Mandatory transit ID verification.
Initial station screening.
Medical baseline.
Athletic apparel requirements.
Then the archived event footage links.
I tap the first one open because information is leverage, and leverage is the only thing standing between me and panic.
The screen fills with screaming lights.
A commentator’s voice booms over pounding music. “—absolute carnage in the third obstacle phase?—”
My tea goes cold in my hand.
Contestants sprint across suspended platforms while a mechanical terrain system reconfigures beneath them. One misses a jump and slams into a net barrier hard enough to make me flinch. Another gets hit with a burst of water pressure and pinwheels sideways, swearing in three languages before disappearing into foam. The crowd roars. Drones swoop overhead, catching every stagger, curse, and near fall.
“Good God,” I whisper.
I open another clip.
A desert track. Heat shimmer. Cargo sleds. Contestants hauling impossible loads through red dust while medics stand by at checkpoints with those calm, watchful faces that say people absolutely bleed doing this.
Another event. Ice field. Climbing walls. A siren blares as one section collapses into a lower safety grid. The commentators sound delighted.
I keep watching because I have to.
My skin prickles. My mouth tastes metallic. Every instinct I possess starts screaming that this is not a game, not really, not under the pyrotechnics and glossy editing and host smiles. Thisis pain packaged as aspiration. Survival cut into episodes and sold with sponsor tags.
And I signed Jesse into the orbit of it.
I set the comm down and press both palms to my eyes.
Prize money.
Housing.
Promotion review.
A way out.
I pull my hands away and stare at the dark window above the sink. My reflection looks like someone I used to know. Tired. Pinned together by grit and caffeine and obligation.
“I can do hard things,” I say to the empty room.
The room says nothing, which is rude but expected.
I open another file, slower this time. Not spectacle clips. Rules. Scoring systems. Team penalties. Resource management components. Endurance thresholds. Navigation challenges. Public vote modifiers. Sponsor influence opportunities.
There.
That I can use.
Under all the noise and cameras and flashy cruelty, it’s still a structure. A machine. Machines can be studied.
I start taking notes.
