Motif · Book 5, The Butcher's Masquerade

The clock

The countdown in the corner of every crawler's vision: 'Time to Level Collapse', five days on the first floor, read out by the system at the head of chapters and by Carl whenever he has to choose. On the second floor a second timer appears beneath it, counting down to the closing of the safe rooms an hour before collapse, and Carl waits for the level timer to reach six hours before he takes the stairs.

Segment appearances

• Chapter 1 — The vice principal's office
• Chapter 4 — Golden Throat
• Chapter 9 — Just Wait Until Your Daddy Gets Home
• Chapter 24 — The rock chucker
• Chapter 48 — The Creeping Apocalypse
• Chapter 52 — Gehenna Bramble
• Chapter 59 — The sheriffs of the wild west
• Chapter 60 — The raids
• Chapter 63 — Enchanted Hammer of Fast Forward
• Chapter 64 — The attendant entrance
• Epilogue — Epilogue

Progression

Two clocks from the first line: 'Time to Level Collapse: 17 Days' and 'Time Until the Hunt Begins: 30 Hours' (ch. 1), the hunt's read down through 21 hours (ch. 4) to 3.5 hours (ch. 9). The floor's runs 11 days 8 hours (ch. 24), Six days, fifteen hours (ch. 48), Five days and 21 hours (ch. 52); a third clock counts to the masquerade — 62 hours (ch. 59), 60 hours, then 10 against 'One day, 10 hours' (ch. 60), 1 hour against 31 (ch. 64). Prepotente refuses to wait for six hours before the stairs (ch. 77), and the seventh floor opens on 20 Days (epilogue).