Entering

He put on the matte-black helmet.

There were no clasps, no straps. The layer of bionic gel inside automatically reshaped itself, like some living creature, gently yet firmly enveloping his head and shutting out all external light and sound.

The hum of server fans in the operations hall, Shi Qiang's voice joking around with someone in the distance, and the smell of instant noodles mixed with sweat—the scent of an all-nighter—vanished in an instant.

The world fell into darkness and silence.

The sensory suit activated as well. A cold sensation rose from his back and spread all the way along his spine.

The material was strange; the parts pressed against his body had the cool texture of skin.

Then he saw light.

Not lamplight, not the glow of a screen, but a small line of softly glowing white text that appeared directly in his field of vision.

[Connecting to server----]

[Neural link calibration in progress----0%------·0%----100%]

[Welcome to Three-Body]

He stood in the middle of a wasteland.

Beneath his feet lay dark brown, cracked earth, devoid of any vegetation, stretching all the way to the distant horizon.

The sky had not yet brightened—or rather, it was at the boundary between dawn and night.

A faint streak of white dawn struggled along the horizon.

The rest of the sky was a profound, utterly pure black, studded with stars.

He tried taking two steps. The sensory suit precisely captured his movements, and the ground beneath his feet gave hard feedback. He could even feel tiny pebbles pressing against the soles of his virtual shoes.

He crouched down and pinched up a bit of dirt with his fingers. Its dry, rough texture came through the sensors at his fingertips, the feedback remarkably realistic.

Just then, an enormous boom came from the far