It was very simple to noclip out of this level; one just had to find any painting and enter it to reach the corresponding level depicted within.
After searching for a while, Luna and Chen found a painting of a modern city.
Unfortunately, the artist’s skill was nothing to write home about; the colors were too highly saturated, giving the entire image a strange, plastic feel.
But surely this must be the entrance to Level 11, right?
Just as Chen reached out, the system prompted:
“Warning: Entering this painting will lead to Level C-28, The Unsettling City.” (You can search it in Chinese Wiki.dot backrooms)
Level C-28
Survival Difficulty
Class 3
Generally safe
Stable
Intermittent entity infestations
A level in the C-Cluster?
Almost got tricked.
The C-Cluster is a different system of levels in The Backrooms, but they are interconnected with the main cluster.
Chen remembered he still had a task in his quest log to explore Level C324.8.
Better check the data carefully later.
Earlier, Chen had even complained about the artist’s painting being too saturated.
If the artist knew that, he would definitely throw him out.
Just then, Luna saw Chen stop and asked: “What’s wrong?”
“Hmm… Have you heard of Level C-28?”
“The C-Cluster?” Luna thought for a moment and replied:
“Someone in the logistics department where I used to work came to ‘The Endless City’ from Level C-8, and he told me about this level.”
“It seems to be an alternative version of Level 11, but it rains periodically in that level, and if you go outside during a rainstorm, you die.”
Good grief, better not go there for now.
Chen wanted to level up a bit more first, or at least start by picking tasks from safer levels.
“I once heard from a friend that a distinct feature of Level C-28 is the high saturation of the city’s appearance; this might just be the entrance to that level,” Chen said.
“!”
Luna was shocked.
To be safe, they decided to look some more.
Chen wanted to know if every painting by the artist could be entered.
So he really tried them one by one.
The result was that, except for a few paintings with unclear meanings, all the paintings here led to a corresponding level.
It could almost be used as a hub.
After searching for a while longer, near the entrance by the registration desk, Chen found the painting leading to Level 11.
“Warning: Entering here will lead to Level 11, ‘The Endless City.”
“You go ahead; I need to stay in this level for a while,” Chen said to Luna, who was preparing to enter.
After thinking about it, Luna nodded and said, “Okay, take care. See you in ‘The Endless City.”
“Oh, right,” Luna suddenly remembered something, “Tell me your M.E.G. ID so it’ll be easier for me to find you when I get back.”
Although Luna could find him from the post on The Backrooms mutual aid forum earlier, she still felt this was better.
“No need for that much trouble.” Chen pulled out his terminal, found the post he had made, quickly located Luna’s account, and sent a request.
There were two reasons why Chen stayed in the Diurnal Art Gallery.
The first reason was to explore the place, because the data told him that the front registration desk seemed to spawn supplies.
He had used some of the dozen or so bottles of almond water he had gotten earlier, drank some himself, and was running low.
The second reason was that he wanted to test the Consequential Cube.
He took out the cloth-wrapped cube, which emitted a smell of feces.
Chen’s first reaction was, who took a dump here?
Who on earth said the Consequential Cube gives off the scent of a children’s birthday party?
Could it be that someone had a diarrhea contest at a birthday party?
Suppressing his discomfort, Chen touched the cube with his hand.
Sure enough, he wasn’t hard-controlled.
Chen quickly used white as the base and solved the first side.
Then, a beam of light shot out from the cube, and immediately after, a large amount of almond water appeared in front of Chen.
A rough estimate was about a hundred bottles.
Chen put them all into his system inventory.
At the same time, he discovered that this inventory was pretty awesome; more than a hundred bottles of the same item stacked into just one slot, and it didn’t look like it had reached the limit yet.
Could it be?
Is it my favorite unlimited stacking setting?
Yay!
After organizing his things, he walked toward the front registration desk.
It wasn’t far away anyway.
Chen remembered that this level had no isolation effect, which meant that the entrance would refresh with Wanderers at any time.
But unfortunately, Chen hadn’t seen a single person until now.
Where did everyone go?
He didn’t even see a trace of the level-specific Entities, the Artist and the Muralist.
No, really, where are the people?
Why not call me when there’s a good thing?
