The Golden Fruit and the Frozen Corridor
ChillyDragon
Ge-ek ge-ek ge-ek..
“Whew..”
Nothing gets a person going like a little caffeine, I'm telling you.
After that grueling, endless expedition, I'd dropped off my gear and made a round trip to the copy spot right away. Most of my supplies had been wrecked and I needed spares — plus I'd scored some pretty good loot this time.
And what was this haul, you ask?
Gold, no less.
..Fruit, that is.
The important thing here was obviously the fruit. Out there in the real world, people would've cared more about the gold, but in here, this food source was quite literally the difference between surviving and not.
I'd had some worries on the copy run. What if Backrooms loot couldn't be duplicated, being Backrooms anomalies and all?
Needless worry. It had doubled perfectly.
But wait, that's not all!
The mushroom water — and, for convenience's sake, the coffee — had both been duplicated perfectly, bottles and all.
“This aroma. This bitterness. Can you truly grasp the aesthetics of this?”
I'm the guy who once pulled three all-nighters at work on coffee alone, after all. Not that I ever *wanted* to pull all-nighters.
On the other hand, judging by how the scattered blood and mud hadn't multiplied, it seemed only things properly recognized as *objects* got copied. The rice grains strewn wretchedly across the floor hadn't multiplied either — I figured they'd already lost their status as objects.
On that point, I simply cannot hide my sorrow.
Anyway, about the fruit.
This fruit, believe it or not, grants immunity to hunger. The moment I drank it, I could feel a fullness wrapping around my body — the kind that would let me go a whole week without eating.
Though the skin was so tough I had to whack it a few times with the pickaxe.
As for the taste?
Astonishingly, the juice had no taste at all. Not *disgusting*, mind you — flavorless. Zero taste. Water at least has a certain refreshing crispness, but this gave me nothing beyond the sensation of it going down my throat.
And one more thing. I discovered it had an effect.
“Disinfection!! It's time!!”
It purifies contaminants. I was splitting some juice onto a bottle cap for Yagwang-i when it overflowed — and the instant it touched the blood, the red drained away along the flow of the juice, and the floor's color came back.
The moment I saw that, I went on a mad copying spree, multiplied the fruit to the max, and coated the entire floor with it.
“Unlike the acid blood, it gets absorbed downward crazy fast, too.”
Posted by: CaveEscapeRope
(Photo of the Central Cavern, clean except for a pile of flying mud)
The place I saw every time I closed my eyes. The place I'd always believed would never change.
The mud house where the friendly mud man welcomed me is gone — but this brown earth, here to cradle me as I lie down, is right here.
I shed a brief tear over the pain of the outside world. But now this golden-hued hope — this land embraces me once more.
Yagwang-i, behold. This is the fruit of our labor.
And yet, there's still another longing in my heart.
And so I overcame my most pressing crisis: having no food. Of course, the fact that I was still trapped in the Backrooms wasn't about to change.
“I'm really curious about the third tunnel.”
Yagwang-i, the mud man, the red thing (the long red one) — didn't all of them come out of the third tunnel, or head that way? Surely something important lies in that direction.
The problem is that the collapsed rock piles are stacked like mountains, making passage difficult. I can't fly over, and if I try climbing the rock pile and it collapses under my weight, my survival is far from guaranteed.
So, making do, the only option is the fifth tunnel — the super-chilly one. This latest experience taught me the backward tunnels aren't just for decoration either, but if I can't climb or fly, coming back is no different from a dead end anyway. Who knows about the other two.
Ge-ek-
Somehow, Yagwang-i also seems a little reluctant about the backward tunnels.
“Shall we head out right now, then?”
I'd planned to sleep on it, but the Golden-Water and Dark-Water collab is nothing short of excellent.
“The me of right now? Confident.”
The me of right now. No matter how many enemies come swarming,
I'll win-
Well, only if they're mud men.
Before rising and gearing up, I looked over the duplicated supplies. Seeing my stocks replenished filled me with pride all over again.
