Chapter 8: Chapter 8: Towards The Matrix

There is something comforting about routine. Though… it’s certainly possible that that’s just something people stuck in routines tell ourselves to preserve what fragments of our sanity remain after we’ve been stuck in a routine for so long we start to get introspective about it. Either way, I choose to believe that routines can be a source of comfort within minutes of me finding myself back “on the road again”.

It takes us several minutes of walking before we are so far from the settlement that I can turn around and not see it in the distance. What’s more is that my senses are far sharper than those of my peers, so if I can’t see the settlement I know they can’t. My senses eclipse those of even a peak human, and the people here are regular humans who have survived mostly thanks to mental flexibility and sheer luck.

“So… Do you really have other psychic powers?” Asks Marco, as we begin to edge close to an hour of having walked in the same direction. Before this question he was regaling us with tales of “The Lost Prussian”, a sort of mythical soldier from Earth from the 19^th century, who has been in the Backrooms so long his skin rotted away even while he stayed alive.

I smirk at the man and nod, even as I consider how best to demonstrate the truth behind my claims. Right as I open my mouth, I feel something strange occur.

My lips begin to move, seemingly of their own accord, and I hear a sort of generic noise emanate from me. This is not something I am doing willingly, and as I do I see Marco’s head begin to bob up and down as he seems to listen to the noises I am making without noticing something strange happening.

Text boxes appear in front of Marco. Each of them is filled with words, each of which constitutes a response to his question that ranges in tone. One of them is even a bit flirty! I study them, subtly getting a vibe from each of the responses I could offer, and as I do I realize that while time hasn’t slowed down I am not really moving. It’s like I’m in a video game watching a looping animation. It takes me a second to decide on which of the text boxes to pick, but the moment that I do so I feel reality resume functioning as it is supposed to.

“Why not allow me to demonstrate my powers?” I ask, uttering the contents of one of the text boxes. I move my backpack so its in front of me. My companions look at me curiously, eager to see what I’m about to do. I subtly infuse the backpack and all of its contents with my corruption, but as I do this I open the object and reach into its main pocket.

I immediately grab the objects that I want but I feign rummaging around the backpack for a moment longer. I sense my corruption infiltrating the objects I am holding onto, and I smile as I feel my power infecting them. When I am satisfied that I have put on enough of a show to fool the people I am traveling with I pull the objects out of my backpack: two identical backpacks!

The party I am traveling with, aside from Rachel, all gasp when they see the objects in my hand. I toss one of them to Marco, who stumbles but manages to catch it and another to Anna, the woman who spoke earlier about “The Lost Prussian”. She manages to catch the object a bit more gracefully than Marco did. Both of them immediately open their packs, and are delighted to see a range of goods in them. As they visually explore the packs, Rachel begins to speak up.

“Gustavo’s powers grow with use. It seems that he can now create copies of his own possessions. For as long as we are traveling together, consider those packs yours.” She explains, brightly. As she speaks small icons depicting the heads of the men and women in my party appear in the top right of my field of view with little green arrows pointing upwards.

I study the markers I can feel the entities under my command beginning to spread corruption further, as they tackle their first victims. My thoughts are interrupted by the mental words of Rebecca, whose voice shocks me out of my half-introspective state.

“More and more of your system is coming online, Gustavo! What you just saw is part of a perk named ‘Dating Simulation’, and even the little heads in your mind’s eye are manifestations of that perk. It’s a neat little thing that helps streamline conversation, and also quantifies your relationships for you.” She explains, her mental voice quite bubbly.

“The perk is actually quite handy, but you don’t have your system fully on yet. It seems that some perks are just… flaring to life.” My goblin-like familiar explains to me.

“All of this stuff seems… weirdly videogame like. Is that what my system is? Some sort of videogame interface uploaded to my soul?” I ask, curiously. I can psychically hear her nod excitedly.

“That’s basically what it is! You have already seen a few of its effects, namely the ‘Inventory’ you now have access to.” She reveals, casually.

