A/N: Thanks for waiting for my second chapter! Progress and planning for the third chapter is already in progress. Be sure to tell me what you think!


Samantha Cook wiped the sweat off her forehead with the back of her arm, then folded them as she leaned back to admire her handiwork. She was drenched in sweat, the night did no favors by baking her in its intense summer humidity. The worn leather operators chair of the construction crane vehicle she was working in had soaked a good portion, and felt cool if not a little gross.

Her eyes wandered up and down the frame of her latest efforts. A tall, minimalist concrete building with various jagged angles stood in front of her. It was spotlighted by crossing beams of heavy duty commercial lights. She smiled at the bright orange letters that read "GSS Ecological and Humanitarian Services."

The sound of a few construction vehicles were still humming about, the beeping of one in reverse echoed through the construction zone, which was fenced off for the safety of others as it was on the outlier of an urban city in France. She was among the few who were still on the worksite, the shift had ended hours ago before the sun had set.

Samantha had taken it upon herself to be directly involved in the construction of the seventh humanitarian building GSS had built this year. She hated being behind a desk, the thought of crunching numbers and delegating was completely not her forte. She preferred to be hands on with her efforts. As she sat there, her thoughts drifted to Halliday's hunt, and about how she heavily relied on herself to be the first to find the first and second egg. She didn't want to be involved, she needed to be involved.

As she began to reminisce, she thought of how she had come to lead the charge of GSS's world helping division. When Wade won the contest, he took a look at GSS's charitable efforts and found that while it existed, it was only for public perception. They gave money to charities here and there to stay in a good image, but did not have a dedicated department. So he made one, and appointed her as the director, since he knew how she would have spent her wealth if she had won the contest.

Once appointed, she had immediately gone to work on trying to make the world a better place, with her current efforts placing her in the middle of France, about 50 miles or so from Paris in the city of Sens. The city had been the victim of degrading electricity, water, and air quality so she poured all her time into improving the quality of life here. This effort unearthed many other issues and problems that plagued France, and their neighbors so she decided to build an operational center here.

An alert on her armband flashed propelling her from her thoughts. The sound of an electronic guitar striking a chord from Journey's 'Don't Stop Believing' song alerted her that Wade was trying to contact her. Looking down, his image was sporting a dorky winking face that warmed her heart.

"Connect." She spoke, and the projector in her armband dazzled to life on demand, shooting an image of Wade's face out a few feet from her suspended in mid-air. She felt a pang in her chest as her heart sunk a bit, recognizing the worried look he had on his face as he was walking briskly.

"Hey babe, whatsup?" She casually greeted him, her lips naturally curling into a smile. She would let him reveal his problems and not poke about it unless he wanted to.

"Hey Sam." He replied, the audio muting as he turned away from her and addressed something or someone. He turned back and the audio resumed. There was a split second where she heard a females voice, before the background cancellation software in his armband faded it to nothing.

"Something bad happened at GSS. Do you know where Akihide and Helen are?" He started, she noticed a line of sweat formed above his brow and his eyes kept darting back and forth. He was engaged with several things off the screen, of which Sam guessed to be people around him. She picked up on him calling out Shoto and Aech by their real names, which he only referred to them as such when things were serious.

"What kind of bad? Also no I haven't heard from either of him." She asked, sitting upright in her sweat soaked chair.

"Oasis and GSS in trouble kind of bad." He told her, turning away again and with an annoyed face saying something quick before turning his attention to her. His face began to zoom out, and his whole body slowly came into view. He was probably in his office and transferred the communication link to his office.

"Sorry, lots of planning right now. But I'm alone now. How are you?" He asked, his voice growing softer and warmer, a worrisome grin on his face as he stared into her eyes with comfort.

"I'm fine, but what's this about the Oasis and GSS in trouble? IOI up to something again?" She responded. She would push the romantics aside for now to try to keep him focused on the task at hand. He still often sidetracked whenever he spoke with her, often barely keeping a professional tone in lieu of being a funny loveable doofus.

