Civilization Number 9478

Civilization Number 9478 is one of the numbered civilizations of Three Body, the virtual reality game woven through Liu Cixin's The Three-Body Problem. The game's world runs through cycle after cycle: societies grow during mild Stable Eras, are destroyed by the extremes of Chaotic Eras, and are numbered in sequence, their endings recorded in closing announcements. The high number of Civilization 9478 marks how many times that cycle has already turned. It is recorded as one of the game world's most advanced attempts, an age of futuristic cities and spacefaring ambition, before a catastrophic sandstorm, driven by violent collisions of heat and cold, shattered its skyscrapers and buried the civilization beneath the sand.