Answers. Finally.

"Keep it down!" Long Bing sharply chastised Tang Wulin, motioning to the dozens of people in the room with them, all looking at Tang Wulin with annoyance.

Tang Wulin calmed down a bit, embarrassment settling in as he instinctively went closer to Gu Yue for protection, although she also looked shocked. How could they not be surprised to hear that name? It's been etched into their minds ever since Teacher Wu opened up to him, Gu Yue, Xie Xie, and Xu Xiaoyan, the members of Class Zero, about his past.

More questions wanted to escape Tang Wulin's mouth, but Gu Yue did it for him.

"Long Bing was supposed to have died decades ago. That's why we're so surprised to hear that name again here." Tang Wulin heard Gu Yue speak in a level tone, though he was able to see through it and notice her growing stress.

He could easily understand why. After everything that's happened, even someone like Gu Yue would start to slowly crack from everything. Although, maybe they wouldn't have had such a tough time had they not started arguments three times in the span of twelve hours.

"Glad to know I became famous after my death." Long Bing blankly replied.

"Exactly. You're dead. So where are we? In hell or something?" Gu Yue responded, not quite realizing the hidden meaning of her question.

Tang Wulin brought his hand up to cover his face in embarrassment as he saw Long Bing flinch, hurt by Gu Yue's wording. Right now, all he wanted to do was bang his head against the wall, or maybe bang Gu Yue against the wall. Both, especially the latter, sounded like amazing options that would help him tremendously in reliving his stress.

"First off, that's offensive. Second-" She turned to the yellow-haired man still next to them. "-Yao Yang, go get them Almond Water and rations, I'll do the explanation." Long Bing ordered the man now identified as Yao Yang. He nodded, walking off, presumably to one of the stacks of boxes.

Long Bing approached the spot Gu Yue was cultivating in earlier, sitting down cross-legged and inviting them to join her.

"We have all the time in the world, so come on." She patted the vacant space next to her, looking at them expectantly.

Tang Wulin immediately listened, hungry for food and answers, with Gu Yue following shortly after.

"So. What do you want to know first?" She asked the moment they positioned themselves comfortably on the ground.

"You." Tang Wulin and Gu Yue answered in unison. The mysteries surrounding where they were was temporarily forgotten, and what they wanted to know right now was how their teacher's long-dead girlfriend somehow got here.

Long Bing was silent for a moment, presumably gathering her thoughts before she started.

"Before the Darkness Hummingbird Douluo could strike me down, I somehow fell through the floor, landing on level 0. Or, as you like to call it, 'the yellow place'."

Tang Wulin instantly realized she was leaving out the part about how she got in a fight with the Darkness Hummingbird Douluo in the first place. However, it didn't matter as Tang Wulin and Gu Yue already knew the situation.

"I had no idea where I was, but at the time, I was extremely relieved to be anywhere but with that monster. I slept for a while, trying to regain stamina before I started walking around. It helped, if only a little, and I was able to wander the walls even with my severe, life-threatening injuries. In fact, I'm sure that if it weren't for me keeping my body together with my Soul Power, I would've actually died for real."

"I kept walking, ignoring the screaming of my legs telling me to stop. I ignored it all, knowing I had to get back to where I was before because someone I knew was there fighting the Darkness Hummingbird Douluo all alone."

And that someone is Teacher Wu... He remembered from Wu Zhangkong's version of events that the last thing he saw before he fell unconscious was Long Bing kneeling in front of the Darkness Hummingbird Douluo.

Tang Wulin guessed that his teacher hadn't managed to stay conscious long enough to witness the disappearance of his lover.

"Eventually, the exhaustion caught up to me, and I fell to the ground. However, just like before, I somehow fell straight through the floor, and this time, I was in some sort of warehouse with concrete floors and walls. I tried to get a better look at my new surroundings, but my body gave, and I passed out."

"Warehouse? Here?" Gu Yue voiced her confusion.

"I'll get to that in a second." She briskly answered, getting back to the point.

"Anyways, I woke up with my body feeling way better now. I soon realized that was all thanks to the people around me. One of the people there was actually him." Long Bing pointed to Yao Yang over in the distance. "They nursed me back to full health, then explained that I accidentally no-clipped into the backrooms."

The backrooms... That was what everyone kept calling this place. Tang Wulin was completely clueless, but Gu Yue seemed to be trying to rack her head for any information about this place they were stuck in. And he wasn't even going to bother with wondering what the hell 'no-clipped' meant.

