Carl and Princess Donut enter the Plenty of Plenty studio and are greeted by Botis, a cheerful goatlike magistrate. Lexis hangs back, visibly shaken, while Carl notices that his interface has been disabled even though his buffs and costume remain. Carl and Donut sit under a spotlight on stools in the middle of a dark room, surrounded by shadowy goats, only to learn that the show has already been broadcasting live.

After an awkward silence, Botis abruptly declares that Carl and Donut have been sentenced to death, and the surrounding goats chant for their execution as the turntable beneath them spins. Donut insists on appealing, which leads to a bizarre sequence of judgments by individual goat leaders. One small red-robed judge asks an absurd question about daily foliage intake and then declares them worthy; another immediately says the death judgment stands; another asks Donut what three spells she might combine if she ever casts her War Crime spell again, prompting Donut to say she will decide when the time comes and first must survive the next two floors.

The next major judge questions Carl about Justice Light's final act on the previous floor. Carl says he knows only that Justice Light built a trap that broke things and died doing it. The judge, identified when Carl's interface suddenly returns as Bathin, explains that Justice Light's trap broke the in-game version of the Nothing and released its inhabitants onto three levels: the twelfth floor, the fifteenth floor, and Club Scolopendra. Bathin says the twelfth-floor invaders appear to be the weakest, while the little seen elsewhere includes slaughter, torture, and the presence of dangerous entities such as Kyryap and Krakaren Prime.

At the same time, Orren and Prime Minister Victory begin urgently messaging Carl and Donut. They reveal that the current AI has spread beyond the solar system, destroyed a Mantis system, attacked Valtay facilities, and lost control of escaped dungeon gods and other entities now able to manifest near tunnel nodes. Because the Plenty controls the tunneling system, Orren wants Carl to ask a carefully worded question that might force action, but Carl refuses to play along. When another judge gives him a chance to speak, Carl instead asks live whether the public knows that gods have escaped and that the AI's enhancement zones have entered the tunneling system, warning that ordinary people may be in even greater danger than crawlers. Prime Minister Victory realizes the warning has gone out uncensored, and Orren says the real upheaval has now begun.