This was a dim little room with a Storage Box. The floor was covered in growing fungi, as though the house had been consumed, making one's scalp crawl.
The Bald Doctor tied up the Hat Man he had carried back while searching him for anything useful, all the while issuing warnings.
[I'm leaving this damn forest!]
[Did you hear me!? You little bastard!]
[Tell me how to get out, and I'll let you go!]
Zai Zong stared fixedly at the game's real-time rendered scene.
This was a different kind of cutscene from pre-rendered CG footage, one that better suited the relationship between the game and its players.
By now, he had noticed that the protagonist he controlled seemed somewhat different.
The scene shifted, and the Hat Man was already tied to a chair, unable to move.
He also seemed to have been injected with something, leaving him weak all over.
The Bald Doctor stood to one side, staring expressionlessly in a certain direction as he muttered to himself.
[Sometimes, I hear her voice.]
[She's calling me.]
[Calling me home.]
Her?
Zai Zong noticed that a feminine pronoun had been used here.
Was there a woman calling out to the protagonist he controlled?
Who did "she" refer to?
In Zai Zong's eyes, the game was beginning to grow increasingly mysterious.
In the next scene, the Bald Doctor stood before the bound Hat Man, shouting furiously.
[Where's the exit!?]
[Where is it!?]
[Tell me now! Where's the exit!?]
As the doctor shouted, the Hat Man began struggling as well. However, the ropes binding him were tied tightly, leaving him only able to sway and writhe.
Seeing this, the doctor raised his fist and slammed it viciously into the Hat Man's face.
The game immediately conveyed the impact through screen shake and sound effects so vividly that Zai Zong felt it was several times more satisfying than the combat in some action RPGs!
The doctor immediately threw another punch, and the screen shook again.
Even through the screen, Zai Zong could feel the force behind those two punches. He clicked his tongue and blurted out, "Damn, that's brutal."
After throwing two punches, the doctor's whole body shook violently as he panted without pause.
Yet the Hat Man still kept his mouth shut, refusing to say anything.
The doctor held nothing back. After resting briefly, he raised his fist and smashed it down again.
That punch contained all his strength. It knocked the Hat Man to the floor and even crushed one of the chair legs.
Even Zai Zong was startled by that punch.
The protagonist he controlled was this fierce?
He hadn't beaten the guy to death, had he?
Then, in the game, the doctor spoke again.
[If you still don't answer me, I'll butcher you like a dog!]
After saying that, he turned and left the room.
The game screen gradually darkened.
When the image reappeared, Zai Zong was shocked to discover that the game had changed protagonists???
It had switched to the Hat Man who had been beaten up!?
"Holy shit, is this one of those games with multiple protagonists, multiple main storylines, and parallel narratives? Developer, you're playing big here. The demands for text volume and plot quality won't be low, and games like this can easily have bugs. Are you really that stubborn...?"
Under Zai Zong's control, the Hat Man broke free from the ropes and staggered to his feet.
[That bastard stole my key.]
As the Hat Man stood up, the surroundings gradually came into view.
This was the doctor's house.
"Looks like it really did change protagonists. I'm controlling the Hat Man now, and the first objective is to escape the doctor's house?"
Zai Zong first searched the room and, following the prompts, crafted bandages to treat himself.
Then he discovered that the only door had been reinforced and sealed by the doctor.
To leave the room, he would need to remove the wooden planks sealing it shut.
Following another prompt, he crafted a lockpick, opened the Storage Box in the room, and found an Iron Shovel and a Flashlight inside.
There was also a description beneath the Iron Shovel: A heavy weapon with a wide attack range.
Seeing that, Zai Zong understood.
Desperate times called for desperate measures. A shovel could be a weapon too. That was perfectly reasonable, yeah!
"Since it's a weapon, it should be perfectly logical to use a shovel to break down a door, right?"
He immediately got to work. Zai Zong grabbed the shovel and swung it hard at the reinforced door!
"Watch me open the door with physics!"
Bang—
The tremendous noise made his heart skip. It was so loud—wouldn't it draw the doctor over?
But having a weapon in hand immediately reassured him.
Hmph! Even if the doctor came, he could smack him to death with two shovel swings!
At last, the wooden planks reinforcing the door were smashed apart.
However, the shovel had also become unusable due to its durability.
Seeing that, Zai Zong exclaimed that the developer really knew how to mess with people.
They gave you a weapon, only for it to be used to open a door.
Forget it. Getting out came first.
So he pushed open the door. Outside, the lights were blazing.
And the doctor was standing right outside!
But the next second, for some unknown reason, there was a click, the lights went out, and the house was plunged into Pitch Black darkness.
The doctor had vanished as well!
Fortunately, he had found a Flashlight earlier, so he was not completely blind.
