Carl is abruptly transferred off the sixth floor again, first to an orbital security checkpoint. In near-zero gravity, Carl panics because Donut and Samantha were left behind with Lucia Mar, and Carl cannot access chat or any other interface tools to confirm what happened. While Carl waits helplessly, seeing a massive fire burning on Earth below, Carl grows more desperate to return.

An older shade gnoll from station security finally arrives, scans Carl for explosives, and ignores Carl’s demand to be sent back immediately. Instead, the gnoll quietly asks Carl for a favor: to look kindly on the gnoll’s grandpup Lix during an upcoming entry, promising in return to overlook any future thefts Carl might commit in production trailers. Before Carl can make sense of the request, the gnoll clears Carl for transfer.

Carl arrives in a much larger production facility and briefly sees unread messages from Donut, Mordecai, and Samantha before his interface is shut down again. The new trailer is a humid, underwater Valtay landing vessel rather than a normal rented studio, and Carl can hear a live show and audience somewhere below. Zev appears and explains that Donut is alive and safely inside the guildhall after a fight, but because of new Valtay management, heavier security, and constant surveillance, Zev cannot say more.

Zev tells Carl that CrawlCon scheduling has changed and that Carl will be kept on the vessel between events instead of being sent immediately back to the dungeon. Carl objects, arguing that Donut may still be trapped with Lucia Mar nearby, but Zev strongly hints that staying away longer may actually protect Carl because others could be waiting at the transfer point when Carl returns. Zev briefly unlocks Carl’s inventory so Carl can put on his CrawlCon badge, explains that the vessel’s containment zone blocks most of Carl’s interface because of crawler wetware, and sends Carl out to his first event: judging a children’s art contest.