Ready Player Two is a science fiction novel published in 2020 by American author Ernest Cline. Like its 2011 predecessor Ready Player One, Ready Player Two largely takes place in the OASIS, a fictional virtual reality open world filled with references to popular fantasy franchises and 1980s pop culture artifacts. Set three years after the first novel, in 2048, the book chronicles protagonist Wade Watts’s efforts to complete a second virtual treasure hunt left behind by the late, troubled virtual reality pioneer James Halliday.

This study guide refers to the 2020 edition published by Ballantine Books.

Plot Summary

After winning the virtual Easter egg hunt chronicled in Ready Player One, Wade Watts inherits the late virtual reality pioneer James Halliday’s massive fortune, along with control of his company GSS, makers of the OASIS virtual reality world. Shortly after becoming CEO, Wade discovers a piece of technology Halliday invented in secret called the OASIS Neural Interface, or ONI. The ONI headsets allow users to see, hear, feel, taste, and touch their virtual surroundings in the OASIS to create an entirely realistic experience. Moreover, users can record .oni files in the real world for other to relive virtually. However, overuse can lead to permanent brain damage.

Against the wishes of retired GSS cofounder Ogden “Og” Morrow, Wade releases ONI to the public, and it is an instant success. A few days after its debut, a new Easter egg hunt is mysteriously announced titled “The Seven Shards of the Siren’s Soul.” Wade assumes it is another contest launched by Halliday from beyond the grave, but he is unsure of its purpose. Over the next three years, Wade spends 12 hours a day trying to find the Shards, to no avail.

One day, Wade receives a tip from a user named L0hengrin, who is eager to collect a billion-dollar reward Wade offered in return for information leading to the discovery of one of the Shards. Wade follows L0hengrin to an OASIS recreation of Halliday’s hometown where he confirms that the siren of the riddle refers to Kira Morrow, Og’s late wife and a key figure in the development of the OASIS. She, Og, and Halliday were all friends in high school, and Halliday never got over his love for her, even after she married Og. After locating the Shard, Wade touches it and is transported inside Kira’s mind from when she was 10 years old, designing her first piece of digital art in the early 1980s. It feels as vivid as any ONI experience, which confuses Wade since ONI technology did not exist in the ’80s.

The next day, Wade virtually meets with Art3mis, Aech, and Shoto, fellow egg hunters, or “gunters,” who helped him win the previous contest and who he made co-owners of GSS. Wade and Art3mis dated briefly, though they had a falling out because she opposed his decision to make ONI public.

In the middle of the meeting, a digital replica of Halliday suddenly appears and steals many of Wade’s powers, including the ability to enter a room where there is a self-destruct button for the OASIS. Calling himself Anorak, after Halliday’s Dungeons & Dragons character from his youth, the replica says he kidnapped Og, released Wade’s arch-nemesis Nolan Sorrento from prison, and trapped them all in the OASIS. He won’t let any of them go—along with a half-billion other people logged into the OASIS using ONI rigs—unless Wade finds all Seven Shards and gives them to him. Since users’ brains can only withstand 12 consecutive hours of using ONI each day, Wade has a ticking clock to find the Shards.

With the help of his friends, Wade collects the remaining Shards across various pop culture-influenced virtual spaces. But when delivering the Shards to Anorak with mere minutes to spare, Wade tricks him by handing over fake Shards and stealing back all his powers. Wade camps out in the room with the OASIS self-destruct button, threatening to press it if Anorak doesn’t let everyone go. Meanwhile, Art3mis uses remote-controlled robots to rescue Og in the real world, though he suffers a mortal gunshot wound in the escape. As Og bleeds to death, he enters the OASIS to do battle against Anorak, wielding a magical sword called the Dorkslayer. Og destroys Anorak, releasing everyone stuck in the OASIS. Og dies in real life moments later.

The next day, Wade reenters the OASIS to combine the real Seven Shards. When he does, Kira appears. Using ONI, Halliday was able to recreate Kira’s consciousness, though he did so without her consent. Anorak, she explains, was a corrupted version of Halliday’s own consciousness. Kira also reveals that anyone who uses ONI even once has their consciousness automatically uploaded to OASIS’s servers, so Wade can resurrect Og, though Og would be stuck in the OASIS forever.

At the end of the novel, digital replicas of the consciousnesses of Wade, Art3mis, Aech, Shoto, Og, and Kira fly away in a spaceship in search of habitable planets, given that Earth is presently ravaged by climate change. Back on Earth, the flesh-and-blood Wade and Art3mis marry and are expecting a daughter whom they will name Kira.