Gourmet Exploration?
(A photo of most of the Central Cavern turned red in a fan shape spreading out from the third entrance)
Paint it red
It looks like a different place
Thank you
"Kiyaaaak!!"
Then the comment I'd been waiting for arrived — SaveMe.
At those words, it dawned on me that the walls could indeed be broken, and I took a look around the inside of the third passage.
"Huh?"
It had broken through.
No — the explosion had torn it apart, leaving a wide-open space blown through front, back, left, and right.
Why no warning, you ask? Because all those collapsed piles of rock had gathered and heaped up at the bottom, that's why.
The passage entrance was perfectly intact.
Maybe the entrance side was made of some different, sturdier material.
"So does this connect to the other passages?"
I went over to the second passage on the left to check, but this one was untouched — moss, vines, and grass all as they'd been.
"Huh?"
The fourth passage showed no sign of damage either.
Which meant a space had opened up in the third passage that clearly should have spilled over into the neighboring ones — and yet the others were unaffected?
"Is each passage like an entrance to a completely separate place?"
It was a truly bizarre affair.
Not that this Backrooms isn't a bizarre place to begin with.
"I suppose so..."
Then again, what were the odds it would just reset that cleanly? There could be some other penalty waiting for me.
Ge-ek—
I gently stroked the head of Yagwang-i, who was watching me from atop my left arm, with a fingertip.
"Still, I want to go see it as much as possible."
After all, of all the items I'd painstakingly copied, only one or two in the corners had survived — the rest had been swept away by the blast.
Plus, with the entire cavern painted this garish red, I felt like my sanity might just go merong and melt away.
"Go down...?"
But if I went down, wouldn't that red thing just spawn again? Risking that danger all over again didn't sit right either.
First things first — I figured I should copy the intact items again.
"Flashlights... two with power left. Pickaxes... three intact, the rest are broken."
My phone in my pocket was fine too. Five bottles of water. And then...
"Food... there's none..."
Food — that is, rice balls.
Every last grain of it was down there on the floor, mixed with dust and seasoned with that red, bloody tang.
"No... food...?"
All the provisions I'd carried had exploded and were now rolling around on that floor along with the seasoning.
"Food...?"
Should I be grateful I could at least pick it up and eat it?
...Could I gather it all up carefully and wash it off in the first passage?
Reaching out a hand at the thought —
"Ow, it stings!"
That red sauce was apparently so spicy that the mere touch of a fingertip set my hand burning.
Looking around, I realized the blood had been splattered right next to the wall where I'd been flung and knocked out — I'd somehow dodged it by a hair.
"I nearly became a kimchi person right then and there."
Lamenting how I'd almost been picked clean to the bone like modern-day meat-eaters demand, I opened the gallery.
(A photo of rice grains mixed with dust and blood)
All my food exploded
No food
Some kind of acid blood — the moment my fingertip touched it, it started burning
Food... none?
Copying stuff is a luxury — I'm about to starve to death right now
Have to go find food
"Ugh..."
At this point I was well and truly past the point of even holding out.
"Yagwang-i, I guess this is where it ends for me..."
These were the rice balls I'd been sharing with Yagwang-i, after all.
Ge-ek—
"No — still, I can't give up this easily."
Food is something you just have to go find, isn't it?
Passage 1. For copying.
Passage 2. The giant vertical shaft (can't go).
Passage 3. Two branches (plus one side tunnel).
Even if the third passage had become a no-go, I still had the fourth and fifth, plus three more behind me, didn't I?
The fourth passage, bristling with mushrooms. The fifth passage, exhaling cold air.
The first rear passage, its entrance strangled by tree roots. The second rear passage, paved with gem-like things. The third rear passage, with sharp iron rods jutting slightly from above and below its entrance.
(A photo of a mushroom-covered passage entrance)
Decided to try going here
There might be edible mushrooms, right?
If I eat them and you never hear from me again, just assume it was my time
"Alright then."
I packed one pickaxe, two flashlights, and two water bottles into my bag and slung it over my shoulder.
"Shall we?"
Ge-ek—
A flashlight in one hand, a pickaxe in the other, Yagwang-i on my left arm — and with the oxygen tank strapped on as well, I slowly entered the fourth passage.
Scanning the length of it, mushrooms bloomed in dense clusters, concentrated in the corners.
Tightly packed mushrooms growing along both walls.
Some bore flamboyant patterns; others were colored so they seemed to blend perfectly into the cave wall itself.
"Aagh, my fingers!"
Every mushroom I passed had its quirks — touched ones left my fingers paralyzed and unmoving, or —
Pi-ik—
"Gwaaagh!"
— when I grabbed one to pluck it, it sprayed me with foul-smelling spores.
"Hnngh..."
Still, with one eye forced shut, my arm trembling, my vision blurring and clearing in waves, I pressed forward, examining each mushroom carefully one by one.
"Seems like alm..most all of them are d..dead en..ends..."
That was after I'd lightly bitten into a purple mushroom that had looked perfectly fine moments before, and promptly started slurring my words.
Then again, this level wore off quickly, so maybe it was safe enough to eat.
Where in this place would you find penalty-free food? It's the Backrooms, after all.
Gigigogagak..? You type a request and it just delivers..? Ugh.. my head..!
Wouldn't that basically be being kept as livestock..? Surely it would. It couldn't be anything else, could it?
Then, sweeping my light along the floor toward the far end —
"A cliff...?"
Ahead of me, the light caught the place where the floor — no, the walls above and to the sides too — simply cut off.
"Don't tell me it's the outside?"
I hurried over and thrust the flashlight out.
Below, an enormous mushroom.
No — enormous wasn't the word...
Gigantic.
Everything visible before me was so vast that it was all just the caps of gigantic mushrooms, spread out ahead like stepping platforms.
The mushroom caps hung low enough to touch with an outstretched arm.
I reached out my left arm and felt one — a cap with an extremely hard texture.
Knocking on it made my hand ache.
"Not edible, then..."
I wondered if I could dig one out with the pickaxe and try it, but at this hardness my teeth would break first.
Ge-ek—
Boing!
"Oh — Yagwang-i?"
It hopped straight off my outstretched arm and started making its way across the caps.
"Do you know the way through here, by any chance?"
Thud—
No matter where I stepped, nothing wobbled or shifted.
Sculptural, mushroom-shaped fixtures — that's about what they seemed like.
Following Yagwang-i along, before stepping over a spot where two caps overlapped, I shone my light down below.
"A long, long way down."
Even with the light pointed downward, all it caught was pitch-black darkness — a drop nearly rivaling the giant vertical vine passage in height.
Ge-ek—
Yagwang-i had stopped up ahead, looking back and calling to me.
"Right. Lead the way as best you know."
And so, following Yagwang-i, I slowly set one foot after another.