Still, the doctor's disappearance left him utterly baffled.
He had controlled that character earlier, yet he had suddenly disappeared in such a bizarre way? It left Zai Zong feeling slightly unsettled.
But when he remembered this was a Horror Games title, he accepted it.
It was horror. Anything could happen.
"But this house is seriously dark."
Holding the Flashlight, Zai Zong explored the doctor's house.
Under the beam of light, he discovered that the floor was covered with some kind of fungal growth. It was so dense that merely looking at it made him uncomfortable.
The tangled roots spread everywhere like blood vessels.
The entire house actually gave him the illusion that it was a living creature!
This was an experience he had never had before!
It was quite novel!
However, he had already explored this house once while controlling the doctor, so now he was merely switching characters to see if he could pick up anything he had missed.
"Eh? What would happen if I checked the rooms I couldn't open before? Like that room that might be holding a monster or a person?"
No sooner said than done. Zai Zong shone his Flashlight at the previous room, clicked the mouse, and a Code Lock appeared.
Clearly, something had to be locked inside, or the doctor would not have felt safe using a Code Lock.
"So now I need to find the password in this Pitch Black house?"
Zai Zong closed the Code Lock interface, and immediately, a voice came from inside the house.
[Who's there?]
[Please, let me out!]
Zai Zong froze for a moment and frowned.
"There's a person in there? I thought it was a monster. The doctor even said it took a lot of effort to lock them up. So it's another victim after all. What a sick bastard."
"Hang in there, bro. I'll find the password and get you out right away!"
Although the person in the game could not hear him, the powerful sense of immersion still made him say it aloud.
"Wait! The Radio! Could the password be on that Radio? There are so many channel numbers engraved on it—maybe one of them is a clue!"
Zai Zong took his Flashlight to another room and clicked on the Radio to inspect it.
But he still found nothing.
That meant the password was not on the Radio.
However—
Zai Zong's gaze shifted to the cabinet against the wall.
His eyes immediately narrowed.
Because the cabinet's position... had changed.
He clearly remembered that there had originally been a door by that wall. When he had controlled the doctor earlier, the game had even explicitly said, "It's best not to go in there right now."
But now, the cabinet was blocking that door. Why? Had the doctor done it?
What exactly was behind the door?
Zai Zong walked up to the cabinet, examined it, and pushed it aside, revealing the door behind it.
At that instant, a shrill female scream suddenly rang out. The piercing sound startled him so badly that his hair stood on end! He hurriedly swept his Flashlight around, but there was nothing there.
"What was that sound...?"
Zai Zong nervously looked around. The sudden scare in this oppressive atmosphere caused cold sweat to trickle down his forehead, though he did not realize it himself.
The shriek did not sound again, but Zai Zong was now on high alert.
He cautiously opened the door behind the cabinet and was stunned to find that it was a Temporary Operating Room!
At the center stood a Metal Table strapped with belts. It was clearly prepared for someone—or perhaps... it had already been used?
Zai Zong looked over the room. It was empty yet messy, with rugs carelessly tossed across the floor. The walls were likewise covered in large patches of fungi and roots.
An Old Generator had been quietly placed in one corner.
Zai Zong walked over and found that it required gasoline.
And he just happened to find a Storage Box in another corner. Inside were Half Barrel of Gasoline and a sturdy table leg that could be used as a weapon.
"A new weapon to replace the shovel? Well, it's better than nothing."
He picked up the table leg and equipped it.
Then he poured all the gasoline into the Old Generator and started it.
At once, the darkness was dispelled!
The room became bright again.
At the same time, the distinctive crackling static of a Radio could be heard.
It was clearly working again because the power had been restored.
Zai Zong pushed open the door and walked out, intending to continue searching for the password.
But after seeing what was outside, his expression suddenly froze.
Where the Radio should have been, there was now a person lying on the floor!
He was completely naked, his head twisting from side to side. His limbs twitched every now and then, like machinery.
Several wires were connected to his abdomen and extended into the wall. Beneath him was a dense tangle of roots, like a bed supporting him as he rested.
When had this person appeared?
Filled with questions, Zai Zong cautiously stepped closer, only for the game to tell him that this was... a corpse?
This person who kept twitching was actually a corpse!?
At the same time, a description appeared below.
'Two knobs had replaced the corpse's eyes. His mouth was opened wide, producing a distorted sound that was almost as hard to make out as Radio static.'
From the description, Zai Zong understood what the corpse was.
It was actually the Radio!
But why had the Radio suddenly turned into a humanoid corpse?
And why did the corpse twitch from time to time, looking as though it were alive?
Wait!
Could it be...
The doctor had injected him with some kind of drug earlier. Could this be a hallucination caused by it?
