“Yeah?”
“You can call me Pony if you like.”
It only took us thirty seconds to get from the room to the crowded lobby.
On the way there, in the hallway, we passed the wreckage of team Free Love’s van. We’d killed them just before they’d hit the finish line.
Donut jumped from the seat and into my lap upon seeing that, and I held her tight as we approached the exit.
A few minutes later, I learned Osvaldo had lied, and that lie had saved his life. He and Filipe rushed over the finish line with a minute to spare.
He was followed quickly by several others, all racing to pass the finish line in time.
Quest complete. Ad Infinitum.
Heat Six. Results.
First Place: Team Sparkles.
Second Place: The Royal Court of Princess Donut.
Third Place: Team Flamengo.
Eliminated: Team Free Love.
HEAT 7 OF 7
[ 78 ]
System Message:The Outreach Guild is now available in Hungry Eyes.
Donut harrumphed. “As much as I would like to see how your wife is doing, Carl, I think I will skip this one.”
We passed Dwight, who remained sleeping in his vine. I took the opportunity to toss a timed sticky explosive into the back of the vine, but it just popped right out. Dwight snorted, woke up, and started to look around, bewildered.
“Fuck you,” Dwight whispered at us before turning into spot number one.
“This is ridiculous,” Donut grumbled. “What’s the point if the thing is just going to drive itself? Cheaters. Everybody is cheating.”
Dr. Metcalf beeped.
That’s what happens when you keep winning. You get upgrades that make it so you can’t lose. And they’re going to get more. And now it’s too late for me to even get a good upgrade. I agree with the unicorn. Fuck you.
“I swear to the gods old and new,” Pontiff rumbled as we eased into the crowded garage, “it’s a miracle any of us are still alive.”
Nester was turned around in her chair, looking toward the apartment building, which now loomed in the background. “I can’t believe we made it through.” She shivered.
Florin: None of the NPC teams were given mandatory gates. That’s why we lost so many.
Elle: Of course, typical dungeon fuckery. The good news is, it’s convincing more of the people on the fence to jump into the Outreach Guild.
Carl: Do we have numbers yet?
Imani: I’m compiling them now. A lot of people didn’t make it. I think we’re under a thousand left.
I felt a numb chill. We’d started this floor with fifty-five hundred people. A little over two hundred had gone to the Cabaret. More than 80% of us hadn’t made it, and we still had one race to go. And when you compared it to the millions of people who had entered the dungeon in the first place?
Silence filled the chat for a long time.