The Adventures of Jack in the Oasis

GoldDragonZ: So I wrote a story in the world of Ready Player One some time ago. I saw the movie again recently and felt that I would write another story. If you like it or hate it please review and tell me what I should do to make it better. I do not own the movie or the novel. So it begins…

Wade Watts hated wearing the business suit. It had been ten years since he won the Easter Egg for his clan the High Five. However, he needed to show up to the meeting with the company board of directors of Gregarious Games to listen to what they had to say about the OASIS, also known as Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation, and the direction that it was going in. Samantha Cook, Wade's wife was there as well as one of the people in charge of the OASIS. Helen Harris, also known as Aech in the OASIS, was there as well as the other member of Wade's team, Akihide Karatsu. Ogden Morrow was there as well. There were heads of different programming branches of the company Gregarious Games there as well. There were workers who were in charge of taking comments and suggestions of people around the world who wanted some changes to the game play in the OASIS. There were several changes that people wanted to make. Yes there was the gaming aspect, but different companies were capitalizing on the technology that was created for the OASIS.

Wade, the rest of the High Five, and the other people he was meeting with needed to hash it out and they decided that they needed to make the following changes; companies could no longer find out the identities of people who were going to school within Lodus the world of high school; when people died within the OASIS, they may lose some of the things that they had earned but not everything, and money and the coinage designed within the programming needed to be separate in some cases. Thus, programmers needed to make changes to the OASIS

Jack Summers hated the work he was doing. He was a programmer for a head company related to Gregarious Games and the OASIS, but he felt that the company only wanted money. He had come in late into the office where he worked as a programmer, and was then called into the office of his boss. Jack was 28 years old and lived alone. He used his money to buy expensive gear to create a better experience for himself in the OASIS. He also had a computer at home as well and was a hacker who sold programs to other people so that they could get ahead whether in the real world or the OASIS.

"Well Mister Summers," His boss, mister McIntyre said. "It's come to my attention that you have come in late again. Did you not learn from the other five times you have come in late?"

"I'm sorry, sir." Jack said. "I was working last night on a different project."

"Cut the bullshit." McIntyre said. "It's about time for someone to rein you in. You think that you are above the law that the rules do not apply to you. As of now, I am suspending you. You have forced my hand; Stay home for the next two weeks without pay, and hopefully you will learn about the rules. Now get out of my sight, Mister Summers."

Jack clenched his fists but there was nothing that he could do. Mister McIntyre had made up his mind. Jack went back to his desk and packed up his stuff. He went home. He did not have a car as he could not afford the insurance or the money for fuel. He had a nine millimeter Glock in a holster on his hip, to make sure he could protect himself from being mugged. He had to use the subway, so he walked with his belongings to the Subway Station. Graffiti was all over the car that he was standing in. All of the chairs were taken by people who were coming of going from their respective jobs. Jack had all of his things in one arm, while his other hand was holding a strap to keep him from falling. The wheels of the train car squealed and it finally stopped at his destination. He came out of the subway train and walked down from the platform. Several drones whipped past outside the station, one with a Pizza Hut box going to deliver several pies to a family. Another drone had a box that it was delivering to another family or person. Jack lived in a massive block of one bed-room apartments in a district in New York State. He turned on the lights and placed his things on the breakfast table. His apartment was really small. In one section was his bedroom, with a washroom close to it. There was a kitchen section where his breakfast table was where he placed the box of his things. In the middle of his apartment was his rig where he played in the OASIS. He had a directional treadmill there where he could walk in all directions. On his couch was his haptic suit where he could feel all sensations of getting shot, feeling things within the OASIS. Also, there was a computer with two towers connected to them. A wire went to the OASIS headset which also connected to the OASIS and it went to Jack's computer. Jack went into his bedroom and stripped. In the corner of his bedroom was a closet and clothing cabinet. He put his dirty clothes into a basket which he would be taking to the cleaners when he had a chance. He entered his washroom and turned on the water to the shower. He sighed. There was no one in his life. His parents had died when he was really young. His siblings were living their lives in different states across the United States. He had a younger sister named Mary. His brother was named Rodney. They worked in different companies. Rodney was a car mechanic. Mary worked in Business and worked for a company that helped people fix things like plumbing, lighting and other things. Mary was married but had no children, while Rodney was married and had two boys, Markos and Dominic. They were three years old and five years old respectively. They had access to the OASIS, but also had a computer where they could watch television shows that were still being made for young children. Jack sighed, relishing the hot water as it cascaded across his body. He waited as the soap dispenser cascaded his skin and shampoo poured onto his black hair on his head. He was a Caucasian man. He used to wear glasses, but with work, and the hacking he had done on the side, he was able to afford to have laser surgery done on his eyes. He came out of the shower and dried himself with a white towel. He shaved hair from his face and went into his living room. He powered up his computer and then went into his kitchen. He pulled out a can of soup and a pan. He used a can-opener to open the can. He made the soup and ate while he went through personal emails on his computer. He settled into chair with the towel still on. He pulled out a USB device and connected it to the computer. A program booted up. Jack connected the computer to the OASIS. He hacked the program, using dummy accounts to get coins. He used programming to mask his approach into the OASIS. He had several customers who were wanted throughout the OASIS because they kept killing other players who had real money connected with the OASIS. Jack hated working for the people, but they paid him real money. They would transfer money into his account, so he could not complain. He would also fix people's vehicles within the OASIS. He spent a few hours hacking the program, and then decided it was due time for a break. He went into his kitchen and opened his refrigerator, and pulled out a bottle of beer. He opened it, and then decided to drink some of it before putting on his Haptic Suit and gloves. He retrieved the OASIS Headset and placed it on his head. He powered up everything and entered the OASIS.

