"But your hands are stronger," Ma Lu said.
"This is a zoo, not the Ancient Roman Colosseum, so strength isn't much use," the Black Bear paused to think, "Well, it's not completely useless. At least I can protect my chastity when that female bear is in heat."
Thinking back to that scene, Ma Lu also felt awkward, "I actually thought she was a relative or friend of yours."
"Except for the King, all my relatives and friends are humans."
"Alright—but wait... You're saying all your relatives and friends are humans? So one of your parents is a human," Ma Lu gasped.
"Both of them are humans," the Black Bear explained, "The King is my friend and partner; we used to work together in a circus."
"I see. So, do circuses in your universe also have performances?" Ma Lu took another sip of Coke.
"Dude, I'm from the sa plane as you. I've always been in this plane; I've never left."
"..."
"Let get this straight," Ma Lu said, "You're a native of this plane like . Your parents and all your relatives are human. You worked in a circus and had a bear as a partner. So why are you a bear?"
"I'm not a bear," the Black Bear sighed, "At least I wasn't originally a bear. It was an accident. That day, after the performance, I was bathing the King and said how envious I was of it for just having to perform every day to get food and drink without a care in life.
"And then I just passed out. When I woke up, I saw myself riding a unicycle."
"What?"
"To be precise, the King was riding a unicycle, but with my body. And I turned into what I am now—no, not quite. I wasn't as big as I am now; I was about half this size.
"You swapped bodies with the King, like in that movie 'Your Na'?"
"Yes, but it was a human-bear version with no love story."
The Black Bear grabbed a Coke for himself, "It was quite horrific at first, especially becoming a bear because my vocal cords were different, so I couldn't speak."
"In the circus, everyone started treating the King as , and as the King. I went to the ringmaster's office for help, but as soon as he saw , he yelled out loud, called in the Beast Tar with a whip, and drove into a cage.
"I didn't want to use violence, so I had to stay in the cage first and find a chance to explain to others later. But when I went back, I found the King had already claid my spot."
"Then those guys pulled the sleeping King out of it and pushed in. Experience more content on My Virtual Library Empire
"The sight of another bear sleeping in the cage clearly deeply upset the King.
"It paced restlessly outside the cage all night, roaring loudly and scratching the bars with its nails. The poor guy, it had no idea it had beco human—it tore off its nails till they bled..."
"I could only wait until everyone left to open the cage, and then we'd find sowhere else to sleep. But obviously, that wasn't a long-term plan. The next day, soone noticed the King was behaving oddly, and by the third day, the entire circus knew I'd gone crazy.
"There was a circus show that night. Since neither the King nor I were in the right state, our act was canceled. But the King was probably attracted by the applause and cheering and went out front.
"Then it dashed out in full view of everyone, using my body, streaked naked through fire hoops, stealing the thunder from the monkeys.
"By the way, it always had a rocky relationship with the monkeys in the circus. Although the ringmaster called this 'healthy competition,' you know it couldn't stand seeing those monkeys in the lilight.
"After jumping through fire hoops, it rode around on a unicycle, passed the hat around for money—the audience must have been several thousand strong. The news about going insane couldn't be contained any longer.
"After that show, the ringmaster had it sent to a ntal hospital. They wanted it to get treated there. I heard they force-fed the poor guy loads of psychotropic drugs daily, even subjected it to electrotherapy.
"They forced it to admit it was human, but the problem was the King was a bear through and through. No matter how much chlorpromazine, fluoxetine, or alprazolam you feed it, it couldn't turn human. The poor thing... I heard it didn't last three months before it died.
"They said it couldn't take the ntal torture. One night, it sohow took apart the anti-theft netting and jumped from the fourth floor to its death. Later, I had soone check it out and take photos. Guess what.
"Underneath was a bike shed. It probably just wanted to ride a bicycle again. It's too cruel—I still can't forgive those quacks."
The Black Bear placed the Coke bottle to its mouth and squeezed it with its paw, downing the entire contents in one go.
"But back then, I had my own problems and couldn't look out for it. It took almost two months to convince the ringmaster that I was human, just swapped bodies with the King.
"That bastard verbally comforted , claiming he would find a way, but in reality, he just wanted to use to make money. He scheduled lots of acts for , including multiplication tables, puzzles, and he even planned to have play blackjack with the audience.
"Basically, he ambitiously wanted to utilize as the world's smartest bear—as a gimmick to attract the audience. I saw through his façade, but it was of no use; I had beco the King."
"Moreover, from then on, he strictly forbade any circus colleagues from approaching to prevent them from discovering my true identity.
"I was in utter despair, believing I'd be exploited as the ringmaster's cash cow forever, until one day a Pigeon appeared before and told they'd made a mistake. A very dangerous individual had escaped their surveillance.
"It was that individual's escape that led to and the King swapping bodies. They had it under control, but the King was already dead, and the wish we had made could no longer be undone."
"They said it was their negligence and would compensate for my loss as much as possible, even though it likely ant nothing compared to what I'd lost.
"Anyway, they gave a large sum of compensation, both in RMB and sothing called Star Currency—about several hundred thousand, I don't really grasp that stuff.
"They also rescued from the circus and, after consulting , arranged a new job for in the zoo. Since then, I've played the role of a bear here."
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