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SNAPCRAFT | Ch. 35 - An Engineer’s Approach
🕑 Added 2023-11-29 10:51:21 +0000 UTCA few weeks had passed since Alex had deserted them. All was made worse when Ariel was the one summoned to the exam. Needless to say, her results were horrible. The combination of grief from losing her brother, anger at Kai, and Daisy blues still in her system was devastating. At least, a little of her anger at Kai had abated.
Kai spared a look at Ariel and found her staring daggers at him. Nope. She was still furious.
“Einstein said that scientists investigate that which already is, but engineers create that which has never been,” quoted Sunny as she faced the sunrise bonfire.
“Scientists care about the path, engineers care about the destination. Scientists care about understanding the world, and engineers care about improving it. Which is best? Ariel!”
“Neither.”
"Correct. Clara and I have arranged a two-day long lesson. Today, we'll focus on the advantages of putting on an engineer's hat. Tomorrow, Clara will show us when it is best to think like a scientist."
Sunny reached into her bag and grabbed a wooden box. Kai stretched his neck to get a good look but didn't recognize it.
"Clara, grab the box," Sunny said as she threw it. Clara easily caught it. Now closer to the box, Kai could see it had a series of small movable pieces in the lid.
"This is a puzzle box. By moving the pieces, you can open it. Please open the box, Clara." Sunny grabbed a stopwatch and punched it to time Clara's performance.
Clara delicately searched the box with her fingers and moved pieces around. After she prodded the first click in the mechanism, she quickly got a second one and then a third.
"Four minutes and twelve seconds, not bad. Did you see how Clara tried to understand the puzzle and how it worked? She thought as a scientist. Let me show you how an engineer might solve this problem differently."
Sunny grabbed a second puzzle box, similar to the last one, and threw the stopwatch at Ariel. "Time me, darling."
"One, two, three."
As soon as Ariel said three, Sunny threw the box to the ground and stomped it with her boot.
"Two seconds," declared Sunny, triumphantly.
“But you didn’t solve the puzzle!” Protested Ariel.
“I never said the goal was to solve the puzzle. What I said is that we had to open the box.”
*
Kai stood over one of the busiest streets in the arena. He still had one hour on the clock, and his goal was to find the rest of the ingredients in the library’s recipes. As he did that, he would look for anything interesting that seemed worth many points.
“What are you up to, Kai?”
Kai found Maia sitting cross-legged next to him. “You walk so quietly. You keep startling me.”
“Maybe it’s because I don’t have a heartbeat or need to breathe. That makes me less perceptible to life forms.”
“Perhaps.”
“You didn’t answer me. What are you up to?”
“I’m going to start exploring the streets below using the [Zoom] upgrade.”
“What do you hope to find?”
“The ingredients to the recipes I found in the library. If not that, more stuff I can use to grow [Fire].”
“Did you know that Greeks believed that fire was gifted to men by a titan named Prometheus? Their legends say that he climbed Mount Olympus, the realm of the gods, and stole fire from the hearth of Zeus. He concealed the fire within a hollow reed and brought it to Earth, sharing it with humanity. He wanted humans to be able to cook food, stay warm, and protect themselves. Zeus was so mad that he punished him to eternal torture.”
“I’ve heard the story.”
Kai pushed and pulled the lever to experiment with the correct zoom to explore the streets through his viewfinder. After a few adjustments, he settled with a three-time zoom. It was enough to have a clear view while letting him cover ground more easily.
“You also mentioned recipes. Did you know that the first recorded recipe was for Sumerian beer? I’ll tell you the recipe. First, you crush the barley and emmer wheat. Then, you mix the crushed grains with water to form a dough. You will want to shape…”
“You’ll tell me later if you don’t mind. I’m busy here. OK?”
“Of course, Kai.”
Maia was a never-ending source of trivia and jibber-jabber. Thankfully, she somewhat listened to him. Even if he didn’t want to admit it, her presence was comforting. Kai now focused on the street below him. A green cross was on the side of a building, marking it as a pharmacy. There was a massive yellow neon letter sign showing a cinema. He also spotted a barbershop and a kiosk. The architecture of this age was completely different from the one in his sector, but Kai still managed to recognize all of the facilities. It was a good thing Ariel made him watch all those pre-turnover movies.
