Luna was an ordinary Wanderer.
One day, while hiking with friends, she accidentally tripped and fell, landing directly in a dim, oppressive basement that reeked of rot.
Later, she learned that this place was Level 0, a relatively safe level, though it wasn’t always safe.
After some exploration, she found a document in a room containing information about the earlier levels of The Backrooms and how to reach them.
After much trouble, she arrived at Level 11.
Amazed by its similarity to The Frontrooms, she joined the M.E.G.
logistics department to do some simple work.
When she first arrived, a kind Wanderer told her that although it was a nice place, there were too many dangerous entrances, making it easy to noclip into other levels.
Consequently, she memorized almost all the entrance and exit locations in Level 11 and the corresponding level information.
However, one day while returning home, she arrived at this level.
Looking at the scene before her, she instantly understood: this was one of the few disgusting and hellish dead-end levels accessible from Level 11, with incredibly random entrances—Level 219, Good Ol’ Days.
She fell into despair; she had been trying so hard to live.
After enduring day after day of torture, the small amount of food she carried was quickly consumed, and she figured it was time to just lie down and wait for death.
During class time, when she had a sliver of freedom, she took out her terminal, which had only a little battery left, intending to take one last look.
She accidentally caught a post on The Backrooms mutual aid forum.
“Is anyone in Level 219 needing help? Please tell me your location, and I can take you out.”
The poster’s name was Han Lu, which sounded exactly like her own name.
She looked at the post and smiled self-deprecatingly.
But looking at the poster’s name, she fell silent for a long time, her eyes flickering, and then she typed out a few words:
“Even if you’re lying to me, please give me some hope. I’m in the leftmost classroom on the third floor of the school.”
After typing, she suddenly burst into tears because she understood that Level 219 had an isolation effect; even if someone really came to save her, it would be impossible to find her.
Backrooms “Isolation Effect”
If two individuals enter Level side by side, they will never be able to find one another.
All attempts to communicate—be it shouting, leaving notes, marking paths, or damaging the walls—will be met with failure.
Sending the detailed address was just to satisfy a sliver of impossible fantasy.
With a beep, even though she had been very frugal with electricity every day, this legendary durable terminal finally ran out of power and shut down.
Well, it seems the only entertainment is gone, but it doesn’t matter; I’m going to die anyway.
Luna remained pinned to her seat, staring blankly as before.
About an hour later, she heard the sound of footsteps coming upstairs.
It seemed to come from the stairs on the other side, the sound very faint.
What sound?
A flash of spirit flickered in Luna’s eyes, but she denied it in her heart; this was impossible.
But soon, she noticed the sound getting louder, the footsteps approaching from afar.
Is it Entities?
Or…
Luna dared not think about it.
Then, she heard a voice
“Man! What can I say?”
Before seeing the person, she heard the voice.
Following the sound, the classroom door was violently pushed open.
To be precise, it was elbowed open, because what caught Luna’s eyes was a strong black elbow (crossed out)—it was a young man acting as if he were elbowing the door open.
The young man seemed to notice her and smiled at her in a friendly way: “You sent the distress message?”
Luna wanted to open her mouth, but she couldn’t make a sound.
Seeing this familiar scene, Chen rubbed his forehead.
It seemed that people trapped here were absolutely unable to speak their first sentence.
He quickly approached Luna.
After dismissing the thought of casually elbowing her, Chen shook his head: “It seems you can’t casually invoke gods; why would I have the thought of elbowing her?”
He gently touched the female Wanderer before him and then saw a development similar to when he met Tina.
It was the same triple combo of confusion, trembling, and disbelief.
After drinking the almond water Chen handed out, Luna also began to cry.
Then she even hugged Chen and cried.
After stopping this behavior and letting her finish crying, she apologized to Chen in embarrassment.
Chen expressed his understanding.
They introduced themselves simply, and Chen said:
“Is there anything else you need to do? If not, we’re leaving.”
“Re, really, can we leave?” Luna looked at Chen in disbelief.
After seeing this look for the second time—no, the fourth time—Chen said patiently.
“Come on, you’ll know once you see it. I know of a room that has some good stuff.”
Ignoring the strange parts of Chen’s words, Luna followed him out of the classroom to the art room on the first floor.
“We can noclip out from here, but as far as I know, this will lead to the Diurnal Art Gallery,” Chen explained.
“!”
So the exit was right within reach!
“Let’s go.”
Luna suddenly remembered a movie she had seen in The Frontrooms called “The Shawshank Redemption,” where the protagonist finally digs a tunnel to escape and opens his arms in the rain.
Her mood now was probably similar to his.
She hurriedly followed in Chen’s footsteps and entered the art room.
A strange sensation washed over her; she had finally left this hellhole!
On this side, the moment Chen noclipped out, he heard the system prompt:
“Congratulations to the host for successfully escaping the dead zone and completing the ‘Brave the Dead Zone’ achievement. The corresponding rewards have been sent to your inventory.”
Yay!
There’s an achievement system!
While Chen was happy, another system prompt followed:
“Due to the influence of Good Ol’ Days, your Mental stat has been further trained and has now been changed to C.”
“Wanderer: Chen. Stamina: D (Macau Honorary Captain). Shooting: E (The showerhead part). Mental: C (Memory Foundry, Good Ol’ Days bonus). Luck: F (Unlucky guy). Equipment: D (More skilled with an elbow than with tools). Vitality: S (Legendary durable king after system bonus).”
Aside from the Mental stat changing to C, there seemed to be many inexplicable descriptions, but they didn’t seem very important.
Luck F, Chen finally noticed this eye-catching value.
He dared to conclude that falling here had a 100%, or maybe 90%, connection to this Luck F (mastermind).
After the system prompts finished broadcasting, he finished noclipping and arrived at this art gallery.
Gentle sunlight shone through the windows.
It seemed to be the afternoon, warm and very cozy.
At this moment, someone tapped Chen on the shoulder.
Looking back, it was Luna.
It was clear from her barely concealed excitement that she had wanted to noclip out so badly.
Everything in Level 219 seemed like a long dream to her; now, the dream had ended.
If Chen knew her thoughts, he would surely smile and shake his head; for him, entering The Backrooms was what felt like a dream.
Simply using the system to check the information for this level, Chen found that it was indeed very safe, and exiting was convenient too.
Of course, one had to be careful of a certain painting hanging behind an unknown room (crossed out).
After finally calming down, Luna looked at the surrounding environment and said in surprise.
“Do you know, Chen, people who noclip into the Diurnal Art Gallery always arrive at the outermost registration desk, but we seem to be an exception.”
At this point, Chen also realized that this was a long corridor, with countless paintings hanging on both ends.
And when Chen looked back, there was a painting on the wall behind him, but what was painted on it was very familiar to Chen.
It was the “home” of Level 219.
Luna also saw this painting; it seemed to stir up bad memories for her, and she hurriedly pulled Chen away from there.