Player 1

Chapter 5 Level 1(3)
On the top of the cabinet is a small mirror, and I can see my image in the virtual world when I get close to it.When building the character, I set the appearance of the character to be similar to myself, but with a slightly smaller nose and a taller head; the body is slimmer and more muscular at the same time.I also erased the traces of childishness on my body.But aside from these small details, he and I seem to come from the same mold.The school imposes restrictions on codes, and every student must be human, and their gender and age must match their own.No two-headed demons or anything like that allowed here.

You can name your character anything you want, as long as it doesn't repeat itself.That is, you can't pick a name that someone else has already adopted.Your character name is also your email address and chat account, so everyone tries to get something cool and memorable.Celebrities often pay sky-high prices for names they want that are already registered.

When I created the account, I named my character Giant Wade.After that, I changed the names of the characters every few months, and they were usually weird names.But from the moment when the Halliday egg appeared five years ago and I decided to become a hunter, the character name has never been changed.My character is called Parsifal, just like the knight who was looking for the Holy Grail in Arthurian legend.Of course, the more common name for this famous person is Percival or Percival, but they have long been taken up by others. Besides, I also like the name Parcival, which is very nice, isn’t it?

People rarely use their real names online.In the virtual world, no one knows you're a dog unless you tell the truth.The popularity of oasis culture is based on this foundation.Your real name, fingerprint, and retina shape are all stored in the data center, and the security of this information is protected by the Social Simulation System (GSS).Not even GSS's own employees can see real profiles of users.When Halliday controlled the company, even the Supreme Court couldn't ask for the GSS data.

When I first entered the Oasis public school system, I was asked to leave my real name, character name, email address, and social security number.This information is stored in My Student File and can only be reviewed by the Principal.No other teacher or student knew who I was or what I did.

Students don't use character names in school, so that the teacher will not say inexplicable words, such as: "Slippery pimp, please concentrate on listening to the class!" or: "King 69, can you get up and read your review?" Students The real name must be used, followed by a number to show the difference.When I first entered the school, there were already two people named Wade here, so my student name was Wade Three.When walking around the campus, the name is also displayed on the character's head.

The bell rang, and an icon flickered in the corner of my field of vision, reminding me that the first class started in four and ten minutes.Using a series of slight hand movements to control the action, I steer my character down the hall.Of course, if I can't spare my hand, I can also control the movement by voice.

I walked in the direction of the world history classroom, waving or smiling at familiar faces on the road.Graduation is a few months away, and it makes me miss this place a little bit.With no money to go to college, not even Oasis' virtual college, I didn't really want to leave school.And I didn't have enough credits to get a college scholarship.Now, my only way out is to find that easter egg as a full-time hunter after graduation.That's the only way I can get out of the building, unless I'm willing to sign a five-year indentured contract with a big company, but that doesn't seem to be much different than being a slave.

As I continued down the hall, other students gradually began to materialize in front of their lockers, like ghosts emerging from nowhere.The voices of everyone chatting echoed in the corridor.Soon I heard someone shouting here.

"Hey, hey! It's Wade III!" I heard a voice shouting behind me.It was Todd Thirteen, a guy from algebra class, standing with some friends. "Beautiful dress, very handsome," he said. "Where did you get it?"

I was wearing a black T-shirt and dark blue jeans, one of several free outfits you can choose when you create your account.And Todd Thirteen, like his nouveau riche friend, was wearing an expensive suit, which he probably bought in an offline store.

"Your mom bought it for me," I replied deadpan, "please pass on my thanks the next time you come home to drink." It's childish, I know.But virtual or not, this is a middle school—so the sharper the words, the better.

My words made several friends around him laugh out loud.Todd Thirteen's face turned crimson—meaning that he didn't turn off the expression sensor, allowing his facial expressions and body language to be reflected on the character.He opened his mouth to fight back, but I had muffled his voice by then, so all I could see was his mouth moving.I took it lightly and continued to walk to the classroom.

Blocking the sound is one of the coolest things about school, and I use it almost every day.What's even better is that the other party can see that you blocked them, but they can only stare blankly.The school code locks the corresponding permissions, and no PK can be performed here.The entire Ludes[16] star is a non-PVP area where players cannot attack each other.So in school, the only weapon was language, and I had already mastered that craft.

