The Hub's Main Stadium was very full. The structure was capable of seating 80,000 probably to provide some seating flexibility for the 60,000 MDP trainees.

Carly, due to her unusual access into the program had spent her life operating as invisibly as possible. Quiet, unobtrusive and average in all regards. Other than gaining the skills taught her, her prime goal was to exist under the radar of all trainees, instructors and the few support staff she had to interact with.

She never made requests accept to Ross, nor did she make complaints, statements, conversation, or friends. It was not that Carly could not do these things, often she had to bite her tongue with some of the trainees. With 60,000 of them, it is impossible not to come across some that she liked or those that just rubed her the wrong way.

During the first half of the program, all trainees were expected to minimally train 10 hours per day, six days a week. Carly made sure she achieved this goal out the back of the training groups where fewer eyes were on her. After three years the requirements changed to 20 hours of training and to fight a minimum of two duels per week. For three years she sat somewhere within the 30,000's as her rank on the ladder for the entire time. Ranked so low no one paid attention to such average fighting skills. If you wanted to be noticed you need to be in the top 2,000 really. The top 200 were undoubtedly scrutinised, and the top 20 were heroes too almost everyone.

The Free-For-All elimination matches that had been running for a couple of hours now. The MDP trainees who were yet to compete were very enthusiastically socialising. Carly, on the other hand, was sitting quietly watching the matches up the back of the stadium in a corner. Her seat was out of the way with a terrible view, it did leave her ignored, no one wanted to sit in so obscure a location isolated from everyone else by several rows, it was perfect.

She did not like living her life this way, being surrounded by people for six years after being left discarded, alone and forgotten for so many. Excluding Ross, of course, the stoic penitent of his own punishment. She watched from her spot on the stand, watching the trainees seated in front as much as the matches themselves. Carly sincerely wished she could be one of them, closely associating with friends, discussing, joking, laughing, complaining about various topics. Currently, the bouts were the hot topic. Her unusual situation had forced her to avoid such interactions. Not having friends meant not having to answer questions, much more comfortable than telling lies. Lies were something she was removed from, there was no need for them in her TME, and so they did not exist. When she entered the program, she knew her limitations, trying to spin a web of deceit was too complicated a challenge for someone unpracticed in the skill. She was realistic, with the certainty she would fail utterly in such things.

Accepting her situation, she continued through the program alone. It was for the best. Though hard to be so near companionship yet always removed. The isolation within the crowd was why she became so grateful for Roy and Anne over the past four years, nearly thirteen years. They had become integral to her life, her family, she loved them both dearly and cherished their time, especially mealtimes, and general conversation.

She would prefer to be with them right now rather than sitting here waiting for her turn to participate in this event. The event was important, the rewards would aid Carly in this new world where she hoped she could be freer than she was at present. Right now she wanted to make it through this first event sooner rather than later and get back to her TME, and her AE's Roy, and Anne.

As time ticked along slowly, she shook her head in wonder at how she could have trouble getting to sleep last night. Anticipation and excitement for the event, what a joke, now the reality of this debacle was in mind-numbing, tedious effect. What foolishness, for someone of her age.

With 60,000 competitors needing to be eliminated down to 10,000, and the cohort evenly split between 30,000 men and women. The free-for-all functioned perfectly, in the hearts and minds of upper management. They had created an endurance and combat, knockout event that would clearly identify those with the strength of mind and skill to succeed, especially as it dragged on in the coming days.

Carly was sitting on the far side back corner to the left and opposite of the main entrance into the stadium. On the competition arena stood ten risen circular platforms in a five by two grid across its length. The popular people and early arrivals scored the quality seating near the front and center of the stadium's lengths. These prime positions offered good views all ten platforms. Her own position provided minuscule humanoids she could vanish with a fingernail on her outstretched arm.

She did not mind though, the earliest bouts were taking ridiculously long to complete with individuals pairing off and competing like it was still part of the ladder duel system. Honorable fights, perhaps, but definitely not time efficient, some taking twenty minutes to produce a winner. She hoped they picked up the pace soon or this event was going to take more than a fortnight. Not a prospect she was enthusiastic to endure, she closed her eyes, tuned out the noise and focused on her meditation. Patients, it was going to be fundamental to survive the monotony this trial currently offered.

* * *

'Wishful thinking, be damned. This stupid free-for-all, be damned. PURG, be damned.' Three hours later and this was some boring arse shit to have to endure. It would have been straightforward to do all the random drawings for matches before the events starting. Instead, these bastards would draw alternately. Drawing a women's match then a men's match and maintaining a mere five-match preparation schedule. Trainees would receive a notification their match was drawn and would have to be down under the center of the arena floor waiting until their group's turn came about. When a raised platform did become available the competitors of that group had three minutes to be standing on it. A second late and you were disqualified. Interfere with another competitor before the match started, and you were disqualified. PURG set the whole thing up, with the idea that the best of the 60,000 could be successful. The best was somewhat subjective since competitors could work together and defeat a stronger opponent.

