When Zhang Xiao yawned in the stairwell of his office building at two in the morning, he had no idea he was falling into humanity's oldest nightmare: the Backrooms. This infinite space, caught in a crack in reality, stretches on without end, its six hundred million square miles of yellow wallpaper never stopping. The fluorescent lights' incessant buzzing gnaws at your sanity, while beneath the damp carpet lurk secrets more terrifying than death.
Level 0 is only the beginning. In the mold-scented maze, Zhang Xiao learns his first lesson: don't trust your eyes. When the first “Smiler” presses its featureless face against him, he is saved by Lin Qiu, a M.E.G. scout. Carrying a rusted compass, she tells him the truth: the Backrooms has 999 known levels, each a carefully designed death trap. Hounds with exposed muscles roam the warehouses of Level 1. “Pipe Crawlers,” creatures resembling human beings, lurk among Level 2's steam pipes. And in the darkness of Level 3, something collects human screams.
At Alpha Base, Zhang Xiao witnesses the survivors' ingenuity: they use almond water to fight mental corrosion, homemade electric fences to keep entities at bay, and supplies traded from the B.N.T.G. to eke out an existence. But when he is forced to join a supply mission to Level 6, he discovers that all his experience is useless. Something new is evolving in the darkness beyond the reach of flashlights. These entities no longer follow the behavior patterns in the M.E.G. database. They learn, lay ambushes, and think like humans.
