Level -9

## Level -9: "Mystifying Aura"

### Description:

**Level -9** represents a town of architectural design from the early and mid-19th and 20th century, spanning for an indefinite amount of lenght. Being from such early time era, many modern things from the late 20th century and 21st century, namely asphalt roads, electrical poles, automobiles and streetlights are absent in **Level -9**. The roads are instead substituted by dirt or brick pathways, with the only motive of transportation being by foot. Structures including restaurants, retail outlets, houses, churches, museums, libraries, mail outposts, and much more dominate the town landscape. Albeit, supplies such as Almond Water or Moth Jelly are scarce; therefore, it is recommended to bring supplies if staying in the level for a prolonged period of time.

A lot of the buildings in **Level -9** are positioned in a strange manner, with frequent instances of some being positioned upside down, leaning on another building like dominoes, and some laying on the ground. Additionally, the inside of edifices placed in awkward positions appear to have broken gravity. For example, someone walking into an upside-down house will be immediately attracted to the "floor", and rise quickly until they impact the floor, as if the person was standing on the ceiling in an ordinary house and fell onto the floor. This just doesn't apply to humans, but also to objects. Furthermore, should the person break the floor whilst upside down and attempt to escape, the gravity from outside the house will push the person back into the house, meanwhile the gravity in the house will try to push them out of it. This effectively puts the person in a stuck position. Fortunately, it is relatively effortless to escape with a couple tries.

Residing in the households is possible, provided that the positioning and gravity is suitable enough for inhabitation. Aside from the odd position and gravity the structures are situated in, the rest of their properties are just normal. The majority of the outlets and other buildings in **Level -9** are rather empty, with little to no appliances nor furniture. Despite the lack of furniture accompanying the edifices,, they themselves are in pristine condition, with rare exemplars of buildings being dilapidated or in worse condition. Streetlights are replaced with lamps, coming in varying designs and dotting the landscape, as well as serving as the only constant source of light during night. The most prominent strctures within the level are brick bridges, where interestingly, asphalt roads can be found. These bridges are reported to have anomalous properties, namely:

* Any light that is shined onto any bridge will be reflected back to the viewer as blue. The only time where light reflected back isn't blue is when the level is in its Snowy State.
* The bricks the bridge is comprised of seem to be much more reflective than ordinary bricks, even though there isn't any glass texture the bricks possess.
* Any lamps situated close to a bridges are much more likely to be a Red Lamp.
* Some bridges may override or stack on top of each other.
* Certain bridges' passageways underneath them will be blocked off.
* Bricks making up the bridges may fall off without warning.
* Bridges may occasionally be vandalized by graffiti, it most commonly depicts face expressions as emoticons. The graffiti is also able to glow whenever its surroundings aren't well lit.

All of these factors make bridges the most unstable structures in the level. Regardless, it is safe to approach and stand on top of them, albeit it's best to be cautious, especially if it's multiple bridges overriding each other. No cases of the bridges collapsing have been reported; however, bricks making up the structure of them have been described to randomly fall off, potentially inflicting injuries to victims. Wanderers who get near these bridges are reported to feel a nostalgic sensation, moreover, feel some familiarity with the structures, yet can't quite recall where it was seen before. The reason why the bridges within **Level -9** behave strangely is unclear, but extensive research is being done on them as of now.

One may periodically encounter compact grass parks and forests mainly pushed "to the side", as they are more commonly encountered upon voyaging further away from the center. The various species of vegetation within these areas is akin to plant life from The Frontrooms. Furthermore, potted vegetation is also spotted outside of homes, which are safe for human consumption so long if it's treated properly. Nevertheless, M.E.G. operatives have found it peculiar the flora is able to thrive despite of being disrupted by the day and night cycle, although wayfarers suggsted the possibility of the plant life being adapted to such conditions.

**Level -9** possesses a day and night cycle. However, unlike the standard 24-hour day and night cycle, the level follows a 12-month day and night cycle, both the daytime (January - July) and nighttime (August - December) lasting for 6 months, with July being dusk, plus the December being dawn. The weather in **Level -9** is mostly clear, with no clouds visible during the day and night. At day, a star resembling the Sun (Sol) in The Frontrooms is seen; at the night, it is possible to spot stars in the skies, along with an immense moon that noticeably looks akin to the Earth's moon, Luna. In addition, the moon shines bright blue light, illuminating the entire town and giving the night sky a slight blue hue. These celestial objects rise in the west and set in the east. The temperature in **Level -9** fluctuates, with the lowest temperature recorded during this state being a cool -5°C (23°F), and the highest recorded being 19°C (66.2°F). Oddly, the temperature is not influenced by the day or night, and purely changes at random, unless the level is during its snowy state.

the geography of **Level -9** is somewhat bland; rivers can occasionally be found, yet are smaller than usual. Fresh consumable water flows through these rivers, paired with infrequently appearing canoes. These canoes can't be used normally, as trying to interact with them causes the person to be sent to a different level. As the level seemingly spans for indefinite length, no orgin nor mouth of these rivers have been discovered. Sewer pipes that would release sewage into the rivers are nowhere to be found either. The elevation of the level is also quite low, estimated to be below sea levels with no mountains nor any high topographic points, albeit small hills can be found.

