Level 3 electrical station

Once the group passed through the door an entirely new scene greeted them. Around them were many connected rooms and hallways similar to level 0 although some of said hallways looked nearly impassable, as well as a few being walled off with white metal bars.

The wall seemed to be made out of dusty brown brick with electrical mechanisms attached to it as well as a few pipes, but notably not as many as level 2.

After taking in their surroundings Subaru opened their backrooms information folder and began to read the entry for level 3.

"Jaden was right, this place is dangerous" said Subaru, giving a sigh as he put away the folder. "We need to be on the lookout for entities; there are even more her then in level 2. This level's also way bigger, to the point where we shouldn't count on finding anyone wandering around."

Mimi: "don't worry. Mimi will just kill anything that gets close!"

"How can you say something like that with a straight face!?" Subaru questioned turning to face mimi, mimi simply giving a "hmm?" in response.

"If this level is as dangerous as you say it is then we should get going, this place gives me an uneasy feeling I suppose." said beatrice taking another few glances around the room. Ever since they entered the level she had taken over by an uneasy feeling, comparable to being watched.

Julius: "Now that you mention it, i'm getting the same feeling"

Anastasia: "same here. It sorta feels like we're bein watched."

Noting a similar feeling within himself Subaru took another look around, taking notice of the metal bars blocking some of the hallways this caused him to remembered something that was in the folder.

"Right. The folder said something about wanderers being filled with a feeling of uneasiness when there are a lot of metal bars in the area, for some reason." said Subaru before muttering something about stupid game mechanics.

"right then, we should prolly get outta here." said Anastasia as she picked a direction and began to walk to the hallway to their left, not leaving any room for protest. Not that anyone had any.

Not wanting to be split up, the rest of the group quickly followed suit, keeping their guard up as they made their way through level 3.

.

The group had been walking through the rooms and hallways of level 3 for a while now; sticking close to the walls to lower their visibility however they could. They could deal with entities but they still didn't want to encounter them if possible. When they encountered entities, they were hit with this strange 'off' feeling. They couldn't place exactly what it was, but it got stronger the more they encountered entities.

"The folder said that there are computers all over the backrooms, and there's wifi here two. Hehe, Maybe if we get to a safer level I can introduce you to video games." Subaru pondered out loud, placing his hand on his chin, beginning to fantasize about the group's various potential reactions towards the technology.

"What are com-pew-ters, why-fy and video games?" asked tivey a question mark appearing over his head as she shot an inquisitive look towards Subaru.

Subaru: "i'll explain it if we ever get the chance to do it"

Tivey put him hand yo his chin in thought. With their current situation come he didn't press further, but he sort of hoped they did run into whatever Subaru was talking about.

"well if the situation does present itself, I'd be interested in givin whatever it is a try, 'if we get the chance'.'' Anastasia half joked, even imitating the phrase Subaru used.

Subaru: "He he, well we'll see-"

Subaru's sentence was cut short due to him nearly bumping into Petra, who was walking in front and slightly to the right from him, suddenly stopping.

Looking at her she seemed to be frozen in fear, her eyes locked on to something in the distance as she began to shake. Tracing her gaze to the end of the hallway, Subaru nearly jumped in surprise as he spotted the bright glowing smiley face hiding in the dark corner of the hallway up ahead.

Noticing Petra"s increasing fear and panic, Subaru placed his hands on her shoulder. Petra startled by the sudden feeling, let out a panicked wine as she began to fight Subaru's grip.

Before it could go too far, Subaru grabbed Petra's other shoulder and turned her to face him, as he crouched down to her level, and looked her in the eyes.

Subaru: "Petra. Petra its ok, its ok, calm down"

Seeing Subaru's face Petra began to calm down and relax before tensing up again as she remembered her surroundings.

Petra: "b-but the smiler-"

"I know, i know, but look it hasn't attacked us yet" said subaru gesturing toward the smiler still in it's spot in the corner. "Smiler's are attracted to light and noise, so as long as we stay quiet we can just walk past it and it won't attack us."

"o-okay" petra was extremely hesitant, but she had to trust them. They've been here longer than her after all; plus, they were all she had right now.

"Now come on the sooner we get past here the sooner we get away from the smiler " subaru reassured as he began to walk, his hand still on petra's shoulder as they walked along the wall.

Subaru: "aahaah-"

Subaru let out a shriek of surprise as a hand grabbed him, said shriek subsequently being cut off as he was pulled through the wall by said hand.

Beatrice who was still riding on his shoulders did not follow with him; instead falling to the floor with an alarmed sound of her own. Louis in a panic quickly leaped to the other side of the wall where she was met with a horrific site.

Subare was being lowered into the mouth of a gray, somewhat humanoid creature with long arms and a weak and shabby looking posture. (*duller*)

Louis quickly launched herself at Subaru in an attempt to knock him out of the creature's grasp.

