Info
Written by: Positive123
Critiqued by: Solomon Sam
Spectre48
Vixiepixie
BlueSkiesAbove
AndromedeadReal
Stixiiee
LiminalDoctor
In front of the skyscraper stood Viktor Valentin, Master Administrator of the Eternal Repository, along with his guards. It was unusual to see Valentin travelling with his guards, but this time he decided it was important due to an invitation sent by the Backrooms Robotics earlier that day.
To the Master Administrator of the Eternal Repository,
Greetings! This is an official invitation from the Backrooms Robotics for a meeting in the main Robotics Headquarters at Level 522.
To enter the level, please head to our headquarters at Level 11. In there, we will be present to guide you through how to enter the level!
~ Yellow, Head CEO of the Backrooms Robotics
Tomorrow's World for Today's People
The main entrance into the building led into a simple reception room. In the middle of the room stood a man dressed in a dark purple blazer. From a quick glance, Valentin immediately knew that that man was Yellow. Clearly, he had been waiting for them.
"Greetings." Yellow said.
"Hello there." Valentin replied.
"Now, you must be wondering why I sent you that invitation. Well, I am here to offer a proposal, one that would concern both of our groups' future."
Intrigued, Valentin replied, "Very well then, do elaborate on it."
"Depending on how the meeting goes, your group will end up as one of the most formidable powers in all of the Backrooms, with access to all knowledge possible."
"…that's quite intriguing. Very well. I'm interested."
"How delightful. Shall we continue this in a more…secretive place?"
"I suppose I'll have to leave my men here, correct?"
"Indeed, unfortunately, I know your organization is secretive, but there are secrets, then there are secrets"
"Very well, then."
They strode into an elevator. Inside, Yellow pushed a combination of buttons in quick succession, so fast that Valentin could not keep track of what buttons he pushed. Then, the elevator moved.
"Good, this will bring us to our main headquarters,"
"Modified elevators?" asked Valentin.
"Yes. Back then, when we first moved our headquarters, frequent travel between here and there still had to be made. This was far too inefficient, so we captured an elevator and modified it to travel between these two levels."
"Nice to know."
Eventually, a dinging sound was heard. The elevator has just made its destination.
Entrance to the Backrooms Robotics Headquarters found them in a room with walls completely infested with tangles of wiring. There were wires of many sizes and colors, twisting and turning all throughout the walls. A black paneled floor was put in place for them to stand on, but he could see several gaps in it with wires struggling and writhing through them like worms, as if the level was trying to pull it down.
"We should head for my office." Yellow said, noting his discomfort. "It's the only room in this place without any of these pesky wires."
Valentin knew that information already, but he thanked Yellow regardless. "Let's go there, then. The wiring isn't too uninteresting as of the moment, but I have no doubt that I'll get bored looking at it soon."
The journey towards Yellow's outpost brought them through several rooms along the way as they twisted and turned along the maze of the level. Most of them were similar to the room they entered in, with cables completely enveloping the walls and springing up on the floor. Some of them were no thicker than a thread, while others were big enough to be mistaken for water pipes. Valentin could have sworn that several of these moved of their own accord.
Sounds could be heard too, with the clanking of metal and the buzzing of electricity and other noises getting louder the closer they got to Yellow's Headquarters. The flow of water was heard at one point along with the humming sound of a diesel engine. When Valentin asked Yellow about the noise, he responded with, "You'll find out later."
Eventually, they came upon a plain black door. "Right, this is the place." Yellow said.
The room behind the door was oddly plain for such an important location. A medium-sized mahogany table and 5 chairs were positioned in the middle of the room, with a smaller desk and a chair on the left wall. On the desk was a computer and a ceramic cup. Meanwhile, the right wall was lined with a yellow bookshelf.
Yellow pulled out a chair. "Have a seat," he said.
Valentin sat on the chair pulled by Yellow while giving some words of gratitude.
"So, what was the proposal you were talking about?" asked Valentin.
"Ah, well, here's the deal. The Backrooms are a wild and dangerous place, and we've sought to tame it. But we aren't able to do it alone. There are also some groups, such as the Amor Incrementum and the Reverence that oppose this kind of development. I need information about several of their bases, which you should be able to deliver on."
"If I do deliver, what would I get out of it?" Valentin asked. He could definitely manage that; the files of the Repository had contained information about these two groups, but he had to get a good deal if he were to trade them out.
"In exchange, all their assets and information obtained by us will be transferred to your group. Hopefully that should suffice, right?"
"But where is the part where we become 'one of the most formidable powers in all of the Backrooms, with access to all knowledge possible'? Both of these groups are certainly powerful, but we are already more powerful than them combined!"
"…this will require you to see for yourself. Mind if you close your eyes for a bit? Some things are not meant to be seen."
"And I assume you won't pull any tricks on me while I have my eyes closed?"
"I will most certainly not!" Yellow said, with an outrageous tone. "I swear I will keep you safe as long as you are in this level."