"No, but just as bad. One of my head programmers, went Hal on me and hacked into the Oasis and created a new sector and planet. He's issued a challenge to us, threatening that if we can't complete it he's going to destroy the Oasis. He's also killed another programmer, Katie."

Sam gulped, processing the information. She didn't necessarily involve herself with anything technology related within GSS unless her work required the assistance, but even then she remembered the young and cheerful Katie.

Adjacent to her screen showing her boyfriend, another video appeared that he sent to her. It was a recording of the news broadcast about Katie's death, ruled later as an apparent suicide. This was reminding her too much of a similar incident she had experienced, a chill crept up her spine as the memories began to resurface.

"It's just like Daito." She breathed, unable to wane the fear in her voice.

When they were hunting for Halliday's egg, IOI had bombed where Wade had lived in hopes of killing him after tracking down where he lived. They had done the same to Daito, after acquiring the location of where he was right in the middle of a battle during the trial of the second key on planet Frobozz where they had to complete a recreation of the Zork Quest to attain the jade key. They barged into his apartment, and threw him off his balcony. Shoto had never forgiven Nolan and IOI for that.

"Yeah, Arthur could be worse though. He was able to circumvent all the security measures we had to tamper with the Oasis source code. Dexter and Evelyn have no idea on how to begin to unweave the intricate defense he's set up, and they're afraid to try because he already knows all our personal information. With that kind of brilliance-"

"He could blackmail and extort anybody." Sam interjected, finishing his thought. Wade nodded, throwing his hands in the air.

"He could find some video of a cop cheating on his wife, a powerful senators dirty secret, some other billionaire's dirty fetish! If they've got internet access, he probably could break into it and fish out whatever secrets they got!" He yelled in frustration, finally finding his way to his chair and stuffing his face in his hands and then pounding the table with a clenched fist.

"IOI was able to figure out where we all lived with their limited intelligence, who knows what Arthur is capable of?"

"Are you going to call the police? Possibly even get in touch with your contacts with the FBI or CIA? Maybe some third party military organization? They probably have brilliant hackers too." Sam asked. Wade had certainly entertained the option, especially since he worked closely with the FBI and NSA since there was a lot of crimes perpetrated on Oasis. He was sure they dealt with situations like this.

Before he could respond there was a small power shortage that passed through his office. Sam's image froze for a bit and the lights flickered. That never, ever happened. In fact, that couldn't happen. A grim realization slowly crept up Wade.

"What was that?" Sam asked, noticing the freeze and momentary darkness. He thought for a moment, wondering if there was a momentary lapse in the power grid. But, GSS had their own power generated sources so that didn't make sense. The timing of everything was too coincidental, it had to have been on purpose.

"Arthur. He's probably listening to us right now." Wade whispered, barely audible as his eyes darted to the cameras that were in the room. There were far too many.

"Seriously!?" Sam shouted. "Fuck you Arthur!" She cursed without warning, feeling a welling heat rise up in her chest as her temper flared.

"Babe." Wade said sharply, trying to calm her down and remind her of how sensitive the situation is.

Sam growled, before muting the call and spewing a string of insults. Wade couldn't help but smile at his girlfriend's furious antics. He couldn't help but feel attracted to the way her brows furrowed, and the energy she exhibited in her fit of rage. She was passionate about a lot of things, and that was one of the things he truly loved about her.

"If he could extort anyone, it's safe to say he could probably do it with the government too. I'm sure that was his way of letting us know he could." Wade said pulling his attention back into business, trying to get her attention. He pulled at the collar of his shirt, suddenly feeling how sweaty he was and how flushed his skin was. When had it gotten so hot? Maybe all of the events and the fear began to toll on his body.

"You know he could be bluffing." Sam whispered, unmuting herself and speaking with a hushed tone. She had a fierce look in her eyes, as if looking to him to validate her hypothesis.

"He has killed Katie, I don't think I could take that chance with anyone else." His voice became sullen, the memories of his past resurfacing. He had lost so many people in his life already, and he was tired of all the unnecessary deaths that had been caused because he was in someone's crosshairs. This had to end. Now.

