Spring of 346, A.D.
Kai stood in the museum, facing the maquette of the 162nd exams. A whiteboard stood beside him, half-filled with branching lines and scribbled notes.
As he read through the trial runner log, he marked out paths and outcomes, trying to strip the trial runner’s account down to pure logic. No emotion. Just decisions, causes, consequences. He wanted to understand the choices without being distracted by her tone, her fear, her regrets.
“You’ve come quite a long way.”
He turned. Sunny stood nearby, watching him work.
“Hey, Sunny.”
“You’ve done all the others so far?”
“Yeah. I do one a week.”
She nodded, eyes drifting to the long row of maquettes behind them. “Three years... I admire your consistency, my boy.”
“Well, I’m trying.”
“You know…” She cleared her throat. “Neil would’ve been proud.”
The name landed like a hammer.
“T-thanks.”
It was the first time she’d said Neil’s name out loud since the pyre. It felt strange. Heavy. As if the air had shifted around them.
He didn’t have to ask if she was ready to talk.
She smiled faintly. “It’s impressive you’ve gone this long without asking me about us.”
“Y-you noticed?”
She gave a little shrug. “I know you,” she said with a motherly tone.
Silence stretched between them.
Kai remembered Neil in his armchair, staring at the portrait on the mantle. His hand resting over his chest like he was trying to hold something in.
“Shortly before he died,” Kai said, “he told me his biggest regret was not keeping his promise to you.”
Sunny’s lips parted. A tear slipped down her cheek, but she wiped it away with her sleeve—like she was cleaning a smudge off a tool.
“Did he tell you what the promise was?” she asked.
“Children?” Kai asked simply.
She looked down. “Sometimes I wonder… if it would’ve been better if he hadn’t promised anything at all.”
“What do you mean?”
“Maybe I could’ve accepted being childless. Learned to live with it. But he kept saying he’d find a way. That we’d have a child. When it didn’t happen…” Her voice trailed off. “It wasn’t just disappointment. It was betrayal. Even if I knew it wasn’t fair to blame him.”
Kai didn’t know what to say. So he didn’t say anything.
She took a breath, steadied herself. “See you tomorrow at the bonfire.”
Kai stared at the board for a moment longer. Then he looked over his shoulder. She was gone.
He flipped the board. At the top, he wrote: Cassilex Conundrum.
He didn’t want to have all the regrets Neil had. He had to do something to help Alex.
He looked at the maquette, then back at the board. Maybe this problem needed to be stripped down too. No emotion. Just logic.
In the quiet of the museum, the only sound left was the scratch of his marker against the board.
*
353rd Daisy Trials, Round of 64.
Instead of searching for something unusual on the rooftop itself, Kai shifted his focus to the holes scattered across it. From up here, he had a unique vantage point into the factory below. Maybe that was the rooftop’s secret—there was nothing here to photograph. It was just a good place to take photographs from.
He moved carefully, checking each hole one by one, starting with the ones above the assembly line. Now that the sun was higher, light flooded in through the open roof, letting him see all the way down to the factory floor.
He made his way to the holes overlooking the warehouse. Still, nothing stood out.
Kai glanced at the clock. One hour left.
He kept at it, patient and methodical. Then, finally, something caught his eye.
One of the holes didn’t open to the factory floor like the others. The floor beneath it was surprisingly close. A second story?
He checked the map. This hole aligned with the lab section. Now that he thought about it, there hadn’t been any skylights in those rooms—and the ceilings had been noticeably lower.
Could it be that there was a hidden upper floor above the labs? He hadn’t seen any stairs. Maybe the rooftop was the only way in.
Excited by the possibility, Kai jumped through the hole and landed with a soft thump. He looked around.
The only light came from the hole he’d fallen through, but it was enough. No gaslamp needed. The floor creaked under his feet, made of dark, rotting wood. Most of the paint had flaked off the walls, but patches of beige still clung here and there.
It was an office—but different from the ones he’d seen below.
At the far end, a wide, cracked window offered a panoramic view of the assembly line. From here, someone could’ve supervised the entire factory floor.
A manager’s office.
Kai peered out through the broken window. It was hidden behind a fallen iron beam—and shadow. No wonder he’d missed it while exploring below.
Judging the photo he could take from up here as worthless, he turned his attention to the office itself.
