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e3fc5b7
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You see, ever since the first day of kindergarten, I had been hoping and waiting for some mind-blowingly fantastic, world-altering event to finally shatter the endless monotony of my public education. I had spent hundreds of hours gazing out at the calm, conquered suburban landscape surrounding my school, silently yearning for the outbreak of a zombie apocalypse, a freak accident that would give me super powers, or perhaps the sudden appear..
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Ernest Cline |
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5a9dc96
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NASA dubbed this spacecraft the Envoy I, and it reached Europa on the 9th of July, 1976--the day humanity made its first direct contact with an alien intelligence.
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Ernest Cline |
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71c84ca
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The collected knowledge, art, and amusements of all human civilization were there, waiting for me. But gaining access to all of that information turned out to be something of a mixed blessing. Because that was when I found out the truth.
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Ernest Cline |
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d521e24
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This is the OASIS. We exist as nothing but raw personality in here. Art3mis:
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Ernest Cline |
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5b250c6
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She used to have to force me to log out every night, because I never wanted to return to the real world. Because the real world sucked. I
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Ernest Cline |
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80c9318
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I understood her, trusted her, and lover her as a dear friend. None of that had changed, or could be changed by anything as inconsequential as her gender, or skin color, or sexual orientation.
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Ernest Cline |
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6fd316d
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I quickly lost track of time. I forgot that my avatar was sitting in Halliday's bedroom and that, in reality, I was sitting in my hideout, huddled near the electric heater, tapping at the empty air in front of me, entering commands on an imaginary keyboard. All of the intervening layers slipped away, and I lost myself in the game within the game. In
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Ernest Cline |
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2a6ac37
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Like any classic videogame, the Hunt had simply reached a new, more difficult level. A new level often required an entirely new strategy. I
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Ernest Cline |
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a000c3e
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Even humanity's lack of concern for its rampant overpopulation problem now made a terrible kind of sense. What difference did it make if our planet was capable of supporting all seven billion of us in the long term when a far greater threat to our numbers was waiting in the wings? And despite the overwhelming odds, humanity had done what was necessary to ensure its own survival. It filled me with a strange new sense of pride in my own speci..
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Ernest Cline |
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9231d1a
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Where are the others?" I asked. "They all snuck off to bone each other," Milo announced. "Whoadie and Chen slipped away first, then Debbie snuck off with Graham." I had no idea how to respond to this information."
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Ernest Cline |
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f5a92d9
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His paternal tone irked me no end, and that helped to steel my resolve. I couldn't sell out the the Sixers.
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ernest-cline
jerk-sales-pitch
ounce-of-freedom
ready-player-one
sign-me-up
sixers
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Ernest Cline |
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48f17c5
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You're going to turn it into a fascist corporate theme park where the few people who can still afford the price of admission no longer have an ounce of freedom.
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fascist-corporate-ideals
freedom
ready-player-one
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Ernest Cline |
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e4dcdf1
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Especially when it came to the videogames. Videogames were my area of expertise. My double-weapon specailization. My dream Jeopardy! category.
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Ernest Cline |
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b2b0da6
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This avatar appeared inside a huge virtual call center, inside a virtual cubicle, sitting at a virtual desk, in front of a virtual computer, wearing a virtual phone headset. I thought of this place as my own private virtual hell.
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Ernest Cline |
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8cff5fb
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Where'd you get the coconuts?
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Ernest Cline |
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f8eee99
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Not only was this the first time a girl had ever given me her card, it was also, by far, the coolest contact card I had ever seen. "This is, by far, the coolest contact card I have ever seen," I said. "Thank you!" I"
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Ernest Cline |
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77b638d
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Earth Defense Alliance ships were outfitted with reverse-engineered alien technology, including a Tragheitslosigkeit Field Generator, which created a small inertia-cancellation field around a spacecraft, by "harnessing the aligned spin of gyromagnetic particles to alter the curvature of space-time" or something."
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Ernest Cline |
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cbc2f9d
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All I could do was stand there and wait for it to dissipate. "You're evil, you know that?" I said. She grinned and shook her head. "Chaotic Neutral, sugar." I"
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Ernest Cline |
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3268b47
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I was too weird, even for the weirdos.
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Ernest Cline |
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f759c7e
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O ser humano e uma porcaria na maior parte do tempo. Os videogames sao a unica coisa que torna a vida suportavel.
