A luxurious apartment tower stretching high into the sky.
Three figures—no, anomalies—stood facing it.
Maestro.
Miho.
EightSpiderLegs, Arachne.
"No response. We gave them plenty of time."
"Tch. So they don’t intend to hand him over easily."
Arachne clicked her tongue at Maestro’s murmur.
Three anomalies brought together by Backrooms.
They did not get along badly.
They were fellow users of the Ghost Story Minor Gallery, and above all, they shared a common interest: Rookie.
"The nerve of them, trying to swallow our Rookie whole."
Crack, crackle!
A vicious sound rang out as she casually cracked her knuckles.
"...Hic."
Watching her, Miho quietly and obediently hiccuped.
Maestro liked Arachne, but to Miho, who lacked social skills, she was an object of fear.
"I-is fighting truly the only way...?"
"It seems so. Refusing to contact us even once is the same as asking for a fight."
[Chat] : To the anomaly that swallowed our landlord
A post Backrooms had made just moments ago.
Though Eterno Baekdam had seen the post, it gave no response whatsoever.
Come if you dare.
That was how they interpreted the silence.
"Are you going to use that?"
"We’ll have to. We can’t fight here with all these people watching."
"...!!"
Arachne tilted her head toward Miho, signaling her.
Whoosh!
The instant she received the signal, Miho shut her eyes and conjured blue flames.
"Pretty. The fire really sets the mood, too."
"Th-thank you."
"Which is why I don’t like it much."
"...!?"
Just as Miho teared up at the inexplicable bullying—
Fwoooosh!
The flames flowed from her hand and spread throughout the surrounding area.
A rippling blue glow enclosed them and the apartment in a circle.
"Is that enough?"
"Y-yes. Humans can no longer perceive anything inside this area."
Miho answered, wiping the sweat beading on her forehead.
The flames of cognitive inhibition.
A power that rendered whatever it enclosed impossible to perceive.
It was a difficult and troublesome ability to use, but it could not be helped.
"Good. Now take that out."
"Understood."
What they were about to do could not be shown to ordinary people.
Maestro took something from the pocket of his conductor’s uniform.
A light brown cube.
Something that faintly wriggled.
"You need to throw it precisely. You remember the activation phrase, right?"
"Yes, I haven’t forgotten."
"An activation phrase...?"
While Miho tilted her head, unable to understand—
Maestro gripped the cube and struck a pose.
Whoosh!!
He threw it with dramatic flair, then shouted the activation phrase.
"Domain Expansion, Backrooms, Let’s Go!"
It was a somewhat frivolous activation phrase, ill-suited to his strikingly handsome appearance.
[Info] : Wait, holy shit, emergency
Author: AshesMimic
(Gallery users: 9,108)
Holy shit, this is seriously fucked.
Gallery users, hide somewhere right now and do not come out under any circumstances.
Wait until the head mod puts up an announcement.
[14 comments total]
WelchEars: ? What is that? Why are you freaking out?
└WelchEars: It’s just the user count, isn’t it?
└[Author] AshesMimic: It was 9,112 until just now, fuck.
└WelchEars: !!!!!!
YoungIsBest: I’m asking because I genuinely don’t know.
└YoungIsBest: Why is that an emergency? Isn’t it just that around four gallery users unfortunately died?
└Archivera: Anomalies fundamentally do not die.
└YoungIsBest: ?
└Archivera: Whether they have immortality, or lose their memories and are reborn—
└Archivera: Even if we die, it isn’t truly death.
└Archivera: Because that is what a ghost story, what a tale, is.
└YoungIsBest: Then the user count dropping means...
Archivera: Either the Bureau, which can completely erase anomalies, has made a move—
└Archivera: Or some insane monster is on the loose...
**
I am an ordinary human.
Without the Status Window and the gallery,
I cannot use or sense any sort of power or special ability.
"Someone has expanded a domain."
But right now, I could tell.
That I had entered a location-type ghost story.
Why? Obviously...
"Because the night view has been replaced by a wall view."
I rose from the table and turned my head toward the outside.
Beyond the window was no longer the Seoul nightscape I had only just grown accustomed to.
In its place stood a pale brown wall, familiar and strangely dear.
"The summoning ticket doesn’t work either. It really is Backrooms."
I tapped the Backrooms Summoning Ticket with my index finger.
Wriggle, wriggle.
Then, the wall beyond the glass suddenly twitched.