Carly sighed. She could only hope her ID would be drawn and for her turn to fight, soon rather than later.

* * *

At the start of the second day, a new message went out to all trainees.

General Announcement: Free-For-All Amendment

A number of complaints have been issued by high ladder ranked trainees eliminated in the Free-For-All. These trainees were pushed off the combat platforms by multiple opponents ganging up against them.

PURG has considered their argument and the frequency of this occurring in matches just from day one and decided to grant the top 2,000 ladder ranked men and women a free pass to the second event. These top-ranked people must still participate in the Free-For-All elimination to be eligible. If they are eliminated in this current event, then their access to the second event will be penalised with a minor time penalty.

Remember, PURG is running this event to empower the very best martial trainees granting them an advantage in the Powered1 world when it goes live.

PURG Liaison Team

This announcement message created quite a stir leaving lower ranked trainees quite angry at the unfair advantage handed to these 4,000 trainees because of their higher ladder rankings. The most furious was, of course, the trainees just outside the top 2,000 resulting in arguments and even several fights in the stands. Those involved were told they too would receive a time penalty in the next event if they were successful in winning their bout in this current one. This, of course, angered those people already feeling hard done by even further. Carly felt nothing for these people, they apparently had not realised that PURG management were their masters and they were the help. Never mind, fools will be foolish.

Carly was grateful that gradually the penny dropped, the matches picked up their pace. By morning, most matches were finished in under ten minutes. A vast improvement from yesterdays debacle when the bouts kicked off.

After the announcement and initial hot-blooded reaction, the second and third days progressed uneventfully. Carly ignored the constant disappointment of not being called up for her match. She used her out of the way location to move about, stretch, meditate, observe tactics in bouts, eat and sleep. She interacted little with anyone, keeping her own counsel. Focused on staying busy with these activities, she attempted to ward off the growing boredom and preserve her mental focus. Carly had a single task, victory in her coming battle, nothing would dissuade her from success.

Most of the matches after the earlier duel focused ones lacked for skilled combat. Degrading into shoving matches with several people teaming up against one and brute forcing them over the edge of the raised platform.

This tactic often eliminated two or three people quickly through the weight of numbers before any actual combat skill became vital for the outcome. It was garbage fighting, Carly put no worth in it what so ever. That is not to say she would not use the same tactic, it was too successful to ignore. Therefore, Carly decided if she could she would definitely join the biggest or strongest team to avoid early elimination. She knew with her low rank she would not be viewed as a threat to be targeted, that alone gave Carly a small boost in confidence.

Still, the whole organisation of this free-for-all event thoroughly annoyed Carly. Whatever the second event was if PURG can just throw an extra 4,000 people into the competition, why not allow everyone to compete. This first event was not fair to anyone and was taking a bloody long time.

The third day came and went, same as the previous two, Carly was trying to sleep, the Hub had moved to its night cycle. The noise dropped during the night, yet was sufficient to break rest with the ongoing bouts. It ground on the waiting competitors, dark the hub may become, yet with the massive downlights above each raised platform switching between non-combat and combat levels of illumination, it was just one more irritation to deal with.

The first day after the half hour spent explaining the running of the event and outlining what few rules there were. There was also release information about Powered1, such as the beta test conclusion and the pro-gamer's arrival in the hub at 11am. With trainees waiting for their ID to be called up, they could not afford the time to check them out. 'Why bother announcing such unnecessary things?' Carly thought, to that snippet. The last thing they did was show Powered1 promotional advertisements. They comprised of three different 30-second ads to be released internationally. The first was some of the beautiful vistas the world had to offer. The second showed cities controlled by various races. The third focused on the beta testers and some of the more spectacular experiences from their two years. Then there was the advertisement that would be shown at the transference facilities throughout the world. The five-minute video showed much longer scenes of action and combat than the 30-second one. It primarily focused on a battle between a large group of testers and some other large humanoid race. The humans looked like they were getting destroyed easily, so Carly quite liked that one.

The first day, with those dueling tactics and much longer matches, resulted in 587 completed, amounting to 3,522 trainees finished with the first event. Those matches speed up, resulting in days two and three completing around 1,200 matches. Even with the accelerated completion speed, it was going to be nine days in total, to see everyone through with this horrible event. Living in an open stadium and trying to sleep on those uncomfortable seats was, in Carly's opinion, totally fucking bullshit. And those fucking downlights over each platform keeping everyone up at night as they constantly switched from dull to bright and back... FUCK!

