He bled for nothing, as the coconut was still intact. He knew they were tough, but not this tough. He needed to revise his plan for opening the coconut without injuring himself. He needed a sharp and sturdy object that could penetrate its shell, but where could he find that? Stone could probably do it if he could only find a sharp one.

"Wait, sharp and sturdy…? I can use the plane debris! Why didn’t I think about that sooner?"

Excitement bubbling within him, he sprinted back to his camp, coconut in tow.

When he returned to his base, he froze at what he saw. Once again, the peculiar bear revealed itself. However, the strange part was—the monkey was awoken and screeching at the bear. That was impossible, though. How could the monkey threaten something invisible? Unless…

"No, that will be crazy. But how can a monkey see it if it isn’t?"

He started a debate with himself, denying the outrageous truth. How could he not? With its odd, otherworldly appearance, the bear not only talked but also communicated. If that wasn’t a figment of his imagination, then what was it? Returning to his first idea, he thought the creature was an undiscovered species. Even if there was a slight possibility that it was true, how could it talk? If it was undiscovered, it meant it never had contact with humans before, so how?

Amid his contemplation, the bear finally noticed him and waved its paw while walking closer.

"You're finally back!"

"Why are you here?!" He burst out, communicating with the bear unconsciously.

"What do you mean? To talk to you, of course?" The bear said while tilting its head. "And, why did you run away from me earlier? Am I that scary?"

He didn’t know how to answer that question—should he tell the bear that he thought it was only an illusion?

Cleo squinted, analyzing the bear from top to bottom. The bear seemed real and alive. He wanted to touch it to make sure, but he realized his brain could make him think he was touching something even if there was none. However, he couldn’t deny the monkey’s reaction. If the bear was his delusion, how could the monkey see it? It wasn’t like the monkey was also his imagination…

"Wait, how do I know if the monkey is real? How do I know if everything in here is real? What if I’m in a coma or something and my brain is showing me something beautiful like the beach?! And now a cute talking bear for a companion?"

He was starting to doubt if he was even alive. After all, he got in a massive plane crash, and he was pretty sure the survival rate was almost nonexistent.

"Uhm, excuse me, are you still there?" The bear said, with a worried face.

"Are you real?" He asked the question that he knew was pointless. His brain could always lie to him.

"What do you mean...? Ah, I guess this is your first time seeing my kind, so it’s only natural for you to react that way." The bear nodded with understanding. "Oh, that’s why you ran away from me earlier! I’m sorry, this is my first time in a Mortal Realm, so I still don’t know a lot of things."

Cleo furrowed his eyebrows, finding the bear's words confusing.

"Mortal Realm?" He mumbled.

The bear spoke nonsense; he could understand its words but not what they meant. Did his brain think of something absurd without him knowing? His head started to overheat from all the thinking. He didn’t know what was real or not anymore. Touching his head, he saw blood from his hand.

"Ah, yes, I hit my head earlier and it hurts! Does it mean I’m not in some kind of dream?"

Staring with his other hand where he held the coconut, he wanted to make sure he did feel pain—he smacked the coconut on his head. Instead of crying in pain, he exclaimed with joy—the pain was real!

"What are you doing, Mortal? Are you okay?" the bear asked him with a mixed tone.

Hearing the concerned voice of the weird creature, he glanced at it. He now considered the possibility of the bear existing outside his mind.

"Are you really real and alive?" He asked again, as he wanted to know the truth.

"Yes, I’m real. I know this may be your first time meeting a Spirit, but soon your world will be flooded by my kind. I advise you to adapt to the situation fast," the bear said while showing its cute smile.

"Spirit?"

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Although he had accepted the bear's existence—barely—he was still confused by all kinds of strange words that came out of its mouth. Mortal realm, Spirit, what kind of creature was he talking to?

"You say a lot of weird things I don’t understand," he said, as he was very curious about the terms. "Are you some kind of ghost or something?"

"No, no, I’m not, I belong to Plant Kin." The bear shook its head and proudly announced where he belonged.

"Like I said, I don’t understand you." He repeated his words, clarifying his meaning.

"Ah, yes, I forgot that this world was in an integrating process, so all the Mortals in here probably have no knowledge of us." The bear mumbled to itself. "But I don’t think that’s important right now. If I want to explain to you everything, it would take us a lot of time, and I believe you have something you need to do first." The bear looked behind its back, insinuating the burned shelter and the screeching monkey.

Seeing the bear's action woke him up from his overthinking. Yes, he had no time to listen to some nonsense. His shelter needed fixing, the monkey needed calming, and he needed to eat. There were a lot of things he had to prioritize. The shelter required immediate rebuilding, as he didn’t want to repeat the same mistake he made yesterday—forgetting to make a fire before sundown.

