Ready Player One: Level One: 0004 Summary & Analysis

Wade likes his World History teacher. All his teachers are good, in part because the OASIS school software means they do not have to worry about discipline and can focus on imparting knowledge. It is also possible to take students anywhere in time or space on a “virtual fieldtrip.” That morning, Wade’s World History class goes to Egypt in 1922 to watch archaeologists discover King Tutankhamen’s tomb. The day before, they had traveled to Ancient Egypt during Tutankhamen’s reign. In Biology, Wade travels inside the human heart, in Art, he goes to the Louvre, and in Astronomy, he visits Jupiter’s moons.  

At lunchtime, Wade sits in a field by his school. He does not have enough money to travel off-world as other students do. Many even have their own spacecraft and give rides to their friends. The OASIS began with only a few hundred planets, populated with “computer-controlled humans, animals, monsters, aliens, and androids.” Before long, other game companies launched their own planets within  the OASIS. The simulation was divided into 27 sectors, each of which is home to hundreds of planets. The OASIS thus resembles a Rubik’s Cube—another 1980s reference. It takes 10 hours to travel across a sector at the speed of light, and such long-distance travel is expensive. It is far quicker to teleport, but that also costs more money. 

Some zones are powered by magic, and others by technology. Similarly, there are PvP and non-PvP zones, each with its own unique set of rules. There are no “castles, dungeons, or orbiting space fortresses” on Ludus, and neither are there any monsters or aliens, as it was designed solely as an educational planet. This is disastrous for Wade because the only way he can increase his avatar’s power level is by earning experience points (XPs) through fighting or completing quests. Many OASIS users do not care about their avatar’s power level or the competitive aspects of the simulation. However, if Wade wants to find the egg, he knows he will have to travel through the most dangerous parts of the OASIS, and will not survive if his avatar remains at the 3rd level, where it currently is.

Aech’s avatar is on the 30th level. Wade considers being on the 3rd level “a colossal embarrassment.” He has tried to get a part-time job, but unemployment has never been higher and even fast food restaurants have two-year waiting lists for job applicants. Wade therefore remains stuck on Ludus, which he compares to being in “the world’s greatest video arcade without any quarters.”