"It was great for a while. They taught me what to do and what not to do when encountering each entity. There were only nine of them, but they happily welcomed me as the tenth member. By working together with them, we managed to breeze through the levels, getting further and further into the backrooms."

"I'm sensing a 'but' coming..." Gu Yue silently whispered although she was still heard by both of them.

"But. Our group got into a massive disagreenment." Sadness flickered in her eyes before it immediately disappeared, her hardened look reappearing.

"You see... We managed to reach level 11, one of the safer levels in the backrooms. For some reason, the entities there didn't attack wanderers and remained neutral, even the entities we encountered today. Along with its sheer size, thousands of people flocked to live there."

Thousands? There were thousands of people here?

"After arriving there, everyone immediately voted to settle down in level 11. Everyone except me and Yao Yang. And after that... Hell broke loose." She ended her sentence with a small sigh. It was obvious to Tang Wulin that she cared about that group a lot.

"In the end, they didn't manage to convince us to stay, and our group officially broke up."

"Me and Yao Yang progressed further into the backrooms while they stayed back in level 11. Since nothing bad ever happened in that level, they're probably still alive and healthy."

"How long ago was that?" Tang Wulin spoke up for the first time since Long Bing started speaking.

"Years ago. Anyways, that's all you two really need to know about my story." She responded, immediately ending it before Tang Wulin could ask another question.

Long Bing... The woman who managed to seduce the ice-cold Wu Zhangkong. The woman who was presumed dead for an entire decade. And she was sitting right in front of him, alive and well, and was living her own life in this completely different place.

"So, I assume you both want to know everything about the backrooms?" Long Bing's guess earned her two nods from Gu Yue and Tang Wulin.

"Alright. Fire at me."

"How many people are here in the backrooms?" Tang Wulin immediately asked, worried that there were thousands of people out there defenseless against the monsters lurking around them.

"I don't have an exact count. People fall here more often than you think. But the M.E.G database says that the amount of people in the backrooms has recently reached six digits."

Tang Wulin sighed. More than one hundred thousand people were possibly in danger, and the worst part is that he couldn't do anything about it.

"What is M.E.G?" Gu Yue asked afterward before Tang Wulin could speak.

"M.E.G is the largest, strongest, and most influential group around here. Consider them the Douluo Federation of the backrooms." Another voice cut in, making all three of them look to the side.

Yao Yang was back, holding two bottles in one hand and bread rations in the other.

Tang Wulin tried, seriously tried, to hide his disappointment as he looked at the singular ration of bread. He really didn't want to sound greedy and ungrateful, but... Was that all? That piece of bread would be nowhere near enough for a stomach as bottomless as his!

It seemed Tang Wulin hadn't done a good job of masking his disappointment because Yao Yang's eyes looked at him apologetically.

"Sorry, but since we now have thirty-two mouths to feed, this is all I can give while still being fair to everyone else." Yao Yang said with a wry smile, handing the food and water to both Tang Wulin and Gu Yue.

"No, no! It's fine! It's fine! You're absolutely right. Everyone should be fed a fair amount." Tang Wulin responded with closed eyes, barely restraining the pain and depression he felt as he looked at his meal for the entire day.

"Why-"

The moment Gu Yue opened her mouth, Tang Wulin's gut instinct instantly told him that she was about to say something stupid and insensitive that would get them in trouble. Not wanting to lose the friendly relationship he had built with Long Bing, he snaked his hands to her waist, giving it a tight pinch.

Gu Yue flinched, purple orbs widening in surprise. She turned to Tang Wulin in confusion, only to meet his blank stare. He was silently telling her to stay quiet lest she says something that offends everyone again. And after a brief moment, she seemed to get the memo and obediently stopped speaking.

"Next question." Long Bing said as Tang Wulin chowed down his bread in record time. Even Long Bing's normally calm eyes widened at the display.

Tang Wulin wanted to ask something, But with his mouth full, Gu Yue was doing the talking for now.

"How did we get here?"

"The short basic term for it is that... You fell outside of reality, and now you're here. There are a ton of different ways for this to happen, either by walking through a broken wall, falling through a glitched floor like I did, or by accidentally teleporting here with your space element."

Ah. So it was Gu Yue's fault. Well, Tang Wulin still wasn't going to put any blame on her. He didn't he had it in his heart to be that cruel.

"What are entities?" Tang Wulin spoke up this time. With his other hand, he opened the bottle cap and started drinking the Almond Water while listening to Long Bing.

