SNAP CRAFT | Ch. 41 - Black and Blue

Kai tried making out the sector's capital through the mist, but the thick white smoke of the mountains concealed the city. He saw nothing but white.

“I’ve been keeping count of how often you look back toward the capital, Kai. Right now, you’re doing it once every three minutes.”

“So what?” Kai answered irritably, continuing his march. He didn’t need Clara to remind him he was pining for Ariel; the pain in his heart constantly reminded him of that.

“Did you know, Kai, that before the Turnover, most people didn’t want children?”

The sudden change of subject threw off Kai. “Uh? Really?”

“Oh yes. It was a big problem back then. The world population kept getting older and older, but couples refused to start families.”

“Why?”

She shrugged. “Don’t know. They had better things to do back then?”

That sounded ridiculous to Kai. The alien thought amused him, but more than that, he was puzzled by Clara's choice of topic. “And why are you telling me this?”

“In a sense, when Daisy came along and negated child-bearing to humanity, she solved the problem. As soon as it became a prize to a competition, all of a sudden, having children was something everyone wanted to do.”

“Are you saying that Daisy used reverse psychology on humankind?”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

“And what’s the point?”

“Someday, you will understand.” And she stopped there.

Kai tried to understand why Clara mentioned this piece of history to him but couldn’t. He didn’t have children. He wasn’t even married.

Conscious of how Clara observed him, Kai tried to stop looking back as they hiked up the mountain. With each step, the surroundings became wilder and the inclination of the ground steeper.

“It’s just behind those trees,” came the tired call from Clara after several hours of non-stop traveling. It was a picturesque wooden cabin situated in a clearing. Next to it, Kai spotted a neat pile of firewood under a little shed.

Even though nature crept all around the cabin, it failed to taint the human building. It was as if nature knew that the house didn’t belong and refused to have anything to do with it.

“This is it, Kai. Your home for the next few months.”

*

Kai had expected that walking into the ocean was similar to walking down the mountain, as he had on that painful trek back home after living in the cabin. Entering a tub would have been a more faithful comparison. The ondulation was already bringing the water up to his neck. Then, a few steps further in, a wave submerged him for good.

Once his head was fully in the water, it was as if he had entered a different planet. The waves kept disturbing the water, bringing down the foam and agitating the bed of sand. The never-ending stir churned the water, compromising visibility.

Only after fully immersing his head did he finally realize the origin of the little bubbles of air he had spotted earlier. Creatures half-buried in the sand stretched out tentacles and tendrils to collect particles of food brought to them by the surf.

Whenever the tide was high, they came out of their shells and fed, submersed. They probably just stayed buried in the damp sand when the tide was low. The only vestiges of their presence were the tiny air bubbles that gave away the hidden mollusks.

Kai’s sector had no ocean, so he had little experience with marine fauna and flora. They only knew what was left of the books and records. It wasn’t like they could afford to ask about it in the yearly news rally between sectors.

Seeing the mollusks, Kai pointed the camera at one of them and took a shot.

Capture successful!

Tries left: 15 of 20.

Razor Clam (Common)

Bivalve mollusk characterized by its long, narrow, and razor-sharp shell.

1 of 4

Hp: 1

Vp: 2

He sighed, disappointed. Maybe he shouldn’t have spent a shot on this. He decided against taking a second one. He would just copy it later if need be. As Kai and Maia continued their march, the water became deeper, the surf quieter, and the razor clams fewer.

Not too far from the beach, he began finding random rock outcrops. At first, one or two of them, like islands in the sand. Kai approached one of them, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Like the razor clams, more creatures were glued to the rock and stretched their maws to feed on the current. Before hastily taking a photo, he moved on to the next rock and found a very similar assortment of similar creatures. He decided to wait. He was glad he did because the seafloor became a rocky landscape after traveling a little further.

There were all sorts of shells and clams glued to the rocks. At first, the clumps of mineralized animals, hanging for their dear life to the rocks, all looked the same, but after a few rocks, he started to see the differences between them. Although he was no expert in marine wildlife, he found a collection of shells, forming a honeycomb pattern he identified as barnacles. There were also gatherings of shiny obsidian clams that he guessed were mussels. He saw no more razor clams. Maybe they preferred to live buried in the sand, nearer to the beach.