“In that case… I don’t think the perks are randomly flaring to life. Is it possible that my activities are generating some sort of…” I ask her, still over the mental channel in which I speak to all of my allies. I’m trying to think of how to explain the concept of “Experience”, in a way that makes sense, and as I do I can feel Rebecca’s eyes widen in surprise.

“That… That might be it! Especially since you now have that final perk from the ‘Trickster’ origin. It would make sense that such an influx of experience being tripled, at least, would inadvertently awaken some of your more hidden perks and bring some of your system to life.” Rebecca tells me, happily.

“Your system is a fairly powerful one, though it also seems to be growing in power as you accumulate experience. The ‘Dating Simulation’ perk was not part of your original package… I suspect that as you have more fights with foes, and as you use your powers more of your abilities will awaken within you.” Rebecca tells me, basically giving me free reign to go wild. That makes me smile, internally, which is both exciting and concerning… I swiftly return my full attention to the scene in front of me, right in time to watch my companions begin to sift through the goodies in the backpack.

“These things… Almond water, food, and weapons?! Amazing…” Anna exclaims, a look of pure joy on her face as she begins to pass around some of the items inside of the backpack. The others in the party greedily eat the food they have been given, smiles on their faces all the while. We continue to walk, albeit slowly, as we edge closer and closer to wherever we are going.

I turn my attention forward and I glance in the distance. As I do I elect to make conversation, and as I make that decision, I feel time freeze around me again, though not in a way that would be perceivable to someone less astute than me.

This is jarring and annoying, but I hear Rebecca whisper to me that in time I’ll be able to control it. When I ask her how she can talk to me still she replies that she is an “Item”, not a true lifeform so she doesn’t feel the full effects of frozen time I study the text boxes that appear in the middle of my field of view, before selecting another one.

“So, what is exploring the Backrooms like? I’ve only been alive for a short while, and it seems like all of you are experienced veterans.” I ask, causing no small heads to appear in the top corner of my vision. My companions look at me excitedly, and I have to repress the urge to smirk at them.

“It’s… it’s kind of neat, actually.” Marco tells me, even as he begins to eat a simple turkey sandwich. Some of the others in the group nod at his remarks.

“I’m from a small town in Mexico and before I ‘No-clipped’ here I had never left my hometown. In the few months I’ve been here I’ve walked hundreds of miles, and see five different levels. I even learned English!” Marco exclaims, in between bites. He mentioned “No-Clipping”, which I know refers to the process by which both humans and entities most often travel between levels. It is a videogame-like process by which someone phases through an actual object and ends up on the other side of it.

“I’ve seen lakes of carpet fluid, and even visited ‘The Darkness’. This place is neat! Terrifying… but still really neat.” He tells me, excitedly. There is a sort of reverence in his tone that I would not have expected to hear if I’m being completely honest.

For the next few minutes I listen as the adventurers tell me about their escapades. I am treated to stories about levels with names like “The Neighborhood Of Darkness”, “The Sunken City”, and even “The Almond Fields”. As my companions share their stories with me Rachel speaks for me and I can sense her words impressing our new companions. At the same time I can feel my servants successfully hunting down more and more creatures, and with each creature they corrupt I can feel the ability of whatever is keeping me from hearing the voice calling out weaken.

I practice multitasking by going ahead and making use of the corruption inside of some of the newer monsters my servants have managed to dominate. I don’t do this randomly, but instead for a very specific reason: I want to hone my corruptive power and eventually allow it to transform and bestow upon me the “Essence of the Binder”.

I reach out across a vast distance, several miles at least, and I mentally reach into the bodies of several entities. These entities are also hounds and smilers, which so far have proven themselves to be the most common types of creatures I have actually managed to encounter though I know from the memories of my servants that there are many other types of monsters lurking in this place…

I will the corruption inside of some of the monsters that roam distant corners of the level to flow to specific body parts of theirs. This causes the creatures to distantly collapse and begin to convulse as the corruption inside of them flows to where I command it to. The eldritch stuff that I command obeys me with eerie ease, and is eager to do as I command.