*crunch*

However she was slightly too late as the duller crunched down on Subaru's arm. However she did succeed in knocking him out of the creature's grip.

However in turn she had been grasped by the duller. Noticing this she began to try and fight its grip. But with the element of surprise lost she was unable to break out of its surprisingly strong grip in time.

*crunch*

Subaru could only watch on in horror and pain, as he tried to get up using his other arm. But due to the pain and heavy blood loss that has already occurred he was unable to pick himself up. Seeing the duller notice him subaru began to prepare himself for his imminent death

.

.

.

.

.

But that death never came.

The duller seeing subaru on the floor ran in the opposite direction.

what? why? why? why? why?why? why? why? ? why why why why why why why why why?!

Subaru in shock and devastation lay there on the ground unable to even stand. As he lost more and mor blood his consciousness slowly faded.

Why would it just run away? Was this place specifically designed to torment us?

As A long, ear piercing cry filled with despair could be heard on the other side of the wall behind him probably from Beatrice.

That was the last think subaru head before his consciousness faded.

.

Anastasia: "well if the time does come I'd be interested in givin whatever it is a try if we get the chance."

Subaru: "I guess we'll see then…"

Subaru responded awkwardly as he regained his bearings, thinking back to what just happened.

i returned by death… wait what was that entity?

Subaru gave a "hmm" as he took out the folder trying to play it off as a mere whim. As he looked through the document he suddenly stopped not half a second later Petra stopped a well but for an entirely different reason.

Remembering this from last time Subaru quickly put away the folder as he grabbed petra, turned her around and began consoling her, reminding her that the smiler won't attack them if they're quiet.

Petra: "o-okay"

Seeing that the problem was handled the group began to walk again before Subaru stopped them immediately.

"Wait wait wait" said Subaru waving his hand signaling them to stop."we need to get away from the walls. now."

"What? What's going on- waah" Petra's question was cut off before she could finish by Subaru pulling her towards himself.

The group let out various sounds of alarm as they saw Petra nearly get grabbed by a gray hand that came through the wall. Seeing this they quickly got away from the wall.

Unluckily due to the scream Petra let out, the smiler in the corner began to rapidly approach them. Luckily the two members of the triplets quickly took notice of this and simultaneously let out a scream, and a gust of wind from their mouths immediately incapacitated the smiler.

Unluckily again however the screams from their attacks made a lot of noise and reverberated through the halls and corridors, and if the howling in the distance was any indicator, many entitis were now aware of their location.

"uh we should probably get going now.'' Otto pushed, a pit beginning to form in his stomach.

Subaru: "agreed"

With no signs of protest the group once again, much quicker this time, began to look for an exit.

.

"*huff* *huff* do ya think *huff* we can take a break now *huff* *huff*" huffed Anastasia, her hands on her knees. Thanks to mimi and tivey's attack from earlier they had to run quite a ways away from their previous location. Due to this many of the group members (especially Anastasia) were tired from running.

"Yeah that's probably a good idea." Subaru agreed, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "We should probably eat too, we don't want to turn into wretches."

"Yeah, if one of us turned into a wretch we would have to kill you." mimi said, such a heavy statement lacking the appropriate tone.

They remembered the wretched cycle Man told them about; if you don't eat or drink enough, or if you succumb to a deep enough insanity you would slowly turn into a wretch in a multi-staged process called the wretched cycle.

With that the group decided to take a quick rest and eat some of the granola bars they found in level 1.

They were just about to start looking for an exit again.

-wwwwrrrrraaaaaaaaaaa

A collective group of about 40-or-so entities was quickly approaching them from the left of the cross section between hallways they were currently resting in.

Not having any time to think, the group quickly stumbled to their feet as they ran as fast as they could. minya, jiwald, gunshots, as well as wind attacks being launched by their respective users.

Gaining a bit of distance from the horde of entities they ran through many rooms, hallways, and corridors of various shapes and sizes. Doing so however attracted the attention of even more entities as they ran through level 3, searching desperately for an elevator; they'd even take a car at this point. They just need to get away from here.

After what felt like an eternity of running, and the horde of entities slowly creeping up on them, they finally spotted a saving grace.

There. At the end of a diagonal intersection with many hallways running through it, was an elevator. Seeing the elevator, they instantly sprinted towards it.

Subaru being the only one familiar with elevators quickly slammed his hand on the call button. Luckily it seemed to already be there as the doors slid open only a second later.

The group quickly got into the elevator as Subaru spammed the close door button for dear life.

-wwwwwrrrrraaaaaa

A hound nearly made it through the door–and it would have made it through, if it weren't for a well timed minya from Beatrice hitting it in the eye, and stopping it in it's tracks.

In short order the doors closed and everyone finally had a chance to catch their breath.

Taking this opportunity the group began to relax a bit and catch their breath...... before five seconds later they heard banging on the doors and subaru quickly slammed the button labeled "4"