「Hii」
"What is going on, Backrooms...?"
Backrooms’ writing was carved into the wall.
「Say hell o」
"...Yeah. Nice to see you too."
「Hee hee」
Its manner of speech was adorable and cute—utterly at odds with how I felt right now.
As my head began to throb, I reflexively reached for the snacks on the table.
Thudududuk!
"Ow! Wh-what was that?"
「Eat thi s!!」
「ヾ(｀ε´)ﾉ」
At that moment, a huge quantity of energy bars came pouring down from the ceiling.
Judging by the writing on the wall, Backrooms had thrown them in.
I said I didn’t want to eat energy bars anymore...
"...Wait."
「Yeah ?」
"How did you throw these inside?"
I stared at the wall with a stiff expression.
Whether Backrooms had wrapped up the apartment or done something else, the inside and outside were separated somehow.
For the energy bars to pass through, they would have needed to pierce the wall.
Yet no matter how much I looked up at the ceiling, I could find neither holes nor cracks.
「Um, it’s compli cated」
"Explain it to me. I don’t mind if it takes some time."
「If tha t’s the ca se...」
I sat before the window and listened to Backrooms’ explanation.
This apartment was actually a location-type ghost story, and Backrooms had demanded that it hand me over.
But the apartment had ignored it.
So Backrooms had asked its acquaintances to use the summoning ticket.
And then...
"...You absorbed this apartment?"
「That’s ri ght」
It had even turned the apartment into a part of Backrooms.
「Into my em brace!!」
"Who taught you to say things like that?"
「Who do you th ink?」
"...Me, huh."
I had changed the mood with a joke, but this was not something to brush aside lightly.
It had eaten a location-type ghost story.
I could put aside how it had done that, since I would not understand it anyway.
The real question was whether this apartment had truly been hostile toward me.
"Backrooms, did the apartment try to hurt me?"
「No」
"Did it ever have a harmful effect on us?"
「It didn’t」
"I see..."
Plop.
I sat back down and stared bitterly at the ceiling.
"Absorbing a ghost story... in a way, could that be considered killing it?"
「?」
I hesitate to kill living things.
Because it feels as though I would become the same kind of person as the parents who abandoned me.
But that was my own circumstance.
Could I force that view onto an anomaly like Backrooms?
It was only one ghost story devouring another, after all.
"You killed this one to protect me, didn’t you?"
「Uh, y eah?」
Backrooms’ typing became unsteady.
Perhaps it had been flustered by the unexpected conversation.
At the very least, it did seem to have killed it for my sake.
"I appreciate the sentiment, but... I hope you won’t take lives lightly."
「W-wait」
"Just as I am precious to you, this ghost story may have been precious to someone else."
I had to teach it.
To teach Backrooms, like a baby holding a knife, how to wield that power properly.
Just as I had done long ago.
Because I...
Knock, knock, knock!
"...Huh? What was that sound?"
「Ah」
In the middle of my lecture, there came a knock from the front door.
Backrooms had definitely said it swallowed the apartment.
Curious, I headed for the entrance to open the door.
Craaaack!
"HERE’S SPIDER!!!"
"Whoa, you scared me."
The spider woman thrust her face through the gap in the torn-apart door.
...Just like with Mr. Kim last time.
Why does the front door to my home always get broken?
[Chat] : No, everyone, wait a second!!!
Author: Eterno Baekdam
(A photo of an apartment that is not very tall)
(A photo looking up at a luxury apartment)
That isn’t me, everyone... ㅜㅜㅜㅠ
I just wanted to pretend I’d finally been chosen once.
I failed the selection too!!!
I was just going to pretend to be it and ride along, but the more I looked at it, the more my conscience bothered me. I just couldn’t do it.
Please stop raiding my real life..!!!!
[10 comments total]
ㅇㅇ(599.1): What?
└ㅇㅇ(599.1): Then what is this apartment?
└[Author] Eterno Baekdam: I think that one is probably an ordinary apartment!
└[Author] Eterno Baekdam: I can’t sense anything as a location-type anomaly from it..!!
└WhiteBear: So they just went on a rampage in an innocent building? LOL
└Chrishimas: Ah, that’s so fucking sad LOLLLLL
Maestro: Hmm.
└ㅇㅇ(599.1): ;;
└Maestro: We may need to lower our assessment of the house a little...
└ㅇㅇ(599.1): ୧(๑•̀ᗝ•́)૭
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