Spring of 346, A.D.
“Isn’t she awesome?”
They were walking back to the city, and Alex looked like a sugar addict who’d just had his fix.
“She’s very pretty,” Kai managed to spit out. He couldn’t argue with Alex there—the girl was gorgeous. “I still can’t believe you learned sign language for this.”
“It’s a good skill to have for the exams too!” Alex defended.
“Right. You did it all for the exams,” Kai mocked.
“And can you believe the stuff they do in their sector? No wonder they get way better results than we do.”
“I don’t know… Ignoring past exams altogether like that?”
“It makes perfect sense! Think about it, Kai. In our sector, we’re all flies caught in Daisy’s web, dancing to its music. We study the web’s geometry, count the strands, measure the angles—but there’s a whole universe beyond the web! Cassie’s people are actually trying to break free.”
“But Daisy was made to refine us. If we learn from—”
“Oh, please. Save me the bonfire speech, Kai. Admit it. We’re stuck in the past. We should do like Cassie’s people and focus on the future.”
“You don’t know their way is better. Maybe they’re doing well only because they haven’t had back-to-back outbreaks. Have you asked Cassie about the blight? When was their last one?”
“Well, we haven’t…”
“There. Don’t jump to conclusions.”
Kai knew bringing up the blight would shut Alex up. It was a low blow, but he was too cranky to care. Alex had made him march the whole night just to prove he wasn’t having an existential crisis.
His friend’s problem was simple: he was in love.
*
353rd Daisy Trials, Round of 64.
Kai studied the lit-up gloves in his hands, then reached toward the wall. This time, instead of phasing through, his fingers met something solid—cold, sandy, and rough to the touch.
“Oh, my word. So that’s how it works.”
He had just discovered how to interact with the arena’s physical elements. It had been tied to this kind of upgrade all along. He swallowed hard. This changed everything.
He scanned the ground and spotted a broken brick nearby. He bent down, reached for it—and picked it up.
He picked it up.
He could touch things now. Move them around. Manipulate the arena, not just run through it.
The possibilities this opened up were no joke. How many times had he wished he could just pick an object—only to have his hands pass through it?
He pulled off the gloves to test one more thing. They came off easily, not fused to his hands. That was a relief. He folded them with care, like they were heirlooms, and tucked them into his inventory.
Whatever this upgrade cost, it had to be worth at least 200. He’d hit the jackpot.
Even though he wanted to run more experiments on what he could do with these gloves, he restrained himself. First, he’d explore the area and get a sense of what Daisy had hidden here.
Time to see what lay beyond the next wall.
He phased through this time—thankfully, the gloves could be removed at will. That meant he could switch between physical interaction and quick traversal as needed.
He’d already sprinted into solid walls a few times during these exams. Once he was back in the real world, that kind of headbutting wasn’t going to end well.
On the other side of the wall, the glow of Kai’s gaslamp revealed the bulky remains of long-dead machines. Cracked conveyor belts lay tangled across the floor, surrounded by scattered, rusting parts.
It looked like an old assembly line.
Maybe Daisy had replicated an abandoned factory from somewhere in the world—most likely a deserted sector. After the Turnover, much of industry had ground to a halt, and factories like this had become relics.
I wonder if there is some sort of reward for figuring out what this factory once produced?
He combed through the vast space but didn’t find a single piece of machinery worth capturing. Just bolts and screws—dozens of them, maybe hundreds. All common-grade, no doubt. A shame. If he’d found even one decent-looking component, he wouldn’t have hesitated to capture it. As it stood, he was still stuck at flint knapping. A shortcut to the Industrial Revolution would’ve been nice.
Kai kept moving, following the arena’s curvature. Beyond the next wall, the layout shifted. It looked like office space. The plastic barriers still standing hinted at cubicle dividers, and there were empty computer shells scattered around—stripped of their electronics. That only strengthened his hunch—this place had been modeled after a real-world location. After the Turnover, Daisy’s cyberbugs had scoured the world clean of unlicensed tech, leaving behind hollow shells like these.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
He traced the edge of the barrier until, finally, he found what he’d been hoping for. The curvature of the invisible dome extended slightly beyond the rectangular shape of the building. Encouraged by the discovery, Kai stepped through the wall with purpose.
He was outside.
The factory opened into a massive concrete yard, filled with rusting machinery. Grass blades peeked through the cracks, and plants coiled in and out of what remained. Out here, the metal was fully exposed to the elements—more corroded than anything inside.
The arena’s sky would be clear today, not that he had time to enjoy it. Morning had crept up on him during his circuit of the perimeter. The first hints of sunrise glinted over the machine graveyard.
Far off in the distance, half-buried in vines and debris, he spotted machines as large as hills—cylindrical shells with a greenish-brown mass inside.
Finally, he could guess what this factory had once produced.
If he wasn’t mistaken, they made electric motors.
For a factory to produce behemoths like that was impressive. One of the engines lay open, its massive shaft dislodged, revealing copper coils still clinging inside. Kai tried to frame it, but it was too far, and the mountain of junk in the way ruined the shot. He tapped his foot, frustrated. Even if he couldn’t get a clean capture, at least now he knew what the factory had once made.
He turned his focus to the things nearby—the cracked pavement, the sprouting blades of grass, and a few meters away, the rusted remains of a forklift half-swallowed by vines and bushes. Nothing here seemed worth capturing on its own.
