This is a story about a young man named Wade, who lives in a futuristic Oklahoma City where
the problems of the world are so bad that most of the population turns to an online
simulation video game called the OASIS.
The creator of the OASIS, a man named Halliday, dies and challenges the entire world to find
a hidden Easter egg in his game in order to inherit his wealth by finding three keys and
entering three gates through the OASIS universe.
Wade lives in a trailer with his aunt and extended family, but keeps his most valuable
belongings in a secret hiding place inside an abandoned junkyard.
As a gunter, a nickname for anyone searching for the Easter egg, Wade enters the OASIS
world as his avatar named Parzival.
Wade hangs out in the OASIS world with a gunter named Aech, his friend who has helped him
learn trivia about the 1980s to help find the Easter egg.
Wade is awarded a Copper key after defeating a skeleton king at an old video game in a
secret cave.
As Wade is leaving the cave, he runs into a famous gunter named Art3mis.
They talk and just as Wade leaves, she traps him temporarily and tells him that she knows
he got the key because his name appeared on a worldwide scoreboard.
Wade travels to a planet that looks like Halliday’s childhood town where he is placed in a virtual
movie simulation and must act out the parts of the main character.
Wade passes through the First Gate and his score increases on the scoreboard.
Meanwhile, Art3mis finds the Copper Key.
As Wade tries to find the Jade key, he receives a request to meet with Innovative Online Industries,
a corporation trying to find the Easter egg with the help of hired avatars called Sixers,
in hopes to take over the OASIS world.
Wade meets with the chief of operations of IOI, a man named Sorrento, and refuses to
offer help for money.
Sorrento reveals that IOI knows his secret identity and threatens to kill him and his
family.
Wade refuses the final offer and a bomb destroys his aunt’s trailer, killing his family and
neighbors.
Wade spends all the money he has left to move to Columbus, the location of the OASIS headquarters.
Wade calls a meeting with the other four gunters who are on the scoreboard - Art3mis, Aech,
Daito, and Shoto - to warn them that IOI might go after them.
Wade becomes romantically interested in Art3mis, but when he expresses his love for her, she
backs away, wanting to spend more time finding the Easter egg.
Wade grows depressed over the split with Art3mis until one day the scoreboard updates as Art3mis
takes first place by finding the Jade Key.
Wade thinks he knows where the Jade key is and flies to a planet filled with old arcade
cabinets.
He finds an unusual Pac Man machine and gets a high score, which rewards him with a mysterious
quarter.
However, the scoreboard updates again as Aech has found the Jade key, moving him to second
place overall.
Aech sends Wade a clue to help him and Wade finds the Jade Key.
Daito is killed in the OASIS game and in real life by IOI agents.
Soon, IOI Sixers swarm the planet for the Jade Key and their scores climb the scoreboard.
However, as Wade thinks about finding the Second Gate, Sorrento’s score climbs to
first place as he completes the Second Gate.
Then Sorrento’s score rises again as he finds the Crystal Key, the last key.
Wade completes the Second Gate and gets the Crystal Key.
He then sends the information to Art3mis, Aech, and Shoto.
However, IOI surrounds the planet where the Third Gate is so no one can get inside.
In real life, Wade’s apartment is raided and he is arrested by IOI agents for not paying
his bills.
Wade is taken and processed as a tech specialist for IOI.
Once inside IOI, he hacks into their system and retrieves all the information IOI has
on Halliday and each of the top gunters.
Wade escapes IOI headquarters and meets up with the others in the OASIS to tell them
what IOI knows about them.
Wade comes up with a plan to unite all of the gunters in the OASIS to fight against
Sorrento and the Sixers at the location of the Third Gate.
As the group talks, Og Morrow, Halliday’s friend and co-founder of OASIS, appears.
He tells them that they are welcome to stay at his home in Oregon for safety.
Og flies them all to Oregon as Wade and Aech meet for the first time in real life.
The group arrives at Og’s house and they login to the OASIS to complete their mission.
They arrive at the location of the Third Gate, which is a large castle that IOI surrounds
with a force field and the entire Sixers army.
Thousands of gunters are there in support of Wade and the group.
Wade finds a way to turn off the force field, allowing them to engage in a fight.
Wade and the others use giant robots to fight Sorrento and the Sixers, who also use giant
robots.
Wade, Art3mis, and Aech make it to the Third Gate, but Shoto is killed.
All three insert their keys into the gate and it opens.
Just as they step into the gate, the entire world explodes and every avatar is killed.
However, because Wade won that quarter from the Pac-Man game, he is allowed to come back
to life.
Wade enters the Third Gate as another group of Sixers who hadn’t died pursues him.
Eventually, Wade wins the contest and is awarded godmode in the OASIS and the inheritance by
Halliday.
Wade then brings back the avatars of his friends.
In the end, Sorrento is arrested for murder and Wade and Art3mis meet in real life, sparking
a relationship.