In the second level of Three Body, Wang Miao arrives near an Egyptian-style pyramid and finds Isaac Newton dueling Leibniz over the invention of calculus while John Von Neumann tries to stop them. Newton and Von Neumann explain that they want to solve the motion of the three suns, but the required calculations are too large for ordinary scholars. When Von Neumann describes using thirty million laborers as a gigantic calculating machine, Wang realizes from a modern joke that Von Neumann is likely a real participant rather than a scripted character.

The three men meet Qin Shi Huang, who rules this civilization and commands the only force large enough for the project. To win the emperor's support, Von Neumann demonstrates logic gates using three soldiers holding black and white flags, then explains that millions of such simple units can be linked into a computer. Qin Shi Huang agrees, and after three months his army is arranged into an immense human computer, Qin I, with a CPU, memory, bus, display, and even human "hard drive" components, while Newton and Von Neumann present the operating system and orbital-calculation software.

When Qin I is started, the first boot fails because a gate in the CPU malfunctions. Newton uses the failure to flatter Qin Shi Huang's harsh rule, and the emperor orders the faulty soldiers executed before the system is restarted. The machine then runs for more than a year, surviving interruptions from Chaotic Eras, and eventually completes a calculation predicting a long Stable Era with mild weather.

At dawn, Newton and Von Neumann present the successful result, but the astronomy minister rushes in to report a fatal error: the world is entering a rare tri-solar syzygy, with all three suns aligned behind one another. Newton first tries to reinterpret the event as a blessing, then slips away and flees. Wang asks Qin Shi Huang to swing his sword, notices the reduced weight, and understands before the others that the combined gravity of the aligned suns is pulling everything on the planet upward.

The pyramid breaks apart, the atmosphere vanishes, and the human computer, the ocean, and the civilization itself are dragged into space and toward the suns. As silence replaces all sound, Wang sees Qin Shi Huang die, hears nothing, and watches text announce that Civilization 184 has been destroyed despite reaching the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions. After logging out, Wang receives a call from a charismatic Three Body administrator, who demands his personal details, confirms that he may continue, and invites him to a meeting of players the next night.