“Something’s strange…” Qi Xia said quietly. “I originally thought a ‘physical strength type elimination game’ would have a very complex field, so that participants could be continuously eliminated.”
“You’re right.” Qiao Jiajin nodded, also looking at this square field and the iron plate in the center. His expression also became puzzled. “How are they going to eliminate us here?”
As soon as he finished speaking, the large iron door before them trembled, then slowly rose.
“Hm?” The chubby middle-aged man saw the door open with a face full of confusion. “What’s this? Do we need to keep walking forward?”
Just as the door fully opened, the countdown on the wall also began to move.
It seemed the game had truly started.
“What’s going on?”
Everyone looked at each other in dismay, completely unaware of what the situation before them was.
But in the next second, a low, muffled roar came from inside the door.
That sound… wasn’t human.
“Damn…” The hair on Qiao Jiajin’s body stood on end. “Are you kidding me…”
A massive pitch-black animal walked out. It stood on two legs, its mouth slightly open, constantly dripping saliva. Looking at its eyes, it seemed like it had been starving for three days.
After it completely exited the iron door, the iron door also immediately closed.
“This is… a bear?!” Qiao Jiajin couldn’t help but take a step back. If his opponent were human, he had complete confidence to fight them, but his opponent was actually a bear taller than a person.
Qi Xia looked closely, his expression darkening. This bear’s breed was an “Asian black bear.” It had a very obvious white crescent pattern at its neck. However, this Asian black bear’s body size was really too large.
Generally speaking, Asian black bears’ body height rarely exceeded that of humans, approximately between one point six to one point eight meters, but this one looked at least over two meters tall—extremely terrifying.
“Ah!”
A girl was about to scream, but instinctively covered her own mouth. However, a bit of sound still leaked out.
This abruptly halted sound not only gave everyone a shudder, but also startled the black bear.
After a brief pause, the black bear let out an even deeper, muffled roar, looking as if it had been provoked.
“What the hell kind of game is this!” The middle-aged man wailed and shouted, then turned to run. But after three steps, he froze in place.
He discovered that the stairs they had come down had disappeared.
At this moment, behind them was only a high wall—completely no way back.
The middle-aged man seemed to have lost his mind and sat down on the ground with a thud. “It’s over… we’re dead… we’re definitely dead…”
“Damn… what do we do?” Qiao Jiajin turned his head to look at Qi Xia. “This is already not something that can be won with just physical strength.”
“Not easy to handle…” Qi Xia’s expression also began to grow heavy.
Why did the opponent have to be a bear?
A bear’s close-range killing power was even greater than tigers and lions, and this field with limited range was precisely its ideal hunting ground.
Watching the massive black bear approach step by step, the two young girls closest to it were already too frightened to move.
“Quick, quick, play dead!” The middle-aged uncle sitting on the ground shouted loudly. “When you encounter a bear, playing dead still gives you a chance of survival!!”
This shout scared the two girls at the front back to their senses. They immediately lay on the ground, trembling all over with their eyes closed.
“No!” Qi Xia also shouted loudly. “Get up! Run!”
But those two girls didn’t listen to Qi Xia’s words at all, lying on the ground completely motionless.
Seeing someone play dead, the rest of the crowd also sprawled out on the ground in all directions. Now only Qi Xia, Qiao Jiajin, and a slightly chubby girl remained standing on the field.
“Liar Boy, isn’t playing dead right?” Qiao Jiajin also asked with a serious expression. “When you encounter a bear, aren’t you supposed to play dead?”
“If you encounter a brown bear, playing dead still gives you a chance of survival, but not with black bears!” Qi Xia shook his head seriously. “Brown bears won’t eat people. They attack humans only to protect their territory. When they think the dead human poses no threat to them, they’ll stop attacking. But black bears are different. Black bears will eat people when extremely hungry!”
As soon as he finished speaking, that massive black bear approached one of the girls playing dead and sniffed her face with its nose.
“Foolish…” Qi Xia thought this was bad. When humans encounter black bears, even running with all their might would result in nine deaths out of ten, let alone lying on the ground waiting to die.
Sure enough, after sniffing for a few seconds, the black bear suddenly opened its mouth and bit the girl’s neck.
The girl screamed, but the sound abruptly stopped, stuck in her throat, completely unable to come out.
Her panicked hands kept pounding at the black bear, but it felt like hammering on a hard sandbag.
The black bear didn’t loosen its bite. Instead, it extended its front paw and steadily slapped the girl’s chest.
That chest visibly caved in—it looked like all the bones had shattered.
The girl sprayed out a large mouthful of fresh blood, and her entire body immediately went still.
Seeing this scene, Qi Xia’s heart seemed to skip a beat.
He had only seen news of animals hurting people on his phone, but had never witnessed it with his own eyes. This scene was simply a brutal slaughter.
Everyone, regardless of gender, gasped sharply.
Only now did they finally believe that playing dead was useless, and they scattered in all directions.
Although humans were the rulers of Earth, they were completely vulnerable before these original inhabitants of Earth.
Without tools and weapons, how exactly could they oppose this bear?
Wait a moment… tools and weapons?
Qi Xia suddenly thought of the center of the field—that iron plate the size of a table.
Who said there were no tools and weapons here? Hadn’t the organizer placed something here?
“Qiao Jiajin, we need to get that iron plate!” Qi Xia said. “Although I don’t know what that thing is, it looks like it can protect us.”
“Damn… you sure know how to pick…” Qiao Jiajin looked at the iron plate placed almost at the black bear’s feet and said with difficulty, “That thing is temporarily out of stock. This customer, would you like to change to something else?”
“Stop wasting words!” Qi Xia said. “If we don’t use that iron plate to block the black bear, our deaths are just a matter of time.”
“Alright then…” Qiao Jiajin seemed to have made some kind of decision. “I’ll draw the black bear away, you go get the iron plate.”
“Draw it away…?” Although Qi Xia hesitated somewhat, he knew this was the only method at the moment. “The black bear’s running speed can reach forty-eight kilometers per hour. You can’t outrun it, so try to maneuver around it as much as possible.”
“I know.” Qiao Jiajin nodded.
The two discussed their strategy, then immediately split up to take action.
Qiao Jiajin slowly approached the black bear, then suddenly shouted loudly, “Hey! Stupid!”
The black bear was startled. It raised its head to look at him, its eyes full of cautious killing intent.
It slowly took a step forward, as if probing. But Qiao Jiajin wasn’t polite either—he also took a step forward.
This action made the beast before him hesitate. It couldn’t gauge Qiao Jiajin’s depth.
“Real stupid, you want to exchange a few moves with me?” Qiao Jiajin squeezed out a trace of a smile and extended his hand to wave at himself. “Come hit me.”
Although the black bear didn’t understand human language, it was obviously provoked by Qiao Jiajin’s attitude.
It slowly straightened its upper body, standing on its hind legs to make itself look even larger.
“ROAR—”
The black bear roared, as if building momentum for itself. The rotting smell from its mouth also sprayed out.
The massive roar echoed in the small field. Everyone’s hair stood on end.
Qiao Jiajin slowly broke out in a cold sweat, feeling like he had provoked something incredible.