=)

She was either in a birthday party level or in a clown circus.

Well, Gu Yue didn't really know what either of those two looked like because, for obvious reasons, she had never gone to a circus before, nor had she been at a birthday party. With how busy she was, there was no time for any of that. Besides, she couldn't find it in herself to care that much.

Gu Yue originally planned on reincarnating as a human to gain knowledge on how to destroy them, not how to enjoy their festivities and live a normal life.

No!

Gu Yue screamed at her own head, gritting her teeth in anger. She needed to stop thinking like she had abandoned her original plan. Sure, things went off the rails, but Gu Yue was still going to make sure there was no human left alive by the time she was done.

That was the plan. No matter what Tang Wulin did or said to her...

Purple orbs suddenly spotted something in the distance, bringing Gu Yue out of her thoughts before it became too depressing again.

If Gu Yue thought the design of this place was already annoying enough, then it had just gotten a lot worse.

There was another room in the distance, having significantly more design on it. Balloons, confetti, and party hats were messily scattered all around the floor, and Gu Yue noticed six tables neatly lined up with what looked like strawberry cakes on each table.

On the wall, Gu Yue noticed there was some sort of sentence written in red.

Walking a little bit closer and squinting her eyes, Gu Yue managed to get a better look and read the writing properly.

'Welcome to Level Fun! One of the safest levels in the backrooms! =)' She read in her head, noticing red 'ink' dripping down the walls. Well, she says ink, but it was clearly blood.

As Gu Yue finished reading, she just stared at the writing, blank-faced. No way...

She turned to the ground, spotting bottles of Almond Water and two swords scattered on the colorful red floor.

"You've gotta be kidding me..." She whispered, amazed at the sheer stupidity of what she was looking at.

Who the fuck was dumb enough to create a trap as obvious as this? Gu Yue pinched her nose with a sigh as she imagined multiple foolish humans walking into this room without a care in the world. While she didn't know how they would meet their demise, she wasn't about to stay still and find out.

Gu Yue turned around, heading in another direction that she hadn't gone yet.

As she calmly walked through the hallway, she put her hand on her chin and started to think of the stuff she's learned.

"Alright... So the first thing I learned about this level was that it was created by a bunch of morons. And that they were likely children, considering the design here." Gu Yue noted to herself with a whisper, face completely serious.

"Or maybe they were just entities that acted like a child?" Gu Yue theorized. Was that even possible?

Moments after she said that, her mind suddenly gave her a flashback of when she incinerated three faceless children that were trying to kill her and Tang Wulin. It was probably possible then.

It was now that she realized just how lacking she still was when it came to information about the entities. For all she knew, there could be a Dragon entity lurking in one of the levels. Nothing seemed to be impossible for these new, unique, and terrifying creatures.

Long Bing, or maybe even Yao Yang's company would be really good right about now. Even if they weren't the strongest cultivators known to man, they probably would've answered every single question she had to offer. And overall, their assistance would be a massive help.

Or. Even better. If Tang Wulin was here. If he was here, then it didn't matter if they knew nothing about this level. Tang Wulin would protect her like he always did, and they would get through this together. But Gu Yue never got anything she wanted. So she's stuck here alone.

A sound suddenly entered her ears, a sound Gu Yue realized to be footsteps. The footsteps were loud and heavy, and it was coming from right behind her.

She turned around in alarm, her palm already pointed out, a ball of fire conjuring in it.

Gu Yue spotted a tall, humanoid bipedal creature with leathery skin. The color of the skin was yellow, with blood smudged all around its body. Since she was looking at it from the side, she couldn't get a proper look at its face, but she did see a large smile etched on it.

She kept her fireball aimed closely at it, prepared to blast it the moment it saw her.

Thankfully, to her relief, the entity didn't notice her in the hallway, instead going over to the trap room she saw earlier.

It walked slowly in a limp, something which Gu Yue took note of, and disappeared inside the room.

Gu Yue breathed a sigh of relief, but she didn't dare relax just yet.

Now that she had gotten a good look at the entity she was going to encounter on this level, she now knew how to avoid it.

They didn't seem to have the best eyesight, not being able to spot her standing in the open, and they also didn't feel the heat of her fireball. And most importantly, they walked really slowly.

That last one was the most comforting one. Her legs still felt numb and were still shaking a fair amount. So if those things were fast, then she would've been in deep trouble. However, she still noted that the one she saw may not have been running at full speed, so she couldn't be completely safe.

Not wanting to stand around until the thing came back and saw her, Gu Yue turned around and started walking across the wall. This time, her steps were a lot hasty, gaining as much distance as she could.

Of course, she could always run at her full speed. But. Legs. Numb.

The hallway she was in was nowhere near as long as the ones in that hell level, so she reached the end pretty quickly, despite her embarrassingly slow speed.

However, Gu Yue stopped dead in her tracks as she saw what she was heading straight into.

"Another one...?" Gu Yue asked, getting more and more worried for her safety.

There was a room nearly identical to the last one in front of her. Balloons, confetti, Almond Water, and one spear were scattered on the ground. Tables with cakes, plates, cups, and utensils. The only difference was the writing on the wall.

