There were 100 runners surviving in Sky Dome Stadium after the trial race that ended yesterday.
And one after the other, the runners started gathering in the tracks.
Once more runners started appearing with their supervisors, Alex and Amelia finally decided to be more low-key as they stopped their training.
The other runners took from where they stopped, commencing light training.
Alex stared curiously at them. Theoretically, every runner here was his rival, some of the best runners from different races across the cosmos.
He stared curiously at the 8-legged runners, wondering how these monsters were intelligent lifeforms. 'Life truly is a work of art'. He thought.
While he observed curiously, Alex paused when he suddenly felt a hand tap him from behind. Turning around, he was stunned, it was one of the humans.
This guy's suit was yellow in color.
He barely had the thought when the helmet of the game suit retracted, exposing her face.
Alex blushed; it was female.
"Hey man!" She called loudly in a boisterous manner as she looked at his game suit, at the name written at the chest. "Runner 87 right?" She grinned. "I watched your race yesterday, yours was the last and I must confess, your instincts are sharp".
"Even I took longer before I understood the workings of the track".
"Men that are so intuitive like that," she grinned again. "I love them, they're just my type!" She was really loud.
'Huh?' Alex just stared at this human lady, stunned.
About a minute of silence later after she was done speaking, he finally opened his mouth and responded. "Umm, nice to meet you too".
"Don't mention". She laughed and waved her hand dismissively as she observed the other runners in this place.
"It's only natural that as runners from the same race, we drift towards one another so we can help and look after each other's backs".
"That way, we can build chemistry and maybe something even more".
"Yeah, I agree". Alex nodded but thinking deeper into what she said, he felt weird. He conveniently decided to ignore it though. "The name is Alex".
"Clara". She responded casually as she looked into the sea of runners around them.
Following her gaze, Alex spotted another of the 4 humans among the 100.
"Let's go meet him". She suggested.
Alex did not have a strong reason to reject her so simply nodding, he followed. "Wangwan brother". She greeted with a carefree grin on her face.
"What's popping?"
"Hyped for our first training session?"
The human finally turned to look at them. Seeing that they were humans, the gloomy frown on his face disappeared immediately as he smiled. "Hey".
"What's your name? I'm Sheila".
The third human scratched his head. "The name is Theo".
Due to their buff metal alloy game suits, Alex could not see more about the features of his fellow humans, he only saw their faces.
Just like them, Amelia already told him how to retract his suit's helmet to be able to communicate better with people.
At some point, Amelia and the other supervisors already excused themselves as they gave the runners the opportunity to know their rivals.
This opportunity didn't last too long though. Just a few minutes later, an entourage of Arcadians suddenly stormed through one of the tunnels into the track.
"That's the head coach".
A few whispers among the runners already exposed the identity of the tall Arcadian at the front of the group. He was a stern-faced Arcadian.
"My name is Coach Tarkur". The man did not beat around the bush as he started talking immediately after standing before the runners.
"During the course of the 3 months when majority of you will be eliminated, I shall be your coach in charge of everything".
"Today shall be your first training session in preparation for the first round of elimination races"
"First, I want to explain certain basics of the game to you".
"Every one of you, open your suit interface and click on the link to open the guide to the hyper realistic game, Runners; Survival and Glory".
Like the other runners, Alex did as was told and once he clicked on the link, a long page opened up before him with certain words highlighted.
***
{Guide to Runners; Survival and Glory!}
…
{Tracks:}
{Universal track- pale white}
{Colored tracks}
…
{Obstacles:}
{Pole obstacles}
{Glass barriers}
{Electro barriers}
{Barriers}
{Electro bombs}
…
{Boosts:}
{Bounce boosts}
{Jump boosts}
{Speed boosts}
{Speed surfaces}
{Kick boosts}
{Shield boosts}
{Electric boosts}
…
{Envoy of Death:}
{Annihilation flame}
***
Immediately after the runners opened the link, without hesitation, Coach Tarkur started his first official speech to address the runners.
"This guide is basically Runners; Survival and Glory in a nutshell".
"This is the limit of what you should expect in any given stadium, no matter how complicated and big the stadium is".
"Knowledge of these basics is key to survival in this hyper realistic game".
"I will explain the contents of the guide to you one after the other using illustrations". He swiped his hand at the air, causing a virtual projection to appear. "Pay attention to the slide".
"Like you all already know from your trial race, there is a universal pale white track that leads through the ground in every stadium connected to the game".
"As for the colored tracks, they have only one straightforward effect in a game, to either slow you down or speed you up".
"Running in a colored track of the same color as you, your speed increases".
"But running in an opposite color track slows you down".
He swiped at the virtual projection, making its contents to change. "Let's move over to the obstacles, one of the core must-knows of the game".
"There are 5 different types of obstacles".
"The pole obstacles are the weakest. They're thin poles that rise into the sky from different points in a stadium track. They're easy to overpower though, all you need is to cleverly make use of the kick boosts available in the track".
"The glass barriers are next in power after the poles. They can also be overpowered by clever usage of the kick boosts available in a track".
"Electro barriers are another form of barriers that you've not encountered yet. An electro barrier can neither be defended nor overpowered, it can only be avoided".
"Electro barriers are barriers of electricity. They're powered by the core of the stadium, but even the core of the stadium does not have infinite energy".
"The electro barriers come on and off at intervals".
"Timing your run, escape when the electro barriers go off".
"As for the main barriers itself, they are thick walls of gray stone. They are placed only at important checkpoints in a race and to trigger them, one runner needs to cross it first".
"A barrier cannot be defended nor overpowered, like electro barriers, it can only be evaded".
"You either run fast enough, staying close enough to the first-placed runner to run ahead before the barrier comes down and blocks your path or you take another track different from the one housing the barrier".
"And lastly, among the obstacles, there are electro bombs".
"Sky Dome Stadium has no electro bombs".
"Electro bombs are balls of concentrated electric energy that rises from the core of the stadium through the tracks".
"Any runner who makes contact with them is electrocuted".
"The only way to escape its clutches is to evade before contact. Once contact is made, you will surely be electrocuted".
Coach Tarkur took a deep breath at this moment. "Now is time for the boosts, the important game-changer in Runners; Survival and Glory".
"Pay attention".