chapter 18

“Ah!” The originally slender, fair arm instantly looked as if it had been run over by a heavy truck, mangled and bloody.

Tong Qian’s face turned deathly pale. The sudden, intense pain left her too weak to even struggle, and she slid to the floor.

Zhao Liang, who had narrowly escaped disaster, leaned against the wall, panting heavily. As he looked at Tong Qian, who was groaning in pain, a trace of pleasure flashed across his twisted face.

The thick smell of blood agitated the Brown Bear. It gave up pondering why Tong Qian didn’t have that mouthwatering scent it craved. With a roar, it finally swung its paw at Tong Qian lying on the ground.

Suddenly, a cold, clear voice came from behind-Cheng Miao: “Hey! Papa Bear! Want some fish?”

With that, Cheng Miao hurled a blue fish, as long as her arm, at the Brown Bear’s head with all her strength. The fish bounced off, landed on the floor, and after a few jumps, lay still.

Stunned by the blow, the Brown Bear turned and roared at Cheng Miao. The force made Cheng Miao dizzy, and the strong fishy stench from the bear’s mouth made her nauseous.

Suppressing her discomfort, Cheng Miao saw that the Brown Bear was indeed distracted by the strange fish on the floor.

The Brown Bear twitched its apple-sized nose, discovering something it loved. With a swipe of its paw, it scooped up the fish and began tearing it apart to eat.

Cheng Miao let out a heavy sigh of relief and glanced at Tong Qian, who was already half-unconscious. That was close!

The Brown Bear ate messily, stripping the meat from the fish in just a few bites. It tossed aside the cleaned Fish Bone, licked its lips, and looked at Cheng Miao, still unsatisfied.

“Roar!” Hearing the threat in its voice, Cheng Miao smiled, stepped back a few paces, and revealed the other hand she had been hiding behind her back, dangling another big blue fish by its lip.

Seeing Cheng Miao and the bear-one tossing fish, one eating fish-move in perfect sync toward the Kitchen, the few people left in the Bedroom all breathed a sigh of relief.

Bai Jiang and Qi Jiajia emerged from their hiding spots. Bai Jiang helped up Tong Qian, whose face was as pale as paper, and tore off a piece of his shirt to tightly bandage her upper arm.

Qi Jiajia looked at Tong Qian with a stern face, wanting to say, “I don’t need your help,” but seeing Tong Qian’s injury, she ultimately held her tongue.

“It’s not your fault.” Although it was the first time Bai Jiang had seen Qi Jiajia look at someone without her usual arrogance, he could still guess what she was thinking and comforted her in the midst of the chaos.

Qi Jiajia suddenly remembered something and shot a dagger-like glance at Zhao Liang, who was slumped against the wall in terror.

Zhao Liang snapped back to reality, realizing how detestable his actions had been. He swallowed hard, the sweat on his forehead glistening. “I… I didn’t mean to. She was just unlucky, didn’t hide well enough.”

Qi Jiajia’s gaze grew icy. She reached for her small purse at her skirt, as if to pull something out, but Bai Jiang, alarmed, grabbed her hand. “It’s not worth it for someone like him.”

Bai Jiang had been through many Instances and had seen plenty of scenes filled with human treachery and scheming.

Though each encounter still disgusted him, at least he had developed some immunity.

Qi Jiajia was young, seemingly spoiled, and still believed in repaying kindness and seeking revenge.

But in an Instance, human life was the cheapest thing. If you used an Item won with your life on scum like this, that would truly be a waste.

In the struggle, Bai Jiang accidentally touched Tong Qian’s injured arm. The sharp pain jolted Tong Qian, who had been half-unconscious, back to awareness.

“It hurts…” Tong Qian woke up in a daze, looked down at her badly deformed arm, and was both terrified and in pain, on the verge of screaming.
Bai Jiang reacted quickly, clamping a hand over Tong Qian’s mouth and forcing back the cry she had already let slip.

“Keep an eye on her! If you wake up the other two bears, we won’t even know how we die! Useless Newcomer dog!”

Zhao Liang, startled by Tong Qian’s near-shout, was so anxious that sweat soaked the collar of his shirt. He glanced nervously at the other two Brown Bears, still sound asleep.

Just as the two sides were about to start arguing, they suddenly fell silent in unison, turning to look at Cheng Miao, who was emerging from the Kitchen with a grim expression.

Cheng Miao was in a foul mood-worse even than the time she nearly got killed by another Player at the Dormitory entrance during her first Instance clearance.

Zhao Liang hesitated for a long while, seeming to want to say something, but the hostility radiating from Cheng Miao kept him silent.

Without looking at Zhao Liang, Cheng Miao walked straight to Tong Qian, checked her injuries, then looked up at the three of them. “Papa Bear is in the Kitchen eating fish. No matter how long he eats, that basket of fish stays full. He shouldn’t come out for a while. Check the Notebook-see if anything’s changed.”

After what happened to Tong Qian, Qi Jiajia was much more obedient. Without saying much, she reached Under the Bed at Bai Jiang’s prompt and pulled out the Notebook he had hidden there.

Sure enough, all of today’s tasks in the Notebook had ended, replaced by slowly appearing new words: Watering Flowers.

Watering Flowers?

The group was stunned. What flowers were they supposed to water? Did those towering plants count as flowers?

“When I came from the Kitchen just now, I saw the main door open. Who wants to come with me to check the Garden?” Cheng Miao pointed at the door that had always been tightly shut. Sure enough, it was now cracked open, letting sunlight stream in.

Qi Jiajia wanted to follow Cheng Miao, but seeing the barely conscious Tong Qian, she opened her mouth, then closed it again.

“I’ll go with you. Jiajia, you can watch over Tong Qian, right?” Bai Jiang rolled up his sleeves and stood up. After that brief moment earlier, he was sure that the Little Girl he’d always underestimated had some means of self-defense.

Qi Jiajia nodded, her gaze darkening when she saw Cheng Miao had no intention of speaking to her.

As Cheng Miao’s group headed for the door, the other group consisted of a half-dead woman and, though the other was the Little Girl he’d always been interested in, finding clues to escape alive was more important.

Suppressing his restless thoughts, Zhao Liang followed Cheng Miao and Bai Jiang, keeping a cautious distance.

Outside the door was a huge Garden. Beyond the Fence was a blurry boundary line. There wasn’t even an opening in the Fence, and looking at its towering, steel-needle-like top, no one would even think of climbing over.

On one side of the Garden grew those vividly colored, slightly unsettling flowers visible from the window; the other side looked like a vegetable patch, but the mounded earth resembled graves, making people instinctively want to stay away.

Cheng Miao and Bai Jiang exchanged a glance in the Garden. Watering Flowers must refer to the flowers on the left.

By now, the sun was slanting westward, its once harsh rays now warm and dappled.

The two approached the flowerbeds, which were as tall as one and a half people, and looked around. Cheng Miao craned her neck but still couldn’t quite see the flower centers.

The proportions were odd-even for Brown Bears, these flowers were too tall, not at all like ornamental plants in a Garden.

Zhao Liang, panting, emerged from the door, dragging a basin he’d somehow acquired, filled with the Pus-Yellow Slime Tong Qian had mentioned.