Carl, Donut, and Katia finish lashing Growler Gary's harvested hands onto the sixth rapid-response cart so the portal-based rescue plan can proceed. Their earlier experiments show they cannot safely send ropes or supplies through the abyss portal, so Carl checks the cookbook's portal notes and commits to the train plan instead. The group works out which carts connect to which trainyards, chooses destinations tied to defended versions of station 36, and prepares six carts to carry trapped crawlers away from the abyss while Imani and Li Jun keep fortifying station 36.

To make sure the arriving carts can be heard, Carl arms one with an alarm trap and sends it through first. The trap loudly plays "Physical," proving the cart reaches the abyss line as intended, and Bautista confirms the system is working. Carl then launches the other rescue carts and learns from Bautista that the carts are already knocking monsters into the pit. At the same time, a wave of large stage-three DT monsters moves down the Vermillion line, so Carl decides to let them pass and then destroy them farther down the track rather than face them head-on near the carts.

While Donut and Katia finish sending the remaining carts, Carl rigs the disabled Vermillion engine with hobgoblin dynamite and an impact trigger, hoping to smash it into the horde and earn experience. During chat updates, Elle reports that the missing four-armed cobra woman is not among the refugees at station 36. Carl launches the bomb train, grabs one of Eva's dropped sabers from the gore-filled engine, and then hears a separate distant explosion. He realizes another crawler group likely destroyed or triggered the soul-crystal generator and died in the process. Soon after, Carl's own bomb detonates, kills many mobs, levels him to 35, raises his explosives handling skill, and helps seal that approach to station 36.

Because sealing the line redirects blister ghouls toward Carl's position, Carl uses a portal cart itself as a barricade, placing the abyss portal in the tunnel so the ghouls simply tumble into the pit. Over the next several hours, the group grinds against the remaining stream, practices new techniques, and waits for the rescue carts to finish their long trip. Carl works with his xistera, Donut practices mounted combat on Mongo, and Katia experiments with arm-spikes and a new tripod-like sentinel-gun form using Hekla's automatic crossbow. Bautista keeps reporting that wreckage and monsters are still raining into the abyss, which suggests the rescue carts are continuing to function.

To test their new strategy, Carl isolates one stage-three DT monster, a transformed Razor Fox, by edging the portal forward until only one remains. Katia, in sentinel form, peppers it with bolts while Carl fires projectiles into its mouth, eventually causing it to burst apart from the inside. But Donut and Mongo discover the creature was not truly dead. A final warning from the now-deceased Donita Grace coincides with Carl's realization that the explosion has released thousands of tiny Krakaren Crotch Dumplings. The AI explains these are fast-growing clone offspring, so Carl stomps and burns the swarm before it can mature, confirming that stage-three DT monsters hatch into new horrors and that Growler Gary was right about the Krakaren nest.