This is a story based on the "Backrooms" world view, originally published on February 24th on the Backrooms Chinese Wiki, as part of the Archipelago Event.
I boarded this ship last night.
I was originally picking fruit on the beach at Level 48, but I accidentally fell into the water from the tree. To my surprise, I kept sinking deeper and deeper in the shallow water, unable to float up or touch the bottom. Before I lost consciousness, I saw an oversaturated blue color in front of me, and a wave of yellow memories rushed towards me. When I finally woke up, I found myself lying in another place, and a man in naval uniform was lightly tapping my chest with a cane-like object.
The man took me onto his ship - a large wooden cargo ship that was astonishingly similar to those left over from the Age of Discovery. With his back turned to me, the man walked slowly on the old deck, making a worrying creaking sound. The man obviously didn't wait for my consent, so I had to tiptoe and follow him through a long corridor into a room.
He said this would be where I live from now on, but he ignored all my questions. The man left the room without saying a word, and I realized that this narrow space only had a dusty incandescent lamp, a bed board hanging on the wall, and an empty drawer cabinet, like a prison cell.
I originally wanted to go out and find the man to clarify the situation, but a girl knocked on my door. She looked in her early twenties, dressed in a punk style, with heavy eye makeup, and her double ponytails were dyed in various eye-catching colors. After scanning me from top to bottom, she turned her gaze to the side, crossed her arms, leaned against the door frame, and started talking to herself.
"It's not easy to have another living person here, but..."
I could tell that the girl didn't welcome me, and it just so happened that I didn't want to stay either, so I asked if this ship could take me back to Level 48. But she raised her hand to her forehead and gave me a look as if I were a fool. It was then that I understood the meaning of the man's "this is where you will live from now on" - it was probably a one-way trip.
The girl said her name was Angel, and from her, I learned that besides me and her, as well as the "boring old relic," there were other crew members on this ship. However, she didn't want to waste time on me and said it was getting late, so she sent me back to rest without even looking back. I wanted to find the man or the other crew members she mentioned to figure out the situation, but I heard a somewhat frightening snoring sound coming from the other end of the corridor. I realized that it was indeed late, so I went back to my room and lay on the bed board without any bedding, waiting until the sound of the clock outside.
I went to the deck and saw Angel leaning against the mast, while the man stood at the bow ringing the bell. An old woman sitting at the staircase stared at me as I walked up from below. Her hair was short, only reaching her ears, and it was dark red, except for a tuft of gray at the roots. She also wore copper earrings, with her eyebrows and wrinkles squeezed together, squinting at me.
There was only eerie blue light outside, no day or night. Matt rang the bell every day, and we followed the bell's sound for our daily routine. The old woman told me this. The man was the captain, named Matt, and no one knew his last name.
I stood by the ship's side and couldn't see the sea below, only the constantly changing scenery around me. I couldn't tell what they were, and under the rendering of the blue light, I couldn't even see their original colors. The ship seemed to be moving because the sails were always raised, even though I didn't feel any wind. I watched as the fragments of buildings and geometric shapes on the side of the ship swayed and deformed in the windless environment, occasionally discerning one or two tangible objects. The people on the ship didn't greet me, and I stood there watching the sea for a long time.
I felt a slight chill on my cheeks, and when I touched them with my hand, I realized that my tears had dried on my face.
The redhead woman came over and handed me a cigarette, already lit. I quickly declined, but she didn't insist and put the cigarette in her own mouth. She looked absent-mindedly, exhaling a puff of white smoke. Her name was Monica, she asked me to call her that. She quickly left, as if she had never seen me before, and went somewhere else to smoke.
I looked around, and all four people on the ship were on the deck, not speaking. These people seemed to hate language, and none of them wanted to say a word. Unable to bear it, I went to find Monica, the most talkative one. She said we were on the edge of the Blue Passage and couldn't go back to the hell that had become our home. Matt was just being self-righteous, he had no sense of direction in the blue sea, which was not a place for navigation.
I didn't understand the man's intentions, and Monica said she didn't dare to speculate either. I knew I couldn't go back, probably because of my previous experience of falling from the front hall into the backrooms. I seemed to be unable to feel my own sadness.
Days went by like this. They provided me with food, water, and a bed, but they remained silent. After Monica explained to me what we would do on the island this week, she never spoke to me again. The three people on the ship, from their age, appearance, and even the class that had lost its meaning in this place, were all completely different, but their faces seemed to be covered by something, unable to read their emotions, like corpses with powdered faces in coffins.
