The whole nation is trying to survive on the cable car; I'm choosing one of three options at ea

Su Mu stared at the words, his brows furrowing. There was a minimum number of people? And at least two; he couldn't go in alone. He glanced around; Lin Yuwei was already gone. Where was he going to find a second person?

He took a deep breath and swallowed back the curse words.

The information about the secret realm was provided by Lin Yuwei, but the information only mentioned that the area was dangerous. She probably didn't know that this wretched place required two people to enter.

Calling her back now is letting her off easy.

Su Mu turned on his communicator, preparing to send a message to Lin Yuwei...

"boom......!"

A commotion erupted again from the distant woods.

The cracking sounds of trees being knocked down, the snapping of branches breaking, and the muffled thuds of some heavy body running at high speed across the ground blended together, even more intense than the previous two times. Su Mu's finger hovered above the send button on the communicator, then stopped.

He didn't turn around, but his ears had already caught the direction the sound was moving... coming straight towards him.

Su Mu put away the communicator and ran away.

He didn't run behind the artificial hill or into the woods, but instead ran back along the route he had come from, his steps quick and steady, without making any unnecessary noise.

The entrance to the secret realm was less than twenty meters behind him, but now was not the time to go in. The brown bear was charging towards them, followed by a swarm of fist-sized wasps.

Even if there were two of them, they couldn't get in now... Opening the secret realm takes time, and the bear and wasps wouldn't wait for them.

Sure enough, he had only run less than a hundred meters when he heard the heavy footsteps of a brown bear behind him.

The black behemoth rushed out from the other side of the artificial rockery, faster than before, its four claws digging deep holes in the ground, sending dirt and gravel flying behind it.

Its mouth was empty, but its two forepaws were covered in a thick, yellowish-brown liquid, dripping from between its toes and leaving a trail of sticky residue on the ground it had run across. Its eyes no longer held the cunning and smugness of before, but a purer, more primal panic… It had been caught stealing honey, and this time it had attracted a swarm of bees larger than the previous two times combined.

Behind it, a swarm of black bees relentlessly pursued it.

Each one was the size of an adult's fist, entirely black, with dark red rings on its abdomen that were brighter than before, resembling rings of burning charcoal. The buzzing of its wings was deafening, making the air tremble.

The swarm of bees left a long black tail behind the brown bear, like a moving storm cloud, casting a huge shadow on the ground.

The brown bear swept past the artificial hill, less than ten meters from the entrance to the secret realm. Su Mu noticed out of the corner of his eye that when the bear ran through that area, there were no ripples in the air, and the system gave no notification. The beast ran past as if it were just passing through ordinary air.

The entrance to the secret realm is ineffective against monsters. Or rather, it can only be triggered by "humans".

The brown bear did not run in the direction of the Shetland Sheepdog.

It turned a corner and headed straight for the hippo pool.

The iron fence was like paper to it; it put its front paws on it, flipped over, and landed, kicking up a cloud of mud. The hippopotamus by the pool was still lying on the ground, its purplish-black welts still oozing pus, its breathing heavy and slow. It heard the brown bear land, its ears twitched, but its body didn't move... not because it didn't want to move, but because it had been playing dead.

The brown bear plunged headfirst into the water. A huge splash erupted in the murky pool, sending mud and algae flying everywhere, splattering the hippopotamus's face. Its eyelids twitched, but it didn't move.

The swarm of wasps reached the edge of the pond. Unlike before, they didn't scatter; instead, they hovered above the hippopotamus pond, a dark, persistent cloud. The buzzing made the water tremble slightly. This time, they were truly enraged... This wasn't the first time the bear had stolen their honey; the first two times it had run away, and they couldn't catch it. This time, they were determined to teach it a lesson.

The brown bear held its breath underwater, only its nostrils and eyes showing. It looked at the swarm of wasps that refused to leave the bank, then at the hippopotamus playing dead beside it, a calculating glint in its eyes.

The hippo lay motionless on the ground, its breathing barely audible.

Its massive body trembled slightly... not from the brown bear, but from the wasps. The stings it had just endured were still fresh in its mind; those fist-sized creatures could penetrate its thick hide, inject venom beneath its skin, and cause its body to swell with purplish-black pustules. It didn't want to experience that again.

The brown bear held its breath underwater for almost a minute. Even with its large lung capacity, there's a limit; bubbles began to escape from the corners of its mouth. It had to surface for air, and just as its head broke the surface, the swarm of wasps swooped down. The brown bear abruptly pulled back into the water, the splash knocking away several wasps that were rushing too fast, but they quickly took flight again.

This happened three times. The brown bear thrashed about in the water like a dumpling being boiled. The fourth time it surfaced, it didn't retreat... not because it didn't want to, but because it simply couldn't hold it any longer. It leaped out of the water, ignoring the wasps swarming around it, and with a powerful push from its four paws, its entire body shot out like a black cannonball, vaulting over the iron fence and racing towards the predator enclosure.

Behind them, the swarm of bees pursued relentlessly.

The lions and tigers in that area erupted into chaos the moment it charged in. Roars, hisses, and the sound of trees snapping mingled together, turning the entire predator enclosure into a turbulent mess.

The hippo pool has returned to calm.

The hippopotamus lay on the ground, waiting for the brown bear's footsteps to completely fade into the distance. After a few more seconds, it slowly raised its head. It glanced in the direction the brown bear had disappeared, then slowly stood up, dragging its riddled body step by step back into the water. The water went over its back, over its neck, until only its nostrils were above the surface. It closed its eyes, as if nothing had happened.

Su Mu stood behind the bushes in the distance, watching all of this, and remained silent for a long time.

Clearly, this wasn't the first time this bear had done this. Stealing honey, attracting wasps, causing havoc on hippos, and wreaking havoc in the predator enclosure—the whole process flowed smoothly, as if it had been rehearsed countless times. The wasps couldn't catch it, the hippos couldn't defeat it, and the lions and tigers in the predator enclosure were thrown into chaos by it, yet it always managed to escape unscathed.

Su Mu withdrew his gaze and turned on his communicator. Lin Yuwei's profile picture was still lit up. He typed a message.

"Hey, wanna come to a secret realm?"

..............................