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Content Warnings: Suffocation imagery, entanglement, distorted memory themes, surveillance paranoia, and implied psychological deterioration.
Exploration Notice: Level 199 becomes significantly less stable the deeper one travels into its interior shelving zones. All aisle labels found in deeper strata should be treated as cognitohazard-adjacent guidance at best, and active lures at worst.
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SURVIVAL DIFFICULTY:
Class 2
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One of the more intact central aisles of Level 199. The shelving structure shown here later repeated six times in succession.
Description
Level 199, commonly referred to as "Be Kind, Rewind," is a vast and seemingly endless commercial environment resembling a late-1990s video rental store. Superficially, it is evocative of former chains such as Blockbuster Video or Hollywood Video, though no exact branding remains stable for more than a short period of observation. Logos shift, membership placards display contradictory names, and promotional signage often advertises films, events, or release dates that never existed.
The level is composed of broad carpeted corridors, tightly packed rows of white metal shelving, hanging category signs, circular checkout counters, employee-only rooms, CRT television arrays, and refrigerated display units. The carpet is usually patterned in loud blue, cyan, yellow, and black geometric shapes. In deeper areas, these patterns subtly move when not directly observed, sometimes forming arrows, spirals, or outlines resembling human faces.
Lighting is oppressive and nearly uniform throughout most of the level. Large fluorescent box fixtures emit a constant electrical hum, creating a sensation of sleeplessness and visual fatigue after prolonged exposure. In sections believed to be "deeper" than the main store body, the lights become more clinically bright, washing color from the environment except for the plastic VHS cases and occasional yellow signage. Wanderers frequently report headaches, dry eyes, and a growing inability to estimate time.
Suspended CRT televisions are present throughout the ceiling grid at regular intervals. These screens display one or more of the following:
- Heavy analog static.
- Distorted commercials for candy, movies, and home electronics.
- Security footage of nearby aisles.
- Security footage of the wanderer from impossible perspectives.
- Empty checkout counters occupied by no visible staff.
- Live footage of parts of the level that the viewer has not yet reached.
The air of Level 199 smells strongly of heated plastic, stale popcorn butter, hot dust, static electricity, old carpet glue, and occasionally damp cardboard. The scent grows stronger in archival or unreleased sections, where the shelving is more densely packed and the tapes appear older.
The shallower areas of the level are organized under recognizable genres such as:
- Action
- Comedy
- Drama
- Horror
- Family
- New Releases
However, deeper movement into the level causes the taxonomy to deteriorate. Genre signs begin displaying increasingly abstract, personal, or hostile categories, including:
- *Childhood Regrets*
- *Tuesday*
- *Unresolved Grief*
- *What They Said About You*
- *Moments You Missed*
- *Cancelled Futures*
- *How You Will Die*
- *The Last Tape You Ever Returned*
These deep-aisle sections are considered significantly more dangerous than the main floor. VHS cases there feel unusually warm, and many emit faint sounds before being opened—usually muffled dialogue, breathing, or the click-whirr of a VCR mechanism.
Wanderers are strictly advised never to open VHS cases in the deeper aisles unless absolutely necessary. Though ordinary-looking externally, the tapes inside are anomalous and often predatory. If the magnetic ribbon is exposed, it may begin to unwind on its own at impossible speed, spilling outward in glossy black loops across the carpet and around the shelving. This tape behaves like a living snare, tangling around limbs, the throat, and nearby obstacles until the target is immobilized or suffocated.
In very deep sectors of Level 199, the environment ceases to behave like a store and instead resembles a memory archive wearing the shell of one. Shelves become taller and closer together, aisle signs stop repeating commercial categories entirely, and the CRTs show only static interrupted by single frames of unfamiliar homes, school hallways, parking lots at night, and private moments from the wanderer's own life. These regions are informally called the Back Catalog.
Deep Regions: The Back Catalog
The Back Catalog is the name given to the farthest known interior zone of Level 199. It is not clearly separated by a doorway or threshold; rather, the main store slowly transitions into it over dozens of aisles. Indicators that a wanderer has entered the Back Catalog include:
- Shelving units rising high enough to disappear into darkness above the fluorescent lights.
- Genre signs replaced with hand-labeled cards, often written in neat black marker.
- VHS clamshells becoming unmarked, translucent, or entirely black.
- The carpet pattern resolving into repeating spirals.
- CRT monitors ceasing commercials and displaying only timestamps with no date.
- Audio dampening severe enough that footsteps sound delayed.
Cases in the Back Catalog often contain recordings that should not exist. Survivors describe tapes depicting:
- Events from their childhood from angles no camera could have captured.
- Conversations they do not remember having.
- Alternate outcomes to major life decisions.
- Their current exploration of Level 199, recorded from ahead of them in the aisle.
- Empty footage of rooms in the Frontrooms where no one has been for years.
No reliable census of the Back Catalog exists. Mapping attempts fail due to recursive aisle structures and gradual memory distortion. Wanderers who remain there for extended periods often become obsessed with finding a "correct tape," insisting that one particular cassette will explain why they entered the Backrooms at all.
Entities
- Standard Entities: Hounds and Dullers occasionally appear in wider central aisles. They seem disoriented by the brightness and repetitive layout, but should still be considered dangerous.
- The Clerks: A faceling-adjacent variant dressed in blue-and-yellow polo shirts and khaki pants. These entities stand behind checkout counters, endlessly scanning an invisible VHS tape or stamping unseen rental slips. They are normally docile. If interrupted, touched, or spoken to too insistently, they emit an ear-piercing screech resembling a dial-up modem, often attracting other hazards.
