Gallery Flooded with My Return from the Recallers
With my emergence from the Recallers, the Gallery was completely flooded with posts about me. What the hell had I been up to? Was I still stuck on the 99th floor? How was I still alive? What about the Wood Sentinel? Some folks were genuinely worried about me, while others just treated me like entertainment fodder. Either way, I appreciated the attention. I tossed out some light replies.
No sooner had I hit send than their outrage poured in.
No good excuses came to mind.
I threw together some half-assed lie. The Wood Sentinel had been awake until yesterday, but now it was sleeping.
The floaters bailed, calling it lame, while a few regulars said they were glad it worked out and offered sincere congrats. I felt kinda guilty, like I was doing something weird by hiding it. Did I really need to lie to these people? Just proving it outright might be fine—
What the... What was this now?
I jumped right in.
What a fucking asshole. If they'd told me sooner, I could've thought of options besides fighting. If I'd known the Wood Sentinel wasn't part of the clear, I'd have ignored it and tried passing by for sure.
The altar under the tree felt off from the start.
The tree not reacting to the adult form was weird too. Who'd have thought the Wood Sentinel was just some special monster that noclipped from a higher floor...
Unbelievable. My life's on the line, and they're judging if it's entertaining enough.
Yeah... Thinking about these assholes convinced me lying was the way to go. No need to be honest.
"Fucking pricks."
Before heading to the 98th floor, I checked the Layer Record Book's clear info. The 98th floor theme was a monster den. Kill monsters in the forest terrain, fill a jar in the center with their blood to summon a Gate Bound, and it'd open the way forward. But something felt off.
[Layer Record Book] 98th Floor Clear Guide.
Hello. This is the Layer Record Book. Sharing 98th floor clear info this time.
98th floor: Environment Level 0. No mental corruption.
Overall background: Forest terrain.
Every time you kill an entity, blood fills the jar in the forest center.
When the jar fills with blood, the Gate Bound appears and opens the exit to the next floor.
The problem is...
I reread that part carefully.
The entities will look like people you know.
The 98th floor entity Recallers replicates forms via memories.
If the 101st floor recreated environments from your head, the 98th floor's Recallers recreate people from your head.
Don't get confused. Don't hesitate to attack.
Recallers die to physical damage.
In short, the 98th floor entities would take the forms of people from my memories.
"...Feels sketchy."
The difficulty spiked in a whole different way. If an entity showed up as my parents or family, I'd hesitate for sure.
Hope it's just a vague resemblance.
Reading on, there was a caution note too. When the central jar fills, night falls. Once it's night, stop hunting entities if possible.
...Why?
"This part's shadowed out."
Searching for the reason, the info was shadowed. Probably not crucial to the clear, so whatever. I shrugged and geared up again—when someone pinged me.
It was AlchemyRiceSoupEater.
She was asking about the Rift Cut deal. Whether I'd trade the barbarian corpse for her Rift Cut info to skip floors.
I thought it over carefully before replying.
Knew she'd ask.
Truth was, I didn't trust AlchemyRiceSoupEater, but I'd taken her gold, so hard to say it straight. About 7k gold, right? Scavenger said her daily wage was 50 gold, so that's 140 days' pay for her. Not chump change.
New info to me.
If layer interference, merge, or cluster split hits during climb, yeah, I'd need her Rift Cut like she said. Unlike phase collapse, those change the clear method itself. Clearing without Layer Record Book guides ain't easy for me now.
"...Hm."
What to do.
Good thing she respected my choice. Though I'm the one who got the favor... I just trusted her even less.
A normal person would've shown some emotion...
No dissatisfaction, anger—nothing. Dragon emotions different from humans? Or... is she really a dragon?
"Hm."
Somehow even sketchier.
"...Throat's dry."
I pulled a water bottle from my subspace pouch and chugged it. Then searched the Gallery again, this time for how to use the 'rock' I'd just picked up.
Volt Haul Fragment, right.
Said to add 80 lightning attribute to a weapon. Soon I got the hang of it—super intuitive. Just rub the weapon on it like a whetstone.
Simple.
I sat, fixed the rock to the ground, and ground my rapier against it. Half-expecting a scam from Gallery fishing, but a huge spark flew.
Crackle!
The rock got absorbed into the rapier.
"Oh."
That's how it works. Done?
I gripped the rapier and swung at the air. No change.
"Why no change?"
Figured it out quick—unraveled mana threads from my inner world. Groaning, I wrapped mana around the blade, and sparks finally danced along it with crackles.
Got it.
Volt Haul Fragment. Boosts lightning by 80. No clue how strong, but better than nothing.
"Hm. Looks solid the more I see it."
Especially cool how lightning crackles on every swing. Mana drain's high though.
Output scales with mana input, seems like.
Dismissed it as 1-star junk, but surprisingly useful. Satisfied, I sheathed the rapier. Gearing up for 98th floor again—when a weird noise echoed nearby.
"Kikikikikikiki—!"
A scream like a person—or once-person—monster.
The instant I saw it, my synchronization rate hit me.
"Shit, no way..."
I frantically opened my status window to check the sync rate.
■ Basic Information
· Entity Name (Code): Kim Jinwoo / [High Nick: Kim Hogu]
· Origin Dimension: Earth A-052 / Korean-based dimensional language registered
· Synchronization Rate: 85.73% (Rising, High Risk)
· Dimensional Phase: [Backrooms: 99th Floor / Lower Unsafe Zone]
"...Over 80%."
85.73%. And high risk.
I snatched up the adult form and bolted to the altar. Then noticed something odd.
Before passing out, it rose 0.01% every 100 seconds or so...
Way more than 100 seconds passed, but no change.
Curious, I watched longer—200 seconds, still nothing.
"What... it's slowing down."
Gallery search revealed why.
Thanks to the white orb.
The sense-boosting white orb. Always short stock at auctions. Didn't get the demand back then, but Gallery info cleared it up.
Didn't know it affected sync rate too.
White orbs boost senses and deep sea resistance. In Backrooms' uncertainty, senses are key—spot traps early, detect hidden threats. Plus slowing sync rise? No wonder the demand.
I downed five at once. Not normal ones—twice the size of mid-grade.
That slowed my sync meaningfully.
"Whehehe! Hehe! Hehehehehe!"
The monster was still cackling like it was crying.
...Poor bastard.
I tossed the ■■■ ■■ adult form onto the altar and waited. Ashen portal opened soon after—I stepped toward the 98th floor.
"......"
Arriving on 98. No phase collapse bullshit again, right?
I cautiously stepped onto the underbrush. Silence shattered as a roar shook the forest.
"—Odin!"
An ear-splitting bellow. A warrior's lung-bursting cry—
"......"
I froze instinctively.
A blood-soaked memory voice I could never forget echoed.
"This soul, this rage, this thirst—! Let it be offered to your battlefield—!"
"What the... fuck."