SNAPCRAFT | Ch. 24 - Sign Language
Added 2023-11-02 15:46:53 +0000 UTCSpring of 346, A.D.
Kai looked through the shimmering field that blocked sound between sectors. The girl on the other side had golden curls that shone so brightly in the moonlight that it made Kai wonder if the girl's hair was reflecting the moon or the other way around.
She had intelligent eyes, and her lips were pursed in what could be the beginning of a feline smile or mockery.
"Cassie, this is my best friend Kai."
Kai's jaw dropped as he saw his friend make a series of complex signs as he spoke. He had learned sign language! Across the wall, the girl performed a similar sequence of gestures.
"Kai, she says she's happy to meet you."
"T-thanks."
"Don't worry. I'll interpret for you.” Even though he addressed Kai, his eyes never left Cassie. “She asks if this is your first time at the wall."
"Yes. It is."
"She asks you if you think the wall is sonic, gravitational, or electromagnetic?"
Kai frowned at the question but played along. "What does she think?"
"She thinks it's sonic."
Alex didn't need to look at Cassie to know her opinion. They had chatted about this before.
"Me too."
"She says you are as smart as you look."
Kai stared at Alex, then at Cassie, and then again at Alex. "Alex, she can't hear me, right?"
Alex made a universal 'hold on a second' gesture that even Kai understood and faced his friend. "No, she can't."
"This is awkward."
"Don't worry about it! You just have to say what you're thinking, and I'll sign it. I've gotten pretty good at it. You'll get used to it quickly."
"No. I'm talking about this." He made a gesture to include all of the area. "This... surprise. How long have you been coming here?"
"A year."
"A year? Does anyone know?"
Alex scratched his head.
"I'll take that as a no."
"Please, Kai, promise me you won't tell anyone, OK? If the others find out, they will nag me to the end of days. Please don't tell. Please. Please."
"Alex, look, I-I..."
"Have I ever told my sister any of the stuff you confided in me?"
Kai gulped. "That's low."
"I know. But this is important to me. Please?"
"Fine."
Alex grabbed him into a bear hug. "Oh, thanks, bro. I knew you'd have my back. Thank you."
Alex started waving his arms to get Cassie's attention.
"I'll be over there. You talk to your friend."
"Don't you want to hang out with us?"
"It's fine."
As Kai walked away, he could hear the laughter of his friend. This was bad. This was really, really bad.
*
353rd Daisy Exams, Round of 64.
Kai had been lying on the ground for the last three hours. After a woodland, a quarry, and a desert, he wondered where Daisy would send him and the other trial runners next. It was time to stand up. He was pretty sure that if he were sitting down when the clock hit zero, he would be transported sitting down to the arena.
He did the math. It would be about 4 or 5 in the morning, wherever Daisy sent them. That meant that visibility might be compromised in the following stage, too. He glanced at the cards in his inventory. In the last round, he burned many bridges. Hopefully, the cards he had left would be enough to come out on top in the upcoming round.
He checked his scoreboard. He had 55 points now. He hoped he wasn’t too far behind. He was counting on his two new upgrades to elevate his performance. [Hunter's Eyes] would help him while snapping, and the photocopier should bring his crafting to another level. The seconds ticked away, and Kai was transported to a new stage.
It was the first stage indoors. It wasn’t well-lit by any means. Kai could only tell he wasn’t outside because of the moonlight coming in through skylights, high windows, and the intermittent buzz and flashes of light from barely working lamps scattered in the facilities. He was inside an abandoned building.
“Inventory.”
Kai immediately grabbed his gaslamp and shone it on his surroundings. A tangle of rusty metal beams held the crumbling walls and the holed ceiling. The jagged edges of broken windows stood menacingly like teeth of a gaping maw.
The floor was strewn with debris. There were pieces of the fallen ceiling. Even though Kai had assumed they were skylights, they turned out to be just holes. Shards of glass from the broken windows, splinters of wood from destroyed crates, and piles of garbage and scrap were collected in haphazard mounds. “It’s a factory,” whispered Kai. He was surprised by how clear his voice sounded. One would expect that the cavernous ample space would make his voice echo. Perhaps his voice, too, was out of sync with this world’s reality.
Kai looked around, hoping to catch a sign of [Hunter's Eyes] being activated. There was nothing. That confirmed his suspicions that participants started at different random places. He had hoped they would start in the same place so competition remained loyal, but now he knew it was wishful thinking. This meant lucky trial runners could land in a good spot or much closer to the treasure trove. That would explain how his opponent in the quarry map had arrived at the treasure trove sooner than he had. Confirming this only made him think that rushing to the center of the map wasn’t the best strategy for him. It was a risky strategy because of its inconsistency.
Not knowing where his opponent was, Kai directed his attention to how high their score was. 52. He sighed in relief. He was ahead by a few points. He felt some weight come off his shoulders. But after consideration, the weight came back doubled. Pride comes before the fall. Don’t get cocky, Kai. The fact that his opponent wasn’t starting with more points than him could be a bad sign for him. It could mean they had completely squeezed the potential of all their cards. That could, in turn, mean that they had purchased excellent upgrades, making them fearsome opponents.
Instead of running toward the center of the map, Kai walked toward the factory's wall. He wanted to determine if it was the arena's edge. Before reaching the factory wall, he bumped into an invisible wall. He tightened his fists and smiled. He had been transported close to the boundary. Maybe he wasn’t so unlucky after all.
He walked with his hand along the arena’s edge and, eventually, managed to approach the factory’s wall. Then, as he kept walking along the invisible forcefield, the arena's edge became farther away from the building wall. It seemed like this arena, too, was round. “A circle within a square?”
