The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

Carl, Donut, and the surviving crawlers enter a new floor of the dungeon where the challenge has shifted into a card-collecting, monster-capture game. The floor is built around a replicated Earth filled with ghosts of humanity and legendary beasts tied to specific places, while the system and the AI that governs everything grow increasingly unstable.

As teams scatter, each group must build the strongest deck they can and capture six powerful monsters to survive the floor’s next stage. Carl and Donut are pushed into navigating shifting alliances, dangerous opponents, and a game that keeps revealing new rules, new threats, and new complications. The story also digs further into personal histories, relationships, and the wider politics surrounding the crawl.

At the center of the floor is a uniquely dangerous monster, Shi Maria, whose intelligence and history make her more than just another enemy. As the crawlers try to outplay the system and secure enough power to move forward, the book builds toward major confrontations, emotional turns, and an ending that sets up the next stage of the larger conflict.