Curse Reply: I'm going to fight the Myriad Corpse Immortal, the highest level one!

Splat!

Cowboy hat, pistol, cowboy boots, and a man who has not eaten the fruit of the split-up.

"Has the metaverse always been like this?"

Xia Jie looked at the minced meat on the ground that was gradually returning to human shape, and turned to ask Xiao Lu.

The Thunder Warlock and Thunder Dung Monster had barely stepped out of the login square when a man dressed as a cowboy suddenly appeared in the sky, falling silently and crashing into a puddle of mud.

"It's always been like this; you won't find it strange anymore once you've seen it enough."

The little deer shrugged indifferently, walked forward, and kicked the budding humanoid lump of flesh twice with moderate force.

From her X-ray perspective, the bones beneath the skin of the person in front of her were already in place because of her just the right amount of force.

"We encounter several people like this who suddenly appear in the sky every week."

"One in ten of them messed up while trying to use spacetime abilities, and nine in ten they got stuck in the back room theme park."

"Although the person in front of us isn't wearing the classic yellow protective suit, judging from their demeanor and attire before the fall, they should be a member of the 'Cowboy Gang,' an organization of backroom players, conducting an experiment to cut out the backroom."

"In pursuit of the ultimate immersive experience, members of this organization will voluntarily seal off parts of their memories and permissions, and take the virtual back room as an adventure as a real alternate dimension."

"They don't even know they're playing a game until they die or successfully cut themselves out."

"For them, the back room is fake, but the thrilling adventure is real."

To satisfy Xia Jie's curiosity, the deer stepped over the half-crippled player who hadn't died from the fall and therefore hadn't triggered the resurrection mechanism of the online game, and waved to Xia Jie.

"They're quite adept at it."

Xia Jie lowered her head, her gaze sweeping over the eyes of the corpse lying on the ground as it gradually returned to its place. She muttered a complaint and stepped over it as well.

The Backrooms is a collective online collection of strange tales that originated on the 4chan forum in May 2019.

Its core premise is that when a person accidentally "cuts out" of reality, they will enter an alternate dimension called "Back Room".

This space is like the embodiment of "error," or a funhouse mirror reflecting reality, where everyday things are distorted and deformed, forming multiple alternate spaces full of bugs and strange entities.

In the worldview of "The Back Room," the normal Earth is called the "Front Room," which is the spiritual homeland that almost everyone who has strayed into the Back Room dreams of.

Xia Jie speculated that the current back chamber of the metaverse, as well as many other fantasy worldviews, mostly appeared after the inner world of the one-person world was added.

It can be said that the setting of the interior as both fantasy and reality instantly increased the freedom of the metaverse by several orders of magnitude.

As Xia Jie's thoughts wandered, behind him, the cowboy who had completed his self-healing slowly regained his senses. With his memories unlocked, he was stunned for a full half minute before finally letting out a long sigh of relief.

He left home, fell into a back room, encountered a monster, survived perilous situations, and joined an organization.

Growth, love, betrayal, reunion, reunion, sacrifice, farewell...

A profound sense of bitterness filled my heart.

It turns out that all his hardships and wanderings were entirely his own fault.

"strong enough."

The cowboy rubbed his head, his eyes shining. As an immortal being, this experience had restored the vitality of his youth.

A trip to the back room is more beneficial than harmful.

He looked at his life experience task list, which clearly stated:

"First stop, an immersive backroom survival experience, a special edition for the Cowboy Gang."

"Second stop, a virtual fantasy world where the overall gaming level drops by ten thousand times, but my level remains unchanged."

"In the third stop, as the only male in the world, please use your ability to return from death to create a perfect ending where everyone survives in a sexually repressed world full of yanderes."

"The fourth stop, the Great Chaos World, the main storyline is a combination of historical gaps, national destiny arenas, dimensional chat groups, the fusion of multiple worlds, live streaming from the sky, high-level martial arts, the revival of spiritual energy, the revival of mysteries, the awakening of all professions, the invasion of the abyss, folk tabletop role-playing games, and the main god space..."

"Fifth stop, re, Love Subaru's Life Starting from Zero."

"Sixth stop, God O, activate!"

"Seventh stop,..."

These are all foods recommended to him by his predecessors that immortals must try.

