Story so far

When every human-built structure on Earth collapsed and sank into the ground, what rose in its place was the dungeon: an eighteen-level labyrinth of traps, monsters, and loot that circles the entire globe, and the stage of Dungeon Crawler World, an intergalactic game show in which the apocalypse is broadcast as entertainment. There is no way out, each floor runs on a merciless clock, and survival depends less on strength than on views, followers, and the loot boxes that distant alien benefactors drop on the crawlers they favor. Carl entered that nightmare in his boxers alongside Princess Donut, his ex-girlfriend's pampered show cat, and together they fought through the first two floors to become unlikely celebrities. With the second floor about to collapse, the pair finish taping an episode of Odette's talk show, where Carl's public feud with Prince Maestro, son of King Rust of the Skull Empire, has spiraled into an intergalactic incident, complete with a viral Pork Boy video Carl swears is fake and a standing challenge to single combat. Off-air, the insectoid host warns Carl about the Valtay Corporation, a powerful parasitic alien government that was hours from collecting the season's debt before the Kua-Tin started the games early, and she offers cryptic advice for the looming third-floor class selection. Down on that floor, a sulfurous urban level beneath a fake starry sky, their game guide Mordecai greets them transformed into a gorgeous incubus. During selection Donut refuses to stop being a cat, then, over Carl's staged objection, deliberately picks the rare Former Child Actor class, secretly triggering the Manager benefit that binds the furious Mordecai to their party for good. Mongo, her baby velociraptor, sleeps through the whole betrayal.