Did I Win?
The pickaxe swung in a beautiful half-arc.
Whoosh—!
The moment its nimble tip, darting in like a bird's beak snatching prey, connected with the Mud Man's head—
Crack!
"Oh. It works."
The Mud Man's head shattered, scattering debris around it, and the remaining torso crumbled and slumped away like a sandcastle.
And yet it had tried so hard to scare me.
"The Backrooms? Nothing special after all."
No matter what, it couldn't handle a seasoned expert of the unknown like me.
Maybe I should write a post about it on the gallery.
"You guys can't even figure out their gimmicks, and you struggle this much?"
Hmm, no.
How about something like: "Struggling with something like this? Pathetic~♡ That's why you can't escape, poor things~♡"
Glug glug, gurgle—!
Cancel that~♡
The instant I saw the mud pile start churning like a swamp, frothing and surging, I snapped a photo and posted to the gallery.
The post I'd written hoping for help wasn't much help at all.
"What do I do? Should I just pick one of the four remaining passages and run?"
The path behind was almost certainly a wrong answer, and the first passage was an impassably narrow tunnel filling with water.
But there was a good chance the other passages had equally impassable gimmicks, weren't there? Wouldn't it be better to find a way to suppress these things here instead?
Glug glug!
The Mud Men already had their upper halves fully out.
Just pick anywhere and go? I can't gamble with my life.
How, how... isn't there even minimal evidence? Or should I grab an oxygen tank and try the first room?
...Hmm.
Wait, looking at them closely, they're not moving at all — they're frozen as they rise.
Aren't they the same things as that first Mud Man?
I looked down at the pickaxe in my hand.
A way to suppress them...?
Whuum!
Crack!
Wondering if some invincibility effect had been attached to it, I gave the pickaxe a swing, and one Mud Man's head crumpled and broke apart.
"So THAT'S where the method was!"
Having attained enlightenment, I charged into the mud pile and swung the pickaxe in my hand wildly at every Mud Man head I could see.
Whoosh!
Whuum!
Whuuuum!
If they really couldn't move until fully emerged, then they stood frozen and took every swing of my pickaxe.
But the moment I thought I'd smashed them all, more came bubbling up from the mud pile.
"So that wasn't it either? Now what?"
Wham!
"Still no helpful advice, huh."
For a long while, I hammered down the newly rising heads like a game of whack-a-mole as I thought it over.
"So I really do have to gamble? Whew!"
Wham! Wham!
"Then where do I go?"
Wham!
"Hoo... the mossy side?"
Wham!
"Hmm... no, how about I really tough out the water in the first room and hope a new path opens up?"
Clang!
"Tch..! Huh?"
I'd been unconsciously hitting the highest protruding point, but along with a jolt through my wrist came the sound of striking stone.
When I came to my senses, the mud pile had been dug apart all over the cave, leaving it completely empty.
"Out of materials, huh? I-I'm alive.."
Clang, thud!
The thought that it was finally over brought such relief that my arms and legs gave out and I slumped to the ground.
"Hah, hah.."
But even as I caught my breath with trembling arms, I didn't forget to open the gallery.
When I checked my phone, an hour had passed since I'd come back from the first passage. An hour. That wasn't so hard.
"Hahahaha!"
Really, hadn't I just conquered another unknown? Satisfaction spilled out of me as laughter.
When I'd blazed trails through previous uncharted territories, hadn't I also been risking my life the whole way? Looking at it that way, this Backrooms thing wasn't so different after all.
The Backrooms. An unexplored, infinite space? Right now, all I felt was curiosity burning brighter and brighter.
Checking the gallery, it was, of course, full of talk about me.
"Nggh-chah.."
After resting a while with some gallery browsing, I stood up.
The current in the first room was strong, but if I carried three of these heavy oxygen tanks — one on my back, one on each hip — it felt like the weight might be enough to hold me steady against it, so I figured I'd give it a try.
In case I ended up somewhere else and got lost, I stuffed copied water and food and flashlights until they bulged from my bag and pockets, hung the pickaxe from my bag and slung it on my back, shouldered an oxygen tank, hefted the heavy tanks onto my left and right flanks, and held a flashlight in just one hand.
"Nggh-chah."
But the weight stopped me before I could take a single step.
"Whoa."
Clang, clatter!
Rattle-rattle-rattle..
The flashlight had slipped from my grip and was rolling toward the mud pit. I dropped both oxygen tanks with a thud and hurried after it — and suddenly the flashlight's light vanished.
"Where'd it go?"
Click!
I pulled another copied flashlight from my bag, switched it on, and shone it over there.
"What is this?"
In the center of the pit, now with its floor exposed, was a hole resembling an artificially made drainage passage. The shape was extremely familiar. It was definitely a form I'd seen on Earth.
"Oh, no way."
I opened the gallery right away and posted the photo.
Could this be an escape route?
Watching the gallery catch fire, I was half convinced.
"Looks like this is it."
Easy, Backrooms.
I decided to write one final post.
And with that, I minimized the gallery screen.
"Things like this only get more bittersweet the longer you look back."
It was short, but thank you, gallery folks.
Then I set down most of the copied water and food bundles I'd crammed here and there.
"Copying... if I'd known something like this actually existed, I'd have brought back gold bars.."
No, let's not dwell on it. What would I even do falling back into a place like this? The rule with these things is to never face them again — or, hmm... if there's no risk to my life and I could definitely return, maybe a visit or two wouldn't be so bad.
With my musings finished, I stood before the hole wearing just one oxygen tank on my back. I'd need the others for going elsewhere.
Then I gave my body over to the descending hole, savoring the feeling of riding a water-park slide.
"Alright, let's go~"
My body slid down the gentle slope, gradually picking up speed.
Whooshhhh!
"Yahoo~!"
A refreshment completely different from when I'd fallen into this Backrooms. Back then I'd been filled with terror and panic; now I was filled with liberation and the joy of going home.
Whooshhh!
"Whooooaaa-!"
My body, one with the roller coaster at last, ended with a plop—!
A spine-chilling sensation of floating in midair, followed by the feeling of falling—
Thud!
"Hack, ptui, right. Am I back? Where am I? Some Canadian city? No wait, I took a drain, so underground sewers?"
Traveling through pipes, huh. I feel like a plumber going "Yahoo—" as I leap around.
Spitting out the dirt in my mouth, I pulled a flashlight from my bag, brushed the dirt off it, and clicked it on.
But.
"......Huh?"
The terrain the flashlight revealed was awfully familiar.
Five passages bored into the wall ahead.
Three passages bored into the wall behind.
And this mud under my feet.
Had I come back again? No, that wasn't it either.
The mud that had been smashed and scattered for so long now sat quietly gathered in the mud pit, filled just as it had been when I first arrived, and the oxygen tanks, food, and water I'd left behind were nowhere to be seen.
So that's how it is.
"This is."
The Backrooms.
I am trapped in the Backrooms.