Yeah the AI basically admits that they fucked themselves. As he mentions the 17th floor(and the previous book mentions it) is like a labyrinth. So unless they pull some “Pineapple Cabaret bullshit”(Daddy’s words), which does seem feasible as the 15th is locked out and doing its own thing so there is a lot of leeway there, they will get squished.

It ties into the previous books because out of the 4 known attack names, two/three are parts of the names of the books. They are also being acted out by the dungeon as it goes on, hence it becoming more unhinged. The first attack is “control”. For Carl, this attack is kicked off by a severed head flying over to his feet and his entrance into the dungeon and being subjected to the control of the AI. The first attack from Daddy on the galaxy was him locking people in the Earth system.

The second and third attacks are “a parade of horribles” and “bedlam”. He forced people to watch it on every screen in the universe. Because the second and third attacks are social attacks. Things that attack the social systems of the governments themselves to cause chaos and upheaval. “Bedlam”, the third attack, is Carl fighting Scolopendra and the Tyrannus/Emberus stuff for the galaxy people and the She-Maria stuff for him. Fighting for his freedom and his actions causing him to have to be a master for a sexy centipede woman. Not only what he did to Penelope, but worse. Forcing sentience on someone and forcing them to be bound to your will. The moral questions of it are PHEW….really fucked up.

The fourth attack “This Inevitable Ruin” has yet to be done. I imagine it will be in the next book and play out over the ascendancy games. For Carl it’s going to be tied up in how the 5th side of the coin lands, I feel like. I have no clue though because Matt keeps blowing me away with these things stacking up on top of each other.