Olimar is mourning the possible fate of his children when he uncovers Elise hiding nearby. Suddenly the ship is struck by a random meteor hovering just above ground, and forced to perform a crash landing. The group lands a fair distance outside of Smashville, and opts to travel to the town in the morning. The President, however, decides to set out for the village in the hopes of finding treasure. The President comes across a rather alluring-looking home when a mysterious cloaked figure appears and offers to sell the house to him. Immediately upon signing, the figure brandishes a pistol and reveals that he has to pay the due in a week's time, lest he suffer the consequences. The President signs a contract for the house before continuing to explore the rest of the town.
The rest of the group makes their way to Smashville the next day. Olimar quickly notices Sagittarius' stem poking out of the dirt patch in the middle of the town plaza. He's stopped from plucking it by Libra, who turns out to have amnesia. It's revealed that she has been acting as town mayor. She has Olimar thrown in a cell for attempted vandalism of her "flower". Only one visitor is allowed in to speak with Olimar; the President goes in and learns that the bail is small and easily paid off. He decides to lie to the rest of the group about the size of the bail, inflating the number to cover the cost of his newly-purchased vacation home as well as Olimar's comparatively tiny bail. He also says that Olimar will be executed in a weeks' time, to make sure the party works faster to get him the money in time.
New developments transpire as the party works to gather money to free Olimar with. It is revealed that large, fancy houses continue popping up each night, each identical to the last. This creates a gentrification effect on the town that makes it increasingly difficult for the villagers to continue living there. There has also been an issue with villagers disappearing before mysteriously showing up again in these houses, but acting stranger than normal. Libra agrees to let the party pluck her "flower" if they help make all the townsfolk happy. The President and Charlie set out to do favors while the rest work to earn bells.
Party members begin disappearing one-by-one. Cranky vanishes first, then Elise. Falcon has his leg torn off by something underwater while going out for a swim, but is saved by Kapp'n. Falcon is forced to spend the next few days resting and moping in the President's vacation home. Even Charlie ends up disappearing, leaving the President on his own to deal with his issues. With nobody else to turn to for help, the President decides to pay Olimar's bail and come clean about what happened. Olimar assaults the President for his misdeeds and quits his job at Hocotate Freight on the spot. Olimar then goes on to finish doing favors for the townsfolk.
Falcon, meanwhile, gets up and begins using the peg leg provided to him by Kapp'n. He climbs the stairs with some difficulty and hobbles out into the open air before continuing on to find the rest of the vanished party members. He finds each of them strapped to a bench in the same secret back room the identical homes all have. It turned out the homes' occupants had kidnapped each of them; one had attempted to get Falcon but had only managed to take his leg. The strange villagers that occupy each house are nowhere to be found.
Olimar finishes doing favors for the townsfolk and his given his big reunion; plucking Sagittarius jogs Libra's memory, and the three enjoy a tearful reunion. Afterwards a plan is put together to ambush the President's debt collector. While waiting inside the President's home to ambush the crook, the party discovers Baron K. Roolenstein performing experiments on all the strange villagers that had vanished. He electrifies one, revealing it to be made of plasm. While this is going on, the President confronts his debt collector; Nook appears and subdues the latter, revealing it to be Redd.
The President's home begins to lose its form as a vacation home, revealing itself to be made entirely of plasm. The group inside the house escapes with the exception of Olimar, who is captured by the Plasm Wraith. The Wraith begins laying waste to Smashville, slaughtering and consuming various residents. The group manages to take Olimar back from the Wraith using a fishing pole, and begins carrying him out to the airship with the Wraith in hot pursuit. They all pile on board and flee.
- Abhorrent Admirer: Dr. Shrunk becomes this to the President.
- A Day in the Limelight:
- The President takes the lead for this chapter.
- Libra has a much bigger role here than at any other point in the CYOA.
- Badass in Distress: Olimar when captured by the Plasm Wraith.
- Big Damn Reunion:
- Tragically averted when Olimar first arrives; he sees his Pikmin-hybrid son stuck in the ground and hurries to free him before running into his daughter. He ends up thrown in a cell for the better part of a week by his amnesiac daughter, helpless to save her or Sagittarius.
- Played straight when Sagittarius is plucked and Libra's amnesia is cured.
- An Arm and a Leg: Falcon gets his leg torn off by an alligator.
- Big Fancy House: The President takes the liberty of purchasing one of these.
- Broken Pedestal: Downplayed. Elise hardly put the President on a pedestal, but she did have a rather rosy outlook about the goodness in him, as she does with people in general. Then she finds out about the big lie.Elise: That's horrible! He seemed like such a nice man, too...
- Cranky Landlord: Completely averted with Nook, who ends up doing his best to make sure people can continue living in Smashville, even if it means taking a loss.
- Despair Event Horizon: The loss of his leg is this for Falcon, at least for a few days.
- Easy Amnesia: Libra suffers this.
- Knockout Gas: The Wraith activates Olimar's suit's auto-sleep function to ensure that the Hocotatian doesn't try to escape its grasp.
- Leader Wannabe: Zig-zagged here. The President starts the chapter off without a shred of respect or authority, but once Olimar is locked up the others look to him to delegate their work in earning money. Yet he ends up proving inept, leaving Charlie to take more of an active leadership role. Once the lie is revealed the President loses all respect again and plays the trope straight.
- Little Stowaway: Elise stows away in The Flying Krock in order to join the party.
- Mayor Pain: Subverted with Libra. She does get Olimar thrown in a cell and is completely oblivious to the housing issue currently plaguing Smashville, but she's said to have done a lot to bring the town together and keep things functioning in the previous mayor's absence.
- Prison: Downplayed tremendously. Olimar is locked up in the town police station's one and only jail for a few days.
- Shaming the Mob: Tortimer does this in response to the mob of angry villagers that begin to demand Libra and Isabelle's resignation.
- Suddenly Shouting: Falcon's reaction to Olimar asking if he's okay in reference to his lost leg.Captain Falcon: Am I okay? Yes, yes, I'm FALCON FUCKIN' FINE!!
- Take This Job and Shove It: Olimar gives the President one of these after punching him square in the gut.
- Ultimate Authority Mayor: Libra has the town's entire (two-man) police force at her beck and call.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Elise's horse is present aboard The Flying Krock, yet it's never heard from again.
