This is book 6. Floor 8 of the Dungeon. The floor is a recording of pre-doomsday Earth. The aliens running the Dungeon took a recording of Earth a few weeks before the Dungeon started, and they dumped the crawlers into that recording in their choice of city to start the floor. The floor is also a card game floor. Each crawler crew must capture six monsters, turning them into cards which are used in the combat system for the later stages of the floor. There are some bizarre monsters and cards generated by the AI. It generates monsters, icons, and nightmare creatures from different cultures around the world. The dungeon admins abuse the Crawlers by forcing confrontations with people/monster bosses from their pasts. Carl and his crew have to fight a hydra with heads from his past- an old boss, a friend, and a surprise half-brother that he didn’t even know he had. There are some interesting political/strategy developments tied to the upcoming Faction Wars on floor 9. Carl, Donut, and their friends have been disastering (new word I just invented cause I couldn’t think up a better one) the Faction Wars setup every chance they get. Faction Wars is supposed to be a game that the uber-rich play for fame and money, but Carl and Donut change the rules to force real danger to the Dungeon tourists. The plot takes crazy twists and turns as the Crawlers face a giant demon and are forced to face off against each other to win keys to the stairways to the next floor. The series, already dark, gets darker as the game progresses, the stakes get higher, and the AI devolves. It’s like the Harry Potter books. Each one is longer, more complex, and darker. I had to take a break from the series after this one.
This is for mature card gamers.