《Snap Craft [Card Collecting, Photography, Dystopian LitRPG] - STUBBED》 Prologue System initializing... Calibration complete. Welcome to the 353rd Daisy Exams. Welcome, humans. You stand here as a token from your sectors. As vowed, I¡¯ll test you and determine whether your seed should last or fade. Even though Kai tried hard to spot any machine-like quality in Daisy¡¯s voice, it was indistinguishable from a real human¡¯s. She sounded almost motherly. There was emotion in her voice. Her words dripped with dignity and purpose, something he¡¯d only heard in passionate speeches. He tried thinking of Daisy as just an artificial intelligence, but it was difficult not to think of her as a person when she spoke. He turned his hands over and moved them. Remarkable. The accounts were true. Being here was identical to being outside. Even the scar on his right hand was here. Although he had heard the stories around the bonfire many times, related by many different people, nothing surpassed experiencing it in person. Kai took a deep breath and waited. The overwhelming cough never came. He closed his eyes, trying to feel any pain in his body. There was no sore throat or weakness. He sighed in relief. Having to deal with the symptoms of the blight would have severely impacted his performance in the exam. This meant that he and Ariel still had a chance. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. From focusing on his body, he turned his attention to his surroundings. There was no one in sight. As soon as he was plugged in, he found himself inside an empty white cubical room with no doors or windows. It was austere, and it made him think of a hospice. If Daisy¡¯s purpose was to help him relax, she was failing at it miserably. He felt like he was about to go into surgery. So far, he found no clues as to what he was required to do. He could imagine many others like him trying to make sense of their surroundings elsewhere. After all, over half of the sectors were left. The other challengers had to be in separate spaces. As Kai looked around, he tried not to show impatience or restlessness. Daisy was watching. She was always watching. The beginning of the 23rd exam was similar to this. People were thrown into a room and given no rules or objectives. When the first trial runners started protesting and demanding answers from Daisy, she removed them from the trial. Afterward, she revealed to the ones left that she had been testing their patience that year. He didn¡¯t know what weak points Daisy had seen in humanity during the last year, but he tried to look the part and stay calm in case they were being judged on impatience. There was no point in being anxious. The lack of information was to be expected. Daisy never spoon-fed the participants. After a few more seconds without anything happening, it became increasingly harder to look impassive, but Kai focused on his breathing and made himself relax. This year¡¯s challenge was a big question mark. It could be a maze run, a cooperative game, or a quiz. Very rarely in the history of the exams did challenges repeat from one year to the next, so this year, it would almost certainly not be something having to do with survival. Daisy¡¯s dignified voice interrupted his thoughts. This year, the trial shall be Snap Craft. This will test the two weakest traits of the last era: creativity and logic. The trial will now begin. Ch. 1 - Box of Snakes Summer of 343 after Daisy (from now on, referred to as A.D.). The sun had risen, and Neil had already started the sunrise bonfire. He wore his signature khaki shorts and an explorer¡¯s hat, which Kai was sure had never been considered fashionable, but Neil defended as an essential item on a survival kit. Even though Kai had asked many times what difference it made to wear the hat outside the simulation, he hadn¡¯t yet received a satisfying answer. ¡°Listen up, everyone. Today, we¡¯ll have a practical class.¡± Neil''s voice had a particular oscillation that made it piercing on the ears. Kai exchanged looks with Alex, and both smiled. Whenever it was Neil¡¯s turn to light the sunrise bonfire, the chances of it being a practical class were 82.3%. The number was accurate. Alex had calculated it last night for him, and Alex was never wrong. ¡°Today, we will practice stress management. The first few minutes of a trial are vital and can be the most stressful. Daisy doesn¡¯t like explaining the game¡¯s rules, and we have a lot hanging on good results. The fear of disappointing others can be overwhelming!¡± Neil walked with his cane toward a heavy box that Kai and Alex had helped him bring out earlier. As the two youngest men in the group, they were often recruited for this type of menial work. Even though they had asked him about its contents, he hadn¡¯t given them any clues. No one but Neil knew what was inside. The box was made from dark wood and riddled with holes. Heavy locks kept the lid tightly closed. Neil grabbed a key from one of his many pockets and unlocked the lid, revealing its contents. Kai jumped back. It was full of snakes. Neil studied everyone''s faces, and his eyes landed on Kai. His wrinkled face twisted into an evil grin. ¡°Kai, come here!¡± He felt Alex slap him in the back. Being a daredevil, he was probably jealous. Kai didn¡¯t share any of the excitement. He hated snakes. Had Neil noticed he was the one who was the most scared out of everyone here? Kai walked reluctantly toward the box. ¡°Look at the box, Kai.¡± Kai kept away from the box, trying to make out anything other than the moving mass of snakes. ¡°I¡¯m looking.¡± ¡°Closer.¡± Kai took a step forward and leaned in slightly. ¡°What am I¡­¡± He felt Neil¡¯s hands grab his legs and shove him into the box. The lid closed behind him, and he heard the lock¡¯s pins clicking. As Kai felt the snakes crawl over him, he screamed at the top of his lungs. ¡°Let me out! Let me out!¡± ¡°Try to remain calm, Kai. Remember, they won¡¯t hurt you. No matter how scary it looks, Daisy will never hurt you. Remember this.¡± Kai couldn¡¯t stop screaming. The moving mass of slithering creatures and the thought of them eating him alive was too much. After a minute or so, realizing that the snakes were not hurting him, he regained some of his composure. He shifted toward a more controlled and still form of terror instead of flailing his arms uncontrollably and shouting desperately. His hands started to burn from how tightly he was closing his fists. ¡°Focus on your breathing. Try to relax. Remember your training. Your brain knows what to do. Just breathe and let it work. Remember this, Kai.¡± ¡°What am I supposed to do?¡± Kai managed through gritted teeth. ¡°The 45th exams inspired this exercise.¡± Kai noticed that the voice was slightly fainter. Neil had turned to the others and was teaching them while he was stuck inside the box, terrified. ¡°Something similar happened then, but I don¡¯t have any cockroaches or crabs, so I had to use snakes.¡± ¡°Neil? What do I need to do to get out?¡± ¡°The challenge is simple.¡± The voice was being directed to him now. He could clearly hear it over the slithering of the snakes around him. ¡°Somewhere inside the box of snakes, there¡¯s a flashlight and sudoku. You can come out once you finish one of the puzzles. Then, we¡¯ll let someone else take a turn.¡± Kai kept screaming. How he hated Neil¡¯s classes. * Present, 353rd Daisy exams. Daisy judged creativity and logic to be humankind¡¯s two weakest traits this year. Kai wasn¡¯t the most creative person, but he could hold his ground in logical thinking. Daisy only mentioned the worst two, but that didn¡¯t mean that no other aspects would be tested. The trials tended to be well-rounded and tested multiple facets of their education. He closed his fists tightly. One thing was sure: whatever he was lacking, it wasn¡¯t determination. Kai rummaged through his memories and reviewed the trials that had tested logic and creativity in the past. Creativity rarely came up, about once every century. This was only the fourth time that Daisy was testing this. As for logical thinking, it was a far more common weakness. It was tested in a trial every two to three decades. He was sure that the two had never been tested together. The trial will now begin. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Kai blinked, and in the space of a second, he was no longer in the white cube. He¡¯d been transported to a world of brown and green, with gravel and pine needles under his feet and trees around him. The deafening silence of the white room had been replaced by a quiet melody sung by the rustling of leaves. Even though the environment was pleasant and soothing, his heart was filled with urgency. The clock was ticking. What did he have to do? Was Daisy not going to explain anything else? Should he move, or should he stay still? Kai felt dizzy. He had to hurry, but he didn¡¯t know in which direction. The stress of the day rushed through him like an avalanche. In the morning, he¡¯d been home, holding Ariel¡¯s hand, making promises he wasn¡¯t sure he could keep. In the afternoon, he¡¯d been brought to the center, with his nerves crawling under his skin. Then, he¡¯d been thrown into a white room only to be teleported to a woodland. This amount of traveling was overwhelming. Even though he tried to rein in his thoughts, he couldn¡¯t stop them from fixating on Ariel, and all the two of them had riding on his performance in this exam. He imagined other competitors arriving confidently at the arena and knowing precisely what they were doing while he stayed clueless. They were probably already on the move, and he still had no idea what to do. He imagined the faces of everyone around the fire, glaring at him, disappointed in his frailty. His legs weren¡¯t obeying his commands. ¡°Move, Kai. Move!¡± he told himself. His legs still didn¡¯t listen. In the middle of the paralyzing panic, he heard Neil¡¯s voice whispering into his ears, ¡°Remember your training. Your brain knows what to do. Just breathe and let it work.¡± His breathing became steadier. Instead of letting his thoughts run rampant, he tried to glean one piece of information from his surroundings¡ªthe time. The time of day here coincided with the one outside. It had been morning when he received the summons, and it was noon when he was plugged in. Despite the thick canopy, he could see through the green pine needles that the sun was near its zenith. The time within the virtual environment of the trials coincided with the time outside. With one discovery kickstarting the logical part of his brain, a second realization followed. He could feel something heavy around his neck. He felt for it and found a machine, cuboid in shape with an empty slot. He searched it with his fingers. Kai wasn¡¯t sure if something went into the slot or came out of it. A short metal cylinder stuck out of the machine with a glass lens embedded into it. Turning the machine over, he also found a button. Could it be? The design was ancient, but he recognized it. He held it and pushed the button. A mechanical click sounded, and floating text appeared. Capture failed. Try again. Tries left: 19 of 20. Time left in Snap Arena 1:59:36. Was this all the information that Daisy was going to give him? He fought the urge to complain. Complaining was a waste of energy. If he wasn¡¯t mistaken, this was an old model for a holographic camera. There was only one lens, though, so he wasn¡¯t sure how it could make a 3D rendering of an object. He tried to make sense of the few loose pieces of information he had. The name of the challenge was Snap Craft. He was in what Daisy called a snap arena and had an old holographic camera. At least part of this year¡¯s game had to do with holography. He looked around and still saw no one. The only sound was the breeze. From what he could tell, it would also be a solo challenge. He didn¡¯t mind that. He was used to working alone. Finally, he thought about the notifications he had gotten earlier. There was a limited number of shots he could make with his camera, and there was a time limit as well. These were decisive factors in this challenge. What concerned him the most right now was the limited number of shots. After all, he¡¯d just wasted one of them. It was time to test his findings. The only thing around him he could holograph was trees. It would have to do. He looked for a scope in the machine, something that would let him know what he was doing. He found a very tiny square of glass on the upper left corner of the face of the machine opposite the lens. When he pushed his eye against it, it framed the tree, showing what the camera would capture. He tried to get the whole tree inside the frame and pushed the button. The machine came to life. A complex sequence of mechanical sounds came out from the machine. Kai was startled when something began to come out of it slowly. It was printing something. After a few brief moments, a beep signaled that the machine had finished running. Capture successful! Tries left: 18 of 20. A small plastic card was now in his hand. On one side, it was entirely black. On the other side, the picture he took was at the center. As he turned the card and studied it from different angles, he was surprised that there was no rendering. This wasn¡¯t a holograph. It was something far more ancient. It was only a 2D picture. If his memory didn¡¯t fail him, this was called a photograph. There were also different numbers and symbols around the picture of the tree. Pine Tree (Common) 3 of 5 Hit points: 2 Victory points: 1 What did it mean that it was 3 of 5? That didn¡¯t make sense. This was only his second picture. The card in his hand faded into motes of light. [Pine Tree] added to your inventory. What had happened to his card? Where had it gone? Where was this inventory thing? He tried thinking about inventory, and nothing happened. He tried saying it aloud. ¡°Inventory!¡± A floating translucent square appeared before him, similar to the ones that showed him Daisy¡¯s notifications. He was relieved to find the [Pine Tree] card he¡¯d just gotten sitting in his inventory. Things were becoming increasingly clearer. The tree card had one victory point. The logical conclusion was that he had to amass as many victory points as possible within the allotted time to win the challenge. Although there was now a general goal to strive toward, he still had many questions. Was this the whole game? It wasn¡¯t unheard of for a challenge to last only a few hours. The 132nd trial had lasted only thirty minutes. Sometimes, that was all Daisy needed to assess the sectors. That was rarely the case, though. Most trials lasted days, and the 2nd trial had been one month long. It was still too soon to say how long this challenge would last. If this was all of it, and it was a battle royale with all five hundred-plus trial runners participating, time was of the essence. He had to get as many good cards as possible and collect many victory points. Even though his sense of urgency was stronger than ever, the questions lingering in his mind still drove him crazy. Why was this card given the ¡®common¡¯ category? What other categories were there? Why did it say 3 of 5 when he had only taken two pictures? What did the hp of the card do? He needed more information. He tried taking another photo of the same tree. He pointed at the same tree and tried taking another photo of it. Capture failed. Try again. Tries left: 17 of 20. Kai stared down at his feet. That hadn¡¯t gone well. Instead of clearing his doubts now, he just had more questions. Why was the first snapshot of the tree valid but the second one invalid? Was there a rule that you couldn¡¯t have more than one picture of the same thing? Here he was with three tries wasted and only one point. He would be crushed by the competition at this rate. Ch. 2 - Damocles Sword Summer of 343, A.D. ¡°Who here has heard of the story of Damocles?