At this moment, a dozen meters away—

Lu Ziyun threw the Ruyi Cudgel into the air.

The iron rod tumbled and rose to its highest point, bringing with it a string of tiny sparks of lightning, before falling straight down. The tip of the rod struck the stone pavement with a "clang," bounced twice, and pointed to an inconspicuous alleyway to the left.

"That's it."

She bent down to pick up the magic wand, walked towards the alley entrance, and didn't look back.

There are so many things to explore in the metaverse that the two, who both suffer from decision-making difficulties, unanimously decided to leave the choice to fate.

Xia Jie followed her, her gaze sweeping over the buildings on both sides of the alleyway. From the outside, the alley was so narrow that only two people could pass side by side. The surface was an orange-yellow inflatable mat, similar to an inflatable castle, and the uneven surface underfoot felt like walking on freshly baked bread.

The air in the alley was filled with a faint smell of rubber, mixed with some kind of indescribable sweet fragrance.

The moment I stepped out of the alley, my view suddenly opened up.

The architectural styles on both sides of the street are so chaotic, it's as if someone stuffed blueprints from dozens of eras into a blender.

On the left is a cyberpunk skyscraper with steel-framed glass, on the right is a wooden Edo-style townhouse, and in the middle is a Gothic spire with purple vines climbing its exterior.

Several thick cables stretched across the sky, with rows of lanterns hanging from them, shining with different colors of light.

You can even find a vibrant mix of black and white here.

Among these oddly shaped buildings, there is one thing that stands out in particular.

It is not large, only about two meters square, and is a small crystal palace made entirely of translucent pink crystal.

Every facet of the palace's exterior wall refracts the surrounding light, breaking down the chaotic colors of the street into a soft halo.

Above the palace, which had a hole but no door, hung a plaque with three characters written on it—

"A haven of gentle comforts."

The characters are gentle and the strokes are rounded, as if they were written with a brush dipped in moonlight.

Pure and flawless, yet possessing a certain hidden and alluring charm.

"This thing..." Xia Jie stopped in her tracks, "...a luxurious doghouse?"

"More or less."

Lu Ziyun also stopped and pointed in the direction of the crystal palace with her Ruyi Wand. "Don't be fooled by how small it is, like a doghouse. If you put your hand through that hole, you can enter a small, hidden world."

She raised her chin, indicating that there was indeed a palm-sized round hole at the bottom of the Crystal Palace, like a dog hole at the base of the wall, with smooth, rounded edges that glowed with a faint pink light.

"What's inside?"

"A life of extravagance and debauchery." When Xiaolu said these four words, there was a subtle "you know what I mean" in her tone. "One minute outside is like a whole day inside. As for the specifics of how extravagant and debauched it is, I won't go into details. You can judge for yourself."

Xia Jie glanced at her.

Then he squatted down.

The little deer paused for a moment, then asked, "What are you going to do?"

"want."

Xia Jie casually replied, and resolutely put her right hand into the palm-sized round hole.

I've built such a huge empire, can't I enjoy it a little?

The edge of the cave entrance felt warm and smooth to the touch, exuding coolness and fragrance, enveloping his wrist like cool water, and then he disappeared with a "pop".

The little deer stood still, the magic staff in its hand drooping down. The expression on its face changed from astonishment to speechlessness, and then from speechlessness to a relieved "Fine, whatever makes you happy."

She leaned against the siren head of a police car disguised as a lamppost, took out a milk tea from who-knows-where, took a sip, and then looked down at the player forum on the crossover website.

A new post in a corner of a local forum:

The unranked new player "Wasabi" is suspected of using a concept-based ability in a duel. Below, I will seriously analyze the nature and limitations of this ability, and also discuss how to manually control the deer to counter-kill Wasabi.

Posted by: The All-Knowing Scholar Driven by Interest & Information Comes to Me Even If It Doesn't Come

She blinked, closed the post, and continued scrolling down.

About two minutes later—

With another "pop," Xia Jie was "spit out" from that round hole, as if an ice cream machine had forcibly squeezed out a complete human shape.

He stood up, brushed off non-existent dust from his shoulders, his expression unchanged, and even his hair was perfectly styled.

Little Deer swallowed the milk tea and looked him up and down.

"Is a small horse driving a big cart?"