"Even though humans have been falling here for years, there is still no one that had been able to truly uncover the secrets of the backrooms. We still don't know where these entities come from, who they came from, or how they somehow randomly spawn in the dark. The only advice I could give is how to deal with all of them, but that would also take a wake too long. So, I'll leave you two with this. If you see any writings on the wall with a smiley face... Leave. Get out as fast as you can."

Tang Wulin took a couple of moments to process that, but when he did, he made sure to remember Long Bing's advice. In all honesty, he had no idea who would be dumb enough to let themself be tricked by writings on the wall, but she seemed really serious about it.

"What are levels?" Tang Wulin inquired again.

"They're kind of like floors of a large building, but instead of arriving to an actual bottom floor, you get sent to a completely different area. Those areas can be anywhere from large offices, to entire cities'. And they all have their personal infestation of entities. Although, as I said earlier, some levels are safer than others."

While listening closely to Long Bing, Tang Wulin saw Gu Yue bring her piece of bread to his mouth, motioning for him to eat up. Despite his overwhelming hunger that was screaming at him to accept the food, he still denied it. He would only accept food from her when she's already full.

He tried to push away the bread from his face, trying to bring it back to Gu Yue's mouth. But she seemed to have enough, and pushed the bread inside Tang Wulin's mouth, forcing him to have to eat it. While chewing on the food Gu Yue was holding for him, he turned to her in exasperation.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw Yao Yang raise his brows at them. He also heard Long Bing pause, but like Yao Yang, she decided to ignore their display to continue talking.

"If you want to get out of a level, you would have to get creative. The greatest advice I can give is to try everything. Anything could work and send you to the next level. This is the backrooms after all. Anything is possible."

"How far did you get into the backrooms?" Gu Yue questioned, acting as if what happened between her and Tang Wulin was completely normal.

"I and Yao Yang made it all the way to level 819, where we accidentally no-clipped through a wooden track, sending us all the way back to level 27."

"It, quite understandably, destroyed our motivation. So we've set up a temporary base here to unwind and relax until we're ready to go again."

Level 819? God. How many levels were there? And judging from what Tang Wulin is seeing, he can guess that Long Bing hadn't been able to find a way out even after traversing through all those levels.

Swallowing Gu Yue's piece of bread, Tang Wulin spoke up once more.

"How many levels are in the backrooms?"

"The final level of the backrooms is level 9223372036854775807." Was Long Bing's only reply, but that was all they needed to hear.

Shit.

"And I assume that level is the way out?" Gu Yue asked with a sigh, lowering her hand from Tang Wulin's mouth.

"Even though thousands of people have fallen down here, there were only two that managed to truly escape from the backrooms. The first one was a Soul Sage who somehow found a glowing door that brought him back to reality. We don't know where this glowing door came from but after the Soul Sage had entered through it, the door was gone in an instant. Were assuming that the doors randomly appear for anyone wandering across any level."

"And as for the second person... He was a Titled Douluo who brute forced his way through level 9223372036854775807."

"That's it? No one else ever got out?" Tang Wulin asked in disbelief. A hundred thousand people, and only two survivors? One of them hadn't even managed to get to the final level and only got out through a miracle door.

This was making him realize the severity of the trial ahead of them. They would have to succeed where a hundred thousand people failed.

"No. And since the former had only gotten out through a stroke of good luck, something I personally don't want to rely on, your best bet if you truly want to escape is to keep going down the levels until you reach the end."

Tang Wulin sighed. How long was it going to take them to get to that ridiculous number? What about Na'er and the other Shrek Seven Monsters? He hadn't even been able to reunite with them properly before he and Gu Yue were thrown here. He guessed he could also throw away any hope of seeing his parents again since, by the time he got out of here (if that ever even happens), they would've probably died from old age.

As Tang Wulin's thoughts grew more and more depressing, Gu Yue decided to voice one more thing.

"Do Soul Beasts fall down here?" Gu Yue asked, the question unintentionally bringing Tang Wulin out of his stupor.

"Yes. But only rarely. It's one of the main reasons why the backrooms is such a dangerous place. There are no Soul Beasts here to turn into Soul Rings, which is preventing everyone from increasing their Spirit Ranks. So whenever a Soul Beast comes here, every human comes and hunts it down without mercy." Long Bing finished, making Tang Wulin flinch in his spot.

He understands the need to get stronger, but it shouldn't have to come at the cost of a Soul Beast's life. Long Bing's emotionless and blank tone regarding the matter wasn't helping either.

