Voltage Forge
Brilliant neon lights and multicolored LEDs. Cloud-shaped jump pads and stuffed animals shaped like rabbits or dinosaurs. Torn posters plastered haphazardly across the walls, and old warning signs that still flashed with stubborn light.
"It's almost exactly the same as the 1st Floor?"
"……"
Minel answered with a quiet nod, pointing toward one of the electronic boards. A scoreboard floated above the arcade machines, Balan Cassel's name locked in first place and Minel's sitting firmly in second.
"D-don't tell me… it's not the same place, is it? Like we suddenly got moved back to the 1st Floor or something…"
They stepped outside for a moment and found themselves facing the concrete corridors of the 2nd Floor once more.
"It's not."
Once they confirmed it was safe, they went back inside. Hina carefully studied the scoreboards on each machine, then spoke in a low voice.
"It seems like only the scores are shared. Coming up to the 2nd Floor doesn't mean you can get higher scores."
"……"
"Then is a thousand points the absolute limit for raising physical ability?"
That didn't make sense. The movements Balan Cassel had shown them were so fast that even Minel, who had scored nearly a thousand, couldn't begin to imitate them. If a thousand was still the ceiling no matter how high you climbed, how had Balan obtained a body like that? Did they need to go even higher? Or had it been the work of some enhancement item?
They kept searching the 2nd Floor Arcade for anything new, but the more they looked, the more disappointing it became. Many of the machines that had existed on the 1st Floor were missing here, and the Arcade itself was smaller overall. When Minel actually played one of the machines to the end, he found nothing different from the 1st Floor.
"Every single one of them is just Normal grade…"
On the 1st Floor there had at least been Advanced machines that taught swordsmanship and marksmanship—Digital Vein and Blade Spectrum. Here there were only Normal machines that raised the most basic physical stats. He checked every one of them in the Backrooms Compendium just in case, but none of them rose above Normal grade.
"Huh? I've never seen this one before."
Minel walked over to Hina. In the farthest corner of the Arcade stood a nameless machine, hidden under a massive plastic cover and cleverly surrounded by oversized character figures so that neither of them had noticed it at first.
"How did you even spot it?"
"I just… had a feeling there was something inside."
"……"
Instinct, then. Together they peeled away the plastic cover. The machine itself looked almost like an ancient altar, with four handles set at the cardinal points. When Minel gripped two of them and held the prescribed stance, a faint, prickling electric current ran through him. Hold the handles until the stimulation ended, and you succeeded. A simple game.
He opened the Backrooms Compendium.
Voltage Forge
A rare arcade machine that appears with an extremely low probability.
It measures the user's neural response and the electrical resistance of muscle fiber in real time. The stimulation increases gradually, teaching the nervous system how to channel current.
The more pain one endures, the higher the score and the greater the rise in electrical resistance. As a secondary effect, the body's senses become clearer.
A rare arcade machine he had never seen before. The electrical resistance it trained was almost certainly a rare physical ability. On the scoreboard above it, Balan Cassel's name sat in first place as if that were only natural.
But the score was 893.
It was the first time Minel had ever seen Balan's score fall below nine hundred—let alone nine hundred fifty. Perhaps because it was a rare machine, even he had failed to break nine hundred.
Hina rolled up her sleeves and declared loudly,
"I'll try this one first."
"You?"
"If something goes wrong, I'm still better off than you, Minel."
Before he could stop her she stepped into the machine and seized the handles.
Starting.
A clear mechanical voice rang out. Hina's body gave a single violent shudder; she let go of the handles and crumpled where she stood.
Score: 120.
"……"
"A-again."
She gripped the handles once more, only to release them almost at once. The result was even worse.
Not out of a hundred—out of a thousand. Ninety-three. She made a tearful face and looked back at Minel.
"Th-this isn't even fun. I-it's just enduring pain, so… it's pretty hard."
"……"
She tried a few more times after that, but every score was lower than the first. She had lasted longest when she still had no idea how much it would hurt.
"Come out. I'll try."
"B-be careful."
Minel drew a deep breath. The handles under his palms were cold and smooth, yet beyond them pain was waiting without a doubt. He had never beaten Balan on any machine. If this was one even Balan had failed to push past nine hundred, maybe—just maybe—he could win.
Starting.
The moment the machine spoke, a fine vibration traveled up the handles. At first it was bearable—only a prickling sting. Then the current took root and multiplied, swelling in intensity.
Zzzt.
Convulsions ran from his elbows to his shoulders. Minel clenched his teeth and held the stance, but before ten full seconds had passed his hands tore free.
"…Haa. Haa."
His fingertips tingled as if numb; sweat poured down his spine. Arms hanging limp, Minel dragged air into his lungs. Hina hurried over in alarm.
"Are you all right?"
"Yeah… for now."
He wiped the sweat with the back of his hand and glared at the machine. It waited for him in silence, as though mocking him. Defeat began to seep into his chest, and a clear fighting spirit rose in Minel's eyes. That peculiar competitiveness that refused to lag behind anyone had awakened.
Again.
He gritted his teeth and seized the handles once more. This time he locked his jaw tighter and braced his core. The current began to flow.
Zzzzt.
He lasted a little longer. The pain came far more tenaciously than he had expected—needles driving into every nerve at once, searing along their paths. Minel's brow convulsed.
"Nngh…!"
Still he could not hold out to the end. He tore his arms free and staggered back.
"Damn it…"
He looked down at his hands. The fine trembling would not stop. His nervous system still could not handle it. When he closed his eyes the imagined pain came flooding back. How often in a lifetime does a person get electrocuted? The pain was so alien that it was all the harder to endure. Even thinking about it made his body shudder, and he understood something clearly.
