Chapter 20

Carl and Donut wake in their safe room to find Frank Q, a mysterious crawler with three killer skulls to his name, emerging from the bathroom. Frank claims he's a federal agent named Frank Q who killed three people in self-defense during a firefight, but Carl quickly deduces he's lying when Frank's partner Maggie appears and both attempt to shoot them. The safe room's violence rules freeze them in place, allowing Carl and Donut to escape on their newly acquired chopper.

Carl and Donut are awakened by the dungeon broadcast on their second day. Donut discovers a strange man in the women's bathroom—Frank Q, a Level 8 crawler with three skulls indicating he's killed three other crawlers. Frank claims to be a Customs Enforcement officer (ICE agent) who was caught in the dungeon during a firefight with human traffickers. He recounts how he and his partner Maggie entered the dungeon together, were forced into combat with five undocumented workers who followed them in, and how he killed Rebecca Wong, the apparent leader. Carl becomes suspicious when Frank's story doesn't add up: Rebecca was only Level 3 but supposedly posed a real threat, Frank received 9.8 XP instead of 10 (indicating an active party member), and Frank was typing in chat using his fingers rather than mentally. As Frank offers Carl dead men's pants, Frank and a second crawler named Maggie emerge from hiding to attack. Both fire their weapons simultaneously, but the safe room's strict violence rules freeze them both in place for 100 seconds. Carl realizes the safe zone prohibits violence absolutely—any violent act triggers automatic freezing. Carl and Donut flee the safe room, and Carl devises a trap by placing a lit goblin smoke bomb and unstable dynamite into a rat corpse's inventory, hoping Frank will loot it. They escape on their newly built chopper as the dungeon broadcast plays an announcement about bug fixes, language support, the removal of Blender Fiend mobs due to overpopulation, and warnings against entering stairways prematurely.