Exchange (2)
“…….”
I was torn.
Should I blow the head off this thing that didn’t even look like a nurse, or grit my teeth, follow along, hand over a tooth, and take whatever weird gift it offered?
The first option would make me feel better. The second would fatten my pockets.
But a fat pocket could bring happiness, too.
I nodded at the thing’s smile-like face and followed it into the examination room.
Even the inside’s just a normal dental office.
Nothing here looked especially threatening, but I still didn’t let my guard down.
A hostile backrooms entity was being friendly?
Absolutely not.
These bastards lived for making humans suffer.
There had to be something going on.
What, is this normally the kind of thing that yanks people’s teeth out and eats them? If I hadn’t had the angler’s teeth, they’d have already stripped me clean at the reception desk.
Luckily, I still had a few fragments left in my pocket, and two perfectly good teeth I could use as materials.
Precious materials, sure, but I had to trade them for now.
For all I knew, whatever these things were could save my life like a movie ticket.
In the Backrooms, you take everything you can get.
“Kkik, kkeek-”
Did these bastards have no manners at all?
I stared at the one who had guided me only a few steps, all the way to the chair, then held out a hand like I owed it something.
It just kept squeaking and stretching its hand toward me.
What a shameless little scammer.
I nearly blasted it with a Vortex then and there, sick of the almost-robbery, but forced myself to hold back.
I dropped the remaining fragment into its hand.
“Kik? Kik?”
It shook the thing out and crunched on it like candy, then held out its hand again.
This little shit.
Was it going to ask for a big one because it was a big one?
If this turns out to just be a lighter or something, I’m going to be pissed...
I couldn’t be sure.
There was no telling whether this was actually useful or just junk in its natural habitat.
Heads or tails?
Out of nowhere, the thought flashed through my mind that I had never once won even five thousand won from a lottery ticket in my life.
If I’d only wasted materials for nothing, I was going to be very angry.
“Kik! Kik!”
Only after taking my angler’s teeth did the nurse entity finally start bouncing happily in place.
Fortune favors the bold!
I can do this! I’m that guy!
Oh, the box got bigger.
The nurse entity came back carrying a fairly large box and shoved it into my arms.
Mm-hm, that’s right. That’s how it should be.
My mood lifted at the weight of the gift box.
So you do understand equivalent exchange, huh?
I flashed a wide smile to show my delight and tore into the thing.
VR glasses?
Huh. That felt oddly specific.
What the hell was I supposed to do with these in the Backrooms?
I needed to pay attention to what was right in front of my face. Covering my eyes with these could be dangerous, couldn’t it?
Or were they meant to show me gimmicks or entities?
I slipped them on carefully, but all they gave me was a black screen. Nothing else.
They wouldn’t even power on. What the hell was this?
This is annoying... No, wait. Maybe they’ll be useful somewhere. The real question is, how do I get out of here?
After the nurse entity left, I was the only one left standing in the exam room.
The lantern was still interfering... so was “just trading” not actually the full condition?
But a real exam would be pretty terrifying.
Opening my mouth in front of those tooth-obsessed freaks would be like presenting them with a fully laid-out banquet.
I didn’t want them choosing my teeth like a buffet.
Still, this is a dental clinic and there aren’t any dental tools.
Nothing you’d normally associate with a dentist. No drill. No terrifying forceps. Nothing to forcibly keep your mouth open.
I was getting annoyed. Should I just make a scene?
If I blew their heads off, maybe they’d die.
And I still hadn’t searched the exam room properly, so there might be something else in here.
The nurse had brought me here, so there had to be an answer.
Just as I was about to get up and start looking around for real, a massive shadow fell across the examination room.
The doctor came in wearing a lab coat, his fat body sinking into a chair that looked like it might snap at any moment, with a nurse pushing him in from behind.
Are those wings just decoration?
That was the first thought that came to mind, and I felt a little bad about it, but after looking at the cute little wings attached to that fat, bloated tooth fairy, I couldn’t help being curious.
How many teeth did this guy have to eat to end up like that?
His huge head, slender neck, obese torso, and skinny limbs made him look horribly deformed.
What’s he going to give me?
His mouth was so huge it looked like half his face had been cut away.
At this point, he almost deserved to be called a Pac-Man entity, and the grotesque teeth in that giant smile stood out in full view.
So you’re the boss here.
Then maybe the boss gives out something bigger?
I was, like, actually excited.
“Kiiik, geuueek-”
The one in the lab coat came right up to me.
Here. Teeth. That’s what you people love, right?
I handed over the angler’s teeth to the doctor entity.
“Grrrk! Kik!”
But the doctor just jabbered something and pushed the angler’s teeth aside.
What the hell, was that not enough?
You pig bastard... I nearly stabbed him on instinct, but managed to restrain myself and pull out my last remaining tooth.
“Kik, kkeek!”
No, seriously. Why the hell was the nurse the one eating it?
