Motif · Book 2, Carl's Doomsday Scenario

The tenth floor

The floor where, the first announcement says, 'additional rules come into play.' Odette reached the thirteenth floor's stairwell and never went down: 'I'd struck a deal. That's a long story, and it's not for today.'

Segment appearances

• Chapter 15 — The Desperado Club
• Chapter 24 — Remex
• Chapter 25 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario
• Epilogue — Epilogue: the leaderboard

Progression

Quint, a former crawler who is now a drug dealer: 'You two don't bother trying to make a deal on the tenth floor […] If I could do it again, I'd push my way through to floor eleven' (ch. 15). Remex, who called himself a tenner: 'It is so much better' to die here 'and not make it down there' (ch. 24). Only one holder of the tiara may proceed to the tenth (ch. 25). Donut's words, as Carl remembers them: 'I don't want to become an NPC.'