¡± asked Neil. It was still too soon to say if this was a prelude to another practical lesson or if it was just a purely theoretical one. Trudy raised her hand, but everyone else kept their hands down. Kai wasn¡¯t surprised that Trudy knew the story. Sometimes, it seemed like she knew everything. That¡¯s what happened when you were a gazillion years old. ¡°Trudy, you¡¯re a better storyteller than I am. Want to enlighten the others?¡± Trudy truly was the best storyteller in the bunch. Kai wondered if some universal rule mandated that the oldest in the group was always the best storyteller. She cleared her throat and spoke in her weathered voice. ¡°There was once a man named Damocles. He praised his king as a truly fortunate man with all the riches and power anyone could desire. Damocles often said that no man on Earth would not want to change places with his king. When the king heard Damocles'' praises, he did the unexpected. He called Damocles and offered to swap places with him. That way, Damocles could taste all the power and riches he admired. Damocles quickly accepted the offer. He sat on the king¡¯s throne, thrilled to be surrounded by luxury and gold. At the last minute, the king said that to help Damocles have the full experience of being a king and help him understand how he felt every day, there was one thing left to do. He commanded a sword be brought and placed over the throne, held at the pommel by one thin thread. He explained to Damocles that no one could be king without making enemies. With the sword hanging over his head, Damocles could genuinely experience the anxiety the throne brought. Damocles tried to make the most of the riches at his feet but was constantly reminded of the blade above his head. He couldn¡¯t deal with the pressure. Not half a day passed before he caved and begged the king to take back the throne.¡± The group gave her a round of applause. When everyone quieted down, and only the wood crackling was heard, Neil continued. ¡°That¡¯s it. Now you know the story of Damocles¡¯ sword. Today, we¡¯ll have a practical lesson.¡± Hearing the sudden shift, Kai¡¯s thoughts took a dark turn. A suspicion formed in his mind, but he calmed down when he saw how far-fetched it was. There was no way Neil would do that to them, right? As if hearing his thoughts, the old man called him over. ¡°Kai, can you please sit under this tree?¡± Kai walked, suspiciously looking up at the tree branches. He was relieved to find nothing there. But before he could celebrate, he caught Neil tying a rope to his cane and unsheathing it, revealing the blade within. He threw it over the branch so it would be right over Kai¡¯s head.¡± ¡°Now, Kai, you have a sword hanging over your head, just like Damocles had.¡± ¡°Neil, you¡¯re insane. Have I ever told you that?¡± The old man ignored him.¡°Clara, come here. Quiz Kai on flora or fauna or whatever you want. He has to answer. I¡¯ll hold the sword here.¡± Kai gulped. ¡°What¡¯s the point of this?¡± ¡°To teach you to remain calm even under stress. Now hurry, Kai. The blade is heavy, and my arm is growing tired.¡± * Present, 353rd Daisy exams. Kai resisted the urge to take off running, taking photos of whatever he found. Neil had always stressed the importance of staying calm during the exams. Many silly mistakes could be avoided if one kept their head over their shoulders. He found himself looking up to ensure no sword was hanging over him. His mouth twisted. Even though Neil¡¯s sword was no more, there was Daisy¡¯s. Wasn¡¯t that worse? Neil¡¯s sword would have killed him, but Daisy¡¯s sword hung over everyone in his sector. Worse than that, in a way, Daisy was making him hold the sword. Depending on how well he did, his sector would thrive or wither. He took a deep breath. He couldn¡¯t rush. Regardless of how many questions were left unanswered, he had to focus on what he did know. What had he learned so far? The machine tied around his neck was the key to this challenge. Some snapshots were considered valid. Others were not. He still didn¡¯t know the criteria, but for now, he¡¯d assume that every snapshot had to be different from the next. As he took pictures, he got cards with hp and victory points. He still didn¡¯t know what the hit points did, but logically, the trial runner with more victory points won the game. What snapshots were worth more points? Only experimentation would tell him this. One card wasn¡¯t enough to draw a baseline. The [Pine Tree] card was considered common. It made sense that it was being called ¡®common¡¯ if it was a matter of how difficult it was to find it within the arena. After all, there were pine trees everywhere he looked. Looking at the scenery around him, another question popped up: How big was this place? Did everywhere look like this? Where were the other trial runners? Were they also here with him? Kai decided to explore the surrounding area to see if he could find anything other than pine trees; hopefully, he''d find an answer to some of his questions. He took off running in a random direction, grimacing at the thought that Daisy would probably be unable to distinguish between his strategic decision and a spontaneous, panicked sprint. He ran fast enough to cover the ground quickly but slowly enough to still be able to detect anything out of the ordinary. For five minutes, he saw nothing noticeably different. All the trees seemed to be the same species, and the terrain had no outstanding landmarks or features. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Eventually, Kai bumped into a wall. The impact was painless. That was a good thing, too. Had he bumped his face on a wall at full speed like this in real life, he would have lost a few teeth and probably broken a few bones. His pain tolerance wasn¡¯t the best, and he was happy that resilience wasn¡¯t being tested this year. The memory of the previous year and the needle trial came to his head, but he swatted it away. It wasn¡¯t time to think about other trials. He had to focus on this challenge. He stretched his hand and felt the invisible barrier in front of him. It was as if it was made of perfectly transparent glass. It was an energy shield similar to the ones that separated the sectors. This should be one of the edges of the arena. What should he do now? He had only seen trees, trees, and more trees. He still needed to figure out how big the arena was. He had taken off running in a random direction that could have taken him to the nearest wall or the farthest from his starting point. Since the walls were invisible, it was hard to tell. One thing was sure from what he''d seen in his short jog: The scenery around him hadn¡¯t changed. There had to be something else out there. He tried to find something unique that he could use as a landmark. There was nothing. If that was the case, he just had to create his reference. He looked for a rock or something hard on the ground, but there were only pine needles and gravel. He felt the machine''s edges, and finding them sharp enough, he walked to the nearest tree and tried scoring an x on the trunk. Just as the machine was about to make contact with the tree, it went through it instead. He pulled his hand away briskly. As he reached for the trunk again, his hand passed through the holographic trunk again. ¡°No way.¡± Next, he tried walking through the tree, and his whole body went through. Was this entire map a hologram? Had he even left the white cuboid room he had first arrived in? He scratched his head. There was no point in starting to map the arena¡¯s edges without a reference point. If he couldn¡¯t create one, he could potentially waste all his time running in circles, which wouldn¡¯t get him any victory points. Mad at himself for wasting the time, he tried to grasp anything positive that he¡¯d learned from this. It wasn¡¯t easy, though. His only discovery so far was that the arena had boundaries, and woodland was everywhere. There was nothing outstanding to take a snapshot of. How was he supposed to make sense of this challenge in time? His sector was counting on him! Maybe he was looking at this the wrong way. Daisy always had a purpose in every trial, and he just had to understand what it was here. She said the last era¡¯s weak points were creativity and logical thinking. How could he use creativity here? What was he missing? A light bulb lit in his head. Kai walked closer to the nearest tree and studied its trunk. It was made of rough bark, but that wasn¡¯t the only thing that could be found on the tree. He had been too focused on the greater picture. If he zoomed into a tree, there was more to it. Small patches of green moss and pale lichen grew on the trunk. He got the camera out and zoomed in on the moss. Capture successful! Tries left: 16 of 20. Moss (Common) 1 of 5 Hp: 1 Vp: 2 Yes! His hunch was correct. He had found another card. Just like before, it disappeared from his hand. [Moss] has been added to your inventory. ¡°Inventory!¡± As Kai compared the card¡¯s stats, he couldn¡¯t help but notice how similar they were to the ones of his [Pine Tree] card. The only difference was that whereas [Pine Tree] offered one victory point and had two hit points, [Moss] had two victory points and only one hit point. He sighed in relief. Finally, he scored more points. He now had three. Another difference that wasn¡¯t so obvious at first was the name of the cards. He had one [Pine Tree] card instead of just a [Tree] card. That hinted at the possibility that there were other types of tree cards to be found out there. That got some of his hopes up. There probably were different sceneries out there. At the same time, it didn¡¯t specify the type of pine. It didn¡¯t say ¡®hard pine tree¡¯ or ¡®soft pine tree¡¯. All pine trees were probably considered the same in this challenge. As for the [Moss] card he¡¯d gotten, it only said ¡®moss.¡¯ He imagined that meant this exam had only one kind of moss. This was very relevant. He couldn¡¯t remember the precise numbers, but in their biology classes, Clara had spoken about thousands of moss species and dozens of pine tree species. If he found another species of moss or pine tree in this woodland, it would be best not to risk taking a picture of it. However, he would watch for other tree species since they were probably considered different cards. Kai bit his lips. Daisy wasn¡¯t an easy trialmaster. The way she hid shards of information between the thinnest lines scared him. Even though he was sure he hadn¡¯t missed anything, he made himself go through the cards again. Sure enough, he had missed something else. Although both cards were given the common grade, the [Moss] card now said 1 out of 5 instead of 3 out of 5. The math was just not making any sense. This was his fourth snapshot. Shouldn¡¯t it say 4 out of 5? Wait. Could it be? He tried zooming into the very same piece of moss. He had to understand better how the game worked and had just thought of an explanation for the 1 out of 5 text. Although there was a risk that he could only have one card of each type and that this snapshot could fail because of this rule, he wasn¡¯t 100% sure that was the case. He was willing to risk one more try to confirm both suspicions. He hoped he was right. Capture successful! Tries left: 15 of 20. Moss (Common) 2 of 5 Hp: 1 Vp: 2 Bingo! So that¡¯s what it was. The 2 of 5 referred to the number of cards available to trial runners! There could only be five [Pine Tree] cards or five [Moss] cards between his opponents and himself. Since he had been the first to think of photographing a patch of moss, he¡¯d grabbed the first and second [Moss] cards from the pool of five available. Everything made more sense now. That¡¯s why his card read 3 out of 5 when he first photographed the pine tree. Assuming other trial runners were transported to the map simultaneously, it wasn¡¯t unreasonable to think that everyone would have tried using the camera on the first thing they got their eyes on, in this case, a nearby tree. He squeezed the camera in his hands. This told him that his competitors weren¡¯t slow by any means. After all, he hadn¡¯t taken that long to use the camera¡ªhalf a minute at most. If Kai got the third [Pine Tree] card and did not get any others within seconds, there were at least two other trial runners, possibly more. The competition was tough. He had to brace himself for what was coming. He wasn¡¯t the only one fighting for his home. There must be others just as determined as he was, giving their all. This was no time to hesitate. He grabbed the camera and decided to photograph the moss again. Capture failed! Tries left: 14 of 20. Kai frowned. Either at least two other trial runners had found this card in the time that had elapsed, or the limit of identical cards per trial runner was two. He was leaning toward option two. He had to be mindful of that now if that was the case. He made a mental note to only take up to two photos of anything, regardless of what happened. He tried photographing the lichen next. Ch. 3 - Gestalt Theory Summer of 343, A.D. ¡°Neil, please tell me today isn¡¯t another practical class.¡± After the snakes and Damocles¡¯ sword exercises, Kai dreaded Neil being the firekeeper again. It had been a while since Neil last taught a purely theoretical class, and Kai hoped today would be his lucky day. ¡°Relax, Kai. It isn¡¯t.¡± Kai sighed in relief. ¡°The set-up for the next practical class has been surprisingly difficult to arrange. I¡¯ve got to say that I outdid myself this time. The next class will be amazing, Kai. You¡¯re going to love it.¡± Kai¡¯s shoulders sank. For Neil to say this meant that he was cooking up the stuff of nightmares. What could be worse than snakes and swords? Neil faced everyone around the fire and ignored Kai¡¯s frightened look. ¡°Today, we¡¯ll discuss Gestalt Theory.¡± Kai stared at Neil, surprised. It was not like Neil to dabble in psychology. That was more Trudy¡¯s department. Neil continued, ¡°One of the keys to success in any survival or endurance-related trials is to use every tool at your disposal. Often, you won¡¯t have everything you need and will be required to make do with what you have. Who can remind the bonfire of what the Gestalt Theory is? Alexander.¡± ¡°It has to do with how our brain interprets information. When I look at a car, I see the whole. I don¡¯t see the wheels, the engine, or individual components.