The "yellow-suited ones" were expendable. Their sole purpose was to venture deeper, to chart the unfathomable labyrinth of the Backrooms at the cost of their own fragile lives.
In that strange, airless realm, Yang Tao and Erik stood before a solitary wooden door at the very edge of the space.It was nothing remarkable—merely the most ordinary wooden door one might find in Minecraft.Two meters tall, a meter wide, built from countless pixel-like blocks no larger than a finger. Four small windows punctuated its surface, though they revealed nothing but the same impenetrable mist that veiled the walls beyond.
"Go on. Try opening it."
Yang Tao's voice was calm as he pointed toward the door. He himself had no need of food, drink, or sleep. He could linger here until his sanity fractured. Erik, however, was different—his rumbling stomach betrayed him.
"There may be a monster waiting. I don't know if it left…"
From his description, Yang Tao immediately knew the creature that had pursued him.The Bacteria.
A horror unique to the Kane version of the Backrooms, nicknamed the Wire Freak for its cable-wrought body and the grotesquely spasmodic way it chased its prey.
"Relax. I'm here."
Yang Tao put on a look of reassuring confidence. To lend weight to his words, he even drew a stone axe from his inventory.
If you're here, why don't you open it yourself? Erik muttered silently, yet obeyed nonetheless. He approached, placed his hand on the knob, and turned it.
Click.
The door creaked open. Where mist once clouded the windows, the vista of Level 0 unfolded.No black tendrils lunged forth. No sudden death awaited him. Erik had not yet been spent as a disposable pawn.
Beyond the threshold, only the familiar electric hum of fluorescent lights echoed. Yang Tao hefted his stone axe and stepped warily inside. The sight of Level 0 was at once familiar and alien.
For all its monotony and lurking dangers, this place was far more bearable than the barren prison he had endured—an empty cell of scarcely a hundred square meters, wreathed in gray mist. Only a fool with nerves of steel could remain sane there for long. Even so, Yang Tao knew his own mind bore cracks now, subtle but undeniable.
His boots sank into the moldering carpet. At that instant, words flashed across the chat box in the corner of his vision:
[Warning!]You have entered the Backrooms. All hostile entities and monsters will now take notice of you. Encounter rate increased by 10,000%.[Caution!]Tell them—you have arrived!Explore the current space. Exploration progress: 0.0000001%.
Yang Tao: "…"
"A ten-thousand-fold chance to meet entities? Are you kidding me?!"
Level 0 was known as one of the least populated zones—Erik's earlier encounter with the Bacteria had already been sheer misfortune.
Then, Erik's panicked voice rang from behind:"Look out—monster!!"
Yang Tao snapped his head forward. There it stood, scarcely a hundred meters away: a Wire Freak.
Aaaah—!
Its shriek stabbed the air as it bounded forward on unnaturally thin legs, its comical gait a mockery of menace.
Yet Yang Tao did not flinch, nor did he retreat. Compared to the suffocating void behind him, he would rather risk everything here, pitting axe against nightmare.
The creature loomed over three meters tall, its grotesque head bobbing absurdly atop its wiry frame. Intimidating, yes—but not invincible. For above its head gleamed a green health bar:
[Bacteria Aggregate]HP: 40/40
This thing is basically a starving Enderman, Yang Tao thought. That lanky body, the gaping maw, forty health points… who are you trying to fool?
He tightened his grip on the stone axe. His inventory had come stocked with the full set of stone tools—sword, pickaxe, axe, shovel.
The Wire Freak lunged, its tendrils writhing not with welcome, but with hunger.
The axe fell.
A crimson -8 flashed into existence as the blow severed a tendril and knocked the beast back a pace.
Its scream rose, sharper, more pitiful.
"Too quiet! Speak up, I can't hear you!"
Encouraged, Yang Tao struck again. Another -8. Again the monster staggered. Again, its movements faltered.
-8. -8.
Blow after blow, its health bar plummeted. From forty to eight, its green sheen bled into a furious red.
"Die already!"
Yang Tao's face was twisted with exhilaration, like a blood-maddened executioner. Yet just as he prepared the killing stroke, the creature faltered—its instincts screamed danger. It turned, staggering backward to flee.
It can run? This thing has survival instincts?
"No escape after offending me!"
Yang Tao hurled the axe. It spun through the air and buried itself deep in the monster's grotesque head. Its health bar collapsed into nothing.
The towering body crumpled, its distorted skull slamming against the reeking carpet.
From the carcass burst motes of shimmering green light—experience orbs, drifting lazily before streaking into Yang Tao's body as if drawn by gravity itself.
"Not bad. That much EXP from one kill—and I'm already level three."
In the vanilla game, experience was useful mainly for enchantments—bestowing weapons and armor with powers both wondrous and bizarre: Depth Strider, Efficiency, Vanishing, Unbreaking, Sharpness, and more.
At the doorway, Erik stared wide-eyed. Yang Tao stood triumphant, foot pressing into the fallen creature's skull as he wrenched the axe free.
Shock filled Erik's gaze. He had not come here alone—once, there had been three. But when his two companions faced the very same monster, they had been as helpless as infants, snuffed out without resistance.
His hand brushed the camera strapped to his chest. Swallowing hard, he could only watch in stunned silence.