Chapter 17

Carl and his party defeat the war mage Dismember on a train, claiming his head as loot before escaping at Station 281. They prepare for an upcoming show appearance and establish a new crafting setup, with Carl building a revolutionary backpack system that allows Katia to equip massive amounts of metal armor, dramatically increasing her combat potential. Carl also receives a mysterious neural enhancer from the Valtay Corporation that grants him the ability to identify and analyze subspace portals.

After killing Dismember, the party flees the train before the Bereft Minions can breach their barricade. Levi celebrates their victory while Donut and Carl discuss the war mage's apparent army-building operation. Back at Station 281, their agent Zev books them for a show called Planet Beautiful in two days, a narration program about beauty pageants and pet shows—something Carl finds suspiciously vague but ultimately acceptable. Carl visits J.CO Donuts and Coffee, where he acquires a Sapper's table coupon and upgrade coupons. He discovers that an Armorer's Workshop allows items to be properly equipped and adds to the wearer's mass, solving a critical limitation for Katia's shapeshifting abilities. Inspired by notes in the Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook about backpacks stabilizing explosives, Carl constructs a large, equippable backpack filled with dense metal poles and balls. After a tense fitting process where Katia transforms into a slug-like shape to support the weight, the backpack successfully equips to her, granting her over a ton of additional mass and dramatically increasing her strength. Katia experiments with various forms and discovers the system grants her a strength bonus while carrying the extra mass. During the recap episode, Carl spots another war mage (resembling an orc with silver hair) laughing during a crawler massacre, suggesting all named trains have war mages. He also notes Quan Ch's rise on the leaderboard due to an enchanted jacket and observes that stairwells remain locked until six hours before collapse. A nightly announcement warns of train delays and confirms all crawlers now have sponsors. Carl receives a Bronze Benefactor Box from the Valtay Corporation containing a neural enhancer pill that grants him the ability to identify and analyze subspace portals. After taking the pill, Carl discovers he can now see through doorways marked as subspace portals, viewing the coffee shop through the doorway to the saferoom's exit.