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.
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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—the 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.