The first episode had been extended, but its total runtime was still less than two hours.
Yet the impact that this less-than-two-hour program had caused online was nothing short of an earthquake.
Even if a large portion of people had not been watching television at the time, it did not matter. All kinds of short-video apps on their phones, as well as webpages and related sites on their computers, spontaneously pushed the program to them. They could not ignore it even if they wanted to.
After the program ended, Weibo, forums, QQ groups... huge numbers of netizens flooded into these places, with all sorts of messages madly flooding the screens, even causing these platforms to crash for a time.
It was not until the official website and related app launched by the government at six o'clock appeared that these netizens finally had a proper outlet for their flood of emotions.
Before long, the previously empty official forum was filled with a huge number of posts. There was everything in them: people offering hefty rewards for player slots, people questioning the authenticity of the information, and people preaching apocalypse theories while calling for everyone to indulge in lawless revelry together... That account was banned a few minutes later.
—Later, according to people digging into the matter, the police showed up at the door with remarkable precision just a few minutes later. The guy who had been shooting his mouth off online was thrown into a station and given Seven Days of education.
All accounts registered on the official website used real-name IP verification. There was no room for fooling around in a place like that.
Still, aside from that small group of people with ulterior motives, most people online at this time were able to retain at least a basic degree