Door (2)
Bzzzzt—
Grey beams of light swept back and forth across the space. But if you watched them carefully for a while, you realized they weren't moving randomly at all — they were tracing the same back-and-forth paths, over and over.
Sure, I could have just sprinted straight through and eaten the burns, but there was no guarantee the beams wouldn't surge stronger the moment I committed, so I scrapped that idea.
"I think I can make it that far, though..."
With a mix of crawling and well-timed dashes, I could probably reach almost to the end. The problem was the final stretch, where two beams crossed paths with no gap between them at all.
"Ha... I miss Yagwang-i..."
Yagwang-i would have blocked those things without breaking a sweat.
"...Or would he?"
Then again, there was always the chance he'd end up cooked. For some reason, my brain had just defaulted to Yagwang-i can take it without questioning whether that was actually true.
Anyway, if only I had something — anything — that could shield me from those beams for even a second. Walking in this unprepared had been a mistake.
"Might just have to bolt through the last part..."
I'd probably have to accept a few burns.
First, let's get as far as I can manage.
When one of the sweeping beams drew near, I hugged it as closely as I dared and followed right behind it. Then, at the far end of its arc—
"Hup!"
I dropped flat, let it pass, and crawled to the spot I'd scouted earlier. A quick rise, a little hop to let another beam slide under my feet—
"Hnngh!"
—and then a full sprint into the brief pocket of emptiness that opened up ahead.
From here, if I just kept going straight, the ladder was right there.
Oh.
Wait. There is something. Something that can block it.
The thought struck me in a flash, and I yanked my phone out of my pocket.
My phone — which, for some reason ever since I'd entered the Backrooms, never lost its charge, never broke, and never got duplicated.
Holding the phone up so that one of the moving grey trajectories would strike it, I charged at full speed toward the spot where the ladder was visible.
The incoming grey beam hit the phone in my grip and stopped dead, unable to cross over to the other side.
And naturally, my body behind the phone went untouched by the light.
Then my outstretched other hand—
Clang!
My fingers closed around the ladder.
"Yes! Getting out of here!"
I scrambled up the ladder, slipped through the open door, and made it back into the corridor.
"Whew..."
Clang!
I slammed the iron door shut behind me.
0C3.
Going by this pattern, a leading 0 probably meant a room with nothing to gain — or a trap room. C stood for color. And the 3...
No idea yet.
This place was a bit longer than the other two, so maybe the number indicated room size? But no — 4T0 and 0G1 had been the same size.
"Difficulty...?"
That actually seemed plausible.
Except then 0M9 across the hall would mean worst-possible difficulty. A room that gives you nothing and is maximally dangerous?
"Hmm..."
Fine. Let's go with that assumption for now.
Which meant I should prioritize rooms that didn't start with 0. Lower numbers after the letter being better, presumably.
Or — well, "prioritize" was a stretch, since the number of rooms seemed endless...
Whatever. I'd just start with the ones that looked promising.
Coming out of 4T0, instead of turning right toward 0G1, I headed left, to a small square door labeled 3I2.
Oddly enough, a fox tail stuck out of it, and the door itself was half the size of the others, set noticeably low to the ground.
I poked and prodded the fluffy tail every which way, but it seemed to be pure decoration — not the slightest reaction.
Hm. I, huh. I... Ice? What could it be.
3 in front, 2 in back...
If my guesses about the numbers so far were right, this would be a place with a decent payoff and not too much danger.
At the very least, unlike 4T0, it didn't start with a 0 — worth a visit, surely.
"My hand is still stinging, too..."
If it really was ice, maybe the cold would take the edge off the burn. With that thought, I opened the door right away.
There hadn't been any ice in 4T0's fridge, after all. And of the food that restocked itself, nothing had looked particularly cold — though for all I knew, the selection changed from time to time.
"...Brush? Bushes?"
Grass filled the entire doorway as it swung open.
My first thought was: is this where Ukiki lives? But the room looked to be only about five times the size of 4T0 — nowhere near a vast forest — so probably not.
"Might as well take some pictures first."
I snapped photos of the entrance and the interior in camera mode, then ducked inside.
The entrance was small and low; I practically had to crawl through.
The moment I was fully in, the scent of forest grass flooded my nose. And threading through it came the sound of flowing water.
The hand I'd been bracing on the ground stung, so I tried to stand up.