"What does he want?" She asked, realizing now she had not done so already.

"He has created a new sector and planet, south of sector 23. This megalomaniac was inspired by Halliday and created some competition."

Sam raised an eyebrow, a confused expression on her face.

"What kind of competition? Like a contest? What do you have to do?" Wade heard her ask it in an annoyed voice, but he swore he sensed a sense of curiosity and excitement.

"All he's told us is that we one player has to survive on the planet he's created for a hundred days?"

Sam stroked her chin, leaning back into the chair as she thought deeply about what Wade asked.

"Survive? What does that mean? Like a gauntlet or something? But then what does he mean by a hundred days? Continuously logged on? A hundred days as the leader of something?" She berated him with questions. She opened her mouth to continue but Wade took that moment to cut her off.

"I don't know, Sam. I just found out. We're creating a party to go investigate the planet, that's why I tried to get everyone together." Her eyes lit up, she jolted out of her seat forward, her face magnifying so fast the software took a moment to recalibrate her back to normal size.

"I'm on my way, my hotel is about half an hour drive away, but I'm going to go to an Oasis cafe nearby instead. See you on Oasis!" She turned off the chat in a hurried frenzy. Wade blinked staring at the "partner disconnected" screen for a moment before it dissipated. He shook off a feeling of disbelief. Was she excited at the prospect of the Oasis being in danger?

A knock on the door broke him out of his thoughts.

"Sir?" A deep muffled voice from outside asked. It was Anton.

"Yeah?" Wade shot back, he had just made it to his chair and was about to sit down. He leaned heavily against the desk, taking a deep sigh hoping it wasn't more bad news.

"We couldn't get in contact with Shoto or Aech, but we've sent them messages detailing them about the situation and about our next course of action. A handful of the tops of leaderboards aren't online or haven't responded to our message, but some have agreed to meet us. Two of them happened to be nearby and have been vetted and escorted into the lobby area. The rest of us are awaiting your orders."

"Give me a second, I'll be there." He responded to Anton. He acknowledged him formally before walking away. Wade listened for the landfalls of his feet to fade away before sighing heavily. He frowned. His girlfriend, Samantha, left him hanging, his best friend was nowhere to be found, and his only other close friend Shoto was probably busy.

His thoughts drifted to his younger asian friend. Akihide Karatsu was the digital brother of Toshiro Yoshiaki, and was definitely more forthcoming and social than his other half. He had taken to the death of Daito very painfully, becoming more engrossed in taking down IOI than the hunt. The competition had spurred IOI to feed their inner evil, of which Shoto made sure they reaped what they had sown. During the battle at the final gate, Nolan Sorrento and IOI had received a bunch of powerful mech-vehicles for completing the second gate. Nolan of course, was in the nearly indestructible Mechagodzilla, while there were ten other mechs that IOI had piloted. Parzival, Art3mis, Shoto, and Aech all had their own respective mechs, but tried to circumvent Mechagodzilla in the chaos of the battle since Mechagodzilla had an incredibly powerful incinerating fire breath that deleted anything it touched. Shoto had, despite the gravity of the competition, sacrificed himself as the main decoy, and even managed to slice off one of Nolan's arms, using the God Breaker from the Brave Raideen mech he was piloting.

After the battle had been over, Wade was busy taking care of legality matters with Ogden Morrow, Percy his lawyer, and the collective executive cabinet of GSS. Shoto had left promptly back to Japan on one of Ogden's jets. His intent, was to try to bring down IOI by himself.

Wade did not intend to let him do such an important task by himself, and neither did Sam or Helen.

Before the battle at Castle Anorak, Wade had purposefully gotten himself indentured in one of IOI's camps so he could infiltrate the IOI camp hiding under the giant indestructible shield generated by the Orb of Osuvox. He had used backdoor hacks sold by contracted hackers on the black market to gain access to IOI's servers on their intranet when he was imprisoned. This is how he had hijacked a supply bot within the IOI defensive perimeter and get it to kamikaze against the wizard who was upholding the Orb of Osuvox spell to start the battle of Castle Anorak. As a benefit of gaining complete control of IOI's database, he had discovered they had recorded all of their criminalistic activities, from killing all the innocent people in his stack, ordering the death of Daito, and tapping into illegal personal information from internet access points. This was the ammunition to use against Nolan and IOI.