He made so that he would always spawn on his black spaceship, the Tensa Zangetsu, which was named after the Bleach Manga/Anime's main protagonist's Bankai power. His Avatar's name was GoldDragon_20. The Avatar looked like a Caucasian man with shoulder length black hair. His eyes were emerald green. He was clean shaven. He wore clothes similar to Darth Maul from Star Wars, the Phantom Menace; however he also wore a red tunic underneath his costume which could be seen underneath his black suit. He had yellow stripes on his face. He was 6'5" tall. He had muscular arms and legs. He was a warrior class. The Ship was similar to the Absolution from the Adult Swim Anime Service Toonami. Throughout his ship, he kept his items on display. He had a section for vehicles, a section for suits of armour and costumes, and a section for other items. He invited people regularly to show them what they could have in the OASIS if they would just pay him. Within his hangar of his ship, he had flying vehicles. One was the flying Batmobile from Batman Beyond. One was an X-Wing from Star Wars. One was a TIE-Interceptor from Star Wars as well. He had several cannons on Tensa Zangetsu so that if anyone decided they wanted to steal things from him, he could defend himself. He also had a deflector shield programmed to be surrounding his ship at all times. Only people he invited into his ship would be able to see what he had. He hated losing so he saved the Tensa Zangetsu on a hard drive that was separate from the OASIS. Jack wanted to kill something, so he chose a game within the OASIS that had Real Life Players fighting against Artificial Intelligence. On that planet, you could spend time fighting Terminators and machines from the Terminator lore. There were Player versus Player matches as well. One aspect of the Player versus Player was to see how many enemies they could kill in a match. Other times, you could spend hour's just destroying enemies without being part of a game. Jack decided he wanted a challenge. He decided he would go to the Terminator section where he would face Hunter Killers, T-100s and other Terminators from the movies.

