World, Circle

In 2047, Lin Ruoxi's Drosophila whole-brain simulation project achieved a breakthrough in Hangzhou - simulation body #00147 demonstrated unprogrammed spontaneous exploration behavior. On the same day, an encrypted message appeared in her mailbox: "We will be done in 2031, you are behind." CERN physicist Marcus Chen discovered a structure in the cosmic microwave background radiation that does not belong to nature - a quantum surface code, an error-correcting pattern that can only be produced by engineering calculations. There are man-made traces buried in the "source code" of the universe, and humans are not the first. Instead of the substrate, we are also being simulated. But there is no pyramid, no "top reality." The structure of existence is not a hierarchy - it is a circle. Each world both creates and is created, with computational resources flowing in a closed causal loop. The destruction of any single world will break the ring into chains, triggering a cascading collapse - all worlds will die. Including yours. 847 Detected worlds hang on this fragile ring, within which 2.3 Billion years of warning circulate. The mathematical genius Elena Volkov proved the three major theorems, but walked to the cliff in the shadow of the fourth theorem - the circle is a perfect deterrent and a perfect cage. There is no way out, no "outside". And someone is trying to break it. This is a civilizational epic about creation, deterrence and transcendence. Like the dark forest in "The Three-Body Problem" - but in the opposite direction. Not everyone is a hunter, but everyone is each other's protector. Because the laws of physics themselves have to be like this.