'...I am calm, I am calm, I am calm.

I am a smooth river rock in a gentle, flowing brook, smooth, passive, the water cooling me while the sun warms me. I am the rock, and the rock is passive. I am calm, I am calm, I am calm.'

After several repetitions of the mantra, Carly went through her process, entering a meditative state. That anger will never aid this opportunity. She needed calm, calculation, focus, for her to fight her way through this loop challenge and obtain the prize, her prize. It was inevitable, and she was forged by their neglect into this thing, this monster of hate wrapped in a fake visage of her former self. She hated the hate, it narrowed her perspective, limited her awareness with the blood boiling fiery sludge of rage.

Bit by bit she focused, breathing, heart rate, pushing the mental garbage out and releasing it to the world, letting it evaporate into nothing. She meditated while that speech continued, allowing it to flow past her tuning out the sound as best she could with a strength of mind and focused restraint. Words still bled through, at a much-muted level which in also helped reduced her anger.

"...and so we find ourselves at a precipice, ladies and gentlemen. On the brink, the fork in the road, of total collapse, or, a grand new journey. You who stand before me have already chosen to journey forth, and I thank you for your bravery and strength of character.

You are already on the path and striding forward, the exceptional efforts the MDP trainees have put in to become such skilled martial practitioners. The beta team, bravely jumping into a new world with nothing but the clothes on their back, a week's rations and a gathering tool. Creating towns, learning skills and magic and exploring thousands of kilometers into the unknown.

Now both groups meet from separate paths to share this new experience. Colleagues, family, I cherish you all in many ways. Today I see you in front of me as contestants, competitors, those few who strive for grand accomplishment, and the rewards that come at the finish line and victory." Richard Isaccs Shrodastower, CEO of PURG rambled, leaving a long pause for effect, looking across the seats in front of him.

"Good Luck."

Immediately, upon those final words, people started to disappear from their seats. Those near the first ones to vanish from the teleport reacted with surprise. Carly snapped her eyes awake instantly, saw someone six rows down vanish and immediately grabbed her backpack, shrugging into it ready for her port. Just because the egg-shaped luminescent portals were the standard method of portal transfers, it did not mean they were necessary to perform that particular function. No, they were merely a protocol applied to create a physical process, especially useful in highly trafficked portal destinations.

Carly's immediate reaction was a minor consideration, presently. She felt the familiar lurching sensation, the loss of sound and whiting out of light and the popping back into reality. The port transferred her from the Secondary Stadium and deposited her in a five-meter cube room a seconds later. The room comprised of a dark deep cavern gray floor, slightly lighter larva stone gray walls. The luminous steel gray colouring emitted from the ceiling, making the area exceedingly bland. Carly took a few steps around the small room, noticing her body felt not quite right. Carly performed some basic dynamic movements and felt marginally slower, yet stronger. 'What is going on here?' Around her, one of the walls had a red opaque screen which was solid light and blocked the doorway into the loop proper. The other three walls were all showing the same message.

[Loop Challenge Commencement – 20min 00sec]

The first thing Carly did was drop her backpack off in a corner, quickly unpacking some of the food and water. She then waited around for nearly a minute looking at the wall timer message. It remained stubbornly unmoving, eventually a message appeared in her vision.

Competitors,

Welcome to the second and final event prior to launch.

The Loop has been heavily modified to better align with combat mechanics in the new world, Extant Expanse. Progression is greatly accelerated to better represent the short time frame this event is constrained within.

A new store is made available; it can be called up by saying [Extant Upgrade Store]. The currency used to purchase all upgrades are minutes. There will be a 24 hour, 1440 minute head start given to competitors before the elimination boundary begins to chase.

The speed of the elimination boundary will increase by 1 minute per 10 completed laps with a base starting time of 15 minutes at lap 1. What this means is the elimination boundary, once it starts will itself complete laps 1-10 at a speed of 15 minutes per lap. For laps 11-20, 16 minutes.

At 30-minutes the number of completed laps will double to 20-per 1-minute increase. At 45-minutes the number of completed laps will double once more to 40-laps per 1-minute increase. Finally, at 60-minutes there will be no further incremental increases for the elimination boundary speed.

Your only task is to defeat every monster along the way and stay ahead of the elimination boundary for as long as possible. A penalty will be issued equivalent to the lap number you are on, per mob bypassed rather than defeated on said lap.