That was very possible. Considering that this was a Horror Games title, he did not linger or overthink it. Instead, he left and continued searching for the password.
Just as he was about to head to the doctor's office, a piercing sound came from behind him.
[4892]
Zai Zong froze.
That sound... was mixed with intense static.
Could it have come from that corpse?
He immediately returned to the previous room. But where was the corpse? Where were the dense, tangled roots?
On the floor was only an ordinary Radio connected by wires!
At that moment, a hoarse voice kept coming from it.
[4892]
Is this the lock's password?
Sure enough, everything he had just seen had been an illusion!
Zai Zong memorized the number and hurried to the locked room to try opening it.
With a crisp click, the Code Lock opened!
"Done! It really was the right password!"
Zai Zong could hardly wait to meet whoever was locked inside, so he impatiently shoved the door open, only to find that—
The door was stuck!
The line of dialogue below bluntly told him to use a little force.
So he grabbed a table leg and swung it at the door without hesitation!
With a loud bang, the door finally opened.
A cry for help came from inside once again.
[Save me.]
"I'm coming, bro!"
Zai Zong entered the room and found it pitch-black, so dark he could not see his hand in front of his face.
But he could not worry about that now. He headed straight toward the voice.
However, the next words from the person in the room put him on guard again.
The figure in the darkness spoke softly.
[Come closer.]
Seeing this, Zai Zong began to wonder whether the person in the room was really on the lawful good side.
I opened the door for you. Shouldn't you come out now?
And you're trying to lure me deeper inside? What are you planning?
"This feels like a trap."
Sensing that something was wrong, Zai Zong cautiously moved forward, then moved forward again, and then—
Bang—
A loud crash rang out. The screen shook, blood splattered, and a pained cry sounded. Zai Zong shuddered from head to toe at the sudden attack.
Damn, an enemy!
I got attacked!
With his extensive FPS experience, he hurriedly raised the table leg amid his panic and launched a frantic counterattack.
At that point, he did not have time to see what the person opposite him even was.
You dared to attack me!
Then you're an enemy!
Let's see if I don't beat you to death!
After several swings, the person who had attacked him finally collapsed to the ground. Yet instead of crying out in pain, they let out a sinister laugh.
[Hehehe.]
[So now... how will you escape from here?]
[Do you think... you can do it by yourself?]
As soon as the person in the room finished speaking, Zai Zong heard an extremely strange whisper.
The sound made him deeply uncomfortable, as though countless people were whispering and talking right beside his ears. It sent chills down his spine.
And that sound was growing louder and louder.
[Do you... hear it?]
[She... is coming.]
The moment those words fell, that eerie female shriek that had startled him before rang out again!
The sound came from far away, then closed in. In an instant, that piercing wail exploded beside his ears!
The entire game screen began shaking violently, trembling as though an earthquake had struck. One light bulb after another shattered inside the room. With no more light, the whole house became pitch-black once more!
The chaotic whispers grew increasingly intense, flooding his mind and creating unbearable auditory pollution. Zai Zong, who had never experienced anything like this before, broke into a cold sweat and panicked.
"What's going on? What happened? What the hell is happening? Who's coming?"
Terrified, Zai Zong hurried to the doorway and tried to shut the door, only to hear the sound of a wooden door being smashed outside.
He knew that sound!
He knew exactly what it was!
It was identical to the sound he had made when breaking down a door with a shovel!
No surprises there—something outside was about to break in.
A crisp, thunderous bang rang out.
The front door opened.
At the same time, an utterly nauseating howl sounded.
Zai Zong knew.
That thing.
Had come in.
Just as he gripped the table leg tightly and prepared to fight, a Humanoid Shadow crawling along the floor silently appeared behind him.
Zai Zong caught sight of it without warning, scared out of his wits. Every hair on his body stood on end as he even blurted out a dialect curse.
"What is that?! What is that?! What is that?!"
Zai Zong panicked. His overwhelming urge to escape made him flee blindly through the pitch-black house, completely forgetting that he still had a weapon.
Very soon, he slammed into a wall. Before he could react, the Humanoid Shadow pounced on him. In the next instant, white light flashed, blood appeared, and the game ended, leaving him staring blankly at his computer.
As the screen gradually darkened, a line of text slowly appeared.
'Thank you for playing the Prologue demo of Dark Forest! Please look forward to the full version! If you have any suggestions, please message me privately through the submission site. Shuo Guang, an independent developer, would be immensely grateful!'
Zai Zong remained silent for a long time as he looked at those words of thanks.
Even after the screen returned to the game menu, he remained the same.
Only after quite a while did he finally curse.
"Horror Games, I f***ing hate you!"
Then he moved the mouse and selected Start Game.
He needed material for his new video.
Before you continue