Cracks

With this thought confirmed, Steel-Mane Bear scanned the surrounding area of the thick fog.

There was nothing but white fog; there was absolutely no sign of an exit!

It looked at the Black Rat Chief with some confusion.

"Where is the portal again?"

"A portal? What portal?!" Black Rat Chief frowned, looking at Steel-Mane Bear with a puzzled expression.

"It's that exit leading outside, or to other dimensions! This world is only so big, if you want to get out, you have to go through a portal, right?!" Steel-Mane Bear said.

After saying that, it looked at the Black Rat in front of it, waiting for its reply.

However, the Black Rat didn't reply; instead, it just stared at it blankly.

Seeing this, the Steel-Mane Bear frowned, thought for a moment, and then spoke again to remind him:

"It's that kind of exit, the one that leads out! As the patriarch of the Black Rat Clan, you should know where the exit is, right?! If I don't know the exit, how am I supposed to get out?"

Then, the only response it received was from the Black Rat Chief, who stared blankly at it.

Seeing this, Steel-Mane Bear frowned even more deeply.

"You're not planning to make it so that after I get there, I can't find the exit immediately, and then after I find Rock-Backed Beast and the others, I have to come back to find me, are you?"

"If that's the case, then let me tell you, even if you kill me, I won't leave the location of Rock-Backed Beast and the others to you..."

The narration continued to echo.

The Black Rat Chief stood rooted to the spot, staring blankly at the Steel-Mane Bear before him.

From the very beginning, it didn't quite understand what the other person was saying.

Since I've already brought it here, why doesn't it just start its descent from here and get out?

And then what? They were talking about a teleportation portal? An exit? What are those things?

Its instincts told it that the Steel-Mane Bear had something wrong with its head.

According to the other Calamity Beast, this guy is one of the core members of the Rock-Backed Beast team.

The Rock-Backed Beast, capable of organizing and planning this entire riot, should not, under any circumstances, keep such a mentally unstable Calamity Beast by its side!

and...

Black Rat Chief hesitated, looking at the Steel-Mane Bear who was making such a confident vow.

It seems that, in their view, there should be an exit outside!

But what is an export...?

The Black Rat Chief paused, somewhat stiffly, and turned to look outside.

The grassland stretched outwards, and outside was just outside; going out meant going out—what was this "exit" all about?!

"... By the way, didn't you guys go out to capture other Calamity Beast to replenish the Calamity Beast you used for mining? The area outside is so small, you can't just capture them here, right? You have to go to other places, right? So where did you get to those other places from?!"

The sound came from the side and then stopped.

The Black Rat Chief paused for a moment, glanced at the Steel-Mane Bear beside him, and then looked outside again.

Isn't what this guy is saying obvious? Their clan lives in Black Stone Valley. Although it's surrounded by high mountains, they've still managed to clear out the nearby Calamity Beast!

Therefore, when they go out to hunt Calamity Beast, they always go to far away places to catch them!

It also...

Wait, where... where did I go to catch those Calamity Beast before?

The Black Rat Chief's eyes were slightly open, his mind inexplicably becoming somewhat sluggish.

They're going out to catch the Calamity Beast! They're going out to catch the Calamity Beast! Where are they going? To catch Calamity Beast?!

Grasslands, forests, canyons...

Places flashed through the Black Rat Chief's mind, but... where were these places? And how did he get there?!

Somewhat stiffly, the Black Rat Chief raised his eyes and gazed into the distance.

A white mist enveloped the outside, surrounding the entire world.

Outside, it's outside, no, outside isn't outside! Outside, it's outside, no, outside isn't outside...

"Well..."

The Steel-Mane Bear stood there, somewhat unsure of what to do, looking at the Black Rat Chief beside it, who was staring blankly outwards.

It sensed that something was wrong, but it couldn't quite put its finger on what it was wrong with.

All I asked was where the exit was, why are you acting like this all of a sudden...?

"... When were you captured?"

A voice suddenly came from the side.

Steel-Mane Bear looked up at the Black Rat Chief, who was staring intently at him, and breathed a sigh of relief.

Although being stared at like this was still very strange, it was still better than the previous situation where the other person looked completely bewildered.

But, uh... when was I captured?

Steel-Mane Bear hesitated for a moment.

It can't very well say that it was only recently captured, can it?

But this body wasn't its own, and it didn't know how long it had been captured!

After a moment's hesitation, it spoke:

"I've been in here for two or three years?"

"Two years or three years?" came the urgent question again.

"Uh, two and a half years, I guess?!" Steel-Mane Bear said.

"How come I remember seeing you four years ago?!" the Black Rat Chief asked again, his voice growing louder and sterner.

Its eyes were wide open, its gaze fixed intently on the Steel-Mane Bear in front of it.

Swallowing hard, Steel-Mane Bear said nervously, "Um, I remembered wrong, I was arrested four years ago!"

"Nonsense! Nothing happened four years ago. That year, apart from replenishing the Calamity Beast in the enclosure, we didn't capture any other Calamity Beast to replenish those mines!" The Black Rat Chief's voice became increasingly shrill.

Looking at the Black Rat staring intently at him, the Steel-Mane Bear swallowed again and said:

"That was even earlier, five or six years ago?!"

"Didn't you just say you were arrested two or three years ago?!" the Black Rat Chief demanded sharply.

"I misremembered. We've been mining in the dark every day, who remembers when we were arrested?" Steel-Mane Bear replied.

"It's one thing to misremember one thing, but to misremember so many?! Do you think that's normal?" The stern questioning voice rang out again.

"What's wrong with it? Isn't this perfectly normal? Isn't this how I am?!" Steel-Mane Bear replied, knowing that its words contained too many loopholes, but given how things had developed, this was all it could say!

However, somewhat unexpectedly, this time, the oppressive questioning voice did not come again.

The conversation abruptly ended.

A deathly silence fell all around.

The Steel-Mane Bear stood frozen in place for a long while before finally raising its eyes.

What came into view was Black Rat standing on its hind legs, its eyes fixed on him.

It seemed that its gaze had jolted the other party out of its daze.

The Black Rat's eyes flickered.

Then, looking at it, he said:

"You're not from this world, are you?!"