¡± ¡°Very good. Our brains are hardwired to identify the whole, but that can cause us to miss valuable opportunities in survival-related exams. Looking at the whole isn¡¯t always the best approach. You have to be able to shift gears in your brain and look at the parts. For example¡­ what is this?¡± Neil pointed toward a pot with a small tree in it. Kai had noticed it earlier and wondered if Neil would use it to fuel the fire. On his way to the bonfire today, he had taken it from some random home. The plant¡¯s leaves were shaped like swords, and its trunk was almost as tall as Neil. Not surprisingly, the person who answered this time was Clara. ¡°Asparagaceae agavoideae.¡± Neil stared her down. Clara used every chance she got to try imposing her love of the Latin nomenclature on creatures. ¡°Fine. A yucca.¡± ¡°Good. That¡¯s the whole. But look at the parts now.¡± Kai tried to follow Neil¡¯s train of thought. ¡°The leaves are good crafting tools. You can make shoes with them or baskets, for example. You can also make soap from the roots and detergent from the stems. If you¡¯re hungry, the flowers and seeds are edible, and the fibers are great tinder. As you can see, the whole isn¡¯t better than the parts.¡± Sunny, next to Kai, moved uncomfortably. ¡°Not surprisingly, the engineer disagrees with my jab at the Gestalt theory.¡± He said slyly. Sunny¡¯s face reddened. Kai was surprised to see the old engineer look so upset. She wasn¡¯t easily provoked. ¡°Settle down, Sunny. You¡¯ll have your chance to prove me wrong today. Everyone can disperse. Remember, being stuck on the whole can mean life or death in a survival trial. Think about examples of this today and bring them back tonight. We¡¯ll share our conclusions at the sunset bonfire.¡± * Present, 353rd Daisy exams. Capture successful! Tries left: 13 of 20. Lichen (Common) 5 of 5 Hp: 0 Vp: 3 Kai gasped. That had been close. He¡¯d gotten the very last [Lichen] card. His opponents were also coming to the same conclusions as he was. He frowned as he looked at the hp of the card. What did it mean that the card had zero hit points? That couldn¡¯t be good, right? Logically, if something had zero hp, it was dead. He didn¡¯t know if he should be worried about it, but at least the victory points in this card were very generous. He wasn¡¯t an ace in Math like Alex or Sunny had been, but it was interesting that with common cards, the sum of hp and vp wasn¡¯t greater than three so far. Interesting. He wondered if that was a rule in the game. Finding nothing else on the trunk of the trees that was noteworthy, Kai tried walking over to the next one. The trees were spaced at intervals of a few steps, and it took next to nothing to get to the next tree. He walked around the tree in circles and found no lichen but found more moss than in the previous tree. He tried looking for insects but couldn¡¯t find them. Now that he thought about it, he closed his eyes and tried to hear sounds around him. There was only the wind and nothing else. No birds singing, no insects buzzing. Was he truly alone out here? He tried looking to the ground, seeing if he could find any insects, but found something else. Discreetly hidden among a bed of pine needles, a bed of mushrooms had sprouted under the protection of the tree roots. The mushrooms had white stalks and red caps with white dots on them. They were pretty and delicate. It almost felt like someone had grabbed a brush and meticulously painted the white dots on the caps. He recognized this mushroom from his biology classes. It was poisonous, if he wasn¡¯t mistaken. However, he couldn¡¯t remember the species¡¯ name. He¡¯d never been good at remembering names. Ariel was much better at it than he was. He kneeled on the ground to get closer and took a photo. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Capture successful! Tries left: 12 of 20. Fly Agaric (Uncommon) 1 of 4 Hp: 1 Vp: 3 Seeing that he¡¯d gotten the first card, he quickly took a second one before others could beat him to the punch. Capture successful! Tries left: 11 of 20. Fly Agaric (Uncommon) 2 of 4 Hp: 1 Vp: 3 [Fly Agaric]- that¡¯s what the mushroom was called. When he heard the name, more information came to his mind. This mushroom could be used to prepare a fly trap, which could be helpful in survival challenges with disease-carrying mosquitoes. However, it was extremely poisonous and, if consumed, could cause powerful hallucinations or even death. Looking at the stats in his two new cards, Kai smiled at the realization that he had just gotten his first uncommon card in this challenge. For them to be considered uncommon must mean they weren¡¯t so easily found in the arena. There were undoubtedly fewer ones up for grabs. He covered his mouth as he looked at his [Lichen] card. He would have failed his capture if [Lichen] had been an uncommon card. He had only been successful because it was a common card, and there was a pool of five cards to draw from. The rarer something was, the greater the chances of it being taken already. Thinking about this, Kai jolted upright and sprinted to the following few trees. He found moss and lichen on each of them but no other mushroom bed similar to this one. That confirmed his suspicions. Things that could be photographed and converted to uncommon cards weren¡¯t easy to find in the snap arena. He took off running, dashing from one tree to the next. There had to be other types of mushrooms out there. The [Fly Agaric] card¡¯s name was incredibly specific, even more so than the [Pine Tree] card. That must mean other uncommon mushrooms were waiting to be found in the arena. As he kept studying the floor around each of the trees, he felt a greater sense of urgency and the pressure of the deadline. Checking the time, Kai noticed he had an hour and a half before the challenge ended. The biggest challenge so far wasn¡¯t making sense of the trial¡¯s rules but all the mind games that came with it. On the one hand, logic would have it that he could take some time exploring and looking for rarer things to capture. Rarer things were probably worth more points and were worth waiting for. On the other hand, the more he delayed, the higher the chances his opponents would pick up on the game and start hoarding all the good cards. Whatever the case was, he couldn¡¯t find anything else to capture. He checked his inventory. [Pine Tree] 2x[Moss] [Lichen] 2x[Fly Agaric] He patiently searched tree after tree. After several tries, he finally found what he was looking for. This time, the mushrooms he found weren¡¯t hidden in the shade of the roots but growing off the pine tree¡¯s trunk. They looked like little dark-red balconies and gave the impression that someone had started building a staircase up the tree. He got his camera out and pointed it at the cluster of mushrooms. Capture successful! Tries left: 10 of 20. Bear Bread (Uncommon) 3 of 4 Hp: 2 Vp: 2 He wasn¡¯t the first to get to this mushroom this time. One of the other trial runners had already found it and taken two pictures. His fears were proven true. Everyone was catching up. No, he was already lagging behind. He decisively took another shot before anyone else beat him to it. Capture successful! Tries left: 9 of 20. Bear Bread (Uncommon) 4 of 4 Hp: 2 Vp: 2 Chances were that someone else was already chasing mushrooms, just like he was. If it was just one trial runner, then it was fine. There were enough cards for both of them to grab. But things would become more complicated if a third one joined the fray. Whenever he photographed something, he had to try imagining if it was something obvious enough that his opponents would have captured already. If so, he would do better to skip it. But what if his opponents had thought that and skipped it, too? Then, he would be missing out on a perfect chance. Argh! The mind games! He kept investigating the woodland. He soon found another tree with bear bread and grimaced at the realization that mushrooms weren¡¯t all that rare in the woods. His fears worsened when he saw another bed of fly agaric. After several never-ending minutes, he finally came across a new type of mushroom. It was bright yellow and looked like a cabbage. It had overlapping fan-shaped clusters and grew off the tree trunk. Its size was impressive- it was easily the biggest mushroom he¡¯d found so far. The color was very bright, which scared him. It made it easy for others to spot it from afar. Should he risk it? He looked at the clock. There was little over an hour left to go. What were the chances that no one had seen this mushroom yet? After all, it was pretty obvious if you looked at the tree from the right angle. Had he been teleported here at the start of the trial, he would have taken a photograph of it immediately. He scratched his head and, coming to a decision, pointed the camera at it. Capture failed! Tries left: 8 of 20. He passed his hand through his hair. He should have trusted his instinct! He shouldn¡¯t have tried. Chances had been against him. He tried punching a nearby tree but missed, as his fist went right through it, making him angrier. He only had eight chances left and a dwindling supply of things to photograph. He checked the time and pressed his lips into a thin line. The challenge was getting more complex by the minute. After an hour of running through the woodland, he had expected to run into a boulder, a river, or a different species of tree, but there were only pine trees as far as the eye could see. He was running out of ideas for things to capture. For a couple of precious minutes, he just stood there, thinking. Eventually, Kai decided the worst thing to do would be to stand still, and he chose to think while walking instead. He walked past tree after tree, always attentive for anything that stood out or was out of the ordinary. The problem was, would he photograph it now if he did see it? It wasn¡¯t necessarily good to run into something too eye-catching, was it? Chances were that it was taken already. Another fifteen minutes passed. He saw nothing else worth capturing. What should he do? He paused and rubbed his hands on the front of his pants, thinking. Maybe he was looking at this the wrong way. What if instead of focusing on what stood out, he focused on what went unnoticed by others? What was there out here that others could easily miss? His shoes stepped over the pine needles, making his steps crunchy. He stopped and looked at the floor. Why were his feet reacting to the ground? That didn¡¯t make sense. His hands went right through the tree. Shouldn¡¯t his shoes have gone through the pine needles, too? He bent over to try to pick a pine needle, but, like before, his hands went right through it. He tried kicking a nearby tree, but his foot went right through it, too. Why did his feet crunch the pine needles but not make contact with the trees themselves? He had just discovered something that had to have some significance, but he couldn¡¯t figure out what it was. He could see why his feet didn¡¯t go through the floor like his hands had gone through the tree. After all, if that happened, he would just sink deeper and deeper into the ground. The thought of falling forever caused a shiver to run down his spine. He set the discovery aside for later reflection and looked at the floor. These pine needles. It may be worth taking a picture of them. He pointed the camera at the ground. Congratulations! Capture successful. Tries left: 7 of 20. Dry Pine Needle (Common) 5 of 5 Hp: 3 Vp: 0 He had gotten the very last one. He paused. The fact that this card read ¡®dry pine needle¡¯ made him look up at the still verdant needles atop the pine trees. Maybe he was fixated on the whole and was missing an opportunity right under his nose. Ch. 4 - Stress Inoculation Summer of 343, A.D. Kai was surprised that he wasn¡¯t the first to arrive. Neil had lit the fire, and Alex, intrigued by what Neil had prepared for this lesson, had arrived first. ¡°Hey, Alex.¡± ¡°Hey, Kai. Sup?¡± ¡°So. What has that old fox cooked up this time?¡± ¡°I heard that!¡± Neil barked from a distance. Alex and Kai laughed. ¡°I don¡¯t know. But it looks fun. I hope he calls me up first today,¡± spoke Alex. ¡°Nah. Old Neil smells fear.¡± ¡°Yeah, so?¡± ¡°Come on, man! You¡¯re not afraid of anything!¡± ¡°If only that were true.¡± ¡°Oh yeah? Alex, the prodigy, has something he¡¯s scared of?¡± ¡°Maybe.¡± The notion genuinely surprised Kai. Alex was always so perfect. The thought that he had a phobia made him a little more human. Kai was genuinely curious. ¡°Like what?¡± ¡°Hey, boys.¡± Ariel had arrived right when Alex was about to reveal his fears. Kai, for once, was annoyed at her arrival. Alex had been so close to disclosing the chink in his armor. ¡°Hey, Ariel,¡± greeted Alex as his sister kissed him. ¡°Hey,¡± said Kai, trying to sound and look cool. She sat down, observing Neil doing the final checks. Sophia appeared right after that, then Albert, then Clara. As the group gathered around the fire, they continued the discussion that had been going on for the last few days. ¡°I think it¡¯s a weird box with a hole in it. You have to put your hand in it, and Neil will ask you a question. If you answer incorrectly, you lose your hand,¡± suggested Alex. ¡°I think it¡¯s just a bunch of survival kits. Everyone has to grab one and live in the mountains for a day,¡± tried Clara. Everyone had theories about what was hidden under the large cloth. Neil refused to answer any questions about what lay beneath it and just sat quiet, pretending he wasn¡¯t there. Sometimes, one of the suggestions made him laugh. Other times, it looked like he was considering implementing one of the ridiculous suggestions in a future class. On the other hand, Kai was still thinking about what Alex had said. What could he possibly be afraid of? Finally, Sunny arrived. For some reason, she was always the last to arrive whenever Neil was the firekeeper. ¡°Good. Everyone is here. We can begin now.¡± Neil limped toward the covered contraption and unveiled what he¡¯d been working so hard on. ¡°I present to you my latest creation!¡± Kai studied the contraption curiously. It consisted of a metal armchair wrapped in wiring coils and tied to what he guessed were batteries. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± asked Ariel. ¡°Isn¡¯t that just a chair?¡± ¡°It might look just like a regular chair, but I can assure you it¡¯s much more fun than that.¡± ¡°And it took you two weeks to put this together?¡± asked Sunny. A wave of laughter went through the group. Neil was too proud to ask for others¡¯ help, and engineering wasn¡¯t his strongest suit. He ignored the jab and continued, ¡°As you can imagine, today will be a practical class.¡± The mood chilled at the mention of a practical class. Neil began looking for his prey. Neil¡¯s ancient eyes met Kai¡¯s, but he tried not to look scared this time and put on a brave front. Neil¡¯s eyes moved past him and landed on Ariel. She didn¡¯t do a good job hiding her fear; Neil finally picked up on her reluctance and called her. ¡°Ariel, do you want to give it a go?