I only made it to sixth grade in the real world.Those memories are far from good.I was a shy and dumb kid with low self-esteem and social skills—a side effect of spending my childhood in Oasis.I can communicate with others and make friends online.But in the real world, talking to other people — especially kids my own age — made me very nervous.I don't know what to say or do, and when I muster up the courage to speak, the words don't always convey the meaning.

Appearance is also an issue.I've been fat for as long as I can remember.Although the high sugar and starch content of government relief food is the culprit, my own reasons are not small: I lack exercise because I am addicted to "Oasis".Worse were my clothes, which I either bought from thrift stores or from used clothing donations—wearing them to school was as ridiculous as having a giant turtle painted on my head.

Even so, I still look forward to who will be my friend.Year after year, I keep watch over the canteen like a T-1000[17], hoping to find a suitable target.Still, even the other loners thought I was too weird to talk to.As for girls...communicating with them is simply impossible.They are like some beautiful and terrifying alien species. As long as I get close, they will tremble with excitement, and then they will be tongue-tied and unable to utter a complete sentence.

For me, going to school every day is filled with absurd loneliness.After finally getting through the sixth grade, I began to doubt whether I could maintain my normal sanity before graduation. My God, there are still six full years[18].

Fortunately, everything finally turned around.On that day, the principal announced that every student with a passing average could apply for transfer to the newly built Oasis School.As for the public schools previously run by the government, due to the shortage of funds and overcrowding for decades, the situation has become so bad that even the brain-dead and mentally retarded do not want to go.I almost immediately rushed to the school office to submit a transfer application.Then, starting my second semester, I transferred to Oasis Public School No. 1873.

Before transferring schools, my character had never left Insibio, the planet in the center of the oasis, which is what we call the "novice village".In Insibio, apart from chatting with others, you can only go shopping in that store that is scattered all over the world and synchronized around the world.If the player wants to go to other more interesting places, he has to pay a teleportation fee, but unfortunately I am just poor.So I've been hanging around Inscipio.If it weren't for the delivery fee to Luders attached to the mail from the school, I probably would have been stuck there for the rest of my life.

Ludus is a special teaching planet, and there are more than a thousand schools on it all over the surface of the planet.Schools are virtually indistinguishable from school to school, as they are just multiple copies of the same string of model codes.However, because the teaching buildings are just programs, their form is not limited by funds and physical laws.Each school is a grand sanctuary, with brightly colored marble corridors, spacious classrooms, a virtual library stocked with all (school-approved) books, and even a zero-gravity gymnasium.

When I first arrived, I felt like I had stepped into heaven.Instead of dodging pedophiles and junkies on the way to school, I could just walk to the secret base and stay all day.Besides, no one in Oasis would laugh at me for being fat, for my acne, for wearing the same rags every week.Bad guys here can't throw wads of paper at me, and I don't have to worry about getting beaten up next to my bike after school.Anyway, no one can touch me, I'm safe here.

I walked into the world history classroom.There are already several students sitting in front of the desks, their faces are expressionless, their eyes are closed, and they are in the state of "leaving". "Away" means the player is on the phone, browsing the web, or in a chat room.There's no point in talking to someone who's leaving in an oasis, and you basically get no feedback - other than an autoresponder telling you to fuck off.

I sat in my seat, clicked "Leave" on the edge of my field of vision, and then pulled out a huge web page window.Although the character's eyes are closed, he can still see things around him.As for the opened webpage, only I can see it, no one can peek behind my back (unless they have permission from me).

I set the homepage as "Brood", the most famous hunter forum.The interface design of the brood is very hard-core. The login system looks like the interface of early dial-up Internet access. When you log in, you can still hear the unique beeping sound of the modem.Awesome.I took a few minutes to browse the news to see if there were any new events and rumors.As a diving party, although I watch it every day, I basically don't speak.Nothing special this morning, just another Hunter's Guild fight, an endless debate over a few passages in the Almanac, and power users showing off their new magical gear.This situation has been going on for several years.Without any real progress, the subculture of hunters is increasingly being replaced by bullshit and nonsense.It's bad, really bad.

