Core 1.2

For now they were intent on the contest. Their contests were thorough affairs that were always carried out with some fanfare. However, when ones of higher skill, such as Yana, were matching their leanings the atmosphere was absolutely festive.

Both the champions would arrive at the designated arena with a contingent of supporters, who would boisterously cheer their competitor. Winning the contest meant moving up the matrix which brought glory to the champion and honor to the academy. The after contest jeering so severely savaged the loser that it made him wonder what viciousness lurked under all the strict proprietary.

All of them not permitted on the field were crowded against the railing with their faced pressed eagerly into the mesh as if driven by some unstoppable need to be as close to the action as possible. As a result he was to only one on the vast stands of the huge indoor stadium and placed himself on a row high enough to get an unrestricted view without having to strain his eyes.

When Abema finally arrived, everyone was forced to reconsider the assumption of Yana’s certain victory. Abema was several inches taller than Yana and seemed even more custom-built for running.

The first thing he noticed was the palatable surge of anticipation for the impending animalistic justice that had overtaken the crowd. ‘Survival of the fittest’ was their way of life, even though it was never mentioned or discussed and even though they didn’t go quite so far as to literally kill the losers of these contests, losers were considered worthless and it almost seemed more cruel to let them live.

For them, advancing on the matrix was the only way to move ahead in life and was always their central priority. They spent most of their time honing their leaning for these contests. Defeated contestants never got a chance to match their leaning in the matrix again unless they could somehow prove that they were beaten due to reasons other than having the weaker leaning, which seldom happened.

Unable to move up on the matrix the losers were quickly sidelined for life and relegated to assignments no one still mobile in the matrix wanted to do. This meant that whatever station they had achieved up to the point of their defeat was the highest they would ever be and therefore they could only look forward to a life which steadily wound down. What made it harsher was the fact that the contests usually happened at a relatively young ages and they had very long life spans.

He wondered how they did it. Accept their place in the matrix as final, how they could give up their dreams and settle into whatever mundane role was tossed their way. Not that they did it gracefully, all of them got distraught and some losers would go into severe depression and had to be put into rehab for almost half a year, what was alien was the fact they could eventually collect themselves and pretend that nothing happened, and keep up the pretense for the rest of their lives.