If he failed one more time here, he would never be able to face this pain again. It was not simply a lack of will. The instinct to avoid pain would grow so powerful that it would become impossible to suppress. This was the last chance he would have to force that instinct down and try.
When he closed his eyes, Balan Cassel appeared in the darkness.
Think you can surpass me?
The man asked with a smile. Minel opened his eyes. He set his stance again at once.
He might lose at everything else. But this—this one thing—he wanted to win. Hina had beaten him at marksmanship. Beating Balan was not impossible.
Third attempt.
This time he steadied his breathing and relaxed every muscle as much as he could.
Zzzzzzt…!
Pain crashed over him like a wave, slamming his entire body and screaming at him to let go. Consciousness began to recede; the world turned white; he was a heartbeat from blacking out—when somewhere, his father's voice reached him.
"If you can't avoid it, you have to understand what it really means to enjoy it. It doesn't mean pretend to enjoy it by force. It means keep reminding yourself, endlessly, that the more it hurts, the stronger you become."
Minel's eyes snapped open. He erased the will to resist the pain and instead chose to accept it. He stopped fighting and simply received the current, letting it flow through him. He imagined it clearly: every bit of this pain that accumulated in his body made him stronger.
Crack-crack!
Crack-crack!
Electricity that had been flowing only through the handles now began to engulf the entire machine. Sparks leapt like flames, racing along every edge in branching bolts of lightning.
Crack-crack-crack-crack!
Crack-crack-crack-crack!
Blue flashes pulsed from beneath the metal panels like a living heartbeat. For an instant the arcade machine shuddered as though it possessed a heart of its own. Minel's arms were already on the verge of paralysis. Every muscle fiber trembled; his fingers had locked rigid and could barely move. Yet he did not close his eyes.
Even as his senses collapsed, he felt his own body with increasing clarity. The current digging into the creases of his palms, the heat racing up his forearms, the vibration rising from the base of his spine—every pain now appeared to him as a signal.
Somewhere deep in Minel's brain something clicked over. As if a new language were forming at the cellular level, his nervous system began translating pain into information. The distant mechanical hum grew sharp and clear; his heart took the pain as its rhythm and split it into beats.
Zzzzzzzzzt!!
Zzzzzzzzzt!!
The entire machine blazed with light; dust shaken from the ceiling swirled like wind. Hina cried out in shock.
"Minel! Stop! Stop it!"
But Minel still did not let go. Even inside that hellish agony his gaze remained quiet and deep. He had surrendered his body to the current and was finding balance within it.
Then every stimulus simply… stopped.
Thud.
A silence like the aftershock of a great drum. In that silence the machine released one final vast flare of light and went still. Above it, inside a capsule, a final bolt of lightning seemed to form; an electric sigil that rippled like brainwaves drifted slowly down and sank into Minel's forehead.
Score: 1000.
A perfect score.
Hina covered her mouth and swallowed hard. Minel finally released the handles and dropped to his knees, gasping. He was exhausted. His mind felt scoured clean, empty; his fingertips still tingled, yet within that numbness a clear new sensation lingered.
Hina ran to him, still holding her breath. Minel exhaled a heavy breath and slowly opened his hand. Fine static rose from his fingertips—more than mere stimulation, it was proof of a change carved deep into his body.
"A normal person would have given up after one try. You did it three times… and even got a perfect score…"
Minel gave a small smile.
"I just wanted to beat him once."
The smile was not light. It was the quiet confidence that belongs only to someone who has climbed over adversity no one else could overcome. Hina felt it too.
And then—
EVENT OCCURRENCE!
You cannot leave the Arcade during the event!
Survival rate: Extreme! Extreme! Extreme!
The exact same warning that had blared when Hina reached the highest score on the 1st Floor now echoed from every direction. Tension tightened across Hina's face.
"W-what do we do? You're already in bad shape, Minel… and this is the 2nd Floor, so the monsters will be stronger."
Yet Minel's expression was utterly calm. He forced himself upright and spoke flatly.
"The strategy. You already know it."
Hina's face went blank for a second, then she nodded.
"Ah… right. We don't have to fight the monsters that come flooding in. We just go to the center and wait for the box to appear."
"Yeah."
Anyone who heard that warning would normally start hunting for an exit. Hina showed no fear at all; she simply supported Minel and moved first toward the center of the Arcade. They stood still and let the surrounding character monsters encircle them. The monsters' eyes turned yellow and they charged.
Minel paid them no attention whatsoever. The instant the box materialized he swung Silence. The box exploded, and before a single monster could reach them the event ended.
Event Clear! Event Clear! Event Clear!
Event Clear! Event Clear! Event Clear!
Event Clear! Event Clear! Event Clear! Event Clear!
An almost ridiculously easy success. They walked back toward the Voltage Forge. As before, a box waited for them. Inside lay a single bracelet made of some rubber-like flexible material. Minel immediately raised the Backrooms Compendium.
◈ Grants the wearer complete immunity to lightning attributes.
◈ An Arcade item obtained by successfully clearing the event that occurs upon achieving the highest score.
◈ Damaged in proportion to the strength of lightning impacts received. Once fully damaged, it can be repaired and used again.
A simple description. Minel immediately handed the item to Hina.
"Y-you're giving this to me?"
"It's for my sake."
"What?"
"My lightning resistance is already high."
He was right. After scoring a perfect thousand on the machine, Minel's lightning resistance was effectively the same as wearing the bracelet. Hina hesitated, then finally accepted it.
"I-I'll use it well."
"Yeah."
They left the Arcade at once. There was no reason to stay longer, and lingering any further risked letting Wildness soak into them. As they stepped out into the corridor—
Far down the hall on the opposite side, a stranger came into view. The man locked murderous eyes on Minel and Hina, then slammed his hand down on the light switch beside him.
At once the corridor was drowned in darkness.