My favorite messages are basically mocking "The Sixth Man," the name the hunters give to the IOI (Internet of Innovations) employees. IOI is a global communications group and the world's largest network service provider.Its main services include providing the Oasis network and selling products in "Oasis".Because of the profitability, IOI tried to acquire GSS several times, but it has not been successful so far.So now they've shifted their focus, trying to get GSS by fulfilling the demands of Halliday's will.

IOI has set up a new department called "Egg Research Department" (Egg research originally refers to the discipline that specializes in the study of animal eggs, but in recent years it has a second meaning: to use "scientific" analysis methods to find ha Liddy egg). The new division of the IOI has only one purpose: to win the Halliday contest and acquire his property, his company, and his Oasis.

Like most hunters, I am afraid that the oasis will fall into the hands of IOI.A series of moves by the company made its ambitions clear.While Khaliday was still alive, IOI wanted to "help" him: they would start charging a monthly fee, they would place ads in every location, and make user complaints and free speech a thing of the past.None of this happened while Halliday was alive, but if the IOI did succeed, the Oasis wouldn't be the same utopia I had as a child.It will become a dystopian world, a theme park where money worship is rampant.

IOI requires their hunters, also known as "egg researchers", to use their employee number as the character name of "Oasis".These numbers are as long as six digits and all start with six, so everyone calls them "sixth people".Most hunters also call them "kneeling and licking" (because it's so disgusting).

To become the "sixth man," you have to sign a stipulated contract, the most important clause of which is that if you find the Halliday egg, it will become the personal property of the company boss.Other parts of the contract include semi-monthly salary, food, lodging, health care and a retirement plan.The company will also equip your character with advanced armor, mounts, weapons, and reimburse you for all teleportation fees.Joining the Sixth Man was a lot like joining the military.

The "Sixth Man" isn't hard to spot because they all look alike.All "sixth people" are required to use male human characters of the same physique (regardless of whether the operator is male or female), as well as the same short black hair and the system's default facial features.They all wore the same navy blue uniform.The only way to tell them apart is the six-digit employee number on their right chest.

Like most hunters, I am disgusted by the existence of the "Sixth Man".By employing an army of hunters, IOI changed the nature of the game.Of course, you can say that those who joined the Hunter's Guild are doing the same thing. If you count it carefully, there are now hundreds of guilds with thousands of members.They also divide the work and cooperate, and the core regulations of each guild are similar: as long as one member finds the easter egg, the other members of the guild also have the right to share the results.But free hunters like me don't mind the existence of the Hunter's Guild, and they still count as peers—unlike the Sixth Man, whose mission is to deliver the oasis to evil masters.

The lives of my generation are closely related to "Oasis".For us, "Oasis" is not only a platform for games or entertainment, but also an indispensable part of life.The world is ugly, and Oasis provides shade.Those who haven't experienced it first-hand have a hard time understanding why we're intimidated by the idea of ​​an IOI.In my eyes, it's like taking the sun off our heads, or blackmailing us every time we look up at the stars.

The "Sixth Man" is the common enemy of all hunters, and laughing at the "Sixth Man" is our best pastime in forums and chat rooms.Many high-level hunters will try their best to kill the "sixth man" they encounter, and there are several websites dedicated to tracking the whereabouts of the "sixth man", and some hunter guilds spend most of their time hunting the "sixth man" Instead of looking for easter eggs.Several big guilds even set up an annual "86 kneeling and licking" competition to reward the guild that hunted the most "sixth men".

After reading a few articles by other hunters, I clicked on my favorite blog site in my bookmarks: Letter of the Posers. The owner of the site is a huntress named Artemis[19].I became a loyal reader of her about three years ago.She would write some really cool articles, mostly about search operations, called "Wild MacGuffins."Her writing is witty and witty, full of clever self-deprecation of all kinds, always accompanied by a few excerpts from the yearbook (often very hilariously), and she likes to list recent books, movies, TV, and Music links.Even if these things don't actually have anything to do with easter eggs, looking at them can be relaxing.

(End of this chapter)