Trainee Ch.108

Chapter 108: Group Variety Show (Extra 8)

After Captain Lai Yudong finalized the order, the seven of them walked out of the room.

Originally, the first group to stay behind was supposed to be Bai Xuanhe and Qu Xincheng. He had arranged it that way because they were the most timid, hoping they’d have to walk the least. But when they reached the first corner, both of them changed their minds at the same time, insisting on switching to the second group instead.

“There’s no one behind us. We have to wait for you guys to finish before anyone comes. What if an NPC suddenly pops out from the back?”

Bai Xuanhe tried to secure a lifeline for himself.

Qu Xincheng turned his head. The pitch-black hallway made him shudder, and he immediately pressed his back to the wall, desperately seeking some sense of safety.

Lai Yudong and Su Junzhe were the last group, tasked with the most important responsibility.

Mo Li and Li Xu weren’t exactly brave either, so their courage didn’t inspire much confidence.

The only hope now lay with Zhao Yifeng.

Zhao Yifeng, completely unfazed by the order, said, “Then I’ll stay here with the Taoist.”

With the first group left at that corner, the remaining six people headed toward the second corner. Like unloading cargo, their numbers dwindled the further they went.

At the third corner, Mo Li and Li Xu stayed behind, leaving Lai Yudong and Su Junzhe to carry the jade artifact to the final corner.

As it turned out, Su Junzhe really did have some guts.

Even though their section had the fewest people and was by far the scariest stretch of hallway, their group was the fastest among all three. They didn’t even need to link arms — they just walked straight through.

“We’re here!”

Su Junzhe called out cheerfully, sounding not like someone in a haunted house, but like a character from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Once all the preparations for the ritual were complete, the Taoist began performing the secret spell.

[Something bad’s about to happen]

[The traitor hasn’t made a move yet — shouldn’t they act soon?]

[Why do I feel like they’ve already tampered with something?]

[If someone’s already made their move, it’s probably either Xiao Su or Brother Bai, right? The two of them kept rummaging around that room.]

[Let’s leave Group 1 aside for now — Group 6 is obviously looking for clues.]

[No one suspects Yuzu? The whole “choose one of two jade pieces” thing was pretty suspicious.]

[Whoever goes to do the solo task has to pick between two anyway. And no matter who the mole is, the storyline would say it was Yuzu doing it.]

[If anything, having anyone other than Yuzu go solo would make them look more like the traitor.]

“Crap!” the Taoist suddenly shouted, confirming the barrage’s suspicions.

“The item’s been switched for a cursed object! The formation failed!”

“You couldn’t even tell it was cursed!?”

Li Xu’s voice cracked from the other end of the hallway.

The next second, a chill wind swept through the corridor. The oil lamps hanging on the walls all went out, leaving only the flashlight in Bai Xuanhe and Qu Xincheng’s hands — the sole light source in the entire house, making the two of them stand out starkly in the darkness.

In perfect sync, the two of them dropped into a crouch, trembling and huddling together like a pair of small, helpless hamsters.

“I-I-I-I’m not opening my eyes!”

Bai Xuanhe shouted to keep himself brave, though the flashlight beam trembled right along with him.

Qu Xincheng just hugged his head in silence, seemingly having logged out of Earth Online, his whole body frozen like a disconnected avatar.

In contrast, the last group had an entirely different vibe.

“Oh, they even set up a wind machine,” Su Junzhe remarked, peering around in the darkness, completely missing the point of the scene.

Lai Yudong glanced up at the extinguished oil lamps.

“But, uh… a wind machine blowing out electric oil lamps kind of breaks immersion.”

“Having power at all in a house abandoned for years is already immersion-breaking,” Su Junzhe replied.

“True. But logically, it still checks out — I guess even ghosts can’t resist the convenience of modern technology.”

[Are you two seriously critiquing the production design right now?!]

[You’ve got a point there — ghosts and technology, what a combo.]

[They went from the “scaredy-cat group” to the “fearless group,” and suddenly it’s not scary anymore.]

[The key thing is, only the Bai–Qu duo has a flashlight! We can’t see a thing here — all we can do is listen to the sounds, lmaooo.]

“What happens when the formation fails? Are we all gonna get wiped out?”

Su Junzhe finally remembered he was supposed to be part of an exploration team.

“Depends on whether that Taoist keeps giving out missions,” Lai Yudong analyzed from experience.

“But judging from the runtime, we’re probably near the end. If the finale’s starting, it should be the final chase sequence.”

