Chapter 32

Carl and Donut practice their card deck in the Mock Battle Arena, testing an 18-card composition in a 1980s shopping mall environment. During the practice battle, they discover troubling truths about their totems' capabilities: Uzi Jesus and Shi Maria clash despite being on the same team, and Shi Maria's fifth eye opens, causing Carl to experience a disturbing psychic pull even within the supposedly safe simulation.

Carl learns from Imani that Katia has overdosed on a substance from a drug den and will be unconscious for ten hours with uncertain stat consequences. Imani suspects this isn't Katia's first encounter with the addiction and plans to investigate with guild members. Carl and Donut head to the Mock Battle Arena to practice their refined 18-card deck before heading to the Desperado Club. They select a 1980s shopping mall setting filled with interactive NPCs and lock in their deck: six totems (Geraldo, Asojano, Skylar Spinach, Uzi Jesus, Raul, and Shi Maria) plus utility, snare, mystic, and consumable cards. During combat against Rude-Dolph the Blood-Nosed Slay-Deer and his eight puppet reindeer, complications arise immediately. When Donut summons both Uzi Jesus and Shi Maria, Jesus attempts to harm the spider, forcing her to skewer him through the chest to make him stop. As the battle progresses with Skylar Spinach and other totems joining in, Shi Maria opens a fifth eye—a jeweled appendage that radiates in shifting colors. This eye creates a psychic connection that physically affects Carl, dropping him to his knees with dizziness and a sensation he inexplicably associates with "the river in my mind," despite the simulation being supposed to be safe. The eye's influence doesn't seem to affect Donut or Mongo. After the puppet reindeer are defeated and killed by the corruption Shi Maria's opened eye causes, the totems finish Rude-Dolph. When combat ends, all three express unease about what they witnessed from Shi Maria.