SURVIVAL DIFFICULTY:
Class pending
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You remember coming here, once upon a time.
At first, by yourself. You sat, rolled up your pant legs, let your feet dangle over the water, and thought about how nice it would be to be here with someone else. How nice it'd be to sit for a smoke, hands brushing someone else's. Maybe tonight you'd be lucky. Maybe you'd finally get your first kiss. Dreams can come true on nights like these, here in Level 284.
Description
Photograph captured by self-proclaimed photographer, author, and explorer J. Walker upon immediate entry to Level 284.
Level 284 takes the form of a riverside lookout spot, usually dependent in appearance on the purveyor's history—it does its best to recreate hometown memories, in an attempt to guide the imagination.
Theories vary widely as to what exact properties allow Level 284 to seemingly dig into its visitor's memories, but no conclusive research has managed to be gathered due to the level's effectively seamless illusion. Further, no objectively hostile nature can be proven from the level's behavior, and all negative side effects from visiting Level 284 appear to be largely the fault of hardwired human psychology. Unlike the majority of "illusion-based" levels, the place seems to have no ulterior motives in the illusions it offers.
Nobody could ever love you like that little hallucination of a lover in your head. The level knows that. In spite of all of the Backrooms' cruelties, and in spite of all of the world's cruelties, you deserve a nice night. You deserve that boombox on the concrete platform behind you, the junk food next to you, the lingering taste of smoke in your mouth, and that entangled pinkie with your imagination next to you.
Bases, Outposts and Communities
Due to its basic nature, no more than one person at a time may be present within Level 284. Upon entry of one person, all other entrances that may exist across the Backrooms vanish entirely1.
While no groups can reside within the level, groups surrounding the level have naturally formed. Entreprenurial travelers and dedicated regulars formed small groups that task themselves with finding entrances to Level 284, be that for personal use or for charging others a finder's fee. No names have arisen from those gatherings, but they do tend to post on a dedicated forum on the Backnet on various topics, ranging from debate on how the place basically functions to tips and tricks for identifying entrances to the level.
Entities
While the level is generally devoid of life aside from the weary travelers it welcomes, there are two major theorized entities concerned with the level.
Option One: The Imagination
Due to the keen sense of reality travelers often experience when interacting with their imagined partner or companion, some debate that the illusion of a person beside you for the night might instead be a sentient creature of some kind. Again, due to the nature of the level and the difficulty of any sort of research being conducted within it, this theory, along with the one that follows, remains just that—a theory.
Option Two: The Level
While this theory is slightly more plausible due to the function of the level, it is similarly difficult to test. Option two suggests that the level itself is sentient to some extent, given its ability to reflect visitor's memories on a large, in-depth scale. What exactly it aims to do in its illusions, should this theory be true, is difficult to determine. As previously noted, no directly level-related negative experiences or effects have been recorded, and despite its loyal regulars, no disappearances have been reported. Maybe, as the notes we've been forwarded suggest, the level is kind in its own way.
Furthermore, no evidence points to the idea that entities from other levels could not find their way into Level 284, but this has proven difficult to observe and record the results of.
Entrances And Exits
Entrances
Entrances to Level 284 appear semi-regularly2 throughout the Backrooms, usually in a fairly seamless-looking manner. Most entrances can be identified by signs of urban overgrowth. The initial entrances will tend to be difficult to trudge through—many visitors have reported knee-deep mud, barely navigable branches and trees, but nothing outright dangerous. Once the entrance used leaves the person entering's line of sight, it will effectively vanish, alongside all other entrances to Level 284 across the Backrooms.
At this time, it is unknown what exactly happens if two or more people attempt to enter at the exact same time, traveling at the same pace into the level3.
Exits
The only known exit to Level 284 is a good night's rest. As the night carries on, wanderers will eventually find themselves lulled to sleep. Most wake up back in the level they entered from, but some have stated that when entering from more dangerous levels, they usually wind up someplace notably safer.