Chapter 98

After the battle with the gods and Scolopendra ends in a technical victory, Carl discovers the arena in ruins with many crawlers dead and key allies injured or missing. A mysterious child appears briefly with Lucia Mar before vanishing through a portal. Carl learns he has been marked with a tracking tag by the Kyryap and faces the shocking revelation that Donut gave him the wrong pet biscuit—transforming Scolopendra into a humanoid Level 1 crawler who joins his party instead of becoming a controllable pet.

The Ascendency battle concludes with neither Scolopendra nor the gods dead, but the System declares Carl's group the winner and opens the exit. However, the System warns that killing Scolopendra or abandoning her will trigger final attacks, and the floor will collapse in thirty minutes. Carl's team has sustained heavy casualties: Tipid lost both legs, Jurgen and Prepotente are injured, and Sarah the hexcrafter is dead along with the three operators of the Abrams tank. Only nineteen crawlers remain alive. Carl notices Lucia Mar entering a portal holding the unconscious Florin and, more mysteriously, a small five-year-old girl. He attempts to stop them but fails. The Big Shot Chicken truck arrives, severely damaged with only ten sluggalos surviving. Carl orders everyone back to the safe room and instructs Bigs to gather survivors, though he learns Hedy the gremlin is dead, killed in her ice-cream truck. Carl discovers that Prepotente's memorial crystal was stolen by a thieving god, removing their protection from Scolopendra's attacks. He also finds a tracking dart in his leg marked as a Tracking Tag from the Kyryap, and picks up a dropped memorial crystal belonging to Emberus. Carl forms a full party with all remaining crawlers, determined to keep everyone alive through the next floor and prevent anyone from winning the Ascendency. As the level collapse approaches with ten minutes remaining, Donut confesses she made a critical mistake with the pet biscuits: she gave Carl the wrong one. Instead of becoming a controllable pet, Scolopendra transforms into a humanoid Level 1 crawler with a human face, giant lips, no arms, and yellow antennae—similar to Commander Stockade. She joins Carl's party and displays an unexpectedly friendly, flirtatious demeanor before urging him to enter the portal before the floor collapses.