When Nathan left Blood Rock, the plan had been quite simple: hunt. The problem with such a plan was that it was often so broad and vague that it could be interpreted in many ways.

He walked for close to thirty minutes before he realized that he didn't have a beast in mind to even fight. The forest that had recently begun to brim with life now seemed like a dead forest, almost as if every life form knew that a real predator was out to hunt.

I wonder what level of gaslighting this is.

Nathan chuckled at the wayward thought, keeping an eye on his environment even as he did so. He'd had way too many situations where he'd fallen prey to a trap or an attack because he daydreamed while he was out in the open.

Chirps sounded out from multiple locations up in the trees, no doubt foreign birds were making their nests in them. The other foreign animals seemed to be out of sight, even though Nathan managed to pick out a couple of potential attackers based on sound.

Some stepped on twigs, some on dry leaves. Either way, the random sounds alerted him to the fact that he wasn't alone, no matter what his eyes tried to show him.

The thought sobered him up as it brought a question mark to his earlier assessment of the situation. Perhaps the forest had really sensed a real predator walking around; it just wasn't Nathan.

Interesting.

He'd been unable to catch a glimpse of the creature tailing him. Even with his random glances, the creature or creatures hid away from him. Nathan would by far prefer a single attacker right about now; fighting against groups had lost its appeal.

He continued to walk, feigning ignorance as much as he could. Part of him hoped that he would find an ideal ground to battle whatever trailed him. A flash of white passed by him in a blur, running past him so fast the wind from its passing ruffled Nathan's pants.

Huh.

Nathan stopped in his tracks. It seemed as though whatever was trailing him had either decided he wasn't worthy prey—which made Nathan feel a little hurt—or it had decided to lay an ambush for him. An ambush that Nathan was most definitely not going to walk into with his open eyes.

Picking a different path, he turned and walked, hoping to avoid whatever that was. He wanted to hunt, not be hunted. Besides, he wasn't going to put himself in situations he could avoid. More snapping of twigs and crunching of grasses was enough to tell Nathan that his gambit hadn't paid off.

The fur of white that appeared a few feet ahead of him more than solidified his suspicion. Whatever had been following him hadn't let him off the hook because of a change in direction. It'd turned back to follow Nathan's direction and made it ahead of him on the new path, stopping a few feet in front of him as it stared at him.

Weird.

That was the first thought that popped up in Nathan's mind: weird. The creature wasn't some kind of apex predator like Nathan had initially assumed. No, the creature in front of him, from what he could see, looked like a rabbit. Heck, Nathan would say it was a rabbit. It certainly had all the characteristics of one: long ears, white fur, short legs—its teeth were hidden, though.

The bunny looked so cute and cuddly with wide eyes, so innocent looking that Nathan didn't even bother analyzing the bunny. With his sword in his right hand, he stooped down to pet the cute-looking creature with his left.

Crunch!

"Arghhhhhh, get off, get off me!" Nathan screamed at the top of his lungs.

The damned creature had canines instead of the two teeth that he knew bunnies to have. The canines had torn through his left wrist like he didn't have any points in constitution. Nathan tried to pull back his now broken wrist, but the bunny did not budge, and his strength didn't seem up to the task of freeing him.

Crunch!

[Warning: health below 75%]

Shit!

Nathan tried to hold back the tears. The infernal bunny was trying to eat his wrist; his blood had started to pour on the bunny, but it looked unconcerned. With the most recent bite, his survival instincts kicked in, and Nathan stabbed at the bunny.

The household pet released its death grip on his wrist and hopped back, its deceptively cute facade restored. The ruse was only marred by the sight of blood on its mouth area. It stared at Nathan with a look that said, "That was your fault," and he couldn't agree more. He should've kept his hands to himself.

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Nathan immediately glanced at his mangled wrist, blood seeping out of the broken skin at an alarming rate. Not waiting to see if the bunny would jump back in for a follow-up attack, he stood to his full height. The bunny tilted its head to watch him.

Its eyes stayed glued to his form, and Nathan tried his best not to make any sudden moves before analyzing it. Once he did analyze it, though, his eyes widened, and he thought he saw the bunny sport a smug expression.

[Neran Rabbit

Level 14]

Level fourteen. He couldn't even believe what the system message was telling him. No way was a damned rabbit two whole fucking levels higher than him. This had to be a cruel joke. Nathan was out here grinding for levels and risking his life, and there was a fucking rabbit that was higher in level than him.

It's not fair.

He couldn't help but whine. It really wasn't. Even the damned thing seemed to know that it outclassed Nathan by a distance. It just stared at him with the look human scientists would give a newly discovered species of fish.