He took out the Batmobile and flew to the world. He flew through the atmosphere and saw that many other players were there, facing the Terminators. It was a battleground. Jack could see The Nebuchadnezzar from the Matrix Trilogy flying through the air, firing machine gun rounds at the Hunter Killer flying Robots that were spawning to take it on. He saw Siege Tanks from StarCraft staying in place, firing their cannons in siege mode at the robots that were coming after them. Flying through the air was ball like robots from Terminator Dark Fate. There were clans down in the midst of battle, working together to take down the robots. Jack flew down, and launched himself from the Batmobile. He retrieved his vehicle and placed it into his inventory. He took a position on top of a building to see where enemies were being spawned. Rockets and machine gun fire were erupting everywhere. Jack could see Terminators spawning in buildings, in water, and they were using laser weapons that shot purple lasers. Some had mini-guns as well. They would kill players and pick up weapons from the enemies. They were by no means easy to destroy. Someone could use a lot of bullets trying to kill the Terminators, but all it seemed to do was slow them down. Jack activated radar so that he could see where everyone was. He looked to his right and ducked as a Terminator walked into his sight. It had a mini gun and started firing the weapon at him. He jumped into the air and threw a Batarang from Arkham Asylum Video Games at the chain that was feeding bullets into the Terminator's mini gun. The chain jammed, and the Terminator looked at it for a second. The Mini gun erupted in fire and shrapnel. It blew off the Terminator's arm. It had no other weapon. It started walking to Jack. Jack took out a spear from Aliens Versus Predator and activated it. He rushed the robot and stabbed it in the chest. It barely got a scratch. It used its other arm to take hold of Jack's arm. He felt pain as a small electric current ran through his Haptic Suit especially on his arm that the Terminator had taken hold of him. He took out a grenade from his belt and shoved it into the Terminator's chase. It let go of him, and he did a backflip with his spear. The Terminator exploded and its legs were blown apart of its body. It still was not dead as it activated an alternative power source. It started to drag itself towards Jack. Jack looked through his inventory and found a high powered gauze rifle. He aimed it at the Terminator's head and fired. The head exploded. As a reward for killing the Terminator, an icon appeared, holding several coins in it. Jack put the rifle away and took the time to heal his arm. He picked through the remains of the Terminator and pulled out one of the power cores that were still stable enough. He put it in his inventory as well as the ammunition from the mini gun that he could find. He checked his radar and found that several Terminators were converging on his position. He knew that at his current state, he could not fight them all. He looked up into the sky and saw that there were several ships fighting each other. Jack realized that there were players who were fighting each other instead of the Terminators. He took out his Batmobile again and flew off away from the building he first landed on. He headed to the thick of it. Terminators were on the ground, firing upwards at the enemies who seemed to be ignoring them. Jack realized that it was Innovate Online Industries, otherwise known as I.O.I. fighting a different clan. Years ago, the company was accused of murder after Wade Watts came forward to accuse their CEO of blowing up the stacks that Wade had lived in. People had died. Since then, the company was in a legal battle to gain access to the OASIS once more to find and sell items to the highest bidder. The IOI was using ships that they designed. They had laser weapons, machine guns, and rockets that they were firing at the clans they were facing.

I didn't know there was something on this world worth taking. Jack thought to himself. He opened a channel to one of the players that were closest to him.

"Hey this is Gold Dragon 20." He said to the player. "What's going on?"

"Hey, Gold Dragon," The player said. "I.O.I. has fired Nolan Sorrento. They hired some other person to take his place. They found out that an artifact has been hidden here on this world and they are after it to sell to the highest bidder. We need to stop them."

"Count me in." Jack said.