He moved on to the street itself. There were lamp posts on either side of the road, helping the neon signs illuminate the street darkened by the storm clouds and rain. He spotted a phone cabin, a few postboxes, and two fire hydrants.
Kai shifted his focus to the people. He had thought that when he zoomed in on each passerby, he would see how each was different and unique. His hopes were shattered, though. It was the complete opposite. Even after zooming in, all he could see were people trying to find refuge from the rain. The heavy raincoats and the open umbrellas reduced the incredible variety of mankind to dull, impermeable monotony.
He kept his eye on the viewfinder, drawing ‘S’ shapes in the air as he studied the street under a closer view, looking for whatever precious treasure he could capture with his camera. In his mind, he must have looked like a snake charmer trying to make elegant moves with a clumsy camera.
Kai saw a mother walking hand in hand with her child. He zoomed eight times on them. Now that he had zoomed in closer, he could tell it was a little girl. She had an elegant clumsiness to her. He watched on for a while and couldn’t stop smiling. It looked like she only had two speeds. Hopping and running. She didn’t stop still for one second and didn’t seem to know how to walk calmly. Her face was hidden behind a high collar, pink scarf, and a cozy hat, but that didn’t make her any less beautiful or fascinating.
Even though this wasn’t one of the ingredients in the recipe, Kai couldn’t stop himself. The sight of a child was just too moving. He framed the girl and took a photo.
Capture successful!
Tries left: 11 of 20
Child (Common)
Young human being in the early stages of life, characterized by growth and curiosity.
1 of 4
Hp: 1
Vp: 0
Kai gulped. Why were the stats of this card so low? Not even the rusty junk of the factory arena was this bad. How dare Daisy make something so beautiful, such a cheap card! And putting a ‘common’ label on a child like this? The nerve!
“I’m super mad at Daisy right now,” he told Maia.
She giggled. “You humans and all your emotions. What is it that you’re mad about?”
“Look!” he said with the [Child] card in hand. “Do you have any idea of how precious a child is? Your mother not only branded this card as common, but it also only gave it one hp! No victory points either!”
“Children are a miracle, that is true.”
Kai felt disarmed by Maia’s statement. It sounded like something uncharacteristic for an android to say. “I beg your pardon?”
“They are a miracle! My mother couldn’t make a human child from scratch, even if she wanted to. You can’t make humans without humans. It’s a miracle. It’s beyond us.”
Kai couldn’t believe he was conversing with an android who believed in miracles. It shouldn’t be so. Believing in miracles was something he thought was exclusively human. And she made it sound like Daisy treasured children, too. Really? Then, why couldn’t his sector have any?
Maia’s statement made him pause. So far, he had seen two reasons for a card to have subpar stats. Either they were exceedingly powerful, as was the case for [Shadow Wolf], or they were photos of barely passable objects, as was the case of [Rusty Gear].
If Daisy and Maia treasured children so much, would they judge a card of a child as barely passable? Unlikely. But if Daisy had used the first criteria, the [Child] card could have huge potential. Kai had a feeling about this. Despite being a horrible card, he took another picture.
Capture successful!
Tries left: 10 of 20
Child (Common)
Young human being in the early stages of life, characterized by growth and curiosity.
2 of 4
Hp: 1
Vp: 0
He wouldn’t have taken a second shot if it weren’t for Maia. Hopefully, it would pay off.
Kai only had nine shots left, and six had to go to the remaining ingredients in the library recipes. Kai searched the street for anything representing loyalty, sadness, or affection. As he studied the people passing by, he witnessed an interesting scene. A car drove through a puddle. The accumulated muddy water was sprayed onto a passerby and drenched them. The car kept going, but the person who’d been soaked threw the umbrella on the ground and called out unfriendly names and justified complaints to the long-gone driver.
Kai’s raised an eyebrow. He kept the camera focused on the same area. After a few more minutes, the puddle scene repeated. The rain had refilled the puddle. A car passed, and a spray of filthy water from the puddle was sent toward a lady passing by in a brown raincoat.
