Chapter 76 – The end of the bunny catching event.

The group in the distance is quickly catching up to Jack, but he pays no attention to them as he looks at the item within his hand that has replaced the rainbow rabbit and reward box with a smile that shifts into a slight frown.

It's a simple looking black dagger.

The system message sounds in his mind, 'SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT—You have acquired: 'Blessing of the Easter Bunny Level 4', this provides your village/kingdom/empire with bonus: Resistance against Pests 40%, Increased small animal attraction 40%, Increased affinity with small animal species 40%' but he just ignores this as the information for the dagger has been display.

[Fang of the Night-Demon]: Grade: Legendary(???) Stats: Strength+15, Agility+15, Dexterity+10, Description: A strange dagger fashioned from the tooth of a creature called the Night-Demon.

Jack inspects the dagger closely, it just seems like a simple black dagger no larger than his hand yet strangely it feels like something is missing from it looking closely at the fine details on the dagger. Countless tiny little lines run all over the blade going up to the handle that is wrapped with what looks like some sort of leather, the blade itself feels evil but also not complete and the system information is strange as several lines of garbled text appear after it.

"What is a Night-Demon? Do you know anything about this fang Xueli?"

'Night-demon? Never heard of it... the dagger looks good but... it looks weak but watch out for the visitors who you left behind'

Looking away from the dagger Jack is about to use the movement skill to get away from this group, the fact that they would rather chase after him than capture their rabbit they cornered suggests that they're just going to cause trouble for him, yet he's also intrigued as to what they plan on doing as the two women approach him with no one else within eyesight.

"Sir please wait, we just wish to discuss something with you, those annoying guys aren't with us so you need not worry about them" the blonde girl yells out, Jack puts the dagger away within his clothing but the two women approaching him could clearly see it as a greedy glint flashes across the blonde-haired woman's eyes.

Jack sighs and chuckles under his breath as he stands there watching the women approach with cold eyes, his face has no expression as they approach closer, the dark-skinned younger woman is a few steps behind the blonde-haired woman refusing to look away from the ground. They stop close to him, but the blonde-haired woman's eyes dart between looking at Jack and some spots behind him.

Placing his hands behind his back but not losing his cold expression Jack speaks to the women as he closes his eyes, "Speak what you want, the event should end soon and you two don't have a rabbit while I am not interested in giving you anything nor helping you" Opening his eyes, the women take a slight step back, "and if you are here on orders of those useless men, tell them to face me instead of sending someone else to do their job"

"Sir no you misunderstand, I am just here to ask you about your incredible skill display before, how are you able to move so quickly? I have already got a captured rabbit but we truly do have an agreement between our little group, would you be interested in joining the group? We have 3 people with affiliations with some of the largest and best teams in the world with the backing of large financial groups so...." the blonde-haired woman continues to speak as she walks forward adopting a smug smile as she finishes her sentence while the dark-skinned woman looks away while standing on the spot.

"So? So what? All of that means nothing compared to the progression within this world and I will show you some kindness by answering your question, it's a movement skill provided by the rabbits during the event and honestly it's not the best thing I have received from the event so far"

The slowly approaching woman's eyes glint again as Jack finishes his sentence, "My name is Madison... what's yours? You seem much more interesting than those other guys, they truly are pathetic when compared to you"

She cutely smiles at Jack softening his heart slightly but looking at the other woman, she's still looking at a direction in the distance and not at Jack so clearly something is going on. The blonde-haired woman, Madison, is now only a few steps away from Jack and still approaching giving Jack a clearer view of her, about 160cm with large breasts and a well-proportioned body yet Jack doesn't care about her. If this was perhaps a few months ago, he might have tried to start something with her as she yet after coming to the game world he doesn't feel excited over the prospects of normal relationships, all the girls that he has met in the game world so far have been far better than most girls he has met previously.

There are exceptions of course but this girl before him isn't one of those and while Jack wouldn't mind getting to know Madison, the fact that she would openly associated with that group of idiots doing their bidding suggests that she doesn't have strong allegiances to anyone and if someone offers something better than she will join them. There's no shortage of people like that in this world and the real world and given Jack's newfound position as the leader of a large village, he can have his choice of women now and in the future. Thoughts are quickly flashing by, they're of Jessica and Leah but there's also Amber, Lisa and that woman out in the field and then there's Mai and Xueli and all the people in real life he needs to bring to his village before the shift, a smile forms on his face but Madison seems to think he's smiling at her.

