Matthew Atkinson & Natalie Russell
Eighth Layer of the Supernatural Realm
Matthew and Natalie waited until the other race participants had disappeared from their sight.
Matthew didn't want the others to find out their plans. Those outside the racetrack couldn't see what was happening on the track, so Matthew didn't need to worry about those who weren't participating.
Then Matthew and Natalie started their engines, turned in the opposite direction, and sped towards the wall at the very back of the racetrack.
Under normal circumstances, they should have crashed into the wall, but just before impact, the road dipped, forming a ramp, and they entered a hidden track.
This hidden track was located beneath the normal track, and as Matthew and Natalie progressed along the green and data-looked course, they could see the traps hidden there, which were meant to send them upwards, and everything else happening on the track above.
But there was no danger here, and Matthew and Natalie were rapidly approaching the end of the hidden track while watching the situation above.
Matthew saw King Kong, just before the finish line, tearing apart everyone who had reached this point.
King Kong was the impassable point of the racetrack. This had become a rule for many.
But setting rules was one of the things Halliday disliked most. Halliday just wished they could go backward for once, really fast. "Real pedal to the medal," as he put it.
And Matthew could more or less understand why he felt that way. After Halliday became famous for his technology, everyone waited for his next move.
New announcements, new updates, new technology... But James Halliday wasn't exactly fond of any of that. He was someone who liked to live life at his own pace.
And this unfamiliar pace had led him to make some mistakes, especially in his personal life. So, it wasn't surprising that Halliday, regretting those mistakes, wanted to go backward rather than forward at full speed.
And the fact that the tests they would face after the first egg challenge involved Halliday's two biggest regrets supported Matthew's theory.
Matthew and Natalie finally reached the end of the secret track and, exiting through a ramp that opened before them, returned to the real racetrack, behind King Kong. The finish line was only a few meters away.
Matthew was the first to cross the gate and reach the square behind it, followed closely by Natalie.
To the sound of the band and trumpets, Matthew and Natalie dismounted from their motorcycles, and as the fountain in the square sank, an avatar of Anorak the All Knowing appeared in place of the statue, amidst the leaves blown by the wind.
"Nice race, Padawans. You finished first and second. Oh, Matthew and Natalie. I indeed expected great things from you, but who knew you'd be the first to reach the first key?" said Anorak, or James Halliday as he was also known.
"Do you remember us?" Matthew asked in surprise. He hadn't expected an avatar they'd encountered on the fourth layer to remember them on the eighth.
Parzival and the others certainly didn't remember them. Frankly, Matthew thought the eighth layer preceded the fourth chronologically.
The announcements on the fourth layer mentioned Art3mis as Parzival's lover, and it seemed nothing was happening between them yet.
"Of course, I remember. I may be old, but I'm not that old," Anorak said.
Then Anorak raised his hand, and two bronze keys appeared floating in his palm.
"These are yours," Anorak said.
Matthew and Natalie stepped forward a few steps to take their keys, and Anorak leaned towards them, saying, "Don't forget to take your clue."
Then, two of the fire hydrant-like devices at the edge of the square activated, revealing the clue parchments.
"Take care of yourselves. I hope to see you again," Anorak said.
"Wait, I have some questions I want to ask you," said Matthew, but Anorak just smiled and disappeared again.
Having nothing else to do, Matthew and Natalie went to the edge of the square, picked up the clue scrolls, and at that moment, a panel appeared before them.
[Congratulations on completing the race to the first key. Your name has been added to the Egg Hunt Leaderboard.]
[You are one of the top ten players on the leaderboard. You have won 100,000 coins.]
[You are the first supernatural to enter the leaderboard on the eighth layer in history. You have won 100,000,000,000 coins.]
These were the messages on Matthew's panel. Natalie's panel announced she had won 90 billion coins for being the second person to appear on the leaderboard on the eighth layer in history.
Then a new message appeared on the panel.
[The OASIS Special Shop will open on day 29, the last day of the layer.]
[When the Special Shop opens, you can only spend half of your coins. Half of your coins and any unspent coins will be saved for use in the eighteenth layer.]
[Until the Special Shop opens, you can view your current eighth-layer evaluation in the Evaluation section of the panel.]
Matthew remembered hearing about the OASIS Special Shop before. He had won two Free Shopping Cards from two extraordinary treasure chests he had obtained through the fourth-layer grade.
Until now, he had no idea when he could use those cards. But apparently, he could use them in this Special Shop that opened on day 29.
Neither Matthew nor Natalie had heard anything from the professors about the OASIS Special Shop. This meant it was most likely a shop open only to those who had completed the race.
This excited Matthew about what he might find in this store.
Then Matthew and Natalie quickly opened the Evaluation section on their panels.
This section was divided into three parts: one showing their vehicles' scores, another showing their race scores, and the final part showing the average score they would achieve at the end of each level.
On Matthew's screen, his vehicle score was SSS+ and his race result SSS. His overall average was also SSS.
