"Roar———!!"

A massive shadow burst out from the bushes, and at this moment, Duanmu Huai finally saw the true face of the creature.

It was a bear!

It's quite peculiar, to be honest. In Japan, there aren't many things, but there are plenty of bears and wild boars. As the saying goes, the ranking is boars first, bears second, and tigers third. Both wild boars and bears rank above tigers, yet Japan is full of them.

Truly amusing.

But...... do you think I'm scared of you?

Seeing the black bear in front of him, Duanmu Huai snorted coldly and clenched his fists. Come on, in the world of Journey to the West, he even dared to kill the Black Bear Spirit. An ordinary, non-spiritual black bear? Scared of what...... huh?

However, to Duanmu Huai's surprise, just as the black bear was about to leap at him, it suddenly stopped abruptly. Then it stared at Duanmu Huai intently, let out a furious roar, and then — turned around and ran away.

In a matter of moments, it disappeared into the shrubs, leaving no trace.

"............."

Without needing to check the system's notification, Duanmu Huai knew what had happened.

So he didn't bother looking, preferring to believe it was the result of his own regal aura startling it.

At this moment, Shajuye also peeked out from behind Duanmu Huai, surprised to see the black bear retreat into the distance. After a moment of silence, she sighed with awe.

"As expected from big brother...…"

"............."

If you don't speak, no one will think you're mute.

With a dark expression, Duanmu Huai silently urged Shajuye to move on. Although she was still a bit tired after the black bear incident, she dared not rest any longer. Thus, the two continued up the mountain path.

This mountain isn't very tall. As part of a small town far from the city, tourism is a part of its economy, so there are two routes to the mountain. One is the cable car Duanmu Huai mentioned to Shajuye, going directly to the top. The other is a winding mountain path that goes by a lake and a campsite.

Of course, it's not the camping season, and the small town doesn't have many outsiders.

So when Duanmu Huai and Shajuye reached the campsite along the mountain path and saw the tents set up there, they were a bit taken aback.

Even more surprising were the people in the tents.

"Who are you?! What do you want?"

The man crawling out of the tent was startled to see Duanmu Huai. He backed away hastily, grabbing a bottle of mineral water from the side in a flustered manner, as if he had encountered a bear walking toward him.

"I have no money! Don't come closer!"

"............"

Duanmu Huai rolled his eyes silently, then turned his head to look at Shajuye.

"It's up to you."

Seeing Shajuye, dressed in a sailor uniform, appear, the man seemed to calm down a bit. Shajuye stepped forward to explain who they were, and only then did the man relax, putting down the bottle of mineral water.

"Phew... so you're relatives of old man Xiujin… you gave me quite a scare…"

"You're new around here."

Duanmu Huai walked over. As the system had mentioned before, with Duanmu Huai's height and appearance, he was hard to forget. Though he and Shajuye hadn't been back for years, people here still remembered them. This man, however, clearly didn't recognize Duanmu Huai, meaning he must have come after the siblings left.

"I'm Yamahara, a teacher at the school down below. I've been here for about three or four years."

"Oh, so it's you…"

Duanmu Huai recalled hearing in the tavern about a teacher investigating the earthquakes in the mountains. It seemed it was this guy.

"I heard from others… you're here to study the earthquakes?"

"That's right!"

Talking about his forte, Teacher Yamahara became excited.

"I find the frequent earthquakes here quite strange. I checked the geological surveys, and if I'm correct, this isn't an active seismic zone. I even placed three seismic recorders on the mountain, at the school, and at my house for experiments. Given the increased seismic activity in the mountains lately, it must be affecting the area below as well..."

"Boom boom boom boom!!"

However, before Teacher Yamahara could finish, a thundering rumble came from not far away, and the ground began to shake. His excited expression fell.

"Damn it, those construction crews again, they're making it impossible for me to conduct proper measurements!"

"Construction crews? What are they doing here?"

Yesterday at the tavern, Duanmu Huai had heard about an accident involving construction workers due to the earthquakes, but he hadn't known what they were doing here.

"They're building a new road here. They want it ready before the tourist season peaks. It's because of this that my seismic tests are a mess!"

Which is understandable. With construction crews here laying roads and breaking rocks every day, there's bound to be vibration. It's pretty challenging to conduct earthquake research in such conditions.

Duanmu Huai also told him about his encounter with the bear. Hearing there were bears around, Teacher Yamahara's hair stood on end. As a non-combative teacher, if he were to meet a black bear, he'd probably end up on the ground, waiting for the end. After a few days without much progress in his research and being constantly disturbed by the construction, Teacher Yamahara decided to head down the mountain, planning to return after they finished their work.

After all, his main occupation is teaching, while earthquake research is just a hobby; it's not worth risking his life over.

