Zhang Shan

The orderly line fell apart almost instantly. Everyone scattered, but the black bear chased only Little Glasses.

"I'm done, I'm done, I'm done..." Little Glasses muttered in despair as he stumbled around the room. "Mom... I'm really going to die this time..."

In fewer than ten steps, the black bear had cornered Little Glasses.

His legs stopped obeying him altogether. He collapsed onto the floor, unable to move an inch.

Leaning against the wall, he looked back, and a terrifying black face filled his vision.

Ugly, vicious, foul-smelling.

The black bear extended its nose and sniffed Little Glasses's face.

Little Glasses stared blankly ahead, his face deathly pale. Even when the bear brought its mouth close to his neck, he didn't dare move.

"Mom..." Little Glasses murmured. "I can't come home... Mom... don't wait for me..."

The black bear opened its mouth, reeking of decay. Just as it was about to bite down, Qiao Jiajin shouted from where he lay on the floor.

"Hey!! Time's up!! You bastards!! Are you cheating?! Stop killing people!!"

Everyone turned to look. Sure enough, the digital clock on the wall had finished counting down and stopped at "0."

The next second, the iron door in the distance suddenly opened, and the black bear froze.

Then a powerful suction erupted from the doorway. Like a scrap of paper fluttering in the wind, the bear let out an agonized howl before something invisible dragged it through the door at tremendous speed.

The game was over.

They had survived.

"It's... it's over..." Only after several minutes did one of the girls speak, her voice trembling. "The black bear's gone..."

The girls slowly stood up and hugged one another, crying with relief.

Little Glasses seemed to have been scared senseless. He could only sit on the floor, gasping for breath.

"Damn..." Qiao Jiajin moved his aching body a little, clutching his abdomen as he said wearily, "That was rough, Liar Boy. Thank goodness for your 'Hawk and Chicks' idea."

Qi Xia stood up without saying anything. Instead, he looked worried.

"What's wrong?" Qiao Jiajin asked.

"Do you think..." Qi Xia asked, "the two of them survived?"

"The two of them..."

Qiao Jiajin naturally knew Qi Xia meant Tiantian and Lin Qin, but he didn't dare guess.

No one knew what had happened in the other room.

Had they been chased by a black bear too, just like the people here?

Had their teammates managed to pull together and come up with a strategy like "Hawk and Chicks"?

Everyone turned around and found that the staircase they had come down had reappeared behind them.

"Stop worrying. Let's just go and see." Qiao Jiajin patted Qi Xia on the shoulder. "Come on."

Old Lü helped Little Glasses up. Supporting one another, the group slowly climbed the stairs and returned to the room with the chairs.

Earth Ox stood there quietly, waiting for their "triumphant return."

"Nine survivors?" Earth Ox paused briefly. "Not bad."

"Bastards..." Qiao Jiajin cursed under his breath. "One day, I'm going to beat these people up."

"Please wait a moment. The people from the other room have yet to return." Earth Ox waved to them, motioning for them to sit.

They no longer stood on ceremony and took their seats. Having narrowly escaped death, they couldn't imagine anything here being more frightening than that black bear.

After a little over two minutes, Qiao Jiajin couldn't sit still any longer.

"Hey, old ox. Isn't their game over yet?"

"Both groups started at the same time, so both games should be over now. But they haven't returned here yet."

"What..." Qi Xia frowned, feeling a headache coming on. He quickly pressed a hand to his forehead and asked the Bull-Headed Man, "If the game's over but no one's come back, doesn't that mean they're all dead...?"

"I don't know." The Bull-Headed Man shook his head. "Please remain seated. Don't worry."

He told them not to worry, but how could they not?

The teams had been randomly reshuffled this time. In other words, almost everyone present had teammates in the other group.

Qi Xia turned and saw Little Glasses sitting a short distance ahead of him, whispering something to the middle-aged man beside him.

"What?! How is that acceptable?!" the middle-aged man exclaimed.

Little Glasses hurriedly waved at him and whispered a few words of explanation.

"No, no. I won't agree!" The middle-aged man shook his head like a rattle. "Absolutely not."

As he finished speaking, he turned and met Qi Xia's gaze. He immediately looked away as though he hadn't seen anything, then continued in a low voice, "If that's really how it is, I'll have to get Zhang Shan to stand up for me!"

"Heh." Qi Xia gave a cold laugh, having more or less guessed what they were discussing.

Only after a full five or six minutes did they hear heavy footsteps gradually approaching through the door to one side.

"They're coming..."

More footsteps followed, a whole crowd of them.

It sounded as though quite a few people in that group had survived too.

A burly man slowly emerged from the dark doorway, his expression stern. He quickly surveyed everyone, and a faint smile spread across his face. "Fuck... you're all alive?"

"Zhang Shan! Zhang Shan!" Little Glasses ran up excitedly. "Thank goodness! You're all right... holy shit!!!"

Little Glasses cried out and hurriedly took a step back.

The sight before him was utterly horrifying.

The burly man named Zhang Shan had been standing in the darkness, obscuring his full appearance.

But as he walked farther into the light, the horrific wounds covering him came into view.

His entire body was stained with blood, and three deep claw marks gouged his chest. Under his right arm, he held two black objects that looked like thick tree trunks.

Tiantian and Lin Qin gradually emerged from the doorway as well.

"Pretty ladies!" Qiao Jiajin looked them both up and down. "Are you all right?"

"We're fine..." Tiantian gave a wry smile. "How about you?"

"Same as always." Qiao Jiajin shook his head helplessly. "We survived thanks to Liar Boy's idea."

"Huh?" Tiantian looked at Qi Xia in disbelief. "You could rely on Qi Xia even in this game?"

Lin Qin found it just as incredible. "Qiao Jiajin, didn't you say you'd handle the 'ox' games yourself?"

"Damn, don't even mention it..." Qiao Jiajin grumbled. "If we'd been up against a person, that would've been one thing. But it was a black bear! Who in this world could beat a black bear?"

Tiantian and Lin Qin exchanged a glance, then said awkwardly, "Maybe... someone really can beat a bear to death..."

Hearing this, Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin looked at the muscular man named Zhang Shan.

Had he... beaten the bear to death?

His teammates kept emerging behind him. The two counted them: exactly ten people.

Clearly, no one on their team had died.

Zhang Shan tossed the two objects tucked under his arm onto the floor, then sank wearily into a chair. "Fuck... old ox, you really didn't go easy on us. You even had a 'bear' ready?"

Everyone looked down and discovered that what he had thrown onto the floor weren't branches at all, but two bloody forelegs from a black bear.