As mentioned in my previous post, the secondo half of the book really develops itself, fleshing out ideas it had without the need to spout exposition on how the world works. The author includes something incredibly interesting in that it changes a major aspect of the world in the minds of the reader, however you only realize this in retrospect. The scene is set up as another recap episode is ending and with it “Patch Notes” are told to the Crawlers, one part specifically talks about how (going forward) crawlers will be punished for not using the toilets in the safe rooms. At this comment the reader thinks probably one of two things: “Ehh… low-brow joke” or “Never really thought about it” but generally skips over this part. The story continues on and the “Princess Posse” (The party name of Carl and Donut) come across other crawlers from a retirement home called “Meadow Lark” and try and help the weary attendants with the elderly they are taking care of. They learn that on the third floor you have the option to choose a different species (instead of being human) and reset your health, so Carl and Donut commit to helping the elderly till then.
Different Selectable Species (Thousands Total)
Lizard/Crocodile-folk Twin-Headed Ogre Fairy
At this point you can probably tell from my previous setup of the patch notes and my introduction of the elderly from the retirement home, one of the elderly breaks the rule and summons a punishment from the system, called a chaos elemental.
As the name implies, it is very dangerous, just getting close would kill anyone and it can summon its own mini-tornados. Throughout this entire book, the readers as well as the main characters have known people are rapidly dying inside the dungeon, however this is the first instance where it occurs right in front of them. What happened next was described by Carl as a slaughter, the chaos elemental cuts through 8 of the elderly and an attendant in no more than 30 seconds, however after that the main duo finally gets its attention to distract it. They frantically sprint until eventually they bait the creature like a bull into an insta-kill trap set up by the system.
This entire setup, the in-between, and the payoff are all included by the author to have the reader unknowingly develop an idea about the system; “While the system is sadistic, it’s inherently not unfair.” Yes, while very much brutal and extremely sadistic, the system shows that it does have a sense of what’s fair and obliges by these self-imposed rules. The system always presents some kind of opportunities to every crawler and treats things objectively. For instance, the system had given a clear warning to every crawler to use the bathrooms or there would be punishment and even then it didn’t just immediately kill the person as punishment, it gave them a chance (slim as it may be) to escape their situation. The system had also objectively allowed one of its own insta-kill traps intended for the crawlers to be used to get out of one of its imposed punishments. Even before all of that, it presented the opportunity for the elderly as well as anyone else with disabilities (who would originally never even have a chance) to regain their health and youth if they made it to the third floor. These interactions with the crawlers sets up the system to develop into a character who has a strict code of rules which they will always abide by, rather than a freely sadistic and brutal entity who has no sense of restraint (however the system is still definitely sadistic).
Another aspect the book goes into great detail is morality in extreme situations. Throughout all of these experiences we get to see Carl’s viewpoint and stance. For the first part of the book, when he was only hearing about people dying, he was sorrowful, but overall not affected. However, after the killing happened right before his eyes, the book dived into Carl’s fully developed mindset. He dived and revealed how he had the opportunity to save the attendant as well as one of the elderly but he waited to get into a more advantageous position before drawing the creature’s aggression and try to minimize the already outrageously stacked odds. After a lot of introspection, Carl resolved that the situation he was put in demands a crueler, more adaptive, more sadistic mindset which developed his resolve in destroying the Game Show runners and displaying their fall for all to see, all culminating with a statement Carl repeats throughout the series, “You will not break me. I will break you.”
I really liked how you spent time throughout this blog post analyzing the main theme of the book, which I deemed to be perseverance in extremely difficult conditions. The entire journey of the main characters seems brutal, taxing (emotionally and physically), and traumatic. On the topic of mortality, it does seem like a violent and gory story, therefore it makes sense that the protagonist had to adapt to his new lifestyle by taking on the “sadistic” persona you described. However, I also really liked how you ended the blog post with his newfound ideology and confidence as Carl says, “You will not break me. I will break you.” It was really interesting for me to learn about a genre I have no prior exposure to, and I think you did a really good job explaining the story!