"How do I know you're not lying to me at this moment?"
"Well, if I did do that, and news of it broke out, which it always does, it would set a precedent that us Robotics are treacherous, lying, murderous, scoundrels. This would not only sour the opinions of our consumers, it will also most likely result in the severing of all ties with us from other groups as well the total destruction of our legacy, which I don't want to happen."
"Fine, you make a good point. But just note that if this really is a trap, I have commanded the Repository to immediately go to war with Backrooms Robotics if neither I nor my guards have been seen for over 48 hours."
Yellow's eyes faltered for a moment before he regained his composure and said, "No worries, your safety is our priority."
Valentin closed his eyes. He heard a beeping sound followed by squelches sounding like that of slime. "Alright. You may open your eyes." When he reopened his eyes, he noticed that the bookshelf on the right wall was missing, with a doorway in place of it.
"Let's go." He said.
"How long has this thing existed?" asked Valentin incredulously.
"We'll talk about it later."
And both men left the room.
The secret door led out to a long corridor. Unlike the previous rooms Valentin had seen prior to entering the CEO's Headquarters, the corridor was not infested with wires. Instead, the walls of the corridor were bare white, lined with a few reinforced metallic doors. Behind them, Valentin could hear sounds of machinery, of the grinding of gears, of the clanking and the burning of metals and more.
"Now that we've left that room, may you please enlighten me on the door? I can trade several things for that piece of information," asked Valentin. Valentin did not like it when he could not see the full picture of something. It was akin to being blind, which to Valentin, was incredibly undesirable.
"Oh, don't fret. That wasn't the only entrance to here. It would have been impossible to keep it a secret, then." Yellow said. "Another entrance to here exists, and I will tell you if you agree to my proposal, free of charge."
"Very well, let's continue then."
As they traversed through the corridor, Valentin looked into several of these doors. Each of them had their own unique label. A door on the right side of Valentin was labeled "KOKO", while the door on the left side of Valentin was labeled "Rivechs".
"Testing rooms." Yellow said, noting Valentin's gaze. "The wiring is far too unstable for proper experimentation to take place, so we built these to solve that issue. But that isn't what I wanted you to know. Follow me."
The duo traversed the corridor, with the noises from the rooms following them. The noise of the machines grew louder, and sounds of screeching and buzzing could be heard. The screeching sounded worryingly human. Despite Valentin knowing that the Backrooms Robotics does not practice human experimentation, Valentin could not prevent himself from imagining live humans forced under experimentation in the rooms.
Soon, they reached a door labeled "TEM-1" in which Yellow stopped. "We're here," he said. The door looked similar to any other door, but Yellow cautioned Valentin to stay away from it while he opened it.
"Pressure sensors." Yellow said. "No one should be standing in proximity to a person who is opening this door. Otherwise, an electrical blast will shoot out and kill them. No exceptions," he said as he inserted a card into a section of the wall left of the door. He then placed his right hand, then his left onto the same section. The door then flashed blue. "Please enter voice identification," a voice emanated from the door.
"This is Yellow, Head CEO of the Backrooms Robotics. Tomorrow's World for Today's People," Yellow responded.
A beeping noise emanated from the door. "Identification accepted." The door then opened with a hiss. "Done. All should be safe for you to enter now." he said.
"Should?" asked Valentin.
"Well, there was an incident a couple of years ago. We haven't had one since, though," Yellow replied.
"Somehow, I doubt it."
In the end, Valentin decided to take the risk and enter the room. No shocks were fired, thankfully. The room they entered was a large one, significantly bigger than he thought. The walls had a metallic tint, and the center of the room resembled a rocket hangar. An enormous metallic monstrosity hung from the ceiling, covered and lined in wires and with several pipes connected to it. Sparks flew out from the monstrosity, and the buzzing of electricity could be heard in the background along with the rushing of liquids from the pipes.
"That, my friend, is the Everything Machine," Yellow said. "A device capable of doing anything you wish. From creating new items never before seen to opening new entryways to other levels and even…killing gods."
"If you agree to an alliance, you will have an ally that is capable of doing anything. This is how you will become one of the most formidable powers in the Backrooms. This is how you will have access to all information known to man."
"If you have a machine that can do anything, why ask for my help? asked Valentin. "Clearly it isn't complete at the moment, but if I were you, I'd hide that machine from everyone possible. You realize I could have leaked this information to anyone else, right?
"But you wouldn't, would you? The Repository never gives out information freely if it can be helped, instead trading it for an equivalent value. And information such as this is priceless! The only way you'll hand the information over is if some other group makes an Everything Machine of their own!"
Valentin nodded. Yellow was right. "I assume that if I agree to your proposal, I will also provide information that would help the development of this machine, correct?" he asked.
"Indeed. We definitely need development to be faster."
"Very well. I shall consider it."
And both men left the room where the monstrosity lay.