Kai searched rock after rock. A few minutes in, he realized he could spend half of the snapping arena here if he wasn’t careful; therefore, he gave himself five more minutes to look for anything interesting. Sunny had always said that when one sets a deadline to get the job done, the job gets done. That seemed like a valid principle to apply here.

Rock after rock, he kept finding mussels and barnacles. He was looking for something unusual, something rare that could be worth more points. He finally arrived at an unassuming rock with no shellfish attached. He looked over it carefully, finally noticing some weren’t rock—jagged rocky blades sprung from the rock, similar to the flint blades he’d crafted.

He pointed his camera at it and took a shot.

Capture successful!

Tries left: 14 of 20.

Oyster (Uncommon)

Bivalve mollusks with a hard, irregularly shaped shell.

3 of 3

Hp: 1

Vp: 3

Kai clicked his tongue. Here was the first sign of his opponent, and it looked like they had gotten here first and taken the first two [Oyster] cards. Probably, it wasn’t worth it for Kai to keep exploring the reef. He would go deeper down and find out what Daisy had hidden nearer the edge of the map.

The further he walked, the more water separated him from the surface and the sun's light, turning his horizon into a never-ending blue and black wall. The ocean seemed more talented than the sky at keeping secrets.

He kept walking, phasing through the water, unaffected by the whims of the underwater drag or currents. He was so deep now that hardly any light made it down here. Kai was curious to see how deep the ocean in the arena went. He took the gaslamp out.

After several more minutes of walking, he hit the wall. He had found the edge of the arena. It looked like the arena from the previous round, with a perfectly flat invisible floor, was an exception. Here, the terrain was much more varied. Or maybe the dome in this arena was tilted at an angle, with its lowest point being where he stood.

“What now?” asked Maia from the side.

“Aaah!” He’d forgotten that Maia was here. Why was she so quiet?! “Maia! You almost gave me a heart attack!”

“I’m sorry.”

Maia had been so chatty on the beach, but she had gone quiet after they reached the reef. It was as if she only had two modes—non-stop chatting and silent prowl. Kai looked up at all the water between the seafloor and the surface.

After recovering his breath, Kai answered her question, “Now, I have to figure out my next move. The darkness, and the density of the water make it harder to see far into the distance. Also,” said Kai, pointing up, “this arena has a greater area to explore. The ocean adds a vertical component to the map.”

Now that he knew how much bigger this arena was, he had to reallocate more time to exploring the ocean. Fortunately, he hadn’t needed too much time on the beach. Between finding his bearings, crossing the beach that split the sea from the jungle, and exploring the reef, he had used up 30 minutes. He could spend 30 minutes more here.

“How insightful.”

“I still have to do an experiment, though.” Kai tried jumping, but nothing happened. The water around him was an illusion and provided no buoyancy. He tried to make a swimming motion with his hands and didn’t move.

If he was right, he could swim using [Dimensional Gloves]. He pulled the gloves from his pocket and started putting them on. Just as he was about to finish putting on the second glove, he hesitated.

“What’s wrong?” queried Maia.

“I was just thinking if I’ll drown.”

“That’s a good question. The need you humans have for breathing has always fascinated me. What is it like to breathe, Kai?”

The question caught Kai by surprise. “Uh, I don’t know how to answer that. We just do it.”

“But does it feel good? Does it feel bad?”

“Sometimes it feels good. But sometimes we’re so sad that even breathing hurts,” Kai explained.

“That sounds unnecessarily complicated. You humans are a handful.”

“Thank you, Maia,” he said while performing a bow.

Humor aside, this was it. Kai bit his lip and finished putting on the glove. As the faint circles of light formed in the backs of his hands, the water around him became palpable, and he felt the weight of his body being canceled. Scared, he tried breathing and found that nothing terrible happened.

“Thank goodness. Your mother didn’t make diving equipment a requirement for this stage.”

“She’s kind. A very kind mother.”