He landed the Batmobile some miles away from the main battle was being fought. Terminators including the Tanks, Hunter Killers, and T-100s were converging on the site as well, firing their laser cannons at the players who were mostly busy fighting I.O.I. In the middle of the battle was a massive drill similar to the one in Matrix Revolutions. Something was buried beneath the ground and I.O.I. was intent in finding out what that item was. Jack opened up a screen and used controls on the Tensa Zangetsu, using voice commands on his hacking computer to jump the ship to the world. The battle raged on as the clans and Gunters were trying to defeat I.O.I. Jack used a magic spell that he gained and hid from sight. Jack armed one of the cannons on the ship to fire an Electromagnetic Pulse Missile. He only had two of these missiles so he needed to use them sparingly. He aimed it at the middle of the battle. The Tensa Zangetsu fired the missile and it exploded in the middle of the battle. The result was all of the ships dropped out of the sky. Several players got out of their vehicles, landing on their feet. Some of them were too late and their vehicles were wrecked. The Terminators were all rendered powerless. The I.O.I. Drill stopped working. Jack picked out a sword from his inventory. It was a magic sword and he activated the magic spell. The sword went on fire and split into two. They were called Dao Blades, used in the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. He held the two swords in both arms and started running to the battle, which was still raging on. It was player versus player, or rather player versus corporation. The Sixers were using their weapons that the I.O.I. let them use. Jack ran with his swords and cut down several of the I.O.I. players using his swords. He collected coins that spilled out of the players and he made his way to the center of the battle which was the drill that was still standing but not moving. He activated his telescopic vision and saw that new Terminators were spawning at different points. He would only have a few precious moments before the machines came up to the players. He ran and sliced through the I.O.I. players, and helped save some of the other players who were still fighting. Jack opened up his arsenal and pulled out a rocket launcher and aimed it at one of the drill's legs. He fired it. The missile collided with the drill's leg and shrapnel descended upon the players that were still fighting near the drill. Jack pulled out a grapnel hook launcher and fired it at the drill. He scaled the drill to the top, and then he aimed another rocket at the center of the drill. Suddenly, Jack felt a pain from his side. An explosion rocked him before he could fire the rocket within the drill. He looked around him and saw that there were several I.O.I activating jetpacks. They were holding high powered weapons and were aiming at him. He looked through his inventory and saw that he had something that might do the trick. He threw out a seed at one of the I.O.I. operatives. The seed exploded on contact, and grew to a massive size. It had tentacles and it wrapped around the flying foes. They started firing their weapons at the creature that Jack produced, but it seemed not to do anything. Jack took the opportunity to climb on top of the drill and aimed his rocket launcher down the middle of the drill. He fired the rocket launcher and it exploded down the middle of the drill. Jack jumped off the drill and he activated his Batmobile as he fell from on top of the drill. Jack landed inside the cockpit of the vehicle and he roared off away from the drill as it started to fall. He propelled a mine from the back of his flying vehicle. It was the same mine used in Star Wars Episode 2 Attack of the Clones when Jango Fett was trying to get Obi-Wan to stop following him in the asteroid field. The mine exploded and it took out one of the legs of the drill. The drill fell and was destroyed. Jack saw as the chaos ensued. Players ran into the middle of where the drill had been dropped. They were starting to use their own drills to find what I.O.I. was looking for. Jack unfortunately did not have the tools necessary to drill down into the world. He looked to the East and saw that Terminators were descending upon the players. He decided that he would help them by blowing away the Robots firing rockets at them. Jack fired as many missiles as he could at the Terminators. The clans and the Gunters continued fighting the Sixers to obtain the treasure that seemed to be the goal of the contest. Jack flew the Batmobile into the sky and landed in the Tensa Zangetsu's hangar. He needed a ship with more fire power so he looked for a flying vehicle that could take on the Sixers. He found a Wraith from StarCraft. It was in peak condition. It was black and had a painting of a Playboy model on the hull on the lower laser cannon. Jack powered up the vehicle and flew it out of the hangar of the Tensa Zangetsu. He flew down to the atmosphere of the planet. By then, he saw that many of the Sixers and the Clan members were back up and running. They were again fighting against each other. The Terminators were clashing with them as well. Jack saw that there were several airships coming out of hyperspace as well. Many more Sixers were converging on the planet. Jack decided that he needed to do something drastic. He looked through his inventory that was on the Tensa Zangetsu. He needed something that could stop the Sixers from carrying out their mission. He flew up to the Tensa Zangetsu once again. Something launched itself from the cargo bay. Jack caught it in mid-air and then he flew down to the drill, which was being lifted up by some of the Sixer aircrafts. Jack launched several missiles at the enemies, and then he also fired several laser bolts at the hinges of the legs on the drill itself. It could no longer support itself so it now fell once again. Jack used the device he had caught. It was a force field that could swallow the drill and stop it from boring into the planet's core once again. He flew down to the drill and activated the force field over the drill. The Sixers could no longer use it unless they managed to deactivate the field that was over it. It was a sphere field and lifted the drill up into the air. Jack took aim at enemies on the ground including Terminators and Sixers alike. He looked to the air and saw that more and more Sixers were coming down in flying vehicles of different types. They had X-Wings, TIE Fighters, Jedi-Starfighters, ships similar to the Millennium Falcon, the ship from the show Firefly, several Starfighters similar in make to the ship shown in the Last Starfighter, several other ships from other mediums, and they had hovercrafts as well. They started firing missiles, bullets, proton torpedoes, laser bolts, and other items in their arsenals. Jack opened up his communication to broadcast to all players.