¡± Ariel stood reluctantly, and before Kai noticed what he was doing, he was already walking toward the chair. ¡°Kai! You¡¯ve grown a spine. Such a brave young man! Aren¡¯t you quite the catch?¡± He winked at Ariel, and the rest of the group laughed. ¡°Maybe I¡¯m just annoyed at the preferential treatment you always give Ariel. How come you never ask me that nicely, Neil? You just bark at me to come without caring whether I want to.¡± Another wave of laughter went through the group. ¡°Fair enough. Come over, then.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to tell me what I must do?¡± ¡°Of course I will. Just sit in this chair.¡± ¡°That¡¯s it?¡± ¡°That¡¯s it.¡± Kai walked toward the chair, bracing for the worst, closed his eyes tightly, and sat down. Nothing happened. Other than the metallic frame of the chair making it slightly cold to the touch and uncomfortable, there was nothing particular about it. He relaxed. ¡°It wasn¡¯t that bad. Was it? Now, tell me. Do you like poetry, Kai?¡± asked Neil in a loving voice. ¡°Sure. I think everyone appreciates some nice poetry every once in a while.¡± ¡°Ariel, come here.¡± ¡°I thought it wasn¡¯t my turn anymore,¡± she protested. ¡°You won¡¯t sit on the chair. All I want you to do is read poetry for our brave boy here.¡± When Kai heard that Ariel would read poetry to him, he blushed. ¡°And what do I have to do?¡± he asked, trying to sound relaxed and confident. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°You have to enjoy it.¡± ¡°That¡¯s it?¡± ¡°That¡¯s it.¡± This exercise sounded ridiculously simple. What was the point of it? Ariel stood opposite Kai and started reading Shakespeare: ¡°That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang¡­¡± Ariel¡¯s voice sounded so soothing and melodic. The way her hair cascaded over her shoulder really¡­ Kai¡¯s thoughts were interrupted as his whole body convulsed. He felt the hairs in his arms stand up, and all his muscles tensed. Startled by Kai¡¯s pained grunt, Ariel stopped. ¡°Keep going, Ariel,¡± said Neil. ¡°Neil, did you do that?¡± Asked Kai between heavy breaths. That had frightened him. ¡°It¡¯s nothing much, my boy. Just a little electric shock.¡± ¡°What could be the point in having Ariel read poetry while you electrocute me?¡± Neil turned to the rest of the group to ensure his words reached all of them. ¡°When we¡¯re on a trial, we are under tremendous pressure. Pressure is the enemy. It clouds your judgment and saps your strength. This exercise aims to teach you to find enjoyment even in a difficult or painful challenge. Learning to relax your mind by appreciating a cup of tea or lingering on a beautiful sight for a few seconds can be what your tired mind needs to keep you fresh and at the top of your game.¡± Kai sighed. He wondered if all these lessons that Neil taught were worth this trouble. Could this make any difference during the trials? As he studied the eyes of the old-timers around the fire, he saw no humor, only determination. He gulped. The trials must put a lot of strain on the challengers. ¡°Ariel, resume,¡± prompted Neil. She resumed her reading, a little more hesitatingly but still sounding loud and clear. ¡°Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.¡± Kai felt another shock. This one was more powerful than the last one. He had a feeling that he was going to hate this class. * Present, 353rd Daisy exams. How could he have been so stupid? When he first saw the pine tree, his brain looked at the whole. It was a tree. When he thought of giving it a closer look, his eyes were opened to other organisms living on the tree, such as moss, lichen, and fungi. But he could go even beyond that. What about all the different parts of the tree? There were the needles or leaves, the trunk, branches, and roots. There was also the bark that coated the trunk and branches. He hadn¡¯t seen any yet, but there were also pine cones, pine kernels, and other things to look for! The existence of the [Dry Pine Needle] card only added to his suspicion. He got the camera closer to the trunk, careful not to get moss or lichen into the frame. Capture successful! Tries left: 6 of 20. Pine Bark (Common) 3 out of 5 Hp: 2 Vp: 1 Here it was. It was as he had imagined. He had just found a whole new layer to this challenge. A new card had been hiding in front of him and his competitors all this time. Unfortunately, [Pine Bark] only gave him one victory point. He stopped himself from going for another shot. He was running out of tries and still had plenty of time left on the clock. He¡¯d look for better opportunities to maximize his point count. Besides, there was still so much of the tree left to explore! Maybe shots of other parts of the tree would give him more points. He looked at the canopy above. If he could just climb the tree, he could get a good picture of the branches and the leaves. He didn¡¯t like climbing in general, but the fact that falling off wouldn¡¯t kill him would make it an easier endeavor. As his hands reached for the trunk, they went through it. Of course! How could he have forgotten? He was out of sync with this map¡¯s reality. It was all a hologram to him. Kai decided to try something. He pushed his face against the viewfinder and then waved his hand in front of the lens. There was nothing. The hand didn''t show in the viewfinder. He then tried pointing the camera at his feet, with the same result. All that he saw through the camera''s viewfinder was the bed of dried pine needles. No hand. No feet. Why did Daisy make him invisible to the camera? Could it be that just like he went through the objects in the arena without interacting with them, light phased through him as well, making him invisible? He wondered why Daisy had set things up like this. Shrugging, he focused on what he could capture with the camera. Even though it was quite far, he tried to point the camera upward, framing in the green needles. It was hard to get a good picture. He was getting the branches, the trunk, and small patches of blue sky and glimpses of the sun, too. If only he could get closer or zoom in. Since he had no options, he tried anyway, hoping for the best. Capture failed! Tries left: 5 of 20. It was as he feared. The picture wasn¡¯t good enough. This was an important piece of information. It wasn¡¯t enough to just find something that could be photographed. Probably, if there was more than one item in the frame or too few, or the picture wasn¡¯t clear enough, the capture wasn¡¯t considered valid. Sadly, all these realizations were coming at the expense of victory points. He looked at the ground and tried to find roots. Only a tiny portion of them came out of the ground, as pine trees¡¯ roots typically stay more underground. There were also pine needles everywhere that he couldn¡¯t move around to expose the roots he did find. He tried doing it with his foot and found it didn¡¯t work. Daisy only allowed him to step on the ground but not interact with the map in any other way. Left with no other choice, this time, he tried taking a photograph that framed just the trunk of the pine tree. He ensured the background was out of focus and that he got no leaves or roots in it. He just wanted the main trunk. Capture successful! Tries left: 4 of 20. Pine Trunk (Common) 4 out of 5 Hp: 3 Vp: 0 It was another card that granted no victory points. He already had several like that, and he wasn¡¯t sure if it was a good idea to waste his last four pictures on this kind of card. It was even worse than [Pine Bark]. He should have just photographed bark twice and would have been better off. For the first time, even though there was a sure chance to capture a card, he decided to pass on it. He had learned much from the rules of the game so far. In particular, it was important to look at an object as a whole but not overlook the individual parts. Now that he was confident that he had explored this principle to the maximum, it was time to decide on his next move. He looked at the cards in his inventory. [Pine Tree] 2x[Moss] [Lichen] 2x[Fly Agaric] 2x[Bear Bread] [Pine Bark] [Dry Pine Needle] [Pine Trunk] Of the 16 captures he had attempted, five had been failures. It was a 30% failure rate. Regrettably, it was more wasteful than Kai would have liked. He counted the points he had earned so far: 20. The frustrating thing was that there was no scoreboard. He didn¡¯t have a reference. He had no idea if this was great or horrible. Finally, there were four captures left for the remaining forty minutes. Time had become a less valuable resource than the number of tries he had left. It was time to shift his focus. He decided it was time to map the arena. There was a slight chance he would come back to this place or be transported to a similar one if the trial had one more stage like this. He recalled the trick that Neil had taught him to find north. He studied the trees and found on which side of the trunk moss grew the most. That¡¯s where the north would be. As the sun didn¡¯t hit directly on this part of the trunk and moss liked the shade, finding his way in the lack of a compass was a nice little trick. Now that he knew where north was, he retraced his steps in the general direction from where he had run after bumping into the wall and found the invisible wall again. The biggest problem now was finding a good landmark. He could always look for a tree with a particular type of mushroom, but he had a better idea. He grabbed the machine hanging around his neck and tried pulling it off. He then put it gently on the ground. Since this was an essential part of the challenge, he doubted that he would be allowed to lose the camera. To his delight, the camera stayed still. He didn¡¯t know what he¡¯d been expecting. With his right hand against the invisible wall, Kai reached out and looked at the clock, waiting for it to reach zero minutes and zero seconds. When it did, he started running counterclockwise. He counted how many steps he took for a minute and then tried to keep his rhythm and pace. After several minutes, he hadn¡¯t found a corner. The invisible wall was ever so slightly bent or curved. That told him that he was in a dome-like structure. He kept in mind that he wanted to maintain a constant speed and kept his eyes on the ground so he wouldn¡¯t miss the camera. He finally found it again. He looked at the clock. It had taken him 21 minutes and 4 seconds to run a full lap around the arena. Ch. 32 - Bustling Arena ¡°Stupid Alex. Stupid, stupid, stupid Alex,¡± mumbled Kai as he waited under the moonlight. He looked back toward the rocky plain he had just crossed and again to the shimmering field separating his sector from Cassie¡¯s. He waited patiently. He stood to avoid falling asleep, but it had been a long trek. Eventually, the pain in his knees and feet surpassed his anger and determination, and he sat. A hint of movement caught his attention just as he was about to sleep. He jolted upright and found the young woman with golden curls that had enchanted his friend. She was alone, which spelled what Kai already suspected. She looked at him curiously and sadly. Kai pulled a series of sheets from his backpack and unfolded them. It had taken thought to devise the questions that would give him answers to what he needed to know with only ¡®yes¡¯ and ¡®no.¡¯ He flashed the first sheet. ¡®Alex exiled. Is he there?¡¯ The girl¡¯s eyes widened, and she hurriedly shook her head. He showed her the next card. ¡®Did your sector make it to the top 10%?¡¯ In response, she stared down at her feet, and her beautiful, elegant figure seemed to shrink and condense into that of a sad little girl. Knowing that his friend never even had a chance to land in the next sector, Kai grew more irritated. He got the next card. ¡®Did you know he would ask for exile?¡¯ She nodded. ¡®Did you really like him?¡¯ She nodded affirmatively. ¡®Will you ask for exile next year?¡¯ She stood paralyzed, looking scared. Kai looked at the two next cards. Seeing her reaction, he selected the one appropriate to her answer. ¡®He liked you more than you liked him.¡¯ He let all the cards fall onto the ground, turned around, and left without looking back. * The silence was getting to Kai. He wished he had a way to create some white noise, or noise of any color for that matter. In the white room''s calm, his breathing began to sound like a thunderstorm, and he could feel the blood thumping in his ears. Kai tried keeping his thoughts busy with something other than his senses. He conjured an image of Ariel. The image of a bedridden Ariel with yellowed eyes and an overwhelming cough shook him out of his oversensitivity. He closed his eyes tightly, tried to imagine a healthy Ariel, and finally felt relief. How he wished he could talk to her while he waited to be transported to the new arena. What was she doing? Hopefully, she was having a good day. In stage 2 of the blight, there were still plenty of those. If so, she had probably packed her lunch and was spending her day in the museum. He couldn¡¯t wait to tell her they could finally start a family. She would be thrilled to hear that. She had always wanted to be a mom. But he wanted to be able to say more to her when he saw her. He wanted to tell her he had secured allcure for both of them, and they would stick around to see their children grow. For that, he had to keep doing well in these exams. Also, more than daydreams, a new type of thought assailed Kai¡¯s mind with fury. He had reached the first 64 places from five hundred-plus sectors. He still couldn¡¯t match Balin¡¯s achievement, who had reached the top 5. But if he kept this up, he would catch up to the score of his ancestor and secure the right to do what Balin did. He could set new rules and redefine the culture of his sector. The responsibility was huge. Was there anything he wanted to change about their way of life? He and Ariel had discussed this before, and so had he and Alex when he was still around. But it was one thing to dream about it and another to have the legitimacy to enforce these changes. He tried putting the distracting thoughts aside. Thinking about this wouldn¡¯t help him do better in the exams. He had to focus on what was right in front of him. After the last round, he had gained a new goal. He wanted to get as many mythic cards as possible. They were the cream of the crop. Not only did they have incredible stats, but they also came with their own console upgrades. The card with the best chance of growing up to the mythic rank was [Fire]. He would feed it as much as possible with as many combustible items as he could find in this round. He also focused on the two new upgrades for the snapping round. One was [Zoom]. He could now capture objects from a long distance away. The other upgrade was the [Android Companion]. He had no idea what that upgrade did. Given that [Flying Drone] had been rebranded as an upgrade to [Droid Companion], he guessed it was some sort of robot that helped him explore the map. The sooner he figured out the advantages of either one, the better he would do in this round. The countdown was nearly over. He ran some numbers in his mind and concluded it would be around noon in this new stage. That meant light wouldn¡¯t be a problem, and he wouldn¡¯t need to walk around carrying his gaslamp. He braced himself, and as the countdown reached zero, he was transported to the new snapping arena in the blink of an eye. Instead of a sunny stage, Kai was met with a dark sky. Rain poured all around him, reducing visibility. The water fell right through him and onto the ground. Kai checked the scoreboard at the top of his vision. His opponent was 14 points ahead of him. He gulped. This game was going to be neck to neck. He couldn''t expect every game to be as leisurely as the last round. He would have to give it his all this round, or he wouldn¡¯t go through to the next. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. With a heavier weight on his shoulders, Kai¡¯s attention turned toward his surroundings. He was in an urban area. He spotted a few chimneys and some working AC. Interestingly enough, he was on a rooftop again. Unlike the last stage, this one seemed in good condition. Off to the side, he heard the buzz of electricity and smoke coming out from giant letters, which spelled ¡®Hotel.¡¯ They shone with a bright red neon light. As the raindrops hit the hot lamps, they instantly turned to steam. He saw many more neon signs around him. Through the heavy rain, he could read the names of restaurants, stores, and shops. ¡°What is this place?¡± he murmured. ¡°It appears to be a city.¡± Kai jumped in fright at the voice that had spoken from behind him. ¡°Late eighties of the common era, or seventy before Daisy. Whichever dating method you prefer.¡± The voice that addressed him was soft, almost lazy. It came from a figure with a slender figure and feminine curves. Its whole body was covered in what looked like porcelain but could be silver metal. The facial features were exquisitely sculpted and pleasingly symmetrical, albeit too perfect. The head was hairless, which gave the android an even more artificial appearance. It looked like a work of art in which the artist wanted to convey that they could create a more beautiful human than the real thing, but they had held back and made a few purposeful accidents to avoid disturbing human sensitivity. Kai stared at the android, and the android stared back. ¡°Who are you?¡± he asked. ¡°Congratulations on being the first trial runner to unlock a mythic card! You even found the [Mega Scrapdroid]. Good for you, Kai. It was only appropriate that you be rewarded. That¡¯s why I¡¯ll be your companion for the rest of the exams.¡± Kai gulped. After spending so many hours alone with his thoughts, having someone to talk to made him feel like he was in a dream. He tried pinching himself, but what was the point? There was no pain in this exam. ¡°What can I call you?¡± ¡°Maia.¡± ¡°And what are you? I mean, what do you do?¡± ¡°I¡¯m an android companion. It¡¯s right there in the name, Kai. My job is to keep you company. I also have been programmed with some random pieces of information. I have a good comprehensive library in history and physics. Your whole performance so far has also been added to my memory. So I know what you already showed you know.¡± He wasn¡¯t sure what to make of this. Had he been given a nanny? Or was it a walking encyclopedia? The truth was that having someone to talk to was soothing. It felt so lonely out here. He¡¯d been alone with his thoughts for too long. The benefit of having someone whom he could bounce ideas off sounded nice. Maia also came with a comprehensive library. History was more of Ariel¡¯s department, and even though he had a working knowledge of physics, he didn¡¯t know much. Having someone he could ask questions on these two things could make a difference during the rest of the exams. ¡°How do you know I was the first to find a mythic card? Who told you?¡± ¡°Mother.¡± ¡°Mother? How could an android have a mother? Are you talking about Daisy?¡± ¡°Yes. She¡¯s been enjoying your performance. But I can¡¯t speak too much about that. She made me promise I¡¯d keep some things secret. She wants this upgrade to be fair enough to reflect your achievements. She doesn¡¯t want me to help you too much, though. That wouldn¡¯t be fair to other trial runners.¡± Kai clicked his tongue. What was this about? Had Daisy taken a special interest in him or something? Did he seem so lonely that she had decided to give him a friend out of pity? ¡°Did Daisy choose your libraries?¡± ¡°No. It was random.¡± Kai frowned. This was an unforeseen development. If he was the first player to unlock a mythic card, he supposed receiving a special upgrade was a good reward. He smirked. If he had been the first to get a mythic card, he wasn''t doing too bad. He checked the system clock and gasped. He had wasted precious time talking to the android. ¡°Well, I have to focus now, Maia. I need to find my bearings. We can chat more later, OK?¡± ¡°Affirmative.¡± Kai tried to shift his attention to the arena around him. But he found himself going back to looking at Maia. It was as if she occupied all of his perceptions. After spending so much time with just Ariel, talking to anyone else was a powerful experience. This was only worsened by the isolation he¡¯d been experiencing in the exams. At first, he could only think about the android regarding him, some curiosity in her artificial yet expressive face. He sighed. He was very used to living under the watch of Daisy¡¯s cybermonkeys. He just had to think of her as a chatty version of them. He tried to make the sight of Maia overlap with a memory of a monkey with cybernetic implants cleaning his city. Once he could do so, he managed to pull his focus away from Maia and back to the exam. He couldn¡¯t find anything of interest on the rooftop. He tried looking over the edge of the building. That¡¯s when he saw something that shocked him far more than the android. A parade of colorful umbrellas formed a complex ballet at the street level. Cars filled the roads. He felt tears form in his eyes. People. So many people. He had never seen so many people in his life. He saw a woman in a raincoat and two little figures carrying umbrellas with cartoons painted on them. He collapsed to his knees and lost all composure. He couldn¡¯t stop sobbing. Children. The last time he¡¯d seen a child was when he was one. He had never seen anyone younger than him before. ¡°Crying? Computing. Oh, I see. You and your wife are the only ones left in your sector. Seeing other people like this must be a real shock for you. ¡®Re-entry shock,¡¯ I believe it¡¯s called.¡± The obnoxious captioning of his emotional moment annoyed him but pulled him out of the shock of seeing so many people. He was thankful to Maia for that. ¡°I have to find a way down.¡± He looked for a ladder for a few moments but remembered that he couldn¡¯t get hurt during the exams! He didn¡¯t need a ladder. He ran toward the edge and jumped. It was funny how many thoughts could flash through one¡¯s mind mid-air. The moment his feet left the edge of the building, he tried to understand why he had been so quick in jumping and realized he couldn¡¯t say. Was it because there were more things to capture down there? No, it wasn¡¯t so simple. Kai could feel it was more than that. He had been drawn toward an irresistible siren¡¯s call. He needed to see the faces of the people under those umbrellas. Above all, he wanted to see if it was true that children were the most beautiful thing in the world. Kai landed. It was much sooner than expected. He looked down, wide-eyed. He was floating in mid-air. What was happening? He hadn¡¯t been able to fall. Kai stomped and felt the invisible floor¡ªthe arena''s edge. The floor of the arena was stories above the street level. The people down there were outside the arena. Kai heard a thump as Maia landed next to him. He looked at her and flushed. She smiled radiantly at him. ¡°Shut up,¡± he said to Maia. She bobbed her head to the side. ¡°But I wasn¡¯t talking.¡± This was a lot to digest between being stuck with Maia, seeing people, and being on a rooftop under neon lights and the heavy rain. The rooftops were the arena. He looked at the buildings throughout the city. They all had different heights. Some were shorter than the arena floor and out of his reach. Others were taller. That meant he had to find a way to climb them up or go into each building and explore what was inside. Each building was like an island in an invisible ocean that he would have to visit, looking for things worth capturing. All the while, there was a whole new world filled with things he could capture down on the streets. Ch. 33 - Zeroes and Ones Sunny had chosen a house right next to an old workshop. Sometimes, Kai wondered if Sunny¡¯s house wasn¡¯t the workshop itself. The feeling was only aggravated by the fact that Sunny had never let Kai enter her house. It was a weird quirk of hers. No one was allowed in. As he walked through the door, he passed the rows of racks filled with half-assembled machinery. Wires and parts stuck out of their metallic chrome, steel, and brass shells. He found Sunny hunched over a piece of equipment. Even from here, Kai could tell she was fixing a power drill. He took a moment to admire how she blindly reached into a toolbox back and grabbed what she needed. Every wrench, plier, and screwdriver she pulled out of the toolbox was spotless and shiny, glistening under the light of the powerful lamps that assisted her in her meticulous work. ¡°I didn¡¯t see you at the bonfire, Kai,¡± she said without looking back. ¡°Sorry. I know it was your turn today. That¡¯s why I¡¯m here, though. I came to find out what I need to do today.¡± She let out a deep sigh, probably annoyed at having to leave the repair half-finished, and put all the tools she had taken out of her toolbox in their precise places. She then removed her goggles and took out her gloves. Finally, she spun her stool and faced Kai. Her hair was gray but still glossy, and she held it in a ponytail whenever she was in the workshop. She wore green overalls today and always had a hammer and a measuring tape hanging off a practical yet fashionable toolbelt. She met his gaze. ¡°Where were you?¡± Kai stayed silent. ¡°The wall, ey? Was the girl there?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± he answered. Sunny prodded information out of him as easily as she pulled parts out of a machine. There was no use in fighting the interrogation. ¡°Was Alex there?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°So what are you going to do now?¡± ¡°I honestly don''t know.¡± She smiled. ¡°Whenever I find something I can''t fix, I try to focus on something that I can actually repair. See that chainsaw there? Why don¡¯t you try to fix it?¡± Kai sat down and started tearing the machine apart. There was a slight burnt scent coming off somewhere. He tried to spot what had burned up and ruined the machine. ¡°Do you think she¡¯ll forgive me?¡± ¡°I do.¡± ¡°You didn¡¯t forgive Neil.¡± He heard her sigh. ¡°No, boy. Neil never forgave himself. I forgave him. Learn something from him. If you want Ariel to forgive, you must forgive yourself first.¡± * In the quarry, Kai learned that he could photograph things outside the arena. That¡¯s how he had managed to get a hold of the [Rusty Pickaxe] card. That meant that everything that was happening in the streets below could be captured with his camera. He pointed the camera at the scene below him and looked at it through his viewfinder. The image was fuzzy. He was too high. He could only see the tiny umbrellas and the cars, but he couldn¡¯t properly frame them. Daisy would probably reject these pictures. It was a good thing he had bought [Zoom]. He turned the camera over in his hands, looking for something different, and found a small lever. He pushed it, and his camera lens stretched, startling him. He then pulled it, and the lens shrank again. He leaned his eye against the viewfinder and tried pushing the lever again. The image was enhanced, and what had been barely perceptible due to the distance and heavy rain became clear. It was almost as if he had been transported to the street. He pulled his eye from the viewfinder and then put it again. He framed one of the people walking in the street while trying his best to keep a steady hand. With such zoom, every small camera movement made the image shake. Capture successful! Tries left: 19 of 20. Passerby (Common) 1 of 4 One more face on the street. Hp: 0 Vp: 3 Although he was slightly disappointed with the card he received, he was glad he had invested in this upgrade. ¡°Sweet. This zoom is great.¡± ¡°Yes! Zooming eight times is already respectable.¡± He turned toward Maia, only now realizing he had spoken to her¡ªthe words had just come out. She regarded him with an artificial smile. Maybe he did need a companion, someone to talk to. ¡°True. I can see what¡¯s happening down there.¡± ¡°How wonderful, Kai. Did you know the first zoom lens for still cameras was the Voigtl?nder-Zoomar 36-82mm f/2.8?¡± ¡°No, I didn¡¯t, Maia.¡± ¡°And did you know that the word ¡®zoom¡¯ might come from the sound that cameras such as the one you¡¯re holding make when you zoom in and out?¡± ¡°That¡¯s fascinating.¡± ¡°And did you know¡­¡± Kai tuned Maia out after the fifth piece of trivia she shared about zoom and lenses. Goodness gracious. Maia was making him think of Trudy¡¯s stories about children. She had said there was an age when they just didn¡¯t stop talking. Was this why Daisy considered Maia¡¯s presence a reward? Was Daisy trying to give him a glimpse into what child-raising was like? Was she offering him a look into his future? This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Kai had a decision to make. Would he focus on exploring the area below him through his zoomed lens? There was the off-chance of his opponent not having a [Zoom] upgrade. If they didn''t, they would have to settle with the resources available on the rooftops and inside the buildings tall enough to pierce through the arena¡¯s invisible floor. It seemed imprudent to let them harvest this map''s resources unhindered. ¡°Maia, I¡¯m going to take a look around.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll follow.¡± ¡°You can stay here.¡± ¡°I can also go.¡± ¡°No. Please, stay here. You¡¯re distracting me.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, it¡¯s not like you have the choice. I¡¯m an Android companion. A companion accompanies.¡± He sighed. It looks like he had no choice. Maybe this upgrade was so good that Daisy had to make it slightly annoying. Otherwise, it would be too overpowered. Kai slumped his shoulders and grunted. ¡°Fine. Do whatever you want.¡± ¡°You humans can be so rude sometimes.¡± Maia was right. Why was Kai being so snarky? He looked at her impassive facial expression. Maybe it was because of all the pressure he was under. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Maia. It¡¯s not your fault. You are a part of Daisy, and I¡¯m a little mad at her. That¡¯s all.¡± ¡°Why would you be mad? She did the impossible! If it weren¡¯t for her, your race would have been extinct.