level 4 the abandoned office

Level 4 resembles an empty office building, though it is almost completely devoid of furniture. Some rooms on this level have windows, though most of them have been completely blacked out. Any windows that have not been blacked out are considered traps and should be avoided at all costs.

Level 4 is mostly devoid of entities. Hounds and Dullers are the only ones to have been observed. One person claimed they saw a Smiler, but no evidence exists. Because of this lack of beings, there are lots of people on Level 4. Scattered around this level, water coolers, vending machines, and fountains containing Almond Water can be found. Level 4 is very easy to escape from (and also return to).

Level 4 is the best place to meet other people and find supplies. Before attempting to move on to the next levels, it is recommended that you stock up on Almond Water: it will be needed, especially in Level 5 and Level 6.

-backrooms wikidot level 4

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A ding could be heard as the doors of the elevator opened to reveal a large room akin to an office space. The walls were white and lined with a few windows; most of which being blacked out.

Noting their arrival, everyone in the elevator quickly exited and immediately collapsed onto the floor, some of them nearly falling onto each other although no one seemed to pay it any mind most likely due to exhaustion, not to mention all the near-death experiences they had gone through together by this point.

Taking notice of the floor, it seemed to be covered in a blue-gray carpet, which thankfully unlike the carpet in level 0, was not moist.

Taking a few minutes to catch their breath, some of the group was finally starting to compose themselves. No one seemed to be hurt thankfully; that being one of the few brakes they had gotten from the backrooms so far, besides the incident with petra.

Though their experience with level 3 had been their harshest yet. They were just thankful they made it out unscathed.

-that was level 3!

They were starting to feel an increasing amount of dread about what was to come.

After what could have been well over 30 minutes of them lying on the floor and rethinking their life choices, they finally started to get up.

"We finally made it.'' Subaru, sitting up from his previously sprawled out position on the floor-took out their folder once again, beginning to flip through it.

Subaru: "the abandoned office huh? Doesn't look all that abandoned to me."

The word "abandoned" at least in a literal sense, did not fit the level in the slightest. There were many people scattered around the level doing various things, like trading items or even just talking. Except for maybe the M.E.G base in level 1 they had never seen so many people in one place the entire time they had been in the backrooms.

The word abandoned though-was probably in accordance with the lack of furniture; besides a few water coolers and vending machines there was little to fill the empty space in any of the rooms.

Reading through more of the folder, Subaru felt a weight drop to the bottom of his abdomen; being one of the safer levels of the backrooms; there was thankfully a low entity count, with only two types of entities having really been encountered.

Having encountered quite a few entities by this point, that on its own wasn't the problem. The thing that caused the sickening feeling in his stomach was the fact that one of the two entities found here were dullers.

Subaru shook his head, trying to avoid the flashbacks of Louis getting eaten whole and Beatrice's ear-piercing scream as he bled to death.

"We're finally here" Subaru sighed as he took another look around, putting away the folder.

Anastasia: "we should prolly start tryin to gather some info about a potential escape"

Subaru: "what would we even ask? It's not like we're the only ones trying to get out of here."

Now that they thought about it the plan wasn't very well thought out to begin with. They hadn't gotten the time to develop a proper plan especially since they accidentally went to level 2.

"Ya know, you're actually right." mused Anastasia, who actually seemed to be at a loss. After all they highly doubted anyone would just happen to know the way out of the backrooms. Through their meeting with Man they found out about some potential leads, like "the promised land" or "the barrier" but they could assume those were already widely known. If a large organization like the M.E.G didn't have much on them why would a bunch of random people.

Beatrice: "maybe we should focus on trying to get to 'the barrier' i suppose."

"Yeah you're probably right" Subaru rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

Anastasia couldn't help but also feal quite embarrassed how didn't they think of this sooner!

Julius: "we should also be more observant of the levels we go to and see if we can spot a potential exit. There may be previously theorized exits but that does not eliminate the possibility of finding new ones."

Everyone seemed to agree with this statement as they all gave their nods of approval.

seriously! how did they not think of this sooner!

Anastasia felt like she took a massive shot to her ego. she was supposed to be the merchant queen, someone who built a massive financial empire with her own wits and skill. yet she had been so focused on the eccentricity of the backrooms and trying to get through as fast as possible-that she had overlooked a proper strategy. Maybe the backrooms was getting to them more than they thought.

Subaru: "your so smart beako! I can't believe we didn't think of something like that sooner!"

"Hmph, of course I am, I suppose." Beatrice smirked as Subaru showered her with his gratitude-filled headpats. Choosing to ignore the fact that she had also overlooked developing an actual plan until now.

"I can't believe you people. Bringing us all this far without an actual thought out plan" otto shook his head, disappointed at the group for their-quite-honestly potentially catastrophic blunder. "We may have a plan now but we should still take this opportunity to rest and gather supplies. I have a feeling things are only going to get harder from here." said otto with a tied expression, can't he ever catch a break?

"Yeah you're righ-louis, get away from there!" Subaru noticed Louis had wandered a little ways away from the group and was near a window. Most of the windows in the area were blacked out but the window Louis was going towards seemed to have light coming through it.

Having read through the entry about the level, Subaru knew that those windows were actually dangerous entities. So seeing Louis so close to one, he immediately called out to her.

Lucky louie had not gotten too close to the windows yet, and upon hearing her name being called by Subaru she immediately made her way towards him, with a look of concern.

Louis: "uau u ah!?"

"Don't go near those windows, they"re traps." said Subaru, placing his hand on Louis's shoulder to calm her down. Thankfully louis seemed to understand his command, and held no opposition towards it.

