Chapter 93: The Truth About Another World!
Everyone heard what Neve said, but not a single one of them understood it.
The confused looks on their faces stretched so wide that they began murmuring among themselves immediately.
"Are there different worlds?" one of them asked.
"I don’t know," another replied. "How do we even get there?"
"You mean, how did Neve come from there?" Sorin said, his voice carrying concern.
Neve wished he could punch a hole in their heads to make them understand faster. But he tried to calm down and started explaining again.
"So, I was working as an student intern zoologist," he said.
Immediately, they all had questions. So many questions. Each one asking something different. It made Neve almost regret revealing anything to them.
He just groaned and sat down on the stone floor, knowing this was about to be a very long night.
"What is intan?" Kelly asked.
"What is zoologist?" Ryker asked at the same time.
"Who the hell made Neve work? Tell me so I’ll carve their hearts out," Cael said, his protective instincts firing up immediately at the thought of anyone making Neve do labor.
Neve raised his hand to stop the flood of questions.
"In my world, you have to work hard if you wish to eat," he explained carefully. "Well, except for those that are rich. Like the nobles."
The word noble seemed to click for them. They understood the concept of hierarchy. They understood that some had more power and resources than others.
"I died," Neve continued, pushing through the explanation, "and fell into a lion enclosure."
All of them gasped and stood up on their feet at the same time.
"You died?" Sorin asked, his voice sharp with shock.
"I knew the lion tribe are responsible for this!" Ryker was already cracking his knuckles, ready for violence. "We need to go there right now and make them pay."
"I don’t understand how you died, Neve," Sorin said, stepping forward, "but I’m going to fly all the way to the lion tribe with some of the beastmen in the eagle tribe and rain hell on them."
Neve just grabbed his hair, screaming internally. This was not going the way he had hoped. They were taking everything he said and turning it into reasons to start wars. They were planning violence against tribes that had nothing to do with what happened to him.
He could not deal with it anymore. So he just stopped talking about his former life. All it would do was add to the chaos and confusion.
"But I’m alive in this world!" he said loudly, and they all finally calmed down. "I woke up and saw myself as a red panda. All I’m saying is that I was human. A human means I had no human tribe."
He wanted to mention something about monkey evolution, but he was sure that would cause more trouble for the monkey tribe if they existed.
They were all silent now, finally listening to him properly. Neve was a bit pleased as he continued with his explanation.
"So, I have a system," he said, pointing at the invisible box in front of him. To him it was clearly visible. But to them, it was completely invisible. "It’s a box that gives me missions of what to do. It gives me thinking. And also, on how to survive in this world."
"Mission? What kind of missions?" Gideon asked, his physician’s mind already trying to categorize and understand the information.
"Well," Neve took a breath, "bonding with my ten mates and also, giving birth to two hundred litters in five years."
The silence that followed was thick.
Then Sorin made a sound that was definitely suppressed laughter.
Kelly started to grin.
Ryker’s expression was completely unbelieving.
They almost laughed out loud. Neve? Give birth? None of them wanted to believe him. Even Gideon found it funny, his mouth twitching as he tried to maintain composure.
Neve just decided not to push the topic further.
"I have other missions like getting close to my mates and also, helping build the house structures for the struggling villagers," he said instead. "Whenever I pass a mission, the system rewards me. For example, the bed and everything in the room and this blanket."
He showed them the oversized Winnie the Pooh blanket that Sif had been holding.
Then he held out the purse.
"And also this."
He waited for them to ask what it was.
"This is a dimensional purse," he explained. "I can hide anything in here. Unlimited storage. I can keep things that would normally be too big to carry."
They looked confused again. Neve wanted to pick up the dragon talon to demonstrate, but it was too heavy for him to lift alone.
Kelly walked over to help him. The tiger prince lifted the massive talon carefully, his strong arms handling the weight with ease.
"Watch," Neve said.
He opened the small purse. It was obviously too small to fit something as large as a dragon talon. The math did not make sense. The proportions were impossible.
But as soon as Kelly brought the talon closer to the purse opening, something incredible happened.
The talon warped. And then it simply disappeared into the purse like the purse had swallowed it whole.
Everyone gasped.
Kelly held out his empty hand, shocked. He looked at Neve. He looked at the purse. He looked back at Neve.
"How is that possible?" he asked.
Neve returned the talon to Kelly’s hand and looked at the others.
The talon reappeared in Kelly’s palm like it had never left. The system’s pocket dimension worked both ways. Store and retrieve.
"Do you understand now?" Neve asked, his voice becoming quieter. "I’m a human who died and got reborn as a red panda and my mission is to have ten mates and two hundred litters."
He paused, letting that sink in.
"The system chose this for me. The system set me these goals. The system is the only reason I survived when I first arrived in this world. It is the only reason I know what to do. It is the only reason I can help any of you."
Cael was watching him with an expression that was soft and understanding. He was listening, not judging. Just accepting everything he had heard.
Ryker had his arms crossed but there was no anger in his posture. Just processing and trying to make sense of everything.
Kelly was staring at the purse with wonder, still amazed by what he had just witnessed.
Sorin was standing very still, his sharp mind clearly working through the implications of what Neve had just told them.
Popi was nodding slowly, like pieces of a puzzle were clicking into place in her mind.
Gideon looked like he wanted to ask ten thousand medical questions but was holding back.
Aldric was just watching Neve with those shy eyes.
"Do you now understand how I’ll need to use you, all of you," Neve asked, his voice shaky like he wanted to cry.
His hands were trembling slightly. His eyes were getting watery. The weight of the secret he had been carrying alone for so long was finally being lifted. But it was also replacing itself with new weight.
The weight of vulnerability. The weight of showing them exactly how dependent he was on them. How much he needed them to fulfill the missions the system had given him.
He was not just asking them to be his mates. He was asking them to help him complete an impossible task. Ten mates. Two hundred litters in five years. It sounded insane. It was insane.
But it was what the system required.
And for some reason, despite the impossibility of it all, despite the strangeness and the shock and the confusion, none of them looked like they were going to leave.
They were all still standing there. Still listening.
Still his.