Carl, Donut, and Prepotente arrive on the seventh floor in a small glass starting chamber while the system repeatedly tries and fails to hit them with debuffs, teleports, and armed enforcers because the AI keeps overruling those interventions. Donut discovers she is ranked number one, feels a pull toward the barred tunnel ahead, and hastily chooses the Viper Queen class when magic and chat are still disabled. Carl studies the strange spiral of nearby glass pods and realizes the glowing structures beyond the rear wall are stacked stairwell portals to the eighth floor.

Prepotente examines the chamber wall and reveals he has deduced the seventh floor is based on a fairytale maze whose paths seal behind each traveler. He says Borant is trying to stop him, but the floor's construction has a hidden weakness, and he learned enough from his mother's boots item description and outside discussion to exploit it. After asking Carl about the purchased eighth-floor lore book, forcing Donut into party leadership by leaving the party, and preparing the wall with a potion, Prepotente waits for the rules announcement to begin.

As Cascadia rushes through the Great Race instructions, explaining that crawlers must slide through a huge one-way maze of dangerous tubes and limited paths, Prepotente pushes the Enchanted Stick of Cascadia's Screams through the softened glass. Cascadia begs him to stop, proving she understands what he is doing. Prepotente then lightly taps the stick with the hammer, cracks the chamber like a giant Prince Rupert's drop, and shatters the entire level. Every crawler pod breaks at once, and Carl clutches Donut as they are all sucked directly into the eighth-floor portals.

Carl and Donut land in the familiar world-selection chamber between floors, now forced to choose an eighth-floor starting location as a two-member squad led by Donut. Carl reasons that his Book of Lore – Commonwealth of the Bahamas should make the Bahamas the safest choice, while Donut toys with other destinations and worries about ending up in water again. With only seconds left, Donut tries to follow Carl's advice but misclicks near the Caribbean and selects Florida instead of the Bahamas, locking in their starting region.

The chapter then shifts to Katia after the arena battle. Driven by rage, grief, and guilt, Katia tracks down the barely alive Eva with Li Na while sending Daniel away so he will not see what she is about to do. Li Na prevents Eva from healing, Katia cuts away Eva's escape ring and weapon, and then Katia forces a frightened apology before stabbing Eva through the chest. But Eva's dying act is to trigger Donut's long-lost Crown of the Sepsis Whore, which jumps onto Katia and binds to her. Katia immediately understands the consequence: because of the crown, only one of Katia or Donut will be allowed to take the stairs from the ninth floor to the tenth.