"Hey guys, this is Gold Dragon 20." He said. "What are the Sixers looking for?"

"Hello, Gold Dragon" One player said. "Before the hunt for the Easter Egg, Halliday had hidden several items throughout the OASIS so that people could get real money or advantages for the hunt. They could move to different places throughout the real world. They could become more than what they were before. Halliday had made these items in order to prepare for the Easter egg and the keys that he wanted to hide on the other worlds."

"Let's get them." Jack said.

There was a massive ship from Star Trek painted white and had I.O.I. painted on his hull in black. It came out of Hyperspace just above the drill. The new CEO of I.O.I. Wasted no time talking to any of the players on the field. Jack continued firing his missiles from his Wraith at the Sixers air ships. He blew them to bits. Suddenly, another massive ship came out of hyperspace. It belonged to the CEO of Gregarious Games itself. Parzival had joined the fray along with his wife Art3mis and their friend Aech. They decided to commence bombardment of the Sixer ship. Jack activated his ship's Mac Cannon which was on the Tensa Zangetsu. A Mac Cannon shot massive nuclear rounds that could tear into ships similar to the cannons in Halo Lore. Jack fired the cannon at the Sixer ship. Their Shields held for the most part, but the constant fire that they were under siege with got the better of them. Jack saw that the Sixers on board different ships saw that the Tensa Zangetsu was a massive threat, so they found that they needed to take it out. Jack made sure that all of his hangars were closed. He activated his shields remotely. He continued battling the Sixers that were on the world's surface. Terminators were being ignored, but they were still firing at all of the players, Sixers and Clans members alike. Jack looked at his energy meter. For the Wraith, it took time for their energy to climb to the best level before active camouflage could be activated. He saw that it was full, and then activated it. He flew into the sky and headed for the I.O.I. ship that was batting with Parzival and the owners of the OASIS. He saw that the owners of Gregarious Games were laying waste to the I.O.I. ship and were not letting up. They needed to stop I.O.I. as did the other players on the ground. Jack reached the space above the bridge of the ship and launched two missiles. They ripped through the ship and the players on board the ship were swept out of the ship. Their bodies turned into coins, which Jack collected eagerly. He made a drastic turn in space as Gregarious Games continued their bombardment of the I.O.I ship. Jack flew towards the Tensa Zangetsu. He landed within the hangar, which opened up just for him, and closed swiftly after he was onboard. He ran towards the bridge of his ship. He opened up all of the missile silos and started firing at the enemy ships below. In the meanwhile, he powered up a laser cannon similar to Star Wars Deathstar cannons. He fired the weapon at the I.O.I. drill on the Terminator planet, destroying it. It exploded into flaming debris. Jack saw that the I.O.I. gunships now saw him as a bigger threat. More of their forces came out of hyperspace as they converged on the planet. Two other drills being pulled from freighter class ships came and they had deflector shields powered up to the maximum. Jack wasted no time, powering up all laser cannons. All missile turrets came online and he fired at the enemy. The laser cannon similar to Deathstar Technology needed some time to recharge. Jack also needed to purchase more Mac Rounds for the Mac Cannons. He then made a gamble. He needed to power down the shields on the I.O.I. ships. Meanwhile, Gunters and Clan members were pounding away at the enemy shields. Jack loaded the last Electromagnetic Pulse Missile into one of the Mac Cannons. He fired it at one of the drills. The missile exploded in sparks, powering down the shield and the freighter ship that was carrying it. Jack used laser turrets on the hull of the Tensa Zangetsu to bombard the drill and the ship that was carrying it. Other players were doing the same with missiles and laser bolts as well. Jack cut through the enemy ship with the lasers, causing it to explode. Coins spilled out of the hull as I.O.I. players were destroyed and their earnings released from their Avatars. The Drill was cut free from the confines of the ship that was pulling it. It started floating harmlessly in the atmosphere of the Terminator planet. Jack knew that it was only a few minutes before the I.O.I started activating the Drill so that it would crash on the planet's surface and then commence drilling into the core of the planet for whatever Easter egg or item that they could find. Jack activated the Gravity stasis field on board his ship. Smaller ships would be drawn to the Tensa Zangetsu, so he quickly contacted the other players so that they would know his plan. He would take the drill to another planet elsewhere, and let it go so that the I.O.I would not have the ability to get whatever they were looking for at least with that drill. There was another drill to contend with however Jack knew that the other players would come up with a plan as he had no other means to power down the shields unless he barraged the shield with his entire arsenal. The Tensa Zangetsu's gravity well pulled the I.O.I. drill into his field. A mechanical arm extended from the side of the ship, grabbing hold of the side of the drill with a massive suction cup. Smaller arms grabbed hold of the drill as well. Jack looked through the worlds of the OASIS. There was one in a PVP zone where it had an icy atmosphere and environment. Jack put his ship into hyperdrive, leaving the other players to continue battling with I.O.I. He left the drill on the ice planet so that the I.O.I. would need to find it and pull it back to the planet of the Terminators they would not be able to find him as he made it a point not to advertise where he had left the drill.