"Have a bite of the cake we prepared..." Gu Yue silently whispered the bloody text on the wall. Just like the other one, the writing ended with a smiley face, only serving to send chills down her spine.

She looked at the cake, and for some reason, even though it looked completely normal, something was screaming at her to not go anywhere near that cake. Not that she would've come over to take a bite, regardless. After the last level, she was never going to listen to anything on the walls ever again. She wasn't even that hungry anyways.

Turning to her left, she started to walk toward another hallway instead, once again ignoring the obvious trap room.

Gu Yue squinted her amethyst eyes, seeing something in the distance. It was a singular yellow balloon. What set it apart from the millions of balloons she's seen scattered across the place was the fact that it was just floating. Nothing was holding it up, yet somehow it was completely still in the middle of the air.

The sight was so eery Gu Yue hesitated, her steps slowing to a halt.

Was it really a good idea to walk straight into that? Then again, would it be any better to go back to the other trap rooms?

As Gu Yue was contemplating what to do, a sound began to play in her ears. She barely recognized it to be some sort of nursery rhyme, only remembering it being played all the way back when she was eight.

The rhyme was supposed to be a fun, cheerful, and light-hearted rhyme for kids to enjoy. But with what Gu Yue's been experiencing ever since arriving on this level, it brought nothing but dread and danger to her thoughts.

The hairs on her skin stood up, the rhyme continuing in the back of her ears. But she wasn't listening. All her ears cared about was searching for any footsteps she knew were going to come.

From the end of the hallway she was in, she saw the same entity she spotted in the last hallway, and she was suddenly really glad she followed her gut instinct.

Since she was now facing the entity, she could make out its face clearly. It had a large smile and two eyes that Gu Yue swore must've been carved onto its face. The rest of its features were the exact same as the other one. However, unlike that one, this one was heading straight toward her.

Gu Yue immediately acted, forming an icicle spear in her hand. Since the entity was moving about as slow as she expected, she had no trouble aiming the makeshift weapon at its head. She reared her hand back before throwing the spear at the entity with maximum power.

It landed before the thing could think of dodging, the spear cutting straight through its head.

Gu Yue made eye contact with its black, dead, vacant eyes before the entity collapsed, falling to the ground, dead.

Just as Gu Yue was about to release the breath she had been holding, her sensitive ears picked up another set of footsteps. Her eyes widened in panic and admittedly, fear, as she realized it was coming from right behind her.

She turned around just in time to see another entity, presumably the same one she avoided last time, rounding the corner she came from. It locked its carved eyes at her, creepily lumbering toward her with his arms held out, almost like it was asking for a hug.

Without thinking, Gu Yue panicked and held her palm out, sending the entity a couple of meters back with her wind element. Not wanting to give it a chance to recover, she conjured up water, hurling it at the entity with impressive force.

It sent the creature even further back, but Gu Yue wasn't done. She hurled another element at the thing, this time being ice. And because the entity was covered in water from her last attack, her ice attack completely froze it solid. The ice shook for a while before it finally gave up and accepted its fate.

At the same time, the nursery rhyme playing over and over from nowhere stopped, giving Gu Yue the illusion that she had won.

"Do me a favour.. and stay... dead!" Gu Yue growled at the frozen entity, panting heavily from the numerous close calls she had been in.

Long Bing mentioned that the backrooms levels varied greatly in difficulty and safety. Some were habitable enough to have human civilizations, but others were infested with entities.

How terribly unlucky must she be in order to land in two dangerous levels in a row?!

She really wanted to feel Tang Wulin's presence again. He could tease her for being so afraid, act his annoying clingy self, and scold her as much as he wanted, she just needed to feel his embrace once more. Unfortunately, the only thing embracing her was the cold air in this party room filled with smiling fuckers.

Nevertheless, Gu Yue allowed herself to think that was it, that there were no more of those things going after her. That she could finally have at least five minutes where she could just unwind and relax.

She really should've known better.

"The song..." Gu Yue started, meaning to acknowledge the return of the nursery rhyme playing. But her voice trailed off into nothing as her ears picked up more footsteps. And this time, it wasn't just one set.

She turned back around to where she spotted the floating balloon and immediately met eyes with another horde of entities. Just like the last one, Gu Yue spotted a dozen, potentially even hundreds of entities all rushing toward her with bloodlust.

Unlike the horde in that hellhole, however, the entities here were all the same type. And this one was noticeably slower.

Gu Yue saw that as an opening, turned around, and started running as fast as her almost broken legs could carry her.

On paper, Gu Yue should've easily been able to outrun the slow horde, then maybe hide somewhere until she lost them. However, with how difficult her legs were being, that was nothing more than overly optimistic thinking.

Her face scrunched up in pain, teeth gritting and hissing as her legs nearly collapsed just seconds after she started running. It was like forcing a broken arm to start limping. Her body begged her to stop, but she couldn't stop now.

She refused to have her millennia-long life ended in a clown circus of all places!

Gu Yue kept running straight back to where she was earlier. Luckily, beds and chairs weren't getting in her way anymore, so at least she had that going for her.