Before leaving, Teacher Yamahara asked if Duanmu Huai and Shajuye wanted to go down with him. Naturally, Duanmu Huai couldn't fit in Teacher Yamahara's second-hand car. Initially, he intended for Shajuye to go back, but for some reason, she insisted on sticking with him, so Duanmu Huai had no choice but to continue onward with her.

Come to think of it, they originally came out just for a stroll...… oh well, it doesn't matter.

Passing through the campsite, the two of them arrived at the road under construction. It was just like what Teacher Yamahara complained about: noise everywhere and a group of workers driving various types of heavy machinery back and forth.

"Hey, kids, be careful!"

Seeing Duanmu Huai, a worker near them who was operating a bulldozer also waved at the two and loudly reminded them. He then turned off the bulldozer, jumped down from the driver's seat, and approached Duanmu Huai and Shajuye.

"Yo, isn't this Duanmu and Shajuye? What are you doing here?"

"We're just taking a random stroll up the mountain; it's been years since we last came."

"Hahaha, actually nothing much has changed here, except for this."

Hearing Duanmu Huai's reply, the worker chuckled and pointed at the road under construction.

"Is this for tourism?"

"That's right, during the tourist season, we still have a lot of visitors. Although you can take a cable car to the mountaintop, the cable car is quite dangerous, so they decided to build a road… Oh, right, you two should also be careful. There have been frequent earthquakes these days, and there are fallen rocks everywhere, be careful not to get hit when going down the mountain."

"We'll be careful."

Duanmu Huai nodded and then asked.

"By the way, we encountered a black bear earlier…"

"Black bear?"

Upon hearing this, the worker became tense, raised his head and sized up Duanmu Huai and the others.

"You weren't hurt, were you?"

"No…"

Before Duanmu Huai could finish speaking, Shajuye interjected from the side.

"It's fine, my brother scared it away."

"......…"

Silence can speak volumes.

"I see, hahaha, well, that's not surprising."

Hearing Shajuye's answer, the worker didn't doubt them and instead laughed heartily, feeling relieved.

This only made Duanmu Huai more displeased.

"Aren't you afraid of being attacked by wild animals?"

Duanmu Huai decisively changed the subject, lest he loses his sanity before meeting the Evil God.

"We're not really scared, after all, there are a lot of us here and lots of heavy machinery. Not even a black bear would dare easily venture here. But we must remind everyone to be careful, since tourists will be visiting here in the future, a black bear coming and going could be a hassle."

Duanmu Huai chatted with the worker for a while longer, hoping perhaps it might turn out like in some games or movies where they unearth an ancient relic or something unusual during construction. However, the worker said everything was going smoothly, and nothing odd was unearthed…

What a disaster, is this really just to attend a funeral?

Finally, Duanmu Huai could only return in low spirits the way he came.

"Brother, should we stay here any longer?"

Back at the hotel during dinner, Shajuye looked at Duanmu Huai and asked. Faced with Shajuye's inquiry, Duanmu Huai pondered for a moment.

According to the plan, it was just for a few days. Now that the person is buried and the aftermath handled, with no leads from the investigation… Never mind, let's just go. Maybe I've overthought it. Besides, Duanmu Huai was never good at thinking or finding clues. All the clues in Mary's world were discovered by Ling'Nu, who was transformed into a black cat; if it were Duanmu Huai, he wouldn't have bothered.

So… whatever happens, happens. I'm not obliging anymore.

"Let's go."

Duanmu Huai decisively gave his answer.

"We'll leave after breakfast tomorrow morning."

Whether there's an issue or not here, Duanmu Huai wasn't sure, and from Shajuye's demeanor, it didn't seem there was a problem, so Duanmu Huai decided not to think about it. He knew he wasn't the type who could instantly discern someone's identity, occupation, origin, or whether they were at a hotel with a high school girl last night like a famous detective, so Duanmu Huai wasn't going to waste energy on it.

Whether or not there is, just leave it at that.

"Alright, I understand, I'll go pack."

Hearing Duanmu Huai's response, Shajuye said no more, merely nodded and stood up to head back to the room.

Yet at that moment...…

"Rumble rumble rumble...…"

Suddenly, the ground began to shake violently, and at the same time, the restaurant lights flickered. Shajuye, who had just stood up, let out a scream and stumbled to the side. Reacting swiftly, Duanmu Huai grabbed her.

The tremor lasted for a moment before gradually stopping, but chaos surrounded, and the restaurant was plunged into darkness. Faintly, screams could be heard from all around. Shajuye clutching Duanmu Huai's arm sounded particularly anxious.

"Brother, brother? Is this…?"

"An earthquake, perhaps. They mentioned earlier that there have been frequent earthquakes around here lately, but nothing this severe…"

Saying this, Duanmu Huai paused.

"Let's go outside and see what's going on, and then we'll decide."

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