The Sub-Tower Lord's Office in the 50th Floor Central City
The Central City on Backrooms 50th Floor was operated and managed by the Magic Tower. Despite its name, the Magic Tower wasn't an organization exclusively for mages. It had earned that title simply because it deified an ancient mage. They held decision-making authority over everything in the city—from laws and public safety to resource allocation, various taxes, and more.
And at the heart of the Magic Tower, the core power organ known as the Tower Operations Bureau was managed by the Magic Tower's sub-tower lord, a woman named Elisicia Drevel.
"The gallery is way filthier than our private network. But that's what makes it honest."
She was gazing at the gallery from her office high up in the Magic Tower.
"Anonymity makes people brutally truthful. Refreshingly so."
Power groups in the Central City, including the Magic Tower, generally avoided the gallery. The same went for the elite talents within those organizations. To them, the gallery was nothing but a vulgar, chaotic noise pit where lower-floor denizens and nameless wanderers babbled. A cesspool of cheap rumors, exaggerated hero tales, and lowbrow profanity. They saw it as a time sink, a dumpster fire.
Instead, they operated their own private community systems—colloquially called intranets. Magical closed networks perfect for information control, class-based efficient communication, secrecy, and everything else. Within those, they exchanged orders, reports, strategies, and even pricey intel unknown to the masses.
Thus, most high-caliber beings had no reason to glance at the outdated gallery left by some ancient mage.
But Elisicia Drevel was the exception.
The raw stuff is just more fun.
She was one of those high-caliber beings, yet she still used the gallery. To her, it wasn't just a scribble board. It was the din of the battlefield, a compass for gauging public sentiment.
Reports on the Magic Tower intranet are always so polished.
Reporters cherry-picked what their superiors wanted to hear, omitting anything unnecessary or inconvenient. Elisicia hated that. Untruths bred contradictions eventually. That was her philosophy.
But the gallery was different. It overflowed with frontline curses, the rage of the defeated, the arrogance of victors. Unfiltered sincerity, raw psyches unmasked by anonymity. Elisicia loved it.
Peeking into the gallery let her feel the real fights and breaths of people across the Backrooms. Moments when a mere 'incident' dot on the map came alive with someone's screams and cheers.
She was someone who loved that noise. Someone who knew how to turn it into intel when needed.
Raw truth is easier to use than polished lies.
So today, too, Elisicia Drevel set aside her reports in the office and opened the gallery. And within it, she read the living pulse of the Backrooms.
Especially what she'd been focusing on lately—
'Kim Hogu.'
Elisicia found everything about Kim Hogu fascinating. It hadn't started that way.
Her initial spark of interest came when Kim Hogu hit a combat power of 300 on the 103rd floor. Even then, it wasn't much. Just a tiny curiosity, like a child spotting an ant on the roadside.
F0 newbies starting outside the 100th floor had a 99.99% mortality rate. Makes sense. Survival rating F0—the absolute bottom of the F-rank barrel, double-zero life force. Beings like that weren't allowed to climb the Backrooms. They lacked the qualification from the start.
'F0s barely have growth potential.'
But Kim Hogu reached 300 in under a month. On the 103rd floor, no less. And he escaped it, climbing to the next level. Through absurd hardships no one else faced.
'Even faster than countless wanderers who've started outside the 100th.'
Blasted through 102nd after one day of sleep. On 101st, true to his mana-less culture origins, he took time—but still awakened mana in a week and moved on. Then straight into the 100th floor gatekeeper, the barbarian Orkan.
Elisicia hadn't paid Kim Hogu much mind even when he snagged the golden apple on 103rd. She, who desperately wanted the tower lord gone ASAP, naturally ignored the apple too.
But when he killed gatekeeper Orkan on the 100th? Her interest skyrocketed.
"How the hell did he do it? Still can't wrap my head around it."
