The deadline for the first round of voting was October 9th, which was this Thursday.
According to the program team’s arrangement, the voting portal on the official webpage of “Next Stage” would close at exactly 12:00 on Thursday.
Immediately after, at 2:00 PM that same day, all the trainees would gather in the central square. The four mentors would successively announce the vote rankings and begin recording the content for the first elimination round.
As the deadline approached, the entire filming base was filled with a complex atmosphere of tension, anxiety, melancholy, and regret.
The trainees, whose phones had been confiscated and who were forcibly cut off from the internet, knew nothing about the show’s popularity or online public opinion, let alone guess their own ranking range.
Some were brimming with confidence, while others felt as if doom was imminent.
But no matter how restless their inner emotions were, it didn’t stop the program team from ordering them around to record spin-off segments, and they were frequently pulled in for post-production reshoots. The nightly post-recording interviews also still proceeded as usual.
Therefore, even after the first public performance, although the director didn’t release tasks similar to the “Initial Stage Rating” or “Theme Song Assessment,” the daily lives of the boys were still packed with arrangements.
On Wednesday, Quentin had just finished his vocal lesson when he received a card from a staff member.
[To Student Quentin,
Congratulations! You have triggered the game invitation for the “Tacit Challenge: The Little Black Room.” Please proceed to Room 205 now to receive your exclusive mission!
ps: Remember, do not tell anyone about receiving this card~]
“….What does this mean?”
He opened the card, quickly scanned the contents, then looked up at the staff member beside him: “Is it my turn to record a spin-off show? Who else is there besides me?”
The staff member smiled without speaking, raising a finger to their lips in a “shush” gesture.
Quentin understood: “Alright, I’ll go upstairs now.”
The first floor was where the boys usually had their daily lessons and training. The second floor housed work areas like the props room, makeup room, and director’s team offices. Room 205 was reportedly specifically used for recording “NS-Game Party.”
Wen Xinyi had already gone to Room 205 last week. After his recording, he returned to the dorm and chatted about it with his roommates. It was from him that Quentin learned about the existence of “Game Party.”
“The games prepared by Director Wang and the team are different from last year’s girl group survival show,” Wen Xinyi said at the time, sitting on the edge of his bed looking tired and his expression complex. His gaze shifted between his two roommates, and he sighed deeply. “Last year, they were lighthearted, fun little games, but this year… they lean more towards horror, pranks, and tricks.”
He continued, “The director forbade us from disclosing the game content to others. I’m not sure if you two will end up playing the same game as I did…… Anyway, be as careful as you can. If you can play with reliable acquaintances, that would definitely be best, but Director Wang might not arrange it that way.”
For example, he had been grouped with Qi Yang, Huo Donghua, and Qiao Xue from Wanming Media to challenge the horror room. It had a hospital ghost baby theme… In short, it was a really embarrassing experience.
It was the first time he realized his courage was actually so small. While he wasn’t afraid of the dark, he was terrified of ghosts and sudden jump scares!
The problem was, he wasn’t familiar with the other trainees in his group; they had barely spoken a few words before going in. So, even though he was so scared his legs went weak, he felt too embarrassed to ask them to slow down.
However, sharing the same plight is the best way to bond.
By the midway point, Wen Xinyi and Qiao Xue were already holding and clinging onto each other for support. Huo Donghua leaned against the wall, moving slowly and silently, seemingly trying to brave on. Only Qi Yang was a genuine tank, fearlessly leading the way.
The game lasted nearly an hour before it ended.
Wen Xinyi walked out of the exit, his lips pale. His only thought was: the program team is too ruthless!
They had actually remodeled the barely 100-square-meter Room 205 into a labyrinth-like horror house. They deployed every element: eerie background music, bloody and startling props, a dimly lit green morgue… and even used blood-stained cloth dolls flying through the air as the ghost babies.
Even the puzzle clues were cold, heavy, screaming, and vibrating funeral urns!
The unlucky one tasked with carrying the funeral urn was the group’s oldest, Huo Donghua. Wen Xinyi swore he saw Huo Donghua walking like a zombie for over ten minutes, only snapping out of it when an NPC launched a surprise attack.
That’s right, during the later part of the game, the merciless program team, thinking their puzzle-solving was too slow, temporarily sent real-person NPCs dressed as ghosts to hurry them along.
The scene descended into unbearable chaos.
So, why were the program team’s staff so skilled at impersonating ghosts?! Did these people really not have similar side jobs before?
Heaven knows the shock Wen Xinyi received when he looked up and suddenly saw a female ghost in white clinging to the ceiling. His heart rate skyrocketed, almost having a cardiac arrest. He felt his soul had already floated out of the top of his head, and the Wen Xinyi standing there with cold hands and feet was just a numb shell; he even saw the figure of Meng Po selling soup by the Naihe Bridge in front of his eyes……
He couldn’t share these details with Quentin and Fang Xu. Even if the director hadn’t forbidden them from leaking information, he wouldn’t know where to begin.
