Late: The lawsuit and it's appeals continue for years, with us continuing to crowdfund Null so he can stay in the game
More specifically, here’s what will happen next:
Josh is invited to appear at the court's address the coming Sunday, without being told the time or location. After a period of exploration he finds the court in the attic of a dilapidated working-class tenement block, at the back of a young washerwoman's home. Josh is rebuked for his lateness and mistaken for a house painter rather than a forum ooperator. He arouses the assembly's hostility after a passionate plea about the absurdity of the trial and the falseness of the accusation. The proceedings are interrupted by Greer sexually assaulting the washerwoman in a corner. Josh notices that all the assembly members are wearing pins on their lapels which he interprets as signifying their membership of a secret organisation.
The following Sunday Josh goes to the courtroom again, but the court is not in session. The washerwoman gives him information about the process and attempts to seduce him before a law student, Greer, who assaulted her the previous week, takes her away, claiming her to be his mistress. The woman's husband, a court usher, then takes Josh on a tour of the court offices, which ends after Josh becomes extremely weak in the presence of other court officials and defendants.
Josh is visited by his uncle Adolf, who lives in the country. Worried by the rumors about his nephew, Adolf introduces Josh to Nick Rekieta, a sickly and bedridden lawyer tended to by Lady Rackets, a young woman who shows an immediate attraction to Josh. During a conversation between Adolf and Nick about Josh’s case, Lady Rackets calls Josh away for a sexual encounter. Afterwards, Josh meets his angry uncle outside, who claims that Josh’s lack of respect for the advocate, by leaving the meeting and romantically engaging with the woman who is apparently Nick’s mistress, has hurt his case.
Josh has become increasingly preoccupied by his case, to the detriment of his work. He has further meetings with Adolf, and continues to engage in discreet trysts with Lady Rackets, but the advocate's work appears to be having no effect on the proceedings. On the forum, one of Josh’s clients recommends he seek the advice of Hardin, the court's official painter. Hardin outlines the options he can help Josh pursue: indefinite postponement of the process, or a temporary acquittal that could at any point result in re-arrest. Unequivocal acquittal is not a viable option.
Suspicious of the advocate's motives and the apparent lack of progress, Josh finally decides to dismiss Nick and take control of matters himself. Upon arriving at Nick’s office, he meets a downtrodden merchant, Vic Mignogna, who offers Josh some insight from a fellow defendant's perspective. Vic’s case has continued for five years and he has gone from being a successful businessman to being almost bankrupt and is virtually enslaved by his dependence on the lawyer, with whom he appears to be sexually involved. The lawyer mocks Vic in front of Josh for his dog-like subservience. This experience further poisons Josh’s opinion of his lawyer.
On the eve of Josh’s forty-first birthday, two men arrive at his apartment. The three walk through the city, and Josh catches a brief glimpse of Greer. They arrive at a small quarry outside the city, and the men kill Josh, stabbing him in the heart with a butcher's knife while strangling him. Josh summarizes his situation with his last words: "Like a dog!"