Just as he finished speaking, the voices of their teammates echoed from far down the hallway — high-pitched and panicked.

“Aaaaaah!! Don’t come any closer!!”

“Holy crap! What the hell is that!? Qu Xincheng, run!!”

“……”

Lai Yudong and Su Junzhe exchanged a look in the darkness.

Let’s just… pretend we didn’t hear the swearing.

Sure, it wasn’t very idol-like behavior — but honestly, who could blame them?

The screams carried on like a relay race, passed from one group to the next.

“What the hell did you two bring over here!?”

Li Xu’s voice rose in complete panic.

“Go find that conman Taoist, not us! Why are you running this way!?”

Logically, Bai Xuanhe and Qu Xincheng should’ve run back toward the starting point — where Zhao Yifeng and the Taoist were — which would’ve redirected the NPC’s attention toward Mo Li and Li Xu instead.

But somehow, the two managed to take a huge detour, turning the whole thing into an accidental group marathon.

Their only response was the two’s bloodcurdling, pig-squeal-like screams:

“Aaaaaahhhh!! Stop chasing us!!”

“Why’s this NPC so fast!? Was he a retired athlete or something!?”

[The master-disciple duo’s camera angle is killing me lmaooo]

[They sound so pitiful when they scream]

[I suddenly understand why Xiao Su was having so much fun]

[Turns out I was the mole all along / doge]

The screams and pounding footsteps grew louder and closer.

Before long, a flashlight beam flickered wildly from the far end of the hallway.

The four people being chased by the NPC looked like a pack of panicked monkeys from Journey to the West, shrieking as they sprinted straight toward Lai Yudong and Su Junzhe.

Leading the charge—was Bai Xuanhe.

He had somehow overtaken Mo Li and Li Xu, dragging along Qu Xincheng, whose soul looked about ready to float right out of his body.

“Maybe we should just… start running?”

Su Junzhe said, wisely foreseeing disaster.

“Let’s go.”

Lai Yudong agreed without hesitation.

The moment the chase began, the extinguished oil lamps along the walls suddenly reignited, lighting up the hallway enough for them to run without needing a flashlight.

As they sprinted toward the starting point, Su Junzhe suddenly spoke up out of nowhere:

“You’re the mole, aren’t you?”

“How could I be?”

Lai Yudong feigned confusion.

Su Junzhe continued, calmly and logically,

“If you weren’t the traitor, you would’ve waited until they reached us so we could all run together. You’d never just ditch everyone and take off with me.”

“Your analysis is wrong,” Lai Yudong forced down his panic, responding with measured composure.

“Six people running together isn’t safe — especially in this dim lighting. Someone’s bound to bump into someone else or trip. And running with you makes sense; we can reach the Taoist first.”

“That’s fair,” Su Junzhe admitted, “but you’re still suspicious.”

He wasn’t that easy to fool.

“The Taoist said the object was switched for a cursed one. Aside from the jade pieces from the solo mission, everything else was found together.”

“The formation was done in pairs. As long as one teammate’s either too timid or too reckless, there’s a chance to swap something without being noticed.”

“Bai Xuanhe and Qu Xincheng were too busy panicking, and Zhao Yifeng was right under the Taoist’s nose — no way he could’ve tampered with anything. The jade pieces never passed through my hands either, so that clears a few of us.”

He glanced sideways at Lai Yudong, his tone steady but pointed.

“That means the mole is either you… or someone in the other group.”

Lai Yudong said with certainty, “Then it has to be between Mo Li and Li Xu — one of the two.”

[Groups 3, 5, 6, 7 are screaming their lungs out, and you two still have the time to calmly discuss who the mole is]

[If Lai were really the wolf, he’d have taken the chance to throw Li or Zhao under the bus just now — no need to stand up for them]

[He did subtly shade Zhao first though, kinda sus]

[Doesn’t even matter who the traitor is anymore, the formation’s already toast lol]

“Forget it, I give up thinking,” Su Junzhe sighed.

“Even if we expose the mole, it’ll just trigger the ending — a flashback to what happened years ago. A full-party chase scene sounds way more fun.”

Lai Yudong played along, pretending to act the part: “We might not all die, though. We still have the Taoist, don’t we?”

“Please, he’s obviously useless~”

[At this point we can safely say Group 1 isn’t the mole]

[But honestly, Su Su sounds more like the mole than the actual mole]

[Real winner here: the chaos enjoyer]

And in the end, things unfolded exactly as Su Junzhe predicted.

