Unlocking each of the corruption levels for each person helps, but I think what you're really missing is the full list of corruptions, which you can unlock for viewing between loops by, instead of activating a person event, pressing "explore" and going to the forest, then search 10 times. There will then be a selection with no text on the black screen, above the leave option. This will end your current loop.
Viewing post in Public Release Version 52: Great Chest Ahead comments
There has to be some additional trigger. I can search 10+ times and get nothing like you describe, or, if I go out at midnight, sometimes I get to complete blackness with just a "leave" option in less than 10 tries. Either way, I still haven't unlocked the world corruption tracker.
EDIT: Never mind, eventually it showed up. Not sure if I had to do it a certain number of times or something or if there was some other trigger condition, but suddenly there was an empty option where previously there hadn't been anything.