What is the elevator game?
The “isekai elevator” is an urban legend saying that if you operate an elevator in a set order, you can travel to another world. It is especially famous among the “ways to go to another world” told online, and spread through message boards from around the late 2000s. One theory says it was born on the Korean internet.
The steps as told
The steps passed around are: ride alone in the elevator of a building with at least ten floors, and go to the 4th, 2nd, 6th, 2nd and 10th floors in that order. If anyone gets on along the way, it fails. At the 10th floor, press 5; a young woman gets on at the 5th floor, but you must never speak to her. Finally, press 1; if the elevator goes up to the 10th floor instead of down, you have succeeded, and when the doors open, you are in another world, it is said.
The other world is said to be a world with no one but you, and the woman who got on is said not to be human.
Why you shouldn’t try it
This is just an internet ghost story and game. Moving between floors over and over in the elevator of an apartment building or shopping center bothers residents, users and managers, and could even cause elevator breakdowns or accidents. Enjoy it only as a story.
Similar “ways to reach another world”
Other methods told online include drawing a figure on paper and going to sleep. Also read about the man of time and space, who appears in a world without people, Kisaragi Station, the Backrooms and the story genre of isekai tensei.
