Backrooms: Just be Friendly chapter 2

Opening Author's Notes: I hope whoever is reading this fic is having a great day so far. I'm trying to possibly post between 1 to 5 chapters a week, maybe more, maybe none at all. I can't promise anything. But please enjoy! All Backrooms content and names listed are not mine. I only own my OC's. Go and support the original creators if you have the chance.

...

The sound of buzzing was starting to get to Paul. He was just sitting on the ground, staring blankly at it, his mouth slightly open in shock. His mind had finally processed the situation and he still was in denial about it being real. He could definitely recognize the place he was in, it was basically the mascot of one of his favorite creepy pastas. The Backrooms. More specifically, Level Zero.

How?

'How is this even possible?' Paul thought. The Backrooms was a fictional concept, it had a wiki dot and fandom website with numerous entries. It's not real! How is he possibly here?!

Paul lifted up his slumped hands from the ground and gripped his scalp with his fingers. Before he had a panic attack, he remembered that he had to stay calm, freaking out wouldn't get him anywhere. So many thoughts flooded his mind at once. How is he in the Backrooms? How does it exist? Why him of all people? What about his family? Friends? Life?!

A few tears streamed down his face, Paul quickly wiped them away. He knew these feelings would only cause him to think and be irrational. He took a long shuddering breath, closing his eyes and going over the events that transpired over a couple of minutes. Paul remembered the philosophy he was practicing back on Earth, or in this case, the Frontrooms.

To summarize, Stoicism is the philosophy of going through pain and hardship without complaint.

Paul swallowed hard, the feeling of his heart dropping down to his stomach not going away. He pushed himself up from the ground, the damp carpet squelching under his weight. The recently no-clipped teen felt a bit of discomfort from his clothes being wet from sitting on the damp carpet.

Just in case, Paul pinched himself. He felt pain. It was unfortunate that this wasn't a dream, it would've been a cool one.

'Ok…..ok. I'm in the Backrooms. I need to survey my surroundings, and use the knowledge I already have to my advantage, I can grieve later.' Paul mentally noted that the feeling of dread and sadness was not leaving him anytime soon, but he had to try and push those feelings away the best he could for now. He needed to figure out what Level Zero he was in. Whether it's the normal wiki version, or if it's possibly Kane Pixels' version of Level Zero, or if it's completely different from both of them.

Now that Paul's mind was a bit more calm than it once was, he tried to think of every possible option he had to escape and or survive Level Zero, and to determine which Level Zero he was in. 'So...if I'm in Kanes' version of the Backrooms, I should try to find a red line that A-Sync employees use to retrace their steps, and I have to watch out for the Bacteria Entity. I could just wait for a group of A-Sync employees….if this even is Kanes' Backrooms.' Paul deduced, he now thought of the other version of Level Zero he could possibly be in, the more complicated, but safer version, the wikidot's version.

'If I'm in the version of Level Zero that's on the wikidot then I have to look for and watch out for multiple things. The Manilla room is a possibility...' he stopped for a moment, the realization catching up to him. He still had his phone, glasses, wallet, handkerchief, and chapstick.

Paul felt a tinge of excitement shoot through him, if he still had all of his things that were in his pocket from Earth-or the Frontrooms, then he could possibly even make his chances of survival even greater. His hand shot for his pocket at near lightning speeds, praying that his handheld device still worked. He anxiously pressed the power button, it turned on, putting his glasses on to see the screen better. He was surprised the lenses didn't even crack after he fell.

The fact his phone worked got Paul even more excited, he stared at the battery percentage the phone displayed. "94%".

He also looked besides the battery icon, at his service. For some reason he had a full five bars. A sigh of relief and excitement over come Paul, but that was quickly replaced with confusion. He had a full five service bars, and four bars of Wi-Fi. This confused him. He knew that Level Zero had Wi-Fi, he just didn't expect it to be this good. The boy pushed the thought out of his mind, can't be concerned with the strength of his Wi-Fi, he thankful he has it in the first place! He unlocked his phone, and tapped on Google. When he opened it up, he was checking if he could go to the wikidot or not, considering he was now somehow within a fictional space, the wikidot was going to be a gold mine of information and a major resource if he had to explore more Levels of the Backrooms.

He typed in the search bar, "Backrooms wiki dot", once the page loaded, he saw the wikidot's url as the first option. Paul was very thankful that he had service, and that he could go to the wikidot. But he thought of something. If he was to be found by the M.E.G, or any other group, or possibly even a dangerous entity, and if they found out he had access to all his knowledge, what would happen to him?

A small knot formed in his throat, if Paul did make it out of Level Zero, and by the off chance that he was in the wikidots' universe of the Backrooms, then he and his phone would be hunted down. He could possibly be tortured, his phone would be sought after as possibly one of the most valuable objects. This was bad, so very very bad He would have to try and hide that he has knowledge that most in-universe people in the Backrooms didn't have access to.

Paul steadied himself, slightly calming down his rampant thoughts of concern. He needed to check something else, he needed to see if he could access the Fandom as well. The Fandom is just an offshoot of the wikidot website, afterall, if he could access the wikidot then there should be no reason he wouldn't have access to the Backrooms' fandom.

Once he typed in "Backrooms Fandom" and tapped, enter, the url for the Fandom was the first result.

'Ok, I have service good on Level Zero, and I can access the wikidot and the Fandom of the Backrooms. If I move from where I'm standing and walk one way, I have a slight chance of coming across the Manilla room. And have to look out for other entrances to the sublevels of Level Zero. Again….that depends on if I'm in the wikidot and fandom universe of the Backrooms. Ugh….why? Why me? Why did I have to fall in this hell hole?! How is it even real? I thought it was nothing more than some damn creepy pasta!'

