level 1 habitable zone

Level 1 is a large, sprawling warehouse that features concrete floors and walls, exposed rebar, and a low-hanging fog with no discernable source. The fog often coalesces into condensation, forming puddles on the floor in inconsistent areas. Unlike Level 0, this Level possesses a consistent supply of water and electricity, which allows indefinite habitation by wanderers providing that appropriate precautions are taken. It is also far more expansive, possessing staircases, elevators, isolated rooms, and hallways.

Crates of supplies appear and disappear randomly within the Level, often containing a mixture of vital items (food, Almond Water, batteries, tarps, weaponry1, clothing, medical supplies) and nonsensical objects (assorted car parts, boxes of crayons, used syringes, partially burned paper, live mice, mice in a catatonic state that have been injected with unknown substances, shoelaces, loose change, bundles of human hair). The crates should be approached with caution due to their contents, but are a valuable resource.

-backrooms wikidot level 1

All around them; stone pillars?; Could be seen. Along with hanging fluorescent lights; luckily however these were not as loud and annoying as the ones from before. A fog also hung low to the floor condensing into many puddles all around them.

The group looked around in bafflement. Their once so familiar surroundings filled with mono-yellow and the stench of moist carpet, suddenly replaced with this.

"Where are we now!?" wined mimi, of course no one knew the answer.

"It seems we have been transported again. Though it doesn't seem like we are any more free than we were before." inquired Julius with disappointment, and even irritation clear in his tone.

The group, still not having recovered from the effects of their former environment, began exploring the area not knowing what else they could do.

Subaru noticed that this area seemed to resemble some sort of warehouse; noticing a few wooden crates near a wall to their right, he decided to point them out.

"Hey, look over there" subaru said pointing out the nearby crates "we should check them out; they might have something useful inside them."

Subaru then began to open one of the crates and peered inside it; he then promptly let out a small shriek of alarm as a live mouse jumped out of the crate and onto Subaru's face, his hands swatting at it a few times before it jumped off and scampered away.

Seeing that Subaru was okay, mimi let out a small chuckle; and the rest of the group promptly joined in.

Subaru let out a scowl, he was just glad that Ram wasn't here as she would have definitely teased him about it. Oh well, at the very least, it brought up everyone's morale a bit, even his if he was honest. Sometimes all you need is to hear a good laugh to cheer you up, even if you're the one being laughed at.

Gathering himself once again, Subaru continued to look though the crate when he noticed a bottle of what seemed to be water.

It looked like water, but it had an odd smell to it, it wasn't a bad smell by any means. It was quite pleasant but the fact that it had a smell at all made Subaru a bit skeptical about it's safety. They were in an unknown place after all, and you should always be cautious of what you consume from unknown places, especially if they have a smell.

Subaru: "I found this water but it has a weird smell to it. I think we should keep it but let's only drink it as a last resort."

The group gave several nods of affirmation; after all they hadn't brought water, or any supplies for that matter so if it came to it, they would have to either drink it or die of dehydration. So it seems sort of strange that they didn't really feel all that thirsty, considering how long they've been here.

After looking through a few more crates (luckily without any more mouse incidents) they found a few things that seemed to be useful.

They found more of that water as well as something similar to the prize Subaru gave out during the snow sculpture contest, (*chips"). As well as something Subaru identified as "granola bars".

They also found an old looking dagger which they decided to give to Otto; being the most defenseless person there.

With these new supplies they continued to explore the mysterious place.

After a few minutes? Hour? To be honest they still couldn't really judge the passage of time at the moment. At some point the lights began to flicker; though their previous "environment" had done a similar thing, so they didn't think too much of it.

though sometimes some members of the group would see things like paintings on the ground changing, or even things appearing or disappearing between flickers. They were beginning to think they were really going insane.

While exploring they eventually saw something in the distance. They were too far away to tell the specifics, but it seemed to be a different coloured wall. Naturally, they went towards it, they had to follow any leads they could get after all.

"So. Does anyone have any theories on where this is?" noticing the tense and hopeless atmosphere, Subaru tried to start a conversation, even if he already knew the answer to the question.

"No clue.'' Anastasia sighed she had tried to wrap her head around where they were long ago, but she was drawing a complete blank. She had never, in her entire life, seen, or heard of any place like this; not even with her information network. "It don't make any sense, a place like this is to big fer no one ta not know about."

Beatrice: "it could be a different space, like the one we put the great rabbit into I suppose."

Subaru: "But who could do something like this?"

Beatrice shook her head. "I don't know; Most advanced yin magic has been lost to time in fact. the options are very limited i suppose."

"Wait, could you do that rift thing you did when we were fighting the Great rabbit?" Subaru turned to beatrice, with a revelation that he was disappointed in himself for not thinking of earlier.

"No, in fact" Beatrice looked down in disappointment. "Even if Betty had enough mana to bring all of us, Betty would still need to know where we are i suppose."

"Wait so we might be in a separate space! Would we even be able to escape that?!" Otto shouted a look of increasing worry and panic, similar looks beginning to spread throughout the group as realization dawned on them.

"Wait everyone calm down! it's still only just a theory, it might not be the case. We literally fell on the floor, who knows what this could be?" Subaru tried to reason as to stop everyone from panicking, as well as latching on to a chance himself.

-"groorrraaaw!"

Before the conversation could continue a roar noise could be heard coming from their left

A human looking quadruped creature with a long black head of hair and sharp claws as well a large mouth full of sharp teeth, was approaching them at rapid speeds.

Quickly Julius unsheathed his sword as the creator lunged forward, slicing it across the chest causing it to fall to the ground.

-"hey! over here!"

...

