Carl and Donut are delayed for their media appointment because Zev says Carl’s talk with Frank, Carl’s decision to wear the Marked for Death ring, and Donut’s bordello performance are dominating the feeds. Carl keeps dwelling on Yvette’s murder and Frank’s warning, but decides to keep the ring on for its stat bonus while refusing to use its deadly skill unless absolutely necessary. Before they leave, Donut explains that she was not worried about Frank hurting Carl because Frank looked like someone who had completely given up, which makes Carl think Frank is the kind of desperate person they most need to fear.

They are teleported into a luxurious production trailer that turns out to be a submarine beneath the sea. Carl notices that, unlike most off-crawl spaces, this location still allows full access to his interface and inventory. Mexx-6000, the trailer’s robotic system, explains that Borant’s cheaply built dual-layer planetary zone leaves the submarine inside the dungeon’s main system area, so Carl’s full crawl functions remain active. While Donut marvels at the underwater view, Carl realizes the trailer is unusually vulnerable and potentially lootable.

In the recording studio, Carl is assigned a script about human beauty pageants. He refuses to read it when it devolves into misogynistic nonsense generated from bad source material and crude internet stereotypes. Producer Bin argues that the show needs real crawler voices because audiences care about authentic Earth culture, but he eventually admits the program has been compromised by corporate interference from Titan, cheap AI research, and the demand to make the show more sensational. After cooling down, Carl chooses to record a different segment about video games instead of helping spread obvious falsehoods about humans.

After the shoot, Donut reports that Sledgie saw Chris kill Frank after an argument at the club and then walk away. Carl is shocked that Chris, from Imani’s group, was the one involved and sends Imani and Elle a message asking what happened. As they prepare to leave, Donut unexpectedly reveals that she already knew about the PVP coupons and secretly disposed of both Carl’s and Katia’s, sparing Carl from a more difficult conversation.

Carl then takes advantage of the unsecured submarine trailer, stealing refrigerated shelves, a makeup table, a couch, and treats for later use. While doing so, he receives a message from Bautista: their attempt to paralyze the Kravyad failed, the creature died, the portal closed, many crawlers sold their souvenir hats, and the trains on all tracks have stopped. Realizing the situation around station 435 is collapsing, Carl tells Bautista to head to the Abyss on foot, send hat-wearers through, and try to reach station 436 via the interior catwalks and trapdoors so they might seize a named train and get back into the system.

Just before Carl and Donut step through the portal home, Carl checks a final screenshot of their personal space. What had been empty moments earlier is now crowded with at least thirty women of different species, including Hekla, while Katia appears to be showing them around. The chapter ends with Carl realizing a new and likely chaotic problem is waiting for them at home.