After entering, Chen immediately felt a sense of falling, and he “crashed” onto a lawn.
Looking at the sky now, it had completely darkened, and night had shrouded the place.
It looked like a typical remote American village, but the layout was quite orderly, and there was a road running through the entire residential area.
Level 9; Chen had checked the information on this place before.
It was a level with a survival difficulty of Class 5.
This was the first level Chen had encountered that was overrun by Entities.
“Exploration of a level that is a random multiple of 7 completed: Thalassophobia. Reward (Warp Berry with arbitrary origin editing) has been sent to your inventory.”
Although it was very bizarre, Chen had completed this nonsensical task.
This reward seemed very subtle.
Arbitrary origin editing?
Chen knew about this Warp Berry; its effect was that after consuming it, it would take the Wanderer to the level of its origin.
He had some magical ideas about the Warp Berry, but all of that would have to wait until he returned to a safe level to figure out.
The urgent priority now was to leave Level 9.
Right?
Not possible.
Although Level 9 was a Class 5 survival difficulty, correspondingly, many rare resources spawned here.
For a purebred Rat like Chen, having resources and not looting them was practically a crime.
As for his life?
A life was worth 450,000 Harvard Coins!
(Strikeout)
It was because he currently had quite a few means of self-preservation, so Chen wasn’t worried.
He would consider playing it safe once he managed to get his Resurrection Armor.
By the way, speaking of this place, Chen thought of Tina, whom he had met before.
It seemed that Tina had noclip’d to Level 219 from here originally.
He didn’t know how she was doing now.
She had said before that she would find Chen, but Chen had no news about her during his week in Level 11.
Luna, however, had met with Chen.
On the second day at the Beta Base, Luna had found Chen; it turned out she was in another accommodation area not far away.
Back to the present, Chen slowly stood up from the grass, held his breath, and listened carefully to the movements around him.
Thump, thump, thump.
The night wind blew across Chen’s forehead, accompanied by the sound of a huge, heavy object landing.
It sounded like the footsteps of some kind of giant object?
Chen thought of an Entity: Neighborhood Watch.
This seemed to be an Entity unique to Level 9.
There were three types of Neighborhood Watch, and one of them was huge, which matched the current situation.
Sneaking around the yard where it had landed, Chen saw from a distance a strange creature with multiple legs and a torso that was a giant eyeball.
This was one of the variants of the Neighborhood Watch: The Strider.
It seemed to be patrolling the entire street, its strange limbs occasionally reaching into a house to rummage around, looking absolutely terrifying.
Excuse me.
Since the suburbs here seemed infinitely large, after walking around for a long time, the situation in front of him had hardly changed; it was still houses with similar layouts.
However, the sound of the Neighborhood Watch had faded.
Chen remembered that there seemed to be many resource spawn points in the houses of Level 9; let’s see if the Rat can get a meal today.
He found a house with a yard nearby.
As soon as Chen stepped onto the lawn, he felt a strange fluctuation.
Oh no!
About to noclip out!
My meal!
Chen did a side roll and dodged that strange spatial fluctuation.
The feeling of noclipping out disappeared.
That was close.
Who buries traps in their lawn?
Looking at the pitch-black house in front of him, Chen thought for a moment and politely knocked on the door.
Knock, knock, knock.
Someone who didn’t know better might think Chen was saying grace before a meal.
The moment he knocked, he saw something flickering inside the house, and then the door was flung open.
A snake-like Entity darted out rapidly, its massive body coiling right in front of Chen.
Its chilling eyes locked onto Chen’s.
Looking at the pitch-black snake-like Entity in front of him, Chen suddenly had the urge to scream.
Chen opened his mouth wide in front of this Entity, and then, amidst its dark, obscure, yet seemingly expectant gaze, he slowly pursed his lips and kissed the snake.
?
The air seemed to freeze.
It was the first time Chen had seen an expression of astonishment on an Entity’s face.
Afterwards, it seemed a bit annoyed, coiled up a few times, thrust its head out to press against Chen, and widened its eyes.
As if it wanted to eat Chen.
Then Chen kissed it again.
…
As far as Chen could observe, an expression of speechlessness and disgust appeared on the Entity’s face.
Then it reached out, threw two candies to Chen, and Chen caught them.
The Entity took one last deep look at Chen and then disappeared.
I didn’t expect it to actually work.
Chen had only been trying it out because he had previously read information in the database about an Entity unique to Level 9:
Umi Mommy.
The specific situation was that if someone knocked on the door of a random house, Umi Mommy would appear eight seconds later.
If you could refrain from screaming after seeing her, she would give you some of Umi’s Sweets.
Chen had received two before.
As mentioned earlier, there were many types of Umi’s candy; the almond sugars he had before had already been traded for almond water with someone on a certain level.
Using the system to check, the two candies in Chen’s hand were Marshmallow Crunch and a lucky bars.
Marshmallow Crunch- Physical enhancement agent, but eating too much can easily turn you into a Wretch.
The effect turns into bad luck once the Lucky Bar becomes soft enough to be chewed.
After briefly reading the descriptions of these two, Chen smiled and went to check the house next door.
He knocked on the door as usual, but this time there was no response.
Well then, Chen took a deep breath and opened it!
The door was gently opened.
One of the survival rules for Level 9: handle things gently.
Because the power was stolen, there was no electricity in any of the houses in Level 9, and all electrical equipment was unusable.
Looking through the pile of essential survival tools for Newcomers in The Backrooms he had received earlier, Chen felt around and pulled out a small flashlight.
It had “Canon 36D” written on it.
This flashlight didn’t seem quite right.
He turned on the flashlight, and a strong beam of light shot out instantly, illuminating the not-so-large house.
After scavenging through the living room area on the first floor, there were only some minor blue and purple items.
Chen found two bottles of almond water in the kitchen, but nothing else.
Seriously, the drop rate isn’t high.
Chen shook his head and remembered the lucky bar he had just received.
After thinking about it, he decided not to eat it.
Because this banana-scented lucky stick was now limp and soft, like a maggot.
Chen always felt that eating it wouldn’t lead to anything good.
Just then, a noise suddenly came from the bedroom next door.
Although it was very slight, Chen still caught it.
Huh?
A pro?
Chen immediately thought of a Smiler.
In the information he had read, there was a high probability of Smilers spawning in the houses of Level 9.
These Smilers played the role of the homeowner, and their aggression was not high; specifically, they usually would not chase a Wanderer for a long time or over a long distance.
However, it was unlikely that their aggression was not high; specifically, once they discovered you, you would be elbowed.
He had to be on guard.
Pulling out the MP5 submachine gun he had grabbed earlier, Chen quietly approached the bedroom.
He got closer and took another look, and a claw suddenly reached out.
Chen had been prepared and jumped back directly, dodging the sneak attack.
Then he picked up the MP5 and gave the Smiler a warm smile.
Just as he was about to empty the magazine into the Smiler, Chen suddenly noticed something clutched in the Smiler’s hand.
Looking closely, it was actually fire salt.
666, the homeowner has a divine artifact; they aren’t even pretending anymore.
(666 means Awesome or Nice man in the Chinese Community)
If he accidentally hit the fire salt and caused a huge explosion, that would truly mean the homeowner had a divine artifact.