A World of Great Harmony: I’m Not Good with Words, So I Use a Hammer

In 2040, you might well ask: how did humanity end up not knowing what to do with its life? Seven years after controlled nuclear fusion became a reality, energy was free, factories ran themselves, bases stood on the moon, flags had been planted on Mars, and anyone could mine the asteroid belt. The utopian society described in textbooks for two hundred years had somehow arrived within a single generation. Money? Gone. Work? Do it or don't. Houses, cars, cash? Get them if you want, or don't. Humanity had spent five thousand years solving the problem of how to stay alive, only to realize no one had ever thought about what to do after that. Philosophers called it the growing pains of civilization. Sociologists called it the growing pains of transition. Ordinary people said, “Whatever kind of pain it is, we might as well be bored.” Some stayed up until three in the morning chatting with electronic maids. Some practiced archery beside craters on the moon. Others dated women from three different continents. Then World Online arrived. A game that fit an entire planet inside your mind. Swords, magic, endless battles, and endless glory to fight for. That year, countless lost souls poured into the virtual world, hoping to find what had vanished from reality: meaning, victory and defeat, glory, and the thrill of a racing heartbeat. That year, at Outpost C-7, a lunar south pole base, a young man who stuttered and knew nothing but blacksmithing swung his hammer across the icy plains of Freljord. He had no grand philosophy to offer. He only wanted people to know that someone named Chen Haikun had once been here.