Carl, Donut, and Mordecai enter the Desperado Club, a huge nightclub that seems far too large for the town outside. Inside the members-only section, Mordecai explains that the main room exists on a separate plane shared by every Desperado Club on the level, so crawlers and NPCs from across the Over City all gather in the same space. He also shows Carl and Donut the club’s privacy bubbles and explains that many of the beautiful partygoers are only temporary bot NPCs created to make the club seem full.

As they settle at a table, Mordecai points out the club’s different areas and warns them about the dangerous ones, including brothels and quest rooms that deal in theft and assassination. Carl notices elites mingling with crawlers and asks whether the club is safe; Mordecai says security is reliable only in the main room. The conversation also establishes that the club will remain important on later floors, including access to the Hunting Grounds on floor six.

A waitress brings drinks, and Quint, the club’s pharmacist, joins them. Quint is an old acquaintance of Mordecai and reveals that he is a former crawler who chose his current race. While Donut gets mildly drunk on a Dirty Shirley, Mordecai negotiates with Quint and trades bottles of Rev-Up Moonshine for a pharmaceutical starter kit, an anti-alcohol potion, and a few blitz sticks. Carl realizes Mordecai’s real goal is not recreation but building up a stockpile of alchemy supplies for the fourth floor.

When Carl asks about a disturbance from the previous night, Quint describes a crawler woman with one goat leg whose two dogs tore through the pet room and dance floor while she froze the room, stole tequila, and killed an elite gnoll. Carl identifies the woman as Lucia Mar, confirming she is both powerful and dangerously unstable. After Donut sobers up and receives notice that she can open her fan box, Carl privately questions Mordecai about why he had been unhappy to become Donut’s manager.

Mordecai finally explains part of the truth: starting on the fourth floor, managers receive system protection, meaning they can still be killed but will be ejected from the game instead of truly dying. He says this makes him effectively immortal for the season and that the longer Donut survives, the more money he will earn. Carl is relieved that he has not ruined Mordecai’s freedom, but Mordecai’s evasive answers make Carl suspect there is still a deeper reason for Mordecai’s discomfort. Before the recap show begins and Donut attracts more attention, Mordecai leads them toward the Silk Road Market.