The moon is shining brightly over the land while the people of Dragon – Phoenix Village continue with their tasks but at another part of the world within ‘The Secret World Online’ the sun is shining, not that you would know it between the sky filled with black clouds blocking any sunlight and the roaring wind forcing people to take shelter.

The people on the southern continent are not having a good experience with the game so far, their spawn region and continent is shrouded by black clouds and snow all year round forcing the temperature to plummet into the negatives.

This is a big challenge to the people from the tropical regions in South and Central America as while the System Cities provide respite and warmth, you need to have money to stay within them and to get money, you need to leave the system city.

Numerous people froze to death leaving the city without any protection and when they respawned, shared the tale of their experiences leading many people to fear leaving the cities.

This didn’t stop everyone from leaving as all you really needed was good cold-weather gear which the people that have lived there their whole lives had plenty to sell onto the new players.

One particular group of people that were willing to leave the system city, the leading e-sports team in Brazil ‘No.1 Brazil’ or ‘N1B’ have been very active during this Easter event due to being motivated by various segments of the community.

The group can be seen huddled around each other within a snow cave, their bodies wrapped in multiple layers of clothing with each breath producing a mist, each member is looking exhausted but a top their head is a pair of bunny ears indicating their progress through this event.

“Ok you guys, you should corner it and I’ll capture the golden rabbit” an older male member speaks to the group, they nod in response.

“We’ve been trying to capture the golden fur rabbit since last night, you better not mess up or I’ll become team leader Carlos” a similarly aged man speaks up in response.

“Don’t worry Marcos”

The man starts to crouch and prepare to use his skill, the rest of the group silently separate and move into position as they want to trap the golden fur rabbit within a snow cave, they have chased it to.

“Snow Fall Steps” the first man, Carlos, says quietly as his figure starts to dance about in the wind gently floating about before he disappears, blending into the snow as footprints can be seen quickly heading towards where the rabbit is.

It only takes a few moments for the man to appear near the rabbit but it’s nothing like Bunny Dash as it seems to be more about concealment than pure speed, a skill suited to use within the snowy southern continent.

The rabbit isn’t aware of Carlos who has appeared before it, as the man leaps at the rabbit and successfully captures it.

The golden fur rabbit struggles for a few moments but isn’t able to escape causing it to disappear in a flash of light, leaving a golden Easter egg within Carlos’s palm. His form reappears in the snow as he is holding the Easter Egg out for the group to see as they come up cheering too.

Carlos opens the egg where he gets the message about the Easter Bunny buff and a crystal replaces the Easter Egg, it’s a technique crystal for the skill, Bunny Ears but upon reading the skill description he can’t help but be disappointed.

[Technique – Bunny Ears] Description: Allows your ears to change form into rabbit’s ears and give you the enhanced perception of a rabbit, increase distance hearing and location visualization.

He passes the technique to everyone else; he doesn’t want to learn the skill and searches around the cave for some other treasure, each person in the group take a look at the technique and are disappointed with it.

“What can we do with it?”

“We can just sell it within the auction at the system city, I heard each region is going to have a massive auction at the finish of the event” Marcos speaks up, he’s disappointed with the result too but it’s not Carlos’s fault.

“Agreed” Carlos speaks up after being unable to find any other treasures around the ice cave, they might be able to sell the skill for a lot of gold in the upcoming auction.

The night is still technically young and Jack is still trying to hunt the rainbow rabbit he saw within the fields of wheat while taking a lap of the village every now and then, unaware that Jessica has met a beggar already.

The fields of wheat, corn and all the other crops look quite eerie being lit up by the moonlight and numerous torches, like an evil maze from a horror movie set up in a corn or wheat field. Jack has been unsuccessful at capturing the rainbow rabbit but he has caught one golden rabbit already using the Bunny Dash skill.

