Amateurs | Overdeveloped

The crowd—the digital crowd, the screaming, paying, remote crowd—didn’t hear this. The microphones were tuned to filter out weakness.

Three years ago, they had been normal kids. Leo had liked drawing spaceships. Priya had played the viola. Then the Leagues had found them—the global hyper-sport that had replaced the Olympics, the World Cup, all of it. There were no natural athletes left. Nature was too slow. Instead, mega-corporations bought zygotes, or recruited toddlers, and poured billions into “developmental overdrive.” They didn’t train amateurs. They manufactured them. overdeveloped amateurs

“Begin,” whispered the AI referee.

Then, slowly, Leo did something that was not in his fight protocol. He reached out and took Priya’s hand. Her grip was strong enough to crush steel. But she held him gently. The crowd—the digital crowd, the screaming, paying, remote