” G-Good Ol’ Days?
”
The young woman stared at Chen with wide eyes.
” Uh, yes.
” Chen said helplessly.
The young woman wore an expression of disbelief, but Chen looked at her calmly.
After a moment of silence, the young woman spoke again: ” Alright, alright, please come this way.
She adjusted her glasses and hurriedly ushered Chen into a reception room.
She also poured him a fresh pot of tea.
Chen uploaded the information he had organized to the M.E.G.
database via the terminal provided by the Beta Base.
During this, the young woman made a call to report the information to her superiors, and about five minutes later, a calm-looking middle-aged man came down.
He nodded at Chen, then reached out his hand in a friendly manner.
“Thank you for your immense contribution to the exploration of The Backrooms; this may be our first comprehensive understanding of Level 219. ”
Huh?
No verification needed?
That was what Chen was thinking, and the young woman was thinking the same.
Seeming to see what Chen was thinking, the man said
“You look puzzled.”
” Uh, don’t you need to verify it?
” Chen asked.
Hearing this, the man laughed and clapped his hands.
Another person walked out.
After seeing him, Chen exclaimed in surprise: ” It’s you!
”
The man reached out to shake hands with Chen and smiled
“Thank you for saving my life. Even now, I still feel like escaping that hell was just a dream.”
The man added.
“Let me introduce him; this is Colonel Hayden of the M.E.G. Investigation Corps.”
Hayden took over the conversation.
“I will be fully responsible for your exploration data. Because this discovery is an unprecedented breakthrough for M.E.G., your contribution points will be very high.”
After speaking, Hayden pulled an identification card from nowhere and handed it to Chen.
It read:
“Chen, Elite Explorer.”
Explorers in M.E.G.
are generally divided into seven ranks based on their contribution points:
Trainee.
Official.
Elite.
Master.
Grandmaster.
Legendary.
Trainee being the lowest, Legendary being the highest rank.
“Elite Explorer?”
Chen took the card and put it away.
Hayden smiled:
“In fact, the significance of your discovery is so great that it has completely overturned our understanding of Good Ol’ Days. The title of Elite Explorer is well-deserved.”
He paused and asked again:
“We still have a few questions about everything regarding Good Ol’ Days.”
Seeing Chen’s blank expression, he patted Chen on the shoulder:
“My superiors just informed me that M.E.G. is attempting to establish an outpost after Good Ol’ Days, but because there are still many uncertain factors involved, therefore… ”
Chen understood; they wanted him to go back in as a vanguard.
Hayden was a smart man; he knew that Chen, as the source of the rescue, must have secrets—secrets about why he was able to move freely (wriggle) in that level.
But he didn’t intend to get to the bottom of it.
Although if M.E.G.
could utilize this method of breaking control (if it existed), many levels involving mental control would see breakthroughs, because M.E.G.
had never heard of such a phenomenon.
after a quick discussion, to let Chen handle it.
After all, he was one of their own, even if he had just joined.
“Well, they’re press-ganging me.”
Chen shook his head, but he didn’t resist.
This coincided with his own goals: to explore more levels, become stronger, and finally, find the way home.
This was his current plan.
He asked the system if he would be controlled again after going back, and the answer was no; it seemed he had been given special resistance.
Only then was Chen relieved, and he gladly accepted Hayden’s request for another exploration.
Because this matter was still in its infancy, the specific time requirements were very flexible; Chen could go whenever he wanted.
After some more bragging, Chen waved goodbye to them with a grin.
Right before leaving, he might as well pick up some supplies; after all, he shouldn’t waste this Elite Explorer status.
With the help of an administrator on the side, Chen received a P250 pistol, an MP5 submachine gun with corresponding ammunition, two portable fragmentation grenades (containing ice salt), a can of bottled lightning, and a healing crystal of decent quality.
Jackpot!
The healing crystal was good stuff—equivalent to a high-level portable medical kit, just with a tiny side effect.
(Can’t find any information about this object-V)
Bottled lightning was mainly for lightning-attribute damage.
Paired with the ice salt grenades, and with the bit of fire salt he already had, Chen was aiming for elemental fusion damage.
It was really time to rest this time.
Chen sighed, let me have a good sleep.
However, he didn’t need to stay at the Home-style Hotel this time; his Elite Explorer clearance was enough to stay in a fairly nice environment within the M.E.G.
Beta Base.
After quickly arriving at the accommodation area and showing his Elite Explorer proof, Chen was finally led by a young lady to a very comfortable bed.
Awesome!
Chen stretched comfortably on the bed and closed his eyes.
Then he opened them abruptly.
No, this feels a bit familiar.
He looked around; thankfully, it was still the same room.
Only then did Chen close his eyes again.
Good Ol’ Days had almost given him PTSD.
The fatigue was released all at once, and Chen soon fell asleep.
He lived comfortably in the M.E.G.
accommodation area for a week.
During this period, Chen also specifically checked the achievement rewards previously issued by the system.
One was a master ball (hard to see), which had the effect of guaranteed capture of an Entity, but the downside was that the captured Entity would definitely die.
Good stuff: an Entity disintegrator.
The second was an apple; eating it would increase one of his random attribute values by one level.
After Chen ate it, his Luck went from F to E.
It could be considered reaching the average luck of Wanderers; not good, not bad.
He could finally live a normal life; Chen was moved to tears.
It would be better to have fewer scares like falling into a dead zone.
After a nice rest and ensuring his condition had reached its peak, Chen began to consider completing the second task issued by the system, which was to randomly explore a level that is a multiple of 7.
Since Task 1 was automatically refreshed after Chen completed it, it specifically required exploring Level 123 (Haunted House) and successfully evacuating.
Level 123 – “Haunted House”
Survival Difficulty:
Class Undetermined
Mysterious Properties
Unknown Information
Undocumented Entity
Insufficient information is known about the exact nature of the danger.
Another level he hadn’t heard of.
During these few days, he had casually looked at many levels, including those in the C-Level cluster, but this Level 123 was not within the range he had seen.
He didn’t worry about this problem for the time being; he prepared to do this random task first.
” Ding, target level randomly selected: Level 7 Thalassophobia.
”
The next second, Chen felt himself falling directly to the floor, and at the same time, the sound of splashing water rang in his ears.
Chen fell into the sea.