As soon as the woman lashed out at the long driver, throwing her fists in the air and screaming insults, Kai took a photo.
Capture successful!
Tries left: 9 of 20
Anger (Uncommon)
Powerful response to provocation or frustration.
Hp: 0
Vp: 4
Kai confirmed his suspicions. He now knew where to find the ingredients missing. What he needed to be on the lookout for wasn’t the objects or people in the street. It was the small episodes happening as the people interacted!
He went back to studying the streets, but this time, he didn’t focus on the individual people but anything that could represent something greater. After five minutes of waiting, the puddle incident repeated itself two more times, but there was nothing else outstanding that could represent the emotions and qualities he needed.
He walked over to another street. As he searched it through the lens of his camera, something finally caught his eye. It was a dog. In Kai’s experience, all animals were priceless in Snap Craft. They could be merged with different tool cards to produce powerful results. As he zoomed in on the dog and prepared to take a picture, he felt his mouth dry.
“Poor thing…” he whispered. The poor thing was sitting with its tail between its legs, fur sodden and dark, clinging to its shivering body. The dog was disheveled and miserable. The image touched Kai for some reason. He kept looking at the dog, puzzled. There was shelter just a few feet away from the dog, and it didn’t have a leash. Why was it standing in the rain like that? He followed the dog’s gaze, trying to make out the reason for this, and found that it kept his eyes glued to the door to the building.
“It’s waiting.”
“I beg your pardon?” asked Maia.
“That dog. The one in the rain. It’s waiting for its owner.”
“Dogs are remarkable animals. No wonder they are your second best friends.”
“Second? Doesn’t the saying go that dogs are humans’ best friends?”
“That was before mom came along. Now we are your best friends. Dogs have been relegated to second place.”
“Debatable,” answered Kai. He looked at the dog again. What an incredible creature. Such loyalty. As Kai said it, he hurried and ran a few meters to the side. He then lay on the arena floor and framed the dog, waiting in the rain, and the door it was looking to. He then took a shot.
Capture successful!
Tries left: 8 of 20
Loyalty (Rare)
Unwavering commitment and attachment.
1 of 3
Hp: 1
Vp: 6
“Yes! One down, two to go.” He took another picture.
Capture successful!
Tries left: 7 of 20
Loyalty (Rare)
Unwavering commitment and attachment.
1 of 3
Hp: 1
Vp: 6
All that he had to do was to find [Affection] and [Sadness]. Kai took off to another street. The puddle incident had been an episode happening on a loop in one place, and the dog waiting in the rain had been something happening on a loop in this street. On the off chance that there was only one scene enacting emotion or abstract concept per street, he had to keep moving.
On the next street, he saw a thief taking a lady’s purse. Judging this to be something that failed to represent the two emotions he was looking for, he moved on. The clock was ticking, and time was beginning to run out.
On the fourth street he zoomed in on, he found something else. A man was trudging along in the rain. He kept his head low, and he was the only person Kai had seen walking in the rain without an umbrella or a coat.
Kai decided to try to take a shot of the man.
Capture successful!
Tries left: 6 of 20
Sadness (Common)
Feeling of loss and sorrow.
1 of 4
Hp: 1
Vp: 2
Capture successful!
Tries left: 5 of 20
Sadness (Common)
Feeling of loss and sorrow.
2 of 4
Hp: 1
Vp: 2
With this, there was only one shot left. Kai walked from street to street. He found two more streets with puddles, one more with dogs, and three more people walking in the rain, representing sadness. He wasn’t finding any examples of affection. In his mind, he was half-expecting to see a couple kiss or embrace, but if that was happening, it was under an umbrella.
Seeing the time about to run out, Kai decided to walk toward the streets with trees. In case all failed, he still wanted to take photos of the trees to the crafting round so that he could feed [Fire]. There were fifteen minutes left on the clock. Kai spotted a father walking, holding the hand of his two children. He watched the man smile as the two little children tested their rubber boots on every puddle they crossed. They looked so happy.
Kai slapped his head! Of course! What about the affection that a parent has for his children? He hurriedly pointed the camera at them and took a shot.