He offered Shoto a position within the company, but he refused, stating he wasn't old or mature enough for the honor of such a title. He instead, asked for a relatively small portion of funds to continually attack and hopefully bankrupt IOI with the evidence and repeated legal and marketing attacks.

A year later, Shoto had accomplished little. IOI had many enemies, and were incredibly experienced with defending themselves and enduring the length of legal battles. It reminded Wade of why he hated the government so much, as the laws that were in place were easily influenced by simply funding their campaigns, elections, and lifestyles. IOI had many politicians in their pocket, and only the most irrefutable of evidence was able to damage them in anyway.

Nolan Sorrento had gotten a light sentence in prison based off of plea deals, influencing the jury and the judge behind closed doors. He was to spend only 9 more years in prison, with a high probability of him being released on parole for "good behavior."

The company was racked with harsher negative propaganda, due to a larger public outcry and because of Shoto's efforts aided by GSS. Ogden had a powerful network of friends in varying locations, whom Shoto relied on to apply strong pressure on IOI. Despite those notions, the results were meager over the last year. The CEO of IOI had retired early, and two of the eight board of directors resigned. Though their stock plummeted, because they were the largest distributor of internet, they survived.

Shaking the thoughts of the past from his head, Wade stood up and exited his office. There were eight Oasis bays outside, and coincidentally there were six staff members and two others outside. Dexter, Evelyn, and Andrea formed a tight circle, going over the contents of Andrea's clipboard, discussing between themselves. Anton and the two security guards that were by Arthur's office were also discussing something with Anton. Upon his entry, they quickly shifted and stood side by side at attention, with their hands behind their backs.

Two faces he didn't recognize stood near each other. An acne-faced boy who looked in his mid-twenties with dark brown hair stood leaning against the wall, eying the assortment of arcade machines as if weighing whether or not he wanted to play them. He had light tanned skin, a bushy beard and mustache below a rather large nose and bored brown eyes. He wore normal clothes, but interestingly enough also wore a black leather duster despite the scorching heat outside.

There was a short girl, noticeably younger with long pink hair and a pink backpack that had a cartoon character Wade couldn't identify. It looked like a panda bear with pink where black should be, and had a large pink star on his belly. She was on one of the motorcycle arcade games that imitated some sci-fi world with a limited race track. She was in first place, expertly cutting the corners efficiently to minimize speed loss.

Anton coughed loudly, and the programmers looked up to see Wade enter the room. Andrea whistled over to the younger two. The boy perked up and turned to Andrea, before eying Wade with a casual but respectful look. The girl hopped off the bike immediately, leaving the game running as she dashed over next to the boy, hiding behind him as she eyed the rest of them carefully by his arm.

He raised an eyebrow at Andrea who coughed before motioning over to the two.

"This is David and Cherry." David walked up next to Andrea, looking over to Wade with analyzing eyes. Cherry, on the other hand, gazed at him with awe.

"David is currently placed second on Craft Clash. He also previously held several speed-building records for tier-five and higher crafting challenges." Wade nodded, impressed.

Craft Clash is a game mode within the Oasis that is recognized as a popular competitive sport. In it, a hundred or so players queue up for a battle royale styled mode. A map is randomly generated and players are instantly teleported randomly over the map. Unique to this mode however, there are no weapons on the map but plenty of crafting materials. Players instead must craft their armor, weapons, vehicles, and possibly even allies and defeat every other player.

Crafting challenges are like quests that can be attempted at any time on specific zones that are typically crafting themed zones. Players attempt the challenge which usually consists of a request to build a specific item, vehicle, building, using an assortment of randomly generated goods. You typically earn an achievement, some credits and experience for it, but there is a speed leaderboard which Wade assumed David held some of the top speeds for doing so. No easy feat.

