Under our new program, the description section of the following document was written by an inhabitant of the level before being approved by a member of the M.E.G. We hope that by deferring to people who have lived in the level their entire life, we can create a better picture of what life inside it is truly like.
—Overseer Andrew, M.E.G.
SURVIVAL DIFFICULTY:
Class 0
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Description:
The nice explorers who tasked me with writing about this place told me to call it "Level 612", but I just prefer "home". I asked them about the name, and they said that "Level" just means place. An archaic reference diluted over decades of usage until its original meaning is no longer remembered. And as for the 612, I asked them if there were really 611 places before this one, to which they replied that there is far more than that, but this was simply the 611th that they had decided to write about. This is almost impossible for me to imagine, but I trust them, and I trust that they are telling the truth. The desert, my home, is just so incredibly large that I can't even imagine 600 more places of the same size floating around in the cosmic abyss. Of course, I'm not so deluded that I thought this was the only place that existed. I've talked to the travelers who come through here every now and then, and in fact, my own mother was from the outside.
I suppose here is where I should begin talking about this place itself. That's what the explorers told me to write about, after all. This place is my home. It's where I've lived for my entire life, where my father lived for his, and where his family lived in turn. It's difficult to figure out what to write here without a frame of reference. I don't really know what's worth saying. For example, are all "Levels" lit up dimly from the sky? I've read that on Earth, it's lit up by a great fire millions of miles away (or perhaps the name "Frontrooms" would be more familiar to our readers, as that's how the explorers referred to it), but here there is no such source. The sky is just stuck perpetually in a state of— "twilight", I believe is the word that I read somewhere to describe the skies of Earth when it is not quite light but not quite dark. All this is over an endless desert of black sand that stretches out as far as I can see and as far as I have dared to walk.
At all times, I can hear the most beautiful sounds in the air. I'm told by the travelers that this is not something found everywhere, but to me, it just feels like the voice of the desert. It's comforting, in a way. The travelers have told me that the noises sound like a piano, a giant box of strings and hammers that produces beautiful music when the buttons on the side are pressed. I think I read about them in a book once, but it had never occurred to me what they might sound like.
This place seems to be completely empty aside from myself, my cows, and the occasional traveler, but I don't mind it. I'm actually told by the travelers that my cows are not actually cows, or at least not any cows that they have seen, but they fit every description of a cow that I have ever heard. These large brown beasts moo and graze, eating the sand around my house. They provide me with milk when they are young and meat when they grow old, and in turn, I take care of them, making sure they are safe, that their babies are safe, and that they're happy. I feel a certain connection with the cows. I would have to, I suppose, since they are the only things here to keep me company. My mother never liked the cows, but they are special to me.
It does get lonely around here. I think I'm very lucky that I share a language with most of the explorers that pass by, so they can regale me with stories of their past and of what they hope will be their future. Of course, there are some dialectical differences. With the explorers, for example, what I call "animals", they call "entities", and for them, everything has a number. Even random things I have around my house. It's very strange.
I think I should also write here about the meaning of the music because it's really the only "secret" in this place, and it's a secret that may very well die with me if I do not write it down. I think it was a secret that my family was meant to keep, but it's been mostly lost anyway except for bits and pieces, and I think my family too will end with me. Everyone before me is dead. By some miracle, my father found a traveler who agreed to live with him and continue the family, but now I'm older than my father was when I was born, so I think this is really the end.
The secret of my home is that the song that plays forever in the sky is about the Songstress. Or, it is the Songstress or a memory of her or a memory of a memory of a memory. I don't know who she is, and no traveler who I've ever asked about her has known her, but I somehow feel like I know her through the song. Maybe she created this place so long ago, or maybe she simply passed through and left an imprint of herself. I wish I knew, but who is there to ask? Perhaps she's out there somewhere. I wonder if she remembers this desert that I call my home. I wonder if anyone except for me remembers her.
Sometimes I wonder if she even existed. After all, everything I know about her is half-forgotten details handed down through generations, and who's to say that any of it is real? But when I'm just about to drift to sleep and I hear the melody in the sky, I feel certain that she was here because I can feel her in the music.
Entrances and Exits:
Entrances:
There are only two entrances to Level 612 known to the M.E.G. at this time. However, from the apparently frequent sightings of travelers passing through the level, it is very likely that there are many more entrances that are not yet known. The two known entrances are as follows:
- Wanderers with an interest in piano music who enter Level 67 will occasionally find a piano with a framed picture of a desert of black sand sitting on top of it. Clipping through the piano will lead to Level 612.
- Clipping through the ground in the outside section of Level 294 will lead to Level 612.
Exits:
When one walks far enough through Level 612, they will find a number of half-buried doors made in various styles opening into the ground. Exploration into the possible destinations reached by these doors is ongoing, but two have been explored thus far, which lead to the following levels:
- A tall door made of dark-brown mahogany leads to Level 153.
- An ornately carved cherry-wood door leads to Level 89.