Carl and Princess Donut enter the safe room and discover it is an intact fast-food restaurant placed underground, complete with a children's play area that excites Donut. Carl studies the information screens and learns the first level will collapse in four days and seventeen hours, the televised premiere is less than a day away, and the number of remaining crawlers has already fallen from about ten million to just over four million.

Carl examines the safe room's facilities and realizes rental sleeping rooms are free, while personal spaces are not yet available. He notices Tally, a level 63 Bopca Protector and non-combatant NPC, behind the counter. Tally explains that he maintains the safe room, can cook for human crawlers, and can provide yogurt and later meat for Donut.

While Tally prepares food, Carl opens several loot boxes. Most rewards are basic supplies, but Carl receives a silver ring that raises his constitution by one. Donut opens her own rewards, including mana potions and a Talisman of the Slate Butterfly, a collar charm that boosts her Light on Your Feet skill and intelligence while making winged fairies no longer automatically hostile to her.

Donut insists on wearing the charm despite Carl's concern that it jingles like a bell. The boosted movement skill lets Donut leap much higher, and she joyfully races around the play area. Tally serves Carl spicy murgh vindaloo and Donut yogurt, treating Donut as royalty and promising fresh salmon for her next meal.

Carl is overwhelmed by the excellent food, then briefly sinks into grief as he remembers the world is gone. Donut argues that they cannot simply stay in the safe room, so Carl proposes using it as a base while clearing the nearby Scatterer nest for experience until entrances to the next level appear. Donut agrees but focuses on making their fights entertaining enough to get onto the dungeon show, gain followers, and earn loot boxes.