Carl and Donut hike to a saferoom hidden in a roadside shrimp shack while Carl checks in with other crawler groups. Most teams are advancing through their first nine opponents, but attempts to cheat the card fights by trapping or attacking enemies before activation fail: placed traps vanish, nearby crawlers are knocked unconscious, and even long-range attacks are disrupted. The reports suggest the system is trying to prevent shortcuts, though many fights still end before the card mechanics matter.

Inside the guild, Carl finds the main room full of sleeping strippers and changeling children, with water balloon debris everywhere and the cleaner bot forced to wait. Samantha is awake, Mongo curls up among the sleeping men, and Carl and Donut retreat to Donut’s room to review rewards. Before opening boxes, Donut admits that studying the card game has made Donut feel the group could lose at any time, especially if Carl dies, if Donut dies, or because Katia’s looming loss is hurting everyone.

Carl comforts Donut, turns off the social media feed after seeing an ugly comment, lights Donut’s candle, and suggests a short real nap instead of immediately using rewards or training. Donut falls asleep while Carl remains awake with anxious thoughts about Mordecai, Odette, Frank Q, the burden of the crawl, and the climb still ahead. Carl eventually dozes briefly and wakes to find Mongo and Samantha in the room, with Samantha trying to read the social media feed.

After using the magic rest pad, Carl reviews achievements and messages. Carl receives rewards for the recent card fights, including a Gold Prepotente Box for ending a card fight before it properly began and a Silver Spam Box containing Scrolls of Build Trench. The Prepotente box screams when opened and gives Carl The Filthy Little Crawler’s Book of Voodoo, a non-disposable enchanted message book that connects to other crawlers who own one once they come near each other.

Donut receives the same book, and Carl tests it by sending Donut a teasing message through the page. Donut replies that the system is backward and inferior to normal messaging, though Carl notices the text can be copied. After showering and buffing instead of training, Carl and Donut return outside in daylight and begin climbing the muddy, unstable relocated mound, aided by Carl’s climbing benefit while Donut criticizes his technique.

As Carl climbs, Carl follows group updates: most allies are handling early opponents, Imani’s seventh opponent flees and must be found before the eighth will activate, Katia is approaching a seventh fight with a new beast totem, and Li Jun’s team is still testing ways to bypass the rules. Chris has scouted the final boss area and found it locked behind a giant vending machine requiring all nine tokens. Louis suggests a Christmas celebration, but Imani urges everyone to focus on getting their keys first.