Kai turned to head back toward the building—then stopped.
A spider web.
He only noticed it because of the dewdrops clinging to the threads and the red-and-black spider resting calmly in its center. As soon as he saw it, his mind flashed back to Alex and their conversation on the way back from the Wall.
Daisy is the spider, and we’re just flies twitching in her web.
Kai pushed the thought aside and raised the camera.
Capture successful!
Tries left: 18 of 20
Spider ??? (Uncommon)
1 of 3
An arachnid characterized by its eight legs and ability to spin silk threads for building webs and capturing prey.
HP: 1
VP: 3
Capture successful!
Tries left: 17 of 20
Its stat line resembled the [Wolf]—just weaker. That supported Kai’s theory: Daisy was drawing a clear distinction between carnivores and herbivores. He’d find out later whether [Spider] could be turned into an anthropomorphized card.
He slipped the gloves back on, and the green circles lit up. Slowly, he reached forward. The spider climbed onto his glove of its own accord. Kai gently set it down on the ground, then raised his camera again.
Who was it that once told him a spider web, if spun to the thickness of a rope, could catch an airplane mid-flight? Or that clothing made entirely from spider silk would be bulletproof? Sunny? Or was it Clara? Either way, this was a rare chance—and he wasn’t going to miss it.
This time, he aimed to capture just the web, not its spinstress.
Capture successful!
Tries left: 16 of 20
Spider Web ??? (Rare)
Delicate, intricate structure woven by spiders using silk threads to serve as a trap for catching prey or as a shelter.
1 of 2
HP: 3
VP: 4
Capture successful!
Tries left: 15 of 20
The card had excellent stats. Between [Spider] and [Spider Web], that was 14 victory points.
“Not bad. Not bad at all.”
Encouraged by the find, Kai took one last look around the factory’s outer wall in case he’d missed anything.
And sure enough—he had.
It wasn’t anything worth capturing, but it was still a great discovery. At the very edge of the invisible dome, a series of rusted metal bars climbed up the side of the building like a makeshift ladder. He tugged one of the gloves off with his teeth—the green circles on the back flickered out—and reached for the bars with his bare hand.
Nothing. His hand phased right through.
He put the glove back on and reached again.
This time, he got a solid grip.
This upgrade was turning out to be seriously powerful. Not only had it let him capture [Spider Web], but now it was helping him reach parts of the map that were likely off-limits to other trial runners.
Kai began to climb. The fact that injuries weren’t possible in the arena helped take the edge off his usual vertigo, and soon he reached the flat rooftop. Up here, remnants of old AC units and chimneys rusted under the open sky. Just like in the machine graveyard below, exposure to the elements had eaten away at everything.
Looking down, he could see the ceiling holes he’d seen from down below earlier—now transformed into pits he could fall through.
He checked the scoreboard.
His opponent had jumped to 76 victory points. They must’ve reached the center of the arena already.
Kai wasn’t far behind at 69.
He doubted his opponent had the means to reach the rooftop. Which meant he shouldn’t linger here.
It would be a mistake to prioritize exploring the roof now, not while rare cards and valuable opportunities still waited below. If he spent too much time up here, he risked returning to a factory floor picked clean. No—he’d come back later. Once he’d milked the lower level dry.
Besides, even if his opponent found the spider web, they’d only be able to get a single [Spider]. Kai had already scooped up the rest. Those points were safely out of his opponent’s reach.
He walked to the roof’s edge, ready to descend. But before he started down, he paused.
The sunrise was gaining momentum. Violet and pink hues began to bleed across the fading night, casting a somber glow over the scene before him.
From this vantage point, the sight of the massive engines was even more striking. If this was truly a replica of a real-world factory, then it stood as a quiet monument to just how far humanity had fallen. How could a society capable of building such marvels be foolish enough to destroy its own planet?
He imagined it: thousands of workers moving in synchronized rhythm, rushing to produce more so others could consume more. A never-ending, self-consuming cycle. Why did this scene stir something so heavy in his chest?
A memory surfaced—when he captured [Light] in the first arena. He’d felt something similar then. A quiet sense of nostalgia. And just like back then, Kai trusted his gut.
He raised the camera and framed the shot—cracks in the pavement, ruined machines, and the distant hulks of forgotten engines silhouetted against the light.
Capture successful!
Tries left: 14 of 20
Neglect ????? (Legendary)
After neglecting the world, humanity itself ended up neglected.
1 of 1
HP: 0
VP: 10
Ten points. Yes!
Taking his time instead of rushing to the center was proving to be the smarter play.
He studied the new card.
Abstract things can be photographed. That’s interesting.
Until now, his focus had been on tangible things—objects he could see and touch. But this proved something new: some moments, some feelings, could be cards too. If he found the right scene, he could trap more than just items.
Kai held the card up in his reality gloves, letting the sunlight glow through it. He couldn’t stop smiling.
Not because he’d just found a legendary.
But because of the irony—something so sad could turn into something so valuable. Maybe that was a good omen. Maybe there was still hope for Ariel and him, even if all their sector had left were ruins like these.
He glanced at the ladder—then at one of the rooftop pits.
With a shrug, he jumped through the opening.
He landed back on the factory floor without pain, without damage. Every second counted now.
Kai took off with a spring in his step. He was back in the offices—ready to keep exploring.
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