Discount Dan's Backroom Bargains
James A. Hunter
All Dan wants is to find a way home, settle for a beer and a place to sleep off his hangover — but he has accidentally Noclipped into the Backrooms, an endless, ever-changing dungeon cobbled together from twisted carnivals, abandoned shopping malls, janky laundromats and condemned asylums, overrun with nightmare creatures called Dwellers. No one ever gets out. To survive, Dan must harness the strange game-like magic of the Backrooms, make sketchy allies, and carve out a safe haven — his shop — while being hunted by the Flayed Monarch of the 999th floor. A dungeon-crawler LitRPG progression fantasy where Backrooms floors, System relics and shop expansion structure every advancement.
Progression: Backrooms Floor & System Relic Progression (verified from Goodreads series 415455: "harness the strange game-like magic of the Backrooms" + "awesome game mechanics" + reader note "Cousin of Dungeon Crawler Carl - similar premise, a man out of his world and into a fresh hell of levels, monster and magic with a adorable inhuman sidekick." + floor hierarchy). Structure: - **Backrooms Floors as Levels**: The Backrooms is a layered dungeon with numbered floors (e.g., 24th floor Eternal Suburbia, 99th floor Franchisor, 999th floor Skinless Court). Each floor is a distinct biome with escalating horror and power; advancing requires clearing/grinding through floors. - **System & Game Mechanics**: The Backrooms operates on explicit game-like magic — relics, kiosk networks, and System-granted abilities. Reviews highlight "awesome game mechanics" and "The shop must grow" as core loop. - **Relic & Shop Progression**: Dan expands his Backroom shop/bargain haven, brokers trade deals (Delvers of Howlers Hold), and transforms relics into an arsenal of magical war crimes — quantified shop/relic tier progression. - **Hierarchy & Boss Tiers**: The Flayed Monarch and Franchisor represent floor bosses/overlords; defeating them and securing the Kiosk Network drives structured advancement. Each volume's plot is driven by grinding through the next floor and upgrading the shop/System, central to the LitRPG progression.
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