It was called a base, but it was actually just a few simple wooden houses, and there were only about twenty people in the entire New Crab Orchid Base.
As soon as he stepped into the territory, a man in an M.E.G. uniform, sitting in the shade of a wooden house, looked up at him, glanced at him, and then continued to busy himself with opening a coconut.
But after only three seconds, he seemed to have been subjected to a petrification spell, his body stiff and unmoving where he stood.
Then he slowly turned his head to look at Yang Tao.
"Mr. Yang?"
Immediately, a joyful smile appeared on his face, and he ran over, hugging the coconut in his arms, and asked excitedly:
"Are you Mr. Yang?"
Looking at the cautious man in front of him, Yang Tao nodded slightly.
"Why are you here? This... this is a freshly picked coconut, please try it."
For a moment, the man was a little excited, like he had suddenly seen an idol, and for a moment he was at a loss, not knowing what to do.
Yang Tao didn't stand on ceremony, he reached out and took the coconut from the other party's hand and said with a smile, "It's nothing, just wandering around in the Backrooms, I accidentally came to this level."
Nothing, wandering...
These two words, which should be impossible to appear in the Backrooms, sounded perfectly reasonable coming from Yang Tao's mouth.
When the man heard Yang Tao's words, a look of realization appeared on his face, and then with an excited smile, he introduced himself, saying, "Mr. Yang, welcome, I am Tyre, an M.E.G. investigator..."
Investigator?
If he were just an ordinary M.E.G. member, it would be fine, but Yang Tao didn't expect the man in front of him to be an investigator, and he asked with some confusion, "You don't have a key?"
"Key? Yes..."
With that, Tyre reached into his chest and pulled out a key tied to a necklace, then explained, "I was dispatched here to investigate this level in detail."
Lu Cheng, who was standing by, looked at the two people chatting happily and asked in surprise, "You know each other?"
The probability of two people who know each other meeting in the Backrooms is even lower than winning the lottery.
"Lu Cheng, this is Mr. Yang, our most respected partner at M.E.G."
Tyre just said it simply and didn't give details about Yang Tao, after all, he didn't know Yang Tao's attitude, the less he said, the less likely he was to offend Yang Tao.
Yang Tao gently poked a hole in the coconut with his finger, a very ordinary thing for him, but it almost made Lu Cheng's eyes pop out.
He reached out and rubbed his eyes.
He now suspected that there was something wrong with his eyes.
"This coconut tastes good."
"How... how did you do that?"
Lu Cheng was full of disbelief; a coconut that was usually difficult to open even with tools was easily poked open with a finger by the other party.
This reality was even more fantastical than a story.
"Just use force, provided your finger is harder than the coconut. Tyre, is it convenient to tell me more about the information of this level?"
"Of course."
Then Tyre introduced some simple information about this level to Yang Tao as if enumerating his family treasures.
After listening to the introduction, Yang Tao asked in surprise, "Are you saying that besides crabs, there are no other Entities in this level?"
Isn't this a proper paradise level?
"Yes, there are only countless crabs, but generally these crabs are divided into eight types: Dungeness Crab, Carrier Crab, Ghost Crab, Stone Crab, Hermit Crab, Sand Crab, Scarlet King Crab, and the only one that affects humans, the Aurora Crab."
"And in very rare cases, they will eat other crabs, but some crabs have restrictions on which crabs they eat or don't eat."
With that, Tyre pulled out a form from his pocket and said, "This is the pattern I observed during the two months I stayed here."
The content on the form was very simple, detailing which crabs would eat which crabs.
Only the Aurora Crab does not eat other crabs and is not eaten by other crabs. The most unfortunate is the Carrier Crab; the remaining seven types, including itself, will eat the Carrier Crab.
As they spoke, many crabs crawled past the base.
Yang Tao returned the information the other party had investigated to them, then asked, "Is there an exit in this level?"
"Exit?"
Tyre gently shook his head and said, "No, at least I haven't found an exit in these two months, but according to some people who left the level before."
"By watching the crab swarm's celebration ceremony on the evening of December 31st of any year, one will eventually leave this level."
Uh...
Yang Tao looked at Tyre, confirming he wasn't joking.
Crabs celebrating the New Year?
It sounded too fantastical, but considering this was the Backrooms, it didn't seem like something unacceptable.
After chatting with Tyre and Lu Cheng for a while, Yang Tao began to make his crab feast. Since he was here, he had to taste it properly.
...
"I wish you success in your research, I'm leaving now!"
After eating and drinking his fill, Yang Tao also left this 'Crab Island' full of seafood. The island itself looked completely like a crab, and even some leaves and clouds were shaped like crabs, which was truly magical.
He returned to the Overworld.
Yang Tao stretched, and stuffed all the miscellaneous items in his backpack into a box.
"I'll take these warp berries with me next time I go to the Backrooms..."
The Backrooms are too vast. Even for a speedrunner like Yang Tao, exploring the Backrooms is impossible. Who knows how many more levels there are.
His gaze fell on the Mist Wall not far away, where the wooden door to the New World had already appeared.
"Let's go to the One Piece and Inuyasha worlds first to see how things are there now..."
"I wonder how Zabuza and Haku are doing on the sea? But for two ninjas skilled in Water Release and Ice Release, it should be very easy in a world that lives by the sea, right?"
He muttered to himself, walked to the wooden door leading to the One Piece world, and gently pushed it open.
As soon as he arrived, he heard a whooshing sound by his ear. A missile, trailing a long tail of flame, flew rapidly towards a pirate ship in the distance.
Boom!
The medieval wooden ship experienced the power of modern weapons. From a distance, the ship was directly blown into several sections.
"Hahaha! Lan, you are truly amazing! Hurry up and drive over, pull all those who fortunately survived up, and stuff them into the ship's hold!"
Looking at Alvida, who was standing on the deck commanding everyone, and Lan, who was standing beside her, it was clear that the two of them worked very well together.
"Seeing you two so happy, I'm relieved!"
Hearing his voice, Alvida, who had been directing the battle, immediately turned her head to look at him.
Then she slid over to Yang Tao in a flash, grabbed his collar, and roared, "My dear Captain, you haven't shown your face in three months!! If you don't come out again, I'm going to usurp your position!"
Yang Tao heard this and laughed, "What's the difference between you like this and usurping?"
"Uh?! It seems there's no difference."
Alvida reached out and scratched her head, then glared and said, "But you can't just disappear for so long! You are Lan's Captain!"
"Don't talk nonsense, be careful or I'll sue you for defamation!"
He glanced at the impassive Lan beside him, Yang Tao extended his finger and flicked it, and Alvida, who possessed the Slip-Slip Fruit, was directly sent flying backward.