Carl, Donut, Mongo, and Katia step through the stairwell door and arrive in Odette's green room with no sensation that two and a half days have passed. Carl notices that Katia has shifted into her real appearance, while he finally has a moment to feel how shaken he is by the third floor's chaos and near death. After Donut comforts him in the bathroom, they go out for the interview just before the fourth floor opens.

On the show, Odette reveals that Carl's team was actually supposed to die after Katia hit the detonator. The hobgoblin-pus trigger should have failed or exploded during the magical bursts, but the AI ruled it exempt, and a Syndicate court initially upheld both that ruling and the achievements tied to the blast. Borant then used its rare season veto to cancel the prizes, even though everyone had already seen what the team should have earned.

A news clip shows what truly happened: the blast released souls from the damaged swordsmen, which reduced Remex's final wild-magic explosion and likely saved thousands of NPCs and dozens of crawlers. The same event also rewarded every surviving crawler in the blast zone with a quest-box upgrade from Platinum to Celestial through the Bandit achievement. Quan Ch survives long enough to open one Celestial box before Borant's appeal stops the other 82 rewards, leaving Borant still financially exposed and prompting a patch that disables the relevant upgrade achievements.

Carl reacts by deciding that he and Donut need to stop chasing side quests and focus on grinding, progression, and training. Odette then reveals that, despite losing the loot, Carl's team still received experience for the many enemies killed in the explosion. The gains are enormous: Donut jumps to level 26, Carl to level 27, and Katia to level 21. Odette also unveils a tentative leaderboard that places Carl sixth and Donut seventh, while Hekla ranks second and Mrs. McGibbons unexpectedly appears in tenth place.

After the audience vanishes, Odette privately warns Carl that the fourth floor will be especially dangerous. She tells him his gauntlet could summon the war god Grull if used against Grull's celebrants, and she suspects King Rust has bought a deity sponsorship connected to Carl. Once Lexis leads Katia out, Odette gives a second warning: Hekla wants Donut, largely because Donut comes with Mordecai, and Donut might only stay safe with Carl as long as Carl remains alive. Before leaving, Odette explains that the numbers on the leaderboard are bounty values for crawler kills, leaving Carl alone with the realization that he and Donut are now high-profile targets.