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Conan, who frequently dealt with corpses, didn't react as strongly as Yang Tao. His face was slightly pale as he walked over to Yang Tao and asked, "Is it dead?"
"It's dead."
Yang Tao suppressed his discomfort and began examining the Skin Stealer's various characteristics.
Skin Stealers are tall, humanoid Entities with pale yellow skin and deeply sunken white eyes.
Their outer skin is covered with dense, tiny protrusions, similar to the suckers on an octopus's tentacles. These protrusions adhere to human skin that has been peeled off, pulling it back and forth until it conforms to the Skin Stealer's body, making the Skin Stealer resemble a human.
Their body surface has a layer of unpleasant liquid. This liquid is not the Skin Stealer's 'blood,' but merely a covering that adheres the skin to make it appear more realistic.
Looking at the wound on the Skin Stealer's arm, a large amount of translucent liquid was flowing out—this was its true blood.
This is also the most accurate way to distinguish a Skin Stealer, but...
A Skin Stealer would never let You draw blood for verification. Basically, if You show any hostile behavior towards it while it's disguised, it will attack.
"Are there only these kinds of monsters here?"
Conan poked the Skin Stealer's body with a small iron rod he'd picked up from somewhere, even lifting the disgusting liquid to his eyes for a careful examination.
"No, logically, the number of Entities in Level 1 is very small. It's just that You and I are a bit special."
At this moment, Yang Tao also remembered what he had overlooked: leaving Eric and Conan alone together was tantamount to murder.
"If it were just You alone, I think Your probability of encountering an Entity would be similar to that of an ordinary person. But... if there's someone beside You, the chance of encountering an Entity increases by more than a hundredfold."
This is the Conan Law: wherever he goes, a murder case is bound to occur. Since it's a murder case, there must be a killer, and in the Backrooms, Entities are naturally the best choice.
'If Conan wants to explore the Backrooms in the future... I must not assign him a companion.'
Conan heard Yang Tao's explanation and gave him a 'You're kidding me' expression.
"Eric, tell me when You've finished describing the Skin Stealer's appearance and characteristics."
"Alright."
Eric wrote furiously. For him, recording various pieces of information in the Backrooms was extremely important. Even if he died, he had to leave the information behind for later explorers and Wanderers to use.
Yang Tao walked towards a shelf not far away; the supply box there had already caught his attention. After Conan finished tinkering with the Peeler's corpse, he saw Yang Tao leave and immediately followed him.
"What will be inside here?"
Yang Tao reached out, picked up the box, and placed it on the ground, saying, "No one knows what's inside before opening it, but the chances of Almond water are very high."
As he spoke, he directly opened the box, and a putrid smell wafted out. Conan, who was leaning in to observe, instantly covered his mouth and nose.
Yang Tao, however, was fine.
"A dead rat. The Backrooms are really full of bad taste..."
Inside the box lay a rat with its skin peeled off. Its flesh had long since rotted, and one could even see white maggots squirming within the rat's corpse.
He reached in and picked up the other items. Supply boxes in Level 1 typically don't contain many valuable things; if they do, the chance of obtaining them is extremely small, pitifully small.
"Who made these things?"
Yang Tao directly tossed the box containing only the dead rat. This box and the dead rat weren't even worth exchanging for energy points. Hearing Conan's question, he shook his head and said, "I'm not sure. You can also see the special nature of this world; many illogical things are normal here."
"Just like Level 1 itself, it has not yet been fully explored to have a boundary."
Conan gradually adapted to the Backrooms, becoming less inclined to get to the bottom of some unusual occurrences. There were simply too many illogical things.
"Yang, I've finished recording!"
Eric put away his notebook and greeted Yang Tao.
He walked over and put the Skin Stealer's skin into his backpack.
'Exchange'
70 energy points were obtained. Earning 'money' was that simple.
"Are You two tired? If not, let's go to Level 2 and take a look."
"Level 2? How can we get to Level 2?"
Eric, who had just put away his notebook, quickly took it out again.
"Level 2 can be reached by finding any corridor in Level 1 that appears longer than other corridors in that level. This is also the simplest method."
"Other levels also have ways to reach them, but I'm not familiar with those. We'll have to explore them little by little."
Both Eric and Conan nodded repeatedly as they listened.
The trio walked through the vast, abandoned warehouse. The seemingly endless warehouses put a great psychological strain on them.
Conan pushed his glasses and said, "The layout and various details of Level 1 constantly exert a certain psychological pressure on people, including the sound of dripping water, the sound of people walking, and even the unknown darkness. All of these create psychological pressure. If someone with a weak will were here alone, they would definitely be driven mad by this environment."
Yang Tao smiled and said, "People with weak wills wouldn't even reach the stage of being driven mad. Conan, can You guess why Almond water has a calming effect on the mind?"
Conan frowned slightly, his youthful face making such an expression look very cute. Soon, he thought of a possibility and looked up, saying,
"This... does this world have monsters that specifically attack those with weak mental strength?"
Yang Tao truly admired Conan's mind. He couldn't help but reach out and pat his head, saying with a smile, "That's right, there are many monsters in the Backrooms that like to attack people on the verge of collapse."
"The most famous one is the Wretch (#15). He is transformed from a human. If we encounter him, I'll let You two see him."
They continued walking deep into the warehouse, and along the way, Yang Tao occasionally shared useful information with the two. After about an hour, a somewhat tired Conan asked, "Um... can we ride motorcycles here? Mr. Yang Tao, with Your abilities, You should be able to bring a motorcycle from my world, right?"
Yang Tao: "..."
He had forgotten that he was now someone who could travel between two worlds, yet he had foolishly explored the Backrooms on foot.
"I certainly can, but I don't have money on me. Let's talk about it when I find Kuroba Kaito tomorrow or the day after."
Conan: "Are You counting on him?"
Yang Tao said righteously, "Black eating black is a fine tradition that cannot be abandoned."
Conan: "..."
"If You need a motorcycle, I can buy You one."
But as soon as he finished speaking, he regretted it a little, because Yang Tao's eyes lit up as he looked at him.
"I almost forgot about You. Logically, Your parents should be sending You a lot of money every month, right?"
"Not... not much. Just enough to buy a motorcycle. Ah, what's that? Is that the tunnel to Level 2 over there?"
Yang Tao looked at the somewhat nervous Conan and said with a smile, "Conan, I smell a lie... And Your topic change is too abrupt. Where would the entrance to Level 2 be... Holy crap, it really is!"
Looking at the tunnel that appeared in the abandoned warehouse, Yang Tao swallowed the rest of his words. Compared to other ordinary corridors, the style of this corridor was completely different. There were many pipes inside, and under the illumination of the incandescent lights, this corridor appeared incredibly long and deep, with no end in sight.
"Let's talk about the motorcycle later. Let's go to Level 2 first... but I'm worried we might be teleported to different places, so I'll go in alone first to scout it out."
One Disposable Door Key costs 15 energy points. If they were indeed teleported separately, then for him to bring the two back would cost at least 40 energy points. Sending the two back first would only cost 20 energy points. He could calculate this clearly.
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