Banquet Hall (3)

I slashed the closed-off passage with Black Moon, and it split cleanly down the middle before knitting itself shut again and restoring itself to its original state.

Stronger than it looked.

"Aaaaaagh!"

"There you are."

"You psycho! I almost actually died just now!"

"You've even got intangibility, so why are you freaking out this much?"

"My breath isn't infinite, you know! If I slip up once, I get mixed in with it and die!"

The specialist in running away and playing hide-and-seek.

He was such a slippery bastard that his upgraded skill at school was intangibility.

If I told him to go first, he'd only start whining again, so I kicked him out the door instead. Still, I felt a little bad about it.

"Anyway, you're alive. Want a drink?"

When I handed him a bottle from the table, Namgogoedam recoiled from the passage ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that had snapped open with a nauseated shudder.

"Jesus, what the hell is this?"

"Probably the owner of this Backrooms level. Looks like his hobby is fattening things up and eating them. He lures them in when they seem nice and plump."

"Ugh... how are you supposed to kill something like this? Did you try cutting it with a knife?"

"Barely did a damn thing."

"Then what now?"

"Did you see anything at the end of the passage? Anything deeper in there?"

"No, it just got narrower... and then it suddenly shut, so I had to whip around and run. Didn't even have time to look."

Meanwhile, maybe because it had lost Namgogoedam, the visceral corridor started calling again, its stench growing stronger as it tried to tempt us back.

As if I'd be fooled by it twice.

"Uh... ugh..."

"So it does work."

Was it a matter of how much he'd eaten?

Namgogoedam was shaking himself out while glaring at the corridor, and something about him looked off.

If he went in now, he'd probably end up as a meal before he could even use intangibility.

He looked ready to sprint at it, so I grabbed the handle of Black Moon and smacked him on the back of the head.

"Ghk!"

"You are a lot of work... I was thinking of taking you with me, but never mind."

He was, by default, a coward and an avoider.

He only really moved when the situation forced him to, but that was exactly how both of us ended up in danger.

Throwing himself at the parasitic tongue had been the right call, but if I'd cleanly taken its throat from the start, one of them would already be dead.

He was the type who made everything more complicated.

"Also, this isn't a damn dental clinic, so why do you keep opening your mouth, you stinking bastard?"

The reeking smell was getting stronger and stronger, fouling the air.

Calling that shit bad breath made me irrationally angry all at once.

"Too many teeth and your breath goes bad? I'm no dentist, but I can still do an extraction."

I drew Vortex and aimed it at the creature's inner wall.

If I went by the blueprint, it should work something like this.

Penetration.

When I thrust at empty air, the spear stretched out and drove deep into the wall of flesh.

At least that hurt; the innards lurched once in response.

But the wound was healing fast, flesh swallowing Vortex itself as the thing recovered.

Without hesitating, I twisted my hand in the opposite direction, as if I were winding a fourfold helix the other way, and the spiral began to unwind in a surging wave.

Reverse rotation stirred up a rough storm.

By the time it reached the end, the four-edged wind blades spun off by the rotation had torn the creature's insides to shreds.

With half the wall gone in an instant, the innards convulsed violently as if they were trying to flee, but the storm wasn't done yet.

The blades that had been rotating in reverse twisted into a reverse fourfold helix, then snapped back into a forward rotation under the pull of Arachne.

It made the storm again, then turned into a brutal vortex that sucked in everything around it and ground it to pieces.

"...Wow."

Vortex returned to its original shape as if nothing had happened, acting all prim and proper, but the aberration was in bad shape.

It was finished.

From the entrance to the middle, the innards had been completely shredded, and countless teeth had been smashed loose and were drowning in blood.

"That's way too strong... at this rate, will there even be any materials left?"

While I was admiring Vortex for a moment, the passage had already returned to its original state, or rather, to a somewhat badly wrecked version of it.

Did we get it?

Conveniently, the teeth the thing had dropped were still there.

"Hey, hey. Wake up."

"Mmm... why was I...?"

"Blood sugar spike? You should've at least paced yourself."

"Yeah? Then why does the back of my head hurt so much-"

I nudged the guy, who was making all sorts of faces while rubbing the back of his head, with my foot. He had to earn his keep, friend.

"Because you fell backward. More importantly, I think I killed that thing, so go check it out."

"You killed it? How?"

"Just go check it already."

"...What if it changes again and tries to eat me?"

"You've got intangibility. Get in there already."

"So now I'm just bait... ugh."

Still, maybe because he was embarrassed that he ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hadn't really done anything, Namgogoedam complained all the way in while moving carefully toward the passage.

He kept easing a foot forward little by little.

"Want me to kick you in again?"

