Player 1

Chapter 36 Level 3(4)
Judging from the modification time of the file, Sorrento sent it after eight o'clock in the evening, that is, less than five hours ago.Because he doesn't work at night, his boss probably hasn't seen the information yet.And after they see it, they will probably hold a meeting with Sorrento to discuss it again, so in theory, IOI should not send people out immediately before tomorrow.

I still have a chance to warn them.But that would mean completely changing my escape plan.

Before I came in, I set up a timely transfer in the Oasis account, and the money was enough to pay off all the debts I owed to IOI, so they had to let me go[131].But the transfer will take at least five more days to complete.And by that time, Artemis and Soto would probably have been locked in some airtight small dark room.

I don't have a planned week to study the rest of the material.I have to download as much stuff as I can and then run away.

I set this deadline at dawn.

0031
For the next four hours, I was busy copying the materials of "The Sixth Man" to a USB flash drive.After doing this, I set specific requirements according to the format of the "Sixth Man" commander's online application for weapons and equipment, and used the manager account to issue a supply order for egg researchers.The delivery time was set at noon two days later.

After finishing all this, I found that before I knew it, it was already 06:30 in the morning, and there were still nine or ten minutes to change shifts, so there was not much time left.

I quickly opened my contract worker file, entered the debt status column, cleared the huge debt, and then selected the small menu of ear monitors and ankle locks.Finally, I've done what I've been craving to do all week—disengage my ear monitors and ankle locks.

I felt a pain as the monitor came off my left ear, it slid off my shoulder and fell to the floor.At the same time, the ankle lock on the right foot also came loose, revealing a patch of red and swollen skin.

As long as all the surveillance equipment is removed from his body, Bryce Lynch will disappear from this world out of thin air.But if IOI security catches the unidentified man before he leaves the building and finds him with a USB stick containing the company's top secrets, he's dead.It must have disappeared from the world, and there has been no news since then.

I made the last few preparations for the escape plan, then exited the IOI intranet, took off my mask and gloves, and opened the host computer case.Between the wall of the room and the hardware of the main case, there is a small gap, where a neat stack of things is clamped, which is the vacuum-packed IOI maintenance personnel suit, including the work cap and ID card (same as the U disk, I Submitted these objects through the intranet and had them sent to an unoccupied cubicle on my floor).I took off my jumpsuit, wiped the blood from my ears with it, and took two band-aids from under the bed and stuck them on my earlobes.After changing my clothes, I carefully pulled out the USB flash drive and installed it, picked up the ear monitor and whispered to it: "I'm going to the bathroom."

The door was open in front of me, the dark hallway was empty, and I stuffed the earphones and jumpsuit under the mattress and stuffed the ankle locks into my new pocket.After calming down, I carefully walked out and down the stairs.

Along the way, I met a few interns I had met before. As usual, they dared not look people in the eye, which made me breathe a sigh of relief.Standing in front of the elevator door, I held my breath, waiting for the system to scan the ID card of the maintenance personnel.

"Good morning, Mr. Tuttle," said the elevator. "Which floor do you want?"

"Lobby." I answered hoarsely, and the elevator began to descend.

Harry Tuttle is the name on the ID card, and I gave the fictional Mr. Tuttle permission to go anywhere in the building, and I reset the ankle lock to fit Mr. Tuttle's ID.This trick is obviously successful, otherwise when the elevator door is scanning, I will be shocked by thousands of volts of high-voltage electricity so that I can't take care of myself, and I will be arrested obediently.

I quietly followed the elevator down, looking at the camera on the lintel.Someone's going to check the footage after I escape, it occurred to me.Among them probably included Sorrento himself and his boss.So I stared straight at the camera, smiling and giving the middle finger.

The elevator landed steadily on the lobby floor and opened the door. I imagined a team of security guards waiting outside, with countless gun barrels pointed at my face.But there were only a group of IOI white-collar workers waiting for the elevator outside. I stared blankly at them for a second and then walked out. It felt like fugitives crossing the border.

A group of white-collar workers come and go between the lobby exit and the elevator. These people are regular employees rather than contract workers. They can go home after get off work, or even resign to do other things. I really don’t know what they think of the same here Thousands of contract workers without human rights living in the building.

There were two security guards sitting at the front desk. I hid in the crowd, bypassed them, and walked towards the large glass automatic door, and the free world was outside.I force myself not to run.I'm just a maintenance guy and I'm just going home after a tired night.I'm not, I'm certainly not a contractor who stole ten ZB[132] company secrets and is now about to get away with it.

