In Ernest Cline’s dystopian novel Ready Player One, the virtual world where most people spend their time is called the OASIS.
The OASIS is a massively shared virtual reality created by James Halliday and Ogden Morrow. Users attend school, work, socialize, play games, and explore simulated worlds through the system. It becomes especially important because life outside it is marked by energy shortages, poverty, and social decline.
After Halliday dies, he hides an Easter egg inside the OASIS. The person who finds it will inherit his fortune and control of the company running the virtual world. Wade Watts, using the avatar Parzival, joins the worldwide hunt.
The OASIS is not simply a game. Its educational, economic, and social functions make it the central infrastructure of the novel’s society.