Jacob’s senses were completely overwhelmed as he took in the room, the sounds of dozens of matches hitting his ears at once, his eyes struggling to keep up with the constant movement. Much like every other room they had been in the testing room was massive, with at least a dozen arenas arranged in a grid pattern. The arenas were slightly smaller than the one he had used on the Ceasarion; they were inset only a few feet instead of the Ceasarion’s ten, and the casting platforms for each weren’t elevated off the ground. At each arena two boxy machines were located, casting prototype cards in rapid matches against each other. Each match was a blur; the machines casting faster than Jacob could follow.
“Is every room in your factory this big?” Stan looked around the room overwhelmed “Or are the rest of the rooms even bigger?”
“We never do anything small at Wonder Corp.” Rama winked at Stan “But the first few spaces on our tour are some of the larger ones. Always good to make a good impression.”
“Every card that we produce is extensively tested, in a three step process. ” Rama stepped out in front of the group and spread her arms to gesture at the space behind her “What you are watching is the third step of that process: Match testing. We currently test 10 unique formats of matches, with every card being required to be successfully cast 10 times before it is released from testing. This means every card we produce needs to be cast 100 times before it is put into full scale production.”
“Sounds like that takes forever.” Veronica frowned “That can’t be very efficient.”
“When you make cards that change reality, you want reliability.” Rama raised an eyebrow “Not efficiency.”
“Fine, but you’d make more money being more efficient.” Veronica huffed. Rama rolled her eyes before continuing.
“Like the very first room we entered in the factory, this room is special.” Rama looked back towards the group “As it was the first of our testing facilities to be built. Just like the main entrance this room was brought brick by brick from our first headquarters, being re-assembled carefully here exactly as it was in Vancouver. Every card that’s ever been produced by the company has been tested in this room. Before it can get to this stage of testing though, it has a few steps it has to go through first. If you would all step forward please, inside the box on the floor.”
Rama gestured to the ground in front of the alcove that she was standing on, and the group moved to join her. There was a box outlined on the floor in red, which the group crowded into. Once everyone was in the box Rama tapped the ground three times, and railings shot up all around them. The group stumbled lightly as the floor suddenly shot upwards, revealing itself to be an elevator to the balconies of the second level. Within seconds they had reached it, the balcony extending past them to the left. Rama squeezed through the group to reach the left side, before clicking a hidden latch on the railing. It swung open like a gate, and she gestured to the balcony. The group quickly funneled off of the elevator onto it, and Rama shut the gate behind her as she joined them. The elevator immediately returned to the floor below, leaving behind the gated railing on one side.
“As I mentioned earlier, this space is the third stage of testing.” Rama made her way through the group, then began walking down the balcony on the left side. The members of the tour group glanced at each other for a second, before rushing to join her. “The rooms you are about to see are the first and second stages.”
Rama paused at a door Jacob hadn’t noticed before; it was plain and simplistic, blending into the wall around it. The only indicator it was present at all was a line of text that read: SIMTEST, PHASE 1. Rama pulled out the silver card she had used throughout the tour and pressed it to the door. The lettering glowed brightly for a moment, and the door popped open. Rama stood in the entrance, and the group crowded around to look inside.
The room beyond the door was small, and covered in computer screens. Each screen had a simulated match playing out on it, moving even faster than the matches on the ground floor below. Like both of the prior rooms Jacob couldn’t follow any of them as they progressed, each being a flurry of movement and simulated casting. The room had a small humanoid machine attending it, which focused on the screens. It glanced over with glowing eyes at Rama and the tour, before turning back to the matches.
“This is the first phase of testing, our simulator testing.” Rama looked at the screens; while Jacob couldn’t keep track of the matches, Rama clearly could, and she frowned as she watched one of them. She tapped the robot and pointed at a screen. The robot beeped and pressed a series of keys on a keyboard in front of it. The match reset, the robot watching it closely. Rama turned and jumped slightly as she saw the group, remembering that they were watching. “As soon as a card is discovered its data is sent here, where it is put through a similar testing downstairs in simulation. Each phase is designed to weed out weak or problematic cards; when all testing is done roughly half of all discovered cards are rejected for production.”
