Ready Player One Chapter 12 Summary

How It All Goes Down

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  • The next morning, the media is ablaze with news that two people have found the Copper Key within hours of each other. It's kind of a big deal.
  • A report interviews Ogden Morrow, Halliday's former best friend, who calls the media "vultures" (12.24) and IOI (who's also searching for the egg) a "fascist multinational conglomerate" (12.32). Since IOI runs the network, they cut him off pretty quickly.
  • Og's interview leads Wade to some more exposition on the tumultuous relationship between Halliday and Ogden Morrow. They had a falling out over a girl, Kira, who married Og and lived happily ever after with him until dying in a car accident.
  • Now back to our regularly scheduled adventure.
  • Aech finally gets hold of Parzival, gushing about what a hero Parzival is going to be. He also says that he's deduced the location of the Copper Key himself.
  • They're a little worried that I-r0k might figure it out too, and spill the beans to the whole world (and IOI) that the key is on Ludus. 
  • As a friendly tip, Parzival tells Aech to brush up on his Jousting skills.
  • After Aech races off to claim his own copy of the Copper Key, Parzival gets a message from Art3mis. 
  • They exchange a couple flirty messages as the chapter comes to a close.