Place · Book 2, Carl's Doomsday Scenario

The Dungeon

The eighteen-floor structure that replaces the surface of the Earth at 2:23 in the morning, into which some thirteen million people descend: a maze of quadrant-sized squares, safe rooms, tutorial guilds and boss lairs, run as a broadcast for an interstellar audience and collapsing a floor at a time on a timer.

Segment appearances

Chapter 1 — The jury room
Chapter 2 — Race and class
Chapter 3 — The Over City explained
Chapter 6 — Signet
Chapter 7 — The lion's heart
Chapter 8 — Water Lily
Chapter 10 — The big top
Chapter 13 — Mordecai's room
Chapter 14 — The One-Eyed Narwhal
Chapter 15 — The Desperado Club
Chapter 18 — Miss Quill
Chapter 19 — Danger Zone
Chapter 20 — Manasa's last song
Chapter 21 — Katia
Chapter 24 — Remex
Chapter 25 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario
Epilogue — Epilogue: the leaderboard

Arc

Book 2 adds the shape of the whole: floors three and six are one volcano-world (Over City, Hunting Grounds), the fourth and fifth are random (ch. 3), and its capital sprawls on the ninth (ch. 18); the eighteenth is a billionaires' retreat and the fifteenth is Sheol (ch. 3, ch. 24); the tenth has rules of its own (ch. 15, ch. 24); a Divine Guardian guards a fire gate on the twelfth (ch. 7). Stairwells now hide behind quests (ch. 12), and the door at the bottom says 'Mind the gap' (ch. 25).