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Ernest Cline |
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cf067e7
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Whenever I saw the sun, I reminded myself that I was looking at a star.
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Ernest Cline |
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90ef188
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It's cold as balls in here!
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Ernest Cline |
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2e0411f
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Maybe they seeded life on Earth millions of years ago, and now they're here to punish us for turning out to be such a lame species and inventing reality TV and shit?" He raised an index finger. "Or maybe they're omnipotent beings who have grown bored with immortality, and they're just tormenting us for their own twisted amusement? You know, like whenever Q would pop in from the continuum to fuck with Picard!"
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Ernest Cline |
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e31bcf7
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I realized, as terrifying and painful as reality can be, it's also the only place where you can find true happiness. Because reality is real.
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Ernest Cline |
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17e31d3
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I blinked and looked again--but it was still out there, a shiny chrome disc zigzagging around in the sky. My eyes struggled to track the object through a series of increasingly fast, impossibly sharp turns that would have juiced a human being, had there been any aboard. The disc streaked toward the distant horizon, then came to an instantaneous stop just above it. It hovered there motionless over the distant tree line for a few seconds, as ..
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Ernest Cline |
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eb169da
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When I played the classics, I did so with a determined sort of reverence.
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Ernest Cline |
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4130499
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Then I removed the Glock from its clear plastic blister packaging. This was the first time I'd ever held a real gun. Even so, the weapon felt familiar in my hands, because I'd fired thousands of virtual firearms in the OASIS. I pressed a small button set into the barrel and the gun emitted a tone. I held the pistol grip firmly for a few seconds, first in my right hand, then my left. The weapon emitted a second tone, letting me know it had f..
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Ernest Cline |
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0304cf0
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Halliday once said that he preferred to pretend the other Indiana Jones films, from Kingdom of the Crystal Skull onward, didn't exist. I tended to agree.)
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Ernest Cline |
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fda47d4
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Since then, we'd used Street Fighter II to settle our disputes.
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Ernest Cline |
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7aead98
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When I reached the bar, I ordered a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster from the female Klingon bartender and downed half of it. Then I grinned as R2 cued up another classic '80s tune. " 'Union of the Snake,"
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Ernest Cline |
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26db993
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As I stared out at the grim skyline, a bright sliver of the sun peeked over the horizon. Watching it rise, I performed a mental ritual: Whenever I saw the sun, I reminded myself that I was looking at a star. One of over a hundred billion stars in our galaxy. A galaxy that was just one of billions of other galaxies in the observable universe. This helped me keep things in perspective.
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Ernest Cline |
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50024ac
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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.
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Ernest Cline |
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c270cb6
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Con endoesqueletos accionados con servomotor.
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Ernest Cline |
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2f98f24
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You really think it's that simple?" I said. "That you can just write a check for two hundred and forty billion dollars and fix all the world's problems?"
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Ernest Cline |
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4d9fa4a
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My ship stood out in the vast array of vessels, since it was the only giant robot.
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Ernest Cline |
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26ac5e6
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I made a big entrance when I arrived in my flying DeLorean, which I'd obtained by completing a Back to the Future quest on the planet Zemeckis.
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Ernest Cline |
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7a63bcd
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FELICIDADES! HAS LLEGADO AL FINAL READY PLAYER ONE
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Ernest Cline |
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3b56e12
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E preciso deixar um pouco mais dificil essa conquista, para que a vitoria facil demais nao desmereca o preco.
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Ernest Cline |
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1c87f3a
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His proclamation was met with a deafening roar of shouted threats, insults, and colorful profanity.
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Ernest Cline |
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cce9e4c
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Cuando Halliday todavia dirigia la empresa, GSS habia logrado que prevaleciera el derecho a no desvelar la identidad de los usuarios de Oasis tras un fallo historico del Tribunal Supremo. Cuando
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Ernest Cline |
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d2a642b
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She grinned and shook her head. "Chaotic Neutral, sugar."
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Ernest Cline |
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c28afc3
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I stepped inside, closed the door, and locked it behind me. Then I made a silent vow not to go outside again until I had completed my quest. I would abandon the real world altogether until I found the egg.
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Ernest Cline |
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f4f2359
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We sat there awhile, holding hands, reveling in the strange new sensation of actually touching one another.
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Ernest Cline |
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2cb11fd
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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.
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Ernest Cline |