Sure, 1,200 combat power was less than a bug to her. Hers was 96 billion. Far from the ancient mage's 1 quadrillion benchmark, but she was firmly in the strong camp here. Even the gallery-hated Geomseong was just an oddball to her.
The key was Kim Hogu beating a 20,000-power barbarian at 1,200.
'A 16x gap.'
Elisicia pondered: Could she fight someone 16x stronger? Even think it?
'...Impossible.'
She'd trick, persuade, beg for her life. Maybe even bargain her eternal virginity.
Yet Kim Hogu pulled it off. By fighting and winning. A mere F0.
"...What a fun guy."
Elisicia smiled at the gallery. And the fun guy didn't disappoint again.
Quiet after some ordeal on 99th, then he broke the Gate Bound's seal on 98th.
'Is the seal jar size tied to wanderer potential after all?'
As that thought crossed her mind, Kim Hogu was now yelling at floaters to pay up if they wanted his content.
Elisicia laughed, amused. A newbie like this? First time.
'He'll deliver fun results again.'
With fierce curiosity, she sent Kim Hogu 5 million gold. Plus a promise of 10 million more if he won within a day.
The floaters freaked as soon as the gold dropped.
Rich get richer, poor get poorer. 5 million was a lifetime dream to some, pocket change to others. To Elisicia? Dust.
'Wonder what this dust turns into.'
Why could she toss money like that? Simple: Backrooms resources aren't equal per floor. Real money like gold pours like waterfalls only in the upper floors' tiny high-yield zones. One upper monster drops more than 10,000 lower ones; one vein equals thousands' lifetimes.
And all gold converts via the ancient mage's 'gallery' into standard coins—99.9% pure gold, weight-guaranteed real assets. The metal backs the value.
Rich get richer, poor get poorer. Not just society—it's the ancient mage's designed Backrooms economy. Widening gaps over eons.
Upper beings like Elisicia could crash the gallery auction house if they wanted. But no point. It's the pipeline hauling lower/mid goods upward. Keep the market spinning, and resources/gold flow to Central City smoothly.
"Wants another million? Hah...? Now upping by 500k per minute? Hahaha. Hilarious. Cute."
To them, the auction house wasn't a toy—it was the slaves' oxygen tank. And rulers don't kick those.
"Alright, send more gold. Post more missions too. Mission reward: another 10 million!"
As she decided that, Magic Tower enforcer Serban Balmor entered the office. He sat at the operations desk and chided Elisicia at the command seat.
"Sub-tower lord. Indulging in gallery trash again?"
Elisicia pouted.
"It's fun."
"Get used to the cesspool, and you become the muck."
"I'm careful."
"Good then... Anyway, the 43rd floor vanguard returns soon."
"I knowwww~."
Elisicia and Serban were academy classmates. Noclipped into Backrooms from Lafnia dimension with others, but only these two survived intact.
'Well, mentally intact, anyway.'
Most were stats now, dead. Serban suddenly asked,
"How's your little sister these days?"
"Same as ever. Mental scars don't just heal."
"The 1st-gen expedition was huge, so casualties were too. Time'll fix it eventually."
Elisicia smiled bitterly.
"Hoping so."
I venomously posted the comment and checked my earnings. Total: 7.01 million gold.
Floater#32 sent another 2 million after. With a new demand: 20 million more if I beat it within a day.
Out of the 7.01 million, 10k was scraps from other floaters.
"So many cheap bastards."
...Nah. This place grants immortality, so rich get richer, poor get poorer hits hard.
Most floaters are broke.
'Can't even spare a single coin.'
That 10k from dozens was probably their pocket change scraped together.
Upper-floor beings? They drop millions on a whim. Monsters.
'Just how strong are they?'
My head suddenly felt heavy.
50th floor Central City. Supposedly civilized, with rules... but is it normal?
"Hoo."
No choices for me. Honestly, I miss 'real people'.
I took a short deep breath and opened the auction house.
"Time to get stronger."
I bought 13,784 mid-grade orbs.