Jack had spent three quarters of his ship's arsenal in the battle. He flew his ship to the space above Lodus, the schooling world. He powered up the shields, lowered the gravity well programming, and closed his hangar bay doors. Lodus was a no PVP zone, so Jack was certain that I.O.I. would not look for the Tensa Zangetsu there. Jack signed out of the OASIS. He took off the OASIS gear including the Head piece and the Haptic Suit and changed into a black sweatshirt and Grey Sweat pants. He walked onto his balcony and took it in. It was his city. The cool night air felt good on his skin from the warmth of the haptic suit. He soon got too cool, so he went back into his apartment. He went into the kitchen and started making dinner.

The new Head of Operations at I.O.I. slammed down her head piece. Her name was Jezebel Ryan. She was born in the 2000s and was now in her fifties. Nolan Sorrento had been fired and imprisoned as he was found to be incompetent as he lost Halliday's Easter egg to Wade Watts and his friends. She was now hired as the head of the Oology division which was still operating to find out other secrets the OASIS's creator left behind after his death. I.O.I. continued to operate as they had different holdings and owned a whole network that the OASIS operated on. It seemed that although there were many changes that were made to the OASIS and within I.O.I. itself, people were still sour at the company for what Sorrento and the I.O.I. board of directors previously did. They did not trust I.O.I. and would hinder whatever plan that they had. What made things worse was that players were everywhere, looking for the same items that I.O.I. were as well. As soon as the players found out I.O.I. were there, they would post on message boards that I.O.I. were after the item and that the players and clans could not let them get it. Also, they had lost one drill, and could not access the other one. They only had one drill that was left, but the clans and the people who had won the Easter egg stood against them. She decided that they needed to retreat unless they were willing to lose the other drill as well. Freighters and airships surrounded their final drill that was not taken away from the planet or placed under a force field. They went into Hyperdrive and returned to IOI-1, their base of operations. Jezebel however needed to convey the failure to the board of operations. She decided that they needed to up the ante and find other items on other worlds and not advertise that they were there. That meant that they needed to only send a small group of employees to the locations instead of the massive group of I.O.I. employees. Jezebel took off her haptic immersion suit, changed into business attire and got ready to meet with the board of directors who had been logged onto the OASIS as spectators to see how she handled the task that she was given.

She knew that she screwed up. It was no doubt that they were blaming her for the recent debacle.

"Hello." She said, carrying a laptop into the room with her to present the board with data that she had collected. "I'm sure all of you are now aware that the owners of the OASIS do not want us playing in their world. They want us gone. However, we still have attributes that they cannot get rid of. We still own several shares with the internet connections throughout the world. They cannot afford to keep us out of the OASIS or shut us down otherwise they would lose valuable Wi-Fi connections throughout the world. We need to hire someone who can defeat Wade Watts and his band of miscreants."

"Nolan Sorrento miscalculated the mind of Wade Watts." One of the board members said. "He and his people are not to be trifled with. Who do you have in mind to help us?"

"There was one player who defeated us thoroughly." Jezebel said. "I believe his name is Gold Dragon 20."

"How can we get a hold of him?" Another member of the board asked. "He obviously does not want to work with us."

