SNAPCRAFT | Ch. 43 - Shadow Dragon

As much as he hated to admit it, coming to the mountains had been good for him. Kai found himself thinking less about Ariel. Clara had pointed out to him on several occasions that he was smiling more since he came here.

It had been another day of collecting samples, making drawings of plants, and brushing up on his Latin. Now, Clara snored in the armchair by the fire while Kai goofed around, fiddling with his hands, twisting them into different shapes and casting whimsical shadows on the wall of the cabin.

He made a bear cub that transformed into a mighty ox, only to change back into a cute kitten. When Alex was still around, they had spent long, fun evenings plotting stories to present to the others around the bonfire. Sadly, that was a much more boring affair when one was casting shadows solo.

He wished he could teach Ariel so they could do shadow puppets together, but how could he? Not only did she not want to talk to him right now, he was forced to come to the mountains to be out of her sight. He sighed and was startled when Clara let out a particularly loud and grainy snore in response.

Kai put his hand against his mouth, trying not to laugh at Clara’s otherworldly snores. After shadow puppet shows, the next most fun thing he and Alex used to do was create new shadow puppets. Kai twisted his hands, moved his fingers and a dragon appeared on the wall. This was an original. Alex had come up with it, and was one of his proudest creations.

Even though his friend was long gone, seeing the shape he had come up with ignited Kai’s competitive spirit. He started to experiment with new shapes, hoping to create something that would surpass Alex’s shadow dragon.

*

Kai stood very still. The cat looked at him from within the vines of the jungle. Could it see him? Had it been stalking him? If so, this was the first time something on the map interacted so directly with him.

The jaguar had to be a rare card. Maybe even a legendary one! He had to try to get its picture. Most maps had a moving part, a variable that shifted. In the quarry, it had been the mining wagon. In the desert, the roaming oryx. In the city, it was the lightning storm. It seemed that he had just found the variable in this arena.

Kai took a few confident steps toward the animal, trying to override his natural instincts. The jaguar felt so real, and it seemed to be in sync with his reality, making Kai feel as if he was just a walking meal running towards the beast’s maws. The moment he started walking toward the jaguar, it jumped from the trees and disappeared.

Was it a shy jaguar? How could he get a good photograph of it if it just kept hiding in the bush and ran away from him whenever he approached?

“What a beautiful creature,” said Maia.

Kai whirled toward her, surprised. “Beautiful?”

“Yes. Why?”

“Nothing. I thought admiring beauty was a human thing.”

Maia didn’t seem offended by his remark. He scratched his chin, searching for a solution for his jaguar problem, and then had an idea. He remembered the lessons with Clara and smirked.

“Maia.”

“What?” she asked suspiciously. “What do you want this time, Kai?”

The android was beginning to know him well. Maybe Kai was pushing it. But how could he not make full use of this awesome upgrade?

“Let's go to the nearest weird fern. Once we get there, I want you to just keep walking.”

“Walk away from you?” she asked, offended.

“Yes. Walk no matter what I do.”

The android’s artificial porcelain features twisted.

“Any problem?”

“I'm an android companion, Kai. How can I accompany you if I walk away from you?”

“Huh?” Kai stared at her, surprised. For a moment, Kai considered whether there was some sort of rule dictating the maximum distance Maia could be away from him. “So you don’t want to be too far away from me?”

“No.”

“Please stay still,” he asked. Kai slowly walked away from Maia. Once he was twenty steps away, she walked toward him. It looked like there really was a limit to how far the android could be from him. He wondered why Daisy had set this rule.

“Is this distance OK?” he called out.

“Yes.”

“Would you at least be willing to walk around in circles while keeping this much distance?”

“I guess I could do that.”

Kai walked toward her, and she smiled, happy to be near him again.

“So here’s the plan. Once we get to the fern. The moment I take the picture, I want you to take off and walk in circles. You don’t need to go too far. Just stick to that distance we tried earlier.”

“Got it.”

“Let’s go get the next weird plant. Come on.”

With each passing minute, the jungle became darker. Kai was pretty sure that it was still bright on the beach, where there wasn’t a dense jungle canopy competing for sunlight.

Finally, they arrived at the location of the weird fern.

“Do you remember the plan?”

Maia nodded.

“On your mark, Maia,” he whispered. “I’m going to count to three. You just start walking, no matter what I do, and keep walking in circles until I call you. Is that clear?”

“I said I remembered the plan,” she complained.

Kai ignored her scowl, grabbed the camera, activated flash, and took a shot.

Capture successful!

Tries left: 6 of 20

White Fern (Rare)

A fern that seems to have been genetically altered.

1 of 2

Hp: 2

Vp: 5

The moment the flash activated, Kai ducked, and Maia took off at a brisk pace, disappearing into the bush. Kai tried to locate the cat but found nothing. He had hoped to catch the reflection of the flash in the jaguar’s eyes but saw nothing.

“False alarm,” he screamed. “Come back, Maia.”

The android quickly returned. Kai circled around the fern. Maybe the jaguar was watching them from a different angle. He waited for a few moments for the beast’s eyes to get used to the darkness again. “Get ready. Same plan. One, two, three.”

Capture successful!

Tries left: 5 of 20

White Fern (Rare)

A fern that seems to have been genetically altered.

2 of 2

Hp: 2

Vp: 5

The moment that the flash shot, he caught the reflection of the jaguar’s two predatory eyes. He had zeroed in on its position. Now aware of the wild cat’s location, Kai dropped to the ground. Its eyes had to be very sensitive, and the flash should have dazzled it enough to make it miss Kai ducking.

As the jaguar’s vision returned, it focused on the android, who hadn’t stopped moving. The cat jumped from bush to bush, from shadow to shadow, stalking Maia. Kai patiently waited motionless for a few minutes.

