Compared to other “NS” spin-off shows, the viewership and discussion of “NS-Game Party” were not high.
The reason was that the haunted house challenge format was relatively niche. The production team neither prepared elaborate puzzle-solving links like those in room escapes, nor did the facilities inside match the luxury of an average amusement park haunted house.
As for why some trainees were trembling with fear, on one hand, it was because they weren’t mentally prepared. They often weren’t necessarily afraid of the dark or ghosts, but were blinded by their own imaginations.
On the other hand, of course, they were acting. This was a recording after all. To get more screentime, it was normal to exaggerate a bit.
Given that the show itself wasn’t well-prepared, the audience would only selectively watch episodes featuring trainees they liked. And to accommodate every trainee, most people only got one recording opportunity.
That is to say, not every episode of “Game Party” had popular contestants. So it was perfectly normal for the show’s popularity to stay low.
But this Saturday’s new episode was different. Quentin, Yan Qiao, Xue Mingzhu, Fang Xu…four trainees ranked in the top ten in votes were gathered together. Just based on their respective fan bases, one knew the viewership for this episode wouldn’t be low.
What’s more, this was their first time appearing on “Game Party.” No matter how niche the haunted house challenge was, which fan wouldn’t look forward to seeing their idol enter a haunted house!
Thus, more and more viewers, drawn in by hot forum posts, clicked into the latest episode. Before they even saw the main characters appear, they were hit by a barrage of comments filling half the screen.
[!! High alert for this whole episode!! First-time viewers, please be careful not to drink water~!]
[First-time newbie reporting! I haven’t seen a haunted house variety show before, is it suitable for timid people to watch?]
[Second-time viewer here! New friends, feel free to jump in, no scares at all, plenty of surprises ^^]
[Sneaking into the second-time viewing experience, hehe, is anyone here specifically acting as a magnifying glass to dig for sugar? [shy]]
[Ahhh Quentin finally came to this show!! I waited so long!!]
[It’s 3A! I haven’t seen 3A together in a while TvT Am I dreaming?]
[Ooooh, it’s starting!]
The short opening song ended quickly and the shaky camera moved down a hallway. Young men wearing various training uniforms walked out of different practice rooms with their arms around each other’s shoulders. The camera quickly focused on the back of a young man leaning against a wall.
The red hairband vaguely revealed under his black hair exposed his identity. A hand holding a mission card reached towards him from off-camera.
“Xue Mingzhu, please accept your mission card.”
A voice-over, enhanced in post-production, rang out. Xue Mingzhu turned his head, his gaze instinctively falling on the card. He raised an eyebrow: “Mission card? Is that ‘Game Party’?”
He took the card and naturally read its contents: “To Xue Mingzhu, congratulations on triggering the game invitation for the ‘Teamwork Challenge + Little Black Room.’ Please proceed to Room 205 to receive your exclusive mission. Ps: Remember, do not tell anyone you received this card.”
“Teamwork Challenge, who else is there besides me? And what’s this ‘Little Black Room’ all about… Isn’t this a bit much?”
Seeing the staff member behind the cameraman shake their head, Xue Mingzhu curled his lip: “So mysterious, fine. I’ll go now.”
[No, Xiao Xue…ahead is hell!]
[Is Xue Mingzhu very timid? Doesn’t seem like it]
[Three-year fan, I’ve never heard he was timid. He even talked about playing live-action role-playing murder mystery games with friends on the forum, dominating everyone]
[He should be fine. Xiao Xue doesn’t look like a timid person]
First-time viewers confidently expressed their trust. The second-time viewers stayed silent, not intending to spoil anything, quietly waiting to watch the fun.
Meanwhile, Ji Xu, still in BKL’s practice room, happened to be watching this. He wasn’t very familiar with Xue Mingzhu, as the latter hadn’t participated in the “Cat and Mouse Game” recording, so they’d never met.
Although Ji Xu said those “NS” trainees were this bad and that bad, absolutely not comparable to them, he had still been unconsciously affected by the show’s phenomenal popularity.
