A Chilling Prologue

The moment he stepped outside, he saw a wrecked vintage car.

Approaching it to investigate, a line of dialogue appeared.

"This was once a luxury item, but now all the roads have been swallowed by the forest, turning it into useless scrap metal."

Zai Zong guessed from the car's appearance that the game's setting was probably around the seventies or eighties.

In front of the car, there was also a doghouse and a black dog letting out whimpers.

Zai Zong carefully walked over, afraid the dog might suddenly change.

He hadn't forgotten this was a horror game.

Although he'd played some horror games before, they were all trash—couldn't scare anyone, even made him want to laugh.

But this Dark Forest was performing pretty well so far, giving him the urge to keep playing.

As he approached the black dog, another line of dialogue quickly appeared.

"My dog, it doesn't have long to live. I'd better put it out of its misery."

Was he supposed to kill the dog?

Zai Zong looked around.

No weapon?

Bare hands?

After wandering around a bit, he temporarily gave up on the idea of killing the dog since he had no weapon, deciding to head to the Eastern Forest to find oil first.

So Zai Zong climbed over the fence and entered the forest.

But before he'd taken a few steps, he picked up an axe.

He was pleasantly surprised!

Finally got a weapon!

Now even if a monster shows up, I won't be scared!

So Zai Zong gripped the axe and pushed deeper, only to be blocked by a huge fallen tree trunk.

Following the game's prompt, he used the axe to chop through the trunk.

A new line of dialogue appeared below.

"These trees grow too fast. At this rate, I won't be able to keep up with the cutting."

This remark caught Zai Zong's attention slightly.

"Does that mean the trees in this game have strong regeneration too?"

"Could it be that the whole world has been swallowed by the forest?"

This game was drawing him in more and more. Even if it was just a demo, he could feel the quality was no joke.

Zai Zong pushed further in.

He followed the path and discovered animal carcasses that had long turned to bone, then found a moss-covered Route 50, and then an abandoned shack.

One scene after another began to make him uneasy, as if danger could strike at any moment.

And as he went deeper, the forest's branches and leaves grew denser.

Slowly, eerie sound effects began to play, making the engrossed Zai Zong sweat on his forehead and tense up.

Whether a horror game is scary or not—sound effects account for most of it!

That was exactly Zai Zong's situation right now.

The sound effects were like whispers in his ear, constantly tugging at his emotions.

Keeping him trapped in a suffocating atmosphere.

In the dim forest, mist began to rise.

Zai Zong pushed through the fog and entered a narrow Stone Crevice Path.

And in that instant, a flock of crows suddenly appeared, accompanied by the endless flapping of wings and sharp cries.

"Holy shit!"

Zai Zong yelled!

This sudden crow swarm, in the quiet, eerie, foggy forest, caused quite a commotion, directly startling the highly focused Zai Zong—his body jolted and he let out a loud shout!

But thankfully, no harm done! No harm done.

Zai Zong immediately sped up and ran out of the Stone Crevice Path.

In an instant, the flock of crows in the sky vanished, as if on purpose.

The forest fell silent again in that same moment.

"Motherf*cker. Isn't this just the prologue? A high-intensity jump scare in the tutorial level—are you kidding me?!"

Without a doubt, Zai Zong was scared.

At this moment, he kind of didn't want to play anymore.

Even though the scare just now had passed without real danger, anyone would feel like backing out after being startled like that.

It wasn't like he had to play this game—why make things hard on himself?

Zai Zong stared at the game screen, gritted his teeth, and kept playing anyway.

"As a veteran gamer, if I can't even get through the prologue, that'd be a disgrace!"

"Who knew a little top-down game could pull off scares like this. Dev, you've got guts!"

Then, steeling his nerves, he continued playing.

Before long, he came to another Stone Crevice Path.

This time, with the previous scare fresh in his mind, he squinted, stepped in slowly, and braced himself for the second jump scare!

But—

No jump scare. The game prompted him to craft a torch before going deeper.

"A torch? This game has crafting too? A tiny game cramming in this much content—can the dev even handle it?"

Zai Zong grumbled, but he followed the tutorial, made a torch, and then cautiously stepped into the crevice again.

This time, nothing happened.

But the whispering sound effects, unnoticed until now, gradually grew louder.

The environment grew darker and more oppressive.

