Chapter 3

Carl and Donut begin the tenth floor's first race heat in a truck equipped with a gun turret, racing 53 kilometers through the Caves of the Screeching Death Manatees against eight other teams. As they enter the cave, multiple opponents are immediately killed by giant manatees, forcing Carl and his allies to confront the moral dilemma of whether they can afford to let opponents die without creating problems for future heats.

The race begins with a horn, and Carl accelerates the truck down a dark road. The Navitron 1000 navigation system identifies Donut by an elaborate title and confirms the 53-kilometer distance, 6-hour time limit, and environmental hazards. Carl activates Donut's Torch spell for light since the truck's headlights don't work. He observes six other vehicles ahead: a muscle car with two tall occupants, a bearlike creature running on all fours, a bug-like creature skittering, a minivan, something that jumped overhead, and a unicorn head sticking out of a giant tumbleweed with a pinkish-red rodent on top. The road stretches straight and dark with occasional glittering suggesting water. Despite the GPS showing they're in caves, Carl sees stars overhead. The truck maxes out at 70 mph (112 kph), which would reach the finish line in about 25 minutes. Donut summons Mongo the dinosaur to the passenger seat for observation, and the nervous creature vomits on the dashboard. Carl feels strange relief that the immediate danger is limited to just him and Donut, though he wrestles with unresolved concerns from the previous floor and the knowledge that helping opponents is crucial to avoid future crawler-versus-crawler races. A message from Prepotente warns that if multiple opponents die in one heat, subsequent heats may be forced to mix crawlers from different groups into the same race. Through subsequent messages, Carl learns that the crawlers are split into teams with different upgrade choices: Prepotente and Zhang chose biological, while Elle, Imani, Chris, Louis, Britney, and Bautista chose mechanical. As they approach the cave entrance, Donut spots movement and the road ahead becomes visible. Just inside the cave mouth, the minivan is already overturned and burning, blocking the road. A bugbear crawls away from the wreckage. Simultaneously, a bus-sized ladybug vehicle is dragged off the road by an enormous manatee, killing it and its on-fire rider, who explodes moments later. Zhang's message cuts off mid-sentence with 'Na already—' suggesting immediate danger to his team.