attention moving over to a pocket of space that appeared on the southern edge of sector 23 just before Andrea highlighted it. Wade felt good that his senses were still sharp despite his lack of playtime in the Oasis.
"Zoom in." He said, and she double tapped her clipboard. The display shot forward, light-hours of space was crossed in milliseconds to reveal a giant planet, large clouds that seemed like dust storms loomed over its brown exterior. In the distance, there was a hovering orbital space station near the planet. Andrea had already selected both of the objects for analysis, but the toolbox that connected from them read "Invalid Action." Arthur most likely put in a way to prevent them for tampering or inspecting his section of the Oasis using administrative tools. Wade swallowed hard, his worries piling up in his head.
They crossed the threshold into the Northern wing and turned the last corner to see at the end of the hallway was Arthur's office. Several programmers stood outside it's door, giving wide berth to the three rather bulky guards who stood to block the entrance. One programmer turned her head and saw them all heading towards them and squeaked, alerting the others. They scattered, escaping into adjacent hallways.
"Keep it on standby." Wade ordered and Andrea stowed the display as they reached the guards. Two immediately parted sideways in either direction, the middle one smiling at Wade before extending a hand. He shook it.
"Good to see you Anton." Wade said, eyeing the 300-pound 6'3 Roman man. Though he stood shoulder to shoulder to the other guards, the Roman had this presence that made him at least twice more intimidating them either of them. His eyes were as sharp as his jawline, he had short cropped military cut brown hair, and donned a tight fitting business attire in contrast to the terminator clothes Wade asked the other guards to wear. Wade felt safer knowing he was on his side.
"Wade." He greeted, his voice as heavy as an anchor and carried with it the feeling of a man who fought a thousand wars. The kind of voice that is comforting but scary at the same time.
"Have you found Arthur?" Wade asked and Anton frowned, shaking his head.
"Not yet sir. We've done several perimeter sweeps, both with men and drones." He eyed the security drone flying above them. "Speaking of which-" He drew a handgun and shot the drone in such a swift motion Wade barely caught it. His skin crawled from the loud gunshot, and he flinched from Andrea screaming in surprise and jumping, along with the gasps of the other two programmers behind her.
Anton had single handedly shot the battery bank of the drone with perfect precision, sparks exploded out of it as it spun out of control. It circled horizontally before diving right at Wade. His instincts began to fire into motion, beckoning him to react but his vision was cut out by a large mass. Anton stepped in front of him, catching the drone in as swift of a motion as he had drawn his weapon. He dropped it to the ground, a loud scratching of mechanical screeching as it's many parts hit the solid cement floor. Afterwards, he turned back at the young CEO.
"Sorry about that, are you alright sir?"
"WHAT is your problem!?" Andrea exploded from behind Wade. She stormed up to Anton and poked him in the chest, her sudden ferocity surprising seemingly everyone but the two other programmers and Anton. "You just blew up company property, and you could've at least warned us before you fired a gun right above our heads!" She poked him again with her dainty finger, but he didn't seem all that fazed. He narrowed his eyes a little, staring right at her.
"A hacker just broke through one of the most sophisticated security systems I've ever seen, and I've worked for homeland security and the military. You think I'm going to trust anything electronic at this moment that has a weapon on it? Especially if it runs on code?" Anton's voice remained stoic, but it didn't deter the intimidating impact his voice carried. Andrea shrunk, her fiery persona dimming slightly.
"Why didn't you just turn them off, Chief of Security?" A slight bit of venom dripped from her words when she stated his title. Anton still didn't seem all that bothered, but raised his arm to show her his wrist. Wrapped around it, was an ornate silver smart watch, that repeatedly flashed the word: "ERROR."
"I would have, but as you can see I cannot. I, among any other personnel with clearance are effectively locked out of the system."
"What?" Andrea raised her arm, pulling back her sleeve to reveal a similar watch that was creamy white. It did not have the same screen flashing on it's face.
"I just accessed the security feed earlier to look for Arthur and-"
"Basic operational inputs are functional to make the system appear to be working as intended, but as soon as anyone tried to look deeper into the problem, like seeing who had accessed the security mainframe in the last 24 hours, a full system wide shut off initiated." Anton interjected. Andrea tapped on the display of her watch, a few seconds later the same screen that was on Anton's was mirrored on her own. She hissed in frustration, muttering something under her breath.
