The Question and Answer section for Ready Player One is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.
Wade has a sense of how Halliday's mind was working when he created this game and he might have a slight edge in the fact that he knows Halliday as well as he does through his extensive research and his own fascination with everything 80s.
Parzival found the Copper Key. He believes that the riddle from the key is guiding him to Middletown, a replica of Halliday's hometown of Middletown, OH, Wade heads there in search of the gate.
From the text:
Art3mis, Aech, and Shoto had all tried to contact me since receiving my e-mail, but I hadn’t answered any of their phone calls, e-mails, or
chat requests. I saw no reason to tell them what I intended to do. They couldn’t do anything...