He proceeded to inspect the piles of trash strewing the factory floor. He tried to pick up a piece randomly, but his hands just phased through the object. He couldn’t move the piles or remove any individual components from them. That meant that if he saw anything of particular value, he’d struggle to frame it into a picture. It would be just like when he had tried to capture the canopy in the pine woodland. The capture would be considered invalid if he got more than one element in the frame. It wasn’t worth risking it.
He looked around. Even though the place was mostly dark, he could see more mounds of trash under distant intermittent lamps. There was trash everywhere. There might be a secret in them, a needle that Daisy had hidden in a haystack, but searching it seemed like a waste of time. Not being able to frame something properly was too risky.
One of the most difficult things about this arena would be to process the optical illusion of an invisible circular boundary within a visible square one. It was possible that the circle wasn’t completely within the square. The arena could be off-center. Daisy could have hidden something along the arena's edges, like in the quarry. For now, he would run a full circle around the map. He would let the opponent rush to the middle and desperately take photos left and right while he calmly looked for other valuable opportunities on this map.
He took off running past pile after pile, rusty beam after rusty beam. This space was so massive that he hadn't left even after running for nearly a minute. Suddenly, he went blind.
Your opponent has used a flash bomb. You can’t see for 30 seconds.
That was annoying. Another trial runner invested in foul play. He couldn’t help but feel a little jealous of those who had these upgrades. He sighed. He probably wouldn’t purchase them even if they appeared in his console. He wouldn’t feel good about disrupting his opponents’ exams. Although Kai couldn’t see the arena around him, the scoreboard and the map at the edges of his field of vision were still there.
The bright side was that this debuff didn’t hinder his movement. Even being blinded, his map was being completed just because Kai was passing through. He didn’t mind that. He wanted to complete the map. Although he couldn’t see, he could still do something while debuffed. He kept going. He would be OK if he kept his hand on the invisible wall as he ran.
His opponent was probably trying to keep him away from the treasure trove in the middle. After 30 seconds, he regained his sight. He hadn’t covered much distance in half a minute but had gone through the wall at some point and was in another massive hall. Before proceeding any further, he was again hit with an attack.
Your opponent has used a stun bomb. You can’t move for 30 seconds.
Again, with a stun. Being stunned was certainly more troublesome than being blind. At least when blinded, he could keep running. But he could do nothing while stunned except look around and think. He checked the scoreboard. Both scores remained the same. That meant his opponent hadn’t yet found this arena’s treasure trove. What an unusual round. Three minutes in, neither side had captured a card-at least one granting victory points.
Kai tried making the most of the time he was paralyzed. He took the new space in. The previous one had beams of iron and mounds of scrap. Had it been the ruins of a cargo bay? Here, there were no iron beams. That hinted that there hadn’t been heavy machinery here. Instead, Kai saw more vestiges of rotten wooden boards and half-destroyed crates and pallets. Along the concrete pillars were the skeletons of metal frames. It almost looked like there had been racks with boxes here. Was this a warehouse? The fact that this room was situated near the cargo bay only added to his suspicion.
After examining this space, he turned his attention to the map. Here, the invisible wall of the arena was quite far from the wall of the building. He only had access to half of the warehouse. He squinted, trying to find anything valuable on the other side of the barrier, but the lighting was poor, and whatever trash was there was too far for him to make out. If only he had binoculars. Soon, the grasp on him was released, and he was again able to move. He resumed his run.
Just as he was about to go through the wall and leave the warehouse, he caught something from the corner of his eye. It was a pop of color that had flashed as it reflected the intermittent lighting of a faulty lamp. Kai stopped in his tracks and turned toward it to investigate it. After a few more seconds, the lamp shone again, and he honed in on the source of the reflection.
It was an old crate. Actually, it was more like half a crate. Compared to the surrounding wreckage, it was in good condition. The box was broken, and the wood aged, but the weathered paint of the question mark painted on it still retained a bit of its shine. Recognizing the shape, Kai’s heart raced. He had seen this question mark before! He carefully framed it to get an angle where the box still looked intact.
Capture successful!
Mystery Box (Legendary)
Tries left: 19 of 20
The [Mystery Box] has been opened. You’ve unlocked [Dimensional Gloves]!
It was a [Mystery Box] card! He would have ignored this shattered crate if it hadn't been for the quarry arena and his previous encounter with the [Mystery Box] card mechanic. He had gotten his hands on a new upgrade! The best part was that the [Mystery Box] had instantly converted into a bonus. He found no gloves on his hands, though.
"Inventory."
Just as he expected, the gloves had been placed into his inventory. He reached toward them and held one in his teeth while he put on the other. They were dark gloves made from a soft, comfortable material. When he finished putting them on, green circles lit up on the back of the gloves. Kai waited to see if anything special happened. After a few seconds of waiting, nothing changed. He frowned, turned his hands over against the light of the gaslamp, and then shrugged. He didn't know what it did, but he would figure it out on the go. Maybe it wasn't even an upgrade destined for the snap arena, but something to be used in crafting.
For now, he should go back to exploring. He retraced his steps until he was back at the arena's edge. He headed toward the wall leading into the next room. As his body went through the wall, he felt all his momentum yank to an abrupt halt. Had this been real, he would have broken more than a few bones.
"What in the world?" he complained. Even though it didn’t hurt, it was still uncomfortable to be stopped like this. Kai's head and torso had made it through the wall, but the rest of his body, hands holding the gaslamp included, hadn’t. He absent-mindedly noted the humongous machinery lit by the few working lamps.
He took a few steps back to find out why he got stuck. He looked at his new gloves and then at the wall.
“Could it be?”
