Heyo, it’s your boi translator here.
Before we continue the story, I was thinking of posting a chapter solely for Level 219 – “Good Ol’ Days.” showing more detail about the level itself.
After I read the wiki about it, it has a content warning, which makes me hesitate about whether I should post it to show for younger audience, or you could go to wiki itself to read it.
Please leave a comment if you wanna see it.
That’s all from me.
Enjoy the story.
Wiping away her tears, Tina seemed to suddenly remember something and asked in surprise.
“By the way, how did you noclip in, and how were you able to break free from the control?”
In her memory, there had never been anyone capable of escaping the mental control of Good Ol’ Days.
“Uh, I just fell asleep at the Home-style Hotel on Level 11 and ended up here,” Chen said helplessly.
Heaven knows how unlucky he was; noclipping here was an extremely low-probability event.
“As for breaking free from the control… I was also touched by someone, which released me, but that person disappeared right after touching me.”
Chen chose to tell a little lie.
“I see. I noclipped in from a room on Level 9. Just ending up on Level 9 was already bothering me enough, and then I came to a place like this…” Tina sighed.
She had accidentally walked from Level 11 to Level 9.
For a Wanderer like her who wasn’t a professional Explorer, it was very difficult to get out once she had noclipped there.
Many of the exit methods on Level 9 were quite physically demanding.
Having finally found an empty room, Tina had just turned around when, the next second, she noclipped here.
Just like Chen, the surprise of exiting vanished after she realized she couldn’t control her own body.
Level 9?
It seemed to be a Survival Difficulty Class 5 place; it really hadn’t been easy for Tina.
After some rest, Chen and Tina prepared to set off to explore the uncharted areas of this level.
After careful discussion, Chen decided to finish exploring the school first.
Because Chen remembered that there were a few levels related to schools, perhaps they could find an exit outside of the school’s fixed scenes.
“Come to think of it, why is the fog here so thick? It’s almost like London,” Chen complained out of boredom on the road.
The fog here was indeed very thick, and the sky was gray.
Chen looked at the tall buildings obscured in the fog; they looked shaky, as if foreshadowing something.
“I don’t know. Ever since I came here, the weather has been like this every day. Everything remains unchanged, so I even remember exactly where every stone on the road is,” Tina replied.
It seemed she had indeed been trapped here for a long time.
After walking for about 40 minutes, Chen saw a massive and lifeless school.
With Tina leading the way, Chen followed her, first passing the art room, science laboratory, and a theater she saw every day, before finally winding their way to the fixed classroom she entered daily. This story is hosted at novelping.com.
It was just like a real university.
Entering here again, Tina’s heart wouldn’t stop racing.
She was afraid she would be fixed in place here again.
Back when she first came here, she had tried, but unfortunately, she couldn’t move her body at all until the clock on the wall reached 18:00, when she could finally leave.
She had been welded to the seat.
However, this time, she could move freely.
Seeing the excitement on Tina’s face, Chen smiled.
There was nothing worth exploring in this classroom, but Chen still took detailed photos to conveniently record them into the M.E.G.
Library data.
He had been doing this the whole way.
They walked out of the classroom door.
Even now, Tina still couldn’t quite believe that she had actually been able to unlock a new area of this map.
After some thought, Chen decided to check out the art room first.
In the documents he had just seen yesterday, there was a level called “Diurnal Art Gallery,” which might have some connection to the art room.
Chen slowly pushed open the door to the art room.
The furnishings inside were the same as a normal art room, with nothing special.
Just as Chen was about to enter, he heard the system’s voice.
“Warning: Entering this will noclip you into Level 57, Diurnal Art Gallery.”
?
Holy crap!
Chen was shocked; this was the first time he had encountered such a situation.
Perhaps he hadn’t encountered such fixed-point exit methods before, so there hadn’t been any alerts.
Methods like this, where one exits from a fixed point, were quite common, and this system alert was actually quite useful.
After taking a few photos at the doorway, he stopped Tina, who wanted to go in.
“Listen to me, Tina. I just sensed the feeling of no clipping here. I have a hunch that entering this place will send us to another level,” Chen said with a grave expression.
“What? Really?” Tina was overjoyed.
She wanted to leave so badly that she even overlooked many of the holes in Chen’s story.
However, Chen wasn’t lying to her; this place could indeed lead to the Diurnal Art Gallery.
“Then let’s go quickly!”
Unable to wait any longer to enter, Tina looked at Chen, who remained standing in place, and asked in confusion, “What’s wrong?”
Chen smiled and shook his head.
“Tina, do you remember my identity? I am an Explorer. My duty is to explore the levels I encounter as thoroughly as possible; this is being responsible to other Wanderers.” Read the latest chapters at novelping . com.
He paused, then added, “Also, I want to save as many Wanderers as I can encounter.”
In the silence, Tina looked into Chen’s eyes.
After thinking for a moment, she said solemnly, “Chen, you are the best Wanderer I have ever met.
I wish you success.” She paused, then added, “If we can make it out alive, I will find you.”
Although she held some hope of escaping, no one could guarantee where they would end up; situations where one noclipped from one dead zone to another were everywhere.
Tina herself had noclipped here from Level 9; she understood this all too well.
But she still held onto hope.
After all, she had broken free from the control of this damn level; that in itself represented a miracle.
After making up her mind, Tina walked into the art room under Chen’s smiling gaze.
Then, just as Chen had expected, the moment she stepped into the art room, Tina vanished.
Phew—
Chen let out a long sigh of relief.
He was in a good mood.
Not just because he had saved someone this time or because he could successfully get out, but more because he realized that he could likely farm contributions to his heart’s content.
Of course, the most important thing was that Chen had successfully shown off in front of the girl—awesome!
Besides, bravely charging into (or accidentally noclipping into) a dead zone where no one survives and then finishing the exploration of that level—that’s super satisfying, okay?
After discovering that the art room could successfully noclip into Level 57, Chen’s mind began to race.
Since the art room corresponded to the Diurnal Art Gallery, couldn’t the science laboratory and the theater also noclip into corresponding levels?
The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed.
Chen decided to carpet-sweep the entire level.
Arriving at the adjacent science laboratory, Chen similarly made detailed records.
After pushing the door open this time, there was no system alert, but Chen discovered some things inside that were worth noting.
He actually found a Rubik’s cube in an inconspicuous corner.
Chen guaranteed that you absolutely couldn’t see this thing from outside the laboratory.
Who said there were no supplies here!
A Rubik’s cube is supplies too!
At this point, Chen finally understood the twisted sense of humor of this level.
The level’s exits and supplies would spawn near the Wanderers’ fixed routes, but they couldn’t see them or enter them.
Because their routes were fixed.
Perhaps, in that so-called home, the rooms outside the fixed movement routes were the exits, but because their routes were locked, the Wanderers could never reach this lifeline that was right within reach.
Like the control that broke upon contact, the exit that could be reached just by opening a door, or the items that could be picked up easily—all of this, combined with the level’s isolation effect and the forced control of the human body, made Chen feel the deep malice of The Backrooms toward humans, as well as a great irony.
Come to think of it, the moment he saw the Rubik’s cube, Chen activated item detection.