Player 1

Chapter 43 Level 3(11)
About halfway through the movie, after the battle with "Knight[149]", I opened the text window and typed: Where is the "Sixth Man"?
"Fifteen more are trapped in The Tempest," Edge replied, "but three others have entered Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The closest to you is probably Sorrento, separated by—about 9 minutes."

"And so far, he hasn't mispronounced a single line," Soto added.

I almost cursed out loud, but I still controlled myself and typed in the three big characters "Goofy!"

"That's right!" Artemis whispered.

I took a deep breath and focused on the next scene.And Edge began to report the latest status of the "Sixth Man" every once in a while.

When it came to the last scene of the movie, the attack on the Château de France, I was anxious again.Not sure what will happen next.The first door is the synchronous movie "War Games", and the second door is the game "Black Tiger".And both of these challenges have appeared in the third door, and there will definitely be a third stage, but what awaits me in it?

The answer appears automatically after a few minutes.As soon as I finished the last scene of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", my vision turned to pitch black, and the ending song played slowly.And when the music stopped, words like this appeared in front of my eyes:
Congratulations!

You have come to the other side!

Player 1, get ready!

As the text faded away, I found myself standing in an oak room, a huge space wrapped by a white ceiling and earth-colored hardwood floors, with no windows and only one exit—the Futaba on the empty wall opposite. style gate.A set of old-fashioned somatosensory equipment stands in the center of the huge room, and it is surrounded by more than 100 glass tables in an oval shape.There are different old-fashioned home computers or game consoles on each table, and controllers, joysticks, game cassettes and CDs are naturally among them.They are perfectly arranged and combined, like a museum of well-designed booths.Around this ellipse, I browsed through the exhibits one by one, and they were arranged by release time. PDP-1, Altair8800, IMSAA8080, Apple I, then Apple II, Atari 2600, Komodo PET, several TRS-80 test models, Atari 400 and 800, TI-99/4, Sinclair ZX80, Komodo 64, all arcade machines and home consoles of PS and X-BOX series.At the end of the ellipse, there's the Oasis mainframe -- which connects to the device in the center of the room.

I realized I was standing in James Halliday's office.He spent most of the last 15 years of his life here.This is where he created his final, greatest work -- the game I'm playing right now.

I've never seen any photographs of the room, but after Halliday's death the cleaners hired gave a good description of the place.

I no longer wear the armor from the movies.

I have turned back into Parsifal, Knight of the Round Table.

I looked at the door, the exit was locked.

Looking back, I looked at the whole room again, observing the long line of games and computers that came across the long river of time.

This time I understood that the shape of this ellipse is like an egg.

Halliday's first poem in "Anora's Invitation" came to mind:

Three keys correspond to three secret doors
Virtue will be tested here
Only those who ride the wind and waves and overcome all difficulties

In order to reach the other shore and gain a lot of wealth
The other side is here.

Halliday's egg must be hidden somewhere in the house.

0038
"Did you see that?" I whispered.

no answer.

"Hey? Edge? Artemis? Soto? Did you hear that?"

Still no answer, either Ogg cut off the comm link between us, or Halliday put a special code segment here to block all comms, I'm pretty sure it's the latter.

I stood there silently for a few minutes, not knowing what to do, and then I followed my instinct towards the Atari 2600, which was connected to a Zenith 1997 color TV.I turn on the TV and nothing happens.Next I tried turning on the Atari, still no change, the TV and the Atari didn't seem to be powered even though both were plugged in.

I reached out to the Apple II on the table next to me, but it couldn't be opened either.

After a few minutes of testing, the only computer I found to be able to turn on was the IMSA.I.8080[150], an original computer identical to the one Matthew Broderick used in Wargames.

After booting, there are only two words on the black screen: login.

I type "Anola" and hit enter.

Unrecognized - Connection failed.

The computer automatically shuts down, I turn it back on and start logging in again.

Halliday.no.

The background password for the WOPR supercomputer in "War Games" is "Joah". The inventor of WOPR, Dr. Falcon, used the name of his son, who was his favorite person, as the password.But I still guessed wrong.

I type Og, no, and Ogden too.

Kayla.

Unrecognized - Connection failed.

I tried all of Halliday's parents' names, and I even used Zapphold, which was the name of his pet dog.

Neither is right.

I checked the time and found that I had been in the room for 10 minutes, which means that Sorrento must have caught up with my progress in another copy, and there must be a group of Halliday scholars in his ears.They'll immediately come up with a list and let Sorrento try them one by one.

Running out of time.

I gritted my teeth in frustration, not knowing what to try next.

At this time, I remembered a passage in Ogden Morrow's autobiography: "Kayla is the only girl I have ever seen who can make James not open his tongue, although that is only when he becomes Anola in the game. Jaime calls Keira Lukoshia—that's her character name when she runs the group."