Nathan didn't know how to feel about it, but what he did know was that he wasn't going to stand around looking at a creature that could mangle his hands that badly. Very slowly, he turned and was ready to take the first step. His foot had barely gotten to complete the first step when the bunny bit into it, its movement a blur of white—its dexterity probably way higher than Nathan's.

"Shittt!"

He completed the step. The bunny hopped back before his foot hit the ground. Nathan wanted to curse a lot more than that but held his tongue. The bunny didn't want him to touch it and also didn't want Nathan to leave. Gritting his teeth at the additional injury, Nathan slowly turned around to face the bunny.

"Well, what do you want?"

Predictably, the bunny didn't respond. He didn't know if the animal could understand him anyway, but it just stayed still, watching Nathan with its puppy-like eyes.

What the heck am I supposed to do now?

Was Nathan going to be the first person to die standing still or the first person to be killed by a rabbit? Either cause of death would be very embarrassing, especially if anything was watching right now. It wasn't like he supported animal abuse, but right about now he was considering booting the damned bunny and making a run for it.

The only thing stopping him really wasn't his moral compass but the fact that the damned thing would probably catch him before he could get that far. If the rabbit was pretty chill right now, he definitely didn't want to see what an enraged version of the bunny looked like. He'd take his chances of standing still and hoping that the bunny would get tired and leave.

After what felt like a couple of minutes passed with the bunny still staring at him patiently, Nathan's mind started to get creative. The injuries he'd gotten from the brief scuffle with the bunny served as fuel for his mind. The image of him being killed by a rabbit didn't seem that good. Not like Nathan wanted to die, but if it was going to happen, he'd rather it be against a mythical creature in a hard-ass battle rather than against a bunny that he was scared to throw a punch at.

A couple of options popped up in Nathan's head, but he rapidly shot them down until he got to one that just seemed feasible. Very slowly, Nathan let his sword clatter to the floor and, standing still to let the bunny know he didn't mean any harm, he began to slowly reach into his pocket, pulling free his bag of holding.

Moment of truth.

Like in an action movie when the good guys were slowly lowering their weapons, Nathan reached into the bag. The item he'd visualized appearing in his palm, he pulled it out of the bag and tossed it at the bunny with his fingers crossed.

Please, please, please.

The bunny seemed to tense, which in turn made Nathan tense before it sniffed at the item he'd tossed at it. Seemingly satisfied with what it was, it gobbled it up in one bite, its mouth stretching unnaturally as it consumed the weird fruit. Its gaze returned to him when it was done.

"Okay, I have a lot more where that came from."

Repeating the motion he used to pull out the first, Nathan chucked three more fruits at the bunny. For his generosity, he got a front-row seat to watching the bunny's mouth stretch unnaturally again, consuming two at once before gobbling up the third. When it was done, it stared at him before turning and hopping away, probably finding Nathan's tribute satisfactory.

"Whew!"

Nathan couldn't help but breathe out. It was way too weird of an encounter. He just dropped to the floor, way too shaken to continue his hunt. The bunny—or Neran Rabbit, as the system had labeled it—probably wasn't even from Earth, and if it was, it had probably undergone a lot more mutation than he could fathom.

The rows of sharpened teeth and the unnaturally wide jaw were something that would probably give Nathan nightmares for a while. Its teeth marks were still evident on his legs and his wrist. Maybe it was just Nathan, but the wrist didn't hurt that much anymore. Another possibility was the fact that his nerves were beginning to get used to all the pain that he was putting them through, and he didn't know if he was supposed to be concerned if that was the case.

He dislodged the thought with a snort. His issues should be more on finding edible food. The fruits were all nice and good, but they wouldn't give him the much-needed protein that someone like him would require. They might sustain him and stave off the pangs of hunger, but other than that, Nathan doubted that he'd gained any additional nutrients from eating the fruit.

That's it. I have to go hunting.

Either for food or to level up and get more coins, either way, he had to get on his feet and see out the task he'd given himself for the day. With a groan, Nathan got to his feet, narrowly avoiding pushing up with his now mangled hand as it was almost second nature to him to push up with both hands.

A quick jump up and down confirmed that his leg wasn't that bad. The wound was still there, but it wouldn't necessarily affect him right now. He'd either have to level up or drink his healing potion to take care of it and his mangled hand. Although he wondered if the potion would do well against a fracture or if it would regrow a lost limb.

I hope I never have to find out.

Hoping that it was the universe that had set him on this new path by sending the weird bunny, Nathan decided to continue going that path. After all, nothing could be weirder than the bunny he'd just paid tribute to. Heck, he doubted that he'd see anything that could top that in his lifetime—at least he hoped he wouldn't.