Below the section showing his vehicle score, a message stated that, since he had reached an SSS+ score, he would win his vehicle as a Supernatural Item as a reward at the end of the layer.
And below the section showing his overall average score, it stated that if he could improve his vehicle and race scores by day 29, his overall score would increase.
However, another note below stated that he had already achieved the highest score and that further improvement was not possible.
Matthew was certain Natalie's panel had written the same things in her Evaluation section.
After reviewing the evaluation section and realizing they had nothing more to do for this layer until the last day, Natalie turned to Matthew and said, "What are we going to do now?"
"Of course, we're going to take a vacation," Matthew said.
"Vacation? But for the eighteenth layer..." Natalie began, but Matthew interrupted her before she could finish.
"Nat. We haven't had a proper vacation since we became Supernatural. And besides, you can't leave campus. This is a golden opportunity for us. So, we're staying at Vacation World for a week. Then we can do some research for the eighteenth layer and sell our items to increase our coins, but without spending too much time on it."
"Fine, let's do it your way," Natalie said.
Then, after Matthew informed the other teams from the party chat about how to win the race, Natalie and Matthew spent the rest of their time on Vacation World.
During this time, many things happened.
The other teams won the second race, achieving SSS level in the race score, and gained the right to participate in the OASIS Special Shop on the last day.
They then used some of their coins to upgrade their vehicles, generally bringing them up to S level. This would give them an SS-grade result at the end of the tier.
Unfortunately, finding rare parts was difficult. So, they couldn't upgrade their vehicles further.
During this time, Matthew and Natalie took their relationship to the next level. They had both lost their V-cards. At least virtually.
Luckily, they could use the appearance of their own bodies instead of avatars on Vacation World. Otherwise, using their avatars in bed might have felt a little strange.
They also occasionally went to the Halliday Journals to research the eighteenth layer.
Unfortunately, they learned the clues they'd obtained wouldn't unlock till the eighteenth layer. But Natalie said that the more information they learned about James Halliday, the better.
Even though Matthew already knew the answer to the clue, he kept up with Natalie and went with her to visit the Halliday Journals.
On the other hand, Matthew was busy selling their items. After paying Parzival the remaining 90,000 coins, he also paid Aech the 2 million fee and gave him a few items as a bonus.
Then he went from auction house to auction house to sell the remaining items, but after a brief search, he realized selling them directly to OASIS stores would be more profitable.
And the margin between selling to players and to OASIS stores was substantial. Items could be sold to OASIS stores for hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of times more.
Matthew suspected this was a form of reward from OASIS. Otherwise, the revenue they earn from selling items to players would be like loose change compared to the coins they have.
He just needed to figure out which item to sell in which OASIS store, because the stores offered more coins for items related to their area of expertise and fewer for others.
By the 27th day of entering OASIS, Matthew had sold all his items except for a few he had set aside, and as a result, he had earned 272 billion coins, and Natalie nearly 413 billion coins.
Natalie earned more coins because she had collected the items from the battlefield while Matthew was talking to Anorak at the end of the fourth layer.
But Matthew wasn't satisfied with the coins he'd earned, so at the end of the second week, he struck a deal with Aech to sell how to win the race to the first key.
He recommended the same to the other two teams so they could earn more, too.
The price was one million coins, but if someone from IOI wanted to buy it, they would have to pay ten times that amount.
Regardless of when the purchase was made, the information would be transmitted to the buyers nine minutes before the start of the 4th race.
Gunters were required to enter the track at least 10 minutes beforehand; after that time, they couldn't communicate with the outside world.
But Matthew managed to circumvent this by exploiting a loophole in OASIS.
If the delivery date of items purchased by players before entering the racetrack coincided with this time, the items would still appear in their inventories.
Matthew wrote down how to win the race on paper, put it in an envelope, sealed it, and put it up for sale.
The stock was unlimited. And OASIS would duplicate as many items as needed.
Of course, Matthew needed to have the necessary materials in his inventory. So, Matthew filled his inventory with paper, envelopes, and ink.
He only set the delivery date as nine minutes before the final race.
Aech and Parzival handled the sales on his behalf, and Matthew sold them the envelopes for just 1 coin. But they wouldn't have access to this information until they entered the racetrack.
Although the 1-million-coin price seemed quite small compared to the coins they had, the sales potential was very high considering the number of players in OASIS. Billions of people were actively using OASIS.
And this potential was realized. Matthew had sold to over 10 million people in total and earned over 10 trillion coins.
Then came day 28, and the final race took place.
Due to the large number of participants, OASIS had to create multiple racetracks and distribute the players across them.
And according to what Matthew heard from Aech, the racetrack that he was in had turned into complete chaos.
Matthew just laughed. It didn't concern him anyway.
What concerned him was the OASIS Special Shop, and at 00:01 after day 28, as they entered day 29, a notification appeared on Matthew's and the other Supernatural race winners' panels.
[The OASIS Special Shop has opened.]
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Next Chapters' Name:
Ch.155: Witch's Bloodline
Ch.156: Buying Technological Knowledge
Ch.157: National Secret Level Information