4
I was getting off my shift working at IOI when it happened. The radio stations, the TV news stations, the internet, were all buzzing with the same information. James Donovan Halliday had passed away at the age of sixty-seven. No one knew what had happened. It was rumored that he didn't have contact with a single soul after he had fallen out with Morrow. Now, every single person was talking about him. Not because he was really that important, but because of the contents of his last will and testament.
For the next couple months, everyone was treated to a five minute video of the man's last request. Since I can't enter the contest, the video really didn't contain that much importance to me. I saw it once or twice, and I wanted to talk to Morrow and ask him what he thought. But we couldn't speak anymore. The clock had started counting down.
Morrow and I could not speak to each other about what we knew. It was too risky. Twenty-four hours before James died, no one was paying any attention to what you did in the OASIS. Now, everything that was possible to monitor was being monitored. Some of it illegally. IOI was the first major corporation that wanted that damn egg for themselves. Later I found out that they were monitoring every single Gunter on the OASIS. They knew who the Gunters were because the dumbasses had all posted or viewed the Gunter forums and blogs. The identity of all of the OASIS clients was kept confidential. But for some reason there were people who were bribed by IOI to leak that information out to the boss of the Sixers. We'll talk about who they are later.
IOI employees formed a massive clan. Egg hunters, also known as Gunters, formed clans which swore that they would associate only with each other. If they found the egg, they would split it with each other, and blah blah blah. The IOIEs, (IOI employees), took a written oath to help find the egg. They signed a contract that they would keep none of it for themselves, and give it all to IOI. This clan had everything. Massive armies of avatars, and an endless supply of weapons. They had it all. I sure hope Halliday knew what he was doing. These guys were going to win. I knew they would. The OASIS would lose its Freemium status, and there wouldn't be a way to access it if you weren't wealthy. No one wanted this.
Whether or not I liked it, (And I didn't.), the OASIS was the primary escape from the real world. We were plagued with a new problem now that we didn't have in 2012, which was when the OASIS started. We had a new energy crisis. We had grown massively and the population on the planet was staggeringly enormous. People struggled to find places to live, and food, clean water, energy, and a whole host of other necessities. You had to have a damn good job to get along in this world. This is why the OASIS was the most popular thing since sliced bread. People used it to get away from their terrible lives. Homeless people could afford the luxury because they could just access it with the free wireless access points all around the world. The only ones you had to pay for were the ones that came with Haptic suits and other OASIS gear. Otherwise, if you had your gear, and you were homeless, you could still access the place. However outdated your gear would undoubtedly be.
For the next five months, everyone and their brother became obsessed with the hunt. Almost every single OASIS user claimed to be a Gunter, and it put you in high status. The next year brought with it a resurfacing of 1980s pop culture. Movies, songs, clothing, books, comics, everything. It didn't matter whether you were in Africa, Japan, or the United States. Everyone wanted that egg. Everyone. The hunt continued for the next year.
On the anniversary of the death of the famous creator, the Gunter fad started to die down. A lot of people claimed they were getting closer to the first clue, but none of them really were. James had hinted that the clue was on Ludus, and none of the clueless students were looking anywhere on this planet. They were looking everywhere but on Ludus. GSS made a killing in profits just with the teleportation fees they charged people who didn't have magical means, to teleport from one place to the other. Fees that constantly kept going up.
The second year passed.
The third.
Fourth.
Five years later there was still nothing. School was getting boring for me, and there was still nothing. But I had to stay at Ludus as a fake student, because I had to see if anyone found the Copper Key. The Gunter title became a symbol of ridicule after the first year. Most people just simply believed that either James had hidden the egg so well no one would ever find it, or it wasn't even a real thing. These people said that James Halliday was dying to be remembered, and had tried one last time by making a hoax video that told viewers he had hidden his fortune in the OASIS. No one found it year after year, and more and more people called it quits and stopped trying to look for it. Og invited me to his dance club on his birthday the year that James died. He said he doubted that the egg would be found in either of our lifetimes. We knew it wasn't a hoax, we just didn't know where it was. Neither of us knew what was on Ludus that I was supposed to be guarding.
When I went to sleep, I left my OASIS avatar logged in to the system. I rigged a set of speakers to fit with my visor so that I could hear any sound throughout my tiny studio apartment. If I received a phone call, or an email, or anything, I would be able to hear it. I kept logged into the system for five whole hopeless years hoping to find something. I was on the lookout for the first kid to find the clue. Or anyone, for that matter. But nothing happened.
Nothing happened, until the afternoon of February 11, 2045. I was sitting at my emersion rig watching The Full Metal Alchemist, when I heard the chime that interrupted my video feed.