Otherwise, the forum wouldn’t be pushing related hot posts to him all day long. Big data proved that he was very focused on Quentin, the ace he was always compared to, and also very focused on this survival show that BKL had blacklisted.
Ji Xu sat on the floor, watching the variety show with the volume on speaker. The familiar opening song and BGM quickly caught Jian Yu’s attention. The latter started dancing absent-mindedly, his gaze occasionally drifting over.
In the show, after Xue Mingzhu arrived at Room 205, he learned the game rules and his individual tasks from the assistant director guarding the door.
“After entering, listen to the questions over the broadcast. Answer correctly to score points? It sounds simple. What will they ask? Since it’s a teamwork challenge… is it questions related to other trainees?” Xue Mingzhu looked up suspiciously: “Director Wang, you’re not setting us up, are you? The prerequisite for testing teamwork is having tacit understanding first. Do I look close to other trainees?”
The off-camera Director Wang replied: “Why are you thinking so much before even starting? Xiao Xue, where’s your confidence?”
“I have a lot of confidence.” The young man with the red hairband patted his chest and gave a confident smile. Then, without hesitation, he reached out and pushed the door open.
Room 205.
Walls splashed with irregular red paint held several eerie paintings hung crookedly. Scattered on the floor were dolls missing arms and legs, and several spider-like things were crawling around…
In the center of the room stood a rattan recliner. No one sat on it, yet it was swaying slowly.
A lonely chair rocking on its own looked more and more strange against the surrounding environment.
[Fuck, the set design this time isn’t bad. Reminds me of the ghost baby in the hospital from Wen Xinyi and Qi Yang’s group in the first episode]
[Is it just my imagination… Why do I feel like the eyes of those paintings on the wall are all fixed on that chair?]
[I bet 50 cents that chair definitely has a problem. Maybe someone will appear on it later]
[Congratulations to the person above, you jumped to prophet [funny]]
Seeing this scene, Xue Mingzhu’s expression didn’t change, but his pupils contracted, and his heartbeat suddenly lurched.
He actually had a pretty vivid imagination, and coincidentally, he had experience playing escape rooms and live-action role-playing murder mystery games with friends.
The moment he saw the room’s setup, the images flashing through his mind were far more exciting than the production team’s prepared script.
But Xue Mingzhu pretended to be very calm, his attention entirely on the middle chair. His heart was in his throat, but his expression was unhurried as he walked into the room.
However, the moment his back foot crossed the threshold, the door slammed shut with a bang and locked with a click.
Immediately after, the ceiling light flickered several times, as if there was a faulty wire connection.
The strange buzzing noise made the ears numb, and the paintings on the wall also began glowing red. Pair after pair of eyes seemed to slowly shift from the chair towards the person standing at the door.
Xue Mingzhu：“…”
The moment the lights went out completely, Xue Mingzhu’s body moved faster than his thoughts.
Without hesitation, he tucked his head and crouched down on the floor, then closed his eyes and quickly shuffled…or rather crawled towards the chair.
His movements were surprisingly smooth.
Xue Mingzhu’s actions were purely a panicked, instinctive reaction. If asked why he did that… maybe he thought, if some ghostly thing was going to appear on the chair, if he sat there first, the ghost would have no place to sit?
[Pfft…]
[Does this count as brave or timid?]
[There’s a feeling of being both cowardly and courageous. It’s hard to guess if he did the right thing or not. But you probably have to sit in the chair to answer the broadcast’s questions]
“Hey, who is this? That rapper guy?”
Ji Xu turned his head at the sound and saw Jian Yu, who had somehow sidled up beside him: “First, I’m not called ‘Hey.’”
“Second, you guessed right.” He looked back and continued watching the show. “This is Xue Mingzhu. This episode also has Quentin, Yan Qiao, and Fang Xu.”
Jian Yu muttered: “Why is it always these people…”
He stared intently at the phone screen, his gaze sweeping across the barrage. Seeing the lively and harmonious discussions, he felt a bit sour inside.
On the screen, Xue Mingzhu finally crawled onto the chair, keeping his eyes shut the whole time, and resolutely flopped down on the chair, not moving again.
