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d180e70
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as had the graffiti spray-painted in red on one of the corridor walls: THE CAKE IS A LIE.
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Ernest Cline |
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67efbb0
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sentia debilidad fetichista por las chicas guapas y raritas que tocaban el ukelele,
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Ernest Cline |
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e8fbd7a
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WarGames had been one of Halliday's all-time favorite movies. Which was why I had watched it over three dozen times.
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Ernest Cline |
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d2aafa4
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It was Art3mis. She wore a suit of scaled gunmetal-blue armor that looked more sci-fi than fantasy. Twin blaster pistols were slung low on her hips in quickdraw holsters, and there was a long, curved elvish sword in a scabbard across her back. She wore fingerless Road Warrior-style racing gloves and a pair of classic Ray-Ban shades. Overall, she seemed to be going for a sort of mid-'80s postapocalyptic cyberpunk girl-next-door look. And it ..
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Ernest Cline |
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825b742
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Ray seemed about to say something more when a boom shook the entire shuttle. I felt a rush of panic, thinking we'd just come under attack. Then I realized we'd just broken the sound barrier.
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Ernest Cline |
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dd78ee2
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It occurred to me then that for the first time in as long as I could remember, I had absolutely no desire to log back into the OASIS.
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Ernest Cline |
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81ca3dc
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I couldn't bear the idea that the girl with whom I was virtually smitten might actually be some middle-aged dude named Chuck, with back hair and male-pattern baldness.
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Ernest Cline |
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11125ae
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At first, I couldn't understand why the media was making such a big deal of the billionaire's death. After all, the people of Planet Earth had other concerns. The ongoing energy crisis. Catastrophic climate change. Widespread famine, poverty and disease. Half a dozen wars. You know: "dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria."
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Ernest Cline |
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a08bda9
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Knavery?" Art3mis said after she'd finished reading it. "Were you using a thesaurus when you wrote this?"
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Ernest Cline |
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6075367
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Pretend they're Gungans," Cruz suggested. "And that we get to nuke Jar Jar."
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Ernest Cline |
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ad2bbb8
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Besides, now that everyone could vote from home, via the OASIS, the only people who could get elected were movie stars, reality TV personalities, or radical televangelists. I
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Ernest Cline |
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335f83a
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You're an ignorant know-nothing twink.
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Ernest Cline |
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1dd69bd
|
I RODE THE turbo elevator back up to the observation deck. The moment the elevator doors swished open and I stepped into the large domed room, the odor of burning cannabis filled my nose. The smell grew increasingly stronger the farther I ventured into the room, as did the familiar strains of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, punctuated by fits of only slightly suppressed laughter.
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Ernest Cline |
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fd5b8fc
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get your hands on all this moolah?
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Ernest Cline |
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9d37bee
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Looking around, I wondered why Halliday, who always claimed to have had a miserable childhood, had later become so nostalgic for it. I knew that if and when I finally escaped from the stacks, I'd never look back. And I definitely wouldn't create a detailed simulation of the place.
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Ernest Cline |
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4a81c8c
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I don't want to work with you." I leveled a finger at him. "You give me the creeps. But if your superiors are willing to fire your ass and give me your position, I'm in. It's a done deal." Silence."
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Ernest Cline |
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1fb4879
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I need to tell you one last thing before I go. Something I didn't figure out for myself until it was too late. I created the oasis because I never felt at home in the real world. I didn't know how to connect with the people there. I was afraid, for all my life. Right up until I knew it was ending. That was when I realized, as terrifying and painful as reality can be, it's also only place you can find true happiness. Because reality is . Do..
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Ernest Cline |
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8a019e9
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I felt like a kid standing in the world's greatest video arcade without any quarters, unable to do anything but walk around and watch the other kids play.
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Ernest Cline |
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21b053b
|
The visor was light-years ahead of the clunky virtual-reality goggles available prior to that time, and it represented a paradigm shift in virtual-reality technology--as did the lightweight OASIS haptic gloves, which allowed users to directly control the hands of their avatar and to interact with their simulated environment as if they were actually inside it. When you picked up objects, opened doors, or operated vehicles, the haptic gloves ..
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Ernest Cline |
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682da79
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The weapon had a built-in timer that would prevent it from firing for another twelve hours (a "cooling-off period") (...)."
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Ernest Cline |
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e8215a4
|
Maybe it was just as I had always secretly feared: The apple had fallen right next to the Crazy Tree.
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Ernest Cline |
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33de9de
|
Ray seemed to subsist primarily on a diet of high-fructose junk food and old videogames. It was hard not to love the guy. Back
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Ernest Cline |
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23cfb0f
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Listen," I said. "It really was luck. I've got a knack for classic arcade games. That's my specialty." I shrugged. "Stop hitting yourself like Rain Man, OK?" She"
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Ernest Cline |
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ce69c4d
|
It suddenly occurred to me just how absurd this scene was: a guy wearing a suit of armor, standing next to an undead king, both hunched over the controls of a classic arcade game. It was the sort of surreal image you'd expect to see on the cover of an old issue of Heavy Metal or Dragon magazine.