I turned on the computer again and typed Lukoshia.

All the equipment in the room started automatically, the sound of the CD drive, the "beep" sound of the system self-test, and the sound of other computers starting up one after another.

I ran back to the Atari 2600, dug out the game I wanted from the chuck pile next to it: "Adventure", then inserted it into the Atari to start the console, and clicked the reset button to start the game.

In just a few minutes, I entered the secret room.

After taking the sword and slaying the dragon, I found the Black Key and used it to open the gates of Castle Black, where the gray dot in the dark passage was still waiting for me.I picked it up and walked back through the little eight-bit kingdom, then used it to open the door to the Chamber of Secrets.Unlike the original game, there is no Warren Robinette's name in the Chamber of Secrets, and an egg appears in the center of the screen.

that egg.

I stare at the screen in disbelief for a while, then finally push the joystick to the right and watch my character run around the eight-bit world.When the egg is touched, the speaker makes a "beep".With the flash of silver light, the handle disappeared, replaced by a huge silver egg.On that mirror-like surface, I saw my own reflection.

I looked away with difficulty and raised my head, only to find that the gate on the opposite wall had changed, it became a crystal gate leading to the interior of Anola Castle.From here, it looks like the castle has been completely reset, although the server reset time should still be several hours away.

After taking a last look at Halliday's office, I walked towards it with the eggs in my hands.

I turned around after passing through the door, and saw that the crystal door had become the wooden door of the castle tower.

Inside the wooden door was a spiral staircase leading to the spire of the castle's tallest tower, which was also where Anora's study was located, with shelves full of ancient scrolls and dusty spellbooks.

Looking out from the windows of the tower, the view is astounding, the place is no longer barren, the Son of Doom seems to have never existed, and everything around has reappeared with the reset of the castle.

Looking back at the room, just below the familiar black dragon pattern is an ornate crystal shelf, its outline and silver egg just match.

I gently lowered the eggs into the stand and they fit together perfectly.

The sound of bells and drums beating in the distance came, and the egg began to grow bigger.

"Hey, winner," someone said behind me, it was Anola, whose black robe seemed to swallow most of the sunlight in the room, "congratulations." He held out his hand.

I hesitated, is this another trap?Or is it the final test?

"The game is over," Anola seemed to know what I was thinking, "it's time to get the reward."

I stared down at his outstretched hand, hesitated for a moment, then took it.

The blue lightning shuttled between each other, and the electric light enveloped our whole body. He seemed to be passing on great power to me.After the lightning disappeared, I saw that Anola was no longer wearing a black robe. In fact, his appearance had also changed. He became a slightly short, pale middle-aged man, wearing jeans and a washed-up bee T-shirt. shirt.

James Halliday.

Parsifal put on Anola's robe, my icon and title also changed, all attribute values ​​exceeded the upper limit, and the list that jumped out said that I have mastered all magic and magic at the same time. Skill.

Even the level and life value are displayed as infinite.

The "Oasis" account interface flickered frantically, and finally displayed a twelve-digit number. I am really a super rich man now.

"I leave the Oasis to you, Parsifal. Being invincible and immortal, you can get anything you want, sounds great, doesn't it?" Halliday leaned forward, lowering his Voice, "But promise me to use your strength to do good, will you?"

"Okay." I said angrily.

Halliday smiled and patted his thigh. "This is your castle, and only you have the right to enter this room, and there is no one else." He walked to the bookshelf next to him and pressed a hidden button. There was a "click", and the bookshelf slid open, revealing a square metal spacer on the wall. In the center of the spacer was a huge red button with only two words on it: Close.

"I call it Big Red," Halliday said, "press it and the whole oasis will be destroyed, the worm will eat everything in the GSS server, including the source code, and it will completely end the world. Sure, otherwise it's better not to think about it." He smiled at me, "But I trust your judgment."

Halliday returned the bookshelf to its original shape, and put his hands on my shoulders. "Listen," he whispered, "I have one last little thing to tell you before I leave, and I found it too late." He led me to the window, pointing out to the magnificent view, " I created Oasis because I never felt at home in reality, and I didn't know how to connect with people. I lived in fear all my life, and didn't realize until the end of my life that reality, even though it's scary, even though it's painful, But it's also the only place where we can be truly happy, because that's the real thing. Do you understand?"

"Well," I said, "I think so."

"Very well," he smiled, "don't make the same mistake as me, don't hide here for the rest of your life."

Then he took a few steps back and shrugged, "I think that's all said and done, and it's time to leave."

He waved his hand and began to fade away.

"Good luck, Parsifal," he said. "Thank you, thank you for joining my game."

Halliday just disappeared into the air.

"Are you all there?" I yelled into the air around me after a few minutes.

"Hey!" Edge replied excitedly, "Can you hear me?"

(End of this chapter)