The Alchemist Chapter Summaries

Prologue: A massive virtual reality world called the OASIS is created by James Halliday and Ogden Morrow. When James Halliday dies, it is revealed that he hid an easter egg in the game that would give the person who found it control over the OASIS. To find the easter egg, one must find the copper, jade and crystal key and the corresponding gates and also know lots about 80s pop culture.

Chapter 1: We are introduced to Wade Watts, he lives in the stacks (trailers stacked on top of each other) , where he shares a trailer with his aunt and 14 other people. Wade sneaks out of his trailer into his secret hideout where he logs into the OASIS.

Chapter 2: Wade talks about why he goes to school in the OASIS, instead of the real world. He also talks about the Sixers, employees of IOI, whose sole goal is to take over the OASIS.

Chapter 3: Wade enters the

chatroom of his best friend Aech, called the basement. They talk about 80s culture with some of the other people in the basement until school starts.

Chapter 4: We follow Wade in his history class where we learn about the world and the OASIS. The OASIS is 27 sectors in it but Wade does not have enough money to leave the world where his school is so he normally cannot leave.

Chapter 5: Wade continues on into his advanced OASIS studies class but he knows more than his teacher in this respect. We learn about the lives of James Halliday and Ogden Morrow.

Chapter 6: Wade goes to his last class of the day, Latin. Wade tells us about his knowledge of movies and books and music of the 80s and shares his theory of where to find the copper key, in the tomb of horrors, part of a dungeons and dragons campaign.

Chapter 7: Still in his Latin class, Wade realizes that the copper key must be on Ludus, the school planet. He figures out where it is and plans of teleporting to it later that day.

Chapter 8: After reading up on the Tomb of horrors, Wayde goes there. At the end of the tomb, he has to face a lich called Acererak in a game of Joust. Wayde beats the lich and the lich gives him a clue to find the copper gate.

Chapter 9: After beating the lich, Wayde runs into a famous gunter(Easter egg hunter) Art3mis whom Wade has a cyber-crush on. They befriend each other and she reveals to him that he is on the OASIS leaderboard because he found the copper key.

Chapter 10: Wade goes to a replica of Halliday’s house where he inserts the copper key into a keyhole and is sucked into a poster of the movie WarGames. Wade also learns that Art3mis has obtained the copper key.

Chapter 11: Wade had to act out the entire movie of Wargames as the character played by Matthew Broderick. He then gets a clue to find the jade key.

Chapter 12: The media is excited that someone found the copper key and Ogden Morrow called IOI a "fascist multinational conglomerate" before promptly being cut off as IOI owns that news station. Aech tells Wade he knows where the key is.

Chapter 13: I-rOk, another member of the basement lets the cat out of the bag and Daito and Shoto, two other gunters find the key. Wade is bombarded with endorsement deals from corporations and lots of messages from Nolan Sorrento, the head of IOI.

Chapter 14: In a chatlink with Sorrento, Sorrento makes some offers to Wayde but he just tells Sorento to “Fo fuck a duck”. Sorrento tells Wade he knows where he lives and he will bomb it. Wade leaves the chat and a bomb goes off.

Chapter 15: I-rOk tells IOI where the copper key is. A meeting is called for the high five, Parzival( Wade’s OASIS avatar), Art3mis, Aech, Daito and Shoto and nothing is accomplished.

Chapter 16: The Sixers have unlocked the first gate. Wade uses his endorsement money to move to Columbus Ohio where he changes his identity to Bryce Lynch.

Chapter 17: Wayde starts falling in love with Art3mis. He also increases is character’s level to 99.

Chapter 18: At Ogden Morrow’s 73rd birthday party, Wade tells Art3mis that he loves her. The sixers ambush them but Ogden Morrow instantly kills them all. Wade did not know where Art3mis went.

Chapter 19: Wade’s daily routine includes staying in his room all day long, he exercises and listens to music.

Chapter 20: Wade teams up with Daito and Shoto for a Japanese Quest. After Wade’s 10-hour work shift ends, he learns that Art3mis has found the Jade key.

Chapter 21: IOI quickly finds the Jade key after Art3mis finds it. Wade travels to a planet based on an arcade from Halliday’s childhood where he thinks the Jade key is.

Chapter 22: Wade plays a game of Pac-Man and receives a perfect score and is rewarded with a quarter. Aech emails Wade with a hint to find the Jade key after Aech found it.

Chapter 23: Wade travels to the planet that Aech hinted at and then Wade finds the key. However, Daito fell off the leaderboard, his character has been killed.

Chapter 24: The Sixers quickly found the second gate.

Shoto approaches Wade and tells him Daito left something for him in his will.

Chapter 25: Shoto tells Wade that Daito was killed in the real world by the Sixers. Shoto gives Wade what Daito left for him in his will and Wade gives Shoto a gift.

Chapter 26: Wade figures out that the second gate is at the Tyrell building from Blade Runner. Wade has to play a 3D version of Black Tiger which he does. He gets a Giant Robot and a clue to the crystal key.

Chapter 27: The crystal key is in the Temple of the Syrinx and Wade easily gets it and he is told he cannot open the third gate alone. However, the Sixers have surrounded the location of the third gate, Castle Anorak, with a magical shield that cannot be broken for as long as the wizard that created it is touching the shield.

Chapter 28: Wade tells Art3mis, Aech, and Shoto how to find the second gate. Then he modifies his identity of Bryce Lynch to owe lots of money to IOI who promptly take him to a debtors prison.

Chapter 29: Wade is taken to the debtor's prison where he is forced to work for IOI to repay his

debt.

Chapter 30: Wade had previously obtained IOI passwords that could only be operated in an IOI system. He hacks the network and sees they have collected information on him and the 3 other major gunters. He also takes all of their information on the third gate and Sorrento.

Chapter 31: Wade escapes IOI and then buys some weapons to defend himself in the real world. He then finds a place where he can use OASIS and logs on to the basement after uploading information to the internet that incriminated IOI and Sorrento.

Chapter 32: Wade meets Art3mis, Aech, and Shoto in the basement where he tells them what he did. He tells them he has a plan to get to the third gate and that 3 people are needed to open it up. He emails all OASIS users to go and unite against IOI and then suddenly Ogden Morrow appears.

Chapter 33: Morrow offered to fly them to his place in Oregon. Aech, who was an African-American woman picked up Wade and drove him to the airport where they flew to Oregon.

Chapter 34: The gunters engage Sorento, who was Mechagodzilla with the robots they won at the second gate. Wade hacked a droid, which immediately went next to the wizard that was generating the big shield, which killed the wizard and dropped the shield.

Chapter 35: A big battle ensues between the Sixers and everyone else in the Oasis with the main gunters facing down Sorento. Wade manages to beat Sorento with the item that Daito had willed him. With the help of Aech and Art3mis, the third gate was opened but then the Sixers set off a giant bomb and everyone died.

Chapter 36: Wade did not die because the quarter he had previously won was an extra life. Using Art3mis’ flying sneakers Wade flew up to the third gate.

Chapter 37: Wade has to play a game of Tempest which he does and succeeded. Then he has to act out Monty Python and the Holy Grail like he did in the first gate. Wade is transported to Halliday’s office.

Chapter 38: Wade logs into Halliday’s computer using the password Leucosia, the dnd persona of Kira Morrow, Ogden’s wife. Wade was given godlike powers in the OASIS and all of Halliday’s money and then he logs out of the OASIS.

Chapter 39: Wade meets Art3mis for the first time in the real world and they kiss each other. Wade states that he does not want to go back into the OASIS at that point in time.