Ready Player One: Level Three: 0032 Summary & Analysis

Wade checks that Shoto and Art3mis have left their homes for safe locations, and they both confirm that they have. Wade explains that he assumed a fake identity, purposefully got himself indentured, and hacked into the IOI database. Aech and Shoto express their admiration, but Art3mis remains skeptical, telling Wade it was a “stupid” risk to take. She is also angry that he looked in her file, telling him that he should be more respectful of other people’s privacy. However, after Wade reveals all the extra information on Halliday he downloaded from the IOI database, Art3mis softens and tells him she owes him.

Wade shares the good news that the Sixers still don’t know how to open the Third Gate. He explains this gate is more complicated than the first two, and shows the video of Sorrento trying and failing to open it. Three words are carved into the Third Gate: “Charity. Hope. Faith.” Sorrento tries reciting them in different languages, to no avail. Suddenly, Wade, Art3mis, Aech, and Shoto exclaim in unison that the words are taken from “Three Is a Magic Number,” the pilot episode of 1970s TV show Schoolhouse Rock. Wade thinks that three keys must be used in order to open the Third Gate. He suggests that Halliday wanted to force people to work together, although Art3mis proposes it is more likely that he wanted to ensure a dramatic, competitive finale.  

Wade explains that the shield the Sixers have installed will dissolve on its own in 36 hours’ time, noting: “I’ve taken care of it.” He adds that they will need a lot of backup, which is why he’s written an email to every gunter, which he plans to send later that night. The email warns that if the gunters don’t join forces, “the OASIS will fall under IOI’s imperialist rule.” Art3mis is uncertain that the gunters will show up, but Aech is confident that they will. Wade adds that most of the gunter clans have already given up on the Easter egg hunt, so they have “nothing to lose.”

The team agrees to go ahead with a plan, but Art3mis points out that, in reality, she is currently in Vancouver airport with nowhere to go. Shoto chimes in, saying that he’s at a public café in Osaka where he likely won’t be safe from the Sixers for long. Wade admits that he’s homeless, too. Suddenly a deep voice offers help—it is Og, Morrow’s avatar, who has suddenly materialized inside the Basement. He asks if any of them have been to Oregon, saying it is “lovely this time of year.”