Huh? Why won't it—
My legs refused to fold down the way they should. My arms bent at all the wrong angles.
I looked down at my hands.
Russet fur. Soft, padded paw pads.
"...Arf!?"
What came out of my throat wasn't a human voice — it was the yelp of a beast.
First things first, I headed toward the sound of the water.
Running on four legs instead of two, my paws finding the earth as naturally as breathing.
Splash—
I dipped a forepaw into a small pond and peered at my reflection.
"Yip..."
Not a human. A fox.
I'd turned into a beast — one with a certain wild charm, I had to admit.
So I... was it Illusion? Or maybe Into — as in, turning into something?
I went back the way I'd come.
Pushing through the brush and ducking under the little door, I became a human crouching on all fours.
"What the..."
Wait — if I stayed too long, was I going to assimilate into a fox or something...?
But I still hadn't figured out what the 3 meant. It'd be a shame to give up on a room that, by my estimate, should be about as easy as the 2-rated ones.
"The inside is full of tall brush, and as a fox my sightline is so low that getting a proper view is a real struggle."
Still, apart from the brush and the pond, nothing else caught my eye.
So maybe a 1 was a room where only gravity changed, and a 2 was one where your whole body changed and you had to adapt? In that case, there probably weren't any other threats here, right?
Assuming my interpretation was correct, of course.
"Huh?"
The hand that had been stinging... was fine.
Not just fine — the burn had healed completely.
Even as a fox, my forepaw had been throbbing the whole time. Unless... had dipping it in the pond done this?
"The pond has healing properties!"
That could be genuinely great news.
I'd gotten burned in a 3-room. What if the rooms beyond that dealt even worse damage — the kind you might not survive?
Granted, there'd be a catch: I'd have to escape whatever room hurt me, get in here as a fox, and drag my wounded body all the way to the pond. But still.
Or maybe something sacred lay submerged at the bottom? Like holy water overflowing from a holy grail had formed the pond, or something along those lines.
It was definitely worth another look.
"Turning into a fox is a bit much, but..."
My hand had stopped hurting, after all. In I went again.
Crawling back through the small, low door, I emerged into that low fox-eyed view, the brush swaying thick and green as if to welcome me.
Trickle—
Following the sound of flowing water led me back to the little pond.
Hm. The pond's water seemed to seep in through a gap in the wall from outside the room, so there was no telling where it actually came from.
Splash!
Deep enough for a decent dive, apparently.
Plunk!
The moment I slipped my whole body under, the pond's interior came into view. A little deeper than I'd expected, but I could see the bottom.
Nothing special down there, though. No hidden treasure, no grail, nothing.
Sploosh!
Shake shake!
The instant I clambered out, I found myself spinning in place, shaking the water off fur and all. Swimming in a fox's body didn't come naturally, and I'd swallowed a mouthful or two — but if I thought of the pond as a potion of sorts, there was nothing bad about it.
After that, I roamed the grassy thickets, searching the room for anything else of note. Whenever thirst pricked at me, I lapped up little sips of pond water to wet my throat.
Hm. Nothing in the brush, apparently.
Should I dig?
Some inexplicable urge to dig rose up in me, so starting from the corner of the room, I pawed at the earth here and there.
Just dirt.
So this really was a place with nothing remarkable except the pond.
An artificial little forest shaped into a room, warm sunlight drifting down from somewhere above. For some reason my body felt drowsy and heavy, and after a yawn, I curled up on a flat rock and drifted off for a while.
Yaaawn.
Still the forest.
So I hadn't been kicked out of here in my sleep.
I woke and looked around, and it was still the little forest room — not the Forest Backrooms or anywhere else.
Ah. Or maybe — if the T in 4T0 stood for teleport — I was supposed to have slept there instead.
But if that teleport was random and dumped me into some other room entirely, what then? I wasn't eager to test it yet.
One bad roll and I could end up in a corridor who-knows-how-far from this place. Why on earth would I give up a room with food, a bed, and blankets when I didn't even know how long these hallways ran?
Not to mention I'd found a healing pond.
Anyway — how long did I sleep?
I tried to pull out my phone, but my forepaw just scratched idly at my haunch.
Out first. Then we'll see.
Now completely at ease on four legs, I bounded through the brush, ducked under the little square door, and slipped outside.
I stretched my crouched body upright and pulled out my phone to check the time.
"Huh?"
The hand gripping my phone was covered in russet fur, soft paw pads and all.