Carl leaves staging through a port-a-potty door and arrives in the selva outside a dryad settlement. He takes in the humid jungle, the bamboo-walled town, and its level-95 Funeral Bell guards, and he briefly reflects on his old dream of working in a forest before entering.

Before Carl can proceed, both Funeral Bell guards suddenly collapse with paralysis. Carl activates Protective Shell as an unseen attacker strikes it, then tries smoke and a stolen spear to find the threat without harming nearby NPCs. When that fails, Carl throws a sack of gunpowder, which outlines one invisible creature, and he uses his new Ping spell to learn the attackers are orange-marked pets rather than mobs.

A second invisible creature attacks from behind and paralyzes Carl for five minutes, confirming that the same effect disabled the guards. Donut arrives on Mongo and blasts the first creature with magic missiles, dropping its invisibility and exposing it as Tootsie, a Night Weasel Scout belonging to Hunter Zabit. The system description explains that night weasels are coordinated pack hunters used to disable prey before the rest of the pack moves in, which makes the attack a direct warning of how dangerous Carl's enemies will be.

As the wounded weasel crawls toward Carl's face, Chris crushes it and carries Carl into the personal space while Donut, Mongo, and Katia deal with the remaining attackers. Inside, Carl recovers from paralysis and discovers that Mordecai's latest form is a tiny, noncombat Pocket Kuma. Carl and then Katia laugh at Mordecai's appearance, while Donut reminds Carl that she saved his life.

Once the joking fades, Donut and Katia explain that the invisible weasels were specifically hunting Carl and that there were many more of them. Carl concludes that the coming hunter release will bring chaos if pets can already target him now. The chapter ends with a knock at the personal-space door, which Carl identifies as a delivery of collateral.