As phase two begins, Odette announces that all crawlers are being teleported to a choosing arena, and Carl and Donut are allowed to be watched live. Donut worries it means she will never be on Odette’s show again, and she says goodbye with unexpected affection. A message from Zev arrives with a new twist: only the squad leader will transfer into the choice chamber, meaning Donut must go alone first, fight a supposedly easy opponent, and stall until Carl can be transferred in.

Donut vanishes into the choice chamber and panics on-screen in a featureless room with a giant globe. Back in the studio, Zev is abruptly pulled away due to an “all-hands” security response triggered by a liaison probe ship being shot out of orbit; Odette admits she timed it to create a short, off-the-record window to talk. Watching Donut pretend to deliberate among a limited set of highlighted destinations, Carl confronts Odette for refusing the adjutant role and for repeatedly manipulating them.

Odette warns Carl not to trust Huanxin, calling her driven solely by revenge, and suggests pushing matters by making Katia eat the orchid to force Huanxin’s hand. Donut selects Miami and steps into a house-like battle chamber, where her first opponent appears: an elderly, twitchy level-40 man labeled Robert the Human (with a “Gene” nametag). The broadcast pauses the fight with an extended card-system explanation that leaves Donut frozen in place.

During the forced delay, Odette reveals her motivations center on guilt over Mordecai. She recounts entering the dungeon long ago with her cousin Pieter and friend Armita, being forced to choose between them, and surviving while others died. Later, as a manager, Odette pushed Mordecai’s team too hard and made an illegal deal with Huanxin (facilitated by Armita) to rig outcomes for money; Odette broke the deal, a goddess named Dodola was trapped and killed, Mordecai advanced, but Mordecai’s brother Uzzi died. Odette later confessed, was arrested, and while Odette escaped harsher consequences, Huanxin returned and killed Armita in the dungeon.

Odette claims she has become obsessed—like staring into the “Bedlam Bride’s” blinding eye—and now wants to stop the larger machine, not just help Mordecai. She asserts the crawl and similar planetary games exist to collect mined elements as “fuel,” with entertainment added later to sustain the system, and argues shutting it down recklessly could kill half the known universe. As Donut’s fight resumes, Robert summons two totems (Robert the Doll and Dog), Donut summons Geraldo, and Mongo suddenly kills Robert the Human instantly, ending the battle and letting Donut loot cards and the sailor hat. With time up, Lexis initiates the transfer, and Odette leaves Carl with a final promise: they will meet again inside.