A meeting table lay on its side, two legs broken. On the wall, a board held several blueprints. The paper was curled and faded, but the lines were still legible.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
As Kai leaned in and read one of them, he gasped.
Gears ?? (Uncommon)
[Gearwheel ??] + [Drive Belt ??]
Recipe book updated.
The system notification had triggered all on its own.
“Recipe book updated?!”
Was this a crafting recipe?
Daisy had hidden recipes in this office!
Kai hadn’t imagined that Daisy could leave hints for valuable merges during the snapping round. His thoughts raced as he reviewed his past arenas. Had there been hidden blueprints before too? If so, he’d missed some serious opportunities.
He flipped through the remaining blueprints, scanning each one carefully.
Sure enough, new notifications kept popping up.
Circuitry ?? (Uncommon)
[Copper Wire ??] + [Console ??]
Frame ??? (Uncommon)
[Metal Sheet ??] + [Pipe ??]
Recipe book updated.
Power Source ?? (Uncommon)
[Uranium ????] + [Steam ??]
Recipe book updated.
Kai studied the recipes, and a suspicion began to form.
This factory had once built something. From the giant turbines outside, he’d assumed it produced electrical motors—but what if that was wrong? These recipes didn’t look random.
What if he could reconstruct the machine by crafting each of these elements?
He scratched his head. Everything in this place was rusted and broken beyond recognition. Just finding one clean metal part had been tough. And now he was supposed to locate a console? Or uranium?
No. There had to be a deeper layer to this.
Maybe these recipes weren’t to be taken literally—maybe they were just clues. He’d already learned in previous rounds that multiple recipes could lead to the same card. [Ash] could be made from burning all kinds of things. [Spark] had multiple recipe paths too.
Maybe he didn’t need pristine materials. Maybe he just needed good enough replacements.
With that thought, Kai leapt through the office window and landed near the factory line. He broke into a run toward the scrapyard.
When he’d first seen the piles of junk, they looked worthless—just twisted metal of all shapes and sizes, impossible to photograph. But the [Dimensional Gloves] had changed that. And now, with the blueprints from the manager’s office, his suspicions felt almost certain.
There was something buried in those heaps.
And he was going to find it.
Now confident his opponent couldn’t perceive him, Kai put on the gloves. As they lit up, he squatted beside a trash pile and started digging.
There were broken bricks, rotten wood, and iron so rusted he couldn’t even tell what it had once been. After clearing two piles, he finally spotted something useful—an ingredient from one of the recipes he’d found in the manager’s office.
He held a coil of golden-brown wire in his hands, streaked with green. He hesitated, unsure if it would still work. The outer layer looked corroded, but… wasn’t this just patina?
If he remembered right, copper didn’t rust like iron. The green layer actually protected it. Which meant the wire might still be usable—even after all these years.
He swept away the surrounding debris, coiled the copper neatly, and placed it on the floor. Activating [Flash], he framed the shot and pressed the button.
Capture successful!
Tries left: 10 of 20
Copper Wire ?? (Uncommon)
A malleable metal conductor made from copper with excellent conductivity properties.
1 of 3
HP: 2
VP: 2
Kai grinned. This ingredient wasn’t just useful for the recipe from the manager’s office—[Copper Wire] had all sorts of crafting potential. It was one of the essentials for any electrician or engineer. He considered its usefulness and decided to go for a second shot.
Capture successful!
Tries left: 9 of 20
Satisfied, he ran to the next pile. Nothing. He felt like one of Daisy’s cybermoles, digging through the wreckage.
Five piles later, he found something else. It wasn’t part of any recipe he’d seen, but he recognized it from his practical lessons with Sunny. A smaller coil, barely used, with dull gray wire. The outside was in bad shape, but after peeling it back, the inner wire was still intact.
He set it down and snapped a photo.
Capture successful!
Tries left: 8 of 20
Solder ???? (Uncommon)
Used for joining or bonding components in electronics, plumbing, and metalwork.
1 of 3
HP: 2
VP: 2
He took another just in case.
Capture successful!
Tries left: 7 of 20
Kai looked at the card and smiled. He couldn’t help thinking back to all the times Sunny had pestered him over his soldering technique in the workshop.
As he kept digging through the garbage piles, Kai found a few pipes—but they were cracked. He tossed them aside.
