Chapter 5
…What is this?
[If I die, this livestream will end too, but in the meantime I’ll keep uploading as hard as I can, so please enjoy it.]
Information Team employee Lee Suji was stunned.
That was because, while she was watching NewTube to monitor the designated liminal space, a new variable had appeared.
A channel uploading recordings of a Korean livestream from the Backrooms.
“How can three videos get uploaded every single day?”
Special videos that require that kind of graphics work take at least a week no matter how fast the production speed is.
A popular channel that recently affected the state of the Backrooms had also uploaded two videos in three days, but they had stated in the description that the next installment would take months to produce.
Uploading three in a single day like this was physically impossible.
And that wasn’t all.
[Ah, Park Yuchan? Thanks for the question. Almond water, you mean? Yeah, I’ve seen a few while I was out and about.]
[But that’s the wrong assumption. The story about the floor smelling like almonds got twisted. In reality, it’s water with cyanide dissolved in it. There was a corpse that drank it and died.]
Replying to comments on yesterday’s video was, realistically, impossible.
“So that’s really a video that wasn’t made with AI?”
“The section chief asked ‘The Brain Conducts Electricity,’ and they said no. Apparently there’s zero post-processing in it except for the cuts.”
“Does that even make sense?”
“This is where we manage things that don’t make sense, Suji.”
Assistant Manager Kim Sangjin absentmindedly sipped his iced Americano.
“Should we deploy bots and mass-report it?”
“Why?”
“Its view count is rising faster than the channel we put under surveillance. And it started with 100,000 subscribers, so they must’ve bought the account!”
“So?”
Lee Suji looked flustered, while her superior still wore the same calm expression.
“Huh?”
“Why would we spend time and budget just to stop that channel from growing? At worst, it’ll just end up following the settings of the channel we’re already monitoring. Then would you say the same thing?”
“Th...that’s...”
“Suji. Let’s keep work and personal matters separate. You can’t do this just to save your favorite channel.”
“N-no, Assistant Manager!”
“You say that, but you already bought all the merch. Oh?”
Kim Sangjin, who had been watching the video with a deadpan expression, paused it.
The video showed the bag the filmer had set down.
“Suji.”
“Yes?”
“Maybe this channel won’t last long, just like you hoped.”
After saying that, Kim Sangjin made a call somewhere.
[Field Response Team Leader Lee Mina]
She’d soon be able to find out where one of the ten employees hired under the human-rights-waiver track had gone.
***
Click click click
“It works.”
A beverage vending machine stood there.
It was lit up, even though there was no outlet.
If not for the shriveled corpse next to it, it might have been rather welcome.
In the corpse’s bony hand was an orange juice can.
A few coins I’d picked up while moving around could be felt in my pocket.
“I’d decided that one coin meant certain death, two was 50/50, and you had to put in three to get something normal.”
I put in three coins and took out a cola, then put it in my pocket.
And then started filming.
“Ah, hello friends. I have no idea how much talking with you helps when I’m in a place with no one else around.”
I recited the prepared line in a voice close to theatrical.
“Do you remember what I said last time? This is that vending machine.”
I turned the camera toward the corpse.
“This guy probably only put in one coin or two. After all, it’s not like he drank almond water.”
Clink, clink
I deliberately fed the coins in with a pause in between so it’d be obvious how many went in.
“I’ll probably end up following that guy with a 50% chance, too.”
Clunk
I took the cola that came out of the vending machine and held it up to the camera.
“Unfortunately, the only coins I found while wandering around were two. And I’ve run out of drinks.”
I took the cola I’d pulled out earlier from my pocket, swapped it with the one I had just taken out, then held it up to the phone camera again.
“This might be my last one, so today I think I’ll read a lot of your comments.”
.
.
.
After about thirty minutes of reading comments, I cracked open the cola can I’d prepared.
Pssshhh
“Phew, I hope nothing happens even if I drink this. Please leave comments, everyone. And don’t forget to subscribe, like, and turn on notifications.”
With that, I ended the recording and uploaded the video to the gallery.
[Today's video]
Author: 갤질참쉽죠
[Video shot just moments ago]
One more day and this shit’s over, fuck.
Comments
사냥개 : This bastard said he dies if you only put in two coins, and then he puts in only two coins.
ㄴ갇혔어요집에 : Our newbie isn’t that much of an idiot.
으아들이대 : Judging by the skeleton of the corpse, it looks like it was a woman.
자동저장은필수 : This bastard was barely holding back laughter at first, and now look how natural he is, lol.
화이트해커 : I told you to shake the screen less so it’s easier to edit, fuck.
“Phew... shit...”
Click click click
I swallowed the cola I’d just opened and stepped away from the vending machine.
I’d added the setting that if you stay within 3 meters of the anomalous entity for more than an hour, you die.
For some reason, the only person in the gallery who could access the internet was WhiteHacker.
So I promised him I’d do him one favor if I made it out alive, and asked him to create the NewTube channel and handle the editing and uploads.
Then he even bought a 100,000-subscriber channel and handed it over, and edited and uploaded the videos for me.
Once I started filming as instructed, the Backrooms’ rules began changing in just a day.
Because my videos were a different caliber from the ones with VHS filters or other obviously fake-looking graphics.
The brats were more active than I could have imagined.
At their request, more channels started covering my videos, and traffic through those videos increased enormously.
Thanks to that, it was practically safe to say the odds of being caught up in sudden nonsense were almost zero.
The two Smilers no longer chased after me.
Because I’d subtly slipped in the rule that once they taste blood, they’re satisfied.
Instead, I made it so various items would be found at regular intervals.
Almond water, almond water, almond water, almond water....
Why on earth do our brats love almond water so much?