As I was walking, I seemed to hear a strange sound. Looking down, I found that I was still wearing plastic contract worker slippers. The waxed marble floor made it make a sharp friction sound. It was extremely harsh.Every step I took, I seemed to be shouting: Hey!Hey!look here!Someone was wearing plastic flip flops!

I didn't stop, but continued to move forward.But when I was almost at the door, someone put a hand on my shoulder, and I froze there. "Sir?" asked a voice, a woman.

I could hardly contain myself from rushing out the door, but the woman didn't sound hostile.I turned around and saw a tall woman in her 40s looking at me with concern. "Sir, your ears are bleeding," she frowned and pointed with her finger, "very badly."

I touched my earlobe and got a hand of red.The Band-Aid didn't know when it fell off.My mind was blank for a while, I didn't know what to do, I wanted to explain, but I didn't know how to get away with it, so I could only nod and say "thank you" in the end.Then turned around and walked out the door as calmly as possible.

The cold morning wind was so strong that it almost knocked people down. I maintained my balance and walked step by step. When I passed the trash can, I threw the ankle lock into it and heard it make a "dang" when it hit the bottom of the bucket The sound is really pleasant.

As the only person around without a coat on, I headed north on the street at full speed.My feet quickly became numb - the IOI was not kind enough to equip plastic slippers with socks.

I was shaking like chaff when I walked into the hot automated mailroom.This is a mailroom a few blocks from the IOI building.A week before I entered IOI, I rented a mailbox here anonymously online and put a set of top portable Oasis suits in it.The mailbox is fully automated, so there are no staff here, and it's too early for other customers to share the space with me.I find my mailbox, enter the code, take out the package and sit on the floor.After rubbing my frozen hands, I unpacked the package, put on a mask and gloves, and logged into "Oasis". GSS is less than a mile away, and can be directly connected without a network proxy.

I can hear my own pounding heartbeat.Not logging into Oasis for eight full days is a new personal high for me.As Parsifal gradually materialized on the watchtower of the fortress, my heart also relaxed for some reason.At the same time, several windows jumped into view, and they said that Edge and Soto had sent me a lot of messages.To my surprise, Artemis sent the same message.They all wanted to know where the hell I was.

I first emailed Artemis and told her that the "Sixth Man" knew who she was, where she was, and had been monitoring her.I also told her about the "Sixth Man" plan to take her from the house.As proof, I reissued a copy of her profile.

"Don't pack your suitcase," I wrote, "don't say goodbye to your family, leave now, go to a safe place. Make sure you are not being followed, and then find a safe place that is not under IOI surveillance and log in. I will be in Edge ASAP meet you in the basement. Don't panic - I have some good news for you."

At the end of the email, I attached another sentence:
PS: I think you are more beautiful in reality than in the oasis.

I sent Soto and Edge similar emails and attachments (though the PS was omitted), then went to the US Citizenship Registration database and tried to log in with the background password.As luck would have it, the password hadn't expired, so I opened the fake Bryce Lynch profile.The photos I took during the signing process of the contract workers have been added to the file, and the steel stamp of "Wanted Criminal" is also affixed to the photos.It seems that the IOI has reported Mr. Lynch as a fugitive contract worker.

It didn't take me long to completely wipe the Bryce Lynch file, moving the fingerprints and retinas back to my original citizenship file.After I quit the database, Bryce Lynch disappeared completely, and I was Wade Watts again.

I stopped an automatic taxi outside the mailroom, and after carefully confirming that the car I stopped was a local company's car and not an out-of-town taxi that needs to go through an IOI agent to access the Internet, I got on it.

The moment I got into the car, I faced the identity scanner with bated breath. The screen flashed green. The system recognized me as Wade Watts, and the fugitive contractor Bryce Lynch did not exist anymore.

"Good morning, Mr. Watts," the taxi's AI asked, "where are you going?"

I told it about a clothing store on Highland Street, next to Ohio State University.It's called New Clothes, and it specializes in "high-tech trendy clothes."I ran in and bought a pair of jeans and a sweater, both of which were marked "dual use," meaning that not only could they appear in reality, but the oasis also had a corresponding code.These clothes themselves have no haptic devices, but they can be connected to portable somatosensory equipment without taking them off, allowing people to enter and exit "Oasis" more casually.I also bought a few pairs of socks and underwear, a faux leather jacket, a pair of boots, and a knitted hat to keep out the cold.

Wearing a new outfit, I left the clothing store.After zipping up the jacket and putting on the hat, the cold wind seems to have weakened a lot.I buried my maintenance uniform and plastic slippers in the trash can and walked down Highland Street, ducking my head to avoid the crowds of college students around me.