Swiftly scanning the tables near the front desk and various spots suspected of spawning supplies, Chen found about three bottles of blue almond water, two bottles of red almond water, and one white, solidified gelatinous substance.
(which was identified as royal rations after item detection).
Object 16 – “Royal Rations”
An imperishable foodstuff found throughout the Backrooms.
Takes the appearance of a small slab of paraffin wax, though they are markedly more malleable and more gelatinous in consistency.
Very hard to come by; eating any amount of it will provide the same nourishment as 3 proper meals.
It will slowly become an addiction if consumed too much.
Of course, the most heavyweight item was a bottle that looked like ordinary gray almond water.
The suspicious part was that this thing seemed to have been opened, but it was quite subtle; if you weren’t paying attention, you really wouldn’t notice.
But that couldn’t fool the sharp-eyed Chen.
“Item detection successful. Object 48, liquid pain. Sisters, come in and review the liquid pain we found downstairs at our place. It’s super delicious, the ingredient list is super clean, the texture is milky and chewy. My friend died three seconds after drinking it.”
This is called a description?
Are you sure this isn’t a rant post from some forum?
Object 48 – “Liquid Pain”
An acidic substance with a translucent, red hue.
It is extremely dangerous to wanderers due to its fatal effects, and it is advised to avoid this substance as much as possible.
It is a variation of Almond Water.
But Chen roughly understood what this was: dichlorvos.
It seemed to deal more serious damage than regular dichlorvos, so he’d keep it; his inventory was large anyway.
I have to say, this shitty The Backrooms is indeed quite insidious.
In other people’s pesticide bottles, there’s just iced tea or water, but here, it’s dichlorvos in an iced tea bottle, and a high-grade one at that.
After carefully checking again to see if he had missed anything, Chen sighed in disappointment.
Didn’t the forum say this place was full of high-level resource points, and that the probability of spawning gold or red items was quite high?
How come he only picked up this little bit of stuff, not to mention there was a stinky bottle in there too?
Chen didn’t realize the value of the royal rations; he seemed to have mistaken it for jelly.
“Reconfirming mission objectives: engage, search, finish, and retreat!”
Chen muttered some unknown words and slowly arrived in front of the painting for Level 11.
After touching the painting, Chen felt himself noclipping out.
He was used to it.
While noclipping out, the system prompted him again, and again, and again.
Can’t it just finish the prompt all at once?
Chen was speechless.
“Congratulations to the host for successfully exploring five levels, lighting up five parts of The Backrooms illustrated guide, and completing the achievement ‘First Steps into The Backrooms.’ The corresponding rewards have been sent to your inventory.”
Chen checked; this achievement was meant to encourage Chen to unlock and explore as many levels as possible.
The more levels he visited, the better the rewards from future achievements would be.
“I’ll study it carefully when I get back. I’m really tired this time.” Chen, having returned to Level 11, shook his head; he wanted to rest again.
Every time he came to “The Endless City”, Chen felt as if all his strength had been drained, and he only thought about resting.
Perhaps this was the effect brought about by a sense of security.
But before that, he had some other things to do.
For example, go to the exploration department of the M.E.G.
Beta Base to collect corresponding contributions or something.
After all, he was considered a player who had braved the dead zones and brought back a large amount of first-hand data, so his contributions must be significant, right?
After winding through the turns again to arrive at the gate of the Beta Base, Chen quickly presented his identification to enter the building.
After struggling internally, Chen still chose to take the elevator.
After all, the stairs were really hard to climb.
But what Chen worried about was whether he would noclip into some shitty level again via the elevator and be forced to brave the dead zones again.
If I have to noclip out again, I might as well just die.
Chen thought to himself.
However, his luck seemed a bit better this time; he arrived safely at the waiting room of the exploration department.
“Hello, how can I help you?” The person receiving Chen was a rather young girl, wearing her hair in a bun and wearing glasses, looking quite professional.
“Hello, I am a trainee Explorer of the M.E.G. I have come to upload detailed data regarding Level 219, Good Ol’ Days,” Chen said truthfully.
“Okay, please wait a moment. Thank you for your explo… Wait, hold on?” The girl’s eyes widened.