Chapter 47

Carl sets a gate trap to flood the ninth floor's faction market with water, sharks, and explosives, destroying the merchants and supply lines while Maggie attempts one final sabotage. The chapter culminates in Carl ascending to the number one bounty hunter ranking and publicly challenging all future hunters to combat.

With five hours until level collapse, Carl places a winding box containing two watches in the desert, calculated to open a gate in exactly 23 minutes before the level ends. Langley and his archers depart to join larger groups, while Katia and Tran prepare to shark hunt in the water quadrant. An unexpected platinum sponsor box arrives from the Open Intellect Pacifist Action Network, containing a specialized head-throwing xistera extension. A massive feral demon named Slit emerges, chasing Samantha (the minor god-turned-doll-head) across the lacuna. Carl uses the extension to catapult Samantha 50 kilometers away, whereupon a much larger deity appears, kills Slit, and vanishes—revealed to be Samantha's mother. Samantha is retrieved, revealing her complicated family dynamics with demons trapped in the Nothing. As the final hour approaches, the hidden rock creature Chris (possessed by the parasitic worm Maggie) attempts to steal and throw the winding box. Carl consumes a phase potion and extracts the worm from Chris's brain using his bare hand, but the worm burrows into Carl's arm. A healing potion expels it violently from Carl's neck; Mongo kills the worm-form Maggie in the aftermath. The actual plan succeeds: the real gate opens inside Larracos's faction market on the ninth floor, unleashing water, explosive bombs, and sharks into the city's lower levels, destroying merchant infrastructure and supply lines. Carl reaches number one on the bounty hunter rankings and publicly pledges to kill every hunter who pursues them on the sixth floor. Chris, having been freed, joins their party as they descend.