Zhang

Zhang is a human crawler who survives Prince Maestro's Death Watch with Li Jun and Li Na. He specializes in support magic, portal operation, and careful technical work, then struggles to hold his team together after Li Jun's death. (Chapters 42, 106–108, 205, 449)

Biography

The Collapse and the First Floors

Zhang first appears beside Li Jun on Maestro's show, where the host reduces the frightened crawlers to insulting physical descriptions. His survival creates the foundation of a small team centered on the two siblings and mutual protection. (Chapter 42)

The Circus and the Iron Tangle

Zhang volunteers with Li Jun and Li Na for Carl's dangerous Grull plan and operates the train portal at the crucial moment, switching its destination back to the abyss after the attack. The precise timing keeps the summoned god from remaining in the trainyard and helps complete the floor's escape, turning Zhang's technical role into a decisive contribution. (Chapters 77, 106–108)

The Hunting Grounds and the Masquerade

During the hunter war, Zhang supports Li Na by extending a mushroom guard's incapacitation from one minute to ten, giving the coalition room to act. He also shares the secret of Li Jun's vampirism, protecting his teammate's confidence but leaving other allies uninformed about a contagious threat. (Chapters 194, 205)

The Eighth Floor and Bedlam

Zhang joins the Cuban coalition and helps demolish the church and prepare the escape channel. Carl trusts him with the shrink wand because he has experience using it; Zhang reports the charges expended and returns the tool with most of its capacity intact. His reliability lies in exact execution rather than spectacle. (Chapters 243, 285, 293)

Faction Wars at Larracos

Zhang fights beside Li Jun through the divine temple trap and survives the battle that kills his friend. He tries to keep contact with Li Na afterward, but she withdraws into hunting and grief. Zhang's own silence after the loss alarms Donut, underscoring how much of his identity had been built around the siblings. (Chapters 352, 357, 380–384)

The Parade of Horribles

Zhang selects the biological path for the eleventh-floor race and later arrives at the safe room despondent over Li Na's transformation and refusal to listen. Carl's allies stop him from treating self-destruction as the only response. At his latest confirmed appearance, he is alive and preparing to leave with other qualifying crawlers, though the text does not show which deal he ultimately accepts. (Chapters 397, 449, 466)

Appearance and personality

Zhang is a bald human man. He is less outwardly expressive than Li Jun and tends to work through mechanisms, timing, and support spells. Loyalty is his central strength and vulnerability: he repeatedly takes risks for the siblings and becomes withdrawn when he can no longer reach Li Na. (Chapters 42, 106, 449)

Skills, class, and abilities

Zhang casts support magic capable of extending incapacitating effects and operates complex portal and demolition equipment. He can use a shrink wand efficiently and contributes in direct battle, but the corpus never names his class or a complete spell list. The target cape gained after surviving Club Vanquisher makes him easier to attack rather than simply stronger. (Chapters 107, 205, 285, 449)

Relationships

• Li Jun: Li Jun is Zhang's teammate from Death Watch through Faction Wars; his death leaves Zhang proud but devastated. (Chapters 42, 106, 382)
• Li Na: Zhang continues trying to communicate with Li Na as grief isolates her, and her deterioration drives his eleventh-floor despair. (Chapters 384, 449)
• Carl: Carl relies on Zhang for portal timing, demolition, and delicate equipment use, and later recognizes the debt created by Zhang's repeated aid. (Chapters 107, 285, 449)

Items

Zhang has no planned inventory-item links. He temporarily uses Carl's shrink wand and later owns a target cape awarded for surviving the Club Vanquisher battle; the cape is dangerous equipment rather than an uncomplicated reward. (Chapters 285, 449)