The towering trees had become black silhouettes, tangled mist drifting in waves.

On the ground, tree roots crisscrossed endlessly, like blood vessels, impossible to ignore.

In the narrow, dim crevice, only the faint orange glow of the torch lit the path ahead, giving him a sliver of security.

Zai Zong pushed forward under the tension, his heart racing.

"Why the hell would anyone make a game this oppressive!? Damn it all!"

He cursed out loud, but his feet never stopped.

Soon, he finally made it out of the crevice. For some reason, even though nothing dangerous had happened, he felt like he'd narrowly escaped death.

He even let out a sigh of relief, as if he'd just survived a great battle.

As he pressed on, he finally spotted a corpse hanging from a bizarre tree tangled with branches!

Zai Zong froze for a second, then rubbed his eyes and stared again.

"Is that... a person?"

He wasn't sure, so he crept closer slowly, afraid of another jump scare, his steps hesitant and trembling.

Soon, a line of text appeared at the bottom.

'In a few more days, he will be fully absorbed.'

Zai Zong: ?

What does that mean?

A tree eating people?

This human-like corpse was going to be absorbed by the tree?

"Holy crap! Dev, you've got some imagination! Making a whole Man-Eating Forest!?"

Zai Zong started to feel a chill.

As a veteran gamer, he could blast everything in first-person shooters, slaughter worlds in action games, rule kingdoms in RPGs, and even drift to first place in racing games.

But horror games? They were too niche and mostly garbage, so he never paid them much attention. There weren't many good ones on the market anyway.

So facing this Man-Eating Forest, he felt genuinely unsettled.

In all his gaming career, no so-called horror game had ever scared him—because they were all trash.

Until he played this Dark Forest, he never knew what fear actually felt like.

And this was just the prologue of a demo.

Who knew what the full game would be like? How terrifying?

Zai Zong looked at the human corpse in front of him and thought, I've come this far—I have to grit my teeth and keep going!

So he pressed deeper, wanting to see what else this Man-Eating Forest had in store!

Zai Zong followed the path straight ahead. Before long, the area brightened.

Had he made it out of the densest part of the forest?

Soon, he spotted a person wearing a hat, bleeding, lying on the ground and twitching.

"Holy crap, an NPC!"

"Does the prologue have a side quest already?"

Zai Zong didn't hesitate for a second, stepping forward to strike up a conversation, only to find that this NPC had already passed out.

But as a player, it would be a disservice to his identity if he didn't do some looting!

So Zai Zong began searching the NPC, and sure enough, he pulled out a 'Metal Key' marked with the number 21 from the man's body.

Below that was a note about the key.

'If there exists an exit to this forest, this key must be the key to opening it.'

Zai Zong:

"I got the key item?"

Just as he was puzzled, the game screen slowly faded to black.

A new cutscene began.

It was a dark forest where the path was barely visible.

A man was crouching with his back turned, examining someone who had fallen.

Below was a line of dialogue.

'I've never seen this unconscious man before.'

Seeing this, Zai Zong suddenly understood.

This was the follow-up story of the protagonist encountering this NPC! Presented in the form of a cutscene!

He didn't make a fuss and kept watching.

In the game, the dialogue continued.

'He only carried a key and a diary with him.'

The next scene showed a slightly balding man, carrying an unconscious man in a hat on his shoulder, walking slowly.

'Since he managed to sneak in, he must know how to get out.'

'He clearly won't do as I say willingly.'

'But.'

The scene showed a syringe, filled with some unknown medicinal liquid, seemingly about to inject someone.

Seeing this, Zai Zong connected it to the fact that his controlled character was a doctor, and that there were some unopenable doors in the room, one of which held something suspected to be a monster or a human. Then he recalled how, in the game's opening cutscene, this doctor seemed to be ostracized.

Putting all these details together, he suddenly shuddered.

Damn!

Was the character I'm controlling a twisted doctor protagonist conducting human experiments?

Once this thought appeared, it couldn't be stopped.

"Fuck! This game is insane!"

That was Zai Zong's evaluation based on his own imagination.

In the game, the cutscene wasn't over yet. What appeared now was a pair of pupils.

And within those pupils, the syringe was magnified infinitely.

Along with it came the final line, the doctor's dialogue.

'...That's not a difficult matter.'