Chapter 39: The Iron Plate
The black bear took another step forward, now barely a meter away from Qiao Jiajin.
This time, Qiao Jiajin dared not move forward no matter what. The bear's arm span was long; stepping any closer would put him within its attack range—nothing short of suicide.
So he could only slowly retreat one step.
Seeing this, Qi Xia showed a trace of nervousness.
The rules of confrontation between animals were very simple: if one side retreats, it means fear.
Fear means becoming prey.
When the black bear saw Qiao Jiajin take a step back, its hesitant demeanor gradually turned ferocious. 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 forelimb swinging down like a stone pillar.
Qiao Jiajin didn't try to be brave. He curled up to dodge the strike, rolled backward on the ground, and immediately started running.
The black bear howled and chased after him on all fours.
Now the black bear completely regarded Qiao Jiajin as its prey.
"Liar! Hurry up!" Qiao Jiajin shouted while running. "I'm putting this worthless life of mine in your hands!"
"Don't trust me too much either!" Qi Xia said, also somewhat nervous. "I don't even know what that iron plate is..."
"The hell are you talking about?" Qiao Jiajin cursed loudly. "Just go get the 'goods'!"
As soon as the black bear ran off, Qi Xia immediately dashed toward the iron plate on the ground.
Logically speaking, all the "games" he had seen before were not dead ends—there had to be a "way out." In this room with nothing hidden, the way out was bound to be related to this iron plate.
As he got closer, he saw that the surface of the iron plate was mottled and covered with rust.
"This..."
Qi Xia reached out and felt it, only to realize it was a very ordinary round iron plate. There were no mechanisms on it, not even any written hints.
"What the hell..." Qi Xia felt like he had been set up. This iron plate was practically just a piece of garbage you could find anywhere.
After running about a dozen steps, Qiao Jiajin realized the black bear was almost upon him. He immediately stopped running, suddenly turned around, and roared: "Idiot!!"
The black bear was startled by Qiao Jiajin's shout and immediately jumped back a big step, standing on two feet again.
Qiao Jiajin sneered, pointed fiercely at the black bear, and said, "Scared, huh? You idiot. Think I'm afraid of you? Listen up..."
The black bear stared blankly at Qiao Jiajin, as if waiting for him to speak.
The others present were also stunned, all looking at Qiao Jiajin, wondering what he could possibly say to a black bear.
But what caught everyone off guard was that, after stabilizing the bear, Qiao Jiajin didn't hesitate for a second. He turned around and bolted.
The black bear, realizing it had been tricked, roared even more furiously and chased after him again.
Meanwhile, Qi Xia had already flipped the iron plate over and was studying it carefully. The plate was very thick, with no handle on it at all—impossible to lift and use to defend against the bear's attacks.
Before Qi Xia could figure it out, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his back, as if something had slammed hard into him.
He had been squatting on the ground, and with such a strong impact, he couldn't keep his balance and tumbled to the side.
Only then did he see that the person who had bumped into him was the middle-aged man from their group.
The middle-aged man glanced at Qi Xia, who had been knocked over, muttered a low "sorry," then set the iron plate upright. Grinding his teeth, he slowly pushed it across the ground. After a few steps, he reached the corner, used the plate to shield himself, and cowered there trembling.
Qi Xia frowned. This wasn't good.
He had thought of this method himself earlier. If you used the iron plate to protect yourself and then hid in a corner of the room, your chances of survival would increase significantly. But in that case, only one person would survive, and the game would lose its meaning.
Betting one "Tao" to win one "Tao."
If it were Qi Xia's choice, he wouldn't go for that outcome.
"Liar, are you done yet?!" Qiao Jiajin shouted again. "You really don't give a damn about me, do you?!"
"Hold on, hold on..." Qi Xia replied hesitantly. "Give me a little more time..."
His mind was racing. He knew that even if he snatched the iron plate back now, it wouldn't do much good—at the very least, he needed to save both himself and Qiao Jiajin.
But the iron plate was only big enough to barely shield one person.
What the hell was he supposed to do?
For now, thanks to Qiao Jiajin, the remaining eight participants were temporarily safe. But only a minute had passed. To survive the full ten minutes, they couldn't rely entirely on Qiao Jiajin.
Just then, a slightly chubby girl ran toward the middle-aged man and said in a trembling voice, "Can you let me hide in there...? Please... I don't want to die..."
"No way, no way!" The middle-aged man shouted from behind the round iron plate. "This can only fit one person... If you come in, we'll both die!"
"That's not true!" The girl's voice kept shaking, and her legs seemed out of control. "One of us on each side—we definitely won't die!"
As they were talking, the four-eyed guy who had been paired with the middle-aged man earlier came running over in a panic. Without even asking the middle-aged man's permission, he lifted the iron plate and squeezed into the corner.
"Hey, four-eyes!" The middle-aged man suddenly panicked. "What are you doing?"
The four-eyed guy gritted his teeth and replied, "Lao Lü, you can't just think about saving your own skin!"
The iron plate, which had been propped against the wall, began to wobble with the addition of the four-eyed guy. Lao Lü was fat, and the plate couldn't fully cover both of them.
Seeing this, the chubby girl stopped pleading. She lifted the other side of the iron plate and squeezed into the corner too.
The remaining four people stopped running around and started moving toward the iron plate as well.
After all, it was their last hope.
"Fools..." Qi Xia slowly approached the crowd. In just a few seconds, they had already started fighting over the iron plate.
"Lao Lü! You can't be so selfish! Give up the plate, and we'll think of something else!"
"Four-eyes! You're young—you can run with the bear. I can't!"
"Go grab the iron plate!"
"Get out of the way! There's no room behind here!"
Right now, each of them looked like they could solo a bear. But in this moment of crisis, they would rather grab each other by the neck and hair, beating each other bloody, than take one step closer to the bear.
The iron plate lay lonely on the ground, as if abandoned.
On the other side, the black bear had cornered Qiao Jiajin against the wall. With nowhere to go, he had no choice but to resort to the same trick again—shouting loudly and turning around.
This time, although the black bear was startled, it clearly had no intention of backing off. It lunged forward with its forelimb, and Qiao Jiajin dodged to the side. The bear's hard claws left deep gouges in the wall.
"Damn it!" Qiao Jiajin stared at the black bear. "You're pushing it too far..."
Qi Xia knew that if he didn't do something soon, Qiao Jiajin would definitely die. And if Qiao Jiajin died, the rest of them would be slaughtered one by one.
After all, Qiao Jiajin was the only one brave enough to face the black bear head-on. Was it not absurd that one man had to not only fend off the bear's attacks but also protect everyone else?