Zai Zong

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Zai Zong (崽总)
Alias(es)	Zai-ge; formerly “Ai Ying Ying Ying Stan” 159
Gender	Male
Occupation/Role	Veteran gamer and livestreamer
Affiliation	His livestream audience; frequent co-op partner of Xin Xin
First Appearance	Dark Forest playthrough 5

Background / History

Zai Zong rose to become the platform's second-highest live-viewership streamer, placing behind Xin Xin. As an experienced gamer, he built an audience around playing horror games with a mixture of strategy, audience interaction, and conspicuous willingness to explore dangerous optional content. 13

During his early Dark Forest streams, he survived four nights using an Iron Shovel and gradually learned to manage the game's nighttime attacks. When a voice and persistent knocking led him to a Wedding Invitation, he identified it as a likely side quest and intended to pursue it; he openly prioritizes side quests even when a main story is urgent. 13 He later experienced the extreme realism of the game's torture sequence, removing his VR headset after being killed by an electric saw. 26

He was selected as a preview streamer for Skyhill. Initially casual about the game, he became absorbed by its environmental detail, dialogue choices, survival mechanics, and unexplained phenomena. He investigated its building floor by floor, accepted random events after failing to save an NPC family, and later entered co-op with Xin Xin. 65 73 74

While playing Control Failure, Zai Zong explored anomaly containment facilities, parallel worlds, and the consequences of the Universal Converter. His experiments produced exceptionally powerful equipment and the hidden Self-Enhancement achievement. He subsequently traversed looping parallel worlds in mechanical battle armor, uncovered conflicting personnel guidelines, and confronted A-FBC-1000. 148 149 154 156 160 161

He later streamed Control Failure's asymmetrical PvP mode, first playing as D-Class Personnel and then as multiple anomalies. His and Xin Xin's broadcasts helped make the mode widely popular. 181 183 184

In the VR version of Dark Forest, he returned to familiar scenarios from new perspectives, investigating altered story content as the Doctor and later leading a Special Task Force through Channel 21 as a soldier protagonist. 232 242 246

Personality

Zai Zong is excitable, theatrical, and highly audience-conscious. He frequently reads comments, accepts viewers' suggestions, and lets paid highlighted messages influence his choices—even when that means walking directly into obvious danger. 13 152

Despite being easily frightened by immersive horror, he normally continues forward. He treats fear as part of the entertainment, repeatedly choosing exploration over safety and trying to maintain the image of a composed veteran gamer. 68 152

His curiosity is both a strength and a flaw. He investigates unfamiliar mechanics carefully enough to derive their uses, but his desire to see what happens also leads him to ultra-fine process himself and challenge threats before confirming he can survive them. 148 149 161

He also develops a strong sense of responsibility toward convincing NPCs. After hesitating too long to save a family from the Long-Necked Crone, he resolves to accept every random quest event he encounters. 73

Abilities & Skills

Gaming Experience and Survival Adaptation

Zai Zong rapidly learns from failed encounters and adjusts his tactics around limited resources, hostile environments, and unforgiving game systems.

• Developed strategies for surviving Dark Forest's nightly attacks, including using sealed rooms to reduce encounters. 13
• Uses evasive tactics when outmatched, favoring retreat, kiting, and attrition over direct confrontation. 13
• Recognizes the permanence of player choices and reload limitations in Skyhill. 73
• Explores alternate routes and reloads to compare outcomes when investigating branching paths. 247

Investigation and Analysis

He actively pieces together plot information from dialogue, environmental clues, item descriptions, and inconsistencies in game-world rules.

• Deduced Dwayne's identity and the supernatural basis of his descent into madness from a phone call and surrounding clues. 41
• Identified the possible need for a camera to reveal entities concealed in overlapping spaces. 68
• Noticed incorrect anomaly classifications in parallel-world personnel guidelines and recognized the documents as unreliable. 157
• Uses dialogue options methodically to extract lore, including reloading if necessary to avoid missing information. 160

Self-Enhancement

After undergoing Ultra-Fine Processing in Z-FBC-0914, Zai Zong unlocked the hidden achievement Self-Enhancement. 149

• His cognitive ability becomes four times that of an average person.
• Immediately before death, he enters a four-second “bullet time” period to consider a possible escape. 149
• The enhancement is a one-time hidden-mechanic reward and cannot be repeated. 149

Temporary PvP Roles

In Control Failure's PvP mode, Zai Zong has played several temporary roles with distinct abilities.