“What would cause a card to be rejected?” Jacob asked. Rama looked at him and smiled knowingly
“Anything strong enough to break tournament rules, or encourage illegal activity for starters.” Rama replied “Anything with stats too low to be effectively used in matches, and anything that has a 90% fail rate in testing - either due to being too easily destroyed, or too difficult to properly cast.”
“All this testing” Jacob’s grandfather said sarcastically “And you still put Carnivorous Island Potato into production?”
“Carnivorous Island Potato has its uses, if you cast it right.” Rama said wryly “Plus, it was too silly to not produce. A Potato that eats people, that’s just charming.”
“That’s one word for it.” Veronica gazed into the room intently, still wearing her signature look of annoyance. Rama chuckled quietly.
“During this phase we reject the first 10% of the cards we discover.” Rama began shutting the door “Where the majority of cards are rejected is the next phase.”
The door locked as Rama shut it fully, and she began walking down the balcony again. The group followed as she walked in silence, quickly reaching the corner of the wall. She turned it, and Jacob spotted another series of doors, each equally hidden as the first. The doors were equally spaced down the long balcony and were labelled by card type, with the closest being labelled CREATURE TEST, PHASE 2. Rama pressed her card to it, and just like the first it popped open. Rama held it open and gestured, and the group funneled in. As they all entered the space Rama shut the door behind them, and they heard it click shut.
Stolen story; please report.
CREATURE TEST, PHASE 2 was larger than SIMTEST, PHASE 1, but was still significantly smaller than the other rooms they had seen thus far on the tour. The group stood on what felt like a metal catwalk, sealed by reinforced glass and overlooking a cluster of small square enclosures. Inside each enclosure a machine was casting cards, each casting a single creature at a time. After a creature was cast the machine waited a few seconds, before removing the card from their equippers. It then repeated the process multiple times, changing the length of time the creature was active for each time it was cast.
“After a card has been simulated, a small batch of prototype units is made, just like the card you were all handed in the Discovery Room.” Rama hovered near the door as she explained, watching over the casting “This area is for testing the level 2 creature cards we unlock; in lower levels we have additional rooms for testing level 3 and 4 cards that tend to be a bit physically larger and harder to contain.
A red light above them suddenly began blinking, as an alarm started to go off around the room. In one of the cubicles below the group saw a giant balloon-like mass envelope its casting space, pressing up against the walls as it inflated. Rama frowned, and there was a whirring noise as two turrets rotated into few just past the tour group. There was a light buzzing sound as two focused lasers emitted from each, hitting the balloon dead on. The balloon popped the moment the lasers touched it, deflating back into the space before fading into nothingness. The cubicle glowed red, and the machine dropped out of sight within it. A holographic image of the card appeared upon the glass in front of them, and Rama looked it over carefully.
Balloon Beast of the Glittering City - Creature - Aviation Type - Strength: 1000 - Defense: 1200 - This creature will self destruct in four draws. Every time a card is drawn the balloon begins to fill with noxious gas. Once the balloon is destroyed it releases the gas it has produced, damaging everything in range.
“Well that’s definitely not safe.” Rama muttered. She gestured at the screen, and a massive X appeared over the card.
BANG!
The hologram faded just in time for another alarm to sound, and multiple massive spikes to lodge themselves into the glass. The barrier stopped them from reaching the room beyond, but the group still collectively stumbled backwards as they hit. Another card image appeared, and Rama frowned again.
Porcupine Cannon - Creature - Woodland Type - Strength: 1500 - Defense: 1900 - When threatened this creature shoots spikes out of the many cannons on its back, damaging what attacked it.
“That one seems more manageable.” Rama muttered again to herself. She gestured, and a green check appeared before the card faded away.
“That card nearly killed us, and you’re giving it a green check mark?” Veronica looked bewildered, staring at the spikes buried into the glass.
“Ridiculous, you’re perfectly safe. That glass is even more reinforced than what’s on the Ceasarion.” Rama walked through the gorup down the catwalk, heading to their right. “As you can see, these rooms can be quite lively, and result in another 35% of cards being rejected for production.”
“What happens to the card when it’s rejected?” Stan looked nervously at the spikes “Is it sent back to the machines?”
