Character · Book 1, Dungeon Crawler Carl

The System AI

The voice that reads every item description, names every achievement and awards every box — snide, profane, obsessed with Carl's bare feet. Distinct from Borant, which runs the season; the AI runs the game.

Segment appearances

• Chapter 2 — The staircase
• Chapter 4 — The character sheet
• Chapter 8 — Rats and Scatterers
• Chapter 10 — 4,148,111
• Chapter 11 — The Hoarder
• Chapter 27 — After the arena
• Chapter 29 — Odette off air
• Chapter 30 — Floor two
• Chapter 36 — Zev
• Chapter 39 — The recap
• Chapter 40 — Bomb Chicken
• Chapter 43 — The Maestro explains himself
• Chapter 44 — What Donut overheard
• Chapter 47 — 124.8 trillion
• Epilogue — Epilogue: Odette's couch

Arc

The AI is the book's other narrator. Its voice reads the item cards — the Bad Llama at the Circle K (ch. 8), goblin dynamite that ends with a shouted BOOM (ch. 10), a spell 'A great spell to have if you’re a club kid or trying to bang a vegan' (ch. 12) — and its achievements are a running verdict on Carl: Boss Babe, Bitchmeat, You Monster! with a reward that is twenty seconds of comfort and then 'It was also a lie' (ch. 19). Its interest in Carl's feet is text from ch. 5 and policy by ch. 30, when a Platinum Shoe Box yields a pedicure kit that only works barefoot.

Odette draws the line that matters (ch. 29): the AI runs the game and the loot is not random; it will give you what keeps the show interesting, which may be a belt that lets you take a crab's legs, or a stick of dynamite at the worst possible moment. Borant proposes; the AI disposes — it censures Zev for a warning (ch. 44), it groans when Ralph is smushed (ch. 46), and Carl half-suspects it of the Pork Boy Snick. It is the thing Carl addresses when he talks to ceilings.