SNAP CRAFT | Ch. 25 - Narrow Mindedness (Patreon)

Spring of 346, A.D.

“Isn’t she awesome?”

They were walking back to the city, and Alex looked like a sugar addict who just had his fix. He was on a love high.

“She’s very pretty,” Kai managed to spit out. He couldn’t argue with Alex there. The girl was gorgeous. “I still can’t believe you learned sign language for this!”

“It’s a good skill to have in the exams too!” Defended Alex.

“Right. You did it all for the exams,” Kai mocked.

“And can you believe the stuff that they do in their sector? No wonder they get much better results than we do.”

“I don’t know. To ignore past exams altogether like that…”

“It makes perfect sense! Think about it, Kai! In our sector, we’re all flies caught in Daisy’s web, dancing to its music. We keep studying the web's geometry, counting the strands, measuring the angles, but there is a whole world beyond the web!”

“But Daisy was made to refine us. If we learn from…”

“Oh, please. Save me the bonfire speech, Kai. Admit it. We’re too stuck in the past. We should do like Cassie’s people and focus on the future.”

“You don’t know if their way is better. Maybe the only reason why they’re doing well is because they didn’t have back-to-back outbreaks! Have you asked Cassie about the Blight? When was their last outbreak?”

“Well, we haven’t…”

“There. Don’t jump to the conclusion that their sector is better than ours.”

Kai knew that mentioning the Blight would shut Alex up. It was a punch under the belt, but he was too cranky to care. Alex had made him march the whole night only to show him he wasn't in an existential crisis. His friend’s problem was that he was in love.

*

353rd Daisy Exams, Round of 64.

He studied the lit-up gloves in his hands and then reached out for the wall. Instead of his hands going through it, he could feel their cold, sandy, solid texture.

“Oh, my word. So that’s how it works.”

He had just found out how to interact with the arena. It had been dependent on this kind of upgrade! He gulped. This dramatically changed things. He looked for the nearest piece of debris. It was a piece of brick on the ground. He grabbed it and managed to pick it up. He had picked it up! He could now touch things in the arena! He could move them around to a certain extent!

The amount of possibilities this unlocked for him was no joke. How often had he wished he could move or pick something up only to see his hands go through it? He tried removing the gloves and was relieved they weren’t stuck to his hands. He folded them neatly, as if they were a precious heirloom, and put them away in the inventory.

He had no idea how much this upgrade cost, but it couldn’t be worth any less than 200. He had just won the jackpot! Even though his first impulse was to start grabbing everything he could find and move it around to run all sorts of experiments, he held it in and kept exploring. He would first go around the arena to get a general sense of what Daisy had hidden here. It was time to see what was beyond the next wall.

Kai was able to phase through this time. Good thing he could take the gloves out as he wished. This way, he could remove them when he wanted to travel quickly. It would be difficult to get used to solid walls once he returned to the real world.

Now that the gaslamp was on the same side of the wall as his eyes, he could better understand what was in this new section of the factory. He shone the lamp on the bulky remains of machines. There were also broken conveyor belts and broken machine parts lying about. This looked like an old assembly line.

Maybe Daisy had just replicated an abandoned factory from somewhere in the world, most likely a factory from a deserted sector. After the Turnover, so much of the industry had been halted, and abandoned factories like these were easy to find. Was there some sort of prize if he discovered what this factory used to produce?

After going through this huge space, he didn’t find one piece of machinery worth capturing. All he found were rusty bolts and screws. There were so many of them everywhere that he was sure they would convert to common cards. It was unfortunate. If there had been one better-looking piece of machinery, Kai wouldn’t have hesitated to capture it. As far as his current cards went, he was still stuck at flint knapping. Having a way into the Industrial Revolution would have been nice.

Kai kept following the curvature of the arena. Across the next wall was what looked like office spaces. At least, that’s what the layout of the space suggested. There were still some plastic barriers standing. Those would have served as separators in cubicles. There were some empty computer shells but no electronics within. That made Kai more convinced this was a replica of a real space somewhere. After the Turnover, Daisy bugs had been thorough in wiping all unlicensed electronics.

He kept traveling along the edge of the barrier and finally found what he had hoped for. The curvature of the invisible dome came slightly outside of the rectangular shape of the building. Vindicated by his discovery, Kai confidently stepped through the wall. He was outside.

Outside the factory was a massive cemented pavement filled with rusty machinery. Blades of grass grew off the cracks, and plants grew into and out of what was left of the machines. The metal was even more corroded than inside the factory. Metal was at the mercy of the full force of the elements out here.

Today, the sky would be clear in this arena. Not that he would stay here to enjoy it. In the time that had taken him to explore most of the map’s edge, morning had sneaked up on him. The first hints of the coming sunrise peeked through the machine graveyard.

Far into the distance, through vegetation and broken metal, he spotted machines as big as hills. They were cylindrical empty metal shells with something greenish-brown within. Finally, he could make sense of what this factory used to make. If he wasn’t mistaken, they made electrical motors.

For a factory to make massive behemoths like that was incredible. He could see at least one of the engines open. Its massive shaft had come out, and he could see some copper coils left inside. Kai tried to frame it, but it was way too far, and there was too much garbage in the way for Kai to get a good picture. He tapped his foot impatiently. Although he couldn’t get a good shot, at least he had just discovered what the factory used to make.

He turned his attention to what was closer to him. There was the cracked pavement below, blades of grass, and a few meters away was what was left of a forklift overtaken by vines and bushes. He couldn’t see anything worth capturing individually. He turned his back toward the wall, ready to return to the building again. It was then that he saw a spider web.

Its invisible thin threads were only revealed because of the dew drops and the red and black spider laying majestically on them. As Kai spotted it, he couldn’t help but think of Alex and their argument on the way back from the wall. He pushed the memory aside and pointed the camera at the spider.