• Z-FBC-0181 “The Lucky One” / D-Class Personnel D-7783 — Has a 30% chance to open locked doors or electrical boxes, avoid and resist Pocket Dimension damage, and cause power outages. 181
• W-FBC-2419-01 “Laughing Man” — Was converted from a human faction member after infection and won as an anomaly. 183
• W-FBC-0173 “Statue” — Played the anomaly during a coordinated match with Xin Xin. 183

Equipment / Weapons / Items

Dark Forest

• Iron Shovel — His primary weapon during early nighttime survival; nearly broken after his fourth-night fight. 13
• Bat — Carried while searching Skyhill's 97th floor. 72

Skyhill

• Stereo Camera and 14-lens paper disc — Retrieved from Room 9720; its unusual construction suggests use beyond ordinary photography. 72
• Walkie-Talkie — Used for communication and later receives room-number broadcasts warning of an approaching threat. 74
• Handgun — Taken from a dead security guard in a parallel-world facility. 160

Universal Converter Upgrades

• S-NAV Ultimate Navigator — An ultra-fine processed navigator with infinite power and real-time anomaly detection and location marking. 148
• Enhanced Gas Mask — Has infinite filter cartridges, extended vision, reduced blink frequency, and improved stamina recovery through breathing. 148
• Level 5 Keycard — Produced through a series of processing experiments involving lower-level keycards and converted items. 148
• Enhanced Night-Vision Goggles — Detect nearby threats and provide deployable anomaly data as a portable database. 148

Mechanical Battle Armor

• Worn after being recovered from a headless armored corpse in a parallel world. 154
• Provides life support, activity and sensory enhancement, rapid stamina recovery, night vision, thermal imaging, illumination, pain suppression, increased movement speed, and enhanced strength. 154
• Prevents ordinary NPCs from perceiving its wearer, though A-FBC-1000 can see through its stealth effect. 154 160
• Sustained damage during Zai Zong's encounter with A-FBC-1000, disabling its language translation, deep-water pressure resistance, and intelligent communication functions. 161

Relationships

• Xin Xin — Fellow top streamer, co-op partner, and PvP teammate. They coordinate survival plans in Skyhill and combine W-FBC-0173 with W-FBC-0096 to defeat the Nine-Tailed Fox team in PvP. 74 80 183
• Huan Huan — Zai Zong's cousin. She is frightened by the games and uncomfortable with his increasingly reckless experimentation, while he teases her over her in-game deaths. 138 148 152
• Jieming Walker — Another protagonist whose distress call Zai Zong receives through a processed walkie-talkie; Zai Zong resolves to help him. 149
• A'Ti — A mysterious Cleaner who provides cryptic information about parallel worlds and the route to W-FBC-0970. 153
• Hoffman — Opponent in a high-stakes card game; Hoffman defeats Zai Zong through a strategic use of Special Cards. 26
• Livestream audience — Zai Zong's primary interactive community. Their comments, theories, gifts, and highlighted messages often shape his decisions and provide material for his on-stream persona. 13 154

Story Role / Major Arcs

• Dark Forest streams — Survives escalating nighttime encounters, discovers the Wedding Invitation side quest, and confronts the game's VR-level torture mechanics. 13 26
• Skyhill preview and co-op — Explores the ruined high-rise, investigates supernatural events, fails to save an NPC family, and later attempts to meet Xin Xin through the game's unconventional co-op system. 65 73 74
• Control Failure exploration — Investigates anomaly previews, follows the protagonist's repeated-death mystery, and discovers the Universal Converter. 126 139 148
• Parallel-world expedition — Uses upgraded equipment and mechanical battle armor to enter looping worlds, investigate abandoned Control Bureau sites, and uncover evidence of alternate protagonists and humanity's extinction. 149 154 156 158
• A-FBC-1000 encounter — Speaks with the ancient entity, learns about the Divine Seal and extinct civilizations, then unsuccessfully attempts to fight A-FBC-1000 before fleeing. 160 161
• Control Failure PvP — Becomes a prominent streamer for the new mode, playing both human and anomaly factions alongside Xin Xin. 181 183 184
• Dark Forest VR — Investigates the revised VR narrative and leads a Special Task Force into the deadly Channel 21 operation. 232 242 246

Notable Quotes

“Come on, you little trash! I'm not afraid to die! I'm ready to respawn!” 13

“See, brothers? This is power! Do you crave power?” 156

“You wouldn't understand.” 247

Trivia

• Zai Zong considers his own current name undignified, but still considers it better than the name “Seonggok.” 159
• Before becoming known as Zai Zong, he used the name “Ai Ying Ying Ying Stan” and a fake livestream voice to attract viewers. 159
• He favors optional quests so strongly that he would rather perform trivial errands than advance an urgent main story. 13