Several days earlier, Carl stops Pater Coal after exiting the Temple of the Dying Sun into Club Vanquisher, still rattled by Anton’s death, Paz’s stabbing, and Katia wearing the Crown of the Sepsis Whore. Near the portal desk, the wisp secretary Yasmine warns they can’t block the portal, and Pater Coal urges Carl to hurry to a healer before the mantaur guard realizes they were in the temple and bans them until tomorrow. Carl asks what happens if they don’t go to the healer.

December 26th, the system opens stairwell locations: each exit requires a one-use key and only squad members can pass. Carl’s squad holds a key to El Capitolio Nacional de Cuba, and Cuba contains five squads, with two keyholders. Back in the saferoom earlier, Carl finds everyone subdued because Imani returned bloodied and sobbing: her entire squad died, and the system awarded her four player-killer skulls because her own totem killed them.

Carl spends the day training and crafting, and he uses two Cracker Jack scrolls to unlock personal alien shields for himself and Princess Donut. Carl’s Valtay Perso-Shield provides a short-lived physical buffer that must be manually activated and needs recharge time; Donut’s more powerful Bull Rush shield forms a moving bubble and can protect mounts or vehicles. Carl also watches the club mercenaries level in the Mercenary Arcade and speaks with Doctor Bones, learning the bard’s patron was Astrid and is now Carl, and that Doctor Bones is training a charm spell called Conscript, a form of enslavement used in faction warfare.

Carl messages Elle about mercenary capacity and learns upgrading the communal barracks to 100 costs nearly five million gold; Carl orders everyone to maximize individual mercenary slots and temporarily locks the strippers in the arcade while he tries to find money. The recap episode is mostly redacted, but it shows Imani’s team dying in one horrific moment: after Randall freezes the group, Imani’s Amhuluk totem releases a poison cloud that kills all four while they’re immobilized, then finishes the enemy deckmaster. The cruelty of the player-killer skulls reinforces for Carl that the AI is not their ally.

When Carl and Donut are transferred back to Cuba, they appear inside an empty Catholic church with a nearby saferoom door, roughly 50 kilometers from the stairwell and with 4.5 days before collapse. Carl realizes at least three enemies have triggered the alarm and teleport traps he planted at the capitol stairwell days earlier, scattering them. Squad check-ins reveal widespread ambushes and trap-setting, and then Imani admits she chose Cuba instead of being placed near Elle; Imani is in a church and didn’t trigger traps. Imani adds that a lone Quan Ch tried to start a card battle, forcing Imani into the saferoom; Carl tells Imani to stay put, warns that this is Sister Ines’s doorway, and says Carl and Donut are coming.