“Ok let’s try this!” Jack yells to himself, “Bunny… Dash” he says quietly and leaps at the rainbow rabbit again but it disappears before he is able to appear close to it, letting out a sigh Jack looks towards the rest of the field and takes aim at a golden bunny and repeats, ‘Bunny… Dash’.

He disappears from the spot as a dust cloud covers the area, he emerges from the dust cloud holding the bunny with a smile, he is embarrassed about the name of the skill but he isn’t embarrassed about the result.

At a village not too far away, numerous red eyed rabbits can be seen quietly walking into a town, they would usually be scared of civilization like this that has no cover but they’re not normal Easter Rabbits anymore, they are being influenced by something.

The rabbits just start to amass in their 1000s along the small village pathways, out the front of houses and various buildings quietly sitting there giving the town a very eerie feeling, as the thousands of red eyed rabbits sit there as if they’re waiting on something.

“Ah, just my luck that I ran out of water tonight after spending all day out harvesting wood or something” a man can be seen exiting his house while yawning, the man steps outside his house and is immediately startled as his vision is greeted by thousands of red eyed rabbits just quietly staring at him.

“What weird rabbits, shoo go away we have no food for you” the man starts to move rabbits out of his pathway as he tries to walk towards the well, the rabbits just quietly let him move them as he walks to the well.

The tired man walks towards the well not noticing that he has never left the rabbits eyes, he throws the bucket down into the well and starts to pull up the bucket when he can feel a tug at his leg.

Looking down, it’s a rabbit that is trying to climb up his leg. The man kicks his leg non violently to shake the rabbit off but he feels something at the ankle on his other foot, looking down he’s able to see a rabbit nibbling at his ankle.

“Ow, dumb rabbits” the man kicks at the rabbits surrounding him forgetting about what he was doing as more and more rabbits start to swarm over with some are biting at his feet and legs while others are trying to climb up him with strange claws.

“Owww” the man yells as he tries to run away but he trips over the numerous rabbits on his feet, the man starts to scream as his flesh is ripped apart by the rabbits.

The surrounding houses start to stir as the mans screams start to resound throughout the village and several doors open soon after another but the rabbits as if they have been beset by blood-lust invade each of these open doors and attack the inhabitants.

Screams, yells and sobs can be heard through the village but before too long, it turns eerily silent as the rabbits now covered in red start to calmly and slowly leave the village, consigning this village to the annals of history.

This happens many times as the red-eyed rabbits slowly spread throughout the region, enlarging their area and infecting the other normal rabbits turning this happy Easter event into something from a horror movie.

Everyone within the region is unaware of this going on as it’s happening too fast and primarily to the small villages without any city walls, not allowing any survivors to spread word of what is happening.

The rabbits quickly spread across the plains, but they aren’t alone as many other creatures affected by demonic qi sow chaos as they spread across the plains area quickly, leaving it and entering the forested area of the rest of the region.

“What’s wrong with this rabbit?” a kobold can be seen trying to move a rabbit, there’s a few other kobolds nearby with a human further in the distance.

“Did you try making a loud noise?” another kobold asks.

“RAHHH!”

“No good do we need to tell the leader?”

“No, they might think kobolds are too stupid to catch a rabbit”

“Why isn’t this rabbit moving?” a kobold can be seen using a stick to try to move the rabbit but it doesn’t move.

“Forget this stupid rabbit, we need to find more shiny ones so we get a better reward from General Laoshe and maybe get favour of Dragon Lord”

“Yeah forget this stupid rabbit” the kobolds just leave the rabbit alone without noticing that its eyes shine red as it watches them leaving, as more rabbits quietly gather on the outskirts of the search radius.

Jack is still within the field trying to capture the rainbow rabbit while making laps of the village to try and find some beggar, it’s far past the time that he should have appeared but Jack isn’t deterred as it’s good training for his new skill.

“Hmm, I wonder if I should combine these eggs into an Epic” Jack asks himself as he makes a lap of the village, his hands contain 5 golden eggs from 5 different golden rabbits that he has caught. He would get more rewards with possibility of skills from 5 eggs but a single Epic/rainbow egg should have a better reward but only one.