"It's not a large vehicle," Xia Jie said solemnly. "It's actually a paradise. At first, it was narrow and difficult to pass through, but after passing through dozens of times, it suddenly opened up."

The little deer was silent for three seconds before looking at the small hole beneath the crystal palace.

"...You call that a paradise?"

"This cave is not the same as that cave; this narrowness is not the same as that narrowness; this passage is not the same as that passage."

Xia Jie waved her hand, not wanting to say anything more, but feeling relaxed and at peace.

The taste of Peach Blossom Spring is truly wonderful. I'm grateful for the great hand of fate, which prevented the magic wand from pointing in another direction.

The little deer covered its forehead speechlessly:

"Never mind, let's go."

"There's still a lot to explore in the metaverse, don't waste your time here."

She turned and continued walking forward, the Ruyi Staff slung over her shoulder, her steps still light and quick.

Xia Jie followed, her peripheral vision sweeping over the flowing scenery on both sides of the street.

Just then, a huge black shadow flew past him from his left.

It was a snail, a snail as big as a small car.

The heavy shell is coated with silver-blue metallic paint, gleaming with a magnificent yet understated steel luster in the sunlight.

A snail is carrying a young man wearing sunglasses. The young man has a candy candy stick in his mouth and holds two golden reins in his hands. He is bending down and pressing his body against the surface of the snail's shell, as if he is driving a motorboat.

The snail's mucus left a shimmering silver trail on the ground, then evaporated in the next instant.

The snail itself became a blur, dodging pedestrians along the way and sprinting towards the corner at the end of the street.

"son--!"

A voice came down from the sky.

"Wait for Mommy—"

Following closely behind was a young priestess, about seventeen or eighteen years old, riding a broom. Her black hair was tied in a ponytail, and the broom trailed a pale pink tail that shimmered with tiny stars.

She flew very fast, almost skimming the ground as she chased the snail. As she passed Xia Jie, a gust of wind rose up, lifting Xia Jie's clothes half a foot high.

"—Have you finished your game before coming out here racing like a snail!?"

Without looking back, the snail-like youth made a sharp turn and sprinted in the opposite direction behind Xia Jie, then rushed back in front with an even more graceful trajectory:

"Mom! I'm four hundred years old!"

"Even at four hundred years old, he's still my son!"

The shrine maiden flew over Xia Jie's head again, leaving a beautiful pink arc in the air behind her broom, chasing the snail and disappearing around the street corner.

"Is this... always been like this?" Xia Jie asked.

"It's always been like this." Little Deer didn't turn her head. "You'll get used to it."

She stopped beneath a large, lush green tree. A plump pigeon, wearing a crown of thorns, perched atop the tree, tilting its head to look at her. The little deer ignored it, raising its magic staff and pointing to the right front.

That's the street corner.

At the corner stands a large gold sign with six black characters engraved on it: "Restaurant of Strength".

There was no house, no walls, and not even a door frame under the sign; only a lonely wooden door stood by the roadside.

The door panel is made of dark brown old wood with natural grain and several scratches of varying depths. The door handle is a smooth, round copper ring, golden yellow, with the luster of a walnut, as if it has just been handled.

Xia Jie walked to the door, her gaze shifting from the golden signboard to a piece of paper pasted on the door panel.

The edges of the paper were slightly curled, and the paper itself was slightly yellowed, but the writing on it was clearly legible, appearing to be regular script written stroke by stroke with black ink:

①This restaurant is a free buffet. Except for players with the Guest title, everything in the restaurant is edible.

②Based on human taste standards, the more delicious the food in this restaurant, the stronger its appetite. If you don't want to be devoured by the ingredients, please do not enter this restaurant.

③ Guests can directly order their favorite dishes through the menu.

④ The combat power of a dish = the sum of the combat power of the ingredients used to make the dish × the combat power of the chef.

⑤ This restaurant does not prohibit any violent means outside of the general rules; guests are free to snatch food from each other.

(Note: Tear and bite to your heart's content!)

⑥ This restaurant offers unlimited ingredients, so guests can enjoy their food until they are satisfied. Long-term stays are also welcome.

⑦ The battle of wits: The door opens inwards, and always only inwards. Aside from teleportation through the integrated network, this is the only way to leave.

(Note: I hope you're not Dora the Explorer.)