He didn’t have the slightest desire to explore this room. As long as he didn’t open his eyes, no one could scare him!
Xue Mingzhu lay on the chair for over ten minutes. The images quickly fast-forwarded to the door being pushed open again.
The camera didn’t point towards the door. There was only a slow “creaaaak,” as if deliberately trying to scare Xue Mingzhu. There were no other noises, just the sound of the door opening and closing, which sounded harsh and jarring in the quiet of Room 205.
Someone had entered. No footsteps were audible. Where were they going?
The camera switched to a surveillance view. The night vision presented by the night-vision camera had only black, white, and grey, with no discernible colors.
The person entering Room 205 looked tall and slender from the back, and their clothes and pants seemed a bit familiar.
After the lights went out, the visibility was poor, only the faint red glow by the walls illuminated things.
But the newcomer walked neither fast nor slow, lightly kicking aside dolls blocking the way, as if they already had a target, heading straight for the central chair.
[Mom… the ghost is here…]
[Who is this? How come their footsteps are so silent?]
[They seem to be wearing a trainee’s training uniform…]
[Looks like it, but I’m not sure…]
[They’re heading for Xue Mingzhu, right? It should be an NPC arranged by the production team. If it’s a trainee, they’re way too calm. They’re familiar with the place, like they’ve come home.]
[Xiao Xue looks very peaceful there.]
[He looks peaceful, but not really. His soul has been gone for a while now.]
[Holy shit! Can NPCs just randomly attack people?!!]
The surveillance camera still only showed the newcomer’s back. The audience watched helplessly as that person reached out and violently pushed the chair, trying to get Xue Mingzhu off it.
But probably due to lack of strength, Xue Mingzhu remained there firmly, his feet firmly planted on the ground, his hands tightly gripping the chair’s armrests. The suspected training-uniform-wearing “NPC” pushed five or six times repeatedly, but to no avail.
The two people remained locked in a quiet stalemate, pushing against each other without making a sound.
The originally somewhat tense atmosphere gradually changed during this round of shoving…becoming increasingly funny.
[Pfft, I feel like laughing a bit.]
[Wow, Brother Xue is awesome!!]
[So, is this person an NPC or not?]
[Regardless, how come the vibe has changed!]
[This back looks familiar. Don’t tell me it’s who I think it is…]
Perhaps realizing he couldn’t push Xue Mingzhu off, the “NPC” silently withdrew his hands and moved forward two steps.
He bent down slightly, leaning closer to the person lying on the chair, as if trying to observe.
If Xue Mingzhu opened his eyes at that moment, he would experience the ultimate face-to-face service of a haunted house, guaranteed to send him peacefully to his grave right then and there.
But of course, that was impossible. This guy was committed to being a coward all the way. Even if he vaguely sensed the other person approaching, he resolutely refused to open his eyes.
The ghost face he imagined in his mind was already scary enough. He didn’t want to see the real one!
Thus they remained in this stalemate for nearly ten seconds. Even with their faces almost touching, still no one made a sound.
The barrage started sympathizing with the “NPC.” He tried to scare someone but failed. Having his chair stolen was bad enough, but he couldn’t even get it back. How pitiful.
Just as everyone thought the NPC would give up and leave, something unexpected happened…this person actively reached out and grabbed Xue Mingzhu’s face!
To be precise, he pried at his eyelids. My goodness, the haunted house NPC started forcing people to open their eyes!
[Fuck, Brother NPC is even more impressive]
[Brother NPC: Look at me! Look at me! You have to open your eyes and look at me today!]
[Xue Mingzhu: Who are you? Where am I? Is this even allowed?]
[Wuuu our eyes-closed player didn’t provoke anyone [pitiful]]
[I feel like this guy’s side profile looks a bit familiar. His nose bridge is quite high]
[Does anyone still think this is an NPC… An NPC who doesn’t follow the rules like this must be a player!]
[Second-time viewers quietly watching you all, inexplicably wanting to laugh]
[Second-time viewers are busy taking screenshots, leaving a secret code, kdl, hehe]
[Second-time viewers‘ hearts have no ripples, they even think both of them look quite pitiful]
