When the act of reading becomes a stimulus, it has the power to enact change within the reader and through readers. Adopting and using the methodological tools of autoethnography, personal narrative, and creative writing, I reflect and explore virtual/online education prompted by a personal reading experience of Ernest Cline's science fiction novel, "Ready Player One." Cline's story offers a unique vantage point as well as a rich fictional vision through which I evaluate, contrast, and reflect on virtual education. My goal is to demonstrate how the reading experience of a popular science fiction novel may shape, modify, and/or inspire the development of future online education. I argue that reflective reading combined with the reader's embodied creative acts (e.g., the composition of personal narratives prompted by the novel and creative writing addressing a current problem that is inspired by the novel's fictional reality) lead to innovative ideas to foster the development of new paradigms for the creation of better online learning management systems. Thus, I present a personal narrative of reading to demonstrate how fictional works may offer relevant platforms for readers to contribute, to innovate, and to advocate for change within insufficient or inadequate systems.