"Yeah, let’s talk later. I need to fix my shelter first." He agreed with the bear’s suggestion.

"Can I help you?" The bear asked politely.

He was going to reject the offer, but then he realized that there was nothing to lose if he allowed the bear to help. An extra pair of hands was always a good thing—or should he call it paws? However, what kind of help could a small bear do for him?

"What can you do?" He asked, as he didn’t want to think too much.

"Uhm..." The bear seemed to wonder what kind of help it could do. "Nothing much, because I can’t use my ability in a Mortal Realm. But if you form a contract with me, I can help you with a lot of things!"

"Ability," he muttered. He was getting tired of all the weird things the bear had to say. "Yeah, you can help me carry stuff."

Ignoring the sentiment of the bear, he slowly walked to the monkey, intending to calm it down. He didn’t raise his hands again, knowing it wasn’t effective with the animal. He thought the monkey trusted him for a bit, but it seemed he was thinking too much, as it showed its fangs to him, threatening him not to get closer.

Food could make the monkey calm down, but he didn’t have any cooked food right now. Then an idea hit him. It didn’t have to be cooked food. After all, it survived in the wild for so long by only eating raw food. So, the uncooked sweet potato should be enough for it. After understanding, he moved to his bag, let go of the coconut, and took out one sweet potato, then tossed it to the monkey.

The monkey didn’t hesitate, like last time, and accepted his offer. It appeared his effort wasn’t all gone to waste, as the monkey still trusted him, even for a little.

With that done, he must proceed with his next priority, getting materials for his shelter. Thinking about all the walking he had to do to get to the banana farm, he was already exhausted. It would take him 20 minutes of walking to get there, and he was getting fed up with all the walking he did today. He just wanted to lay in his shelter and sleep. But what could he do? He couldn’t even do that with the current condition of his shelter.

Sighing, he carried the bag on his back again and dragged his feet across the grass.

"Wait for me!" The bear exclaimed while it ran to him.

Upon arriving at the banana farm, he witnessed four to five monkeys harvesting the bananas from the tree. He hid with the bear behind the tree, a few meters away from them, not wanting to agitate them for any reason. Based on the aggressive behavior of the injured monkey, he could consider these monkeys the same. And if these monkeys attack him at the same time, dying might be the best outcome he would receive.

"Why are we hiding?" The bear said.

"Shhh," he hushed. "Be quiet; do you want us to die?"

"I don’t understand you." The bear still spoke in its normal voice, even though he just warned it not to.

The monkeys reacted; it seemed they noticed something. Did they hear them? Not wanting to attract their attention, he held the bear’s mouth. He regretted bringing the weird creature with him—it had no sense of danger at all. How did it manage to survive for this long?

When he thought, the monkeys detected them. They screeched in a different direction; either they had mistaken where they were or there was something out there beside them. After a few minutes, it showed up, ambushing the monkeys. It was a massive, black cat—a black panther! One monkey was caught under the panther's paw.

The other monkeys surrounded the panther, screeched, and threw all kinds of things at the massive cat, trying to free their friend. The panther growled at the monkeys but ignored them and bit the neck of the monkey it caught. The monkey made its final struggle before its body lay limp on the ground.

The situation escalated so quickly that Cleo couldn’t react before the monkey died. His situation became more dire after finding out there was a dangerous predator in the forest! He should have known this sooner, after seeing the wound on the injured monkey. Only this kind of beast could leave something like that!

After the death of their friend, the remaining monkeys retreated and climbed trees. However, they were not safe up there, as the black panther followed them in swift motion. The monkey seemed to have already predicted this and scattered in different directions. The panther managed to catch another one before it stopped and went back to its other prey. It appeared that two monkeys were enough for it.

He finally breathed out; he didn’t even realize that he was holding his breath until the panther left. The experience was too scary and gruesome for him. Life in the wild was indeed full of danger and death; he must have become extra careful from now on when he was going to enter the forest.

"So, it was real. The Mortal Realm is indeed scary," the bear said while shivering. "Was that kind of situation normal here?"

"What? Of course, how can they eat if they don’t hunt?" He found the bear’s question confusing. "Anyway, what kind of question is that? Don’t tell me you don’t hunt for your food?"

"Of course not! How could I harm other living beings? My kind only eats what we produce!" The bear exclaimed, seeming offended by the question.

"A bear that only eats what they produce? That’s new," he mumbled. "Let’s hurry and get banana leaves before the panther gets back."

Cleo ran to the banana trees and cut the leaves from them with his pocket knife. Thanks to the knife, it only took him five minutes to get what he needed. After getting his objective, he didn’t stay there any longer and rushed back to his camp.