⑧ For the sake of the dining experience, this restaurant only accepts players who drink small cups or less.

(Note: This is mainly because last time a gluttonous guy almost got eaten by the kitchen staff.)

9. Please come in.

(Note: Literal meaning.)

Xia Jie finished reading the nine rules, remained silent for a moment, and then complained.

"This name was definitely well chosen."

"Right?" Little Deer had already placed her hand on the brass ring. "So—"

She turned the brass ring and pushed the wooden door inward.

The moment the door opened, a burst of intense light rushed out.

That light was neither gold, nor silver, nor white, nor did it belong to the seven colors.

Instead, it was an aurora-like glow, existing outside the visible spectrum of ordinary people, so intense it was almost tangible, like a stream of paint flowing out from a crack in a door, slowly spreading through the air.

This reminded Xia Jie of the Star of the Cthulhu Mythos.

The light carried just the right amount of warmth, like the lingering heat of a beach that had been baking in the sun all day.

Xia Jie squinted in the glow and stepped across the threshold.

Then he saw the planet.

It wasn't very big, only about three times the size of Earth, and it floated in the vast, empty space behind the door.

The surface has flowing, colorful patterns, like bubbles, candy, or colorful cotton candy swirling in the wind. Each pattern is slowly rotating, emitting a fragrance that makes your throat tighten.

It wasn't the taste of any known food, but rather the embodiment of the concept of "deliciousness" itself, striking at the deepest desires of the soul.

The planet is "speaking".

Its domineering aroma fills all five senses, telling everyone who sees it: I'm delicious, come and eat me.

Xia Jie heard Xiao Lu's voice behind her: "Let's go, let's go down."

Then gravity caught them.

The planet's gravitational pull emanated from the vacuum, dragging Xia Jie and Xiao Lu from outer space beyond the atmosphere.

The two transformed into two fiery meteors, plummeting straight into the planet's atmosphere.

The windbreak exploded on the side of my face, and all I could hear was the continuous roar.

Xia Jie's hair flew upwards, and the hem of his clothes fluttered in the airflow, as if thousands of people were trying to squeeze him.

Xia Jie deliberately lowered her values, then opened her mouth to speak. The wind blowing into her mouth made her voice muffled, as if the sound had been slapped back into her throat.

As they plummeted, Xia Jie noticed that there were far more than just the two of them in the surrounding sky.

Thousands upon thousands of fire lines fell simultaneously in different directions, like a meteor shower scattered across the entire sky.

Each fire line represents a player who entered the restaurant through another wooden door.

Clearly, the wooden door they pushed open was not the only entrance.

The friction of the air caused a tingling, burning sensation on the skin.

Xia Jie looked down at her palm; the edges of her fingertips were glowing faintly red, as if they were about to be ignited.

Then, through a spiritual connection, he sensed that the deer was not far to his left, and turned to look—

Lu Ziyun was falling at the same speed, her hair stretched into a taut line by the airflow, and her mouth was opening and closing repeatedly, as if she were chewing an invisible piece of gum.

Xia Jie used the bond to transmit her voice: "After losing the duel, what are your new plans for the placement matches?"

The voice reached the little deer's heart, causing the deer, who was enjoying the raging wind, to pause slightly and then fall into a very brief moment of thought.

Lu Ziyun responded quickly:

"I plan to go back and study the combat records of those advanced players, and re-analyze tactics that are more suitable for me."

"I will fight against the AI ​​phantoms that have their combat logic recorded, and hone my perfect realm."

"My spell power output efficiency is already top-notch among those of the same level, but there is still considerable room for improvement in operational precision and tactical adaptability."

"Then, I'll easily knock you out in the duel and show you that you're the challenger!"

Xiaolu spoke calmly, as if stating something obvious, but her tone rose slightly at the end, carrying a sense of certainty that she would "win".

"And now?" Xia Jie asked again, "What are your plans now?"

The little deer adjusted her posture in the wind, arms outstretched, like a gliding bird. A strained smile played on her lips as she descended through the rapidly changing air currents; her inner thoughts, carried back through the bonds of fate, carried a hint of mocking laughter:

"We're already inside the restaurant, and you're still asking me what my plans are?"

"You know the answer already, so you ask."

"Now that things have come to this, of course we should eat first. What else can we do but eat you?"