‘It doesn’t matter, golden rabbits are easy to capture now’ Jack says inwardly answering his own question.

Jack presses onto one of the Easter Eggs:

‘SYSTEM NOTIFICATION – There are 5 Golden Easter Eggs located here, would you like to combine them into 1 Epic Easter Egg?’

He immediately agrees and the 5 eggs within his palm shine brightly before collapsing into one slightly larger egg, revealing a rainbow colour as the bright light disappears. Jack holds it up for a moment and is unable to tell anything special about the egg, it’s just a different colouration on all the other eggs with a slightly larger size.

He opens the egg where it’s replaced by a rainbow coloured orb within his palm, he didn’t get any extra buff from opening the Egg but he doesn’t mind as he pulls up the information from the stone:

[Rabbit-Race City Creation Stone] Grade: Epic Description: A city creation stone that is able to create a single epic Rabbit-Race village. A race of humans that have rabbit racial qualities.

Jack has a smile on his face while he turns around and walks out of the village, he wants to place this creation stone down right now it doesn’t matter that it’s past midnight. He lets out a whistle as sounds of hooves can be heard rushing towards him.

“Let’s go place this new city down, there’s a good spot not too far away” Jack mounts Sleipner who doesn’t mind the time, while Jack closes his eyes and allows the energy within his body to settle.

The two ride in silence for 15 minutes but the ride was filled with strange roars from far into the distance but not close enough to allow vision of what is actually making the sounds, it was like a mixture between pig squealing, cat hissing and monkey hooting with a demonic quality to it.

This is the second city creation stone that Jack has placed, every other stone he has acquired so far has been restricted to other races so he’s excited to see what qualities this epic city will have.

The man and horse reach a clearing, not too far from the main village but still far enough that both villages will be able to grow without impacting the other. Jack dismounts Sleipner after checking with the crude map that has been drawn up and confirming it’s the right area.

He presses the city creation stone down on the ground and prepares for some visions like the previous time; a light beam extends into the sky causing it to appear as bright as day for a split moment before disappearing.

‘SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT – You have placed the event Special Epic Grade Rabbit-Race City Heart down due to acquiring and placing the city heart down first, you have been given 2 x bonus buffs’

‘<Blessing of Reproduction> Level: 3 Description: Increases the spawn rate of all non-naturally occurring creatures by 3-5x’

‘<Blessing of Fertility> Level: 3 Description: Crop Output +30%, Crop Growing Time -30%, Population Limit +30%’

Jack mind starts to process the information given by these buffs, the first one looks incredible while the second one looks fairly standard causing him to wonder if it’s additive or just enhances the baseline.

Jack looks at the stats:

Village Name: Rabbit-kin Village (Epic)

Level: Primary (0/500)

Village Area: 1 square kilometre

Residents: 36/150

Soldiers: 0/68

Popular Support: 100

Village Special Stats: Crop Output +30%, Crop Growing Time -20%, Population Limit +10%, Population Attraction +10%, chances of attracting higher grade population +10%, Pest resistance +30%, Herb aging time -10%

It almost looks better than Dragon – Phoenix village’s stats but it seems to be a city dedicated to non-military matters because of the fact that it didn’t come with a guardian beast.

Jack looks around the area that has changed after placing down the city heart, the orb is now floating before him with a green and white colour and there are three profession steles proudly standing near the city heart.