Pickaxe? Grab it. Grab two.
Flashlight? Grab it. Grab three.
Water? Don't need it. Coffee's enough. Three bottles of coffee.
Fruit? Don't need it. I'm full enough. Besides, it's an awkward size — I'd have to empty my bag just to cram it in, so if I'm taking it, I'd have to carry it in hand.
Oxygen tank? Hmm.. take it for now. Just one. I might have to pull off a last-resort explosion, after all.
“Alright. Let's go?”
Ge-ek-
Posted by: CaveEscapeRope
(Photo of a tunnel rimmed with frost)
Uuuuh, it's meee~
Off to explore the tunnel with winterrr in it~
I'm sure there'll be loooots of goood things there~!
With my manyyy treasures, where will I escape to next~?
Big sis and big bros, cheer me on too~?
“That damn dragon..”
Recovering from the unintended mental damage, I made my way to the fifth tunnel — the one radiating cold. Forward. All we have is forward.
From the moment I set my foot inside, a chill slowly crept up my body.
“It's pretty cold.”
But my worry wasn't for myself — it was for Yagwang-i. Cold places are pure poison to a cold-blooded creature, aren't they?
Ge-ek-
My worries proved groundless; Yagwang-i flicked its tongue about, utterly unbothered.
“The pinnacle of cold-immunity..”
Is it even a proper living thing? For all I know, Yagwang-i was a dragon too? No way, though.
“Anyway, seems fine, so all good!”
Good is good, after all. It's a bit chilly, but for someone with snow-mountain climbing experience like me, it's no big deal.
Muttering that it was about like a cold shower, I walked deeper in. As I pressed on, countless icicles — easy to mistake for stalactites — greeted me from every direction, above and below the tunnel.
“They're not about to start falling, are they?”
Icicles are only sharp in overall shape; the tips are really just water droplets that froze mid-drip, so they're not that pointed. But why worry about them falling?
“Still, at that size..”
If one of those person-sized icicles dropped and hit me square on the head, I'd have to admit I'd black out instantly.
“But it's not *that* cold in here.”
It didn't feel cold enough for icicles to form. Body-feel estimate: 7 to 10 degrees Celsius?
“The icicles' color is a bit dark, too.”
Could these not be icicles made from ordinary frozen water? Well, what's *ordinary* in a place like this, anyway.
Pushing a little further, something greeted me — familiar, almost welcoming, yet deeply strange to be meeting here.
“..A chair and a desk?”
A chair and a desk. On them, a single notebook. Just that — sitting dead center in the middle of the tunnel.
“Why?”
In this ice-filled, dead-straight tunnel. Someone's been studying here? Writing a thesis on winter and the cold, maybe?
I approached carefully and examined them. However you looked at it, it was an ordinary desk and chair you'd see at any school. The notebook was just a blank green cover, nothing written on the outside at all.
Flippity-flip!
“Whoa?”
I hadn't even touched it, and the notebook opened itself and turned a page.
Ge-gek-!
“Whoa!”
As if in response, Yagwang-i darted behind my back, hiding between my bag and my body.
An ill omen.. no, something dangerous, without a doubt.
Eyes locked forward, I slowly backed away.
Slam!
The turning page stopped dead.
Thump!
The notebook stood itself upright on the desk, as if someone had propped it open in a V-shape. And naturally, its contents became visible.
A smiling face.
Scriiitch-
A line drawn across it.
Scriiitch-
Another line drawn across it.
Scritch.
Another line.
Screech
Another line.
Screech
A line—
Thud
One—
Thud
One—
Thuuud
One—
SHRAAAAK!
Just as the page was turning completely black beneath the countless lines, it tore — as if drawn with far too much force.
“Huh..?”
Why had I been watching that all the way to the end? And when I came to my senses, my body was standing right in front of the desk.
Flippity-flip!
Flashing the blank page behind the torn one, the notebook launched itself at me.