Digital Vein
A light so rapturous it bordered on the sacred.
Inside it rested twenty Blood Crystals and a firearm.
Hina held both the gun and the crystals out for Minel to see.
Minel claimed only ten of the Blood Crystals, yet Hina pressed the gun into his hands as well.
“Here. Try it already, Minel.”
“No. It’s yours.”
“What?”
“You’re the one who reached the high score.”
Hina shook her head hard. Absolute refusal was written across every line of her face.
“If it hadn’t been for you, we never would have cleared that event. So it should be yours.”
Minel already carried Noise. It shared a set effect with Silence; he could not simply replace it. Still, the look in Hina’s eyes made him feel he ought at least to accept the weapon out of courtesy.
He closed his fingers around the gun she offered.
The instant it touched his skin, a faint vibration passed into him, as though the thing were alive. Its shape was lean and sharp, yet the surface ran smoother than glass and deeper than any metal. Dark luster spilled along the barrel while blue circuit patterns flowed across it, pulsing like electronic veins that answered a heartbeat. Each time the light dimmed, lightning flickered inside Minel’s pupils.
The barrel felt roughly forged, yet the sensation beneath his fingertips was cold as glass. The rim of the muzzle flared and contracted with minute blue light, as if it were swallowing digital signals from somewhere unseen.
Most striking of all was the small core set into the weapon’s heart. It blinked at steady intervals, throbbing like a living organ.
Minel raised the gun in silence. Where flesh met metal, a strange warmth neither hot nor cold seeped into his palm. There was no trigger. In its place a shallow groove waited for his index finger; the moment he touched it, the gun vibrated quietly, searching for his nerve signals.
Then—
Pzzzt—!
A sharp electric jolt raced up his arm. His entire body locked rigid; he could not even blink.
This was no ordinary tool. It was another vein running through the neural net itself.
“M-Minel? Are you all right?”
After roughly three seconds his body unlocked.
“Biometric recognition.”
He muttered the words and opened the Backrooms Compendium.
Level: 1
Grade: Rare
Special Effect: Delivers an electric shock to any non-owner who attempts to use it. Requires no ammunition.
An Arcade item granted upon successful completion of the event that triggers when the highest score is achieved.
Accumulates energy and converts it into laser rounds that inflict pure fire damage.
Minel handed the Digital Vein back to Hina.
“Only you can use this.”
Hina studied him for a long moment before she finally laid her hand on the gun. At once its form shifted as though opening, and a linear ribbon of red neon light spilled free.
“Let’s try it outside.”
“Ah… yes. All right.”
They stepped out of the Arcade. Hina found an open stretch, gripped the Digital Vein tight, and fired into empty air.
Zwing—!
A laser note straight out of American television rang lightly as a crimson beam lanced forward and punched a clean hole through the wall. The edges of the hole melted and ran like liquid; that, Minel realized, was what pure fire damage looked like.
“Well?”
Light brightened in Hina’s eyes as she regarded the weapon.
“It’s incredible. No recoil. No bullet drop. Just aim and shoot.”
Its raw power could not match Noise, yet its lethality looked superior. Who could stop a pillar of red light spearing out of the dark? In the hands of someone as skilled with firearms as Hina, the gun became something even more dangerous. Alone, she would be able to subdue almost anyone she met—at least on the 1st Floor.
“The level is locked.”
“But it’s Rare grade, isn’t it? That means it’s ridiculously strong, right?”
“…….”
Hina could not know. In one quiet corner of Minel’s mind the veterans always lingered. Even Unique or Rare weapons could fall short against something whose level alone stood far higher. Games had enhancement systems. Perhaps the Backrooms did too. That question could wait until they climbed higher.
They had gathered enough strength for now. It was time to search in earnest for a way out.
Minel drew two bottles of drink from his inventory—enough to settle hunger and thirst—and shared them with Hina.
“What do you plan to do from here?”
“Find more drinks first, maybe.”
“We have enough Blood Crystals, but finding a vending machine won’t be easy.”
Minel pulled out the map and showed her. A vending machine was marked roughly three days’ travel away.
“The map he gave us.”
Hina’s face hardened.
“What if it’s a trap?”
“Doesn’t matter. Not anymore.”
“…….”
Power—or the lack of it—decided the quality of life inside the Backrooms. They had nearly reached the highest score possible on the 1st Floor. Neither people nor monsters held much terror now.
They moved through the Backrooms without hesitation. Only an unlucky encounter with a veteran who had descended from an upper floor would pose real danger, and for three full days no such meeting came.
