With a whoosh, the blowgun pierced through mercilessly. The giant short-faced bear felt a chill in its groin; this was a rare double kill!

The pain of hatching eggs is no less intense for any male animal than childbirth for a woman, especially since this fellow is unusually laying two eggs on one stalk.

The double happiness made me unconsciously touch my two things while I was perched on the tree. For some reason, my testicles also felt a slight pain. Is this what they call empathy?

"Waaaaah!"

A series of high-pitched roars erupted, and this was probably the last time it would utter such a manly sound in its beastly life.

The pain was too much for the giant short-faced bear to bear any longer, and its limbs twitched uncontrollably. However, it had clearly forgotten that it wasn't on the ground; was this a place where it could just twitch around like that?

The canopy space is already somewhat cramped for a large predator like the Short-faced Bear, so it's possible that one of the Short-faced Bear's legs was out of control.

With a slip, the massive, one-ton body immediately fell in that direction. Immediately afterwards, I heard a deafening roar from the ground.

Right now I'm thinking about how many Newtons of force a ton-weight object would generate if it fell freely from a height of more than ten meters.

It's okay if you can't figure it out. I bet this guy is covered in bruises from the fall and is fast asleep right now.

Who would have thought that a top-tier player at the top of the food chain, with all its top-notch hardware, would actually be killed by a blowgun as small as a needle?

I bet it won't rest in peace even when it dies. Today was absolutely outrageous, the door was opened for something so outrageous!

I looked at the giant short-faced bear under the tree and, after confirming that it wouldn't jump around anymore, I breathed a long sigh of relief. It was truly terrifying.

Now that I've been delayed, it's getting even later. To avoid causing any more trouble, I've decided to leave now.

Getting down from the tree was a minor inconvenience, but it wasn't a big problem.

I cut off a few thinner branches, twisted them together like firewood, then wrapped them around the tree with Top, and successfully climbed down.

The torches were still burning not far away. After Pat fired that guerrilla shot, he had disappeared somewhere to slack off.

"Go back!"

I issued commands into the open jungle.

After a while, a sleepy-eyed bird of prey finally crossed the woods and returned to stand on my right arm guard.

I rolled my eyes at Pat. So while Top and I were risking our lives up front, this kid was hiding away and taking a nap.

"You little brat, and I've been feeding and taking good care of you..." I muttered to myself.

Even so, I didn't blame the guy at all. He did a great job today; at least he saved Top's life and saved mine at a crucial moment.

It is obviously impossible to expect a raptor that is dozens of times smaller than its opponent to fight head-on.

If it weren't for Pat, not only would Top be dead today, but I would be dead too.

Fortunately, today I encountered a short-faced bear that wasn't very agile. If I had encountered a saber-toothed tiger or a sand beast when I was shooting earlier, given their speed, I would have been dead on the spot.

However, even the Shortfaced Bear is no match for my speed. Without Pat launching an attack in the air to slow down the Shortfaced Bear's pace, I, like Top, would not have escaped the Shortfaced Bear's clutches.

Looking back now, I still feel a bit scared. These steps are closely linked, and if anything went wrong in one place, I would have been completely finished.

Pat and Top followed behind me as I raised my torch and approached the short-faced bear.

Looking at this enormous bear, I felt a pang of heartache. What delicious food it was! It's just a pity I can't take much back with me.

With limited time, I grabbed a machete and removed as much of the short-faced bear's four paws as possible, then put them into my basket.

I then plunged the knife into the short-faced bear's abdominal cavity and slashed it open, causing blood to gush out. I then proceeded to cut along the fascia around its heart, ripping out its heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys from its upper body.

The most valuable ingredient here is bear bile, a precious traditional Chinese medicine with effects such as clearing heat and detoxifying, treating high fever and convulsions, and red, swollen, and painful eyes.

After filling my basket to the brim with these parts, I looked at the enormous bear and sighed deeply again. If time allowed, the bear pelt and the abundant meat would be excellent resources.

This amount of meat would allow me to stay home and relax for at least two months without having to go hunting.

However, survival is still the top priority. The scent of this short-faced bear's blood will soon attract nearby predators, and staying here is definitely not a wise decision.

"Let's go, Top, let's go home."

I called out, then went to the bushes to find my spear, and returned to the slope to carry the crossbow and shotgun on my back.

Previously, I didn't have time to check due to the urgency of the situation, but this time, by the light of the torch, I found out why it hadn't been fired.

A small, inconspicuous broken branch came to rest in the trigger's primer slot, and the branch still bears the marks left by the firing pin.

It seems that the problem lies here. No wonder the bullet was not fired. It turns out that the firing pin of the impact bullet did not strike the primer of the bullet at all, but instead hit that small piece of tree branch.

Having learned from this experience, I must check my gear before going out next time, especially this life-saving item, which I can't be careless about. I almost died today because of this small problem.

I took the nearly burnt-out torch and lit it on another torch I had prepared. The bright light shone again, and we continued our journey cautiously.

As I walked, I reviewed some of the unusual behaviors that had occurred today. First, the short-faced bear actually knew to avoid my spear; it was clear it had seen this thing somewhere before and was well aware of its power.

And there's something even more unbelievable: the short-faced bear that attacked me completely ignored my torch, even though it's an innate instinct for wild animals to fear fire.

Although the flame of my torch isn't very big, it's a bit unreasonable that I'm not afraid at all.

This reminds me of when I dealt with those sand monsters. I started a fire in a tree, but the sand monsters didn't seem to have any fear of fire in their eyes.

At first, I thought these sand monsters were just intelligent and knew that the fire in the tree wouldn't pose a threat to them, so I didn't think much of it.

Looking back now, the things here are truly terrifying. What kind of experiences could have driven these ferocious beasts to this state?

After much thought, I believe there is only one possibility: they must have encountered humans and spent a very long time with them, long enough that the fear in their bones had faded away!