One mutant somehow caught a certain disease. But not a disease for humans. If only that was the case! No, this disease mostly spread amongst animals. And the symptoms where at first extreme agression resulting in mass death of animal life, but another symptom was extreme ageing. Animals started aging far faster, meaning they developed faster and thus had to breed faster. The significant decrease in generation time and increase in a need for physical fitness (possibly suplied by a general increase in strength because of the disease even if this is only speculation) lead to a period of extreme evolution. Humans decided to not interfere too much as the elites felt save and did not want to accidently cause even more extinction and the common people just stayed away from the now hyper agressive animals. This went on for about 200 years in which humans became more and more aware of the trouble that these animals could bring if they kept growing in strength. But only once some animals started showing signs of reaching the levels that could threaten the "high elites" did scientists create a cure for the symptom of quick development. This cure was spread across as much of the world as possible but it was already too late.
70% of the mainland is now occupied by nature. And unfortunately the remaining 30% contains not nearly enough resources for the human race to exist on so humans have to forage in nature's territory to supply food for their families. And since food is extremely expensive as a result, being a nature survivalist is a very rewarding job for common people.
Of course, elites are still the elite. Not much is known about them.
The only thing that matters to Cor and everyone on the NSC, is getting into the upper rank NSC and then getting selected to become an elite. Because being a nature survivalist, even if rewarding, is extremely deadly for common people.
"Are you feeling better?"
Cor stirs from his daydreaming. His bruises are all patched up and he feels pretty good!
"Yes, thank you so much!"
"No problem, but you should watch your attitude next time. You visit me too often these days!" Nurse Lea says with a slight pout on her young face, her beautifull but slightly short hair swaying as she turns to look at Cor. Her light blue eyes shine with a bit of playfullness as she says "You're not getting beat up on purpose to see me more are you?"
"Maybe I am, who knows" Cor says back, a smirk on his face. Lea gives him a punch in the stomach before 'angrily' walking away and saying "Well I hope you'll stop it because I dont really want to see your ugly face again!" And afterwards whispering, just soft enough that Cor could not hear the words "Especially not when you're hurt, idiot."
"See you next time!" Cor yells at her before jumping up and walking to his room.
'It is already late. It is time to sleep because tomorow is time for another round of combat training.' Cor thinks to himself before jumping out of his clothes and into bed. There is a lot of combat training for everyone these coming months as there will be an inter-college tournament with scouts present in 7 months time.
For Cor however, it's only slightly more combat training than normal. After all, his passion lies more in fighting than in foraging techniques. With his massive size, sneaking around finding berries is a no go anyway.
Sometimes it's unclear if it's a blessing or a curse to be this big.
The average height is 5"9 in these times. Cor, however, boasts a height of a whopping 6"9. And to make it even more impressive, he has clearly toned and bigger than average muscles, even if they are not necessarily large. This is already highly impressive, because it requires food to become big and food is in short supply. To get to this size he actually had to commit some petty crimes here and there in his early youth...
However, being big does not mean being able to fight in NSC. That's why Cor sometimes misses middle and high school. It was way simpler back then.