“Once a card is unlocked, the only way it can be lost is in a match - and we can’t risk losing out on a good card just because we want to get rid of a bad one.” Rama gestured, and the group began to follow her. The catwalk was roughly 15 feet long, before ending by another door to the balcony outside “Most cards that are rejected are stored in our Digital Card Vault, and will never see production.”
“And those that aren’t put in the vault?” Jacob asked.
“I’m sorry, what?” Rama paused by the door to the balcony, and began to rifle through her pockets to look for the keycard.
“You said most cards go into the vault.” Jacob followed up “What happens to those that don’t?”
“I suppose I did say that, didn’t I? Huh. How interesting.” Rama pulled the card out of her pocket and placed it on the door, popping it open. She held it open for the group, and gestured outside. “Don’t dilly dally, lots more to see!”
The group funneled out of the room, and Jacob frowned. Rama had avoided the question - which meant that the answer was something she didn’t want them to know. Rama began walking down the corridor, quickly passing the other doors.
“Each type of card has its own unique testing space.” Rama continued cheerfully “This is mostly for safety; Cards can be unpredictable when they’re first cast, so each room has emergency measures to immediately counter anything dangerous before it can spread.”
“What’s the most dangerous thing you’ve cast?” Stan’s wife popped in
“We summoned a wormhole once.” Rama said “Sucked in half the room before we shut it off. Needless to say, that card did not enter production.”
As the group passed them, Jacob took note of the writing on each of the doors:
SPELL TEST, PHASE 2
SNARE TEST, PHASE 2
EQUIP TEST, PHASE 2
OTHER TEST, PHASE 2
He paused by the door that read OTHER TEST, and was quickly joined by his grandfather, Stan, and Ku Do-Yeon. They all stared quizzically at the door’s label.
“I thought there were only four card types.” Stan said, confused
“There are.” Jacob replied. He glanced over at Ku Do-Yeon, who raised an eyebrow.
“Please keep moving, we don’t want to have anyone get left behind.” The group jumped as Rama’s voice appeared behind them. She gestured to the right, urging the group to continue down the hallway.
“What does Other test mean?” Jacob pressed.
“Cards are not the only thing we produce here.” Rama sighed “There are a great number of technologies and experiments done as well. Those have to be tested somewhere before they can be produced.”
Jacob looked at her suspiciously, and glanced over at the others. None of them were buying it. Rama gestured again, and they kept moving on.
“What do you think is more suspicious.” Jacob’s grandfather moved to stand next to Jacob, muttering so only he could hear. “The questions she does answer, or the questions she doesn’t.”
Jacob frowned as he thought about it. He had expected secrecy on this tour; he hadn’t expected it to be so overtly present. They joined the rest of the group at the balcony corner and turned right again, walking to the end to stand opposite of where they had first entered the testing room. Rama tapped her walking stick on the balcony three times, and an identical elevator to the first rose to meet the group. She opened the gate, and the group funneled in one last time.
“Our next stop on the tour will be fairly boring to all but our little industrialist here.” Rama glanced over at Veronica “But it’s the part of the factory that keeps the whole place running.”
Rama joined them on the elevator and shut the grate, causing the elevator to descend rapidly. As before the group stumbled slightly, before the elevator reached the ground with a small jolt. The railings descended into the ground, and Rama walked past the group to a door on the back wall. This one was labelled with an identical font to those on the upper levels, though this door was not hidden into the sides of the room. The double door had a plain frame, and was wide enough for four people to walk through it side by side. The doors were labelled PRODUCTION in large letters, but were otherwise unadorned. Rama pressed her silver card against them, and the doors slowly opened outwards to reveal a truly massive room beyond.
“This is the room where the magic happens.” Rama smiled as she looked into the space “This is the room where the cards are made.”
doesn’t speak. Not all of the shadows in this factory are literal; something more is at play.
built, not so much. These chapters are necessary for laying out things that will be important later in the book and the series, but I look forward to a few chapters from now when we encounter our next big action sequence. The next calamity will also be solved by dueling, but this dueling will be much more reminiscent of the match we had all the way back in Chapter 5, when Jacob faced off against 2 RevGang enforcers. I’m looking forward to sharing it with all of you.
trust in the cards…
What do you think is being tested in the room labelled "Other"?
