Player 1

Chapter 1 Preface (1)
Everyone my age remembers where they were sitting and what they were doing when they first heard about the game.I was sitting in the secret cabin watching cartoons, when suddenly, the news bulletin popped up from the video window, it was the obituary of James Halliday's death that night.

I know who Halliday is, without a doubt.Everyone knows.He is the game designer for Oasis. Oasis is a sprawling MMORPG.This global network virtual world has gradually become an indispensable part of most people's daily life. The unprecedented success of "Oasis" made Halliday the richest man in the world.

At first I didn't understand why the media was making such a fuss about the death of this billionaire, after all, there are many other things on earth that deserve attention: the never-ending energy crisis, climate catastrophe, global famine, poverty, infection disease, endless war.In short, there is no peace for human beings.Usually, news videos don't interrupt soap operas unless something really big happens.Like some new deadly virus outbreak, or another big city disappearing into a mushroom cloud, or something like that.And the news of the death of a celebrity like Halliday should be broadcast on the evening news by text message, so that people in the slums can shake their heads with jealous expressions while listening to the news anchor announce the rich man's every day. how much inheritance each heir will inherit.

But therein lies the problem, James Halliday has no children.

Until his death, he had been a bachelor for 67 years.He also doesn't have any relatives.According to market rumors, he didn't even have a single friend.He spent the last 15 years of his life in voluntary isolation.During this period - if the rumors are true - he has been completely insane.

I remember when the news came out one morning in January, and everyone's jaws dropped from Toronto to Tokyo.The news pop-up window that popped up in front of everyone contained Halliday's last wish and the whereabouts of his huge family fortune.

That's right, along with the news of Halliday's death, it was released on major media around the world, and there was also a short video prepared by him before his death.He also emailed a copy of the video to every Oasis user.I vividly remember that morning, that video followed the electronic chime that sounded when the news bulletin arrived in my mailbox.

This video is actually an elaborate movie called "Anora's Invitation".Halliday was a notoriously eccentric man who had been obsessed with the 80s all his life—his youth.Naturally, "Anola's Invitation" is full of 80s pop culture symbols, which have long been forgotten by our generation. When I saw them for the first time, I felt like I was reading a bible.

The entire film lasted just over five minutes, yet over the next few weeks it became the most carefully watched film ever seen, even the Zepprud footage, which was analyzed frame by frame countless times[1] Can't even match it.A whole generation of us can retell Halliday's video footage in its entirety.

"Anora's Invitation" begins with the blast of trumpets, which is the prelude to the old song "Party of the Dead".

For the first few seconds, the screen was pitch black, and it was not until the guitar sounded that Halliday appeared in the center of the screen.Instead of the dying 67-year-old man, ravaged by time and disease, the screen is shown as he appeared on the cover of Time Magazine in 2014.The middle-aged man is tall, thin and healthy, with disheveled hair, horn-rimmed glasses that have almost become his signature, and clothes that are also in the cover photo of Time magazine: washed jeans, T-shirts with the pattern of little bees[2] shirt.

The background is the high school prom in the gymnasium. The clothes, hairstyles, and dance moves of the young people around him all indicate that this is the 80s. (A detailed analysis shows that all the young people around Halliday are extras cut from various John Hughes teen movies.) Halliday dances too-no one sees it in real life He skips.He grinned wildly, spun around quickly, and danced with his hands and head in rhythm, perfectly repeating several classic 3s dance moves.

A few lines of short text appear in the lower left corner of the screen.That's the band and the title, and the label and the year it was released, like an old song on MTV: Oingo Boingo, Party of the Dead, MCA Records, 4.

After the prelude was over, Halliday continued to spin and began to sing along to the lyrics: "I'm all dressed up but I have nowhere to go. I can only walk forward with the dead on my shoulders. Don't run, don't run, it's me..."

He stopped suddenly, making a "stop" gesture with his right hand.The music stops suddenly.At this moment, the dancers and the gymnasium around him disappear, and the scene shifts to the funeral home.

Young Halliday now rests on an open coffin. (Actually, this is a scene from the 1989 film The Sid and Sisters. Halliday reconstructed the scene of the funeral home and inserted himself.) The elderly Halliday is lying in the coffin, he Wasted away from cancer.Two coins covered his eyelids. (High-definition footage shows that both coins were minted in 5.)
The young Halliday looked down at his old corpse, pretending to be mocking, but with an indescribable sense of sadness.Then he turned his head to the mourners gathered around him. (These mourners are also taken from The Sid Sisters. The audience can clearly see Winona Ryder and Christian Slater sitting in the back.) His palms meet, and a scroll emerges from it.With a flick of his right hand, the scroll unfolded, and the case fell onto the corridor in front of him.Then, he began to read the contents of it to the audience:
"I, James Donovan Halliday, am of sound mind and memory and able to take responsibility for my actions. As my last will and testament, I hereby publish this video. In doing so, I declare that any other The will and the particulars pertaining thereto are void...”

He read on, increasing his rate of speech until it was unintelligible—long stretches of legalese.Then he stopped suddenly. "It's all nonsense," he said. "Even at this speed, it would take me a long time to read the whole thing, but unfortunately, time is the thing I lack the most." Halliday dropped the scroll, and it Disappearing in a cloud of golden dust, "Get straight to the point."

The funeral parlor disappears, and the scene changes again.Now he stands at the door of the bank's underground warehouse, "All my property, including shares in the company, social simulation system, will be handed over to a third party for safekeeping until someone fulfills the requirements in my will. That person will inherit my The entire property is worth a total of 400 billion U.S. dollars."

The door opened slowly, and Halliday walked in.The basement was astonishingly large and filled with so many piles of gold bars that they filled the entire room. "That's what winners get," Halliday grinned. "Damn it, you never dreamed it, did you?"

Halliday leans on a pile of gold bars, the camera pans to his face. "I know you are all calculating, how to get these treasures. Well, don't be impulsive, children, I will tell you right away..." He stopped mysteriously, as if he was about to reveal some big secret child.

Halliday folded his hands again, and the basement vanished, shrinking Halliday into a little boy in corduroy pants and a faded Sesame Street[6] T-shirt. (This is what Halliday looked like in 1980, when he was eight years old.) Little Halliday stands in a sprawling living room with cigarette burns on the orange carpet and wooden walls. The decoration of the kitchen is also the taste of the late 70s.On the 21-inch Zenith [7] TV in the living room, there is an Atari 2600 game console.

(End of this chapter)