Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline

A good example of how it's hard to write a sequel.  Half the book covers how the main character pushed further development of a headset that the founder of the game world designed but did not manufacture, how his income is unimaginable, his money spending is out of control and how he finds a new quest, which one of the founders tells him not to pursue and then he pays someone a million dollars to find the first clue.  This takes place over a decade.  The second half of the book takes place of eight hours.  In that half, a simulation of the one of the founders comes back to 'life', steals the Robes of Anorak back and infects the firmware of millions of players so they cannot log out and risk brain damage or death if the quest he puts forth to the hero is not completed within the time limit so the simulation can be reunited with a simulation of the girl he was never able to woo.  In the end, it turns out that both Anorak and his unrequited love are full uploads of the consciousness of those people.  To defeat Anorak, the founder who warned against the quest, Og, gives up his own life and our hero 'resurrects' him and he 'lives' with his love happily ever after in a computer sent to the stars.  Footnote: there is an element of embryo here that is not explored but could lead to a third book.