In the eleventh pile, he finally found something that might be usable: a dented gearwheel, rusty but solid. Probably the best he was going to find.
He sighed and took a shot, hoping for the best.
Capture successful!
Tries left: 6 of 20
Rusty Gear ?? (Common)
A mechanical component showing signs of corrosion.
1 of 4
HP: 2
VP: 0
Yikes.
This was barely serviceable as a card. The stat line was lower than most commons—just two hit points, and no VP at all.
If he hadn’t seen the recipe in the manager’s office, he might’ve cried. But knowing there was a hidden system behind all this, he actually felt like celebrating.
Three piles later, he spotted another pipe. This one wasn’t cracked—only rusted.
That was good enough.
Capture successful!
Tries left: 5 of 20
Rusty Pipe ?? (Common)
A mechanical component showing signs of corrosion.
1 of 4
HP: 2
VP: 0
With this, he now had three of the eight ingredients needed to reproduce the recipes—hopefully. He still wasn’t sure if the rusted versions were valid substitutes.
He was missing [Drive Belt], [Uranium], [Console], [Steam], and [Metal Sheet].
Leaving the scrapyard behind, Kai sprinted past the warehouse and into the abandoned production line. He remembered spotting broken conveyor belts here. Maybe, with the dimensional gloves, he could find one in usable condition.
He ignored the belts scattered across the floor. Most were torn to pieces—worthless. He dug under every rock, every collapsed shelf, every rotting plank.
Still nothing.
Running out of ideas, he turned his attention to the machines. He took off the gloves and phased his head—and his gaslamp—into every crevice and compartment that might hide a belt.
Finally, just as he was about to give up, he found something.
A small, half-buried motor. Corroded beyond recognition. Next to it, a gearbox. The whole thing was held together by a dried-up piece of rubber.
The belt.
It looked old and stiff, but not cracked. It might work.
Kai slid his hand into the metal box, adjusted the lens to get a clean shot of the belt, and took the picture.
Capture successful!
Tries left: 4 of 20.
Dried Drive Belt ?? (Common)
A mechanical component showing signs of corrosion.
1 of 4
HP: 2
VP: 0
With this, he had all the mechanical components.
Kai took off toward the outside.
Rushing through the arena with a shopping list was completely different from wandering aimlessly. Now, every step had purpose. Every location was a lead. He just hoped he was fast enough.
He emerged outside. The sky had brightened, but the sun’s heat was still hours away.
Kai spotted the web and smiled. He’d made it in time. The dew was still there.
He carefully removed the spider, got his camera ready, and leaned in. He pressed his eye against the viewfinder and inched closer to a droplet. Tricky shot. He had to make sure the camera focused on the water—not the silk.
Capture successful!
Tries left: 3 of 20
Water ?? (Uncommon)
Transparent, tasteless, and odorless substance essential for life.
3 of 3
HP: 3
VP: 1
She’s good!
Even though his opponent hadn’t been able to capture the spider or the web—thanks to his early interference—she’d still managed to grab the other two [Water] cards. Normally, he was the one finding things others overlooked. This time, she had gotten a card he hadn’t even thought to photograph.
At least it wasn’t rare. That left one copy in the pool—enough for what he had in mind.
Now all he needed were substitutes for [Console] and [Metal Sheet].
Kai sprinted back to the central lab. He reached the tiled room where the glass-encased engine stood like a centerpiece. Ignoring it, he headed for the broken console he’d seen earlier. The glass was shattered, the panels damaged—but it was the closest thing he’d seen to a console in the entire factory.
Capture successful!
Tries left: 2 of 20
Broken Console ?? (Uncommon)
An industrial computer that has stopped working.
3 of 3
HP: 2
VP: 1
His opponent had beaten him to the other two. No problem. He only had one card for most of the ingredients in these recipes anyway. That probably meant he’d only be able to craft a single item of whatever these recipes were meant to create.
Now, just one piece remained: [Metal Sheet].
There wasn’t a single clean slab of metal in the arena. But he had the next best thing—scrap metal.
[Curiosity ??] + [Follow ??]
?? | HP: 2 → 2
?? | HP: 1 → 0
Crafting successful! You’ve crafted [Bonus Chapters ????].
Click here and follow. As we reach certain milestones, I’ll post bonus chapters!