To the Martial Trainees, you will be able to obtain skills through actions you perform and experience you obtain by defeating NPC mobs. For all trainees, this is not just a process to receive a higher new world UIN, and gain a reward for being one of the top performers during the event. Enjoy a glimpse into your future [Personal Status], equipment, skills, and magic that will, with time and effort perhaps become available to you. Take this opportunity to learn and grow.

To the Beta Testers, this is an opportunity for you, use it to refine your skills and knowledge. There have been modifications to the mechanics of the new world. Due primarily to your beta efforts. Enjoy this glimpse into the new, new world. Take this opportunity, expand your horizons of what is possible and grow.

NOTE:

All competitors, at any time, anywhere on the Loop, you can utilise the [Extant Upgrade Store]. All options are available to all competitors. Use your minutes as currency, gain more currency by completing laps quicker than the elimination boundary, or not. Your time, your choice, your chance.

Good luck,

Richard Isaccs Shrodastower

After Carly finished reading the message, she dismissed it.

'Wow, aah... ok,' Carly thought, 'this is a wildcard thrown into the mix. Fucking, shit, shit, shit. Couldn't leave this fucking competition like the standard loop. Fucken arseholes! Gotta change shit unnecessarily to feel special, fucken myopic, fucken, daddy fuckers,' Carly wasn't happy with this new situation.

She took a deep breath.

'Get your shit together Carly, don't let that fucking prick Isaccs ruin this before you've even started.' Carly gave herself a mental shakedown before telling herself, 'everyone is in the same boat, don't panic, focus.'

Waiting for a couple more minutes, finally, a new message appeared in her vision.

Notification:

Timer initiated, the store is now open!

Say the words [Extant Upgrade Store], and the store menu will appear within your visual schema. You are all familiar with using the Store menu system. Once satisfied with your item selection, go to [Checkout] to finalise the purchase.

At the same time, a double beep sounded and the 20 minutes timer started counting down on the three walls. Carly said the words, which brought the menu into her vision.

Extant Upgrade Store: [General] Auxiliary items, skills, and upgrades [Weapon] Common weapons [Armor] Common armor [Combat Skill] Combat-related skills [Combat Spells] Combat-related spells [Support Spells] Combat support spells [Checkout]

She looked at the timer on the wall, it read 19 min 44sec.

Carly began by selecting the [General] option. It was full of choices, some of note include, accessing extant stats, a numerical value which represents a person's capabilities in various areas. A number of status bars to display current health, mana, endurance, thirst, hunger, and fatigue were likewise available. There was a complete status screen, combining all this information into a single purchase.

Further, there was a significant amount of general equipment for basic survival. Things like cooking utensils, kindling and wood, flint, water, food, potions, and even some clothing items. Moreover, there were lots of skills that were unrelated to combat such as [Cooking Forte], [Camp Establishment Forte], and many many more. Carly brought up the details of [Cooking Forte], it had many skills such as, [Egg Boiling], [Egg Breaking], [Egg Frying], [Egg Shelling], [Fish Scaling], [Ingredient Measuring], [Meat Carving], [Water Boiling], [Spice Use], [Utensil Care], [Vegetable Chopping], and so on.

These forte skills and the skills within them did not seem to be particularly useful right now, considering current circumstances.

Moving to [Weapon], Carly had a rapid look. The items varied in the material used, consisting of bone, leather, woods, and metals. There were a tremendous variety of hand weapons from axes, knives, swords, hammers, maces, and spears to more exotic weapons such as drill daggers, and whips. There were also many ranged weapons, bows and crossbows, pistols, rifles, throwing weapons of various types, and more. Unfortunately, the martial trainees had only ever worked on unarmed combat. Not a single person had combat training with any type of weapon.

'I am sure these weapons are all quite effective, but without training in them for a time, there is no way I or any martial trainee will be able to utilise the weapons true capabilities.' Carly thought these things while quickly scrolling through the list for a few seconds, not wanting to waste more time she stepped back to the main menu.

Activating [Armor], Carly quickly scanned this list, seeing an item that interested her very much. She selected said item, accessing additional information on another popup screen.

Aves Mitten Plate Gauntlets (Quality 85%)

These mitten gauntlets, are made from Aves Alloy. Using secret techniques these gauntlets are made especially for young Aves warriors who are not yet strong enough to wear heavier armors. The damage and armor is equivalent to Copper while the weight and durability are less. They minimally require padded gloves or will rub raw, any unprotected skin.

