Ready Player One Fanfiction: Zompocalypse.

Authors Notes: Chapter Zero

Advanced Summary: It's been a year since Wade won the contest, and is starting to acclimate to his position as the CEO of GSS. Wade has worked hard to keep his company heading in the right direction, despite numerous obstacles that hound him at every turn. As time passes after the contest is over, the popularity of the 80s begins to wane and he struggles to cope with all his responsibilities when he just wants to have fun. His friends keep in touch with him but remain as busy or unavailable as he is and he begins to question if the contest was worth the result. However, a top hacker working in GSS finds a way to tamper with the Oasis source code, issuing a challenge to Wade that threatens the Oasis and all of its users. Arthur Magellan becomes apparent to be a zealous, but intelligent psychopath, willing to dip into worse waters than Nolan Sorrento and IOI had to keep his project alive. Wade and his previous High-Five comrades must use every trick in the book, as well as with the help of new friends to stop the new villain that has emerged.

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The fanfic will follow the book-verse but will blend elements of the movie-verse into it. Of course, because a year has passed, things will also be different.

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It should be painfully obvious I own nothing but some of the characters that I made up. This fiction is created purely with the intent for entertainment and should not be used for any purpose other than!

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A/N: For those who just want to get onto the story, skip this entire chapter as it is an explanation of why I constructed the story as I have.

This fanfic will be gently AU, with a more scrutinized outlook on the world of Oasis. It will also be blended with themes, notions, or plot devices from the movie, as well as the book. For those who have not read the book, or have not seen the movie, here is the universe of Ready Player One as I've built:

1. Sho, is known as "Shoto" in the book, and is a Samurai avatar like his brother Daito. Keeping with the book, his brother remains deceased as a result of Nolan Sorrento and he retains this Japanese persona and not the Chinese ninja seen in the movie.

2. Aech, is a "heavy-set" woman in the book, and I'll keep that theme. Her avatar in the book is also an "Athletic, Caucasian male" which I will keep in tune with that. Wade addresses Aech as a male in the Oasis, and a female IRL so I'll roll with that. Additionally, in the book she had a "basement" modeled after Ogden's basement that Halliday and all his friends hung out in to play DnD, while in the movie she had a "garage." For the purposes of this fanfic, we'll assume she has both.

3. Art3mis is known as the "Sixer Fixer" in the movie, a popular twitch streamer and possibly a youtuber, but an eccentric and famous blogger who dons two blaster pistols from Star Wars, and a high level sword on her back. I like her personality and look in the movie, but I'll keep her arsenal from the book. In the movie, her father was indentured to IOI and had passed away while enslaved in their never-ending program, while in the book her parents were left unscathed by IOI. I like the way the movie got her involved, and it helps with her "helping the world" mantra, so I'll elaborate on that.

4. Parzival is given "GM" like powers as a result of becoming the CEO of GSS and winning the contest in the book. He is also given Anorak's robes, and the final battle as well as the third gate, the big red button, everything is in Castle Anorak on planet Cthonia instead of planet Doom. I will follow the book in this instance.

5. Additionally, all the keys were not the same in the book from the movie (minus one that was very similar), and there were no gates either. The events in the book will proceed over the movie, however all tests that were done in the movie will instead be referenced as tasks they had suspected would lead them to the copper key but did not.