The motif of the apartments and their “human shells” illustrates the theme of Commodifying Suffering to Perpetuate Cruelty, since each apartment is a source of emotional pain for a specific crawler. In the quest description “Ad Infinitum,” the AI explains the purpose of the apartment-based heat: “In each apartment is a what-if scenario. […] I’m searching. Oh, how I’m searching, trying to answer that question. Is there such thing as fate?” (474). This description shows how the AI cruelly wants racers to confront what-if scenarios, such as how their lives might have been had they not entered the dungeon. The race turns into a psychological gauntlet, forcing crawlers like Imani, Louis, and Tran to confront visions of family members living lives that might have been. 

The recurring image of the shells’ eyes being sewn shut with black wire suggests that these alternate realities, free from the dungeon’s horrors, are hypothetical and doomed realities. Possibly, the crawlers would not have survived the surface had they stayed, or stayed unaware of the reality of the world dungeon. It is also possible that the loved ones they see in the simulations are already dead on the surface. 

The horror of this motif culminates in the discovery that the shells are not empty but are filled with monstrous, invulnerable beetles. This reveal symbolizes the hollowness of these “what-if” scenarios. The lives the crawlers might have had are presented as nothing more than hosts for a hidden infestation, suggesting that their true selves are not the people they could have been, but the warriors they have become through their struggle within the dungeon.