The black bear advanced another step forward. The distance between it and Qiao Jiajin was now only about a meter.
This time, Qiao Jiajin didn’t dare move forward no matter what. That black bear’s arm span was very long. Going any further would enter its attack range—undoubtedly suicide.
So he could only slowly retreat a step.
Seeing this scene, Qi Xia showed a trace of nervous expression.
The rules of confrontation between animals were very simple. If one side retreated, it was afraid.
If afraid, it would become prey.
The black bear saw Qiao Jiajin retreat a step. Its hesitant momentum gradually became violent. Now it was almost certain that the creature before it posed no threat.
After pausing for three seconds, the black bear suddenly lunged forward. Its thick forearm swung down like a stone pillar.
Qiao Jiajin no longer tried to act tough. He shrank his body to dodge this strike, took advantage of the momentum to roll backward on the ground, then immediately started running.
The black bear howled and chased after him on all fours.
Now the black bear had completely treated Qiao Jiajin as prey.
“Liar Boy! Hurry up!” Qiao Jiajin shouted while running. “I’m leaving this worthless life of mine to you!”
“Don’t trust me too much either!” Qi Xia also said somewhat nervously. “I don’t even know what that iron plate is…”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Qiao Jiajin cursed loudly. “Hurry up and ‘get the goods’!”
Seeing the black bear run off, Qi Xia immediately ran toward the iron plate on the ground.
Logically speaking, all the “games” he had seen before weren’t dead ends—there would definitely be a “path to survival.” In this unobstructed room, the path to survival would certainly be related to this iron plate.
Running closer to look, this iron plate’s surface was somewhat mottled with many rusted places.
“This…”
Qi Xia reached out to feel it, only to discover this was just a very ordinary circular iron plate. There were no mechanisms on it, much less any text hints.
“What the hell…” Qi Xia felt like he had been played. This iron plate was simply like trash that could be found anywhere.
After running about a dozen steps, Qiao Jiajin discovered the black bear was already close at hand. He immediately stopped running, suddenly turned around, and shouted loudly, “Stupid!!”
The black bear was greatly startled by Qiao Jiajin and immediately retreated a large step, once again standing on its hind legs.
Qiao Jiajin sneered coldly. He extended his finger to point fiercely at the black bear and said, “Scared, weren’t you? Real stupid, you think I’m afraid of you? You listen well to me…”
The black bear stared blankly at Qiao Jiajin, as if really waiting for him to speak.
The people on the field were also somewhat dumbfounded at this moment. They all looked toward Qiao Jiajin together, not knowing what exactly he wanted to say to a black bear.
But what caught everyone completely off guard was that Qiao Jiajin, seeing that he had stabilized the black bear, didn’t hesitate for a moment. He turned around and ran with all his might.
The black bear knew it had been toyed with. It roared even more violently and chased after him again.
At this time, Qi Xia in the center of the field had already flipped the iron plate over and was carefully studying it. This iron plate was very heavy. There wasn’t even a handle on it. It was impossible to lift it up to resist the bear’s attack.
Before Qi Xia could figure it out, he suddenly felt pain in his back, as if something had fiercely crashed into him.
He was already crouching on the ground. Receiving such a forceful collision, he couldn’t stabilize his form and fell to the side.
Only then did he see clearly that what crashed into him was the middle-aged man from the team.
The middle-aged man looked at Qi Xia who had been knocked to the ground and said in a low voice, “Sorry about this.” Then he stood the iron plate on the ground up, gritted his teeth, and slowly pushed it along the ground. After just a few steps, he reached the corner of the wall. Then he used the iron plate to block himself and shrank trembling in the corner.
Qi Xia’s brow furrowed. He thought this was bad.
He had also thought of this method earlier. As long as he used the iron plate to block himself and then hid in a corner of the room, the probability of survival would greatly increase. But if he did this, only one person would survive, and the game would lose its meaning.
Using one “Dao” to gamble with one’s life, and in the end winning one “Dao.”
If Qi Xia had to choose, he wouldn’t choose this outcome.
“Liar Boy, not ready yet?!” Qiao Jiajin shouted again. “Are you really not taking me seriously!”
“Wait, wait…” Qi Xia replied somewhat hesitantly. “Give me a bit more time…”
His mind spun rapidly. He knew that even if he reclaimed the iron plate now, it wouldn’t be very useful. After all, he needed to save at least two lives—his own and Qiao Jiajin’s.
But that iron plate’s area was limited. It could barely block one person.
What could be done about this?
At the moment, thanks to Qiao Jiajin’s efforts, the remaining eight participants were temporarily safe. But after all, only a little over a minute had passed. To survive for ten minutes, it was impossible to rely entirely on Qiao Jiajin alone.
At this time, a slightly chubby-looking girl ran toward the middle-aged man’s direction, saying with a trembling voice, “Can you let me hide inside…? Please… I don’t want to die…”
“No, no!” The middle-aged man shouted loudly from behind the circular iron plate. “This place can only hide one person… If you come in, we’ll both die!”
“No!” The girl’s voice kept trembling, and her feet also became unresponsive. “We’ll each hide on one side. We definitely won’t die…”
While the two were talking, Little Glasses, who had been on the same team as the middle-aged man earlier, ran over in a panic. Without asking the middle-aged man’s opinion, he directly lifted the iron plate and squeezed into the corner of the wall.
“Hey! Little Glasses!” The middle-aged man panicked all at once. “What are you doing?”
Little Glasses replied through gritted teeth, “Old Lu, you can’t just think about your own survival!”
The iron plate that could originally be pressed against the wall became unsteady due to Little Glasses joining in. After all, Old Lu had a fat physique. This iron plate completely couldn’t block the forms of two people.
The slightly chubby woman, seeing this scene, no longer conversed with Old Lu. She lifted the other side of the iron plate and also burrowed into the corner of the wall.
The other four people also stopped running around everywhere and approached the iron plate one after another.
After all, that was their last path to survival.
“Foolish…” Qi Xia also slowly approached the crowd. At this time, after just a few seconds had passed, everyone had already started fighting in a group over snatching the iron plate.
“Old Lu! You can’t be too selfish! Give up the iron plate, and we’ll think of another way!!”
“Little Glasses! You’re still young. You can run from the bear. I can’t!”
“Quick, go up and snatch the iron plate!”
“You get lost! There’s no space behind the iron plate!”
Now each of them looked like they had the momentum to single-handedly kill a bear, but at this critical moment, they would rather fiercely grab each other’s necks and hair, fighting until their mouths were full of blood, than willing to approach the bear’s position even half a step.
The iron plate also seemed to be neglected, lying forlornly on the ground.
On the other end, Qiao Jiajin was forced by the black bear into a corner. Seeing there was nowhere to go, he could only use the same trick again, once more shouting loudly and turning around.
This time, although the black bear was also startled, it clearly had no intention of retreating. It extended its forearm and lunged forward. Qiao Jiajin dodged by turning his body sideways. The hard claws also left deep grooves on the wall.
“Damn!” Qiao Jiajin stared intently at the black bear before him. “You’re going a bit too far…”
Qi Xia knew that if he didn’t do something, Qiao Jiajin would definitely die. And if Qiao Jiajin died, the remaining people would also be slaughtered one by one.
After all, the only one who dared to maneuver head-on with the black bear was Qiao Jiajin alone. He alone not only had to resist the black bear’s attacks, but also had to protect everyone from harm. Wasn’t this too absurd?