- Oliver -

  Camille smiled before announg, "This sed stage will be iing. Instead of just oempt, you will have ten days and try once a day."

  The lights of the space base flickered momentarily as Camille began the presentation. A slight tremor ran through the entire plex as if the gigantic structure was being rearranged. Oliver felt the floor vibrate beh his feet and instinctively grabbed the table to keep his bahe astonishment wasn't his alone; Katherine and Isabe shared the same surprised look.

  "At this moment, the arenas you've used are being altered," Camille announced. "Eae is being expanded and remodeled so you have a pletely differeing, five times rger than what you've faced before."

  Oliver widened his eyes. ‘They're going to be enormous!’ he thought, trying to imagihe moal scale of the new arenas. His mind buzzed with possibilities, anticipating what was to e.

  "All arenas will replicate the same map," the General tinued. Holograms projected three-dimensional images that revealed what looked like a small neighborhood.

  A main road cut through the entire arena, eg different buildings to a trail that led to a dense forest. The trees were tall and imposing, their opies toug the arena's artificial sky.

  Around the area, small structures circled the sery: reinforced walls, energized barbed wire, and ramparts deliing the neighborhood. Warning signs glowed in neon, prog "Caution!" and "Danger Ahead!" in pulsatiers.

  Beyond the barriers stretched a vast terrain covered by dozens of trees and some houses. In the ter of the road stood a huge red barn.

  Finally, at the end of the road, a rge ial-style house rose, its white walls gleaming uhe lighting. Panoramidows fag the street limpses of the sophisticated interior.

  Scattered throughout the terrain, hundreds of robots waited silently. Each had a different-colored marking on its head. Its meical eyes glowed with tent energy, ready to be activated at any moment.

  Oliver felt a chill run down his spihe magnitude of the challenge was evident. The arenas weren't just battlefields but plete worlds desigo test the petitors' limits. He exged a gh Katherine and Isabe.

  "Your sed test focuses on an assault mission. Your task is to execute a rapid entry a from eerritory," Camille ented.

  "However," Camille tinued, "the strategy is up to you. You opt for a stealth approach, where you won't be detected by any of the robots ierritory."

  The s behind her dispyed a high-definition video: an officer moving agilely through the map, jumpiween obstacles, sliding through shadows, and avoiding robot patrols. With surgical precision, he reached the tallest house and then disappeared into the dense forest without leaving a trace.

  "Or you choose brute force," Camille said, a slight smile f on her lips.

  The image switched to another officer, this time advang with ons in hand, firing at every robot that crossed his path. Explosions lit up the se as he made his way to the main house before fleeing toward the forest, leaving a trail of destru.

  "You'll be able to choose between three possible entry points," the General pointed out, indig the holographic map floating beside her. "Each with its advantages and disadvantages."

  On the map, three bright arrows highlighted the infiltration locations, each distinct routes through eerritory.

  "However, there's only one way to plete the mission," Camille emphasized. "You must infiltrate the main house, obtain the orb located on the sed floor, and escape into the forest."

  New images appeared, showiails of the ial house, the glowing orb resting on a pedestal, and the escape route through the dense vegetation.

  "All arenas will be avaible at any time for you to uake the test," she tinued. "The maximum time is five minutes for you to be sidered as having pleted this challenge."

  A digital timer appeared at the top of the projected arena, its red numbers highlighting the pressure of time.

  "For those who finish under five minutes, good work," decred Camille, g her hands twice. "You're at the level of an officer and choose which officer school you wish to attend."

  She paused before the sed awaited information. "But if you wish to bee Rangers, your journey isn't over yet. Each time will be ranked, and out of the 60,000 recruits, only the top 6,000 will advao the final phase."

  Oliver felt the weight of the petition. He khat merely pleting the mission wasn't enough; he o be exceptional.

  "This is the moment to show what you're capable of," the General stated. "Pn your strategies, trust in your abilities, and above all, remember that every decision be the differeween advang or falling behind."

