  The bound-state spectrum of a Hamiltonian H is assumed real in a non-empty
domain D of physical values of parameters. This means that for these
parameters, H may be called crypto-Hermitian, i.e., made Hermitian via an {\it
ad hoc} choice of the inner product in the physical Hilbert space of quantum
bound states (i.e., via an {\it ad hoc} construction of the so called metric).
The name of quantum catastrophe is then assigned to the
N-tuple-exceptional-point crossing, i.e., to the scenario in which we leave
domain D along such a path that at the boundary of D, an N-plet of bound state
energies degenerates and, subsequently, complexifies. At any fixed $N \geq 2$,
this process is simulated via an N by N benchmark effective matrix Hamiltonian
H. Finally, it is being assigned such a closed-form metric which is made unique
via an N-extrapolation-friendliness requirement.
