The Iron Plate

The black bear took another step forward, leaving barely more than a meter between itself and Qiao Jiajin.

This time, Qiao Jiajin did not dare move any closer. The bear had a long reach. Another step would put him within striking distance, and that would be suicide.

He could only take a slow step back.

At the sight, a trace of tension crossed Qi Xia's face.

The rules of a standoff between animals were simple: if one side backed down, it was afraid.

And fear turned it into prey.

Seeing Qiao Jiajin retreat a step, the black bear's hesitation gradually gave way to aggression. Now it was almost certain that the creature before it posed no threat.

After a three-second pause, the bear suddenly lunged forward, swinging its thick foreleg down like a stone pillar.

Qiao Jiajin stopped trying to act tough. He ducked out of the way, rolled backward across the floor, and immediately broke into a run.

The bear roared, dropped onto all fours, and chased him.

By now, the bear saw Qiao Jiajin as nothing but prey.

"Hey, Liar Boy! Hurry it up!" Qiao Jiajin shouted as he ran. "My worthless life's in your hands!"

"Don't put too much faith in me!" Qi Xia replied, sounding nervous himself. "I don't even know what that iron plate is..."

"What the fuck are you wasting your breath for?" Qiao Jiajin cursed. "Go pick up the damn goods!"

Once the bear ran off, Qi Xia immediately dashed toward the iron plate on the floor.

Logically, none of the "games" they had encountered so far had been unwinnable. There had to be a way to survive. In this room, where everything was visible at a glance, that way had to involve the iron plate.

When he got closer, he saw that its surface was mottled and covered with patches of rust.

"This..."

Qi Xia felt around it and discovered that it was just an ordinary round iron plate. There were no mechanisms on it, let alone any written clues.

"What the hell..." Qi Xia felt he had been played. This iron plate looked like a piece of junk he could find anywhere.

After running a dozen or so steps, Qiao Jiajin realized the bear was right on his heels. He immediately stopped, spun around, and bellowed, "You idiot!"

Startled by Qiao Jiajin, the bear instantly took a large step back and stood on its hind legs again.

Qiao Jiajin sneered, pointed viciously at the bear, and said, "Scared you, didn't I? You absolute idiot. You think I'm afraid of you? Listen up..."

The bear stared blankly at Qiao Jiajin, as though it really was waiting for him to speak.

Everyone else was bewildered too. They all looked at Qiao Jiajin, wondering what on earth he intended to say to a black bear.

But what happened next caught them all off guard. Seeing that he had stopped the bear, Qiao Jiajin turned and ran without a moment's hesitation.

Realizing it had been tricked, the bear let out an even fiercer roar and gave chase again.

Meanwhile, in the center of the room, Qi Xia had turned the iron plate over and was examining it closely. It was thick and heavy, without so much as a handle. He could not even lift it to fend off the bear.

Before Qi Xia could work anything out, a sudden pain struck his back, as though something had slammed into him.

He was already crouching on the floor. Unable to keep his balance under such a forceful impact, he toppled sideways.

Only then did he see that the middle-aged man in their group had knocked him over.

The middle-aged man glanced at Qi Xia on the floor and muttered, "Sorry." Then he stood the iron plate on its edge, gritted his teeth, and slowly pushed it across the floor. A few steps brought him to a corner, where he hid behind it and huddled, trembling.

Qi Xia frowned. This is bad.

He had already considered this method himself. Hiding in a corner of the room behind the iron plate would greatly increase the chances of survival. But then only one person would survive, and the game would become pointless.

They had wagered their lives with one "Dao," only to win a single "Dao" in the end.

Given the choice, Qi Xia would not settle for that outcome.

"Hey, Liar Boy, aren't you done yet?!" Qiao Jiajin shouted again. "You really don't give a damn about me!"

"Hold on, hold on..." Qi Xia replied hesitantly. "Give me a little more time..."

His mind raced. He knew that even taking the iron plate back would not help much now. He had to save at least two people: himself and Qiao Jiajin.

But the plate was only large enough to barely shield one person.

What am I supposed to do?

Thanks to Qiao Jiajin, the other eight participants were safe for the moment. But only a little over a minute had passed. They could not rely on Qiao Jiajin alone to keep them alive for all ten minutes.

Just then, a slightly plump young woman ran toward the middle-aged man and asked in a trembling voice, "Could you let me 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 young woman's voice kept shaking, and her feet would no longer obey her. "We can each hide on one side. We'll be fine..."

While they were speaking, the bespectacled young man who had previously been on the middle-aged man's team hurried over in a panic. Without asking permission, he pulled the iron plate aside and squeezed into the corner.

"Hey! Little Glasses!" The middle-aged man panicked. "What are you doing?"

The bespectacled young man gritted his teeth. "Old Lu, you can't just save your own skin!"

The plate, which had previously rested against the walls, began tipping this way and that after the bespectacled young man squeezed in. Old Lu was fat, and the plate could not possibly cover both of them.

Seeing this, the plump woman stopped trying to reason with Old Lü. She lifted the other side of the plate and squeezed into the corner too.

The other four stopped running around and began converging on the iron plate.

After all, it was their last chance to survive.

"Idiots..." Qi Xia slowly approached the crowd as well. In just a few seconds, they had already started brawling over the plate.

"Old Lü! Stop being so selfish! Give us the plate, and we'll figure something out!"

"Little Glasses! You're still young! You can outrun the bear, but I can't!"

"Go grab the plate!"

"Get lost! There's no room behind it!"

Every one of them now looked fierce enough to kill a bear single-handedly. Yet at this critical moment, they would rather seize one another by the throat and hair and beat each other until their mouths bled than take a single step toward the bear.

The iron plate lay abandoned on the floor, as though everyone had forgotten it.

At the other end of the room, the bear had driven Qiao Jiajin into a corner. With nowhere left to go, he could only try the same trick again, turning around with another loud shout.

Although the bear was startled again, it clearly had no intention of retreating this time. It lunged forward with its foreleg extended, and Qiao Jiajin dodged sideways. Its hard claws gouged deep furrows into the wall.

"Fuck!" Qiao Jiajin stared hard at the bear before him. "You're taking this a bit too far..."

Qi Xia knew that if he did not do something now, Qiao Jiajin would die. And once Qiao Jiajin was dead, the others would be slaughtered one by one.

After all, Qiao Jiajin was the only one who dared confront the bear head-on. He alone had to fend off its attacks while keeping everyone else from getting hurt. Wasn't that utterly absurd?