Before I could even complain that this wasn’t a tip, the doctor heaved his massive body upright and stepped in front of me.
Tap, tap-tap.
He tapped his own mouth and then opened it wide.
It was packed with teeth, all white and shining, exactly what you’d expect from a dentist.
And then, tap, tap-tap.
You want me to open my mouth?
So our doctor wanted fresh, farm-to-mouth teeth, huh?
Were they insane? They expected me to open my mouth in front of them?
I shook my head, and the doctor and nurse both started clicking irritably before calling in the smaller tooth fairy from outside.
Then came the nurse trying to grab my wrist, the tiny fairy hovering right in front of my face, and the doctor rubbing his hands together while drooling with a level of anticipation completely different from mine.
What, is this asshole trying to deep-kiss me or something?
It looked like they were trying to do some kind of special extraction treatment, but sorry, my teeth were perfectly healthy and rock solid.
This is overtreatment, you bastards!
I was done playing along.
Gift or no gift, I was killing them all.
Good entities were dead entities.
The black line of the Black Moon’s blade crossed the doctor and nurse’s throats.
But these things, just like the smaller fairies, caught their severed heads in their hands, and the softened seam of flesh knitted itself back together as if a melting line of cheese were running in reverse!
Their regeneration was absurd. Even losing their heads didn’t seem to slow them down at all.
So they don’t die normally, huh?
Let’s see them regenerate this.
The angler had regenerated too, but it hadn’t survived this.
Let’s see if they can handle being ground to paste.
I slid out of the exam chair and drove the Vortex in deep.
Pierce. Storm.
The Vortex’s tetra helix, skewering both the doctor and the nurse at once, spun in reverse and tore them apart.
Then, with another hard inhale, I pulled the blade back and ground down every last fragment left behind.
“What can they do if there’s nothing left to regenerate?”
Their bodies slopped across the floor in pale mush.
I knew it would come to this sooner or later, but I was a little disappointed I never got the gift from the doctor.
That didn’t mean I was going to sacrifice my own teeth, though.
I picked up the lantern to grab the item I’d received and head back.
- Current Area: Dental Clinic
- Interference: ■■, ■■■ ■■■
Huh?
There’s still interference?
At the same time, the goo covering the floor started bubbling, then reshaped itself into a crude clay doll.
Those things, fully restored to their original forms, simply resumed what they’d been doing as if nothing had happened.
The Vortex doesn’t work either? What the hell, are they invincible? Is this some kind of healing factor?
I was fucked.
I hadn’t seen this coming.
I’d been so confident that with the Vortex, my strongest weapon, I could handle just about any entity, but I never imagined my attacks might not work at all.
Weren’t all entity-made weapons supposed to work?
I hate dentures!
Was this going to end only if I gave up every last one of my teeth?
If attacks didn’t work, what the hell was I supposed to do?
Even if I swung the Black Moon and blasted storms with the Vortex, all it did was buy me a little time before everything returned to square one.
“Kik, kkeek.”
“Kiiiiiik-”
“Kik-kik-kik-kik!”
It was an endless game of tag: tooth fairies trying to grab me, and me swinging weapons as hard as I could to kill them.
But they kept moving exactly the same as before, while every swing of my weapon drained me more and more.
At this rate, I’d just get worn down and caught.
Isn’t there some hidden gimmick? Some answer?
Even smashing their skulls with a hammer did nothing; they just recovered.
What the hell was wrong with these bastards if they weren’t even made of usable materials?
Just in case, I searched the exam room again, then the reception desk, every corner of the place, and even the bathroom where I’d first no-clipped in, but found nothing.
Was I supposed to wait for closing time or something?
But the clock hanging in the waiting room outside never moved.
I lit the item I’d gotten, the lighter, and held the flame to one of their skins, but it only melted down like candle wax for a second before healing again.
I got cocky.
Phenomena in the Backrooms came in all different forms, and I’d been leaning too hard on one weapon.
So there really were entities where abnormal phenomena and weapons didn’t mean a damn thing.
No. There had to be an answer in every Backrooms level.
Giving in like this was exactly what those entities wanted.
I wasn’t going to fold and collapse just because they wanted me to.
I shredded them with the Black Moon, then used the Vortex to blow apart the exam room itself.
If I couldn’t find a singularity in the wreckage, then the reception desk was next.
If there was nothing there either, I’d smash the bathroom too.
“Kik-kik-kik!”
“Get lost!”
One of the tooth fairies had already regenerated and was hanging off my cheek, so I drove the dagger at my waist straight into it.
The Starving Fang Dagger, piercing through its body, made the tooth fairy scream in real surprise for the first time.
“Kkihik?!”
“Uh...?”
Some kind of wound bloomed across the stabbed fairy’s body, as if something had bitten a huge chunk out of it.
The fairy dropped limply away from me.
But unlike what I expected, thinking it would regenerate right away, the tiny fairy’s hole-ridden body did not heal.
That thing, which had seemed immortal, was dead?