Should he say he was so scared throughout that he was in a daze, didn’t help at all with the puzzle tasks, and even caused quite a bit of trouble with his fumbling and clumsiness?
No way…He still wanted to maintain his image in front of his roommates.
Although Wen Xinyi didn’t elaborate, Quentin gleaned a lot of information from the lingering fear on his face.
It seemed this game was quite challenging.
With this thought in mind, Quentin arrived at the door of Room 205.
The door of Room 205 was tightly shut. The assistant director stood by the door, smiling with curved eyes as she looked at the boy standing before her: “Hi, good afternoon, Quentin. Let me first explain the task you need to complete once you enter Room 205.”
“First, talking is strictly prohibited from the moment you enter Room 205 until the game ends. Also, please try your best not to make loud noises.”
The woman handed Quentin a white pen: “This is a decibel meter. Clip it to your collar. After the game ends, the program team will calculate the average decibel level for each of the four players. The player with the lowest average decibel level will receive an additional 10 game points.”
“Secondly, have you played ‘Red Light, Green Light’?”
“Your personal mission is to find the only chair inside Room 205 as quickly as possible after entering, sit on the chair, and remain completely still until the game ends.”
Quentin looked at the assistant director’s gentle smile and felt something was wrong: “Is it really that simple?”
“Mhmm, your task is the simplest among the four. I believe you can definitely complete it. Oh, and successfully completing the mission earns you 50 points. Each mistake made during the mission deducts 5 points.”
Quentin: “Understood… What are the game points for?”
The assistant director took a step to the side, revealing a standing signboard that she had been blocking: “Please look here. This is the points exchange list. You can use your points at any time to exchange for the rewards listed here. Whether it’s playing video games, calling family or friends, enjoying a delicious cheat meal… and so on, all these wishes can be fulfilled here.”
Quentin’s gaze scanned the list one by one, finally settling on the word “hotpot” following “delicious cheat meal.”
The corresponding points required were 100. Calculating roughly, that meant just winning two games.
The black-haired boy calmly retracted his gaze, turned to the assistant director without changing his expression, and said, “I see. Do I go in directly now?”
Ah, the desire to win has already been ignited.
The assistant director smiled and nodded: “Of course, good luck, Quentin.”
“Okay.”
*
Creeeak…
Quentin cautiously pushed the door open, revealing pitch blackness inside.
Using the light from the corridor, he vaguely saw that directly across from the door was a grayish-white wall with a painting hanging on it.
The painting depicted Jesus nailed to the cross, an imitation of some famous artwork. The overall composition was oppressive and gloomy, which was quite intimidating at first glance.
Seeing no trace of fright, stunned hesitation, or any other reaction on the boy’s face, the assistant director thought with regret, “It seems Quentin is quite brave.”
Quentin walked into Room 205 with light footsteps, and the door creaked shut behind him.
The only light in the entire room came from small strings of lights embedded along the junction of the wall and the floor, and the faint red light flickered on and off.
The room was eerily silent and pitch black. Losing visual input in the darkness often stimulates a richer imagination, commonly known as scaring oneself.
But Quentin had a high tolerance for it.
He looked around. In the hazy, shadowy light, he quickly spotted a rocking chair with its back to him, standing quietly in the center of the room.
Someone was sitting in the rocking chair. From behind, only a blurry silhouette could be discerned, completely motionless. It was unclear whether it was a real person or a mannequin.
Holding onto the wall, Quentin quickly kicked away obstacles like cloth dolls, toy trains, and plush spiders lying on the ground and made his way to the side of the chair.
He placed his left hand on the back of the chair, bent down to examine the person sitting in it, but couldn’t make out any details after looking for a long time.
It was simply too dark. This rocking chair was placed right in the middle of the room, where the red light from the corners couldn’t reach at all.
But Quentin was almost certain that the person sitting here was a real person, and very likely another trainee participating in the game with him.
He thought for a moment, then reached out and pushed the other party’s shoulder. He pushed…. no movement.
So he increased the force. He pressed both hands against the boy’s shoulders and back, and shoved forward abruptly.
The person’s upper body swayed significantly, and the chair also rocked violently. His butt left the seat for an instant, but the next moment, he thumped back down onto it.
Not a word was uttered, and he remained firm and still.
The rocking chair was even steadied by him. Looking closely, he had his feet firmly planted on the ground, using leg strength to stop the chair from rocking.
‘What is wrong with this person…’
Quentin felt somewhat puzzled. Could his mission be the same as his own: to sit on the chair and remain still?
But now there was only one chair in the entire Room 205. If this person was sitting on it, then what was he supposed to do?
Mindful of the mission rules set by the director team beforehand, Quentin didn’t speak. Instead, he raised his hand and waved it in front of the boy’s face, attempting to communicate through gestures.
Silence. No response.
Quentin suddenly realized something and tentatively reached forward.
He touched the boy’s face, his fingers gently sliding down from the latter’s forehead, then he felt the boy’s tightly closed eyes.
