Found Texts

Testimony

“They’re cut off, repeated or faded, and a company name never comes up. Probably whoever wrote them ran out of time or ink, I’d say.”

Found texts are everything the wanderer finds written: papers on the floor, office signs, graffiti on the walls, safety plaques. Nobody signs them. Some look like warnings, others like venting, and a few lie with a clarity that is frightening.

What is found

The archive records four surfaces, and each has its own entry:

Floor Notes: paper on the carpet, sometimes pinned. They are the most abundant.
Office Signs: plaques, A4 sheets and wall lettering.
Graffiti: spray or marker on wall and carpet.
Safety Notices: standard plaques with one wrong piece.

In all, the archive has cataloged forty-six texts. It is a cautious figure, because every time a wanderer comes back with a new phrase, the conversation ends with the usual question of whether the text was there before or appeared afterward.

How they are read

The texts of Level 0 follow a rule veterans know without ever having stated it: they are short, concrete and carry one detail too many that doesn’t fit, like a note that gives an order, a plaque announcing an elevator where there is none, or a tally of strokes that never ends.

Normally you find them cut down to a few words, repeated in different rooms or so faded that only half can be guessed. They never cite a real brand.

WE SLEPT HERE, crossed out with four strokes

How to survive with them

Read them standing and fast. Don’t linger by a text that talks about something watching you.
Compare. If the same text appears in two rooms, notice which of the two is more recent.
Don’t trust the arrows. Almost all of them point to a place that no longer exists.
If a text tells you not to do something, heed it the first time.

What is said

Some say the texts change tone depending on the floor where they are found. Others, that they repeat with the bad handwriting of whoever copies them.

It also circulates that some graffiti appears after a few days of passing the same spot, without anyone having seen it painted.

Sub-entries

O-017 · ObjectsFloor NotesPapers on the carpet, sometimes pinned. A sentence from someone who had time to write before disappearing.O-007 · ObjectsOffice SignsPlaques, A4 sheets and wall lettering. An office that keeps to its routine long after the last person left to follow it.O-019 · ObjectsGraffitiSpray paint and marker on wall and carpet: crossed-out arrows, an eye, a tally that never ends, an empty chalk circle.O-003 · ObjectsSafety NoticesStandardized plaques with a pictogram and text, and always one part erased or wrong. They look genuine until the second read.

Mentioned in

O-008 · ObjectsConsumablesFood, drink and medicine, the only things that refill the body’s bars. There is little, it is scattered and the labels come torn.L-001 · LevelsLevel 0: yellow officesEndless offices of damp carpet and humming fluorescents. Every wanderer wakes here, and nobody leaves by the way they came in.O-005 · ObjectsSurprise BoxesSealed cardboard boxes that promise something and may be empty. If another wanderer got there first, they will already have been opened.O-006 · ObjectsBeds and SheltersA nook with a bed, tape and a can. Sleeping in it sets where you wake when you die, and building it is the closest thing to a home.O-021 · ObjectsSigns and Ceiling FixturesOffice plaques, exits that lead nowhere, bulletin boards with calendars and detectors on the ceiling. They are the costume of an office with no people.S-013 · Sublevels“Location: Out of Bounds”A paper with a single typed line in English. It is the only voice in 0.0 that comes from the place itself and not from an explorer.S-006 · SublevelsRow of OutletsAn empty wall with outlets in a row, every 45 centimeters, alternating baseboard height and desk height where there is no desk.E-014 · EntitiesVestibule ReceptionistThey say that behind the Vestibule counter sits a Watcher that looks at you from the moment you enter, not when you come near.S-026 · SublevelsNull ZonesIn certain dark rooms of Level 0.1, nothing leaves a trace, neither your footsteps nor those of whatever is following you. A sign warns you.S-018 · SublevelsEXIT Door with a White FrameAt the end of the corridor, a door with a white frame and the word EXIT in green. Every note says the same thing: don’t cross it.