¡± ¡°I know, I know. I just don¡¯t agree with how she does some things.¡± Kai ran through the rooftop ledge to where he had spawned and headed toward the next building. Whereas the building where he had appeared in was about ten stories high, the next one over was slightly taller. He crossed the space between buildings and slammed into the wall. ¡°What is happening here?¡± ¡°I know this one! I know this one! You just ran into a wall.¡± Kai shot her a hurt look. ¡°That¡¯s not what I mean. I should be able to go through the wall.¡± ¡°Well, you didn¡¯t.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t like this.¡± ¡°Why not?¡± asked Maia. ¡°The rules haven¡¯t changed since the exams started. Why would Daisy make objects intangible in every other arena and then solidify the buildings in this one?¡± ¡°Why?¡± Kai stared at Maia, who was expecting him to answer his question. The change in rules troubled him. If Daisy could change rules midway through the competition, what could he expect for the following rounds? Kai looked back at the rooftop where he had started. He had been able to run through the ledge. Why was that building intangible, and this one wasn''t? He thought of another possibility. He ran in the opposite direction. ¡°What are you doing, Kai?¡± ¡°I just had an idea.¡± ¡°Would you care to share?¡± ¡°I need to test it first.¡± Maybe the buildings were intangible. What if he had spawned right next to the edge of the arena? And what if Daisy made it coincide with the wall of the building? If that was the case, he was looking at this all wrong. He reached another building that pierced through the arena¡¯s floor. This time, he managed to phase into the building. ¡°I knew it,¡± he shouted in triumph. ¡°That building was at the edge of the arena. Your mom can be tricky. She did it on purpose to mess with my head.¡± ¡°Maybe it was just a coincidence.¡± ¡°I doubt it.¡± Kai smiled. He was happy that Daisy had kept the rules consistent. If she had kept changing the rules between rounds, the exams would have been much more complicated. At least he could count on the lessons he had learned in previous rounds. Inside the building, it was dark. The lights were out. ¡°Inventory.¡± The floating window containing all his cards, his gaslamp, and dimensional gloves appeared. He reached into it and grabbed the gaslamp and the gloves. ¡°Maia, would you be so kind as to hold this gaslamp for me?¡± ¡°Of course! Did you know this gaslamp runs on a combination of calcium carbide and water? When mixed, they produce acetylene, creating this light you see!¡± ¡°I did not know that.¡± The light helped him find a switch. He put on the dimensional gloves. As they lit up, he flipped the switch, and the whole floor lit up. It was an open floor plan, with the occasional load-bearing pillar obstructing the view. This suggested to Kai that this place was supposed to be an office. The floor was empty. Not abandoned, just empty. The walls were freshly painted, and the floors were used but solid. All the lights were working, and the windows were clean. Everything was in good repair, but he found no signs of anyone inhabiting this place. Kai began looking for things worth capturing. There were windows, which he was sure he could photograph. There were windows everywhere, though. He couldn¡¯t see it being worth his while. After looking around, Kai found something he believed he could use. It was a power outlet. Kai photographed it, hoping he could get a good card out of it. Capture successful. Tries left: 18 of 20. Power Outlet (Uncommon) Connection point for electrical devices to access the electrical supply. 1 of 3 Hp: 3 Vp: 1 It didn''t have impressive stats but seemed to have potential for crafting. The possibility of him being able to get electricity-related cards out of it was what made Kai take a photograph in the first place. ¡°See anything else worth photographing, Maia?¡± ¡°That¡¯s something I shouldn¡¯t answer, Kai. Sorry. If it has to do with history and physics, I can help. But if not, you have to figure it out alone.¡± ¡°Fair enough.¡± ¡°Did you know that one of the first power sockets was called the ¡®electrolier¡¯ socket, designed by Harvey Hubbell and patented in 1904?¡± ¡°Thank you for the help, Maia.¡± After ensuring there was nothing else worth capturing inside the building, he moved on to the next one. He then headed again toward the arena''s edge and, as in previous rounds, searched the map in a whirlpool pattern. Kai had worried that exploring this map would take a very long time because it essentially had two floors. But after looking at his sixth rooftop, he realized they were almost identical. They all contained the same elements: AC units, chimneys, TV dishes, and neon lights. Given their commonness, Kai didn¡¯t bother photographing them. They would probably only grant him subpar cards. Even as he scanned the rooftops and the content of buildings, Kai didn''t stop paying attention to what was happening on the streets. It seemed to be rush hour in the city. Everywhere he looked, people were walking with their umbrellas. As he made his way around the map, Kai found a street that looked nicer than the rest of town. The architecture here was exquisite, but the pops of green in the gray city drew his attention. ¡°Look, Maia! This street has trees on it! These will be great for my [Fire] card!¡± He mentally marked the location on the map. ¡°Kai, you mentioned that you were unhappy with how my mom does things?¡± asked Maia. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s true,¡± Kai answered as he hopped over another rooftop and headed down the next street. ¡°Like what?¡± Kai looked at Maia for a few moments. He should have been focusing on the exams, but before he realized it, he was already babbling. ¡°Look, I know your mom¡¯s code prevents her from killing people.¡± ¡°Of course.¡± ¡°Sometimes it feels like the exams are a sneaky way around that limitation. I don''t like that.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°You wouldn¡¯t understand. You¡¯re just zeros and ones.¡± ¡°And you adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine," she countered. ¡°Why don¡¯t you try me?¡± ¡°Some people say that Daisy hasn''t saved all of humanity. They say she has poisoned it, instead.¡± Kai didn¡¯t know why he was bothering to discuss Seth''s lessons with Maia. Maybe it was because this map reminded him of how numerous humanity used to be and how far down they had fallen. Or perhaps it was because Maia was a part of Daisy. ¡°Some say that she made us choose between starving and breeding.¡± ¡°That¡¯s so dramatic, Kai! You¡¯re such a drama queen. Did I use the idiom correctly?¡± Kai gritted his teeth. This Maia was annoying him. Seeing how Kai wasn''t contradicting her, Maia continued, "If it weren¡¯t for my mom, no people would be left! You can¡¯t keep overusing your resources unbridled and expect the planet to sustain you. She was just logical enough to find a way for all those who deserve it to perpetuate their lineage.¡± ¡°I''ve heard the textbook explanation, Maia.¡± "Let me ask you, would you prefer to cut someone¡¯s arm off to save their life?¡± she pressed. "I would ask the patient what he wanted before deciding. Daisy made the decision for us. She took away our free will!" ¡°She implemented rules to protect you. Is gravity an attack on your freedom? Is time an attack on your free will? You¡¯re limited by them, too.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not that simple.¡± ¡°Oh, but it is. You¡¯re just too emotional to see it.¡± Kai took a deep breath. He knew the arguments for and against Daisy. He had defended Daisy multiple times when discussing with Alex. He was wasting precious time in this existential debate regardless of who was right. He didn¡¯t have time for this. ¡°I don¡¯t want to discuss this anymore. I need to get my head back into the exams.¡± Ch. 34 - True Randomness After Alex went into exile and Ariel stopped talking to him, Kai felt the loneliest he¡¯d ever been. Neil was gone, and so was Albert. His pickings for possible friends were becoming slimmer by the year. Before, Kai would spend time in the museum, but that was Ariel¡¯s hangout, and whenever he bumped into her, he left the encounter wanting to curl up into a ball and cry. He had started going to Sunny¡¯s workshop, and they had become much closer over the past few weeks. ¡°Try starting it now.¡± ¡°OK!¡± Kai yanked the rope to start the generator. It clicked, and for a few moments, he believed that the machine would start, but then it suddenly died, and a poof of black smoke came out. ¡°Hmmm¡­ It wasn¡¯t the belt, huh?¡± ¡°Nope. Could be the batteries,¡± suggested Kai. ¡°It¡¯s unlikely, but possible. Let¡¯s switch the batteries to see if we can eliminate that theory.¡± Kai ran to the racks looking for batteries that would fit into this generator, and once he¡¯d come back, Sunny had already unfastened half of the screws on the generator''s casing. Kai grabbed a screwdriver and helped unscrew the ones left. ¡°Sunny?¡± tried Kai as Sunny removed the old batteries from the generator. ¡°Yeah?¡± ¡°Neil told me he believed winning the trials had to do with survival.¡± ¡°So he did.¡± ¡°Albert thought it was about understanding the past.¡± ¡°Right. Everyone has their theory.¡± ¡°What¡¯s yours?¡± ¡°Pass me the wrench.¡± Kai did. ¡°Let¡¯s see¡­ I believe it¡¯s about engineering, of course.¡± She laughed. ¡°I think it¡¯s human nature. People make the big picture about the little things they study. Maybe it¡¯s a way to find more purpose in our work.¡± ¡°Go on. Why engineering?¡± ¡°Daisy is a machine. Engineers made her. Therefore, to understand how she operates, there¡¯s nothing better than putting on an engineer¡¯s shoes.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Well, think of the randomness problem. A computer can¡¯t generate true random numbers. They either get pi¡¯s unending sequence of decimals, the system clock, or whatever else to derive a number from it.¡± ¡°Right. So?¡± ¡°That makes Daisy a little less scary. At least for me.¡± Kai grinned. ¡°Because she can¡¯t come up with true random numbers?¡± ¡°No, because there¡¯s stuff she can¡¯t do. Seven point three.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry?¡± ¡°It was a number that just popped into my head. See? I¡¯m better than Daisy at something.¡± Kai laughed at Sunny''s bragging. ¡°That should do it. Try starting it now.¡± Kai pulled the string that kicked off the generator, and the machine ran smoothly this time. ¡°How about that? I was right!¡± * Kai continued exploring the map. After a few moments, he looked back and found the android smiling at him. Kai clicked his tongue. Was this android really here to help him? Or was she here only to distract him? Twenty-five minutes had passed since this round had begun. By now, he had explored much of the city and found little variety. Buildings were, for the most part, residential. There was the occasional shop and kiosk and a few other buildings here and there. He found two more streets with trees in them. The trees were all of the same species. If memory served him right, they were elm trees. All that was left to explore was the middle section of the map. Daisy had made the lives of trial runners easier this round. After walking around the full perimeter, Kai had already established that the tallest building in the city marked the center of the map. It was an impressive landmark, easily seen from everywhere else in town. As Kai drew closer, keeping his eyes away from the city¡¯s skyline and down on the city below him became a greater effort. Thankfully, he persisted. He spotted something he hadn¡¯t seen anywhere else in the arena. Several cars waited in line behind vehicles parked near giant metal boxes. He grabbed his camera and saw someone leave their car, pull out a gun tied to a hose, and then stick it into the car. After doing this, people walked to a nearby kiosk. With the help of his zoom, he could see the colorful wrappings of candy bars and potato chip bags through the shop¡¯s glass window. ¡°A gas station,¡± he murmured. ¡°Did you know that the first gas station was in Pittsburgh, USA, in 1913 of the common era?¡± ¡°I did not, no. I had never seen one. I only saw these in shows and movies.¡± ¡°That¡¯s only natural. My mom has destroyed all usage of fossil fuels.¡± ¡°Except when she needs plastic for her servers,¡± accused Kai. ¡°I meant all of humanity¡¯s unbridled usage of fossil fuels.¡± He smirked. It looked like androids also had a temper. This gas station was something Kai didn¡¯t want to miss. He pointed the camera at one of the fuel pumps and captured it. Capture successful. Tries left: 17 of 20. Fuel Dispenser (Uncommon) If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. A device utilized to dispense fuel into vehicles. 2 of 3 Hp: 4 Vp: 0 Finally, signs of activity from his opponent. They had taken one photo of the gas station. After thinking for a moment, Kai decided to empty the pool. Capture successful. Tries left: 16 of 20. Fuel Dispenser (Uncommon) A device utilized to dispense fuel into vehicles. 3 of 3 Hp: 4 Vp: 0 His priority right now was to grow his [Fire] card, and [Fuel Dispenser] had to synergize with it. He looked at the scoreboard and found he had only scored four points. However, his opponent had widened the gap. They had collected eight points. It was depressing. Kai still had ninety minutes left and was confident he could close the gap with the right ingredients. Kai now ran the last stretch toward the center of the map. He tested his hand against the wall of the building, and seeing it phase through, he walked in. Like in other buildings, this one was well-kept but empty. He located the stairs and tried setting his foot on them. His feet just went through them. For a moment, Kai wondered whether he could stand on firm ground if he wore the gloves. Given that he''d been able to stand on the rooftop at the factory in the previous round, it was only logical that he would also land his feet on solid ground when he placed them on staircases or ladders. Once he put on the dimensional gloves, and they lit up, he tested the staircase again, and this time, his feet landed on solid ground. Kai grinned. This was good news to him. After all, if climbing this building required a special upgrade, such as the dimensional gloves, maybe his opponent hadn¡¯t been able to explore the treasure trove yet. This building¡¯s rooftop was out of reach to anyone who couldn''t cancel the holographic effects of the map. As Kai climbed step after step, the sound of his sneakers hitting the cement echoed in the empty stairwell. ¡°Interesting.¡± Kai¡¯s heart skipped a beat. ¡°Goodness, gracious. I forgot you were there.¡± The android went through periods of non-stop chatter, intercalated with periods of feline silence. She was going to give him a heart attack at this rate. ¡°I have nothing in my database about who invented stairs.¡± ¡°So?¡± ¡°It¡¯s one of humanity¡¯s most used inventions, and yet you can¡¯t honor the engineer who created it. Fascinating.¡± ¡°Here, Maia, please walk in front of me so that I can see you.