David didn't move a muscle after his introduction, he just stared intently at Wade making him feel a little uncomfortable. David appeared to be deep in thought, probably considering what he thought about Wade. Then, he suddenly spoke. "Call me Chaos." His voice crackled with an odd mix of deep accent with a pitch a notch too high.

Andrea motioned to the girl.

"This is Cherry, she's rank five on the leaderboard of Demolition Rally, on planet Velocity. It's noted she has one of the highest KDL on deathmatch racing."

Demolition Rally was one of the more popular events on planet Velocity, a planet dedicated to all types of racing events. It was a planet that was in the shape of a huge wheel, with a gaping hole in the center that usually was filled with space races. Demolition Rally was a combat focused race that spanned from one side of the planet back to its original starting point. Essentially, you had to drive, sail, tunnel, or fly your way through hundreds of checkpoints that basically made you loop the whole planet. There were no rules, as long as you made it through the checkpoint. There were many strategies involved. However, Wade assumed that since she had an incredibly high KDL, which was a kill-death-lap ratio she was an incredibly combat and race tuned driver/pilot. Wade was surprised, considering how young she was to be so good at that. She definitely wasn't old enough to drive in the real world.

Cherry made a gesture to Wade that he didn't understand. She puffed one cheek, placed a thumb on that cheek, and flicked it off, extending her index finger out and mouthing an explosion sound. David, still staring at Wade noticed his confused face and looked at the younger girl.

"That's a racer's salute. It's a symbol of respect." David answered, without Wade even asking. She then hummed and David looked at her. She made a bunch of gestures with her hands, to which Wade recognized was sign language. Cherry was a pro racer who was deaf? Wade raised an eyebrow, grunting in awe.

"They were nearby when I sent the messages, and gave them access to come in after they had agreed to the terms of their admittance to the GSS building." Andrea continued. "There are about fifty or so other players who answered the calls and are waiting for further instructions."

Wade nodded, motioning for Andrea he is ready. She gave him a thumbs-up.

"Greetings Oasis players." Wade started, surveying his staff and the two players in front of him. Andrea aimed her smart watch at Wade, capturing him to relay the message to many other who awaited him in the Oasis. He made sure to address them in a general sense.

Normally, Wade was timid, and hated attention. His years as a Gunter trained him to stay under the radar, work for himself and stay away from others. But the year working as the head of GSS and his friendships with Sam, Helen, Akihide, and Ogden hardened his resolve against public eye. He now, more than ever, wanted to use his wealth to create a perfect world to escape the harsh realities of the world, and give people something to look forward to outside the corruption and the inevitable doom of the world. But Arthur is looking to destroy the Oasis before he could even start, and he won't allow that.

"We're all going to board our ships and meet up at Erywing gate by Zullidan. One of my programmers has created a little surprise for me, and I wanted to share it with the most acclaimed players Oasis has to offer. Though your expertises vary heavily, I know at the very least you're all adept at combat. I know not what is it to come, so that is why I've asked all of you to accompany me in this new region."

Wade took a gamble that calling the new sector was created for him to entice the players without revealing the severity of the situation. He didn't want news about Arthur's threat leaking to the public, and had told his staff to keep a tight lip, not even mentioning it to each other in closed doors.

There was a chorus of cheers and exclamatory remarks.

"Can we record this?"

"Can we stream this?"

"Can we invite others?"

"How dangerous is it?"

"Is it a PvP zone?"

"Are we the first!?"

"Is there going to be loot?"

"How long will this take?"

Dozens of players began spamming questions towards Wade. Feeling slightly overwhelmed at first, his experience with constant media pressure allowed him to reign in his emotions and answer the questions calmly.

"Right now, I am unaware if streaming or recording functionality will be available. I advise you that if Oasis verified software does not allow for it in this sector, do not attempt to circumvent it with your own software. As far as inviting others, I would advise against it because I am not sure how dangerous it is. You could all die, losing all of your gear and loot. Though I did invite you here, it is because you are the best and I won't resurrect you or give you freebies. You should only invite those who are able to come here after we figure out what sort of obstacles we face. I'm not sure if it will be PvP or restrictions on magic and/or technology. Yes, you are among the first. I do not know if there will be loot and how long this will take."