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Corruption has a mind all its own but that mind is eager to serve me. I mentally command the stuff altering various monsters throughout the level, and as I do I feel my familiarity with the stuff massively increasing. Time begins to pass, on a scale much smaller than it normally does when I zone out, and with every second I can feel the potent effects of “Afarkaup Avarkostir”, the mighty “Trickster” perk I possess, tremendously bolstering how much experience I gain with even casual actions.

I can feel mental pathways beginning to form in my own mind, and as I practice directing the corruption to form the sort of esoteric sigils that the “Essence of the Binder” would find appropriate I feel ideas forming in the back of my mind. The sort of ideas that are forming in the back of my mind are wicked ones, ones informed by my strange, natural power over my corruption. They are ideas that hinge on the unique properties of the “Essence of the Binder”.

I allow myself to be distracted by this activity. Etching the sigils on even a small hound, which are much smaller than smilers, takes several minutes but when it is done I can feel my power over the creatures deepening. I smile, both internally and externally, as I sense my level of mastery over my own powers increasing.

As I half-fantasize about the day when the essence is fully mine my companions and I manage to reach something exciting. We find ourselves a good distance away from a part of the long path we are on where one of the walkways that make up the “Cogwell Matrix” has collapsed and is now a mangled mess. It slopes downward, and can be walked on to reach other parts of the maze of walkways that illuminate the level, if someone dares to climb the tangled mess that is on the ground.

The end of the ruined part of the walkway connects with the ground a good mile ahead of us but I can easily see that far ahead of me and my companions can also see that far, though just barely. Weirdly though I can’t seem to see the entities that, according to the memories in my hivemind and the words of my companions, should be crawling up and down the walkways of the matrix. I can’t hear them either, which is definitely a bit strange.

I step to the head of the group and I begin to guide us towards the strange sight. As I guide us in the direction of the mysterious wreckage I notice that at the bottom of the wrecked walkway, very close to where it’d connect with the floor of the level, is a thick and shimmering portal.

The portal is a doorway shaped hole in reality and inside of it I can see what looks like the very upper edges of a city’s skyline. I cannot see through it, nor can any of my other senses penetrate it, it’s almost like it is acting like a thick wooden wall that exists to obstruct my senses…

“What is that?” I ask, focusing my sharp vision on the bizarre portal. This allows the many minds in my hivemind to see the distant object and as they study it I begin to feel a strange sort of extrasensory sense of foreboding fill my chest. I spend another moment studying it when a text box suddenly fills my mind’s eye.

[Alert: Observation [Skill] unlocked. Observation [Skill] activating…

Target identified. The targeted object is a [Portal] to [Vaporwave City]. The [Portal] can be captured if [Corruption] is used.]

This alert causes me to fully stop in place, and my companions stop walking and look at me. I can sense worry on their faces, but I momentarily ignore it as I stomp my feet and send out a wave of corruption sprinting ahead of my allies and I.

I talk to my allies, apologizing to them for a moment, while my corruption surges ahead. When the corruption reaches the edge of the steel catwalk I smile at my allies and offer to stay in the middle this time. Marco smiles at me and volunteers to be at the head of the pack, eager to get us towards where we need to be.

I will my corruption to surround the space around the portal and to even surge into it to give me a view of whatever is truly on the other side of the dimensional space. Corruption engulfs the portal, causing a timer clicking down from five minutes to appear in my eyes mind and as it does I can what lies on the other side of it…

On the other side of the portal lies entities that glare at the portal or that are actively moving towards it. Some of the entities are familiar to me, like hounds and smilers. The memories I forcibly acquired allow me to recognize weird flesh-colored balls of muscle that are rolling down the walkway towards the portal and identify them as “Rollers”, while I am completely unable to identify a number of gigantic flying moths that hover in the air high above the portal. The moths are watching the portal but making no move to claim it. But that’s not all I can see.

