nnolotov

"Concentrated Consciousness"

“Life as a commentary of something else we cannot reach, which is there within reach of the leap we will not take."

— Julio cortazar, Hopscotch

LEVEL
17.1

SURVIVAL DIFFICULTY
CLASS 2

Exit: 1/5
Easy to Exit

Environment: 2/5
Some Environmental Risk

Entities: 3/5
Major Hostile Presence

The entrance to Level 17.1

Description:

Level 17.1 is the level between Level 17 and Level 18. Because of the properties of both these levels, this level is decently dangerous.

Level 17.1 is a level that is hidden inside the upper floors of the Carrier, being a window seemingly stretching infinitely across the white light that otherwise occupied the rest of the level. To enter the level, one must break the windows and crawl inside, usually sustaining injuries in the process.

The level itself is a white room, surrounded by glass windows that let the white light shine through, which, despite having a completely different effect in Level 17, in this level it causes seizures and eventual spontaneous disappearance.

Within 23~ seconds of being in the level, the room starts to morph into the wanderer's memories, replacing the windows with walls¹, replacing the entrance window with a non-functioning door, and slowly "fading in" generic objects like the aforementioned wanderer's bed, desktop, chair, or TV, with all these objects being unusable and having the texture of concrete. The imprints do not start appearing until 65~ seconds in. This part of the level includes both the properties of Memories and of The carrier. Objects brought into the level that are not in close proximity to the wanderer will start to have the texture of concrete as well.

Do you remember the scent of your childhood?

After 60~ seconds, this process has completely finished, and the door's hinge works. The spacial anomalies surrounding the level's effect on both the wanderer and the objects with them has ceased. Exiting the level this way leads to Level 18.

It is not recommended to stay in the level for more than 65 seconds.

After 65~ seconds, imprints appear, having the same "fading in" effect of the objects and will attempt to use them and pretend that they work.
They do this, for example, by staring at a book with blank pages, staring at TV's that play nothing but static, falling still on concrete-hard beds, staring into the walls and ocassionaly stopping to stare at the wanderer instead, from the corners of the wanderer's vision.
A key to distinguish them from fellow wanderers is their dark, blurry shadow-like appearance.
Because of the harmful effects of Imprints, a wanderer may lose consiousness and stay for a deadly amount of time.

After 89~ seconds, the Imprints start to take the form of a wanderer's loved ones and attempt vocalization in order to trick the wanderer into looking at them. These Imprints usually take the form of people that the wanderer has not met in a long time.

We're waiting.

After 20 minutes to 1 hour, the level starts to rapidly deteriorate and rot, the Imprints disappearing alongside the walls shrinking and the floor changing texture from that of The carrier. Wanderers may lose the ability to distinguish baseline reality.² Oxygen levels start lowering along with temperature levels increasing. The floor and walls at this point have dusty, chalk-like textures.

The level in its late stages.

After 1 hour to 2 hours, the objects completely rot, leaving behind a black, slimy liquid. The space left is suffocating, with the scent of trapped, dusty air. The temperatures are high and humid, registering up to 35°C.³ A distant, unrecognizable sound and ominous low-frequency humming can be heard at this point. Leaving the door through this point will lead to Level 18.1 instead. The nightmarish properties of said level are the reason as to why staying in this level for too long is an unfavorable outcome.

No wanderer has lived past the 2-hour mark, with the rest of the effects unknown. May the M.E.G agents who died trying rest in the peace that awaits them in the afterlife they believe in.

They lied to you about the light. Inside it is the purest version of you. Your memories, the people, the flesh, the experiences, the people, the memories, the flesh, the experiences, spiraling, spinning in eternity.

You can relive it all, at once, at forever.

Additional information:

Some wanderers⁴ have reported lingering feelings of dissociation, feeling that everything is "detached" from reality and hallucinations, particularly hearing second-long yells similar to a voice from a loved one and seeing shadow-like bodies slumped in dark areas. These effects are more pronounced and more likely to occur to wanderers who have stayed for more than an hour.
Another important 79% have reported increased memory and the implantation of false memories in the wanderer's brain, with the false memories having a general theme of "returning home" or "waking up from a nightmare.".
The light in the level, which comes from The carrier, takes a different place in this level, likely to its connections with level 18 and comes out through a lightbulb in the level's ceiling and originally from the windows in the room, is assumed to be the cause of the level's hazards, from the imprints to the environmental changes, as it has been described by wanderers as "memories incarnated." due to its effects on the psyche. Testing with the introduction of various different objects and various wanderers at once shows that the light and the imprints are related by having the objects changed by the light, and the effect on humans being the same ones previously mentioned. As for having more than one wanderer at once in the level, the level seems to take the form of the closest shared memory⁵, if any, and in the case of not having any at all, the level takes the form of a seemingly random memory from either wanderer.
The light will bring your soul here.

Music loses melody, paintings lose anecdote, novels lose description. But not here.

We are still here.

Recovered image taken shortly before a wanderer succumbed to brain death.