A few blocks away is a row of department store vending machines, including one labeled “Defense” that sells all manner of self-defense equipment: lightweight body armor, chemical sprays, and a variety of firearms.On the screen in front of the machine, I dragged the menu, searched for a while, and finally decided to buy a bulletproof vest and a Glock 47C pistol, three magazines and a can of chemical spray.Pressing the payment option, the scanner confirmed my fingerprint.

Name: Wade Watts

Privileges: none
Credit Rating: Very High

Purchase Restrictions: None
Transaction complete!

Thank you for your patronage!

There was a heavy metallic clang as the items tumbled to the pickup point at my knee height.I slipped on a new vest, dug my fingers into the plastic wrap and pulled out a pistol.This is the first time I hold a real gun, but maybe because I have used it a thousand times in "Oasis", it feels very familiar.I pressed the identify button on the gun, it clicked, then I held it tight for a few seconds, right hand, then left, at which point the gun made a second beep telling me it was scanned my palm prints.I became its master, the only one who can use it now.It will take twelve hours for the gun to be unlocked and used, but it still makes people feel more at ease.

A few blocks away, there is an "Oasis" franchise Internet cafe called "Lock". The neon lights through the dust on it show "lightning-like speed of the oasis! Low-cost rental machines! There are also private rooms for motion-sensing equipment! Dial 24- 7-365!" in big characters.I have seen a lot of online advertisements for plug-in, they are famous for their high prices and backward hardware equipment, but the Internet speed is really fast and quite reliable.However, for me, these are secondary, the most important thing is that they are not a company under IOI.

The scanner beeped as I walked through the front door, and upon entering the storefront, I saw a lounge on the right, now empty, and in the main hall ahead, the carpet was ragged and dirty, and the whole place It was dilapidated, and a glazed-eyed clerk in his early twenties with a mohawk and holes in his face for piercings looked at me from behind the Plexiglas.The refocus mask allows him to observe the real world while seeing the translucent Oasis interface. "Welcome to the plug." He said blankly, showing a mouthful of rotten teeth. "We still have a few empty somatosensory equipment rooms, so there is no need to queue up. Their information is displayed here." He pointed to the counter display screen, and then turned his attention back to the Oasis world.

I browsed through the options, and there are a dozen motion-sensing gear available, mainly categorized into economy, standard, and real-life, in varying price and quality.You can bill by the minute or by the hour.The rental contract includes huge compensation for damaged equipment, and the plug will not interfere with any behavior of the user during use, unless you blatantly violated the law.

"Twelve hours, real," I said.

The clerk pulled up the mask, "Pay first before boarding the plane, you understand that?"

I nodded, "Because there are a lot of things to upload, the bandwidth must also be large."

"Uploads cost extra. How big are the files?"

"10ZB."

"Fuck," he murmured, "what are you uploading? The entire Library of Congress?"

I ignored the question, "I want the fanciest room."

"Of course," the clerk replied cautiously, "It's ten thousand in total, as long as the fingerprints are pressed, the matter will be settled."

After seeing the successful transaction, he was really shocked, then shrugged and handed me the network card, mask and gloves. "Room No. 14, the last one on the right. The rest room is at the end of the hall. If you leave some, uh, things like vomit, urine, or semen in it, you have to pay for it. And I still Had to go and clean up that dick thing. Save me some face, huh?"

"no problem."

"Have fun."

"Thanks."

Room NO.14 is a square soundproof room with a length and width of ten meters. The cushion on the central tactile chair is dilapidated, and an old version of the somatosensory suit is placed on it.I locked the door and got into the suit, smiled and inserted the USB drive into the Oasis mainframe.

"Max." I yelled into the air as soon as I logged in, and his smiling face appeared on the command menu immediately.

"Hey-hey-hey, I'm here, man!" Max said. "How-how-how?"

"Everything is going well, but don't talk nonsense, there are a lot of things going on now."

I opened my Oasis account and started uploading materials.Due to the monthly fee paid to GSS, Parsifal has theoretically unlimited storage space, but I have never tested before whether it can really accept the full 10ZB upload volume.With so many files, even with the high-speed upload using the large bandwidth of the socket, the total estimated time is still more than three hours.So I had to change the priority of uploading files.

First, the video file of IOI's murder of me and Dayto was sent to all mainstream media, and then there was the death list where Soto and Artemis were also included, and I also attached the "Sixth Man" Other materials and a memorandum from Sorrento to his superiors.The picture of me negotiating with him in the conference room was also posted, but I first edited out the clip where he said my real name and released my school photo.I can't announce my real identity to the world yet, and it won't be too late to release these materials after the dust settles.

Then, I spent 15 minutes writing an email to all Oasis users, and put it in the draft box.

Then I logged into the basement.

Edge, Artemis, and Soto were already there waiting for me.

(End of this chapter)