"What's on his computer?" Wade asked, putting himself into the conversation and steering it away from the semi-hostile tension between the two.
Anton switched gears, stepping backward and allowing Wade to come into Arthur's office. Wade walked forward, the other three following but two hands from the other two security personnel swiftly stopped them from entering.
"It's okay, let them come in." Wade said, and the guards side stepped out of the way to allow the other three programmers to follow.
Arthur's office wasn't different from the standard programmer suites that were given to GSS computer science inclined employees. An ornate steel desk was in the corner with a leather chair, that faced a wall that had 6 built in monitors stacked in a 2x3 pattern. Adjacent to the desk along the same wall was a counter that had a small kitchen. There was a sink, a fridge, cupboards, a microwave, and oven, and an electric stove. Opposite of the room was an Oasis Bay very similar to the one Wade has in his room. The only difference was that the walls were plastered with holograms, posters, and action figures of zombie themed paraphernalia.
There were two people standing next to Arthur's desk inputting commands in a frenzied paste. One was a red haired woman whose curly hair bloomed in all directions. She was standing at the end of the desk with a laptop that had several cords connecting to Arthur's computer, a bunch of windows open on her screen were filled with text running rapidly across them. She reminded Wade of Ms. Frizzle from the old cartoon 'The Magic School Bus.'
The other individual who was utilizing Arthur's computer had all 6 monitors displaying a dizzying amount of programs all running at the same time. It appeared like several programs were running in tandem with each other, processes were cycling as windows appeared and disappeared at fast speeds that Wade couldn't interpret. The man had unkempt brown hair, thin glasses that rested barely on his nose, and a beard that extended beyond his neck. Both programmers were rather thin looking, evident by the same black space invaders and blue jean attire they wore. They were the other two head programmers who respectively held their own keys, each had their key strapped around their neck.
"Hey Evelyn and Dexter." Wade greeted. They both turned their heads swiftly at him, Evelyn smiling and rushing over while Dexter waved a hand and nodded in greeting.
"Good to see you sir!" Evelyn cheered in a high pitched voice. She certainly had an 80s hippie accent that entertained Wade. He found her optimism always pleasant, and was reminded that Andrea had told him that she immediately liked Wade better than Halliday since Halliday had fired her for not remembering some obscure 80s pop culture reference. Ogden had rehired her of course but she never really get over it, his friendly attitude towards her seemed to keep her in a good mood with him.
"Good to see you too Evelyn. So tell me what's on his computer." Wade said, quickly getting to business. The group moved over to his computer, standing adjacent to Dexter. Dexter typically kept to himself, the times he did come by his office or have calls with him he remembered his office was decorated with a lot of metal band fanfare. He was a nice guy who just happened to love metal.
As soon as Wade stepped within a few feet of his computer, a tiny camera shot out of Arthur's desk, immediately scanning Wade and the others. It was custom protocol to unlock the functionality of the computer, but it was strange that it done that despite being already logged into by administrators.
"Parzival identified." An electronic voice spoke from hidden speakers in the room. Anton and the other two guards acted instinctively, with Anton making a move to grab Wade.
"Hold on Anton." Wade interjected, and the lights in the room began to dim. Nothing else had begun to move, so he wagered Arthur did not have any physical intent to harm him. At least, as of right now.
"That's new." Dexter commented, his voice deep, but hoarse like he hadn't drank any water for the last two days.
"What's going on?" Andrea asked. Evelyn shrugged, her curiosity and intuition driving her to look everywhere around the room for any moving parts. Anton and the other two guards didn't pull Wade out of the room, but they stood near him with their hands on their pistols just in case.
After a moment a light flashed in the middle of the room, an image of Arthur's avatar shot out of a projector embedded in the ceiling. It showed the face of a man with short blonde hair slicked back by gel. He wore sunglasses, had a bony nose, and a square jaw. His avatar wore a black trench coat that had a folded collar, along with a tight shirt, belt, pants and shoes that were all jet black. Wade instantly knew what his avatar was. Albert Wesker from the Resident Evil series.
"Good afternoon Parzival and guests. I assume that by now you've noticed the little project that I have been working on in the Oasis has come into fruition." He gave a dark smile, and despite not being able to see his eyes Wade had a distinct feeling the avatar was staring right at him.