Angry thoughts about his situation assaulted Pauls' mind, he quickly pushed them out, not wanting to relinquish his rational thinking so quickly. If he wanted to survive the journey forwards, standing still and checking his phone wasn't going to help. The teen had a reason to move, a goal more like, he was going to try and walk one way to try and find the Manilla room. The room where there's valuable documentation that may help him escape Level Zero.

But that option may not yield the best results, the wikidot article on Level Zero itself states that "Entrance to the Manila Room is very rare but possible by walking an almighty distance in any direction." Therefore, Paul should probably still walk in one direction, marking the wall by dragging one of his credit cards in his wallet on the moldy wallpaper, all while looking and feeling for any "paranormal phenomena" that could be a place where he could no-clip out of Level Zero. Things such as a large spot or dent in the wall, a wall being a darker shade, weird temperature drops or increases, feelings of unease. He has a much higher chance of finding things like these, rather than things like the Manilla room, or A-Syncs' red line.

With that thought, Paul did a three-sixty. Scanning which way he should go, He decided to start down a wide space between two walls, he could see them taper off a couple dozen feet ahead of him. While he was doing that, he whipped out his wallet and slid out his credit card, getting closer to the right wall so he could begin marking it, looking out for things that look like a spot he could no-clip at.

With a clear plan in mind, Paul started walking.

…..

Paul could only assume he's been walking for a few hours now. He tried his best to walk in a straight line, only having to readjust his path when a wall was in front of him. Trying to focus on feeling anything weird and looking out for possible no clip locations were hard.

His arms were starting to get tired by dragging his now useless credit card on the walls, making jagged lines. Thankfully this Level Zero doesn't have any sort of healing wallpaper, that would be a problem. Paul's eyelids were starting to get heavier, but he doesn't want to take the risk of sleeping, since he hasn't confirmed which Level Zero he was in. The boy really, really hoped he was in the wikidot version, or some universe that didn't have the damn bacteria monster and Level Zero as its only level.

Paul stopped, stretching his arms and back, letting them rest for a bit. After his short rest stop, he was about to continue on in the direction he was going until around the corner he saw a darkened wall. The wall paper looked moldier, older, and worse for wear than the rest of the mono-yellow walls did. His eyes widened with surprise, heart rate spiked a bit.

He immediately rushed over to the wall that could finally be his way out of there.

Paul checked around the corner, paranoia not leaving him. Once he saw nothing, he rushed up to the darkened wall, feeling a slight mush of mold under its brittle, paper surface.

The boy got to his knees and thanked God, finally finding a way to leave this place. He remembered from some information on the internet that sometimes no-clipping works when you run at the said place as fast as you can. Paul hoped he wouldn't hurt himself and he got this on the first try since this sounded like a painful way to test out his no-clipping capabilities.

Oh well, it's not like he has other options. Besides, he can't force a no-clip like Spec can.

The teen took a steadying breath, stepping away from the wall a bit. Once he thought he got enough distance to run at full speed, he got into a stance, and ran as fast as he could towards the wall.

He shut his eyes and braced for a possible impact, which came, but not as hard as he thought it would. Paul's head collided with the wall, the recoil of his body hitting it sending him back a couple feet, ass flat on the ground, glasses clattering next to him.. He opened his eyes, and was surprised not to feel a throbbing pain in his head. He knew he hit the wall hard, why wasn't he at least hissing from some pain?

Shaking his head, Paul pushed himself up from the ground, picking up his glasses and stuffing them in his left pocket with his handkerchief and chapstick. He was getting ready to try again.

He repeated the same action as before, and got the same outcome. He hit the wall, yet there was barely pain or none at all.

He tried again. And again. And again. Sometimes he walked, jogged, or put his all into running. Yet his body kept colliding with the hard surface and he barely felt anything. Paul had half a mind to just leave and hope he could find another spot to no-clip. But he brushed it off. After all, he doesn't know if he would find another possible no-clipping location if he left this one.

The wanderer sighed, rubbing his face in frustration.

"Okay….I'm going to try this a couple more times, I hope this works. I really hope I get to Level One."

Paul walked away from the wall, setting himself up in the spot where he was in his many attempts before this one. He got ready to run, taking a deep breath in. But before he could take off, a large burst of unstable, ethereal energy–almost like lightning, appeared where he was standing.

The next moment, he was gone.

Paul Maryfield unintentionally forced a no-clip.

...

Closing Author's Notes: I hope people are liking this story so far, and you all are having a great day so far. I had to look at a couple of videos on YouTube to figure out how to write no-clipping, since it's not directly stated on the wiki. And to explain why Paul couldn't no-clip that well, it's because since he's from the real world he has more "realness" in the fictional universe of the Backrooms than normal "in-universe" people have. Hence things that are easy for in-universe people to do in the Backrooms, like no-clip, are a lot harder for Paul. But certain effects and other dangerous things that happen in the Backrooms won't nearly affect Paul as much as it does an in-universe person due to his "realness" in a fictional world.

And he'll be befriending some of the entities pretty soon. I still plan to make this fic like the general atmosphere of the wikidot version of the Backrooms or the Backrooms in general.

The Backrooms is a very dangerous place but has its safe spots here and there, so I'll try to make the tone of this fic action packed with some dark themes and with lots of wholesome moments with Paul and entities, along with other people in the Backrooms universe as well. But I'll start with establishing the story, and starting off with some world building in the first couple of chapters or so, and then Paul will start meeting people and forming friendships.

That's why the name of the fic is called "Just be Friendly". Paul will generally make more friendships and meet more characters from the wiki dot and fandom as chapters go on. So stay tuned for more readers and leave me comments on what I could improve on. Have a great rest of your day!