Zhang is a human crawler who first appears with Li Jun and Li Na during a Death Watch Extreme encounter. He becomes a long-term member of the allied crawler network and, on the Tenth Floor, risks his life to stop Li Na's destructive spiral before helping send her and hundreds of others through the Pineapple Cabaret. Zhang is bald, level 7, and has a Constitution score of 15 when Carl first examines him. The Maestro offers a coercive choice in which Zhang can save himself at Li Jun's expense. Zhang refuses. Carl goads the Maestro and helps create an escape plan, beginning a relationship built on witnessed loyalty rather than convenience. Zhang continues with Li Jun and Li Na as their network cooperates with Carl, Donut, and other survivors. On the Iron Tangle he helps operate carts and portals and witnesses the sacrifice of Fire Brandy and Tizquick. His role is often logistical, but those tasks are essential on a floor where shared route information determines whether entire groups reach safety. Li Jun dies while protecting Donut during the later crawl. Zhang loses his best friend, and Li Na loses her brother. Zhang had hoped to marry Li Na, making the grief both communal and intimate. The narrative does not present him as entitled to her response; his later actions are driven by fear that she will destroy herself and others. Zhang and Li Na race using the biological octopus vehicle Torpedo. Li Na is traumatized, poisoned, and increasingly willing to kill rival teams. Zhang considers killing Torpedo, which would cause the system to kill both riders, as a last attempt to stop her. Carl and Donut intervene before he carries out the plan. The exchange allows Li Na to acknowledge that she once imagined marrying Zhang and asks him to keep his smile. It does not erase her condition or restore their former future. It gives Zhang a reason to pursue a nonlethal exit. Zhang places Li Na in a pet carrier and conceals her in a cleaner bot used to reach the Pineapple Cabaret. Her departure removes her from his party and disqualifies her from the floor. Zhang continues racing with Bodi as jockey, survives additional events, helps Tran, and eventually enters the Cabaret with 227 people. The Cabaret removes participants from the active dungeon but does not provide the reader with verified post-transfer conditions. Carl later lists Zhang and Li Na among those who are gone and hopes they are not dead. Zhang is therefore not classified as deceased. His latest state is removal through the Cabaret with his later welfare unconfirmed.
- Li Jun
- Li Na
- Pineapple Cabaret
- Torpedo
- Allied Crawler Network Relationships