A man wearing strange clothing and with a strange looking device(*gun*) strapped to his back beckoned them over from next to a gate in the wall that they had nearly arrived at by this point.

The group shared a few glances at each other as if to affirm that they were not the only one's seeing the strange man.

Man: "Come on, quickly, i'll explain when we get inside."

After sharing a few more glances, they reluctantly followed the man through the gate.

As they walked through, several sectioned off rooms could be seen as well as a few small buildings, some of which bearing a peculiar bird crest, all within a large perimeter wall.

The man then led them to an area in the corner with a table and a few benches to sit at.

Man: "Please take a seat, I'm sure you have a lot of questions."

The group reluctantly sat down, except for Julius who took to standing behind Anastasia..

"So first. Do any of you know where you are?" the man asked, placing both his arms on the table.

Otto: "No. We have no idea where we are. This may sound hard to believe but we just suddenly fell through the ground and ended up here."

Man: "I see, so do you all know each other?"

Otto: "yes, we all came here together, we were sitting at a table, and then we just fell through the floor."

Man: "was this the first place you were transported or was there another place?"

"Yeah" Subaru muttered, as everyone's eyes seem to gloss over as they recounted their experience wandering through the seemingly endless mono yellow hallways, buzzing lights, and wet carpet stench.

"And you were all there together?" the man said a hint of surprise in his voice.

*nods*

The man let out a brief look of astonishment before promptly remembering something he then reached into his pocket and pulled out a folder that had the same bird crest as some of the buildings onto the table.

Man: "so i'm going to explain where you all are; it might be hard to believe but just bear with me."

"Right" said Otto, preparing himself for what he was about to hear.

Man: "you have essentially slipped though reality, this is referred to as nocliping, and landed here. This place is referred to as the backrooms there are multiple 'levels' to the backrooms, this is level 1, and the one you were on before was level 0" The man then proceeded to explain the basics of how the backrooms works: levels, entities, the M.E.G and other groups, and most importantly, how to noclip and traverse through the backrooms.

They also found out that the water they found is actually almond water and is very important and should be drinken regularly in order to maintain their health and sanity as well as in certain other situations.

Tivey: "how do we leave?"

"Well about that." the man said as he tiredly ran his hand down his forehead.

"There are a few theorized exits but there is no confirmed exit that we know of. That's what we're trying to find."

"So are we just going to be trapped here forever!?!" Mimi shouted, panic and fear filling her face, as well as the rest of the group.

-is there really no hope? 

-there's gotta be a way out! 

-that's not fair! 

-i miss hetaro 

-no. no no no no no 

Man: "calm down. calm down. I know how it feels, believe me. I had a family of my own, then one day i just fell through the ground, and now I'm trapped here just like you. But we have to stay strong. As I said, there are theorized exits. We are all trying to leave this place and that won't happen if we give up. So let's all keep trying."

Anastasia: "right. Are there any other settlements like this?"

Man: "Well there's the B.N.T.G they trade and provide supplies all throughout the backrooms as well as Todd's diner you could run into." 

-i guess there are merchants no matter where you go. 

"Also what's it with the strange clothes if you don't mind me asking" the man asked as Anastasia wrote something down.

Anastasia: "strange? What about them's strange?"

"Ah, nevermind, don't mind me." The man said with a dismissing wave. 

Wait hold on a second. His clothes! Subaru: "um… are you from earth by any chance?"

The man looked at Subaru with confusion as he leaned his head to the side "um yeah? What kind of question is that?"

"No way really!?"

Man: "uh, yeah, everyone here is."

"No way! You might not believe it but these people aren't" said Subaru excitedly, as he pointed at the group.

"Oh great, even other worlds aren't safe from the backrooms huh." the man muttered under his breath.

"Anyway we should probably get going" as much as Subaru would love to talk to someone from his world, he also wanted to get back to his other friends as soon as possible. They must be worried sick about us. We did literally just fall through the floor after all. Though to be honest, he also just wanted to get out of here.

"Make sure to pick up some supplies on your way out. It's a sure death sentence to venture into the Backrooms unprepared." the man said as he pointed to some supplies.

"Oh and here" said the man as he handed Julius the folder that was on the table. "This folder has some information on some of the levels, entities and items in the backrooms. It should prove to be useful to you. Though it doesn't give everything, just some more common levels, as well as a guide I'm getting too the barrier, one of the theorized exits. If you want to find more, you'll probably have to find a computer or phone."

Julius: "ah, thank you… oh please excuse us i believe we never got your name"

"Oh, it's fine. My name's Man, Man Merick''

Subaru: "did your parents hate you or something?!"

"No it's an 'ancient Merick tradition'" man said as he gave a slight chuckle

Julius: "thank you for your hospitality. perhaps we will see each other again."

Man: "perhaps. Anyways, safe travels." With that they gathered some supplies and set back out into level 1.

They had started exploring again, thanks to their break at the meg base as well as a bit of almond water they had regained their ability to tell time somewhat, and with it determined that it had been about 20 minutes since they left.

Right now they were walking down a long hallway. Other than a few crude paintings there was nothing particularly interesting about it.

"So what's the plan I wonder." asked Beatrice, now riding on Subaru's shoulders.

Subaru: "Well the general plan would be to collect information and explore a way out."

Anastasia: "I agree. we should try and find another settlement they'd probly have some info for us."

Subaru: "yeah that's probably a good idea"

"This really long hallway! When are we gonna get through it?" wined mimi. At first she had resorted to chasing tivey around the group, but she had already tired herself out by now. "And why is it so hot now!?"

Now that they realized, it was hotter, this caused them to stop and look around.

They noticed the lights hanging from the ceiling as well as the fact that the hallway had gotten significantly narrower. And finally and most importantly…

The pipes on the walls.

They had entered level 2.