Carl appears in Monroe County, Florida, inside an old house where Donut has already won her first battle. Mongo is eating the corpse of Robert the Human, and Donut explains that the location selection malfunctioned: she chose Miami, was told she was being sent to Iowa, but arrived in the Florida Keys. The map initially marks the key in Iowa, then the system pauses, rumbles, and relocates the marker a few miles west of them.

Carl checks notifications. Emberus updates the quest about his son, directing Carl to find a temple of Nekhebit and question its priestess. Huanxin, writing through the Eileithyia spider quest, says she will honor her agreement because Odette did not become Carl’s adjutant, but threatens Katia, Donut, and everyone Carl loves if Carl warned Odette. The spider quest completes, though the reward requires visiting a temple of Eileithyia.

Carl messages Katia, who reports her own selection glitch: she was offered Ukraine but ended up in Vietnam. Zev then explains that many crawlers received broken or unexpected location choices, and that the administrators are scrambling to keep the game functional. When Carl steps outside, he finds a warm, narrow island town filled with memory ghosts and no visible enemies except the key marker to the west.

Donut sends her Torch spell high into the air, revealing the relocated key site: a massive, unstable mound of earth apparently ripped from Iowa and dropped onto the Florida Keys. Carl warns Zev that the pile is partly in the ocean and may wash away. Donut also explains the local rule: they must collect nine numbered tokens from monsters before they can fight the final key holder.

As Carl, Donut, and Mongo head toward the mound, Imani demands check-ins from the scattered crawlers. The group learns that several teams have been split or sent to strange locations. Katia’s key site is tied to Tran’s family in Da Nang, Imani’s is in Detroit at the home of someone she knows, and Elle warns everyone that the floor may be using memory ghosts and personal connections to manipulate them.

Carl and Donut encounter their next opponent, a level 45 Babababoon waiting beside the road near a closed Desperado Club. Carl kills it instantly with a sticky hob-lobber before it can play a card. They collect its floating cards and the second numbered token, then continue west along a visible path of enemies leading toward the dirt mound.