Capture successful!

Spider (Uncommon)

Tries left: 18 of 20

1 of 3

An arachnid characterized by its eight legs and ability to spin silk threads for building webs and capturing prey.

Hp: 1

Vp: 3

Spider (Uncommon)

Tries left: 17 of 20

2 of 3

Hp: 1

Vp: 3

It had a stat line distribution similar to [Wolf], albeit weaker. That reinforced his theory that Daisy was making a distinction between carnivores and herbivores in the game. He would discover later whether he could craft an anthropomorphized card version of [Spider].

He put on his gloves as he regarded the spider stoically sitting on its web. As the green circles of light activated, he gently reached for the spider. It climbed over his gloves on his own volition. He placed it on the ground carefully and picked up his camera again.

The web was the only intact wonder of engineering that he’d found in the factory so far, and he wouldn’t let it go to waste. Who had told him that if a spider web were the size of a normal rope, it would be able to catch an airplane in mid-flight? Or that if we could make clothes solely out of spider silk, they would be bullet-proof? Was it Sunny? Or was it Clara? Whatever the case, he wouldn’t waste an opportunity to capture the beautiful geometrical construct. This time, he wanted to get just the web, not its spinstress.

Spider Web (Rare)

Delicate, intricate structure woven by spiders using silk threads to serve as a trap for catching prey or as a shelter.

Tries left: 16 of 20

1 of 2

Hp: 3

Vp: 4

Spider Web (Rare)

Delicate, intricate structure woven by spiders using silk threads to serve as a trap for catching prey or as a shelter.

Tries left: 15 of 20

2 of 2

Hp: 3

Vp: 4

The card had excellent stats! He couldn’t wait to experiment with crafting with it. Just with [Spider] and [Spider Web], Kai got 14 victory points. “Not bad. Not bad at all.” Finding such a nice surprise on the factory's outer wall, Kai tried looking for anything else he might have missed.

Sure enough, he did. It wasn’t anything worth capturing, but it was a great discovery. At the very edge of the invisible dome, a series of metal bars on the wall formed a ladder. He pulled one of the gloves out with his teeth, and the green circles of light died off. He tried touching the ladder with his bare hand. His hand just went through it.

He put on the glove again, reached for the bar, and got a good grip. This upgrade was proving to be exceedingly powerful. Not only had it enabled him to get a good photo of [Spider Web], but it was also helping him to reach a different part of the map that was out of reach to other trial runners.

Kai climbed the ladder steadily. The fact that it was impossible to get hurt in this arena took the edge off his vertigo, and before long, he was on the plain roof. There were the remnants of AC units and chimneys. Like in the machine graveyard below, the disrepair of the machinery was more aggravated due to the exposure to the elements. Looking at the floor, he found what had before been holes in the ceiling. Now, they were pits he could fall through.

Kai looked at the score. His opponent had 66 victory points. They had probably reached the middle of the arena already. That would account for the sudden increase in points. Kai wasn't far behind at 63.

He doubted that his opponent would have the means to come up to the rooftop. Therefore, he shouldn’t stay. It would be unwise not to look for rare cards and valuable opportunities on the factory floor. If he prioritized exploring the rooftop right now, he risked having nothing left for him once he got back down. No, he would return and find good cards before his opponent could get to them. Once he had milked the factory floor dry, he would return here.

So far, the best thing that Kai had done was securing [Spider] and [Spider Web]. Even though his opponent would likely find the spider web, they could only get one [Spider]. He had scooped up all the other copies of the cards. Those were points that were beyond his opponent’s reach for now.

Kai approached the roof's edge, ready to descend the ladder again. Before he went down, he took in the scene before him. The coming of the morning was picking up speed. The first rays of light painted the night in shades of dark violet and pink, casting further light on the sad scene in front of Kai.

From up here, the sight of the massive engines was even more impressive. If this was a replica of a real abandoned factory somewhere, it was a testimony to how far humanity had fallen. How could a society be intelligent enough to make these incredible machines and dumb enough to destroy the planet simultaneously?

He imagined thousands of workers moving to and fro, rushing to make more and produce more so that others could consume more, in a never-ending destructive cycle. Why was this scene triggering this overwhelming sadness within him? Was it the possibility that if he didn’t do well, all that would be left of his sector would be similar scenes to this?

The wave of emotion made Kai think back to the moment he had captured [Light] in the first arena. He had felt this nostalgia then. Kai’s gut told him that he shouldn’t ignore the feeling. He grabbed his camera. He tried getting the cracks in the pavement, the broken machinery, and the massive engines in the background.

Capture successful!

Neglect (Legendary)

After neglecting the world, humanity itself ended up neglected.

Tries left: 14 of 20

1 of 1

Hp: 0

Vp: 10

Ten points! Not bad! This was the second legendary card he got from the factory! Taking his time instead of rushing to the center of the arena was proving a good strategy! He looked at the card and its description. [Neglect] was the most abstract card that he had captured yet. So far, he had focused on capturing tangible things, objects. But this card told him that there were other things that he could capture into a card. All he had to do was find the right scene.

He held the card in his reality gloves against the sun. Kai couldn’t stop smiling. It wasn’t because he had just discovered a new legendary card. The reason for the involuntary smile was the irony. Such a sad scene could result in something so nice. Hopefully, this was a good omen for Ariel and him. Maybe they could still make something out of the abandoned sights of their sector.

Kai looked at the ladder again and then at one of the pits. He shrugged and jumped through one of the holes in the rooftop. He landed on the factory floor without any sort of damage or pain. All seconds counted, and he set out with a spring on his step. He was back in the offices and ready to continue exploring.

Ch. 24 - Sign Language

INDEX

Ch. 26 - Root Cause Analysis