The jaguar eventually also realized that Maia was walking in circles and ended up settling into an area where it could have a good view of Maia's route. It happened to be about 5 meters away from Kai’s location, up in the trees.

During this whole process, Kai remained motionless. Ever so slightly, he moved the camera and very gently pressed the zoom button. As the little mechanical sounds made the camera's image zoom in on the jaguar, the cat’s ears scanned the surroundings, trying to locate the source of the alien sound.

Kai had to be quick. He framed the jaguar nicely, and just as it spotted him and looked into the camera, Kai activated flash and took the photograph.

Capture successful!

Tries left: 4 of 20

Jaguar (Legendary)

The apex predator of the jungle.

1 of 1

Hp: 3

Vp: 10

As soon as the flash fired, the Jaguar took off and disappeared into the bush.

“You can come back, Maia!”

Kai studied the new shiny card in his hand. What an awesome card! It had a very generous victory point count and even had a few hit points making it useful for crafting. The only thing that could rival it, among all the animal cards that he had, was the unicorn.

He couldn't remember a snapping round in which he'd done better. He had photographed two legendary cards in one round! There was also this collection of weird genetically altered plants. With this, he was sure he had taken the seven most valuable photographs in the jungle.

Time had sneaked up on Kai. Two hours had already gone by. [Deadline Extension] was proving its worth by granting him 15 extra minutes on the stage. He had to make full use of this extension. It was time to experiment again with shadow puppets.

“Maia,” he said, handing her the camera while taking his gaslamp from the inventory and hanging it on a tree, “I want you to take a photograph of the shadows that I'm going to do with my hands.”

“Are you trying shadow mimicry again? How fascinating.”

Kai stretched both his hands in front of the lamp. He joined his wrists together, slightly separated his palms, and then crooked his fingers. The shape of an alligator appeared on the ground.

“Go ahead, Maia.”

Capture failed!

Tries left: 3 of 20.

Kai frowned. What did it mean that the capture had failed? He was sure the shadow alligator he'd made was good enough to be converted into a picture.

“Let’s find somewhere darker.” They moved around until Kai found a particularly dense part of the jungle, where it was pitch black. He again put the gas lamp down. This time, he stuck to a shape he already knew worked. He made a shadow wolf.

“Get the wolf, Maia.”

Capture failed!

Tries left: 2 of 20.

Kai stood dumbfounded at the notification. “How could it have failed? It worked before.”

Maia didn’t say anything in response. Kai tried thinking of reasons for this. He had been extra careful to get the perfect lighting. He could scratch off that as the reason for the shadow puppet’s failure.

One possibility was that his competitor this round was also making shadow puppets. But what were the odds of another trial runner thinking of making shadow puppets? If it were just the [Shadow Wolf] failing, he would have accepted it. But making a shadow crocodile wasn’t that easy. It was an advanced shape….

A terrible suspicion started forming in his mind. All shadow puppets he’d captured in the desert arena had the text 1 of 1, regardless of their rarity. He had assumed this meant he could only capture each shadow puppet once in each round. But could it be that each shadow puppet could only be captured once in the whole exam?

Kai passed his hand through his hair. The more he thought about it, the more sense it made. If there was a pool of shadow cards common to all players, and it wasn’t renewed after each round, both captures failing made more sense. It was more likely that from the pool of 500+ trial runners, one of them had made these shapes in this or other rounds, than for his competitor this round to do that.

He kicked a nearby rock, but his foot just went through it. He had just lost the ace in his sleeve. The shadow puppets had been his backup plan, something to fall back into whenever he couldn't find things worth capturing. He’d been naive. It turned out that it was too good to be true.

Even though it was an annoying rule, he supposed it was fair. After all, he would have broken the game if he could make legendary cards every single round by relying solely on shadows and shapes that he made with his hands. By limiting shadow cards to a one-of-a-kind capture, Daisy would push the limits of a trial runner’s creativity. He was fine with it. He was confident that there was no other trial runner in these exams who could do shadow puppets as complex as he.

The crocodile puppet was fairly complex, but he knew shapes that no one else knew. Kai twisted his arms and fingers in an uncomfortable position, creating one of the unique shapes he had invented when he and Clara were up in the mountains. As he adjusted the shape and angled it, the shadow of a tentacled sea monster appeared on the ground.

“Maia. You can go for it.”

Capture successful!

Tries left: 1 of 20.

Shadow Sea Monster (Rare)

1 of 1

A mythical creature that lurks in the depths of the ocean.

Hp: 0

Vp: 6

Kai smiled. With this shot, he confirmed his theory. Even if there was another talented shadow puppeteer in this exam, if he stuck to shapes that only he knew how to do, his plan B would still be solid.

He brought his hands together and gently adjusted every single joint in his hand until the figure of a mighty dragon appeared on the ground. This was a shape that he had never seen in any book. It was one that Alex had invented.

“Go for it, Maia.”

Capture failed

Tries left: 0 of 20.

Kai froze and stood speechless for a long time. “H-How?” Only he and Alex knew this shape! Only he and Alex… The thought hit Kai like a hammer, and he collapsed to the ground.

“Kai? Are you unwell? Your heart rate has accelerated immensely.”

“Alex. Alex,” was the only thing he managed to say through gasps. It wasn’t impossible. His friend hadn’t died. He had only chosen exile. He supposed that muscle memory could stick even after a memory wipe. There was no rule that prevented exiles from being summoned to the exams.

As the jumbled thoughts pieced together and gained traction, they culminated in a realization: somewhere out there, Alex was competing in the exams.

Ch. 42 - Motionless Observation

INDEX

Ch. 44 - Botanical Fascination