The eyeballs beneath the eyelids were still trembling unconsciously with tension. Listening carefully, even the breathing seemed to be shaking.
Heh! After all that, this was a trainee who was too timid to even open his eyes!
Meanwhile, in Room 206, separated from 205 by just a wall, the staff gathered around the monitor screens were laughing hysterically at this scene.
“Hahahahahahaha! What is Xue Mingzhu doing?! How can he not even dare to open his eyes? Is he really that timid?”
“No,this is too hilarious. Look at the expression on Quentin’s face. It’s the first time I’ve seen him look so speechless!”
“If I were Quentin,I’d be speechless too. The key point is, Xue Mingzhu’s mission has nothing to do with the chair at all.”
A staff member from the props team said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry: “When he first entered, the lights in 205 weren’t even off. We only turned them off after he walked to the middle of the room. As a result, he immediately squatted down on the ground in fear, felt his way to the chair with his eyes closed the whole time, then sat down and started playing dead…”
Someone else joked beside them: “Quentin is really brave. He directly kicked away the cloth doll that made Wen Xinyi’s legs go weak last week. This kid is not only calm but also hasn’t made a single sound; he walks so quietly. I bet Xue Mingzhu was so scared when he walked behind the chair and suddenly put his hand on the backrest.”
“Haha, that’s normal. Cats walk without sound.”
“Do you think Xue Mingzhu knows that the person who just came in is also a trainee? He might think it’s us, the staff, acting as NPCs to scare him on purpose.”
“Hmm…Now that you mention it, that’s very possible.”
“So what about Quentin’s mission?He doesn’t seem weak in strength, but he can’t push Xue Mingzhu away. I remember reading in Xue Mingzhu’s profile that he practiced volleyball for two years in high school. He’s definitely stronger than Quentin.”
“Actually,it’s easy to solve. If Quentin just speaks, everything would be fine. Xue Mingzhu should be able to recognize Quentin’s voice. But if he does that, he’ll lose 5 points on his first task.”
“Uh, does Quentin look like he’s planning to speak? He looks like he’s about to roll up his sleeves and start a fight…… Fuck! What happened?”
“Ahhh!!!”
“Oh my God, as expected of Quentin, he really knows how to play. He directly sat on the other’s lap… Well, how is that not sitting on the only chair in the room? But if he has to remain still afterwards, doesn’t that mean he has to keep sitting on Xue Mingzhu?”
“It’s over. Once this episode airs, the forums are going to explode again.”
“It’s fine, we’re used to it. Since the ‘Dorm Daily’ update at noon until now, who knows how many forum threads have exploded, all because of shipping CP and creating yellow content that got locked by moderators. And we didn’t even include the most scandalous shots in the edit…”
“Well,we didn’t capture the most scandalous stuff either. It was all blocked by the bed sheets they hung up.”
“Anyway, we got this lap-sitting moment. There are at least ten cameras in 205 and at multiple angles, with all-around coverage, not a single detail will be missed!”
“You all really…that’s enough now.”
Director Wang turned to look at his chattering, increasingly excited colleagues behind him and rubbed the space between his eyebrows. “The style of our ‘Game Party’ is pranks and comedy. Stop messing around with all those other notions. It’s one thing if Xiao Wang is like this, but why are you all joining in? Are you trying to rebel?”
The screenwriter who was sitting in another chair with her legs crossed pouted unhappily. “Director Wang, what are you saying? You need to get online more. We in variety shows need to keep up with internet trends. Do you know how popular Quentin’s CP is right now? And it’s not like we’re messing around in the main show; what’s wrong with having fun in the spin-off?”
“Right, right. We put these people in the same group to play games precisely because their CP is hot online. Director Wang, don’t tell me you had no idea at all.”
An executive director who was on good terms with Director Wang joked, “Ah, Brother Wang, did you film too many outdoor travel shows before and haven’t shifted your mindset? Shipping CP in boy group survival shows is completely normal. But it’s fine if you’re not used to it, you’ll get used to it the more you see it. A little fan service is healthy.”
Director Wang glared at him.”It’s one thing if these young girls like to ship CP, but why is a grown man like you joining in the fun? Do you also enjoy watching two guys stick together?”
The executive director rolled his eyes.”That’s where you’re wrong, Brother Wang. You know the young girls love shipping CP, right? And aren’t the viewers of boy group survival shows mostly young girls? As the chief director of our show, your job is to serve these young girls. Don’t be so rigid.”
Director Wang was stunned for a few seconds by this retort. “Huh? What kind of twisted logic is this…”
Knock knock.
“Everyone, hold on for a moment. The next trainee is about to enter 205.”
Assistant Director Wang who was standing at the door knocked on the doorframe twice and pointed helplessly at the clock on the wall. “I’ve already sent Xiao Lin to notify Fang Xu. He should probably be upstairs in a minute or two. I’ll go wait at the door of 205 now. Everyone, please pay attention to their task progress in real-time and get ready to give them broadcast announcements.”
