Chapter 41

Carl and Donut say goodbye to the Meadow Lark residents, who descend to the next floor via improvised people-buckets. Carl and Donut then grind through the kobold quadrant, kill some Danger Dingo-riding kobolds, find a safe room with a mana toast dispenser, and are abruptly transported by a new administrator named Mukta to an interview show called Death Watch Extreme Dungeon Mayhem instead of the scheduled program.

After burning pupae in the large chamber, Carl watches the Meadow Lark residents—now reduced to 36 people—arrive in three shopping-cart-like contraptions built by Brandon, Chris, and Imani. Carl says emotional goodbyes to the residents, including a confused Mrs. McGibbons, and the group descends the ramp. Carl and Donut then head toward the kobold quadrant, killing grubs and burning pupae along the way. They encounter and defeat two Kobold Riders mounted on Danger Dingoes, with Donut demonstrating improved combat skills and mentioning a mysterious "Racial benefits" tab that appeared briefly. They find a safe room in an abandoned industrial kitchen, featuring a working walk-in freezer, a mana toast dispenser that produces burned toast, and evidence of recent habitation. Before they can rest, Administrator Mukta interrupts with an emergency message: Zev has been put in time-out, and Carl and Donut are being transported immediately to a different interview program paying a higher fee—Death Watch Extreme Dungeon Mayhem, hosted by someone called the Maestro—instead of the scheduled Dungeon Crawl Tactics in a few hours. Despite Carl's protest about their right to refuse interviews, they are forcibly transported to a small rental trailer on a boat, where a robotic AI named Mexx-55 announces a 60-second countdown before the holographic broadcast begins.