Ice-Men
“Aaagh, help! Help! Somebody help me!”
Kang! Kakang!
Even when my pickaxe collided with those things, they barely budged — only the pickaxe went flying off into the distance.
Which meant their weight, among other things, was on a completely different level from mine.
Kakang!
Unable to properly block their charge, I had no choice but to retreat backward, stumbling along with each repelled swing of the pickaxe.
Chwararak!
The book flipped a page, as if biding its time.
Wait — it was waiting for me? I got beaten up right away, though..!
No, come to think of it, it did buy time at the start by tearing out a page.
Chwak! Chwak!
This time it didn't scribble on the pages — it just smacked its lips, closing and opening itself over and over.
I could tell at a glance. It was telling me to stall for time on my own.
“Then I guess I just have to hold out as long as I can..!”
Kakang! Twang!
I parried the swinging arms with my pickaxe and blocked the attacks lunging at me with Yagwang-i.
“Ugh..!”
It felt like being struck by a single solid hunk of iron, and I kept swallowing groans under the crushing weight.
Block, deflect,
and narrowly dodge, keeping in mind that they were just a touch slower than me.
Pallarak!
Only then, finally, did the book seem ready — it flung itself forward.
Hwoong!
The creatures noticed it too, stretching out their limbs,
but swish!
the moment they touched the book, they simply erased, as if spirited away somewhere.
Shushushushuk!
The book pressed straight on.
And after it passed over every spot where the creatures had stood,
nothing remained there at all.
“Yes! Did I take care of them?”
That was pretty rough, honestly. No — I couldn't have done it alone. My attacks didn't even work on them.
Wait, weren't those lucky Dirt-Men?
So the Ice-Men are, what, elite versions of the Dirt-Men..!
Pallarak! Chwararak!
The book came back around, moving with a triumphant swagger.
“If it were an Oxygen Tank Explosion, maybe, but hey, it got me through easily enough.”
On the book's open pages, I could see dark, shadowy human figures.
They scrambled around among themselves, then, as if they'd lost their target, stopped and collapsed.
I turned on the gallery's camera mode and took a photo to keep it.
“Phew. I was worried what would happen if they escaped like me. Thank goodness they're dim-witted brutes without the brains for that.”
The pages closed obediently, and I tucked the book back into my bag, then scanned my surroundings.
The wall, now visible with the creatures cleared away.
In its center sat a single large, human-sized mirror, standing all alone.
Other than that, this passage was blocked at the far end — no way forward seemed to remain.
“I came all the way to this freezing place just to look at one mirror..?”
Well, technically I did pick up the book along the way.
Still, a blocked passage — wouldn't it work like the first passage, as some kind of command trigger?
Something worth hoping for once I went back?
And yet the mirror felt strangely familiar, somehow.
Even more so since I'm not the type to take a lot of selfies on my phone.
With that thought, I approached the mirror and pressed my hand against it —
Ssuuk!
“Whoa!?”
My hand slid into the mirror without any resistance at all.
There was no suction or pulling force the moment I touched it, but I couldn't shake the feeling that another unknown was waiting inside the mirror.
“I mean, it'd be weirder if there were nothing in a place this cold. The Ice-Men being the source of the chill doesn't hold up either — it's still freezing even now that they're gone.”
Inside the mirror, huh. I am a little curious.
I stretched both arms out in front of me and stepped carefully, half a step at a time, entering the mirror.
Ahead of me, perched on my left arm, Yagwang-i slipped into the mirror first and looked back at me as if I were pathetic.
Hey, I'm not being a coward — something dangerous could come out of there.
I'm simply taking every precaution I can.
Hwiiing—!
The moment my head, tilted all the way back, passed through the mirror without trouble, a cold wind laced with snowflakes whipped up and slapped me across the face.
“So.. cold!”
Barely keeping my eyes open, I saw a landscape of pristine white snow piled high before me.
“Is this a Winter Kingdom?”
At its center stood what looked like an enormous castle made entirely of ice.