"Don't bother trying to tamper with what I've done, as if you try too hard you'll find that things might break more than they're fixed." Wade felt the flush of heat and the nauseous feeling fill him to the brim. He began to sweat and he had to remind himself to breathe. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to calm himself down. It was happening again. Wade was very familiar with being targeting after he had won Halliday's competition. Most were empty threats, and the few that tried were easily subdued by his security. He had a terrible feeling that Arthur however would not be as easy to deal with it.
"You see, I was inspired by Halliday's little Easter egg hunt. And I was incredibly impressed with your performance Parzival." The avatar tilted his head down so his eyes could be seen, they had a sinister look to them. Wade gulped silently as his eyes met Wesker's. It was a mixture of maniacal admiration that reminded him of an obsessed fan.
"I was so inspired, that I had to make a competition of my own for you!" Wesker's voice was noticeably louder as he rose his arms towards the sky, a large grin plastered on his face as he looked towards the ceiling with intensely zealous eyes and his mouth agape like he had received divination. He reminded Wade of a religious nutbag, which was strange because Arthur had not given any signs of this type of personality. Arthur was quiet and typically kept to himself, and whenever did have to speak or present he was courteous and polite.
"But I needed to make it worth the time and effort of the most notorious gunter, who defeated IOI's vast resource and numbers. But how, how would I do such a thing? A man who has everything! A man who has money, who has power, who controls the world!" His arms suddenly dropped, and he took off his shades to give Wade a devilish smile.
"You threaten to take that away." He held up his hand, and a circle began to materialize above it. Wade felt the blood leaving his face as he began to recognize what the circle was.
"Know what this is?" Wesker asked, a rhetoric tone to his voice.
"How…" Wade begin to ask, as he eyed a big red button that appeared above his hand. That was the button Halliday had shown him behind the book of a bookcase inside castle Anorak, the place only he had access to. The button that, if pressed would destroy the Oasis.
"What is that?" Andrea and Dexter asked simultaneously.
"How did you get that?" Wade asked, ignoring the both of them.
Wesker shrugged, waving his hand and the button de-materializing in the air. He paced back and forth as he begun to explain, his expression neutral but somehow still creepy.
"I've been digging around in the Oasis source code covertly for some time, laying my plans a little here and there, before I had found it. It took me a long time to trace and piece the code all together. Halliday was such a genius, the way he made it was nothing short of pure amazing brilliance. I don't have direct access to the one you have Parzival, but since I saw the code… I reverse engineered it and created my own."
Wade gulped. Arthur had found the code for the worm Halliday constructed and created his own. He could destroy the Oasis at any given whim, at any given time. He struggled to keep his feet upright, and was glad everyone had their eyes on Arthur's avatar.
"Now that I have your attention, we come to my little competition." Wesker took a step sideways, and the image of the new sector he had created appeared before them.
"Sector 28, on the southern edge of sector 23, a few thousand kilometers from planet Zullidan." An image of the large brown planet and the orbiting space station zoomed in much like from Andrea's clipboard. Before Wade could ask, Wesker continued.
"So what do you have to do for my little competition? Simple. If at least one person can survive a hundred Oasis days on my planet, I'll push this button." Wesker held out a hand, and a large blue button materialized above it, slowly circling. As it circled, the other side revealed an embossed two large white letters "GG."
"Once I press this button, you'll find sector 28 disappear, along with my version of Halliday's worm." Wesker said, smiling. "In addition, I'll also destroy Halliday's worm as well, as I've figured out a better way to do what he asked, and replace it with a more encrypted and discrete version just as a way of rewarding you."
"How do we know you'll actually do that?" Anton asked immediately after Wesker finished speaking. He eyed the Roman brute and snorted with a smirk.
"You don't. But you'll just have to trust me. I like to think I'm a generous man." Wesker began to laugh maniacally, and the room felt uneasy. No one moved a muscle.
"That's all we have to do?" Wade asked, breaking out from the protective circle of his guards to address Wesker directly. "We just have to get one person to survive a hundred days on your planet?"
"But of course it won't be easy as you can imagine, but yes that is all you have to do" He nodded promptly. His avatar eyed Dexter and Evelyn and the display of sector 28 vanished. An image displaying the personal information of everyone in the room popped up. The programmers all gasped, while Wade distinctively heard Anton growl for a second.
