The long grass is blocking his view so Jack cannot get a good vantage point to see what sort of rabbit it is but he can certainly hear it, it's slow movement through the rustling grass on this windless plain make its location rather obvious yet Jack can't help but feel his nerves go tense as he slowly attempts to make his way into a visual range of the rabbit.

If it's anything below Gold, then he won't bother with chasing it down, but if it's Gold or above, then he'll only have a single chance at catching it like this.

Pushing aside some grass, it reveals a small clearing where Jack can see the rear of the rabbit, a rainbow-coloured rabbit, is going back into the long on the other side of the small clearing forcing him to make a snap decision.

'Bunny Dash'

Jack yells out in his mind as the non-qi movement skill forces his muscles into rapid action as he crosses the distance to the rabbit in a split second.

Unfortunately, this is also enough time for the rabbit to react, it doesn't even turn around as it rushes off at over 3 times the speed of Jack in the distance leaving him standing in the clearing awkwardly trying to recognise what happened as Xueli snickers in his mind.

'Not so easy to catch them without all your traps and other things you primitive humans need huh? This would be so easy if you just turned into a dragon and released your 'Dragon Might' forcing the rabbit to kneel beneath the splendour of the mighty dragon race'

"Don't you have that ability, Ms Dragon?"

'I will once someone is able to recover all my memories'

Jack lets out a soft chuckle as he knows that he has many things that need to be done but the biggest issue with nearly all of them is travel, the barrier that surrounds each region is good in that it limits the movement of massive groups but bad in that it severely limits exploration options and while the underground section is new and exciting, it's best left to people other than himself. The people within the army will need training grounds, the non-humans will need places to shine as they won't have much impact in the military as it is so the underground should be a perfect area for them provided those endless blood-filled insects stay away.

"We can work on that when we get back for now we need to capture some rabbit, do you smell anything with your nose?"

'You still haven't got the herbs from this area yet or are you going to chase after that rabbit?'

Jack looks at the direction the rabbit left in but it left eyesight within moments leaving no trace or trail for him to follow thus in defeat, the young man gathers the low level herbs that seem to be everywhere in this thick patch of grass. Each type of grass and herb has been a lower grade than the first one he picked up, but that's actually beneficial for his situation as the recipes involving these lower quality herbs will cost less and be more widely available.

There are two things that Jack is certain about, you need to offer quality and quantity on different items and give the people more options, it might be nice to sell 1 item for $5000 and much less annoying than selling 5000 items for $1 but there's no reason you can't do both if given the option and the people buying the $1 item will still get some prestige from the $5000 sale provided it's a unique and desired item.

The patch of long grass is quickly processed as Jack stores away the herbs without even looking at them, it only takes a few minutes to find all of them with Xueli critiquing his hand placement and movements such as, 'Don't take the root because it'll poison the other herbs' or 'Make sure you leave part of the leaf as the stem will ruin all the other leaves'.

The sun is strangely absent from the sky as it appears to be noon judging by the shadow as Jack stands up stretching his back; the joints crack as he limbers up and prepares to leave this area for the next one that Xueli has pointed out yet again.

A single tall tree several kilometres away.

Using 'Bunny Dash' many times before taking a break between every couple of jumps, he's able to cross the distance quickly but during the final few jumps he has developed a frown as a group of 4 people have appeared from another direction going towards the tree.

Not letting it stop his flow of movement Jack appears by the tree but instead of collecting the low level herbs spread around the tall tree, he leans against the tree with a calm expression and awaits the people that are still slowly making their way towards the tree.

Their loud voices come into range quickly as Jack is standing there recovering from the rapid movements not too long ago. An older male booming voice with a rather thick accent is talking to the people behind him, another old man and two older women who both look like they're getting on in years.

"These plains are terrible, it's like Siberia but there you have the glory of the motherland to bask in and out here, you don't even have a trolley to take you anywhere not even a damn road, how is anyone meant to think this place is good enough for an event and not some kind of savage land?"

The other older man replies with a quiet voice yet stern, "The trolleys in the old communist bloc? Ha, those pieces of junk were about to fall apart the instant they rolled out, ahh why did my grandson get me involved in this weird game thing"

"You Europeans are always complaining about something, just be happy with what you have right now. They give us the opportunity to take part in this event so you should be thankful for that, this is an incredible way for us to help our families" an older woman speaks up, her dark skin suggests that her years haven't been easy on her yet she has an air of wisdom around her.

"Don't lump me in with those lazy Europeans, I'm surprised this Spaniard is even awake. It should be well past his siesta time, ah" the first older man with a booming voice suddenly yells out drawing all eyes to him including Jack who is still at a slight distance from them as he has stumbled over.

"Damn weeds everywhere around here, whoever is in charge needs to kill off these useless things that only serve to trip you up, they can't even be used to attract those damn rabbits"

Jack doesn't move from the spot but he's reminded of the first time he caught the golden rabbit and the herbs that he randomly collected that were able to attract the rabbits, looking around he's able to see that some grasses are similar to that type of herb yet he continues to watch the group make their way over to him.

"No damage herbs.... many valuable" A softly woman speaks out as the older man carries on stomping the grasses yet he doesn't stop.