[Purchase: 300 (Minutes)] Stats: Damage: 10-14 + (Strength *0.05) Armor: 170 Durability: 150/150 Weight (g): 320 Requirements: Strength: 70 Rune Points: Rune: Perfect Fit Rune: [Upgrade] >>Mana Activation Cost: 200 >>Mana Activation Cost: 0

These gauntlets looked like a boxing glove made of metal bands. Because of that, they appeared a rather nice option for a martial fighter such as herself. The weight is what really attracted Carly to them, being much lighter than similar plate gauntlets made from other metals or alloys.

She scrolled down and checked on footwear, there were the same tiers for the same materials, though the weight was slightly more. Carly wondered about her own footwear, so moved the screen out of the way. Going by Mal-Chin's information, she looked down at her own boots and tried to gain a similar analysis. After several seconds of willing to boots to give an item description, it actually worked. "Woot," Carly gave a cry out of satisfaction as she took a closer look.

Strapped Leather Combat Boots (Unassociated)

These leather boots are not associated with the Loop Challenge Schema. As such, despite their obvious quality, the boots statistic potential is greatly reduced. Stats: Damage: 1 Armor: 20 Durability: 43/50 Weight (g): 320

'That is disappointing, a damage value of 1, what kind of bullshit is that, get kicked by me with these boots on and it is going to hurt like shit. Apparently not for this fucking challenge though.' Sighing in frustration, Carly continued checking the [Armor] list once again, she found the glove equivalent for footwear, admiring the difference between her own footwear and the Low Heeled Plate Boots, also costing 300 minutes.

Carly contemplated 1,440 minutes which was the currency used for these upgrades. By spending those minutes on items or skills this time would reduce the gap between her and the elimination boundary. Purchasing these items would most likely, significantly exceed her current potential. It was risk verse reward. Carly considered these two items, while the extra weight was not excessive being less than the lower tier materials for the same items. The damage, armor and especially the durability were quite good and seemed to scale well with the higher quality metals available.

Adding both items to the checkout, she went there to take a look. On the [Checkout] screen there was an option to [Remove] each item. 'That is good to know,' Carly considered for a moment, she then cleared the [Checkout] not wanting to purchase something at the moment accidentally. What she needed was more information to make better-informed choices.

Moving on, Carly looked in [Combat Skill], it was split into several categories, [Defense], [Crush], [Chop], [Slash], [Pierce], [Unarmed], [Ranged], and [Other].

Combat skills were single action only. There were many choices, [Defense] broke down into [Block], [Dodge], [Deflect], [Evade], and [Parry]. Carly wondered if the forte thing worked for combat the same as [Cooking Forte] worked.

Scrolling down, Carly also took a look at [Unarmed] skills. It gave her a substantial array of attacks from punches, kicks, and grapples that she was already familiar. After reading that opening message and seeing these types of skills, Carly decided not to purchase any. Instead, she would rely on her training and see how the Loop Challenge had changed first. If there were any significant differences, Carly felt confident she would notice and be able to react with an appropriate martial technique. After all, she had spent thousands of hours in Loop practice runs inside her TME over the years.

Carly checked the time 14min 21sec, plenty of time. Moving on she checked out [Combat Spell] choices. Again they were broken down into categories such as [Debuff], [Damage], [Damage Over Time], [Heal], [Heal Over Time], and [Other].

Taking a quick look at [Damage] and [Damage Over Time] there were hundreds of variations for each category. Nothing particularly new compared to other fantasy based RPG system. There were many similar spells with different damage types and minor variations. Carly was definitely going to pass on this area of combat, for now. Finally, she reached the last choice.

[Enhance Spells], these, unlike the combat spells were far more persistent, looking to strengthen a person via magical means. These spells either used a person's mana to create a temporary enhancement that would last two hours, to others that were permanent unless canceled.

There was one particular sub-category within these spells that did greatly interest Carly, these related to endurance. If other RPG style games had a stat like endurance, it usually referred to physical energy levels that allowed an avatar to perform various actions. She delved into a permanent spell that looked promising.

Enduring Regeneration:

A single target permanent enhancement flat bonus to endurance regeneration using the casters concentration pool.

[Purchase: 240 (Minutes)] Effect: 6 Endurance Regeneration per Minute

Total Upgrades: 0 / 25 / Upgrade Experience: 0 / 480

Upgrades: [Improve Effect] / [Improve Cast Range] / [Reduce Cast Time]

If the way this Loop worked was similar to some RPG, then actions taken would require energy. If magic was using, surprise surprise, mana. Then endurance was probably the energy to fuel physical actions. She checked the [Effect] upgrade.