And before the great doors at its heart, two dark Ice-Men stood guard on either side, clad in ice helmets and ice armor, ice spears in hand.
“That won't be easy.”
Wouldn't it just be better to turn back right now?
With that thought I looked behind me — nothing but a wide-open plain of pure white snow.
“Huh?”
No matter how I wandered and searched behind me, I couldn't find the mirror — not even one sitting on the snow. Nothing.
“Backrooms, is this really okay?”
You're just erasing my way back?
Wait, what? So this isn't the Cave Backrooms anymore — it's a Snowfield Backrooms, and now I have to fight those rock-hard Ice-Men in full gear or starve and freeze to death?
As everything ahead seemed to darken rapidly, I squeezed my eyes shut, then slowly opened them again.
I don't even know if this place is a Backroom. I might have escaped, you know?
In weather like this, it could be some other world — like the territory of a harsh, frozen northern march.
The moment I summoned the gallery in my mind with that thought —
[Backrooms Gallery]
The gallery window appeared instantly, as if to tell me to stop with the wishful thinking.
“Ha..”
Well, since the gallery was open anyway, I snapped a photo and made a post.
There was a time when I thought so too.
How could I have been so foolish.
To end up facing this gallery after all.
Can you understand it?
That even as a completely different landscape unfolded before me, that place was still the Backrooms.
Can you help but laugh?
That one who harbored such delusions now holds nothing but regret.
Author: CaveEscapeRope
(Photo of a large mirror)
Backrooms gallery users, don't touch mirrors carelessly..
A newbie who never paid much attention to his own appearance..
Happy to see a mirror after so long, he approached it..
(Photo of dark ice-men)
The Ice-Men tried to stop him, but he said it was fine and touched it anyway.
And then, without a word, he vanished into the mirror..
He entered the mirror of his own will in an instant, and ended up here..
Once here, no matter how he screamed, there was no way back..
Even now, the sight of the cave won't leave my mind..
Everyone, be careful..
“Must be nice..”
What would it even feel like to have raw power backing you up?
According to the gallery regulars, the Backroom you first enter is usually matched in difficulty to the world that serves as its foundation.
Wherever you move afterward could be anything, though.
That transcendent being's original home must have been somewhere else, not the cave.
I don't know how he ended up in the Cave Backrooms, but maybe some other constraint suited to him formed instead.
Just imagining offhand — maybe if another living creature stayed within a certain zone for too long, it counted as an anomaly?
Which might be why he helped me escape.
But then, what's the deal between him and Yagwang-i, who seemed to know him?
Don't tell me Yagwang-i is something grand too..
Ge-ek—
Never mind, then.
With him buried in the snow, crying and wiggling nothing but his tail up in the air, even my imagination cuts off right there.
“Sigh. Well, I guess I've got to go see.”
I picked up that wagging tail and set Yagwang-i onto my left arm.
The elite Ice-Men are scary enough, and their elite Soldier-Ice-Men would be worse — but hey, there's the book that swallowed the Ice-Men in one hit.
I love the book so much. When it grows up, it's definitely not becoming a librarian.
I pulled the book out of my bag.
“Get ready. We're fighting those guys.”
Pallarak!?
“Come on. They only look scary — they're nothing to you.”
But the book refused, trying to burrow back into the bag.
Only when the hand holding it went cold did I remember.
“Oh. Right, it's snowing here.”
If this guy gets soaked, he can't even crawl once he hits the ground — he just kisses the floor.
“So I have to beat them without the book?”
My attacks don't even work on them? That's insane.
While I stood there flustered, the ice grunts slowly approached.
There's nothing here but the white snowfield, so they must have spotted me long ago.
And yet they came this carefully, this late — which suggested they were smarter, more intelligent, than even ordinary Ice-Men.
I had no idea how far the snowfield stretched, and just as I was preparing to run, a voice rang out.
“You there. Who are you? Identify yourself.”
From the elite Ice-Men.
I never even considered they might be intelligent enough to talk??