  The ss began dispying ses of the arenas being prepared, drones adjusting the final details, and robots positioning themselves at strategic points.

  "Good luck to all," Camille cluded before the transmission ended.

  | File received: Schematic of the Sed Challenge| File received: Rules of the Sed Challenge| File received: Information on the Sed Challeime until arena release: 03:00:00

  As soon as the transmission ehe atmosphere ihe base ged abruptly. The corridors filled with movement as thousands of recruits headed to the training floors, while others went directly to the fourth floor, eager for the challeo begin. The rhythmic sound of boots against the floor and the murmur of voices were full of anticipation to advao the stage.

  Oliver stood still for a moment, the activity around him. ‘There are 60,000 of us,’ he calcuted mentally. ‘If it takes five minutes ead everyone participates, each will only have one ce. Are they ting on dropouts?’

  "What do you think we should do?" Isabe asked, her eyes refleg a mix of ay aermination.

  "You also received the three files, right?" Katherierjected calmly. "I think it's better we read every detail before attempting anything."

  Oliver nodded; st time, the data they had on the gau was essential for him to succeed. He searched for the notification about the rules and clicked it, opening an enormous file with various details about what they could and couldn't do ihe arena.

  Lines of text and teical diagrams floated in the air. Generally, there was nothiraordinary, but one point was reiterated with emphasis: under no circumstances could they harm other petitors. Even though it was an individual petition, it wasn't permitted to leave traps, explosives, or any other type of equipment or ability that could affect the partit entering the arena.

  Oliver let out a sigh of relief. ‘At least I won't have to worry about sabotage,’ he thought. ‘I imagine someoering each arena just to leave traps.’

  With the rules clear in his mind, he moved on to the detailed schematics of the map. A three-dimensional hologram of the arena emerged, revealing every building, path, and obstacle. "It's huge," he pondered. "We have several options we use." He analyzed the positions where the robots would appear, which houses had accessible entrances, and which routes could offer the best ce of success.

  The st file expined how the oppos operated. They would enter three types of robots scattered throughout the arena, identified by yellow, red, and bck markings.

  Robots with yellow markings were patrol units. They walked around the entire arena, always alert. Individually, they weren't strong; if they were taken down silently, the others wouldn't notice. However, they were stantly atteo any nearby sound or movement.

  Robots with red markings were bat sentinels. They remained in fixed positiohe main house and could be summoned by the yellow robots. Their alert level was low, possibly ign movements and sounds uhere was a clear alert.

  The bck robots existed only ihe rge house. They were the most lethal, stantly moviweewo floors but fio that restricted area.

  "Tricky," Oliver murmured, frowning as he tried to devise an initial pn. The arena's plexity would require a well-thought-out strategy.

  After a few hours immersed iails, he reached a preliminary clusion. ‘I'll try to secure the five minutes without extravagant strategies. After that, I try to improve the time.’

  He looked up and noticed that Katherine was still deeply engrossed iudies. Isabe, oher hand, had her hands in her hair, dispying an expression of fusion and frustration.

  "How the heck am I supposed to infiltrate that?!" Isabe excimed aloud.

  "You watch other matches first before deg how you'll approach it," Katherine suggested, trying to calm her. "In the ing days, there will be stant battles to achieve the best times."

  "Shall we go to one of the queues?" Oliver proposed. "We wait there and maybe wate attempts before our turn."

  Katherine agreed with a nod. Isabe sighed but got up from the café table. The trio headed to the fourth floor. The corridors were bustling, and each arerance dispyed long lines of recruits. Apparently, most had decided to try their lu the first day.

  As they asded, they could hear ss of anxious versations:

  "I heard the mairance is the farthest but less guarded."

  "There's a girl in Wing D saying she has a strategy to plete it in uhree minutes!"

  "The bck robots are relentless, but you get out easily if you avoid them."

  After a few more minutes in the queue for Arena 31, the long-awaited notification finally arrived.

  | Sed exam started

  GCLopes