"If you try to circumvent what I have done not only will I destroy the Oasis. But I'll destroy anyone who tries, and believe me when I say I have the resources, the means, and the will to do so." He threatened. Then, a news report appeared on the display. A news reporter from the local news channel was reporting on an accident that involved someone falling onto the tracks of a subway train system. They had not survived.
"No!" Evelyn cried out, as she burst out into tears. The news reporter identified the body of one Katie Card, a french programmer who worked for GSS. She was a close friend of Evelyn, and Wade remembered seeing them actively eat together during lunches and spending time together in the Oasis.
"You monster. Once I get my hands on you, you're dead!" Andrea screamed, standing right up to Wesker's avatar. A part of his projection was bleeding onto her clothes, but her furious feelings denied her the ability to care.
"She discovered my plans and threatened to reveal my project today after spending days trying to get me to stop. Sweet girl, but despite my warnings she had sent an email to you Parzival, which I had to capture before it was properly sent." Wesker folded his arms. "You know how serious I am now."
Wade was frozen in place, his brain flooding with emotions and anxiety. This was an all too familiar feeling, resurfacing and reminding him of when he dealt with IOI during the hunt. The way they had threatened him, his friends, and killed his family and innocent bystanders. But he grew thicker skin ever since then, as the new CEO of GSS he wouldn't allow for anyone else to get hurt. He was going to do what was needed to be done.
"I'll do it Arthur. But on one condition."
"You're in no place to negotiate, but I'm listening." Wesker replied, arms still folded but a nearly unnoticeable excitement about his behavior.
"I'll make sure that no one tries to interrupt what you've set up, as long as you promise me that if someone does try... you talk to me first before you do anything. Okay? I can't account for the actions of people of who I have no control over" Wade asked, he tried to sound stern but he couldn't help that he felt like he was pleading.
Wesker's hand came up to his chin as he pondered what Wade asked for a moment. Then his eyes shifted slowly to Wade, a devilish glint remained in them.
"You make sure no one interrupts what I've set up or you'll find that they pay severe consequences. You can do that by letting them know that if they try, they're dead." Wesker responded, his tone serious. He turned to Evelyn and Dexter. "Don't worry, you two trying to hack into my computer to access the files I have on there is irrelevant, there's nothing noteworthy left on there so you two are safe, unless you do anything else from here on out that annoys me."
The display of the news feed disappeared, and there was a zoomed in visual of Wesker's face. He watched them all intently, before resting his gaze on Wade.
"I'll allow you to research me, just as much as you've researched Halliday in hopes of figuring out what it is I truly want." He spoke. "Doesn't this sound fun and exciting!" He exclaimed suddenly, his hand gesturing out to his planet like he was a god who had given a gift to mortals. The noticeable lack of response didn't seem to phase him, if at anything it satisfied him.
"Good luck, Parzival. I'll be watching, listening, and waiting." Then, Arthur's avatar disappeared. Silence filled the room following his departure, as eyes slowly traveled to Wade. His mind was wrapped in thoughts.
"Sir?" Anton asked, facing him. "Your orders?"
Wade nodded his head a few times, as if steeling his resolve on a plan he had not yet made public. He raised up his arm, revealing an armband similar to Anton's. It didn't have a flashing "ERROR" message on it, as he had not tried to access any security functionality. Raising the armband near his mouth he took a sigh before speaking as clearly as he could.
"Call Art3mis, Shoto, and Aech." He made his way towards the door. "Andrea, get marketing and human resources to call the top five ranks of every official competition mode available in Oasis and round them up, don't tell them anything other than that I asked for a meeting of the greatest minds. Anton, I need one of your staff to get me everything on Arthur, through legal means and not. I want to know his whole history, and everything he's ever done, or accomplished." He eyed the rest of them. "The rest of you, follow me. We're headed to the Oasis bays on my floor."
Wade cracked his knuckles, Andrea and Anton immediately getting to work, while the rest of the room huddled up behind him as he lead the out of the office.
"We're going to assemble the greatest video gaming minds and finish this before it get's out of control."
Thanks for reading! Be sure to let me know how you feel about the story so far. I kind of wrote this in a super hurry because I finished the book recently on Audible and my mind has been racing with ideas!