On the ground beneath or behind the walkway, depending on how far back someone is looking, I can see a distressing sight. A dark green gas fills the ground level ahead of my group, which when I study it causes [Observation] to activate again. I am informed that what I am looking at is “Radon” gas, a colorless, odorless, highly dangerous gas that I can see thanks to the power of perks.

If we want to find the vault… We’re gonna have to climb the walkways, or take a longer, possibly more dangerous route. I need to tell my companions, even if no one will be happy to hear what I've got to say.

“Hey… I can hear entities up ahead. And there’s also Radon waiting for us. I can see it, thanks to my anomalous senses.” I explain, knowing that the gas is a common, fatal hazard of this level for reasons that escape me. My companions stop, even as I feel the portal beginning to thin, distantly.

“So the only way forward is up on the Matrix? Gustavo… tell me what you see.” Marco asks, which causes me to nod at Rachel. She takes charge and explains that I can see monsters lurking on the walkway, even the ruined part. She also tells the group that we can both see Radon gas on the floor ahead of us so walking around the ruined chunk of the matrix is not an option.

“But… I think that Gustavo could lead us through the monsters.” Rachel adds, at the end. This is entirely of her own volition and surprises me. Everyone’s mouths drop as they hear her say this, and I quietly chuckle at the reaction her words have gotten. Jessie, one of the men in the group turns to look at me and studies me.

“Is this true? Because if it is… If it is, then you are the best shot we have at making this journey worth it. I don’t want to believe it but we haven’t found Zac’s brother so finding the Vault is the second best thing we could possibly find. If we haven’t found Zac’s brother that means he’s either dead or the level shifted around us… I am choosing to believe the level shifted while we were making our way here.” The man says, gently.

There is a look of honest vulnerability in his eyes as he studies me and waits to see what I say. I close my eyes and begin to run mental calculations about the odds that all of us would survive a battle royale like the one my allies want me to engage in. As I do this I complete more of my sigil making activities in the background.

This makes me feel unexpected delight and it brings me one step closer to completely acquiring the “Essence of the Binder”. That itself brings me to a dark conclusion… If any of my companions die, I have the means to resurrect them! I look at my allies after a long while, mostly to allow my corruption to get work done on the portal, and I smirk.

“It won’t be easy… but I can get us where we’re heading. I can get us further into the level, using the walkways.” I confirm, saying it explicitly to ensure that I am not misunderstood. As I say this my companions all smile at me and pat me on the back or my shoulders out of a sense of comradery.

“In that case, when I’m done here… Gustavo, lead the way.’ Anna tells me, while she opens up her backpack and begins to hand our companions various weapons. Not all of them are melee weapons either!

Anna hands a few people small guns or tiny, but sharp spears. It takes a few minutes for all of us to finish getting armed, either with a melee or ranged weapon, and only very rarely with both. During this time my mental timer hits zero, and the portal vanishes right as a wave of “Rollers” vanish into its metropolitan maw. I am told by my system, via text boxes, that I will learn more about portals and how to use them when I complete this level, which annoys me but at least it doesn’t distract me.

When we are fully armed I step into the front of the group and smile. I motion for everyone to be ready, and I begin to walk towards the collapsed remnants of the walkway, followed by my subordinates. I mentally command my corruption to be ready to strike, and I position the stuff along the walkway itself and the part of the long hall where deadly, radioactive gas lurks to kill mortals. I do this to keep entities from successfully fleeing the fight, so that I can capture them all.

“My first real fight…” I mutter, aware of so much more now than when I rescued my companions, both of whom are right behind me in the form of shadowy ooze piles lurking in my shadow. I can’t help but be a little excited, even though I know that this, as an actual battle, is very dangerous.

“Progress… Opportunities for growth…” Whispers the malevolent voice of corruption, which is seemingly hungry for more minds to add to itself. I ignore the voices and I call some of the entities I have marked with my sigils to my shadows, in case I need some entity-based muscle to back me up during this clash.

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