Enduring Regeneration:

A single target permanent enhancement flat bonus to endurance regeneration using the casters concentration pool. Upgrades:

Current Effect: 6 Endurance Regeneration / Minute

[Improve Effect]: 1 DP = 1.2 Endurance Regeneration / Minute

Without any data to reference, Carly did not know if this was good or not. In the end, after a few moments of contemplation, she decided not to take it.

With a just under 5 minutes to go before the timer ran down, Carly made a decision, adding [Personal Status] to the [Checkout] and making the purchase. Instantly she heard a chime, receiving a message, and a gold chest appeared before her on the ground. Opening the chest, Carly received a message.

Purchase Successful:

You have successfully purchased [Personal Status] for the cost of 180 minutes.

Open the gold chest and grasp the crystal inside, then speak [Activate Personal Status]. There will be a two-second sensation of some pain while the status schema is added.

Once this is complete, you will be able to access information from your [Personal Status] at any time.

Carly followed the instruction; the acute pain was much more severe than the message led her to believe. Dropping the chest, she grabbed her head. The chest disappeared before it hit the ground and the pain followed a moment later. Carly called up her [Personal Status]. It appeared like all the other semi-transparent message and information screens.

Carly Berkstead Race: Human Variant: (-) UIN: MT17347 Dimensions: Height: 1682mm - (841 DP) Weight: 64150g - (1283 DP) Vitals Pools: Regeneration: Health: 1702 Health: 52 Endurance: 2400 Endurance: 140 Mana: 900 Mana: 55 Vital Stats: Health [100] Vitality [100] Endurance [100] Stamina [100] Mana [100] Potential [100] Physical Stats: Frame [100] Constitution [100] Strength [100] Speed [100] Agility [100] Dexterity [100] Reaction [100] Magic Stats: Attunement [100] Control [100] Focus [100] Wisdom [100] Utility Stats: Aptitude [100] Memory [100] xxxxx [x] xxxxx [x] Survival Stats: Thirst [100] Hunger [100] Fatigue [100] Resistances: Crush [10] Chop [10] Slash [8] Pierce [5] Personal Status Options: [General Settings] [System Notifications] [Vitals and Survival Bars] [Status Layout]

Running down the [Personal Status] screens information, Carly understood why her body did not feel quite right. Each of her stats for vital, physical, magic, survival and a couple in utility were all set to exactly 100 points. 'Ha, what the hell is this bullshit? Did that scum suckers standardise everyone's stats for an even start to this event? If that is the case, then how come I am still my normal height and weight. If all the stats are the same, but those two are varied. Then, have I been ripped off here? Won't someone bigger and heavier than me, have a slight advantage?'

"I am so pissed off with the unfairness of this start, give everyone my height and weight to make this fair for me you bastard. Why is that bastard always getting in my way."

Walking over to the corner with her backpack, she gave the wall a sidekick and the other one a palm strike before pulling all the food packages out the bag minus the bottom three layers. These were in the longer preserve food packs that she didn't want to mix up with the regular preserve food packs.

While doing this Carly again calmed down. Her [Personal Status] was still up and visible, so she began looking in the customise options at the bottom of the screen.

She activated [General Settings] and took a look at the options available. The options mostly affected the basic layout of the screen. The layout seemed good enough already except for the stupid numbers to the side of each stat saying [100]. She took a deep breath, 'so up and down with my emotions so far today, not good, relax.'

With another deep breath, Carly moved on to [Vital and Survival Bars]. Once these were called up, she immediately understood they were both visual and mental in origin. This meant she didn't have to look at them to know the information they visually provided. It knowledge would always be there for her.

At least something was working how it should. She had been wondering the whole time why there was such limited mental navigation in the [Extant Upgrade Store].

Pretty much every message, or options screen in her TME or any of the MDP facilities were accessed with mental manipulation.

She moved the bars behind her head, to forever be out of the way.

With a look at the time again it was now below two minutes. Carly selected one of the food packages and one of her bottles of water and placed them just to the left of the red screen.

She took the time to do some general movements, aiming to loosen up her joints and prepare, productively using the little time she had left while she waited for the timer.

The twenty minutes passed, Carly watched as the final few seconds counted down, 03... 02... 01...