Chapter 14

Carl and his party arrive at Hungry Eyes Vendor Village, a neon-cyberpunk styled town serving as the hub for the racing floor. They encounter other racers and locate their destination bar, the Lollipop, where they run into Jurgen and Prepotente, who are preparing for their own race with their mount Sweety, a Perriso.

After passing through the portal from the bugbears' area, Carl reviews messages about the eleventh floor arena system, where killed mobs can be voted to survive and sent to an arena, or replaced with "stand-ins" from outside the dungeon—raising troubling questions about who he might be able to force into the arena. The party emerges into Hungry Eyes Vendor Village, a cyberpunk-themed town dramatically different from the medieval aesthetic of other towns, filled with flashing neon signs, shops, temples, and NPCs. Carl notes a mysterious blank storefront marked as a C&W&U location for illegal modifications opening soon. They locate the Lollipop bar—their meeting point, which notably features karaoke—next to the more prominent Hairpin bar (which serves as the entrance to the Desperado Club and which their group is avoiding). Outside the Lollipop, they encounter Jurgen and Prepotente at a meat vendor stall. Jurgen, confident in his "sixth sense," purchases mystery meat skewers despite Prepotente's warnings about the lack of health inspections and the town's warning about food safety. Prepotente explains their mount is a Perriso, a large tapir-like creature named Sweety, which Jurgen considers slow and smelly compared to mechanical alternatives. Jurgen insists on trusting his intuition, invoking his promotion to general by Carl on the previous floor—only to immediately begin vomiting violently from the mystery meat he consumed.