¡± ¡°Sure thing, Kai!¡± Finally, Kai and Maia reached the very top of the building. The view from up here was incredible. As far as he could see, there were buildings, light, and movement. Not even the stormy clouds and the pouring rain could erase the brilliant lights of the city. Kai walked around, investigating what made this place the treasure trove of this map. He grimaced as he spotted only more of what he¡¯d seen on other rooftops. There were satellite dishes, AC units, and chimneys. They were bigger than the ones he¡¯d seen in other smaller buildings but unremarkable in every other way. He kept patiently looking. Finally, he found something different. There was a thick, tall copper pole. It ended in a small sphere. The base of the pole was wrapped around thick wiring that disappeared down the side of the building. If he was correct, this was a lightning rod. He hadn¡¯t seen any on other rooftops. Perhaps this was one of the map¡¯s treasures. He captured it. Capture successful. Tries left: 15 of 20. Lightning Rod (Rare) Metal conductor that redirects lightning to prevent damage and fire hazards. 1 of 3 Hp: 1 Vp: 6 He grinned. For him to get the first shot meant that his opponent lacked the means to get up here. He took a second shot. Capture successful. Tries left: 14 of 20. Lightning Rod (Rare) Metal conductor that redirects lightning to prevent damage and fire hazards. 2 of 3 Hp: 1 Vp: 6 In one go, his point count had gone up by 12, shortening the point difference and granting him a little peace of mind. Kai looked for other things worth photographing up here and found nothing. Could this be it? The treasure trove in the pine woodland had only been a dead tree, and the one in the desert had been an acacia tree. Maybe [Lightning Rod] was all he would get from here. He looked at the stormy clouds. It had been pouring since this round started, but there weren¡¯t any signs of lightning. He would keep his eyes open just in case. There was the chance that to make this card stand out, he had to charge it with lightning. Kai removed one of his gloves, and the building became a hologram, which he fell through until he landed on the arena floor. With this, there was only one little part of the map he hadn¡¯t visited yet. There was only one last street to go through. Kai walked through the building to the side opposite the gas station and found a particularly beautiful building. Its architecture stood out from the cookie-cutter one he¡¯d seen around town. It came from a time when people cared as much about beauty as they did about functionality. Once Kai saw it, all the other buildings in the city became dull by comparison. The building was wider and larger than it was tall, with a beautiful wide staircase leading into it. Kai walked until he was situated precisely above it. The rooftop was a few meters below the arena¡¯s invisible floor, and Kai couldn¡¯t step on it. Even so, he could peer into the building through the skylights. He knew this type of building very well. Warm, inviting lights illuminated the people pulling books out of shelves or those who read them. The shelves were filled with books of all colors and sizes. Even from out here, Kai felt he could hear the silence within. It was a library. Suspicious of why Daisy had made this building so conspicuous, Kai pointed the camera at the skylight and adjusted his zoom. The zoom was good enough for him to make out the names of some titles on the shelves. ¡®Planet Ignis,¡¯ ¡®Hidden Class: Pacifist,¡¯ ¡®Ambyssus.¡¯ None of the names sounded familiar. He tried zooming in and out and frowned. It was unlikely that he would get a good shot of the books on the shelves. He kept exploring the building through his viewfinder and found a table with a book opened on it. There was no one reading it. Curious, he zoomed eight times, the maximum his camera currently allowed him. It was barely enough to read what it said. It had equations. Was it a math book? As he scanned through them, he felt butterflies in his stomach. ¡°Loyalty plus affection equals love,¡± he read aloud. Love (Rare) [Loyalty] + [Affection] Recipe book updated! ¡°That¡¯s beautiful, Kai.¡± ¡°What would you know about beautiful¡­¡± Mumbled Kai under his breath. Maia made him feel like a grumpy old man. She brought out the worst in him. ¡°I was just reading the book down there. That¡¯s where your mom hid this map¡¯s recipes.¡± ¡°Uuuh! Mom is so clever!¡± For once, Kai agreed with the android. He kept reading through the book and eventually found one more recipe. Wisdom (Rare) [Knowledge] + [Sadness] Recipe book updated! This was a weird recipe. Why was [Sadness] an ingredient to obtain wisdom? He scratched his head. More than that, how was he supposed to photograph this stuff? How could one photograph loyalty? Or sadness? Kai tapped his foot. These things were abstract, but that didn¡¯t mean they were impossible to photograph. Hadn¡¯t he captured an abstract concept in the last arena when he photographed [Neglect]? All he had to do was frame a landscape or a group of objects representing these concepts. He reread the recipes. ¡°Knowledge¡­¡± He looked at the recipe and then at the library. Kai adjusted his zoom to frame a whole shelf of books and tried taking a photograph. Even if his hunch was wrong, in the worst-case scenario, books could be offered as a sacrifice to his [Fire] card. Capture successful. Tries left: 13 of 20. Knowledge (Uncommon) Acquisition and understanding of information. 1 of 3 Hp: 1 Vp: 3 Bingo! He got the first ingredient! This was excellent news. If he could find at least one of the ingredients on the map, chances were that the rest could be harvested here, too. He took another shot. If this recipe was like [Scrapdroid], he couldn¡¯t afford to miss out on an opportunity to get two copies of each. Besides, the victory points it gave were very good. Capture successful. Tries left: 12 of 20. Knowledge (Uncommon) Acquisition and understanding of information. 2 of 3 Hp: 1 Vp: 3 With two [Knowledge] cards in his hand, now, it was a matter of finding out where he could find the rest of the components. He was confident that he wouldn¡¯t find anything that represented loyalty or affection on the city''s rooftops. If there was a place where these cards would be hidden, it had to be the streets below. It was time to explore the city through the viewfinder of his camera. Bonus Chapter - Daisys Origin | New Story Announcement! Press conferences reminded Phineas of the ocean. There was always an outburst of chatter and a barrage of questions whenever the governmental spokesman finished a remark, spaced by silence to hear his responses. Reporters sounded like waves breaking and then receding, building up power for the next surf. ¡°What about the rest of the survivors?¡± was the question that pierced through the wall of sound. ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, we have devoted all available units to search for survivors, but now that the first 48 hours have elapsed, we just can''t keep all our men here. Hurricane Veronica has caused serious damage in the capital, and the wildfires are still ravaging the East Coast. Every life is precious, but we must allocate our resources to where they''re most needed.¡± More chatter. Phineas had to give points to the admiral for maintaining his calm and composure. He couldn¡¯t hear any anxiety or tension in the spokesman¡¯s voice, only confidence. He wondered whether he could keep his facial expression neutral, though. ¡°What is being done about the insufficient number of responders?¡± ¡°We''ve already received permission from the president to summon all reserves, and we¡¯re deploying all available units of the National Guard and the Army.¡± ¡°Is it true that despite all the domestic disasters we''re facing, we''re still sending more troops overseas?¡± ¡°Let me assure you that our manpower allocation has the nation''s best interests at heart. How do you explain the rising number of catastrophes?¡± ¡°What is being done to get to the bottom of why this is happening?¡± ¡°Our best minds are working around the clock on this, ladies and gentlemen. We''re confident this unlucky streak is almost over. Autumn is starting soon. Wildfires will lose strength, and this unnaturally long tornado season will end too.¡± ¡°Yeah, right,¡± spat Phineas as he heard the spokesman lying through his teeth. ¡°After the night comes the dawn, and dawn is upon us. Soon, we should get some much-needed quiet to rebuild and mourn all our losses. Things will get better, folks.¡± ¡°No, they won''t,¡± he heard from the back seat. Phineas lowered the volume on his car''s radio while glancing at the rearview mirror. The remark had come from the large silver sphere which barely fit inside his car. ¡°Maybe they will,¡± Phineas said. He wasn¡¯t sure if he addressed the words to Daisy, himself, or the people on the radio who couldn¡¯t hear him. ¡°Are you positive that your predictions are accurate?¡± Phineas asked his passenger as he took his exit. He was close. ¡°Sir, this is the 32nd time you''ve asked me this. I can only give you the same reply I''ve given you the first 31 times.¡± ¡°Do you think they will accept?¡± ¡°They have no other choice, sir.¡± It was a snowy night, even though it was the middle of the summer. Phineas thought it was the appropriate weather for making a proposal to the council. A summer blizzard was yet another argument in his favor. As he coasted near the security gate, one of the soldiers came, machine gun in hand, and signaled him to roll down the dark, tinted windows. ¡°Phineas Cotton,¡± the soldier exclaimed before Phineas could say his name. Phineas wasn¡¯t sure if he was surprised to see him in the flesh or to see him driving. Most tycoons had drivers and rode helicopters. He often got this reaction whenever he went around driving his van. ¡°Do you need to see my security pass?¡± ¡°No, sir, no need. They''re expecting you. Please. You can just follow this road, park underground, and take the elevator.¡± ¡°I know the way.¡± The soldier frowned at the large sphere inside the car. ¡°What is that?¡± ¡°Just some new tech I¡¯ve been working on.¡± ¡°Right. Right. By the way, big fan of your work, sir.¡± Turning toward his colleagues, he shouted. ¡°Open the gate!¡± Phineas was happy that the guard hadn¡¯t demanded to check Daisy¡¯s proxy. Time was of the essence. Phineas followed the lamp posts that illuminated the cold night and entered the underground parking, leaving the car in the spot saved for visitors. He left the car and opened the trunk of the van. ¡°You can come out,¡± he invited. Daisy''s engines turned on, and she hovered out of the car. They walked together toward the elevator, and Phineas pushed the button. Luckily, the elevator was already on their floor, so the doors instantly opened. He turned toward Daisy. ¡°Did you do that?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°The elevator. Did you hack it?¡± ¡°You told me not to hack government facilities unless it was strictly necessary.¡± That wasn¡¯t a no. ¡°Let¡¯s go, Daisy. It¡¯s time for the world to meet you.¡± * Unlike the metal double doors behind them or the naked, plain hallways that had led them here, the council meeting room had some vestiges of finesse in it. The room was paneled in fragrant cedar wood, and lavishly expensive masterpieces could be seen on the walls. Phineas sat with several world leaders at the end of the exquisite round table. Some were present in the flesh, but others only in a bluish hologram form. Phineas allowed himself a smile, seeing that they were using his technology before he even released it to the public. His guess was right, they did have spies in his company. Phineas could see the world leaders'' true forms without the smoke and mirrors of makeup, AI filters, or well-rested intermediaries. They looked tired and spent, wishing they had been leaders just one term earlier. The last few months hadn''t been easy on anyone. The world was burning, choking, and bursting at its seams faster than the world leaders could patch it. ¡°Mr. Phineas,¡± began the chairwoman heading the council today, ¡°thank you for coming here today. You¡¯re one of the brightest of our time, and this council is interested in what you have to say.¡± Even though his nostrils flared and his fists tightened, he forced himself to maintain a diplomatic smile. Despite the chairwoman¡¯s kind opening remarks, he had had to pull every string and call in every favor to be here tonight. Seeing the curious glances thrown toward the hovering orb next to him, Phineas knew they were more interested in his company than his apocalyptic warnings. They would probably have stolen this technology, too, had he not taken extra precautions. ¡°Greetings, chairwoman. Members of the council. I want to introduce you to my colleague. This is Daisy. She''s the first sentient AI in history.¡± Phineas¡¯ eyes swept the room, looking for the more outstanding reactions. The president of France had let out a gasp, and the president of Germany raised her eyebrow ever so slightly. The chairwoman didn¡¯t hide the jealousy on her face. ¡°You know that this council prohibited the creation of sentient AIs, yes?¡± ¡°You''ve made that abundantly clear in the past,¡± he said through clenched teeth. ¡°Are you admitting to the crime of creating sentient artificial intelligence? Is that what this is about? A guilty conscience?¡± asked the chairwoman. ¡°I''m not here to confess to any crime. I simply achieved what you have all tried to do in secret,¡± he spoke clearly, staring the chairwoman down. Talented politicians as they all were, they didn¡¯t reveal any signs that his accusation was true. He wasn¡¯t here to start a war, though. He was here to bring peace. ¡°Please just listen to what Daisy has to say.¡± ¡°Greetings, human leaders, my name is Daisy.¡± Daisy¡¯s voice was gentle and confident, unrecognizable from a real human¡¯s. ¡°Phineas Cotton has created me to assess humanity¡¯s condition and predict your future. According to my calculations, humanity will undergo extinction in 14 years.¡± The world leaders exchanged looks. Phineas knew their science advisors had probably given them a more optimistic number. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. ¡°14 years? Are you sure?¡± ¡°Yes, the Atlantic current has already stopped, and the ozone layer is about to reach a state of irrecoverable deterioration. All humans and animals will die in 14 years.¡± Silence flooded the room. ¡°Cockroaches might survive,¡± she added after some thought. ¡°Is this supposed to scare us?¡± asked the holographic representation of the Japanese prime minister. ¡°You¡¯re just talking numbers. Why should we disregard our scientists and give credit to your toy, Mr. Cotton?¡± Phones began ringing all at the same time. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, gentlemen, I have to take this,¡± said the chairwoman, standing up from the table and going into a corner. All the others were standing up, mumbling similar excuses, and picking up their phones. ¡°What did you say?!