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Spoilers for Books 1–8
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Race vehicle · Introduced in Book 8
Big Shot Chicken truck
The tenth-floor vehicle wheel gives the Royal Court a Big Shot Chicken truck with a Navitron 1000 navigator. Its kitchen and gangster-themed decoration make it an awkward vehicle to take racing.[1]
Choose Book 8 or later above to read this section.
At a glance
The tenth-floor vehicle wheel gives the Royal Court a Big Shot Chicken truck with a Navitron 1000 navigator. Its kitchen and gangster-themed decoration make it an awkward vehicle to take racing.[1]
Choose Book 8 or later above to read this section.
What it does
The navigator supplies the assigned route and time limit. Improvements to the truck and its information systems arrive through later race rewards and upgrade choices.[2]
Choose Book 8 or later above to read this section.
Limits and costs
Its initial navigation lacks live standings and detailed hazard information. During races, damage has immediate consequences; restoration depends on the floor’s garage rules and its attendant.[2]
Choose Book 8 or later above to read this section.
History
Book 8
A Parade of Horribles
The wheel assigns a food truck with an incomplete map
The truck has modern food-truck equipment beneath a Big Shot Chicken gangster facade. An enormous plastic Tommy gun sits on top; it is decoration, and its drum blocks part of Carl’s view. An aluminum kitchen fills the rear. Carl drives the first heat while Donut navigates.
The Navitron gives them a fifty-three-kilometer route through the Caves of the Screeching Death Manatees with a six-hour limit. It shows no live rankings, and the ordinary minimap is disabled while moving. Weak headlights and the obstructing gun make visibility so poor that Donut uses Torch.[1]
The first finish buys a repair and spider legs
Carl rigs a cart and chains to tow Team Free Love’s damaged van to the first finish. Back in the garage, Hedy’s team repairs the truck. Carl chooses Retractable Legs: spider-like legs that can climb walls but reduce speed by a quarter when deployed. They are installed for Heat Two, after the cave rescue.
Hedy makes Donut a removable rocking-lever steering system so they can save the official upgrade for something else. Bucket Boy drives Heat Two, leaving the controls as a backup. Carl cannot remove the decorative gun because of configuration restrictions. The kitchen freezer also replaces food within seconds whenever they take something out.[3]
A speaking navigator survives the truck's worst early wreck
The navigator adopts Dr. Metcalf’s personality, modeled on Bea’s former therapist; nothing suggests the real man is inside it. He describes Heat Three as a fast downhill race with a twenty-minute limit. The audience chooses a Princess Throne for Donut, which protects its occupant rather than the whole truck.
Heat Three begins with ninety seconds of vehicle protection from the AI. When Gluteus collapses, Carl takes over and Donut helps with the accelerator and steering. They finish first as the truck breaks apart. Both count as drivers and become ineligible to drive the next heat. Dr. Metcalf keeps talking from his shattered unit back in the garage.[4]
Jungle upgrades answer some hazards, while the map misses others
For the jungle race, they choose a stabilizing gyro, resizable all-terrain tires and an electrifiable Bubble Buddy shield. Floating on the shield is not available yet. All vehicles and mounts also receive Survival Containment bubbles for their occupants. Those environmental bubbles are separate from Bubble Buddy and do not stop attacks.
The Navitron lacks trap locations and needs another GPS upgrade for threat radar. Dr. Metcalf can suggest a route around bosses and quests, but cannot guarantee it. Donut kills Great Rusty and triggers the mandatory Pasty Inferno quest. Impacts nearly overheat Bubble Buddy, and Hedy later warns that its cooling is still inadequate.[5]
Improvised drivers expose the old limits before a larger upgrade
Olga’s reanimated corpse drives for at most fifteen minutes while Carl gives instructions. Clockwork copies extend the plan, but one falls through a door during a wall climb. The truck drops, breaks two legs and rights itself with the gyro. Carl adjusts the seat so a reanimated camel can take over.
After the fourth heat, Carl chooses full Bubble Buddy, a heat sink, booster rockets and Golden Roller Limbo. The shield and rockets make longer jumps possible, the heat sink improves cooling, and Roller Limbo compresses the truck through gaps at least ten centimeters high. None was available during the earlier fall.[6]
The factory puts the new movement package under stress
Carl drives the factory heat with more allies aboard. He finally blows off the obstructing gun drum with planted explosives. Using the full shield, heat sink and rockets, he jumps a gap of roughly ninety meters, then cuts thrust and corrects his course to avoid overshooting.
The legs carry the truck across a wall and ceiling above molten metal. Roller Limbo squeezes it under a giant ferret. It later glides down using the shield and rockets, but another impact overloads the shield and breaks a tire. They return to the legs to keep moving.[7]
Late upgrades turn the navigator into an attack coordinator
An audience upgrade adds a hologram and diagnostics access for Dr. Metcalf without improving navigation. He disables Dorota’s throne for hours and refuses to restore it before the final heat. Carl later upgrades the existing rockets to Golden quality for better control and maneuvering.
Coalition supplies add three GPS upgrades, integrated weapons control and a Golden cloak. The cloak improves processing and reveals normally hidden system information. At the final start, Dr. Metcalf coordinates a hole-punch shot, vine-killing potion delivery and GPS disruption. Dorota remains disabled despite his greater usefulness.[8]
The truck remains after the race, with its special privileges ended
The truck and Dr. Metcalf’s hologram reach Floor Eleven, but the freezer no longer replenishes food. Automatic repairs and other race-floor services have ended.
The crew turns the truck into part of a parade float and hides Dwight’s missile launcher under its decorations. Bigs drives during Carl’s arena plan. The truck is still in use, but the race’s repair guarantee has not returned.[9]
Choose Book 8 or later above to read this section.
Sources
References are to Matt Dinniman’s novels. Book links open our recap guides.
- A Parade of Horribles, Chapters 2–3.
- A Parade of Horribles, Chapters 2–3, 5–6.
- A Parade of Horribles, Chapters 5–6, 11, 17.
- A Parade of Horribles, Chapters 17, 22, 30–33.
- A Parade of Horribles, Chapters 40–44.
- A Parade of Horribles, Chapters 48–52.
- A Parade of Horribles, Chapters 62–66.
- A Parade of Horribles, Chapters 73, 78, 80, 82.
- A Parade of Horribles, Chapters 88, 93.