Official Version Released, Reaching First Place on the Popularity Ranking! [Modified]

Since the release of "Dark Forest," this game has been a love-hate experience for players.

Love, because it's fun enough, with exploration and survival instincts maxed out, adding excitement to an otherwise dull life.

Hate, because it's too terrifying and oppressive, with even side quests constantly making players feel despair.

Chapter 1's map seems to have only three areas—'Withered Grassland,' 'Silent Forest,' and 'Ancient Forest'—appearing small, yet the map is packed with gameplay elements, and some items are hidden so deep that players have to tread every inch of the map to avoid missing concealed details.

Chapter 2's map, while only one area, is large enough, featuring swamps, new mutated creatures, a maze-like Ruined Village, and even more chilling side quests, leaving players without the confidence to ignore everything in the late game; instead, they become more cautious.

But no matter how terrifying or difficult the game, with a massive player base and the passage of time, many have still cleared it.

By now, searching the keyword 'Dark Forest' on the Danmu Network brings up numerous live commentaries and first-playthrough scream completions.

As more people play the game, various bizarre playstyles have started appearing online.

For example:

[Learn this trick, and you'll be the Night Wanderer at night!]

[Best defense strategy for the first night, surviving till dawn without losing a drop of blood!]

[Turn on the lights at night? NO! Control stamina and learn sprinting, and monsters can only stomp in place!]

[Three years of survival, five years of defense—an old hand teaches you to be the coolest guy at night!]

[Complete monster guide! Detailed defense methods for various nighttime random events!]

It seems that once players accept a horror game, after getting through the initial terror, they always find ways to play it creatively once they know the mechanics.

While everyone was immersed in their first and second playthroughs, "Dark Forest" suddenly updated!

Players were stunned—what was this update about?

So they flocked to the store page to check the latest announcement.

Then they froze.

"Dark Forest" EA ended, the final chapter released, and the Official Version was online!

This news came out of nowhere, catching players completely off guard.

The game was finished and became the Official Version!?

It's not that players lack experience.

There are many EA games, but each early-access title takes months to develop and polish before releasing the official version.

Some foreign games even take one to two years after EA to announce the official version.

But how long had it been from "Dark Forest"'s EA release to the official version?

One month? Two months?

A year? Two years?

No!

Only about three weeks!

Less than a month, and the game released the official version?

Was the final chapter really finished?

Was it sure not to be riddled with bugs?

Many players began to feel uneasy.

Releasing the official version so quickly made it hard to guarantee that the last chapter wouldn't be a mess, or maybe not even completed.

Everyone worried that their favorite game would end poorly or be abandoned, especially a high-quality gem like "Dark Forest."

So, players who had cleared the game loaded their first-playthrough saves to see what the final chapter was like and whether its quality matched the richness of Chapters 1 and 2.

Then, after spending a few hours experiencing it, they found...

The ending's shock exceeded their imagination.

At the end of Chapter 2, there were two choices, one being to burn the Human Skin Great Tree and enter the final chapter.

The final chapter was leaving the forest and heading home.

But players discovered that after just a few steps out of the forest, they arrived at their residential neighborhood?

Wasn't that a bit too fast?

Wasn't there supposed to be an army outside the forest?

Why was it the Residential Area right away?

And this Residential Area was also eerie—sparse and gloomy, with former neighbors acting strangely and abnormally.

When players returned to their Apartment Building, they found mushrooms from the forest and flowers growing on the tile floor inside?

There was also a Radio in the Basement, and after repeated operations, it emitted the same eerie static as in the forest, repeating the suggestion 'sleep, sleep.'

Then came a massive blackout, plunging the Basement into Pitch Black.

As the players groped their way out in the dark, they vaguely spotted something writhing behind an iron-barred door, looking very much like the Head-splitting Monster they'd encountered in the forest.

These clues made them realize at once that Chapter 3 might not be as simple as just going home!

And that was indeed the case. Many streamers immediately began livestreaming their Chapter 3 playthrough after the Official Version launched.

Countless viewers followed along through various streamers' perspectives, diving into the exploration of Chapter 3.

Some entertainment-focused streamers were just riding the trend for money—like Xin Xin, a VTuber who was so scared stiff she had no mood to study the game. Her ending was simple.

The protagonist went home, ate, went to bed, and the game was cleared. That was it.

But some streamers were different. Take Zai Zong, for example. After discovering all those abnormal signs in the Residential Area, he started carefully observing every detail.

The Radio told him to sleep, but he refused.

In the end, by accident, he found writhing tree roots beneath his own floorboards!

So he smashed up all the floorboards in his house and found that the roots stretched from the living room all the way to the bedroom—under the bed!

The very bed he slept in!

Sensing something was off, he recalled the game's repeated hints about sleeping and realized there had to be something wrong under the bed.

So Zai Zong moved the bed aside, smashed the floorboards, and shockingly discovered a bottomless Tree Hole beneath where his bed had been!

At that point, he finally understood—there was another ending to the game!

Urged on by his livestream audience, he jumped down without hesitation.

Then, he discovered the game's true ending that left him stunned.

The protagonist, Hat Man, climbed naked from the ground, finding himself inside a Giant Tree filled with rock walls and roots.

On the crisscrossing root-covered floor, he found his clothes and hat, but they had rotted beyond wear, as if an immense amount of time had passed.

Not only that, but inside the Giant Tree, he also discovered many naked men and women lying asleep.

They seemed trapped in some kind of dream, unable to wake.

Some hummed songs in their sleep, others writhed in agony, and still others wore blissful smiles.

But most had already gone cold, dead and rotting.

Zai Zong also found that among these people lying on the ground, trapped in dreams, were NPCs he'd seen in Chapters 1 and 2.

Including the Doctor he'd controlled in the Prologue, now lying there unable to wake.

Zai Zong had a vague guess. The deeper he went, the more naked sleeping people there were on the ground.

Finally, he reached the center and found a massive, writhing Glowing Creature.

Inside it, he could faintly see a twisted female face hidden within.

By touching it, he learned that this Glowing Creature could emit a state that made people feel comfortable and anesthetized.

At that moment, Zai Zong roughly understood what was going on.

It was highly likely that the protagonist he controlled had fallen asleep here before the game even started.

And whether it was the Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, or the Final Chapter—all of it was everything that happened in the protagonist's dream.

These naked sleeping people were also each living out their own dreams, and those who died in their dreams had truly suffered brain death in reality.

They were beyond saving!

So Zai Zong found his fellow Investigator colleague along the way, who was holding a Flamethrower that was still usable.

He grabbed it and started burning everything.

The Glowing Creature became unstable upon contact with the flames.

The people trapped in dreams nearby all jolted awake, begging and cursing the protagonist for what he was doing.

But Zai Zong was unmoved. He burned everyone he came across, and soon an uncontrollable fire spread.

In the end, even he was injured and fell to the ground when the Flamethrower backfired.

Amid the acrid smoke and endless screams, Zai Zong controlled the protagonist crawling and struggling on the ground, trying to escape the ever-growing flames.

But in the end, he was swallowed by the crimson blaze.

As the screen slowly faded, the game reached its final ending.

He had cleared it!

But Zai Zong didn't feel the relief of clearing the game. Instead, he frowned, lost in thought over this ending.

And the livestream audience all said the game's story and ending were truly shocking—if you weren't careful enough, you'd never uncover the truth and would remain trapped in the dream forever.

Soon, thanks to the outstanding ending of "Dark Forest" and the streaming effects of various major streamers, the game reached an unprecedented average concurrent player count on the day of the Official Version update.

490,000 people!

It became the number one on the Cyber Platform's Popularity Ranking!