[Twelve hours have passed!]
[A Zone has been introduced. Any competitor remaining inside the highlighted area will lose 10 points per second. To avoid the penalty, ensure you are not within it.]
[The Zone will begin shrinking in 5 minutes.]
A new overlay appeared on his holographic map. A red-tinted region marked the outer edges of the play area, indicating where the Zone would soon become hostile. The borders of the safe area shrank inward as he watched, the projected contraction visible as concentric rings closing toward the map's center.
Moon glanced at the warning, unsurprised.
He had expected something like this. Without a forced contraction, the tournament could drag on indefinitely. People would hide. Fights would slow. The bracket would never narrow. The Zone mechanic forced action. It pulled cowards out of cover and pressed competitors into closer proximity, accelerating eliminations and creating chokepoints where fights would inevitably break out.