Ever since I said it would kill you if you drank it, they started popping up even more.
Of course, I didn’t just add soft, harmless settings.
Because no one watching a Backrooms video wants the filmer to be livestreaming something safe and happy.
Instead, I wrote or mentioned in the description only things that would seem deadly if you didn’t know the settings.
For example, something like that.
An incongruous green tile on the Backrooms floor, otherwise all yellow.
I tossed the emptied can there without hesitation.
Crack!
“Oh, pressing canned cola with a compression press.”
The can that touched the green area was crushed by tremendous pressure and flattened paper-thin.
If I’d put my foot in there, it probably would’ve squeezed out tomato juice.
Something you can see for yourself, and something you can avoid once you know about it.
[If I die, this livestream will end too, but in the meantime I’ll keep uploading as hard as I can, so please enjoy it.]
By deliberately starting the video with wording like that, I gave myself a reason to add things that would be somewhat safe.
As a result, I ended up with a Backrooms environment that was insanely dangerous, but somehow still survivable.
This kind of setting game is popular because it makes people think, “If I were the filmer, I could dodge it like this and that.”
And since they’re young, they prefer something intuitive over the kind of tangled settings adults like.
Click click click
Anyway, thanks to WhiteHacker, I was able to bring the Backrooms under my control.
[Monetization’s here!]
Author: 화이트해커
[Screenshot of several-million-won revenue in the first video's stats]
Rejoice, newbie. I’ve decided to square away the money you borrowed from me with the revenue from this.
No complaints, right?
Even if you do, what can you do about it?
Accept it.
[Comments]
갤질참쉽죠 : Yeah, take it all. Am I in any position to make a fuss about sharing? Congrats, congrats
ㄴ(글쓴이) 화이트해커 : Fuck, what is this? This isn’t the reaction I wanted.
ㄴ고아분쇄기 : Boo, trash.
돈받고갤질하기 : What a hilarious bastard, lol. If one video makes that much, then adding up the income from all the others means you must’ve made a killing.
지박령1호 : Treat the board to burgers.
관리를관리 : ^^
The brats got something to watch, and WhiteHacker, who’d helped out, also got a nice little cut of the profits, so you could call it a win-win for everyone.
Click click click
“Then I guess I’ll get some sleep.”
Since sleeping for more than four hours would make my body melt away in excruciating pain, I set ten alarms for 3 hours and 30 minutes later.
I briefly thought I should’ve extended it by another hour, but then I shook my head.
“At least this is something...”
I closed my eyes, feeling just how full I was.
And when I opened them.
“Um...”
Almost everything except the spot where I’d been lying down had turned green.
[What is this]
Author: 갤질참쉽죠
[Photo of the Backrooms turned into a Green Room]
[Photo where only the area near where I’d been lying is still a yellow floor]
I woke up after sleeping for three hours and the place had gone completely nuts.
I tossed a coin and it flattened instantly.
What the hell happened?
Only the area near where I’d been lying hadn’t changed.
[Comments]
화이트해커 : While you were asleep, the setting that says, 'On day seven, everything except the spot your body is touching turns into a green gravity trap,' got the most likes.
ㄴ 설정딸개조아 : Fucking hell, telling the guy who uploads three videos a day to die lolololol
ㄴ화이트해커 : They said they were bored of watching only Level 0 for five days, or something.... Just spend one day like that.
아빠는무림인 : Kids are really fucking scary.
갇혔어요집에 : Isn’t it shameless to pull that crap and then tell him to go to another area?
Just before falling asleep, I thought I’d taken control of the place.
I guess I underestimated how much dopamine they wanted from the outside world.
If the video had been boring, maybe the comment telling me to die already and make the next series would’ve gotten the most likes.
Click click click
If I just held out for 21 more hours, the promised week would be here, so there shouldn’t be any major problems.
[Nice to see you, friends. Did you sleep well? Thankfully, it looks like the cola I drank yesterday wasn’t my last one.]
I filmed a video of myself reading comments while recording the scenery and uploaded it to the gallery.
[At this rate, I can’t get to the exit I scoped out yesterday. I had a place picked out to go to today, though.]
[I’m sorry, everyone. In a situation like this, I don’t think I’ll be able to film many videos if I want to conserve battery.]
Of course, I didn’t hide the bait lines meant to manage expectations for surviving the day, or the lingering resentment toward the people who supported those settings.
Since once I got out of here I wouldn’t be able to upload videos anymore, the channel would blow up too.
Sorry, but I almost died on this side, so stay here as the reason the channel blows up.
I looked at the timer I’d started when I came in here.
00:02:57
3 minutes.
There really wasn’t much time left until the week was up.
If the Administration hadn’t lied, they’d somehow let me out of here.
Otherwise, I’d end up becoming the owner of a fucking liminal-space exploration channel....
“10, 9, 8, 7….”
A countdown ticking toward zero.
And just as the count was about to hit zero.
“Kraaaaah!”
At the same time as a scream that could not belong to this world rang out, my vision flickered.
When I opened my eyes, the gate I’d seen seven days ago came into view.
“I’m alive….”
I had returned to reality.
Overcome with emotion and suddenly drained of all strength, I slumped to the ground.
Maybe it was because all the tension from that whole stretch had been released at once.
Just as I was about to be swept up in relief and thank my lucky stars that I was alive.
“Congratulations on making it back alive.”
A woman’s voice came from behind me.
Slowly turning toward the voice, I saw several heavily armed people and the field response team staff member who had thrown me into the Backrooms standing there.
“I’d love to congratulate you right away, but I have quite a few questions first.”
Click.
The staff member who approached me fastened handcuffs around both of my wrists.
“I’d appreciate it if you’d cooperate without a fuss, okay?”