When the two of them made it back to the starting point, Zhao Yifeng shouted in alarm:

“Don’t come any closer!”

It turned out that after the Taoist’s ritual failed, he’d been possessed by the vengeful spirit. Zhao hadn’t managed to escape in time and became the first player captured — but unlike Bai and Qu, he didn’t scream, so no one realized the starting point had already fallen.

In hindsight, the screaming had been a kind of signal.

“Since when can ghosts multiply!?” Su Junzhe muttered.

The Taoist — now twisted and monstrous — lunged toward them.

The two immediately slammed on the brakes, but even as they spun around to flee, another NPC came charging from behind.

All six of them were trapped — surrounded front and back, nowhere left to run.

Just as disaster loomed, Lai Yudong stepped forward heroically.

But he wasn’t planning to nobly sacrifice himself to buy time.

He simply threw up a casual peace sign to the camera, as if sightseeing.

Both NPCs glanced at him — and then completely ignored him, detouring around as if he didn’t exist.

Everyone: “???”

[Holy sh*t, Yuzu was the mole?!]

[Damn you, black-hearted pomelo! And here I thought you were a good fruit! I was wrong about you!]

[He really had us fooled.]

[So it happened when Group 2 did the solo mission?]

[How’s anyone supposed to play this game? Only the mole would dare go on the solo task!]

[The only decent tank turns out to be the traitor. This team is doomed.]

[A total wipeout was destiny.]

[Farewell, comrades — see you in the next life. waves handkerchief**]

“Lai Yudong!!!”

“You were the traitor all along! Get him out of here!”

“I knew it was you~”

“Aaaah! You’d better sleep with one eye open tonight!”

…

Amid the chorus of tragic screams, the live-action haunted house came to an end.

Bad Ending: Total Party Wipeout — cheerfully achieved.

“It’s finally over…” Qu Xincheng staggered out through the exit. Seeing daylight again, he leaned weakly against the wall and swore feebly, “I’m never coming to a haunted house again in my life.”

“But that was pretty fun, actually.” Bai Xuanhe, on the other hand, had already bounced back to full energy — as if the one who’d been huddled in a terrified ball inside hadn’t been him at all.

Li Xu gave a precise review: “Terrible at it, but can’t stop playing.”

“Still, I didn’t expect the mole to be Lai Yudong,” Mo Li sighed. “I always thought he was the backbone of our team.”

“He threw shade at me, denied it, and then used me to prove his innocence!” Li Xu accused him bitterly.

Lai Yudong quietly averted his gaze, pretending he hadn’t heard anything.

[Scum Pomelo! Juice him!!]

[How could little Yuzu ever have bad intentions? He was just seriously playing the game, lol]

[That peace-sign moment facing the camera deserves a place in the SE Group Hall of Fame]

[Sorry for underestimating you, Yuzu — turns out you’re not just a silly little guy after all]

[Let’s be honest, no one except Su Su was even trying to deduce anything, lmaooo]

[I shouldn’t say this, but I kinda want to see them do another haunted house episode now]

“Alright everyone, focus up! Next question coming,” the staff member called them back to order. “Question: Who screamed the loudest in the haunted house?”

Lai Yudong: “……”

How would anyone know that?!

Another bizarre question!

The number of times was easy — definitely Qu Xincheng — but the decibel level?

They all screamed at about the same volume of misery.

In the end, Lai Yudong wrote down Bai Xuanhe’s name, because his screams had the most… vocal power.

—

That night, the Yuzu fans received notifications from Starlight, the fan app.

[StarEpoch–Lai Yudong: Just got home! Did you guys watch the group variety show live? 🌟]

[StarEpoch–Lai Yudong: If not, no spoilers — but let’s just say it was a very entertaining haunted house experience. I got to be the resident genius this time (～￣▽￣)～]

[StarEpoch–Lai Yudong: Oh, and tomorrow we’re going to an amusement park! Look forward to it! (Wait, am I allowed to say that?) (Let’s keep it our little secret)]

[StarEpoch–Lai Yudong: [Image] Still working hard — crying through my second night of love–hate with the DDL]

————————————————————

Author’s Note:

Information Reveal —

Spice Tolerance Levels:

Su Junzhe (mild),

Lai Yudong (medium),

Mo Li (strong),

Zhao Yifeng (strong),

Qu Xincheng (none),

Bai Xuanhe (medium),

Li Xu (mild).

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