Teaching a Crocodile to Drive

Fifteen minutes before the race, Bucket Boy takes the driver's seat and immediately starts pressing things, and Donut introduces the truck's foul-tempered GPS as Dr. Metcalf. Carl fails to tear the tommy gun off the roof by hand: the System refuses any change to the vehicle's stock configuration. The janky Donut drive system goes into Donut's inventory unused, Rend gets zapped into the pet carrier, and Dr. Metcalf reads out the assignment: left path, grid spot seven, ten kilometres of rolling asphalt under torrential rain and giant hail, a three-hour limit, and one gatekeeper monster per path. Then Zhang messages to confirm Prepotente's theory: Na has killed five rival teams, and four replacements are on the line, two of them crawler teams including Tran's.

First appearances (3)

• Dr. Metcalf (Character) — Race-truck GPS · Shares a name with Bea's therapist
• Donut Drive System (Item) — Improvised control rig · Shelved before the race
• Gatekeeper Monster (Notification) — Race rule · One boss per path

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