* * *

Carly's alarm sounded, Carly mentally looked her internal time stamp, 4.47am, 08/11/2120. Finally, her match was imminent at an ungodly hour on her the fifth day of the event. Sitting up and quickly stretching for a few seconds before finally opening her eyes. Carly grabbed the backpack she was using as a pillow and headed off to the nearest stairwell taking her underground while easing into a jog.

The stairwell wrapped around itself as it continued down bringing it underneath the floor of the arena. Hitting the underground level and flattening out, she jogged another 10 meters before turning left into a larger intersecting tunnel. It connected to all the other stairwells on her side of the stadium. This intersecting tunnel was four meters wide, half again the stairwell width she had come from and brought her. Traveling along it to another intersecting tunnel, this one she turned right, directing her to the center of the arena. It connected to a large room with a similar tunnel facing it on its opposite side. The room was ten meters wide and twenty long and contained a single row of solid support pillars, each a meter square, down its center.

There was writing on each side of the wall beside both tunnel entrances. On the wall opposite and to the right was the label 'ARENA 1-6' to the left 'ARENA 5-10'. The same was on the walls beside the entrance she passed through. Underneath these was a single message on all four walls. 'WAIT HERE UNTIL ASSIGNED AN ARENA.'

Carly checked for further instruction forming a mental connection to the match scheduling system. The match was displayed yet no location was currently provided meaning she was going to have to wait until an arena platform became available. While connected, she then requested her match listing and took a look at the identification pictures of the other five women, along with their ladder rankings. She looked around, there were over twenty others all waiting for their matches to be called up along with her. However, she could not see anyone else in the room listed as her opponent.

She was first to arrive, that was good, it gave her time to move and flex checking her movements and ensuring her bodies full range of motion was in good order despite her constricted movements during the event. All was in order, she had taken precaution, moving as much as she could despite the limitations to ensure her fighting condition and to alleviate some of the boredom and restless energy. Carly did as much as she could to give herself maximum opportunity to achieve victory. Her body felt in good order, despite the event, like Carly, everyone else had suffered the same constraints within the stadium, and so if she had a small performance decline, her competition would suffer at least as much.

She continued to move in her personal space, practicing the basic forms, others in this waiting area were mostly standing around either in small groups talking or solo. A few noticing her practicing the most basic of martial movements and scoffed. Commenting amongst themselves loud enough for Carly to hear that it was a bit late now to be practicing such beginner moves. Carly certainly paid no mind to people so deficient in comprehension and continued her routine.

One of the bouts finished, six women left at a walk or jog to head to their assigned match location. This left 9 men and 8 women in the tunnel, including herself. Finishing up, Carly walked over to one of the women standing on her own. Her name was Qaio Tham, Vietnamese, female rank of 9,443. Carly introduced herself being upfront providing her name and female rank of 13,122 and announcing quietly they were opponents. Carly openly asked for cooperation, since they had one opponent who ranked at 1,208. After a moment of consideration, Qaio Tham agreed to join forces to eliminate such a strong competitor.

Carly moved on with Qaio Tham following, toward an African and beside her a woman of Spanish origin. The African was an Angolan, Nadiara Kamwenho, ranked 17,876, the Spaniard was Violeta Molinero, ranked 5,625. While there was a significant difference in ranking between the two, they actually knew each other from the early days of the program. They had not seen each other for a couple of years traveling in very different circles, but when they found each other in the same large room and competitors, they could not help in striking up a conversation. With Carly using the same approach she offered the two her name and rank and asked if they would be interested in teaming up against the highest ranked opponent in the bout. After some talk, they asked for a minute to decide between themselves. Carly moved away to give them privacy and quickly talked to Qaio Tham, saying to her that the two should not be trusted. The two are already friendly, if they agree to work together, most likely they will unexpectedly turn on us as soon as a chance presents itself. Qaio Tham

agreed with Carly's assessment, and the two decided that once the Chinese, Lau Luli, was forcibly removed from the raised platform they would turn on Violeta, in preference to Nadiara, since she was much higher ranked. Yet it was further agreed, eliminating either of the two was preferable than targeting one in particular and failing. They returned to talk with the other two, who readily agreed to assist in eliminating Lau Luli. With a rank of 1,208, she already guaranteed a place in the second round, why not ensure a second person from their group can also move forward as well.

The four stayed together more to ensure no one backstabbed the tentative alliance by making an agreement with Lau Luli. The occupants of the room gradually changed as more bouts ended, and new trainees arrived for their own fight. Just six minutes had passed since Carly received her wake up call to prepare for combat.