Subaru: "anyway, as i was saying. Yeah we should definitely gather some supplies. I read in the folder that this level has tons of almond water so we should probably start there. But for food we might need to trade some of our supplies."

It hadn't been a problem until now-but they noted how little supplies they actually had. All they really had were a few granola bars, some almond water, and a first aid kit Subaru thought was a good idea to pick up from the meg base-forgetting that they had people who knew literal healing magic.

Taking initiative Subaru took the bottles of almond water they already had and refiled them at the water cooler. He also got a few more bottles from the vending machine using a coin on a string he borrowed from a friendly group of wanderers making sure to return it afterwards.

Meanwhile Anastasia managed to trade the (frankly nearly useless) first aid kit for 5 boxes of various different kinds of "cereal". After which they regrouped in a nearby corner away from any windows or other people.

"Ok so I refilled our almond water and I got a few more bottles just in case" said Subaru, showing them the almond water he gathered.

"Well I managed to trade that 'first aid kit' for these boxes of 'cereal'" said Anastasia, gesturing to the 5 different boxes of cereal she managed to get from the wanderers.

Otto: "good. That should hold us over for a while"

"Speaking of-we should probably drink some. Especially after everything that's happened in level 3. And I don't think Petra's had any almond water yet, so she should definitely have some." Subaru commented as he handed everyone a bottle of almond water.

Drinking the almond water, a sense of relief and groundedness washed through her as if she was drinking it straight from the bottle. It's as if some of the tension in her mind was unwound and she was finally able to think more clearly. Though it didn't remove it completely; she still had that dreadful feeling in her chest, and the ever present pressure in her head, though lessened still persisted.

Though Petra wasn't about to complain; this is the best she felt since she came here. The feeling was nearly addictive; she was sure that if this was in their world-this would be the stuff of luxury; so she made sure to fully quench her thirst while she could. Who knows when their next chance will be.

Anastasia was grateful for this break. She was really beginning to think she was losing it, she never expected her sanity to be so fragile. Even after all she went through to gain the title of 'meachent queen' she'd still managed to keep her edge. But after going through everything they'd gone through so far, she had already felt herself slip away from her multiple times. She was beginning to think that it might be a residual effect of this place.

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After drinking and subsequently refilling some of their almond water, the group decided it would do them good to get some sleep. So finding their place in the corner everyone collectively caught some z's. Beatrice being the one to watch over the group as they slept. Just in case, there were still some entities or other dangers in the level after all, even if they were rare; not to maintain the potential for someone stealing their supplies in their sleep. Most people here shared the same goal, but they would be stupid to not think there would be at least some malicious people there.

Lucky besides a certain incident their escapade into the land or rest went on without a hitch; although she would bet that many of them had nightmares.

After waking up and reconvening they decided to discuss their plans for level 5 'the terror hotel'.

Tivey: "well with a name like that it must be dangerous"

Subaru: "yeah. Its a survival class 2, which is the same as level 2 so at least we won't be dealing with another level 3 immediately."

Mimi: "what's a hotel?"

Subaru: "it's kind of like a large inn"

Mimi: "hmm, okay"

Beatrice: "So what's the plan I wonder."

Anastasia: "I think we should register a room there."

Otto: "huh? Why?"

"Think about it, our goal may be to escape, but I doubt we'd be able ta do that in one go. So what this gal's thinkin is we could use that room as a sorta base of operations if we ever need to do anything long term." if anastasia was skill at anything (which she was at many things) it was making an investment. This investment had no cost ether, all you had to do was claim a room. It was a steal!

Julius: "i don't see why not, it won't cost us anything after all."

Otto: "fair enough. I guess it wouldn't hurt to have a base of operation, especially if it's this easy"

Subaru: "and for the rest of the plan, we thoroughly look through the level and try to find something that might lead us towards an exit."

Anastasia: "that sound fine ta me."

Julius: "if my lady agrees then i am fine with it as well."

Subaru: "alright then it's decided."

Otto: "what!? You didn't even even wait so see if I agreed!"

"Well you do agree don't you?" said Subaru, throwing Otto a mocking questioning look.

"Well yes i agree it's basically the plan we came up with earlier, but you still can't just skip over me like that! You even got Julius's approval!"

Subaru: "I didn't mean to get his approval he just cut me off before i could stop him."

*otto scoffed*

"Anyway, all we need to do to get to level 5 is go up that staircase" Subaru pointed to a stairwell on the opposite side of the room.

With that made there way to the staircase, readying themselves for what was to come.

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*extra*

*the incident beatrice mentioned*

The group had been sleeping for a while now and nothing bad was happening so beatrice decided to check out the weird machines as Subaru would call them.

Tivey had actually woken up, and was in the process of going back to sleep when he noticed something

He saw louis-who was also supposed to be sleeping, with her head to Subaru's neck

l subtly nibbling on it.

-"What are you doing!"

Whisper-yelled tivey, In his best threatening voice.

*giorno's theme starts playing*

Louis begins to slowly turn her head towards tivey. Her bright blue eyes seemed to nearly glow, as the rest of her face was slightly darkened by the shadow of her hair.

Louis: "i-"

"You two! go back to sleep i suppose!" The scratching of a record could be heard as Beatrice interrupted the situation before it could go any further.

Tivey: "but she-"

Beatrice: "Betty knows, she does that all the time in fact."

Tivey: "then-"

Beatrice: "it's none of your business, human! Now go back to sleep in fact!"

With beatrice not leaving any room for argument, tivey-albeit reluctantly went back to bed