- Spoolers: Native entities composed entirely of glossy black magnetic tape. Their bodies are serpentine, but poorly defined, often appearing as moving bundles of ribbon with no visible head. They hide beneath shelving gaps and in dark returns chutes. They attack by lashing around ankles, wrists, and throats before dragging prey under the racks.
- Screeners: Rare, poorly understood entities observed only in deeper regions. They appear first on CRT monitors as figures standing motionless at the end of an aisle. In some cases, these figures later manifest physically in the same location. They do not move while directly looked at, but disappear when line of sight is broken. Whether they are true entities or a surveillance-related anomaly remains undetermined.
Items and Anomalies
- Mini-Fridges: Usually found near checkout counters. They contain unbranded soda cans filled with cold, carbonated Almond Water and sealed bags of microwave popcorn. These are one of the most dependable food sources on the level.
- Employee Breakrooms: Marked by wooden or laminate doors labeled EMPLOYEES ONLY. These rooms are usually stable and free of hostile entities. They often contain:
- A stained couch.
- A microwave.
- Plastic chairs.
- Bulletin boards with unreadable schedules.
- A working VCR and CRT television.
- Safe Tapes: Rare tapes with blank white labels, most often found among New Releases or in mislabeled return bins. When played in a breakroom VCR, they display a live or near-live feed of a navigable route toward a safe exit.
- Membership Cards: Plastic rental cards occasionally found on the floor or tucked into cases. Carrying one for too long appears to increase the number of CRTs displaying the holder's image.
- Late Fee Slips: Small printed receipts sometimes generated by unattended checkout stations. These slips may list a wanderer's full name, an impossible overdue balance, or a date that has not yet occurred.
Bases, Outposts and Communities
M.E.G. Outpost "Cinephiles"
Located in a heavily secured Employee Breakroom designated Sector Director's Cut.
- Staffed by approximately 12 M.E.G. operatives.
- Focused on mapping safe aisles and documenting hostile category shifts.
- Maintains yellow tape trails on the carpet to connect nearby food sources and emergency fallback positions.
- Offers medical treatment, temporary rest, and trade in exchange for useful tapes, batteries, or route data.
The Return Desk
A neutral trade post built around an intact circular checkout counter in a relatively stable central zone.
- Occupied intermittently by 5 to 7 wanderers.
- Specializes in tape identification, VCR repair, and recovery of supplies from dangerous shelving corridors.
- Known for posting handwritten warnings about newly appeared genre aisles.
- Trades popcorn, carbonated Almond Water, flashlights, and batteries.
The Late Fees
A hostile cult-like group of approximately 8 wanderers operating primarily in the Horror, Documentary, and deeper abstract sections.
- Members wear makeshift armor crafted from broken VHS plastic, security tags, and magnetic tape.
- They believe wanderers must be "returned" to the store through sacrifice.
- They intentionally lure Spoolers toward isolated survivors.
- They are highly aggressive and should be avoided without exception.
Additional Content
Behavioral Notes on The Clerks
The Clerks exhibit repetitive, ritualized behavior that strongly resembles retail labor loops. They may:
- Stamp empty counter space.
- Ask if a wanderer has a membership in a voice with no visible mouth movement.
- Turn toward non-existent customers in adjacent lines.
- Continue smiling body language after all local lights have gone out.
A Clerk that leaves its counter is a severe danger sign. This usually indicates nearby deep-level instability, the presence of a Screener, or that a breakroom route has shifted.
The Rewind Phenomenon
In some deeper aisles, particularly those with personal or conceptual category names, wanderers may experience a localized anomaly known as Rewinding. During these events:
- Ambient sound reverses for several seconds.
- CRT footage plays backward.
- A recently opened case appears closed again.
- The wanderer may find themselves physically repositioned several steps behind where they remember standing.
Minor Rewinding is survivable, but repeated exposure correlates with memory gaps, temporal confusion, and false recollections of having visited the same aisle before.
Warning: If a tape case is warm, wet, or audibly humming, do not open it. If a CRT displays you standing still while you are moving, leave the aisle immediately.
Recorded Advisory
One recovered note from Sector Director's Cut reads:
"The store wants you to browse. The deeper it gets, the more personal the shelves become. Once an aisle starts looking like it was arranged for you specifically, you've stayed too long."
Entrances And Exits
Entrances
- Entering a building in Level 11 marked by a blue awning and a neon VIDEO sign may transition a wanderer directly into Level 199.
- No-clipping through a static-filled television in Level 3 or Level 4 can lead here.
- Finding a plastic rental membership card in level 33 and placing it in one's pocket may gradually shift the surrounding environment into Level 199.
- Rarely, opening a VCR in certain nostalgic or media-themed sublevels will reveal a dark passage leading into the shallow aisles of this level.
Exits
- Locating an aisle labeled "The End" and walking through the dark corridor beyond it for roughly 10 minutes will deposit a wanderer into Level 9.
- Entering a metal Return Drop Box and allowing oneself to slide through its chute leads to Level 1.
- Being dragged beneath the shelves by a Spooler can rarely result in accidental transit to Level 2, though this route is extremely dangerous.
- Certain Safe Tapes, when played in an Employee Breakroom VCR, reveal an active route back to Level 11 or occasionally to a stable commercial zone in another documented level. These routes are inconsistent and often close quickly.
- A mislabeled breakroom marked "Manager Only" has been rumored to lead to an unidentified archive level deeper than 199, but no verified return account exists.