“Debatable,” riposted Kai. Now that he could touch the water, he performed a few strokes and was able to rise in the water column. “Awesome, with this, I can easily explore the ocean.” He removed the gloves and let himself fall back to the ocean floor.

“I thought you were going to take off swimming.”

“I will, but first, I want to see what’s down here. Come. Why don’t you tell me some trivia about the ocean.”

“I’m so glad you asked! Did you know that…?”

He was glad for Maia’s company. He wasn’t expecting the bottom of this virtual ocean to be such a scary place. Kai ran along the ocean floor, followed by the chatty Maia. He held the lamp as high as possible to get a good view of his surroundings.

The ocean floor was a surprisingly barren place. He had expected to see abundant marine life, but that wasn’t the case. The darkness and sandy bottom made him feel like he was back in the desert arena. The illusion would be perfect were it not for the occasional outcrop of rock that emerged from the sand and the filtered light.

The light of the gaslamp caught a shape to his left. It was a shelled creature that walked sideways, giving it a whimsical look. However, the powerful claws it opened and closed dispelled all notions of whimsy. It was a tiny crab. Probably, bigger ones lived in the deep ocean.

He was already with his camera pointed at the creature and activated flash.

Capture successful!

Tries left: 13 of 20.

Crab (Uncommon)

Crustacean with a broad carapace.

1 of 3

Hp: 2

Vp: 2

Capture successful!

Tries left: 12 of 20.

Crab (Uncommon)

Crustacean with a broad carapace.

2 of 3

Hp: 2

Vp: 2

Kai bobbed his neck, looking at the creature. “Interesting.”

“What is? The crab?”

“No.” Kai grabbed the new card that came off his camera and showed it to Maia before it faded into motes of light. “So far, herbivore creatures have high hp and low victory points. Carnivore cards are the other way around.”

“But the crab has the same amount of each.”

“Yes. Maybe it’s because it’s a creature that eats everything?”

Maia shrugged. Kai didn’t know if this was relevant, but either way, animal cards hadn’t failed him yet, and he was glad to have found this little creature before his opponent could. After a few more steps, they reached the wall of the arena. Kai spent several minutes traveling along the boundary, but another crab was the only exciting thing he spotted.

“Is this it? Only two crabs?”

Maia didn’t respond, but Kai was already putting on the gloves. The moment he came in sync with the map’s reality, his movements became heavier and the environment around him denser. He pushed his feet against the bed of sand and propelled himself upward. Now able to swim, Kai performed a few swimming strokes.

After the 52nd trials, he was sure no sector didn’t invest in teaching their citizens to swim. Well, at least the sectors that were left. Swimming in the ocean wasn’t too different from doing so in a river, except for the lack of current. Maia joined him. Little jets of air propelled her forward quickly.

“You’re awfully quiet,” commented Kai. The android answered with a simple diplomatic smile. The sudden silence on the part of the otherwise chatty Maia puzzled him. Why was that? She had also gone quiet when they were in the reef. As Kai rose in the water column, the dark bottom soon gave away to clearer, bluer water. There was nothing he could pinpoint as being valuable. There was just water.

Kai gave up after swimming around for several minutes and finding nothing but blue. There was so much stuff to capture in the jungle, and he was wasting his time here. He began swimming toward the beach. As the water became shallower, the black of the depths soon became a visible dark bed of sand, and in a few minutes, he was nearer the reef.

As he watched the reef from above, Kai paused. “Trudy was wise,” he whispered.

“I beg your pardon?”

“An elder from my sector. She was wise.”

“How come?”

“She once told me that, sometimes, the farther we are, the better we see.”

“And?”

Kai pulled out his camera and pointed at the reef. Unsatisfied with the narrow frame, he fumbled around with the camera's controls. With his eye through the viewfinder, he zoomed in and then out until the angle was normal. He kept zooming out, and his new [Wide Lens] upgrade triggered, getting him a broad view of the reef.

He took a shot.

Capture successful!

Sunken City (Legendary)

Tries left: 11 of 20.

A city that has been swallowed by the ocean.

1 of 1

Hp: 1

Vp: 10

Ch. 40 - Zoom Out

INDEX

Ch. 42 - Motionless Observation