Chapter 79

Carl and Donut prepare for the final race as most crawlers flee through the Outreach Guild to escape the dungeon. With 715 of 989 crawlers taking deals to leave, Carl manages the logistics of remaining matchups while grappling with alarming signs that Britney is being possessed or influenced by an outside force. Meanwhile, Pontiff reports suspicious developments at the casino regarding the Wheel of Fortune's "Nothing" spot, complicating Carl's backup escape plan.

Carl attempts to convince Osvaldo to take a deal and leave the dungeon, but Osvaldo refuses. Filipe, another Brazilian crawler, has secretly agreed to take a deal without telling Osvaldo. Of 989 crawlers representing 353 teams, 715 are confirmed to be entering the Outreach Guild and leaving permanently. This leaves only 274 crawlers across 103 teams still competing. Carl and Imani have calculated that approximately 65 to 70 heats will occur in the final race, with confirmed matchups including Carl and Donut against teams Sparkles and Flamengo, and Imani and Elle against the Tracksuit Troika and the Minister of Blood-Letting's team. Other notable crawlers staying include Chris, Florin and Lucia, Jurgen, and Louis and Britney, though Chris's teammates the Erins have agreed to exit. Prepotente walks through the Outreach Guild line and notes that no one who has entered has returned. In Hungry Eyes, Carl and Donut encounter Britney leaving the Desperado Club. She appears unstable, with red-rimmed eyes and shaking hands, claiming she needed air away from Elle. When Carl questions her further, Britney communicates telepathically to his mind, telling him not to worry and to focus on surviving—a disturbing connection that resembles the mental links Carl has experienced before but feels rawer and less pure. Pontiff messages Carl from the Desperado Club with concerning news: the guards include former assassins and wall rats, and the Wheel of Fortune now shows "Nothing" in suspicious quotation marks rather than as an actual option. This threatens Carl's backup escape plan, which relied on manually hitting the Nothing spot to create a portal to a holding area where Herot could retrieve escapees. Carl acknowledges they are out of time. After collecting food buffs, Carl and Donut encounter Prepotente again, who confirms no additional crawlers are taking deals. Prepotente observes that the floor's ending feels anticlimactic, prompting Donut to sharply warn him never to say such things aloud, fearing he has jinxed their situation.