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Asuyuka
Since: Jan, 2001
Vios
Since: Feb, 2012
Westrim
Since: Jan, 2001

About a decade ago I read a book based After the End, in about 2080 I think. The world had been devastated by the full suite of weapons of mass destruction, and the remaining population was in dome cities, the one in focus being in the pacific northwest. There was good communication between the domes though, partially thanks to a couple Iridium satellites that were still in orbit. To prevent further conflict and remind people of the horrors of war there is an event held every year in which each city submitted three people that would compete in a war simulation- a soldier, who guided the 80 small virtual troops (think army men in size and function, but realistic complete with screaming and pain) by hand-eye coordination, the tactician who would guide them and figure out when sacrificing some soldiers was needed, and the hacker that would take out missiles and traps on the game field in a king of the hill scenario.If they win the three get a wish granted.
The story is seen from the soldiers viewpoint as he is coddled and trained, meets his teammates, learns more about the darker points of his society, and sleeps on his aerogel bed. The tactician is deformed by the aftereffects of the weapons used in the war, so he has a big head, a big brain, a whole lot of resentment and an early death sentence. The hacker is the worldly one, and it's her hijinks that let the soldier outside of the government facility he's lived in and see normal people, warts and all. She's also the romantic interest of course.
In the end they win, the soldier goes to live on an island that's habitable again due to being remote and washed clean by rain, the tactician gets better living conditions for his fellow mutants, and the hacker gets an expedition to find and scrub a genetic sequencer from an abandoned city.
NNTK (no need to know) is an Arc Word.