I stared at Zhang’s target cape sitting on the table. The AI had given it to him on the previous floor after he survived the battle inside of Club Vanquisher. He hadn’t had to go to that fight. He’d gone because we’d needed his help. And Li Jun had died keeping Donut protected when she was in the tower. Even though we had been the ones to originally help save them when they were on the Maestro’s show, we owed them a huge debt.
Donut: WE NEED TO FIND A WAY TO TALK SOME SENSE INTO HER. IT’S THE ONLY WAY.
Elle: I was just in there with her, and I gotta say, she’s gone completely whackadoodle. And by this point, does it even matter? Every race from now on will have her versus a bunch of others.
We had three hours until the next heat.
We had so much to do. We were going to sing in a few minutes, and the war mage thing...
And then, there it was.Of course.Of course.
I had an idea, but we’d have to move fast.
Li Na didn’t worship a deity. She couldn’t worship one with her Changbi race.
Despite what Donut said, Li Nawasa weapon. A weapon that could be especially effective if she was pointed in the correct direction.
I sent multiple messages, including one to Bodi.
Carl: Bodi, did you commit to a race yet for this next heat? Zhang is going to need a jockey. Li Na is leaving the dungeon.
[ 55 ]
Splash Zone:Man, I don’t know if this is going to work. The croupier guy is a complete dick. He stabbed Gluteus for no reason! They got rid of the Nothing spots on all the games and replaced it with things like “You get your ass curb stomped” and something called the “Dirty Tea Bag.”
Carl: Shit. Okay. Make your way back to the base. And keep an eye on Dong.
Splash Zone: Wait. You didn’t ask for him? He said you asked for him to go to the bar. I think he’s on his way to you.
Goddamnit. Yuto the Oni was onstage. I knew we were up soon. We didn’t want Dong here for this because this Porky guy supposedly hated him. I did see Prepotente still by the DJ stand, and I saw something else I wasn’t expecting. Dwight the unicorn had just wandered in. He had aShit-Faceddebuff over him.
This was the first time I’d seen the unicorn outside of the vine. He looked pretty much like I’d expected, though he was a little shorter than I’d thought. But he was a sparkling white horse. His rainbow horn glittered brightly in the dark light of the bar.
The drunk unicorn pushed a few gremlins out of the way and made his way to the DJ booth. He gave Prepotente a shove that sent the goat sprawling.
Carl: You better get here, too, then. We’ll need you to watch him. Some stuff is about to go down.
Splash Zone: I’ll be there in a bit. I asked for an audience with Hamed, the new leader guy, to see if he could help me find my wife, and the guards said he’d see me. So me and Gluteus, and Doctor Bones are gonna go talk to him. I’ll send Bucket Boy your way.
Carl: Okay. Be safe. Keep me updated.
I moved to get Prepotente away from the idiot unicorn before a fight broke out, but I was interrupted by another message.
Mordecai: Believe it or not, the test actually worked. But Samantha also can’t die, and she’s not the most reliable test subject, so we tested it again on some sluggalos. It works, but there’re a few wrinkles. We have some solutions that I’m working on right now.
Rosetta: None of this means this next part will work. We can’t even test the shop-interface part because of that standing purchase order with the cleaner bots. It requires us to trust that war mage wasn’t lying.
I waved at Imani and pointed at Prepotente, who was sputtering and getting up. The DJ was shouting at Dwight, who was now sitting on the floor like a dog and sobbing. Imani got up and moved quickly to get herself between the unicorn and the goat.
The swirl tattoo on my palm itched.
Carl: Oh, I’m sure he was lying. But not about the Cabaret itself. The fact that purchase order is even there suggests part of it is true, and don’t forget Eris also said this will work. If we can talk Li Na into doing this, I’ll make sure she knows the full story andis prepared. This isn’t something we can force on her. She’s too strong, and she’s too smart for us to trick her into doing it, and I wouldn’t want to do it that way anyway. This will keep her alive, keep Zhang alive, and keep her from killing more crawlers. It’ll also let us test Herot’s theory. I think she’ll go for it.
Mordecai: Kid, this is so far off the codex, we don’t even know if the system will allow her to do this. And if it does, it’s possible she could still die when your floor collapses.
Carl: I know.
Imani dragged Prepotente to the table and made him sit down. He was shouting and looking at Dwight, who remained on the floor sobbing, surrounded by bewildered gremlins. The Minister of Blood-Letting was patting him on the shoulder. Prepotente was clearly ready to get up and attack the unicorn, but he quickly calmed after seeing the looks of everyone at the table. They all had their eyes on me.