Carl brings Samantha to the nightclub so she can serve as bait to draw security chief Astrid into an ambush. At the door, Clarabelle challenges Samantha’s presence and notices the tattoo-pass on her neck; Samantha insults her and threatens Astrid’s “mother,” nearly getting them refused. Carl cuts Samantha off, claims the tattoo was from a recent quest, bribes Clarabelle with a gold coin, and gets them admitted with a warning to avoid the guards.

Inside, Carl checks in with Katia via chat: she is in position, but there are other crawlers upstairs dancing who might complicate things. Katia insists her earlier overdose was “a blip,” while Carl privately notes she is being propped up by Imani buffs until a real cure is possible. Carl tells Katia he will handle the upstairs crawlers later and proceeds with the plan.

Carl passes the bar, where Samantha immediately causes trouble by climbing onto the counter and aggressively flirting with Charles, a level-25 Porsuk bartender, while demanding an elaborate “dirty Shirley.” Carl messages Samantha to hold off on truly antagonizing staff until he gives the signal, and Samantha admits she wants to keep returning to the club, not get kicked out again.

Carl slips into a utility closet, opens a hidden door, and enters a secret corridor behind the shops—Astrid’s likely route when responding to disturbances on this side of the club. He reviews the team’s earlier test bomb that confirmed Astrid responds late to normal trouble, and Katia’s Size-Up findings that Astrid is extremely powerful, with lethal blood-and-organ spells, psionic control abilities, and a passive “Cosmic Sense” for gods and demons. The biggest threat is Astrid’s instant, no-cooldown Summon Guard, which could teleport up to fifteen guards to her in rapid succession.

To avoid fighting guards or being identified, Carl prepares contingencies: he disarms most corridor traps while collecting several Demon Snares, then lays a two-part system of teleport traps meant to whisk any summoned NPC guards into a locked closet upstairs before they can react. Finally, worried that any explosion or fight could breach a nearby sealed arena room containing unknown, red-tagged monsters that have slaughtered previous parties, Carl reinforces the ominously labeled door by bracing it with a blast-resistant wall and sandbags, planning to add a second wall.

As the deadline approaches before Carl and Donut must leave for Odette’s show, Katia messages again, asking if Carl feels guilty about killing Astrid. Carl admits some guilt but argues they are doing what they must to survive and to free NPCs from the dungeon’s hell, then pushes Katia to keep fighting and not let the game break her. While Carl works, a low growl sounds from behind the reinforced barrier, underscoring the danger they are trying to keep contained.