Chapter Text
I was ten years old when I first heard about the contest, and even though I didn’t understand it at the time, I knew it was a big deal. Thanks to dad’s sources, we learned about Halliday’s death as soon as it happened. Looking back, dad was a little obsessed with the guy, but I can’t blame him. His creations kind of destroyed our family after all, even though it probably wasn’t intentional. What mattered was that Halliday was loaded with no one to inherit his money, so he decided to make it fun. But there’s no point in explaining these things, I’m pretty sure we all know that already. That event started the history of this world in a way; I’d be surprised if people didn’t talk about it in the future.
I haven’t even seen his goodbye message until much later, but it was clear he was enjoying himself there. Was it even him talking? Did he expect what would happen, look forward to it even? Maybe, I still don’t know much about the guy, and honestly, I wish to never even hear his name ever again. But knowing about him was the point; he made the contest all about his personal favorites. I wasn’t expecting the hunt to get as popular as it did, but apparently the prize got them all interested.
But my family wasn’t after the prize. I think it became clear when dad joined the IOI, some group focused on inheriting the simulation rather than getting the money. I guess they weren’t called IOI until they grew into a major corporation though… But I’m not sure. Again, I was a kid when this happened, and I didn’t ask when I had the chance. All I knew was that I had to help dad somehow. He’s lost almost everything because of the OASIS, but he chose to fight back, and I admired that. Even though the public saw him as a lunatic, he embraced the super villain label and continued until he was forced to stop, and then some more. I wish I had some of his determination.
But I didn’t, definitely not at the start. I also wasn’t smart enough to remember all the relatively useless facts about Halliday’s personal life or his favorite games. But I also had nothing to lose. I think others saw it similarly. Not everyone was Wade Watts, which honestly now sounds like a compliment. But we were all desperate back then. Desperate for certain things, for love, acknowledgement, revenge… Success. Not everyone would get it, of course. Not everyone was as desperate as Wade Watts.
But I guess for that I’ll have to move right to the year 2045. I was fifteen and the hunt wasn’t really going anywhere. Still, most people weren’t giving up yet. Only us who never started trying began calling it a myth. Something just out of reach, that maybe wasn’t there in the first place. I wouldn’t dare to say it in front of dad, though. His job was his everything, and even though I felt a little neglected, neither of us complained. He made money, we moved to a nice penthouse, it was the closest thing we could have to living the dream. The environment was suffering, and I still believe it was one of the reasons why dad wanted to get control over the OASIS, to limit its usage and convince people to actually try to save the planet. But once again, when I could’ve asked about this, I haven’t.
And life continued, until one particularly cold February night. The only person obsessively checking the leaderboard every day was Derek, and I’ll never forget him yelling at us “Guys! Someone found a key!” That someone was Wade Watts, of course, and the chain of events has started. It was 2045, I was fifteen and while I didn’t realize it at the time, my life was about to change. Since that day, dad became even more distant, and he spent almost all of his day at work. We were asked to not disturb him, and we didn’t, we all wanted him to succeed. But that wasn’t enough for me. Just like him, I decided to join the fight the only way I knew how. It was serious this time; the mythical egg might actually exist.
Oh to think my first attempt to stop Wade Watts began as something this unimportant. I guess it could have still changed history, but I refuse to think about that now. My head hurts already, and I’m not really in a position to deal with another migraine.
So I’ll just say this: My name is Saoirse Sorrento, I’m twenty years old and I am the first demon of Paradise and the founder of GBAE. No matter what anyone else says, this is the truth, the events how they actually happened. I have no reason to lie. The following pages are a compilation of my diary entries, somewhat edited to make a bit more sense, meant for the future leaders of GBAE only. I’ll admit, I used to be a bit naïve as a kid, but that only makes my experiences more genuine. As of writing this, I am… Actually, that doesn’t matter. Even if I did tell you, you wouldn’t believe me. No one would, because back in 2040, no one knew what was coming.
I don’t know what year is it now. I don’t know when or who will read this. But whoever you are, you were chosen for a reason. As the leader of GBAE, you have to lead humanity to freedom again. I’m the first demon, I know I won’t be the last, but I hope there won’t be many of us, and the ones that will be there will help you in your quest.
With that said, go on, read everything, and I apologize in advance for some my younger self’s opinions. We all made mistakes at fifteen.