She touches Jack's hand and arm bringing him out of his daydream causing him to furrow his brows and coldly look at her, "We do not recall giving you permission to touch us".

"Oh, don't say that, were you thinking about your cute little girlfriend?" Her hand slides up Jack's arm softly touching his skin before sliding over to his chest, softly touching in several places but giving Jack an idea of what she's doing.

"If you wish to know this Lord's Name then you need to learn where you stand" Jack grabs her hand that is almost reaching into his robe, squeezing it with purpose yet not hurting her.

Madison tries to struggle free of Jack's grip but cannot do it, "Oww you're hurting me, help someone please!" She yells out with a fake panic in her voice.

Jack inwardly chuckles at her actions, he is putting no strength into his grip and would be punished by the system if he did anything more than stop her hand from creeping into his robe so with a final yank he releases her hand causing her to stumble and almost trip over yet as if on a particular cue, a yell from the distance is heard.

"Madison!" The brown-haired man with patches all over his clothing rushes forward from the distance, Jack looks in the direction for a moment but checks where the dark-skinned woman is looking, she is still looking in a different direction giving him a good idea where some of them are still hiding.

"Peter! Help me, this man hurt me and also said 'Epsilon' was shit"

"He said what?" the young man rushes toward Jack with his fist out, Jack weighs up whether to take the punch as it might send him back to the dungeon but it doesn't seem worth it in this situation. Sometimes he should run away to avoid a fight, but this isn't one of them.

Jack takes a step back, easily avoiding the fist that is coming towards him, "You should really practise more if you wish to 'protect' your girlfriend"

"Shut up, you ruined our chances to capture the gold rabbit and then the rainbow rabbit and now you have hurt Madison, she is entitled to compensation" The man tries to take another swing at Jack but yet again he's able to easily dodge the fist swing with the Bunny Ears still on his head.

"If you put as much effort into the event as you did trying to make others compensate you, you might actually get somewhere" Jack uses 'Bunny Dash' to leave the area.

"Don't run away and face me like a man" the young man yells but Jack responds with a laugh.

"Like a man that sends someone else to do their dirty work?" Jack says after laughing for a few moments, the young man is rushing toward Jack but he uses 'Bunny Dash' to leave the area in the direction the dark-skinned woman isn't looking.

He makes two jumps away, crossing several hundred metres yet his path is interrupted by the older Asian man who is standing near where he landed coldly looking at Jack. The two of them make and hold eye contact without flinching for a moment while the younger Asian man appears behind Jack and the remaining person is revealed from the direction the dark-skinned woman was looking.

"Please, just hand over the items, Mr. Lee will pay Sir very well" the younger Asian man speaks out, Jack doesn't break eye contact as he can feel a slight pressure from this older man but it's not from his skills but something else within him that is giving off this feeling, like a dragon is hiding deep within this man and Jack needs to fight for dominance.

"Choose your allegiances better next time" Jack says without breaking eye contact before using 'Bunny Dash' a few more times to disappear into the distance and leave this group far behind.

The two Asian men watch Jack leave in the distance without moving, the younger one wishes to chase after him but the older man stops him without saying anything, leaving Jack to disappear without incident. There was never any pressure that Jack couldn't leave but their actions were surprisingly well coordinated despite seeming stupid, distract him while some others move to the retreat path hoping to block Jack in.

It doesn't take long for Jack to reach several kilometres away from the group, 'What a stupid group of people but you're lucky that you didn't get kicked into the dungeon again, there's a weird herb about 3 kilometres to your left'

"That was almost my idea," he admits to the little dragon while following her instructions to the herb, "have you noticed anything weird with the ring and shadow ever since it opened the last door?"

'Nope, but I guess that is the weird thing, it was doing all that stuff without reason... wait stop!'

Xueli suddenly yells as Jack nears the herb causing him to stop his next jump and look forward, "What?"

'I smell something weird... like blood and something else'

The area before him looks clear so Jack takes another step yet when he passes over this invisible threshold, he feels like he is transported to a field of bloody battle as visions of countless bloodied and dead bodies fill his vision as far as he can see.

Jack's breath goes ragged as his eyes go bloodshot, an intent fills his mind as the bloody battlefield before him infects it with a single intent.

"WAR!"