Tang Wulin felt Gu Yue tense up next to him, her hands clenching into fists from barely restrained rage. If Tang Wulin didn't know Gu Yue like the back of his head, he might've just mistaken it as her just getting irritated. Her eyes seemed to lose all their color, and she was looking everywhere except at Long Bing.

Even though he didn't know why Soul Beasts was such a sensitive topic for her, the why didn't matter to him in this situation.

He brought his hand to Gu Yue's back, rubbing circles on her back gently and softly. Gu flinched at the touch for a moment before she quickly realized it was just him. It didn't take long before his efforts were met with success, Gu Yue's body becoming lax against him as she hid her face in Tang Wulin's chest. However, he continued to rub her back, partly for his own satisfaction.

"I don't care if killing Soul Beasts will make us stronger and increase our chance of survival. It's just immoral and selfish no matter how you want to slice it." Tang Wulin replied to Long Bing evenly, his expression a lot calmer than Gu Yue's but still noticeably angered.

"Go tell that to M.E.G.," Long Bing said with a shrug, staying neutral on the topic.

"Are they in charge?" Tang Wulin responded with a question of his own, his hand still absent-mindedly touching Gu Yue's back.

"Yes. And I wouldn't recommend trying to fight them. Some of the Soul Masters have already reached the Titled Douluo rank. But trust me, I can understand your anger. The M.E.G, while extremely useful, is just as corrupted as every other government on our continent."

An awkward silence passed between them for a while. Long Bing wasn't stupid enough to not notice that the Soul Beasts were clearly a sensitive topic for them, especially Gu Yue. So the brown-haired woman wasn't looking at them in the eye.

"Any more questions?" Long Bing asked, to which she got a no from Tang Wulin.

"Alright. Since you guys are done, I'm gonna need your help now." Yao Yang cut in, turning to Tang Wulin.

"Whenever everyone goes to sleep, there's always a single person staying awake to keep watch. Normally, that would either be me or Long Bing, but we want to get as much rest as possible since we're going out to look for resources tomorrow. So we were hoping one of you could fill in for us." Yao Yang explained with his hands on his hips, and it seemed fair enough to Tang Wulin.

Tang Wulin looked down, shaking Gu Yue off him. As much as it hurt him to separate himself from her warmth, he needed to go. Gu Yue was detached from him without any effort, making Tang Wulin realize that she had fallen asleep on his chest.

Seriously...? Tang Wulin couldn't resist the smile from etching onto his face as he stared at Gu Yue's soft expression, her snoring barely audible. The fact that people thought this face was average made him want to lose faith in humanity.

"I'll keep watch for the entire night. Just make sure she gets a sleeping bag and proper rest." Tang Wulin said, motioning to the sleeping woman lying against him.

Long Bing and Yao Yang were quick to agree to his terms, and he got up, carrying Gu Yue in his arms. He stood still, waiting until Long Bing came back with a sleeping bag.

Tang Wulin ignored the stares he got from Long Bing and Yao Yang as he carefully and gently tucked Gu Yue in, resisting the urge to kiss her inviting lips right now. He was sure she would be too embarrassed to kiss in public.

With that over with, Tang Wulin stood back up, following Yao Yang. He was trusting Gu Yue with Long Bing, and he hoped she wouldn't screw him over.

Yao Yang led them both outside the massive room and through the red flare smoke.

The lights were still out, meaning that Tang Wulin would have to stare at the dark for a while.

"Since it's still lights out, plus you're a beginner, stay as close to the base as possible." Yao Yang started, looking around to make sure no entities were nearby.

"If there are entities nearby you don't think you can take, don't be afraid to wake us all up. We'll understand."

"How strong are the strongest entities?" Tang Wulin asked. He wanted more information on what would be his main enemies for a while.

"On this level? They all have their own unique abilities, but in my opinion, the Female Deathmoths are the most troublesome ones. Their moths that can spit acid and its really annoying. So if you hear the fluttering of wings, get on guard." Yao Yang advised him, getting a nod from Tang Wulin.

"Thanks."

"No problem. Just don't die on me kid. I don't need that on my conscience." Yao Yang said, turning around to where the outpost was.

"I'm stronger than what my cultivation makes me seem like. Plus, I'm nineteen, not a kid."

"Nineteen is still a kid to me."

"Oh, wow. You must be old then." Tang Wulin sarcastically replied, and for the first time, he heard a small chuckle from Yao Yang.

Suddenly, Yao Yang stopped in his walk back to the base, turning back to Tang Wulin, who was positioning himself on the ground.

"I never got your name." Yao Yang said expectantly, making Tang Wulin turn to him.

"It's Tang Wulin."