Item from three-body-problem by
Full-immersion VR game distributed by the ETO at threebody.com — a recruiting tool, a religious text, and humanity's first detailed glimpse of how Trisolarans see their own world.
From inside, the game is the most fully realized virtual world on Earth — sand that feels like sand underfoot, wind that pulls at the player's hair, sun-glare that forces a real squint. The narrative loop is simple and brutal: log in, find yourself in a civilization (most often dressed in human clothes — Bronze-Age China, dynastic courts, Renaissance Europe) trying to predict the next chaotic and stable eras. Make decisions. Watch the civilization die anyway when chaos breaks the calendar. The game's purpose, once you grasp it, is recruitment. It selects for elite scientific and military minds. Players who reach the higher levels are contacted, in person, by the ETO. Wang Miao is one of them — but he plays under a false name, and he is reporting back to Da Shi and General Chang the entire time.
A black headset with a visored display and a white V-suit covered in fine actuators that simulate temperature, pressure, wind, and impact. A small black box for the home machine. The login screen renders a simple banner — Three Body — over a slowly rotating render of three suns.
Also known as: Three Body, Three-Body