Jack yells and looks at the person in front of him, a single man standing amongst all the piles of dead and bloodied bodies without a single mark on him. His face is covered by a bandage wrap but his piercing red eyes glare through the bandages at Jack, holding a blood-red sword that is still dripping with blood Jack reaches into his robe for that dagger he just acquired, the bandaged man can see Jack's movements and points his sword to him. Jack's eyes get more bloodshot as he pulls out the dagger, the battle intent within him is rising as the only thought within his mind is to destroy the opponent before him.

Jack readies the movement skill to pounce at the enemy before him forgetting nearly everything else that is going on but this action is cut short as the Jade Palace has adopted another silver glow causing a weird resonance within Jack bringing him out of this vision as whatever is infecting his mind is purged revealing the scene as it should be, a man is standing in the middle of a clearing while holding a blood-red herb, he is wearing a tattered robe and bandages all over his head yet Jack can feel an incredible amount of pressure from him, like this person before him could easily destroy him.

Cold sweat develops in his back as he wants to ask Xueli what happened yet the feeling of being teleported comes across Jack as his vision warps revealing a new scene before him, the familiar gate that he started by while all 11 other competitors have also appeared at the same time.

Looking over the group, he can see that the annoying group are making threatening gestures to Jack while the old person group are comparing the herbs they collected but as he looks at the bandaged person, Jack can feel that this person is also looking at him with intent.

Several attendants come forward, "Congratulations for participating in the final event of the Easter Event Beggar Special, the actual event will end on Monday morning so you have plenty of time to get a final lot of points but I will ask you to please follow me to the ceremonial hall where the Princess will perform the 'Ceremony of 1000 Years' and give you the final reward of the event before seeing you off as we know that you all have other lives to get to" one of them yells out, the silver glow surrounding the Jade Palace is launched high into the sky causing Jack to feel a resonance again and drawing the attention of everyone else.

Jack feels somewhat awkward joining the old person group and there's no need to speak of the other group so he follows behind the attendant while looking around, it's a paved large courtyard that could fit many thousands with a large empty stage like a pavilion in the middle with several other wooden and ancient looking buildings placed around, if Jack were to compare it to a situation he recognises then it'd be like a large shrine like the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo. The large group makes their way through the courtyard as Jack tries to look for a way to slip back inside and start taking things again but unfortunately he isn't given the chance as they reach a large strangely decorated door that features two rabbits, a white one and a black one both looking up at the moon which has its own rabbit pounding a mortar and pestle on it.

The group waits patiently for the door to open but it's interrupted by the British young man's loud voice, "Where did this asshole come from? He ruined the event for us and we demand that his rewards be given to us and he is removed from the event!"

The group turns attention toward this young man while the attendants don't say anything, the door slowly creeps open as the young man with patches over his clothing joins in "He ruined our chances of getting the legendary rainbow rabbit and then hurt Madison, he needs to be punished and removed now!"

"That's right he hurt me" Madison joins in while the rest of the group stays silent, these 3 people continue to carry on but they're interrupted by the sound of a large object hitting the ground causing a booming sound to echo throughout the whole realm drawing everyone's attention to the inside of the door.

A beautifully dressed girl wearing red and white traditional priestess clothing is seen standing in the middle of a large stage area, her hair adorned with a beautiful purple flower while her silver hair shimmers in the light as if being brightly lit by something yet that's not all on her head as tall bunny ears stand tall as she looks at the group with a serious yet gentle smile before pausing on Jack for a moment, the two make eye contact as Jack's eyes slowly go wide with realisation of who it is.

"Please be quiet and take your seat"

"But" The young British guy speaks out yet he's not given the chance to finish his words as behind the bunny girl a large object comes crashing down onto the ground causing the same booming sound to resound at a deafening volume.

An attendant comes forward, "Please listen to the Princess, take your seat as the ceremony will begin shortly"

The attendants motion at the lot of seating not too far away yet Jack doesn't move as he weighs up his options, he doesn't want to hang around here and this bunny-girl might be unreasonable yet she has already seen him and the attendants probably won't let him escape no matter the excuse. The bandaged man crosses path with Jack, they briefly make eye contact while Jack feels like he's thrown on the battlefield again, his eyes go bloodshot for a moment but revert to normal as the man passes by.

'Asura's are dangerous, never thought there would be one here... you will not get away from this place, you're being watched so just do what they say' Xueli mentions.

Jack lets out a brief sigh and steps into the enormous ceremonial hall, adorned with ancient looking leaves and artwork of rabbits and herbs before quickly finding a seat away from everyone else and awaits the ceremony to start.