"Okay, I'm going! Even with intangibility, crawling into some aberration's mouth is still nasty!"

"Quit whining and get in there."

At last, Namgogoedam stepped inside and kept jerking his head around nervously as he cautiously moved deeper.

Looks like it really was dead.

"It's... huh? It's really over! Even the smell's gone!"

"Good. Then while you're there, pick up the teeth on your way back. The ones that look halfway decent."

I followed him inside and picked up one of the teeth myself.

...A dagger?

A little underwhelming.

I already had Black Moon, which was also B-class, and after seeing the power of the A-class Vortex, a B-class dagger was kind of disappointing.

I guess I could make it and use it if things got urgent.

"Ugh... does that thing's tooth really count as usable?"

"Take what we got and let's head back to school first. We should grab some food too."

"...That thing? Why?"

"The aberration's gone, so maybe the food's fine now."

The Agui had vanished, and the Banquet Hall was filled with food again.

The rules plastered all over the walls and the body of Number 21 were gone.

It looked exactly like it had when we first arrived.

I wondered whether eating the food would make the Agui appear again, but I really didn't feel like testing it now.

Back to school.

When we returned to the corridor we'd come through by following the lantern light, a food cart that hadn't been there before had appeared.

I shoved the cart straight into the wall.

We no-clipped back to school on a school lunch cart.

"Ah, yep. Students belong in school."

"I never thought I'd actually miss this place in my life."

"But it was fun, right?"

"Are you insane? Fun? What the hell is wrong with your head?"

"Says the guy who ate the most until he was stuffed."

"Ugh... come to think of it, I feel like I'm about to die from being too full."

He really did look like his stomach was about to burst if I poked it.

He hadn't looked that bloated while we were in the Banquet Hall, so had the Agui only appeared because it saw him that way?

Namgogoedam, clutching his stomach and panting, called to me miserably.

"Daejang. S-something for indigestion..."

"You think I keep antacids in my pocket? Though I guess you're not hungry anymore."

"Feels like my stomach's gonna explode and kill me..."

"Hm. Then I guess we've acquired ourselves a cafeteria."

"You saw all that and you're still gonna eat it? No way I can do that."

"If the aberration's gone, the food should be fine. Look, what we brought back is perfectly normal."

If that had been the food's true form, the sandwich we brought back would've been a pig carcass wrapped in flour.

At least, what we could see was a perfectly ordinary sandwich.

"The taste is good. It doesn't feel like it makes you hungrier when you eat it."

"Haa... whatever. I'm not going anywhere else now. Going into a no-clip zone headfirst is honestly insane suicide."

"Fair enough. Then you stay here and handle supplies. Grab clothes and snacks from the mall, food from the Banquet Hall."

"You're seriously saying I can just stay here?"

"What else am I supposed to do?"

I was a little sorry to lose a bait that useful.

"You were just thinking of me as bait, weren't you? I can tell from your face how disappointed you are."

"It's your imagination. Anyway, I'm not forcing you, so do what you want. But in that case, be my full-time housekeeper... no. Be my butler. Manage the safety zone as a butler."

"...That somehow sounds insulting."

"Then come with me and break through the Backrooms. Free rides aren't allowed. I'm planning to expand this place."

"Fine. I'll do whatever, okay?"

I didn't know what the Backrooms would throw at us next, and I didn't want to drag along someone who didn't want to be there.

We didn't have enough hands to waste them on someone sulking; if anything, a half-hearted sabotage was going to be the real problem.

A bait strategy using intangibility was fine, but before that, he caused too many accidents.

I couldn't bring myself to say it to his face, but Namgogoedam was kind of garbage.

Maybe that was just a normal reaction, but in the Backrooms, being normal was basically synonymous with being garbage.

You don't survive like that.

"Phew. Let's rest for a bit."

"I don't even have the strength to twitch a finger."

"Anyone looking at you would think you did everything. You did pull your weight as the leftovers disposal unit, though."

"Damn it, what am I supposed to do about my body not listening to me?"

"That's all because your mind is getting sloppy. You lack ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠resolve. Look at Number 21. Even while eating his own hand, he still refused to touch the food to the very end."

"Ugh - don't say stuff like that when I already feel like crap."

How had he even survived being that weak?

I left Namgogoedam behind and headed to the computer room, where I found Jemmin and explained what I'd seen in the Banquet Hall.

For all the people who wandered and wandered until they finally found hope, that hope turned out to be the Agui's mouth. What a nasty way to run a game.

If it showed up again, I'd make sure to tone it down a bit while I messed with it.

A rules sheet?

Something like the notes left by people who'd been there before?

Not a bad idea.

I had dealt with the Agui, but this was the Backrooms; there was no telling what might happen next.

If people kept picking up and eating the food, it could come back again.