I arrive home from a long day of school I say hello to by mom as I shut the door behind me. I throw my backpack down on the couch and put on my visor, gloves, and my full emersion jumpsuit to begin playing my favorite virtual reality game, Ready Player One.
Standing in my living room. All is black until suddenly the world changes in front of me. I am standing in a long line of people slowly shuffling through various checkpoints. I am momentarily confused then I remember I am playing as Wade Watts and I had just been taken by the Sixers to become an indent. I finally arrive at the first checkpoint in the line. A Sixer guard next to me yells to step through the scanner to check for hidden technology. As the scanner passes over me I feel a tingling throughout my body caused by my emersion jumpsuit. I clear this checkpoint and then am escorted into another room for more testing.
This room is huge with a bunch of individual cubicles filled with other people testing. A guard leads me to a cubicle, pushes me into my seat then walks away. In the game I put on my visor and gloves to begin my test. The room goes black. I am transported to another room where I must complete a series of mini games in order to continue playing as Wade.
The first game is to see how much I know about James Halliday, the inventor of the OASIS, which Ready Player One is based on. For this game I am transported through different moments in Halliday's life. These scenes play around me, while I stand there invisible, and eventually freeze right before a key part. I then have to say out loud what happens next. If I am correct I move to the next moment and if I am wrong the room flashes red and a red X appears on the bottom of the screen. I get three chances to guess correctly and if I don't get it I die and have to start the tests over.
After the last test is finished I am transported to an office. The office is big with a large window on one wall and a big desk in the middle. Sitting at the desk is a woman. Her nameplate reads Nancy. I am told to sit down in the noisy, brown leather chair so I can be given my work assignment. Nancy informs me that because of my test scores I will be a technical support representative. I am then given a contract to read and sign. When I am finished signing Nancy tells me to please remove my visor and gloves and follow the nearest guard to the washing station.
At the washing station I am told to remove my clothes and go through what can only be described as a human car wash. Because of my full body emersion jumpsuit, it really feels like I am getting sprayed with cold water and scrubbed down with big revolving brushes when in reality I am still standing I'm my living room.
After the wash I am given a grey jumpsuit and a pair of plastic slippers to put on and I am corralled to the next station. This station gives me a medical check up. This is my least favorite part because when they draw blood in the game my jumpsuit at home gives me a poke to the arm that make it all seem too real and spooky. I am then given an earpiece and an anklet to wear, which is simulated by my visor pinching my ear lobe and the leg of my jumpsuit tightening up on one ankle.
Medical tests finished, I am now directed by my earpiece down multiple hallways until I reach my Hab, aka my sleeping quarters. I climb down into the hab-unit and look around. It is very small and the only things in it are a bed, an entertainment console, and a camera to watch me.
Just as I am about to sit at the entertainment center and start snooping I hear my mom calling me for dinner. I roll my eyes and say aloud, "game pause" everything around me freezes and a screen come up in front of my face giving me the options: continue play, save progress, options, or quite game. I say "save progress" then "shut down". The hab-unit around me devolves into black and I remove my visor. I am once again back in my boring living room. Surprisingly starving.
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