Carl and Donut leave the garage and discover that the space outside has changed into Hungry Eyes Village, a suburban-looking team staging area with safe room rules still active. Their gray garage is marked with a large 7, which Carl assumes reflects their seventh-place finish in the heat. The cul-de-sac is lined with numbered garage doors, plus a ninth door marked with a skull, and a narrow portal leads on foot into a neon settlement beyond the roundabout.

Nearby, the bugbears Radoslav and Jasha are relaxing outside their garage. Jasha is drunk and asleep, while Radoslav welcomes Carl and Donut and offers them beer from a magical cooler that keeps producing more. The casual, almost domestic setting contrasts sharply with the death race, but it also gives Carl and Donut their first chance to see how other teams are living between heats.

The calm is interrupted when garage number four opens and three small, silent figures in ninja suits flip into the cul-de-sac in a coordinated display. Carl realizes the magical suits are blocking normal examination, but by catching a look at the leader's eyes, he identifies her as Chiyome, a level 80 Razor Fox from Team Wild Hunt. After the other two fox ninjas depart through the portal, Chiyome drops the act, removes her cowl, and casually asks for a beer.

Chiyome explains that the acrobatic display was a team form-casting used to trigger Size Up on everyone nearby, letting her team measure Carl and Donut's capabilities. She then shifts to strategy, saying the racers need to cooperate if they want to beat the strongest teams in the front garages. Chiyome singles out garage number three as the greatest threat, describing its occupants as two womantaurs and their half-mantaur servant, and the chapter ends just as that garage door begins to open.