Although a bit overburdened by the new weapon that needed another hand to use, it has now become his main weapon, because Vain has had some knowledge about using a bow. Although this knowledge isn't very vast since he can at most be considered a beginner who knows how to shoot and aim at something without suddenly having your arrow fly in a different direction to where you aimed.
Taking a break and eating two packs of dehydrated food and finishing off the bottle of almond water, Vain then stood up and got ready to leave. After walking to one of the exits he saw a human appear just coming out of where he had planned to go out.
Jumping back a bit Vain was about to get ready to run in case it is just another humanoid figure but is actually another entity as it was before.
The man turned and saw Vain almost instantly and readied his crossbow in case of sudden movements. The man had a short beard with short brown hair and had pale white skin as if he hasn't been outside in years. He was about the same height as Vain being 5' 10'' and very muscular.
"Don't move! I am human, are you a potato? Or are you hat?"
Listening to the man's words, Vain thought back to the paper that M.E.G. had written about skin stealers and sighed in relief.
"Hello I just arrived and I am human."
"Arrived? Then I want you to show me a phone."
Confused Vain still decides to pull out his phone in case the other guy really pulls the trigger.
The other man seeing that Vain had indeed taken out a phone, sighed in relief.
"How new are you?"
Seeing that the other man had relaxed Vain also relaxed since having a crossbow being pointed right at your face is terrible.
Checking his phone, Vain looked at the time and saw he had been on this level for five hours now, that plus 16 wandering in the yellow insanity, and six hours of sleep, "Since I no-clipped it has been 27 hours now. I went to the manilla room and got some basic information from the M. E. G. there. Can you tell me where the 'Hub' is? It has been hell seeing some of the monsters in here."
The other man smiled and seemed to calm down even more and called out, "Hey it's clear! We got ourselves a Transfer fresh out of monotone hell! Hey we can get you out, but don't follow MEG too much, they just want to control everything. So unless you fall in love and want a safe life for your family and need a steady job, don't go to them expecting all kindness."
At this point, a woman came out from the hallway. The woman had red hair with slightly tanned skin, freckles on her face, and a toned body with a height of 5' 7''. "So we got fresh meat?"
Another man's voice was heard in the hallway, "Transfer? You're kidding me right! Let me take a good look."
Out came a man who had black hair with a mustache and was also muscular, standing at 6' staring down Vain. He looked to be healthy yet reaching the age nearing mid 40's, but unlike the other two, he appeared to have dark skin.
"Hey, he doesn't look that new to me. Except for the tan, I don't see the weak and frailness that most Transfers have nowadays." The new man kept looking around Vain all around as if he was sizing up how good an animal is.
Without any choice, Vain could only speak to them with a friendly smile, "Hey I get I look weird to you, but I really don't know a whole lot of what you are talking about. So maybe even if you don't take me to the Hub can you maybe tell me more about what this place is?"
Hearing Vain speak up the old man laughed and walked up to Vain and slapped him roughly on his shoulder, "Kid I've lived for 80 years now, so if there is one thing I learned is have some patience."
Vain nearly choked on his own spit hearing that the man who looked like being called 60 years old would be insulting, claiming to be only 80 years old. "Please don't mess with me. I may be only 19 this year, but I know that you are most definitely too young looking to be 80. If you said 60 I would have had some type of chance to believe you, but 80 is just too high in any case."
"AH... I forget that you are too new. Well, most people here die before reaching 100, but just know that those who have killed enough are able to become faster and stronger, and age slower. Some say that it just doubles, but since no one that old is known publicly we just assume our life spans are the same."
"What?"
At this point, the girl spoke up, "Pops you're ranting again. He is new so don't give him everything at once."
The other man also spoke this time to Vain, "Hey man don't worry about him, he is old and is already kind of crazy from being here so long. You can call me John and her Silvana. That crazy old man is James, but we all call him Pops. I'll do the explaining cause I know how confusing it is to be in this new world, unlike Pops who already basically considers this place his home. Silvana on the other hand doesn't have enough experience to tell you how everything really works."
Both Silvana and Pops stayed silent agreeing with him.
"Alright let us begin with what this place is called... The Backrooms. It is considered the place you aren't supposed to see behind normal reality. There are some similarities between worlds, but you should know that there are several different worlds that are all reality. Some people claim that they had people on the nearest planet already or an equivalent to it, but others claim that their world is called something entirely different, so don't expect everyone to understand you perfectly.
The Backrooms are a place that doesn't have a good feeling wherever you are. This warehouse that is empty almost everywhere except for the few exceptions of boxes or entities. The room is like an office that has too many walls that don't lead to anywhere but another room that is similar. An endless eerie cave system that has water dripping along the side and so many others.
There have been about 500 years of history since what is believed to be the first transfer. What is public knowledge is that there was a civilization inside this space that was similar to humans, or as humans, but they have all mutated into different species that you may have seen."
Vain nodded and looked distressed remembering the creepy entities he saw.
"You should have MEG give you a better explanation when we go to the Hub, but for now we should tell you that MEG is also like a government that wants full control, so only if you want a full-time job that gives you a small chance to better understand the Backrooms for MEG should you join.
Pops was once a member and can tell you that if you want weapons and a 50/50 chance to live, join them. I will say that for new transfers it gives them more of a purpose and what they have inforced does protect the common people. You might be hearing me say transfer a lot, which just means that someone has just arrived, so that is what you are and what Silvana has just graduated from. If you get passed the basic training of MEG, you can be considered to be a wanderer.
If you join one of the organizations you will be called based on the organization you have joined. Alright, I think that is a good summary of what this unfamiliar place to you is. Any questions?"
Taking a minute to understand everything he was just told, Vain looked at John and then at Silvana and Pops. "I went to the Manilla room? The papers in there spoke about there being levels, so first, why do you call this level one and the yellow office level 0?"
"O' that's just the names MEG has assigned to them. Us wanderers just have nicknames, while MEG has numbers with codenames that are just the nicknames we give them. They say it's better for filing paperwork and easier for filling up the databases."
"You say database, so does that mean I can have internet?"
"I guess you haven't checked yet. Well, most levels have some internet connection, besides a select few even if it doesn't make sense. As you have seen, no connection in an office space in mono-tone hell, but yes on a connection in the flooded caves. This level does have a connection if you are wondering."
"My next question is why not work for MEG? Do they not pay well? Wait what is the currency here? Also, what does M.E.G. even stand for?"
"Well there is nothing wrong with MEG really, it's just the only upsides with working under MEG is the fact of training and a little beginners boost, and if you have an allergy to Almonds, they have the only safe drink for you that also has the sanity-saving effects of Almond water. What we really don't like about MEG is that they want everyone to think of this as a video game, just to calm them down.
We don't really have money besides a bottle of closed Almond water as the main hard currency, but as advanced humans, we have credit cards and a bank that is placed anywhere the B.N.T.G. is. The B.N.T.G. stands for Backrooms Non-aligned Trade Group, which has good relations with almost every other organization. M. E. G. stands for Major Explorer Group.
No one could really fight them since they only exist on the safest levels which allows them to stay safe. Unlike MEG which tries to find everything about the Backrooms."