There was a bit of silence after he spoke. They digested his information, and also probably were private messaging their friends and communities. Wade banked on the eagerness and curiosity of these players to ignore the lack of information. Perhaps they would go because it's the Parzival asking. He would hope they would be his guinea pigs, despite the risk because of his reputation.

"Alright let's get going. Meet you at the gate." Wade dismissed the other players and turned to the staff in the room. He pointed to the Oasis bays that sat in the middle of the room and mentioned for them to go in them.

"Full body suits? You got just gloves and headset?" David asked.

The Oasis requires just a GSS headset and haptic gloves to dive into the world. There is an arsenal of buttons and sensors in all haptic gloves so you can move around and turn with decent precision. Many people enjoyed using the full body suits because it gave maximum precision and utility to the physical factors of the Oasis. However, there were those who preferred to use the gloves only, as it was less taxing and they did not want the extreme precision.

Wade thought of Aech, his heavy-set friend who somehow became one of the best FPS players in the world using only gloves. It appeared David also preferred to not use the full body suits. Wade gestured to the same spot where all the suits were held in storage cabinets next to each bay.

"The bays are equipped for users who don't want to use full body suits. You'll find a seat where you can sit comfortably and the bay will recognize which equipment you want to use and configure it for you." Wade answered. David nodded and followed the others who had already moved to the Oasis Bays to set up.

As Wade stepped back into his office, his smartwatch lit up. Sam messaged him asking him where to meet up and he sent her the info concerning the gate they're all converging at. She didn't respond. He cocked his head a little, but ignored his concern. This was Sam after all, the love of his life.

He walked over to what appeared to be a blank wall. He waved his hand in an upward motion palm facing towards the wall and a mechanical whoosh sound emitted. The wall opened outward, small mechanical arms shifting pushing the compartment outward revealing a couple custom full body Oasis suits.

He smiled as this thumb rubbed along the seam of the suit. The smell of high quality fibers was a welcome aroma. It had been a week since his last honest trek into the Oasis, and nearly three months since an extended play session. Most of the time was spent administering and trying to keep the Oasis fresh and relatively safe. Seldom did he have time to just… let loose.

Wade eagerly put the suit on, enjoying the way it snugly hugged his body closely. He flexed his fingers when he stretched his hands to the end of the arm sleeves, liking the almost powerful feel. Like putting on power armor before a battle with aliens.

"Shift to Oasis full body suit configuration." He spoke, and the room whirred to life as his desk and other unnecessary things in the room were swallowed by the floor. A slim harness fell from the middle of ceiling, wires connecting to it keeping it suspended at perfect height for Wade. Along with the harness, the iconic Oasis headset hung from the Harness, ready and waiting.

He walked up to it, efficiently slipping in it as it magnetically hooked to anchors on the suit. As soon as he did, four large fans emerged from the corners of the room, under them were drainage holes. Above him, a couple of pipes emerged capped with a shower-head that had multiple modes. Along with it, a small black box poked out near the pipes.

Kriegan's Temperature Fans, Trinsin Liquid Simulators, and Red Sun's Smellotron would near perfectly simulate whatever environment Wade would stumble across. The permanently raining world of Floris would have the pipes sprinkle cold waters, the Smellotron releasing a musky smell, and the fans would draw the humidity out of the air while pumping cold winds whenever he felt them. They were smart enough to stop delivering liquid and pumped heat if he got out of the rain and created a campfire.

Wade slipped on the goggles and it scanned his eyes, before logging in instantly. As he materialized where he was last logged in, he saw the nostalgic and iconic message across his screen.

"Ready Player One."


A/N: Sorry for having a long chapter two with no action AGAIN. I know you are expecting zombies, and about 10k+ words in not a single mention of them yet, but I felt like I had to address the time transition and a lot of other factors before diving in the world. If you've stuck around this long, know that I plan on a heavy shift on action, adventure, and drama to come!