In a room similar to the one he first saw, Yang Tao was sitting on a small stool, meticulously cleaning the snake meat in his hands.
The tunnels were intricate, and occasionally, such rooms would appear, though most of them lacked stairs leading to the surface.
He sliced the snake meat until it was translucent; to increase his max HP, he had to eat various foods in different ways, and today it was stir-fried snake meat…
It might not taste good, but it was definitely edible.
After preparing the ingredients, Yang Tao picked up a thin slice of snake meat with chopsticks and placed it on the hotplate, a sizzling sound erupting as a meaty aroma wafted out.
A moment later, he picked up the slice of meat, dipped it twice in the prepared soy sauce dish, and put it into his mouth.
The tender texture made Yang Tao nod repeatedly.
"The texture is really good. Is it because it has lived in a cave for many years?"
Summoning the wooden door, he decided that from now on, if he wanted to eat snake, he would come here.
Half an hour later, a full and satisfied Yang Tao got up and threw all his eating utensils into his backpack.
He left the room and continued to explore the mysterious underground cave.
"Aside from traps and some cave creatures, this vast underground cave doesn't even have a single Entity."
With his luck, if there really were Entities underground, he would have encountered them long ago. He had been wandering for half a day and hadn't even seen a Wretch…
As he continued, he noticed that for some reason, the surrounding temperature became somewhat cool. Yang Tao couldn't help but perk up; any subtle change in the Backrooms could lead to something unusual happening.
As he walked, Yang Tao noticed something was not quite right. The surrounding environment seemed to be changing. Blue-gray metallic specks appeared within the originally gray rocks.
As he delved deeper, the blue-gray metallic specks became more and more numerous.
"Is this a metal ore vein?"
He had already seen gem ore veins, so the appearance of a metal ore vein didn't seem too surprising.
He continued forward.
Just as he expected, the metallic color on the walls became more and more prevalent.
Suddenly, Yang Tao stopped. He looked at the passage ahead, which had completely turned blue-gray, and a familiar feeling surged into his mind.
He quickly turned to look.
The path he had come from had disappeared, turning into the same blue-gray tunnel as the one ahead.
"How did I end up on this level again??"
Yang Tao's expression was helpless. If he wasn't mistaken, this should be Level 75, Gallium Cave, the place where he made his fortune.
He didn't expect to circle back here again.
"It's destiny, I suppose. I'll still go to Osborn to find Harry and have him process the gems…"
Just as he was about to leave, a red crab scurried past from a fork in the tunnel in front of him.
???
There are crabs in Level 75, Gallium Cave? Is this a joke?
He flashed beside the crab and reached out to grab it. Before he could examine the crab in his hand closely,
a crab aroma wafted into his nose.
This sudden situation startled Yang Tao. This crab was effing cooked, and it looked like a roasted crab!!!
He placed it on the ground.
Looking at the motionless crab, Yang Tao felt his scalp tingle.
"Damn!"
He didn't believe he was hallucinating. That crab had indeed scurried past his line of sight just now.
Now there were two possibilities: it was originally alive but transformed into a roasted crab the moment he picked it up, or it was haunted.
After confirming that the roasted crab wouldn't run away, Yang Tao picked it up again.
"I don't believe it!"
He directly lifted the crab shell, revealing it full of roe. The golden-yellow roe, after roasting, was already in a flowing, oily state.
Gulp…
The sight and smell were simply too enticing.
So what if it was haunted? He had seen worse!
A small silver spoon appeared in his hand. He carefully scooped a spoonful of crab roe into his mouth and closed his eyes in enjoyment.
It was simply too delicious.
The feeling of a mouthful of crab roe was simply wonderful.
He seemed to hear the sound of ocean waves from his ears, and the salty sea breeze gently brushed against his face.
Fresh! Fragrant!
"I can even feel the ocean… Good heavens, where did this take me?"
Yang Tao opened his eyes and found that he had left Level 75, Gallium Cave, and appeared on an unfamiliar beach.
Sand dunes, palm trees, dehydrated shrubs, and some exposed coral and seashells in the shallow water.
Most importantly, crabs were everywhere here, all sorts of crabs. Colorful crabs were visible everywhere, whether on the beach or in the shallow water.
This scene made Yang Tao subconsciously summon the wooden door.
Then, looking at the roasted crab in his hand, he understood: if one found and ate a roasted crab in Level 75, they would be teleported here.
"Hey, come over here quickly!"
The voice came from behind Yang Tao. Yang Tao turned around and saw an Asian man, who looked to be in his thirties, standing in the island's forest, waving him over.
Parts of the man's clothes were worn out, but they were clean.
He quickly ate the crab roe in his hand in a few bites, then threw away the remaining shell. To his surprise, the surrounding crabs, which had been wandering, rushed towards the roasted crab's remains like cats smelling fish, and began to share it.
Yang Tao glanced at them, then walked towards the man. Based on his HP bar color and value, this was an ordinary Wanderer.
"Friend, did you come from Level 75, Gallium Cave?"
Yang Tao nodded slightly and asked, "And you are?"
"Lu Cheng, a member of the New Crab Orchid organization. You're lucky, you can leave that hellhole after a meal."
Level 75, Gallium Cave, was indeed a hellhole. One never knew when solid gallium would turn into liquid gallium.
"Let me give you a brief introduction. This is Level 72, 'The Call of the Crabs,' a level that is not particularly dangerous but also not entirely safe. The M.E.G. database labels it with a survival difficulty of Level 2."
"The most common things here are crabs. Except for one type of Aurora Crab, you don't need to worry about other crabs; they pose no threat."
The Call of the Crabs? It should be called the Crab Feast!
Various crab recipes kept appearing in Yang Tao's mind, even including the unorthodox raw pickled method.
"Hey, snap out of it… Eating too much can lead to gout."
The other person had clearly seen through Yang Tao's thoughts, mainly because the first thought in the mind of every Chinese person who arrived at this level was how to eat.
But after staying here for a year,
no matter how much they liked it, they would be sick of eating it.
Snapping back to reality, Yang Tao looked at the other person's face and smiled, introducing himself: "I'm sorry, I lost my composure a bit. My name is Yang Tao."
He extended his hand and shook the other person's hand.
Lu Cheng smiled and said, "It's fine, many people react the same way as you. I was like that at first too. Come with me, I'll take you to our base to rest for a while."
Yang Tao nodded slightly at his words and followed Lu Cheng deeper into the island's forest.
Along the way, he also figured out why Lu Cheng was standing under a tree to greet him instead of coming closer to him.
Level 72, 'The Call of the Crabs,' has an average temperature of 38 degrees Celsius, coupled with high humidity.
And the scarce freshwater resources on the island lead to an extremely high risk of dehydration on this level.
All people living on this level have formed a habit: they will not expose themselves to direct sunlight unless absolutely necessary.