Chapter 75

Carl and his companions navigate the fifth and fourth floors of the apartment building, encountering increasingly disturbing simulations of residents whose eyes have been stitched shut. On the fourth floor, they witness Mackenzie, the wife of racer Archie Mu, descend into horror upon realizing her child is missing. On the third floor, they find Imani's family in a chaotic state, and when the simulated residents begin tearing at their stitches, they transform into hosts for invulnerable Sacred Feaster Scarab Beetles—creatures that were supposed to be docile but have become hostile due to a cascading error in the dungeon's mechanics.

Carl's group descends through floors five and four. On the fifth floor, they pass a woman named Annabeth in a bathroom and locate the gate in the kitchen sink drain. Using his Find Traps skill, Carl discovers a freeze trap blocking the hallway. The fourth floor contains Mackenzie, a Scottish woman standing on a chair and screaming. Photos reveal this is Archie Mu's wife (Archie being a fellow racer), and pictures show a boy named Oliver. The woman's eyes are X'd out in a wedding photo, but Archie's and Oliver's are not. As they approach the gate in the boy's bedroom, Mackenzie receives a phone call about an animal in the house, then becomes frantic searching for her son. Carl finds Mackenzie's distress horrifying as she reaches the gate—she begins pulling at the stitches on her eyes, causing bleeding, while her son Oliver cries from his bed. On the third floor (apartment 310), they discover Imani's family gathered in a living room around a convulsing man wearing a Detroit Lions shirt. Everyone present has X'd-out eyes. When the man convulses and the family begins to panic, Carl warns Elle's team via communication. As Carl and Donut approach the gate on the window, the family members all begin tearing at their own faces. Imani arrives and, horrified by the revelation that her family's eyes are sewn shut, retreats to another room with the family dog, Gucci. The older woman's body transforms into a Ruptured Feast Hive, and beetles the size of the truck begin pouring from her face. They escape through the gate just as a Sacred Feaster Scarab Beetle—a level 50 invulnerable mob—appears on the window. An interjected narrative explains that these beetles were supposed to remain passive and combine into a boss called the Sacred Guardian of the Immortal Tem, but a cascading error from the gods' interference has caused them to become hostile and aggressive. The beetles swarm after Carl's group, and some take flight as their back armor separates into wings.