On the way, she passed through the room that held the 'Welcome to level fun!' writing on the wall and briefly considered going in there to grab one of the weapons. But she realized there was likely a trap already set up, just waiting for a prey to come forward.

So she turned the other way, heading in the direction of the place she entered. When she was back at the entrance, she had two ways to go. A hallway on the left and another hallway on the right.

Gu Yue had chosen to go left but now realized how horrible of a mistake that was. If she was unfortunate enough to have been weaker than the entities, she would've been cornered in that hallway and...

Why didn't she just go right? Surely it couldn't have been a worse place than here? Gu Yue questioned her life decisions as sweat ran down her face like a waterfall, her leg muscles spasming.

But as she arrived at her starting point, another set of footsteps ringed in her ear. Gu Yue immediately stopped in her tracks, hearing them coming in front of her.

"Shit...!" Gu Yue cursed, gritting her teeth.

Now she was well and truly cornered.

Turning to her right, a stupid part of her brain briefly considered opening that door and running back to that hell, but quickly realized any other fate somewhere else was better than over there.

With that thought, Gu Yue turned back around to face the horde. Her Soul Rings rose up once more as she prepared what might be her last stand. Either she somehow kills every single entity with this single uncharged attack, or she is killed because of sheer exhaustion.

Seven colors shone brightly, creating a rainbow shine that illuminated the room. The nursery song grew louder, and she realized that was because the entities were getting closer and closer.

Closing her eyes to concentrate, Gu Yue gathered all seven elements surrounding her in one spot, preparing a similar technique to the one she did in the hellhole level.

"Hey!" A voice that sounded way too human for it to have been fake called out, snapping Gu Yue out of her focus. Her wide eyes turned back in front of her, and instead of coming across another entity like she expected to, she had actually come across a human.

Short, spiky black hair with eyes of the same color, small wrinkles on his face, mediocre build, and an average height.

Gu Yue almost heaved out a sigh in relief, glad to finally see some company. Now she just needed to know if he was useful.

"There are hundreds of them over there..." Gu Yue said with a pant, pointing behind her. "I'm gonna need you to distract them while I charge up an attack strong enough to kill them all. Please tell me you can do that..." Words flew out of her mouth rapidly, panic and adrenaline written all over her features.

After she finished, she brought up both of her hands and closed her eyes, creating all five elements and preparing another Five-Elemental Lotus.

"I'm not a Soul Master!" The man screamed, forcing Gu Yue out of her concentration once more. She turned to the middle-aged man, anger, and panic growing even more.

"Listen-" He continued quickly, and Gu Yue saw the horror flicker in his eyes as he looked behind her. "-I doubt there's anything you can do against all that, anyway. I know somewhere to hide, so let's just run!" He suggested hastily, motioning for Gu Yue to follow him to where he came from.

"Go on your own, then! My legs are broken!" Gu Yue shouted at him in outrage, pissed off that the first person she encountered in a place like this was someone who didn't cultivate.

The man's eyes widened in realization, and instead of running away as she expected him to (humans were always like that.), he stood still, seeming to be in contemplation for a moment. After he was done, he turned around, bending forward a little bit.

"Quick! Get on!"

"Excuse me-"

"JUST GET ON!" The black-haired man screamed impatiently, interrupting Gu Yue.

Gu Yue didn't have a lot of time to consider her options because the horde of entities was almost right in behind them. She might get the both of them killed if Gu Yue continued to hesitate her. So reluctantly, she jumped onto the man's back.

He carried her in a piggyback carry in order to give space to the backpack on Gu Yue. Then, he started running for it, just barely missing the hand of an entity.

They started to book it as fast as he could, and with the black-haired man's speed and the fact he probably hadn't been running for his life for an entire hour straight, they managed to shake off the horde in no time.

But he still didn't stop running, traversing through the corridors as if he's already been here before. Gu Yue could only hold onto him tighter, looking around her for any signs of more entities. Luckily for them, she didn't see or hear anything.

After a few more seconds of running, he ran into a room, one with no balloons, cakes, or any other obnoxious designs such as writing on the walls. It was just bland and empty, something which Gu Yue very much appreciated.

The man walked over to a corner, showing Gu Yue that there was a small opening on the very corner, an opening you normally wouldn't spot if you were looking from the outside.

"Can you walk?" He gently asked her, getting a small nod. Humming, he let go of her legs, allowing Gu Yue to get back on her own two feet. Feet that were still wobbling a bit.

"Come here. The Partygoers don't seem to know this small hiding spot exist." He informed her, and a specific question came to her mind, but she didn't open her mouth to ask.

She just needed to lay down and relax. Even if it's just for a couple of minutes. That was all.

The stranger entered the small opening, with Gu Yue following closely behind him.

They entered a small space, one with no lighting besides the one coming from the entrance.

Gu Yue planned on searching her surroundings, but it seemed like her body has had it with her persistent use of it. Her legs fell apart, shaking as she fell to the floor. Vaguely, she could hear the worried cries of the black-haired stranger, but she didn't bother with responding. Instead of trying to get back up once more, she just relaxed, closing her eyes.

She just needed some rest. Just for a while...