Chapter 39: Iron Plate
Black Bear took another step forward, now only about a meter away from Qiao Jiajin.
This time, Qiao Jiajin dared not move forward at all. Black Bear's arm span was very long; any closer and he would enter its attack range, which was undoubtedly suicide.
So he could only slowly take a step back.
Seeing this, Qi Xia showed a hint of nervousness.
The rules of confrontation between animals were very simple: if one side retreats, it's afraid.
Afraid, and it becomes prey.
When Black Bear saw Qiao Jiajin take a step back, its hesitating demeanor gradually turned ferocious. Now it was almost certain that the creature before it posed no threat.
After a three-second pause, Black Bear suddenly lunged forward, its thick forearm swinging down like a stone pillar.
Qiao Jiajin didn't try to be brave either. He shrank his body to dodge the strike, rolling backward on the ground once before immediately breaking into a run.
Black Bear roared and chased after him on all fours.
Now Black Bear had completely regarded Qiao Jiajin as prey.
"Liar! Hurry up!" Qiao Jiajin shouted as he ran. "I'm handing you this worthless life of mine!"
"Don't trust me too much either!" Qi Xia said nervously. "I don't even know what that iron plate is..."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Qiao Jiajin cursed loudly. "Go 'pick up the goods'!"
Seeing Black Bear run off, Qi Xia immediately ran toward the iron plate on the ground.
Logically, all the "games" he had seen before were not dead ends; there was always a "way out." In this unobstructed room, the way out must be related to this iron plate.
Running closer, he saw that the surface of the iron plate was mottled and rusty in many places.
"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, nor any text prompts.
"What the hell..." Qi Xia felt like he had been set up. This iron plate was like a piece of trash you could find anywhere.
Qiao Jiajin ran about a dozen steps and found Black Bear was already close behind him. He immediately stopped running, suddenly turned around, and roared, "Idiot!"
Black Bear was startled by Qiao Jiajin and immediately took a big step back, standing on two feet again.
Qiao Jiajin sneered and pointed at Black Bear fiercely. "Scared, huh? You complete idiot, you think I'm afraid of you? You listen up..."
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 was going to say to a black bear.
But to everyone's surprise, Qiao Jiajin, having stabilized Black Bear, didn't hesitate for a moment. He turned around and ran.
Black Bear, realizing he had been fooled, roared even more ferociously and chased after him again.
Meanwhile, Qi Xia in the center of the field had already flipped the iron plate over and was carefully studying it. The iron plate was very thick and had no handle. Lifting it to defend against a bear's attack was impossible.
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 was already crouching on the ground, and such a strong impact made it hard to keep his balance. He fell to the side.
Only then did he see that the one who had hit him was the middle-aged man in the group.
The middle-aged man looked at Qi Xia, who had been knocked over, muttered "Sorry," then stood the iron plate upright, gritted his teeth, and slowly pushed it across the ground. In a few steps, he reached the corner, shielded himself with the iron plate, and curled up trembling in the corner.
Qi Xia frowned, feeling something was wrong.
He had thought of this method earlier: use the iron plate to block yourself and hide in the corner of the room, greatly increasing your chances of survival. But that way, only one person would survive, and the game would lose its meaning.
Staking one "Dao" for a life, and winning only one "Dao."
If Qi Xia had to choose, he wouldn't go for this outcome.
"Liar, not done yet?!" Qiao Jiajin yelled 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 spinning rapidly. He knew that even if he took the iron plate back now, it wouldn't help much, because he had to save at least himself and Qiao Jiajin.
But the iron plate was limited in area; it could barely shield one person.
What was he supposed to do?
For now, thanks to Qiao Jiajin, the remaining eight participants were temporarily safe. But only a little over a minute had passed. To survive the full ten minutes, they couldn't rely entirely on Qiao Jiajin alone.
At this moment, a slightly chubby girl ran toward the middle-aged man and said tremblingly, "Can I hide in there...? Please... I don't want to die..."
"No, no!" The middle-aged man shouted from behind the round iron plate. "There's only room for one person here... If you come in, we'll both die!"
"No, we won't!" The girl's voice kept shaking, and her legs seemed unsteady. "We can each hide on one side; we definitely won't die..."
As they spoke, Little Glasses, who had been in the same group as the middle-aged man, ran over in a panic. Without asking the middle-aged man's opinion, he lifted the iron plate and squeezed into the corner.
"Hey! Little Glasses!" The middle-aged man panicked. "What are you doing?"
Little Glasses gritted his teeth and replied, "Old Lyu, you can't just think about saving your own life!"
The iron plate, which had been leaning against the wall, wobbled with Little Glasses joining in. After all, Old Lyu was stout, and the iron plate couldn't fully cover both of them.
Seeing this, the chubby girl stopped talking to Old Lyu. She lifted the other side of the iron plate and squeezed into the corner as well.
The remaining four people also stopped running around and moved toward the iron plate.
After all, it was their last chance to survive.
"Fools..." Qi Xia slowly approached the crowd. In just a few seconds, everyone had started fighting over the iron plate.
"Old Lyu! You can't be so selfish! Give up the iron plate, and we'll think of another way!"
"Little Glasses! 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 the iron plate!"
Now each of them looked like they could single-handedly kill a bear, but when it came to this critical moment, they would rather grab each other's necks and hair, bloodying each other's mouths, than take a single step toward the bear.
The iron plate, as if abandoned, lay lonely on the ground.
On the other side, Qiao Jiajin was cornered by Black Bear against the wall. With no way out, he could only try the same trick again, turning around and yelling.
Although Black Bear was startled this time too, it clearly had no intention of retreating. It lunged forward with its forearm, but Qiao Jiajin dodged sideways. The hard claws left deep grooves on the wall.
"Diu!" Qiao Jiajin glared at the bear in front of him. "You're going too far..."
Qi Xia knew that if he didn't do something soon, Qiao Jiajin would die. And if Qiao Jiajin died, the rest would be killed one by one.
After all, the only one who dared to face Black Bear head-on was Qiao Jiajin. He alone had to not only fend off the bear's attacks but also protect everyone from harm—wasn't that too absurd?