"We need to find out who he is." Jezebel said, pulling up a picture of the Tensa Zangetsu. "In this world, no one with that kind of ship got it by playing fair. He either has a lot of money or he has had help, maybe by a clan or something. However he seems to be working alone."

"We will look into this." A board member said. "In the meantime, there are other items that we need to obtain. These assets can be used to our benefit."

"I know, sir." Jezebel said. "I will do what I can."

And at that, they finished their meeting.

Jack finished his work. He had hacked the OASIS and created a small base of operations for someone who needed a place to hide. This person was hiding because there were other clans after them for doing something. Jack was not keen on knowing what the reason for them to be hiding for. It was not up to Jack to question the person's motives but he hoped that the hack would be maintained. He downloaded the coding to a small hard drive and messaged the person using a fake email that he had created for his hacking business. He told the person that he would be hiding the hard drive in a code activated locker down at the train station. He quickly pulled out a winter jacket since it was autumn. He pulled out a baseball cap that was well worn. He pocketed the drive and took the nearest subway to the train station where he would be hiding the hard drive. Of course he emailed the person in question the code for the locker, and then he left instructions on how to access the drive. In order to access the drive, the person needed to deposit credits of a certain amount into Jack's bank account on the OASIS. Jack used a dummy account and would transfer the money into his real account when he had time. He placed the hard drive into the locker that he chose, and made sure to copy down the locker combination so that he could send it to his customer. He decided that he would take a brief walk. He also had his trusty sidearm with him as he did not trust anyone. He entered a coffee shop that was nearby. He ordered a Mocha Latte and a Strudel. He sighed. He felt alone. There were a few people in the coffee shop, but they were all on their cell phones, answering texts, emails, playing games, or looking up things for the OASIS. He pulled out his own mobile device. It was his work phone, so he had no games on it. He checked his emails, but then he remembered that he was suspended for being late without pay. That meant that even if he did anything, he would not be reimbursed for it. He decided to not do anything work related. He opened up his web browser and signed into Facebook, looking up his family members. He missed his brother and sister, and messaged them both to see what they were up to. He sat for a minute at the coffee shop, and then decided that it was silly for him to wait for a response. His siblings were either busy with work, their family, or on the OASIS. Jack decided to go home for the time being. He ate the strudel in silence, looking to the other people in the shop. He looked at the workers as they served the other customers. He looked outside, and saw that there was someone painting graffiti on a wall nearby. He assumed that this person was one of the many people who were too poor to afford the headset and haptic gloves to go to school in the OASIS. Jack took his coffee and decided that he would leave the shop. Weary that the person painting the graffiti on the wall might be desperate, Jack made sure to leave the shop with his eyes on the person. The person was wearing a hood and he could not tell if they were male or female. And then he felt guilty. This person was wearing rags. Surely they could not be a threat. He was armed so maybe it would be safe to approach this person. He kept his guard up and decided to approach the vandal.

"Hey." He called out, his left hand holding his coffee, while his right hand was in his jacket, holding his piece. "What are you doing?"

The person turned around, stunned. Jack saw that this was a woman with red or auburn coloured hair. She looked like she was in her mid-teens. She had hazel coloured eyes and her face was filled with freckles. She looked frightened. He let go of his gun and reached out to her.

"Easy." He said. "I'm not going to hurt you or report you to anyone. Are you hungry? Do you want anything to eat?"

At first she seemed to be scared, but she was still thinking things over.

"Is there anyone I can call?" Jack continued to ask. "Do you want me to call your folks?"

"There's no one." She said quietly. "I'm alone."

"I know what it's like to be alone." Jack said. "I only have people on the OASIS, but even then it is lonely. Do you have an account on the OASIS?"

"No." The girl said. "I'm homeless."

"Come with me." He said. "I won't hurt you. My name is Jack. Jack Summers. What's your name?"

"Sierra." The girl said. "Sierra Malone."

"Here, let me help you." He said. "Come with me."

At first she was hesitant, but then she changed her mind. He took her hand gently and decided to help guide her to his apartment. He wondered if it would be okay for her to stay with him, but there was no one to question his motives, and so he took her to his apartment.

GoldDragonZ: I hope everyone who reads this likes it. Please feel free to review or favorite.