Matt said we would be able to go ashore tomorrow to replenish supplies, but we suddenly encountered a sea fog. Matt gathered the three of us in a room, but he went elsewhere. Angel had been biting her nails from the beginning, while Monica closed her eyes and meditated. I could tell that everyone was uneasy.
My shoulders were a bit sore, and I wanted to stand up and move. Angel immediately grabbed me and made me fall to the ground. She stared at me with gritted teeth and asked if I had gone crazy. Monica calmly said that when the sea fog comes, we must not make any noise.
Naturally, I didn't understand, and Monica didn't continue speaking either. Angel lay down on her side. After a long silence, there was finally no sound outside, and Matt opened the door. As soon as the door opened, I smelled a strange odor, like the smell of rust in the hot steam, making me feel uncomfortable all over. Matt handed us a few bottles of almond water, and then I realized that there seemed to be traces of cashew water outside the door.
Monica told me to stay away from those water stains and not touch the traces left by the [[Entity C-132|Crowned Fish]]. I seemed to understand what had just happened - a group of entities called the Crowned Lords attacked our ship. Angel said they come at least twice a month, and in the first few times, many people died. We have always only cared about the anomalies that slipped into the backrooms, but we have never read in any database about their rampage in the Blue Passage.
I didn't know how Matt dealt with such a troublesome pest, and I don't think he would say it out loud.
We landed on the island - I sensed it even before stepping on the deck. The blue light disappeared, and the clouds on the island seemed clear. It was a rainforest, and although I could only see trees, I had a feeling that there were people living deep inside.
Angel stretched lazily as soon as she got off the ship, and it was the first time I saw her so energetic. Monica and Matt walked towards the rainforest, and Angel asked me to stay on the shore with her, saying that it was useless for young people like us to go. Angel was still silent, but I could tell that she was in a much better state than on the ship. She stared at the wildflowers next to the forest for a long time.
I felt a sense of contentment and a tinge of heartache. I suddenly forgot that I was still in the backrooms and became even more aware of the fact that I was in hell in the real world. I fell another layer in the world of reality, exiled for the second time.
I didn't know how Angel ended up here, as I never heard anyone on the ship talk about their past. Actually, I didn't understand how I ended up in the blue sea either. It was like I didn't know how I entered the backrooms. Once in the backrooms, I had to abandon my life in the front hall. At first, I often mentioned my past stories to my companions, but as time went on, I realized that those experiences were like a dream - when I woke up, I found myself in the backrooms, and talking about the stories from the dream with my friends seemed novel, but later on, I never mentioned them again. It's the same now, the more I think about the backrooms, the more unreal it feels, and the front hall seems more like a vague dream.
In the blue sea, I didn't get lost in long periods of reminiscing like when I first entered the backrooms. I think it's because everyone here doesn't want to think about the past. It's not just because it feels unreal, but because of loneliness. At the beginning, there was probably only Matt on the ship, and he was already accustomed to loneliness, maybe for several years or even decades, so he naturally wouldn't change because of the appearance of a newcomer - he was already not used to socializing. Later, Monica came on board, and Matt treated her with loneliness. Angel came on board, and neither of the two people on the ship wanted to speak more. I didn't know how many years they had spent on the ship, and during the long time they had experienced together, there were probably many people they were willing to be close to, but they all died in the sea fog. Permanent separation sealed their hearts.
I feel that these layers of the world of reality are like sieves, with the unfiltered masses in the real world being the people. Occasionally, a few unlucky ones accidentally fall into the next layer of the sieve, and after experiencing loneliness, they crawl to each other like ants, although there are fewer people than in the previous layer of the sieve, and it's not as warm, not as powerful, but it's enough. Among the unlucky ones in the unlucky ones, someone accidentally falls into another layer, where there are even fewer people, and they find it difficult to find each other.
Perhaps they would treat every person they encounter as a lifesaver, but the fact is that they have become accustomed to facing themselves alone and have long worn away the will to bond with others.
I couldn't help but wonder if there was another layer of the world beneath this blue sea sieve. Perhaps only those who have truly fallen down would know. If such a thing really happened, they would struggle alone in a strange space, and they might die in the sea fog there.
Matt and Monica came back, and Angel immediately got up and walked towards the ship, seemingly without any nostalgia. The two people who returned from the forest were dragging swollen tattered sacks, and they both stared straight ahead. I stood still and watched, not knowing why I didn't move. They walked past me with the same pace, and I followed behind them, looking through the holes in the bag and seeing the canned food inside.
There must be someone in that forest, as for why he didn't walk back with Matt, I think I have the answer.