Ready Player One

Wade Watts, competing under his avatar name Parzival, wins James Halliday's contest by being the first to find all three hidden keys, pass through all three gates, and ultimately retrieve the Easter egg hidden deep inside the OASIS. Along the way, the ruthless corporation IOI, led by Nolan Sorrento, murders the gunter Daito and orders the killing of Wade's Aunt Alice by blowing up their trailer (Wade survives only because he wasn't home). Wade gets himself arrested and indentured to IOI's tech-support division specifically so he can hack into the company's intranet from the inside, and he uses that access to disable the impenetrable force field IOI has thrown up around the Third Gate at Castle Anorak, while also exposing evidence of the corporation's murders and kidnapping plans to the public.

Wade's revelations trigger a massive, world-wide battle inside the OASIS as gunters flood in to fight IOI's forces at the castle. Parzival, Art3mis, Aech, and Shoto pilot mechas against Sorrento's giant Kiryu, and Parzival finishes it off using a rare Ultraman artifact, destroying the mecha and killing Sorrento's avatar. When defeat looks certain, IOI triggers a doomsday device that levels the sector and wipes out every avatar present — except Parzival, who survives by cashing in a hidden extra-life token (the perfect-game prize quarter he won earlier at a recreated arcade). He proceeds into the final gate alone, clears the last challenges — playing Tempest and role-playing scenes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail — and finds the Easter egg concealed inside a recreation of the game Adventure. This makes him the winner of Halliday's contest: sole heir to Halliday's fortune and controlling owner of Gregarious Simulation Systems and the OASIS itself.

In the aftermath, Sorrento and his IOI collaborators are arrested for Daito's murder and for the conspiracy to kill Wade, Art3mis, and Shoto. Wade is taken in by Ogden Morrow, the OASIS's co-creator, at his home in Oregon, where Wade finally meets his best friend Aech in person — discovering Aech is a young Black woman named Helen — though he does not yet meet Art3mis or Shoto face to face at that point.

The book closes with Art3mis, whose real name is Samantha Cook, arriving in Oregon to meet Wade in person for the first time. The two rekindle the connection they built inside the OASIS, sharing a kiss as themselves rather than as avatars. Wade reflects that, for the first time in as long as he can remember, he has no desire to log back into the OASIS — content, at least for the moment, to remain in the real world.

Wade Watts is an eighteen-year-old gunter (egg hunter) from the poverty-stricken "stacks" of Oklahoma City, competing under the OASIS avatar name Parzival in the contest set up by James Halliday, the deceased creator of the OASIS virtual-reality universe. Halliday hid an Easter egg somewhere in the OASIS; the first person to find three hidden keys and pass through three corresponding gates — all built around Halliday's obsessive knowledge of 1980s pop culture, movies, and video games — inherits his entire fortune and gains full ownership and control of the OASIS and its parent company, Gregarious Simulation Systems (GSS).

Wade's main rivals and allies are Art3mis (real name Samantha Cook), a famous gunter blogger and his eventual love interest; Aech, his best online friend, whose real identity is Helen, a young Black woman; and Shoto and Daito, two Japanese gunters. Their common enemy is Innovative Online Industries (IOI), a telecom conglomerate that wants to win the contest to monetize and control the OASIS, spearheaded by the ruthless executive Nolan Sorrento, who is willing to kill to win — IOI murders Daito and blows up Wade's home, killing his Aunt Alice.

Over the course of the book, Wade/Parzival finds the Copper Key and clears the First Gate, then the Jade Key and Second Gate (racing IOI, which is farming keys with an army of hired avatars), and finally the Crystal Key. He infiltrates IOI as an indentured tech-support worker to hack their systems, exposes their crimes publicly, and rallies gunters worldwide to storm IOI's fortified position at Castle Anorak on the planet Chthonia. In the climactic battle, Parzival and his allies destroy Sorrento's mecha and avatar; IOI then detonates a doomsday weapon that kills every avatar present except Parzival, who survives via a hidden extra-life token. He alone completes the final gate's challenges and retrieves the Easter egg, winning the contest outright.

By the book's end, Wade has become the sole owner and controller of the OASIS and GSS, inheriting Halliday's massive fortune. Sorrento and his IOI collaborators are arrested for murder and conspiracy. Wade meets Ogden Morrow (Halliday's estranged former business partner and OASIS co-creator) and the real-life Aech (Helen) in person at Morrow's home in Oregon, and the book closes as Samantha (Art3mis) arrives to meet Wade in person for the first time, the two rekindling their romance with a kiss. Open threads heading into the next book include what Wade will do with his newfound wealth and total control over the OASIS, the future of his relationship with Samantha now that they've met in person, and the broader real-world consequences of one young man suddenly controlling the most powerful virtual platform on Earth.