You cheated.
rating: +33+x


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Created by your eternal Praetor3005Praetor3005 for the Classicon Contest (Author Page).

Heavily inspired by the "You Cheated" image/level concept that was around back in the day. I remember seeing a lot of these cringe entity-filled terrible pages and videos, completely missing the point of what the concept could mean. So I hope you will like this interpretation! A limpurist format screw, but a welcome one, am I right?

Special thanks to CamaradeAlbabarCamaradeAlbabar for his defining opinion on the page, as well as to Nikuchan Nikuchan , BlueSignetBlueSignet, Aether48Aether48 and C-GraphC-Graph for their crits.

Languages: ukfrancechinaportugalpolandvietnamspainitalyrussiapalestinetokikoreathaiindonesia

You abruptly hit the floor.

You immediately feel the cold, hard concrete floor of the location you just fell in. Then the pain of the fall gets to you. Although you don't seem to have broken any bones, your body still struggles to get back on its feet. This, however, is not the first time you accidentally noclipped, so you avoid panicking. You remember your different experiences with the Backrooms well, and you still have materials to use in case of an emergency. The fall was unfortunate, but you feel more annoyed than scared at this very moment.

While each and every part of your body still hurts, you nonetheless manage to gather your thoughts together and scan the unknown environment that now surrounds you. Knowing the CLIPP Procotol quite well, you start to check the new territory you are in.

A quick glance at your surroundings reveals a simple, bland room, quite resembling of the bedroom you used to sleep in as a kid, back when you were still home. The walls are in a uniform beige color, while the floor seems to be made of a taupe concrete base. Curiously, the room doesn't possess any furniture or distinctive features. This lack of personality chills you, but remembering your training regarding liminal spaces, you manage to keep your calm. There should not be anything to worry about. After all, humanity has historically dominated the Backrooms, and you're currently equipped with the culmination of all its knowledge. People would have panicked here in the past, but you won't. Everything will be fine.

As you cannot discern any danger within the room, you turn around to face the wall behind you. you decide to continue the protocol, as nothing here is stopping you to do so.

You observe the wall for some time, remembering your training. A bland, monochrome, featureless wall. There is no doubts in your mind; this is your ticket to escaping this odd place. You take some distance from the wall, then quickly run towards it. You feel yourself clipping through matter, traveling to whatever level awaited you on the other side. You raise your head again, surprised to see the same room you thought you left some seconds ago. A doubt now forms in your mind; is it yet another room… or have you looped? You reach in your bag for a small can of Almond Water and place it on the ground as a landmark. You then try to noclip again; once more, you feel drywall merging with your body. But on the other side, you find the same beige walls you saw earlier. As you walk towards the wall in front of you, you notice the can in front of your feet, much to your surprise. As you bend down to put it back in your bag, a thought creeps its way to the front of your mind, this always works normally. Why can't you noclip out of this place? Your instructor always taught you that bland, featureless surfaces allowed one noclip to other levels. And he was never in the wrong regarding Backrooms safety. Just a day ago, you managed to escape from a Hound by noclipping from the corridor you were trapped in. When's the last time things didn't go your way?

It's at this moment, however, that you notice an anomaly on the wall you just went through some seconds ago. On your right, you can see a white, slightly opened wooden door. Although its color and form fit the blandness of the room quite well, you cannot help but feel drawn towards it, as it's the only distinctive feature of the place. It's almost like the level wants you to use this exit and no other.

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But as you approach the opened door, you shudder as you behold the other side of the threshold. In front of you lies a massive expanse of darkness. You can make out the fact that this is another room, but you can't discern its size or distinguish any notable part of it. As you're looking into this esoteric void, you're reminded about the fact noclipping didn't get you out of this place. This, confounded with how the sole way forward is into the unknown, only adds to the mystery. No feature to be recognized; no knowledge to be used.

You realize that the light of the room you are in doesn't penetrate the shroud of darkness in front of you. Surprised by this, you reach for your trusty flashlight and turn it on, pointing it at the void on the other side of the doorway. Your shock, however, is only exacerbated, as even the light of your torch fails to illuminate the gloomy realm beyond. You start really worrying about this place. First, the impossibility of noclipping, and now the failure of the light. What was once a small inconvenience, your first failed attempt is now becoming a proper issue. With this ever-growing worry comes a sense of frailty. Despite what you've been taught, every action you've taken so far has failed, a pattern you've now started to notice; it's almost as if the universe itself wants you to fail. You sigh, still unsure as to what this all means. Whatever it is, it's clear that this place isn't like any other. It seems that, for now, you will have to take the path this level intended you to.

With a heavy breath, you take a step towards the door—towards the unknown. Even if the darkness itself worries you, you have to confront it. With another deep breath comes another step forward. Then another. You still feel sort of calm, despite all the strange events that've happened so far.

At the door frame, you decide to close your eyes to gather strength. You walk slowly towards it; one step, one breath. Then a second. Soon you open your eyes to find yourself fully immersed in the black void, reminding your soul of one of man's primal fears. Whatever the knowledge, whatever the tools, humanity always kept its fear of the dark as a reminder that, no matter their ingenuity, people are burdened by weakness. And now, you're brutally reminded of this fear. You start to feel uneasy. Were your two failures really that impactful to your morale? This isn't how it usually goes. You are not a child, and you definitely are no coward. Yet this place is putting you on edge, a feeling you haven't felt in ages. You are alone in the dark, and it's as if your training, all the the knowledge you've accumulated, it all feels useless.