### Anomalies:

#### The Snowy State:

**The Snowy State** is an infrequent state the level enters whenever it becomes night. The exact chances of the state happening are undetermined, but estimates place it a 20 - 40%, with the chances appearing to increase or decrease based on the person's feelings. As the name implies, when this state occurs, clouds will begin to appear and dominate the night sky, eventually beginning to snow. As opposed to the night sky being a blue hue and the celestial object reflecting blue light, the sky in this state will rather appear slightly orange. It continuously snows during the snowy state, not stopping whatsoever until it becomes daytime. The temperature will drop below -5°C (23°F) and fluctuate between -5°C (23°F) to a cold -17°C (1.4°F), which is reported to not go any lower. Likewise, temperatures this low are able to give unprepared wanderers common illnesses, such as the common cold or even hypothermia in extreme conditions.

Hence, it's either advised to stay inside with heating systems, or be dressed properly throughout **The Snowy State**. The visibility is noticeably lower, due to the snow plus the darkness obscuring one's eyesight. The only sections where visibility can better be maintained is near lamps. Blizzards are common throughout th state, making it slightly more hazardous. Due to it snowing constantly, this consequently leads to a huge buildup of snow in untouched areas of the level. The huge snow piles typically just act as an inconvenience to many, but nonetheless, can block certain paths, disrupt doorways, and if ever located on roofs of the buildings, can potentially fall off onto clueless wanderers.

Boiling and filtering the snow turns it into water safe for human consumption. It is noted that the water isn't Almond Water, thus only replenishes thirst. **The Snowy State** inevitably stops once the level transitions to daytie in late December, although the snow is able to persist until late January to early Feburary, when temperatures begin to hover above 0°C (32°F), the melting point for snow. When the snow melts, however, no water appears as a byproduct, suggesting the snow is rather perishing.

#### Red Lamps:

**Red Lamps** are the anomalous counterpart to regular lamps that are found mostly near bridges scattered throughout **Level -9**. In addition, they can be created if a regular lamp is shattered or tampered with. Unlike ordinary lamps, **Red Lamps** are fainter and are less reliable in terms of being a light source. Despite what their ominous name would imply, **Red Lamps** aren't inherently dangerous, albeit they inherit anomalous properties that differentiate them from ordinary lamps.

Should one go near the proximity of a **Red Lamp**, the lamp will shine a beam of light at the wanderer's eye. It isn't strong enough to make them flinch, but will for certain make the wanderer notice the light beam. Wanderers might subsequently get attracted to the lamp, somewhat in fashions to moths do with light sources. One is able to break out of this mindset by being distracted away from the red lamp, or boredom can set in the victim, causing them to click out of the behavior without interference. The cause of this behavior is unclear, though the red lamps being out of place due to being abnormally colored red compared to the more recognizable white/orange lamps may be the culprit.

**Red Lamps** are also capable of preventing anything thrown to them from damaging them via abruptly stopping the object midair, and temporarily keeping them in orbit around them before dropping the object to the round. If the offender attempts to repeatedly throw pieces at a **Red Lamp**, the **Red Lamp** may toss it back at the offender, which can injure the offender based on the object.

Instead of a light bulb found in the center of the lamp, **Red Lamps** have a slight faint depiction of a level or somethin that relates to the level. Whenever someone noclips into the **Red Lamp** depicting a level or an object representing a level, the wanderer will be sent to that particular level. Whilst any level can be depicted by a **Red Lamp**, the most common instances of levels being depicted are the Main Nine, the first 8 negative levels, Level 9 to Level 30, The Void, Level 998, Level 999, and Level -55.

During the Negative Glitch, **Red Lamps** will go out of control, shooting light beams spontaneously in any direction, as well as lifting surrounding items and flinging them. The objects can be thrown as far as 65 feet away from the **Red Lamp**, posing them as hazards. Anyone in the level during the Negative Glitch are thereby advised to stay indoors to ensure safety from the potentially incoming hazards.

### Entities:

**Level -9** is thought to be completely devoid of entities, though some theorizers think otherwise, stating that the anomalous properties of **Level -9** intentionally hide them from their viewpoints. But these claims haven't been confirmed. Some used to suggest that the **Red Lamps** were entities, but this has been debunked.

### Colonies and Outposts:

It has been determined that colonies and outposts are possible to be established in **Level -9**, but no one has yet to do so.

### Entrances and Exits:

#### Entrances:

* Noclipping into a blue streetlight in Level 9 may teleport you here.
* Walking through a rotating door in Level -8 will lead to **Level -9**.
* Going through a door emitting a blue light behind it in Level -1 will take you here.

#### Exits:

* Finding a library will lead one back to Level -8.
* Voyaging far enough from the level's center and seeing the landscape beginning to shift into a cityscape is a signal that the wanderer is entering Level 11. Alternatively, if the cityscape is a grey monochrome and desolate, one is instead entering Level 777.
* Following long asphalt roads can bring one to Level 69.
* Finding a playground will lead to Level -10.