In her universe, there was once a time when things like powers were fiction and monsters were made for movies. Oh wait, they still are? When powers emerged, it was during a time of crisis. The economy was failing, nations were threatening war with one another, and riots brewed across the countries with enough rights to do so. The only constant was the art that emerged from that era, telling of people's downtrodden times, the mass starvation, and the money pointlessly lining the pockets of the rich. Sure, the affluent remained patrons of the arts, but how exactly were they helping the community? Though some donated to charity others saw an opportunity to satiate the masses in a different way: entertainment.

It was a concept as old as the Romans only rather than calling it "bread and circuses" they settled for "The Greatest Battle of the Universe." The format of the competition (broadcasted naturally) was to take the best athletes, fighters, geniuses, etc. from every country and have them compete in a year-round competition (each called a season) where the best of the best would rise to the top and be declared "Master of the Universe" in each of their respective categories. It was to be their equivalent of the "Olympics" (with instigating war earning an automatic ban if not being automatically seized). Instead actual fighting, their warriors would battle in proxy for what amounted to fame. At first, leaders were apprehensive to the approach since they knew that neutrality was a hard thing to accomplish (being that match-fixing still happened in sports) so they formed a committee of globally successful (but not brand affiliated) business owners to handle the infrastructure and judging for themselves on the condition that they only sponsor the competition rather than the players.

The competition turned out to be a big hit, inspiring the oppressed to work harder, the rich to enter Uni-approved betting, and created jobs for the masses overall. Every billboard, every bar, every television blasted the show like one would blast a wedding between royals. You could have smarts, strength, speed, or plain luck to enter the battle so long as you were sponsored and won the competitions. Even if you couldn't, Uni always needed casters, janitors, or support. Even if you didn't win you were famous, at least for a little while. Uni was supposed to be the boon in a world otherwise filled with strife, except that the government got involved.

Though Uni was located on neutral ground, the five most profitable countries (Nanjgha, Entripo, Kreigst, Chyia, and Lamian) fought for control of the competition to ensure that they would secure spots, plural, for every year's finals. The truth was that although every country was allotted two spots on the show, no country was guaranteed to leave the group stage, much less make it to the final competition. With the increase in poorer countries such as Bajam and Indrat winning battles (even if they didn't always win the finals), they wanted security. When Uni refused, the five countries turned to more underhanded methods of developing athletes.

The first was Entripo with cybernetic augmentation.

The second was Chyia with supersoldiers, bred from birth with the best genes known to humankind.

Unfortunately for poorer countries it meant that the show descended into a battle of the government-sponsored athletes, but the straw that broke the camel's back was Nanjgha's descent into power augmentation.

Nanjgha and Chyia were close allies who shared information about their progress, but Nanjgha hadn't revealed their ace until the quarterfinals of sixtieth GBU. Nanjgha, the nation of freedom, gave both of their athletes the ability to fly and won handily. Chyia declared war on Nanjgha, but was no match for their new batch of soldiers. Indeed, they had shorter lives, but they were enough to force Chyia into an armistice and accept not only Nanjgha's betrayal but their own failure.

Within three decades of that event, governments began seizing their own corporations, only allowing them to exist as a facade to hide their true intentions. One could even tell which nation the athlete came from by the origin of their company. Occasionally some wildcard teams would squeeze through, but it was rare if ever. They still seemed years behind.