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science
key
undead-king
video-game
wade
wade-watts
ready-player-one
undead
video-games
quest
science-fiction
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Ernest Cline |
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4d95671
|
Setec Astronomy.
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Ernest Cline |
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1dbc7bf
|
Besides, what if BSG and Firefly took place in the same universe? You ever consider that?" I"
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Ernest Cline |
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08b250b
|
I could barely believe myself. IOI had actually tried to kill me. To prevent me from winning a videogame contest. It was insane.
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explosion
ioi
prevent
rp1
rpo
wade
wade-watts
ready-player-one
ernest-cline
threat
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Ernest Cline |
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22c415f
|
At a game like this, a gifted human player could always triumph over the game's AI, because software couldn't improvise. It could either react randomly, or in a limited number of predetermined ways, based on a finite number of preprogrammed conditions. This was an axiom in videogames, and would be until humans invented true artificial intelligence.
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Ernest Cline |
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914629f
|
virtual sex, no matter how realistic, was really nothing but glorified, computer-assisted masturbation. At the end of the day, I was still a virgin, all alone in a dark room, humping a lubed-up robot. So I got rid of the ACHD and went back to spanking the monkey the old-fashioned way. I
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Ernest Cline |
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038bf14
|
And you can bet that Galileo, Newton, and Einstein never would have made their discoveries if they hadn't first been able to clear their heads by slapping the salami (or "knocking a few protons off the old hydrogen atom"). The same goes for Marie Curie. Before she discovered radium, you can be certain she first discovered the little man in the canoe. It"
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Ernest Cline |
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9f7c56d
|
Ray, we don't have much time," I said. "We need to access the EDA intranet node hidden here in the store. It's an emergency." Ray only hesitated for a split second. "Behind the UFO poster on the back wall." I turned and located the one he was talking about--a framed reprint of Mulder's "I Want to Believe" poster from The X-Files. I took it down, revealing what appeared to be a small titanium safe embedded in the brick wall behind it, with a..
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Ernest Cline |
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03828f4
|
Cameron, Gilliam, Jackson, Fincher, Kubrick, Lucas, Spielberg, Del Toro, Tarantino. And, of course, Kevin Smith.
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Ernest Cline |
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c3a1baf
|
D&D
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Ernest Cline |
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26e9085
|
This is your QComm," he explained. "It's a Quantum Communicator--basically a smartphone with unlimited range. It will work anywhere in the world--or in outer space." He smiled. "They also have insanely fast Internet access and Bluetooth capability. I already imported all of your contacts, photos, and music from your iPhone, so you're all set up."
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Ernest Cline |
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06aa0c4
|
These days, most gunters referred to them as "the Sux0rz." (Because they sucked.)"
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Ernest Cline |
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9c343e6
|
That story you heard? About how we were all created by a super-powerful dude named God who lives up in the sky? Total bullshit. The whole God thing is actually an ancient fairy tale that people have been telling one another for thousands of years. We made it all up. Like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Oh, and by the way... there's no Santa Claus or Easter Bunny. Also bullshit. Sorry, kid. Deal with it.
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god
santa-claus
growing-up
|
Ernest Cline |
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6bef920
|
The Great Recession was now entering its third decade, and unemployment was still at a record high. Even the fast-food joints in my neighborhood had a two-year waiting list for job applicants.
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Ernest Cline |
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6ad1cd6
|
In those days, if you wanted to escape to another world, you had to create it yourself, using your brain, some paper, pencils, dice, and a few rule books.
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Ernest Cline |
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0ad49aa
|
The same goes for Marie Curie. Before she discovered radium, you can be certain she first discovered the little man in the canoe. It
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Ernest Cline |
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eef4740
|
Not trusting my instincts any further, I loaded up a piece of high-end avatar dance software called Travoltra, which I'd downloaded and tested earlier that evening. The program took control of Parzival's movements, synching them up with the music, and all four of my limbs were transformed into undulating cosine waves. Just like that, I became a dancing fool. Art3mis
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Ernest Cline |
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e502baa
|
Probably because I couldn't bear the idea that the girl with whom I was virtually smitten might actually be some middle-aged dude named Chuck, with back hair and male-pattern baldness.
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Ernest Cline |
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639fbc6
|
City-sized shopping malls were erected in the blink of an eye, and storefronts spread across planets like time-lapse footage of mold devouring an orange.
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Ernest Cline |
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de5bd55
|
Strong with the Dark Side of the Force that place is. In you must go, mofo.
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Ernest Cline |
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f4326cf
|
Gokouun o inorimasu,
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Ernest Cline |