Carl's group keeps Akuma trapped inside an anti-magic field while Elle's earlier attack leaves him in severe pain and slowly dying. As Donut, Louis, and Prepotente react in their own ways, Carl ignores Akuma's complaints and demands to know why Akuma lured him in and wanted two teams killed.

Akuma says the crawl is breaking because too many crawlers survived to this floor, forcing the system to draw NPCs and mobs from deep backup reserves. He explains that repeated reuse causes some dungeon beings to awaken to their true nature, and he says a former crawler named Herot taught him the "Worn Path Method" that exposes this. Akuma claims the corruption is now so widespread that the dungeon cannot be salvaged, and everything inside it, including awakened NPCs and indentured former crawlers, is likely to be wiped out after the season.

Pressed for specifics, Akuma describes the dungeon as a modular physical framework reused from season to season. He then reveals that two indentured former crawlers, Herot and Menerva, were once authorized to design the seventeenth floor, were forgotten after the approving showrunner died, and used that hidden position to build a pocket dimension attached to it. That refuge is the Pineapple Cabaret, a secret oasis meant to let mobs and NPCs escape the crawl forever. Carl realizes that Herot, the cookbook author, is still alive and trapped there.

Akuma says secrecy is collapsing now that the Nothing has been broken and the larger powers will likely rebuild the crawl from scratch, destroying all current denizens unless they escape first. He believes the Cabaret could eventually provide a path to the planet's surface, and he says he and several allies left it to find the Scavenger's Daughter. When Akuma seems to dodge details, Florin catches him in a lie about needing help to travel back. Under pressure, Akuma admits the real problem is that the Cabaret was overrun while they were gone: their wards failed, many allies died in Faction Wars, only five of his group remain, and the refuge is now infested with forgotten monsters and dangerous remnants Agatha might awaken.

Akuma says there are now two possible ways back to the Cabaret, through the Desperado Club casinos or through Carl's shop interface, and he adds that worshipers of gods cannot enter because the space would trigger divine smiting. Donut then forces Akuma to answer Carl's original question. Akuma admits he wanted Carl to kill extra teams because he expected the system to eventually match Carl against his own friends, leaving Carl desperate enough to cooperate with Akuma's cause. Furious at the manipulation, Carl punches Akuma and shatters his nose.