You decide that you need more preparation before venturing into the shadowy realm. You turn to where you came from, ready to walk back into the light, but you freeze in horror, as you realize the threshold is now gone. No door, no illuminated room. Just the darkness, all around you. Your sense of uneasiness now starts to morphs into true, raw anxiety. You don't know where you are, and you don't know where to go. Completely disrupted, you feel powerless in this obscure room. You stagger across this dark realm, desperately trying to find a wall to use as a guide. The little confidence you had left is now gone, and your mind is slowly descending into despair. But in this inconceivable room, there is no wall, no point of reference to use. You feel like you are now living in a nightmare, where you're trapped in the chamber that was your childhood bedroom. You breathe more and more heavily. Your anxiety is slowly worsening, and you're starting to understand the severity of the situation you found yourself in. You are trapped here, alone. This place will be your undoing if you don't manage to escape it in time.

Agitated, you trip on your own feet, falling onto the floor. Although your reflexes saved you from yet another harmful descent, this mishap only adds to your anxiety. In a hurry, you reach for your backpack to get some of the objects you have with you. As humans did in the past when they wanted to cheat their death, you have to resort to using tools to escape this place. But as seconds passe, your anxiety only grows stronger and stronger. You fail again and again in your quest to find anything relevant in your bag because of the darkness. But at last, you find some Warpberries you traded from a B.N.T.G. member in Level 10. Natural resources and their mass production were always necessary for humanity's survival, and Warpberries were no different. The mass harvesting of these miracle fruits in the last few months has allowed for wanderers to thrive and overcome any unforgiving environment. You try not to think about the previous failures, worried about the upcoming attempt. You need to keep believing in what your fellow men have achieved. You almost choke as you swallow them whole, hoping to get teleported back to the fields of wheat. But as you start to chew them, you feel a weird sensation coming from your mouth. Quickly, the taste of the fruits begins to worsen. In mere moments, the taste goes from manageable, to disgusting, then to completely rotten, forcing you to spit them out onto ground, as your body was no longer able to bear the flavour the Warpberries developed. There were no doubts in your mind. Those Warpberries spoiled. How was that possible? You recall just buying them two days ago, and they were just perfectly when you put them in your mouth just some seconds ago. Warpberries aren't supposed to spoil this early, nor that fast. Tears start flowing from your eyes. Fear slowly creeps into your mind as the significance of this third failure sets in. It's impossible. This can't be the end.

As your desperation continues to deepen, you finally decide to try your last resort. You start searching through your bag once more, but this time, you immediately find the item you were looking for. With extreme caution, you pull out a partially used Hermes Device. You remember having struggled to get it, but it was well worth it. Being the apex of mankind's ingenuity, this masterpiece always worked in every situation. If bending the rules of this world through the items it provides didn't work, then surely a man-made item would? You didn't care about the immorality of this contraption, especially in this situation; this was your last hope. Your whole body shakes in anticipation as you activate the device. You can already see yourself relaxing back home in Level 4. Your body starts to stretch, as it usually happens while noclipping. Finally, you smile. It is the end; it's finally working. But this relief quickly morphs to horror, as the Hermes Device unexpectedly starts to vibrate intensely. Suddenly, a throbbing pain overwhelms your entire body; it feels as if you're being pulled apart into a million different directions all at once. In a panic, you throw the device away from you, wheezing and breathing heavily from the pain you just experienced. While you can't see its broken remnants, you clearly hear it shatter into pieces somewhere around you. This, at last, confirms what you were the most scared of, the truth you were refusing up until that point. You won't cheat your death here. You won't escape by your rules. All of man's genius—all of humanity's knowledge and wisdom regarding Backrooms items and techniques is worthless in this place. Nothing can save you here.

You feel the darkness itself constrict around you. You start to cry, now fully understanding your fate. For the longest time, you and your peers were confident that humanity had finally dominated the Backrooms. You yourself had thought your people were now in charge, weaponizing whatever they could to prevent this realm and its beings from harming them: industrialising the growth of food; creating nightmarish devices just for the sake of safety; mastering the rules of this world just to bend them for their own selfish intentions; working against the ecosystem that always existed. And you, personally, thought that you were never going to experience fear and despair again. You thought that with the tools mankind possessed, the objects they created, the food they produced, the safety methods they implemented, you could say that you have, alongside your peers, a true mastery over this world.

Despite what the Backrooms had set out for you, you cheated. You weren't supposed to disrupt its ecosystems. You weren't supposed to innovate and find leeways around the rules of this world. Your kind was never supposed to thrive here. Your arrogant self thought you had every right to take advantage of what wasn't yours, whatever the cost. But the Backrooms do not forgive.

You understand now. You haven't won, and you will never win. The Backrooms claimed victory once more, and they're toying with you, making sure you understand the folly of your mind, the naivety of your aspirations, the weakness of your species. Your hopes of powers were just an illusion, and at the end of the day, once the Backrooms grow bored of the sadistic games they're playing with their residents, they'll throw them out, as they did with you. The Backrooms has no mercy for rule-breakers; maybe you were the first, but you know you won't be the last. You weep over this fact, crying and begging for help and forgiveness, but deep inside of you, you know it's now pointless.

You cheated, and now you must face the consequences of the Backroom's boredom over your foolishness.


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