The siblings didn’t know what to say.
” Alright, let’s keep moving.
”
After Chen retrieved the compression cube, he turned to speak to the siblings.
Sean fell silent for a moment, then looked at the mangled Skin-Stealer, which had now been compressed into a flat patty, along with the girl’s skin layer.
No, I have to find a way to stick with this kid.
…
For the rest of the night journey, the three of them didn’t encounter any major dangers.
They followed the signposts, and no more major monsters spawned along the way, save for a few Warning Kites and Corpse Rats trailing far behind them.
Chen had checked the data before; these two types of Entities weren’t very dangerous, so he ignored them.
In the silent atmosphere, an airport suddenly appeared by the side of the road.
” Hmm?
”
Looking at the road, the nearest signpost was actually right outside this airport.
” That’s not right, we followed the signs, didn’t we?
” Chen stroked his chin, puzzled.
” Um…
” Tina, who hadn’t spoken in a long time, suddenly said, ” Let’s stay away from here.
”
Turning to look at Tina, Chen thought for a moment and replied, ” Very well.
”
“… ”
The three bypassed the airport and continued forward.
For the airport just now, Chen had used his system monitoring, and the response was:
” Warning: Entering the airport will noclip you into Level 36.
If you noclip out near the airport, you will arrive at the mysterious Mickey Mouse Level.
”
Level 36, Chen had read general information about it; it was an airport, though it seemed a bit dangerous inside.
As for the mysterious Mickey Mouse Level… it was clearly a trap.
Who would actually fall for such an obvious trap?
…
Someone would.
(Foreshadowing~)
What Chen was thinking about now was getting these two back to Level 11, then coming back to investigate.
Having such a huge Clubhouse and not being allowed to enter was more painful to Chen than being killed.
For the rest of the way, the three of them thought about their own matters and continued walking silently along the signs.
This time there were no accidents, and they could already see the silhouette of “The Endless City”.
Not far ahead was a blurry shadow of a city, bright and white, forming a stark contrast to the dark and gloomy parts of Level 9.
” Warning: Entering the area ahead will lead to Level 11.
”
That was it.
Chen stopped and turned to the two, saying, ” The safe zone should be right ahead.
You two should head back quickly.
”
The two could not hide their excitement; they had finally succeeded in evacuating!
Sean cupped his fists, ” Thank you, brother, for saving our lives.
I’ll marry my sister off to you later to show my gratitude…”
Before he could finish, he was dragged away by a speechless Tina. Find the original chapter at g.com.
” Take care.
This time, we really will see each other in Level 11!
Tina smiled, her eyes slightly teary; it would be a lie to say she wasn’t excited.
” Eh?
What are you talking about…
” Sean was confused, but he was forcibly knocked out by his sister.
Tina clearly understood that Chen was about to go make trouble.
He had told her before that he was someone who wanted to explore the entire The Backrooms, and Tina had remembered that.
She knew Chen really wanted to enter that airport from earlier.
” Alright, since I’m back to being a solo player, then I’ll level up on my own.
Let’s go!
” Chen whistled and turned back.
Before long, Chen was standing outside the airport again.
The airport before him was grand, but due to the eerie atmosphere of the night in Level 9, it looked terrifying, like a giant beast with its mouth wide open, just waiting for Chen to enter.
” Let me see…
The data says that noclipping in from the side will lead to the Mickey Mouse Level.
Alright, I want to see just how wonderful it really is.
”
Looking at this man-eating beast, Chen couldn’t help but shiver.
” Damn it, why do I feel like entering this will force me to use my Resurrection Armor?
”
” Maybe…
I should just honestly go back, or maybe entering this airport is fine too…
”
Just as Chen was hesitating here, a heavy thudding sound came from somewhere.
Thump, thump, thump, thump!
” Damn, don’t force me.
”
Standing in front of the airport gate, Chen silently chanted “noclip” in his mind and rammed his head into the airport wall.
But Chen didn’t noclip; he just slammed into the wall and passed out from the strong recoil.
Before passing out, Chen’s last thought was: ” Stupid system, what a joke…
”
…
Opening his eyes again, Chen found himself lying on the floor of a hallway.
There were black doors on both sides and white walls.
The hallway was very long and seemed to stretch infinitely.
Rubbing his forehead, which he had slammed hard, Chen swore he would never try to noclip by headbutting a wall again.
Just then, a melodic sound of a piano drifted over from the distance.
” No way, not again?
”
Chen thought of the Memory Foundry.
But this time, there was no mental prompt from the system.
He didn’t know what the piano music meant for the time being.
System, scan!
” Ding, system data missing.
”
“? ” New chapters come out on g.com first.
Can this stupid system ever give a normal scan result for once?
It’s either a power failure or missing data; screw you!
Having failed to get a result from the system scan, Chen began observing the hallway again.
The doors on both sides had room numbers written on them, such as 458, 2, 11, 14, 30, 758, 787, and so on.
Every door had one, and the numbers were all different.
Most importantly, the doors seemed to be infinite in number.
Because as Chen kept moving forward, the hallway and doors kept popping up in chunks, just like rendered blocks in Minecraft.
” Could this be…
The Hub?
”
Chen pondered.
He had previously looked up a secret level in the M.E.G.
Library called The Hub.
It was said that The Hub was a transit point to all levels and was a very famous level among speedrunners.
But he hadn’t heard that The Hub was hotel-style; wasn’t it supposed to be a big tunnel?
No, that’s not right.
The further he walked, the louder the piano music became.
At one node, Chen suddenly discovered that the original piano music was mixed with some advertisements, the content seeming to be selling some kind of breakfast beans.
Strange.
Then, while still thinking, Chen suddenly froze, because his field of vision had suddenly turned black and white.
The world before him was like a world inside an old-fashioned black-and-white television; everything was black and white.
Chen didn’t know if his eyes had faded or if the world had faded.
But this was undoubtedly an extremely dangerous signal.
No, he had to leave quickly.
How about trying to open the doors on either side?
Chen tried to open a door numbered 14, but it wouldn’t budge.
He tried the door next to it, numbered -2, and it was the same.
Just as he was about to try somewhere else, Chen suddenly realized something.
” Wait, -2?
”
Chen had always assumed that the door numbers most likely represented level numbers, but what was this -2?
Could there be negative levels?
But there weren’t any in the M.E.G.
Library, and the system hadn’t prompted him either.
Thinking of this, Chen summoned the system again.
” System, system, level scan!
”
” Ding, database missing…
Data updated from the cloud.
”
Chen didn’t even want to know where this “cloud” setting came from.
” Level -1: Glitch Hallway.
Unsafe.
Stable.
Few Entities.
”
Holy crap, it actually exists?
This was Chen’s first time arriving at a negative level, and the novelty was comparable to the C-level group he had accidentally encountered before.