Then they rounded a corner and saw the long-awaited vending machine in the distance.
“We finally made it.”
A sudden curiosity pricked Minel. How vast was the Backrooms, really? Judging by the distances they had walked, it was certainly larger than Seoul.
He asked quietly, “How many Blood Crystals do we have?”
“Twenty-four total, counting what we took from the monsters we met on the way.”
Every creature they had faced had been a Hound. Each had wandered alone, so the hunting had been easy. Unless something stronger appeared, Hounds no longer threatened Minel at all.
“Cover me.”
“Understood.”
In this endless labyrinth, the places people were most likely to meet were the nodes—merchants, vending machines. Ambush was always a possibility, especially when someone already knew the exact location of a machine.
Minel was halfway to the vending machine when he stopped. He lifted one finger so only Hina could see and pointed toward a particular corner.
“…….”
Desks and chairs lay in a careless heap there, yet they had been shoved flush against the wall in a continuous line—perfect cover for someone hiding.
Hina gave a small nod and slipped silently toward the rear. Once she vanished, Minel resumed walking.
Three steps later a man burst from the clutter and shouted, “Don’t move!”
Minel turned his head with complete calm. It was the last combatant from Hina’s former party. Both hands locked around a pistol, the barrel centered precisely on Minel. Murderous intent burned blue in the man’s eyes; he was ready to fire at the slightest excuse.
Minel looked him up and down without a trace of fear. The man actually took a half-step backward before he realized it, then hardened his face and bellowed,
“You think bullet immunity solves everything?”
“…….”
“The Merchant sold me something nice. Bullets that work even against bullet immunity.”
“…….”
“Cost me ten whole Blood Crystals, you bastard. I knew you’d come this way. Spent a fucking month waiting, and looking at that face of yours now feels damn good.”
The man pursed his lips and gave a soft whistle. Four more men stepped out from the side—among them the tall one. They carried crude weapons fashioned from desks and chairs, points deliberately sharpened with some care.
As the four closed in around Minel, the gunman advanced as well. He stopped roughly three meters away, the muzzle trained on Minel’s head.
“Legs still stiff? What are you waiting for—make him kneel!”
The words had barely left his mouth when the two men behind Minel swung their clubs in wide arcs. The lengths of wood cracked against the hollows of Minel’s knees.
Crack—!
Crack—!
Absurdly, the clubs shattered.
They had struck the indented back of the knee—neither thigh nor arm—yet instead of folding Minel to the floor, the wood itself broke.
“…….”
“…….”
The two men stared at each other in shock. Their hands stung as if they had just smashed concrete. They had performed this exact move dozens of times; they could hit the hollow of a knee with their eyes closed. Every previous victim—man or woman, large or small—had screamed and dropped. One clean blow turned anyone into a docile sheep.
Never once had a club broken.
While they stood frozen, Minel spun. Silence appeared in his hand as if it had always been there and lashed out, striking all four men across the thighs in a single fluid motion. Had he edged the blade he would have severed cleanly; these men owned nothing worthy of the effort.
“Gah!”
“Ah!”
“Aagh!”
“Kh!”
Almost as one they screamed and toppled backward. Thigh bones snapped from the inside; white-hot pain hammered through their brains.
“Son of a—!”
The gunman jerked the trigger at Minel’s head. Nothing left the barrel. Only a flash of red light answered.
He lifted his hand in blank incomprehension. A hole the size of a thumb had opened clean through the center of his palm. The pain arrived a beat later.
“Ah… aaaaagh! Aaaaaagh!”
“Get lost.”
Minel’s quiet command. The four with shattered thighs helped one another scramble away. The man with the ruined hand glared after them, fury boiling in his eyes, but their retreat was as swift as their betrayal.
Minel slid Silence back into its sheath, giving the gunman’s thigh a light brush as he did so.
“Ugh… ugh.”
The man collapsed where he stood. The pistol had long since left his grip; his remaining hand clutched the ruined one.
When Hina approached from the side, the man’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“You… h-how… the g-gun…”
Hina said nothing. She simply raised the Digital Vein again—this time aimed between his eyes.
Minel leaned close. The man could not meet that cold gaze; his face had gone bloodless.
“Those special bullets. You lied.”
The man’s voice shrank to a whisper.
“Yes. Ten Blood Crystals was too expensive…”
Of course. Anyone holding ten crystals would have bought a reusable skill instead.
Minel asked again, voice still level.
“How do you leave the Backrooms? Do you know?”
Killing intent flashed in Minel’s eyes. The man swallowed hard, then opened his mouth in a rush to speak.