He walks towards the stele’s and looks at the information:

[Bunny Scout]: S grade Military. Description: A profession for rabbit-race humans, advanced scouting and navigation abilities. Effect: Receives [Bunny Hearing] [Bunny Camouflage] [Bunny Escape] and [Bunny Ping] Limit: 500

[Bunny Thief]: SS grade Military. Description: A profession for rabbit-race humans, advanced stealth, infiltration and stealing abilities. Effect: Receives [Bunny Hearing] [Bunny Stealth] [Bunny Escape] and [Bunny Sticky Paw] Limit: 200

[Bunny Assassin]: SS grade Military. Description: A profession for rabbit-race humans, advanced stealth, infiltration and silent killing abilities. Effect: Receives [Bunny Blade] [Bunny Stealth] [Bunny Escape] and [Bunny Dash] Limit:100

Jack isn’t sure what to feel about these classes, they all look rather good but they all have embarrassing names. Taking his eyes away from the information provided by the job stele, he looks at the group of people that have suddenly appeared and congregated around him.

It’s a group of over 30 people that have typical features people would associate with a rabbit, long ears come from the top of the head, long legs and a small fluffy tail can be seen on some of them. There appears no standard colour between them as their hair colour and ear colour’s are all varied, some are brown hair with black ears, some are black hair with grey ears but they all look slim and like they are suited for long distance running.

“Rise everyone” Jack commands, he’s exhausted but straightens up his back and hides his weariness.

The rabbit people all rise, they’re all rather tall, Jack isn’t a short man himself but these rabbit people are all similar in height to him at over 6ft including the women, and if you are to include their ears most would reach over 7ft.

“My name is Jack Hunt and while this is a sudden greeting, I would like to assure you all that I will not mistreat you because of your race. We reward the good and punish the bad no matter who it is.” Jack sums up what he has said to the previous groups that he has subdued.

“Lord, you do not need to worry about that as we have been brought to this world solely to serve you” one of the male rabbit-humans speak out, he has black hair and black ears causing him to have a sleek look.

“Ok well you will find out more about my small kingdom in the coming days, for now I’d like you to each separate into groups and be assigned the job you would be suited to” Jack holds back on scratching his neck as he’s unsure what else to say.

“As you command Lord” the rabbit-man from earlier steps back and gives a salute.

“You also need to work out who amongst you should be the leader, I will not deny any of you coming to seek audience with me but I need someone to speak to regarding your group”

The rabbit people start talking between themselves for a few moments, one would easily confuse them with an already established village with how well they are working together, as the black haired, black eared man steps forward.

“I nominate myself and I do not believe anyone else will step forward for now, I will serve the lord until someone more appropriate appears” the rabbit-man speaks before kneeling, the others do not speak up to deny his words.

“What is your name?” Jack asks.

“This one is named Tahel Nyuut Coopers but you can call me as you wish Lord”

“Ok Tahel, you shall be the leader of this village for now” Jack speaks but a message resounds in his mind causing him to be distracted;

'SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT – Due to acquiring an Epic subsidiary city, your Village Dragon – Phoenix Village has gained 600 Achievement Points.'

‘SYSTEM NOTIFICATION – Dragon – Phoenix Village has acquired enough experience to upgrade into a Lv2 Intermediate Village, please return to the city heart to accept the changes’

Jack holds back his excitement as he watches the rabbit-humans split into groups as most of them change their job into a Rabbit Scout, only 6 people chose to be Rabbit Thieves and 4 chose to be Rabbit Assassins.

Tahel chose to become a Rabbit Assassin which pleases Jack but as Jack wants to speak to Tahel yet another message resounds in his mind:

‘SYSTEM WARNING – Unknown changes are impacting the region, special event Easter is no longer applicable to region: Plains of Sorrow, please check with city heart to obtain information.’

Jack’s eyes go wide and he starts to curse, ‘why is it only my region affected by this change?’ as he mounts Sleipner sensing some urgency in the message.

“I need to return to the main village, I suggest you follow me Tahel, the rest of you should prepare this area for your village” Jack speaks before leaving on Sleipner, he isn’t in the mood for explaining more.

Tahel smiles and chases after Sleipner while the rest of the rabbit-humans start to survey the area and decide how they will create their village.

Jack quietly rides Sleipner while he thinks about the changes that could have happened not noticing that the pure and white moon has been replaced with a blood-red moon silently giving a clue as to the changes occuring.