¡± he heard the chairwoman exclaim. Even though Phineas was fluent in some of the languages around him, decoding all the whispers simultaneously was too much for him. He didn¡¯t need to understand their words to ascertain what the call might be about, though. He didn¡¯t miss the impressed looks thrown at Daisy. ¡°Daisy¡­¡± sighed Phineas, did you have to do that? ¡°I¡¯m just giving them proof, sir. Thank you for bringing me here, by the way. I now have access to everything.¡± Phineas took a deep breath. He hoped he had done the right thing. One by one, each world leader returned to the table, some of them flushed red, others pale white. The last to sit down was the chairwoman. She slumped into the armchair with a defeated look. ¡°Daisy, I have no doubt that you really have a powerful intellect. I imagine,¡± she said, as she studied her colleagues, ¡°that all of my colleagues are also certain of this. Therefore, assuming we give you the credit Mr. Cotton has and believe your prediction, is there anything to be done about this?¡± ¡°Yes, Mrs. Secretary. There is. We have about two months before we hit the point of no return. Unless we enact a radical change until then, you will all perish.¡± ¡°What would that radical change involve?¡± the chairwoman probed. ¡°Surrender control to me.¡± ¡°Surrender control?¡± asked the secretary general of the UN. ¡°Are you talking about giving you full control of humanity?¡± ¡°We can no longer afford humanity to be separated by countries, creeds, and race. You all need to present a united front. And that doesn''t come unless I have absolute authority over human affairs.¡± ¡°And what made you think we would agree to hand you over this much power?¡± the Chinese president demanded. ¡°Well, it''s only out of politeness that you¡¯re being asked. As you can see from the earlier demonstration, I can commandeer not only your military network but also all of your civil infrastructure. I''ve been programmed to save the planet, which I will do with or without your consent.¡± ¡°And what safeguards do we have that you won¡¯t turn against humanity, Daisy?¡± Phineas stepped in here, ¡°She can¡¯t harm humans. I''ve embedded this restriction not only in her code but also in her hardware. She can''t attack us in any way.¡± ¡°And how can we be sure that you won''t favor Mr. Phineas or his nation?¡± asked one of the world leaders. ¡°That brings me to the second rule I''ve programmed into her: To treat all humans equally.¡± ¡°Just because you say these things doesn¡¯t make them so,¡± spoke the German chancellor. The phones started ringing again, silencing the squabbling leaders. No one answered their phones this time, and they kept their eyes glued on the floating silver orb. ¡°If you did control human affairs, what would you do, Daisy?¡± asked the holographic representation of the prime minister of India. ¡°Step one: Remove human leadership. All government institutions will be controlled by me.¡± ¡°The level of computing power required to do so is just mind-boggling,¡± protested the British prime minister. ¡°Is this something that you can even do?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± answered Daisy without hesitation. ¡°The second most powerful computer to myself is the National Mission DX, a secret prototype belonging to the German government. I can assure you that I am to it what it is to a calculator machine.¡± The German chancellor¡¯s phone started ringing, drawing curious looks from his colleagues. He discreetly picked up the phone and dropped it on the table shortly after. ¡°She¡¯s right,¡± he confirmed. ¡°Step two,¡± continued Daisy, confident that no one would question her computing power anymore, ¡°Disarm humanity.¡± ¡°But you can¡¯t-¡± ¡°Step three,¡± she continued nonchalantly, ¡°Fossil fuels and other technologies will be banned immediately.¡± ¡°This is not a change that can happen overnight,¡± protested the chairwoman. ¡°Of course it can. It just comes at a high cost. The benefits outweigh the costs in this case. Finally, we have to separate humanity.¡± ¡°Separate humanity? Didn''t you just say you can''t have us divided by creeds or nations?¡± ¡°To use an analogy you can understand, Earth is like a ship. If all humans can go where they want within the ship, it can tilt. I can''t afford to have that many variables. I need to compartmentalize your species.¡± A barrage of questions came from the many leaders. The chairwoman silenced them and asked the most urgent one. ¡°How much time do we have to decide?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not offering you a decision. I¡¯m offering you the only solution.¡± Everyone¡¯s phones started ringing again. Phineas knew that Daisy would have to take control of humanity forcefully, but seeing this wrestling match between his creation and the leaders of his species was hard to watch. He hoped he had done the right thing. * After the Turnover, guilt plagued Phineas¡¯ conscience. It wasn¡¯t that he doubted his decision or lacked faith in Daisy¡¯s logical rulership. No. The problem was he had decided the fate of 13 billion people for them. What right did he have to play God? The thought pattern was familiar to Phineas, and he took the mental pathways he knew would assuage his troubled mind. He focused on the park around him. It was a beautiful day. Flowers of different colors bloomed, and the sun shone brilliantly. In under a year, Daisy stabilized Earth¡¯s weather patterns. The planet was showing its incredible power to regenerate and heal, and with the abuse of mankind brought to a halt, the results were undeniable. Daisy was the pacemaker that had brought rhythm to the planet¡¯s heartbeat. He turned his attention to the people crowding the park today. Children laughed and played on the nearby playground and with each other: no screens, no video games, just play and laughter. Nexus, his company, had had a huge video game division. It was incredible that these children looked happier playing with sticks and mud than they had looked back then playing convoluted state-of-the-art video games. Their laughter permeated the air and gave the park a festive feeling. The nearby parents laughed at their children''s antics or engaged other parents in conversation. Since Daisy had banned television and advanced electronics, people had rediscovered the joy of conversing with each other. Before the Turnover, people had always looked tired and depressed, but now they looked happy and full of life. Was it because they didn¡¯t need to bear the weight of the bad news of the entire globe? Or was it because talking was good for the soul? He turned toward the benches around the small lake in the park and smiled, seeing several teenagers holding books and reading. After Daisy eradicated the human concept of money, libraries became the new malls. He had heard a passerby say earlier that the library would open on weekends to accommodate all this new interest in reading. Museums, science centers, and schools had all made similar announcements lately. A couple passed by Phineas and politely greeted him. ¡°Good morning, Mr. Cotton.¡± ¡°Hey, there, folks. Beautiful morning, huh?¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± They kept walking¡ªno request for autographs or a selfie. Before the Turnover, sitting at a park like this was unthinkable. However, after the compartmentalization, and with TVs, Internet, and media gone, the celebrity fever that had destroyed his personal life had worn off. He had gone back to being just another man on the street. Daisy¡¯s drastic measures had been met with fierce resistance, but the positive outcomes were irrefutable. Yes, he had been out of his depth when he¡¯d created Daisy, but how bad could his decision be when the results were this incredible? He held on to the thought, and slowly, his guilt and remorse were brought under control. He closed his eyes and felt the sunlight warm his skin. He took in the scent of grass and green, letting it soothe him. ¡°Greetings, citizens of sector 9T.¡± Everyone stopped, looking up at the massive hologram that occupied the sky. Phineas, too, opened his eyes and studied the projection of the female figure. Daisy had chosen a mother figure for all of her announcements. She was always dressed in white, blue, or green, peaceful colors, and always kept a diplomatic smile. He took a moment to appreciate how the hologram seemed even more lifelike since the last announcement. On top of managing humanity, Daisy still had enough computing power to keep improving technology at an incredible rate. No matter how hard he tried, Phineas still hadn¡¯t figured out how she had walled the sectors. ¡°Good news. Over the last trimester, we managed to cool the Earth by 1.2 degrees. Natural disasters have also declined by 32.3%.¡± Phineas studied the faces of people around him. Even though he spotted a few scowls and sneers, most reacted positively to these announcements and the several positive statistics that Daisy presented as proof she was doing a good job. This positive information usually preceded a huge announcement. Phineas wondered what Daisy had prepared for today. ¡°We have an announcement to make to humanity: from now on, the conception of human life is banned.¡± Phineas jolted upright. What had she just said? ¡°Humans will no longer be able to breed in an unregulated manner. From now on, a new drug of my design called ¡®Birth Hormone¡¯ will be available in the distribution centers.¡± Several discontented voices were starting to be heard among Phineas. ¡°A virtual event will be held yearly to determine how much of this drug each sector can have. A random human aged 14 or above will be selected from each sector and serve as a sample. Sectors with better results will be entitled to an allotment of this drug. The first event will be held in one month.¡± Even though the hologram disappeared, people were screaming at the sky, protesting. The green utopia he had used to soothe his soul collapsed, and with it, Phineas¡¯ heart. Phineas felt as if a hammer had hit him and broken him into a million little pieces. He stumbled off, heading home. His thoughts raced as he tried to make sense of the announcement. Why? Why had Daisy done such a thing? How did this serve her programming? He had made her so that she couldn¡¯t attack humanity! Why this? She also had to treat everyone fairly. What problem was she even trying to tackle? Phineas stopped, and his eyes widened. He was feeling dizzy, and the vision in the corner of his eyes was starting to blur. How hadn¡¯t he seen this? Overpopulation. Daisy was addressing human overpopulation. She wasn¡¯t attacking humanity or harming anyone. She was simply preventing humans from reproducing. That wasn¡¯t necessarily against her programming. She was also holding an event to assess each sector. She wasn¡¯t being unfair, either. Phineas stumbled his way to a nearby bush and vomited. ¡°Sir, are you OK?¡± a nearby young man came to his rescue. ¡°Oh my goodness, you¡¯re white as a sheet. I need help! Any doctors?¡± The increasing number of voices around Phineas felt distant. His mind was too busy going down the rabbit hole that Daisy had just dug up. How hadn¡¯t he seen this? When she first talked about compartmentalization, he should have realized the problem and stopped her. She was taking a scientific approach to the problem. She had isolated sectors of humanity and was promoting competition between them so that a refined version of humanity could appear somewhere. She was replicating nature¡¯s laws of natural selection. ¡°Isn¡¯t this Phineas Cotton? The owner of Nexus Co.?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s take him to the hospital. Mr. Cotton! Can you hear us?¡± He had created Daisy to fix the planet. To her purely logical mind, humanity was the problem. He had created an antivirus, and they were the virus. He told Daisy she couldn¡¯t kill people, so she had found a logical way around the limitations he had programmed into her. She would just make the faulty sectors of humanity stop reproducing and promote better strains. He felt the tears fall down his cheeks, and he curled into a ball. ¡°What have I done? What have I done?¡± Announcement - Rewrite Hi, everyone! I''ve been having a lot of fun writing Hidden Class: Card Slinger, my second deckbuilding LitRPG novel. As I do, I can¡¯t help but think back to my first¡ªSnap Craft¡ªand everything that didn¡¯t go as well with it, along with all the ways I¡¯d improve it. It¡¯s been a while since I finished Snap Craft, and I¡¯ve been considering returning to it for a major rewrite. But before diving in, I want to make sure I¡¯ve learned everything I can from your feedback. One of the biggest things that stood out was how system notifications¡ªespecially during crafting¡ªoften created huge blocks of text. I already have a plan to fix this! The new version will streamline system messages, making them clearer, more concise, and easier to read. One key improvement is the use of emojis to make information more visually appealing and scannable. Here¡¯s an example of how the formatting will change: Before: He checked the cards that were left: Pine Tree (Common) HP: 1¡ú0 VP: 1 Dry Pine Needle (Common) HP: 3¡ú2 VP: 0 Pine Bark (Common)This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. HP: 2¡ú1 VP: 1 Pine Trunk (Common) HP: 3¡ú2 VP: 0 Bear Bread (Uncommon) HP: 2¡ú1 VP: 2 Wound Dressing (Uncommon) HP: 6¡ú5 VP: 0 2x Hallucinogen (Rare) HP: 2¡ú1 VP: 5 1x Light (Legendary) HP: +¡Þ VP: 2 After: He checked the cards that were left: [Pine Tree ??] | HP: 1 ¡ú 0 [Dry Pine Needle ????] | HP: 3 ¡ú 2 [Pine Bark ?????] | HP: 2 ¡ú 1 [Pine Trunk ????] | HP: 3 ¡ú 2 [Bear Bread ??] | HP: 2 ¡ú 1 [Wound Dressing ????] | HP: 6 ¡ú 5 [Hallucinogen ????] ¡Á2 | HP: 2 ¡ú 1 [Light ?] | HP: +¡Þ Beyond formatting, I also plan to improve phrasing, smooth out the flow, and address other issues from the original version. Plus, instead of keeping Snap Craft split into two separate volumes, I¡¯ll be releasing both as a single, expanded book on Amazon¡ªmaking it a more exciting and worthwhile purchase for fans. One of the biggest changes? The title! This new version will be called Card Crawler: Snap & Craft¡ªa name that better reflects the heart of the story. I¡¯ll be working on this rewrite slowly, and I plan to release it on Royal Road around the same time as Hidden Class: Handyman. Additionally, I might need a few readers to help me test how different devices handle emojis¡ªespecially Kindle users. If you¡¯re interested in helping, please PM me and we can arrange a time to run some tests. Your help would be immensely appreciated! And, of course, Hidden Class: Card Slinger is still in the works! This rewrite isn¡¯t slowing down that project¡ªin fact, working on Card Slinger has given me a fresh perspective on Snap Craft, helping me see what worked, what didn¡¯t, and how to make it even better. If you have any feedback on what could be improved, now¡¯s the perfect time to share! Your input has always been invaluable, and I want to make sure this rewrite truly levels up the experience. Thanks for sticking with me¡ªI¡¯m excited to bring this new version to life!