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A sign hung in front of the hallway of the food court, with the words "Staff Only Passage" written on it.
Yang Tao finished the burger in a few bites, then threw the wrapper into a nearby trash can.
"Staff only? Heh heh."
He walked straight into the hallway, and at the end of the hallway was a blue door, with a sign that read "Rest Area" on it.
He pushed the door open and walked straight in.
A phantom suddenly appeared in front of him, and before he could see it clearly, it disappeared again, scaring him with its sudden appearance.
"Holy crap, a jump scare?"
However, the phantom did not reappear, and only then did Yang Tao confidently walk into the so-called staff rest room.
The rest room had many sofas and tables, and at a glance, there was no end in sight.
Walking into the hall, he could vaguely hear some conversations, but these conversations, like the sounds in the ice rink, were all 'background music'.
From time to time, some black phantoms would walk over and sit on the sofas, then abruptly disappear, just as they had appeared.
"It seems this is Level 176's rest room."
Yang Tao looked at the dense array of tables and chairs in front of him, a satisfied smile on his face.
The rest room is an area within Level 176, appearing as an infinite hall. The sofas in the hall can be used safely.
Furthermore, Wanderers can find a door in the rest room's hall that leads to a storage room. This storage room has a garage door, and whenever food supplies are low, a truck will arrive and then leave this place. Following the truck will lead to Level 11.
This is also the level Yang Tao plans to go to.
However, before that, he wanted to go to Level 176's main area, the "Grocery Store."
Level 176 "Shelves Stocking Up"
Survival Difficulty 1
Safe, Stable, Minimal Entities
This level is a constantly restocking grocery store. Whenever you take something, an identical item will immediately reappear in its place.
Occasionally, Facelings from Level 11 can be seen shopping around here. In such cases, the lights sometimes randomly turn off, and then all Facelings disappear. When this happens, sometimes all surrounding shelves are emptied and will not be restocked for a period of time.
Yang Tao turned to look at the door he came through; it remained quietly in place and did not disappear.
He reached out and opened the door. As expected, the scene behind the door was no longer the hallway leading to the Level 31 food court, but rows of shelves similar to those in a shopping mall.
The shelves were filled with various Frontrooms products, though most had English packaging, perhaps because malls differentiate between Japanese/Korean, European/American, and domestic products.
The lighting in the grocery store was very bright. Yang Tao saw a Faceling not far away, pushing a shopping cart like a normal human, picking up an item from the shelf and 'looking' at the patterns and descriptions on the packaging.
Its smooth face, devoid of features, was even somewhat reflective under the light.
Yang Tao ignored these harmless Facelings; they were once humans, but they had adapted to survival in the Backrooms and become members of the Backrooms.
He walked to a shelf, reached out, and picked up a bag of cookies. There was no production date on it, but other than that, it was indistinguishable from a normal product.
A surge of excitement rose within him.
'Level 176 doesn't seem to have a level master...'
His hands flew, and countless items were put into Yang Tao's backpack, whether they were cookies, bread, chocolate, candy, or alcohol...
Everything he saw was packed into his backpack. At this moment, he finally experienced the joy of free shopping.
After he took all the items, new ones would appear out of thin air to restock the shelves, but in the next moment, the new items would lie in Yang Tao's backpack slots.
His movements might have been a bit loud. The shopping Faceling not far away, seeing such a scene, immediately pushed its shopping cart away, fearing it would be affected.
More than ten minutes later...
"Full?!"
One must know that his diamonds Sophisticated Backpack was loaded with 5 Tier 2 Stacking Upgrades, and each Tier 2 Stacking Upgrade could multiply the original stack quantity by 4, meaning each slot in his backpack could hold 1280 items.
But now it was full.
Yang Tao sighed.
Then he took out a new diamonds Sophisticated Backpack from his backpack.
Who said you could only carry one backpack?
The new sweep began again, but he wasn't too excessive this time. He started picking out some things he particularly liked to eat, such as various kinds of chocolate.
Another ten minutes passed. Yang Tao subconsciously reached out to touch the shelf, but the chocolate that should have automatically restocked did not appear.
"Reached the limit?"
"you're telling me this huge grocery store is out of stock? Why even open a store if there's no stock?"
Helpless, Yang Tao could only look towards the adjacent potato chip section. As he walked over and reached out, the bright incandescent light above him suddenly flickered once and then went out.
The surroundings instantly plunged into darkness.
Yang Tao stood still, his expression frozen, then he softly murmured, "Is this... trying to play dirty?"
He hadn't forgotten the description of Level 176: under special circumstances, the lights would randomly turn off, and when this happened, sometimes all surrounding shelves would be emptied and would not be restocked for a period of time.
The grocery store was silent, the only sound being the rain from outside the building, occasionally mixed with the rumble of thunder.
Yang Tao took out a bottle of Night Vision Potion from his backpack and drank it. As the name suggests, the Night Vision Potion allows the user to gain night vision, enabling them to see everything around them even without any light source.
In the pitch-black grocery store, under the effect of the Night Vision Potion, it became as bright as day. Looking at the empty shelves, Yang Tao's forehead creased with dark lines.
"Really gone? So stingy?"
As he spoke, a dark blue pickaxe appeared in Yang Tao's hand, and he struck it against the shelf. The Cobalt Pickaxe's mining level and efficiency far exceeded those of iron and diamonds pickaxes.
The cracks on the shelf spread extremely quickly. In just two or three strikes, the shelf directly transformed into blocks and flew into his body.
"Shelves aren't considered goods? So you're not restocking these?"
Yang Tao lamented that the service of this grocery store wasn't that great. Just as he was pondering whether to go back and bring the Villagers' construction team to clear out Level 176, a figure wearing a black coat and a wide-brimmed black layered flat-top hat appeared out of thin air about five meters in front of him. It floated in mid-air, its only visible organ being a single eye.
Yang Tao instinctively moved to pull the trigger, but when he saw the Entity's appearance, a flash of inspiration struck him, and he stopped his action of pulling the trigger.
"Transporter?"
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