"I don't know about you and what they do in your country but at my age I will not spend the time to bend over and go through all these grasses trying to work out what's valuable and what's not. Do any of you really need gold as our youngsters can support us." The Spanish man responds to the softly spoken woman as the first man continues to carry on.

It takes a few moments while the old guy is stomping and cursing in a language that sounds similar to Russian before he finally settles down, "Who is your grandson? They have invited my granddaughter to the olympics in 3 years for gymnastics and she's currently qualifying for sharp shooting otherwise she would be here instead of me. Can he compete with that?"

"The olympics? The useless waste of money every 4 years to decide if America or China is better than every other country?" the Spanish old man spits on the ground, "Useless and pointless. My grandson is the mayor for a town of 100,000 people and has just been re-elected only 2 weeks ago"

Those two men break down in arguments comparing their various grand children and their accomplishments as the two women don't get involved and stand back after trying to break them up initially. Jack can see that their initial discussion is done, and he feels that they're much more friendly than the previous group, even if they are arguing.

"Excuse me, but you people should really be careful and collect some of those herbs, they might be worth more than you realise" Jack steps away from the tree while raising his voice to reveal himself, the group turn to look toward him while stopping what they're doing.

"Who are you, young man? We didn't see you at the previous event and while we appreciate the help, the last group of young people were rather uncouth and unreasonable" the old dark-skinned woman speaks up stopping the two older men from speaking who both look like they're rather angry.

Jack lets out a slight chuckle, "Yeah they were rather unreasonable, I met them before you guys. My name is Jack and I got... lost on my way here but I'm just trying to help you, the herbs that you stomped on, while they're probably not worth very much, they are used in a wide variety of medicines so if you collect them, you might uncover more about this uhh game"

"Why would I care about low value herbs? I just need to rely on my grandson for everything" the old Spanish man speaks up.

"Your grandson might have his own usage for the herbs so why don't you give them to him as a gift or something?"

"We're already getting a gift from attending this event, so why would we need more things to hold?"

Furrowing his brows Jack asks about the gift from the event, the group before him explains what they have been through including the previous event and the talks of a gift package after the final ceremony where they may choose one gift from the reward list.

They introduce themselves one after another, the first man is originally from Estonia but moved to St Petersburg after the fall of communism while the Spanish sounding man is from... Spain and the dark-skinned woman seems to be from Morocco which shares similarities with Spain.

Jack turns to the final person, the softly spoken Asian middle-aged woman who introduces herself as Watanabe Haruka from Japan, the group gets comfortable with each other as they talk more about their experiences so far through the event while Jack doesn't elaborate on his experiences much.

"Do any of you know where in the game world you are located?"

Three of them shake their heads, but the middle-aged woman says that she is located on the Eastern Continent within a region called the '1000 year Ghostly Woods'. Jack wants to keep talking to this woman, to learn some more about the Eastern Continent as there's little information about what's going on currently over there and he doesn't want to log off until after the auction.

"You should be able to see the information when you pull the herb out of the ground but that herb there is called 'Iced Beauty', I believe that if it's included in some pill recipes it will allow you to maintain your current looks" Jack speaks out some random information Xueli has shared about the herb, the group of old people look at the herb and start gathering it without protesting but Jack approaches the Japanese woman.

"Are you able to tell me what's going on in the Eastern Continent?"

"Fox and Bear fight for control when it rains all the time"

Her communication skills cause Jack to curse the lack of universal translation between the languages but he has understood that there is a giant fox that fights a giant bear a top of a giant mountain within her region each time it rains, the fox has a strange fire skill while the bear seems to be raw strength yet neither of them is able to overpower the other.

Jack tries to ask her about some ancient ruins but she doesn't understand and suggests that her daughter will be able to answer his questions easier as she gives Jack her daughter's email address which Jack doesn't really care that much about as he was planning on asking online but takes it from the woman as she has been nice.

Jack spends several more minutes going through the various herbs in the surroundings, which the older people are thankful for. They don't care about capturing any rabbits but some of these herbs might work out well for some ailments they have, strangely they feel affected by some of their real body conditions giving Jack some more insight into how their bodies in the game world relate to their real bodies.

They wish to continue talking but Jack has wasted enough time here, so he bids them farewell for now and says that they will speak later if they wish, otherwise if he stops by their region then he will check in on them as they have each given him their name and their children's names that he'll probably forget.

Jack dashes away from this group leaving them to collect various herbs, he learnt from them that a signal will indicate that the event is ending soon yet they didn't elaborate on the signal just saying that he'll know.

Picking a random direction, he speeds off while collecting the herbs as he proceeds without much care when after several minutes when the sky becomes strangely dark, pausing in his steps Jack looks toward the Jade Palace far in the distance where it has a soft silver glow that appears to be pulsing.

Inside Jack he can feel that silver type of qi start to roil about within the forehead star, like it wants to leave the forehead star and join with the silver glow far in the distance but it's unable to fight against the container yet that doesn't stop it from trying.

It fights against Jack's control as if it's empowered by the silver glow far in the distance that is growing brighter and brighter as Jack focuses on his cultivation method flowing it around trying to settle down the silver qi type.

'Oh I wonder if that's the sign the event will end soon'

Jack is concentrating on trying to control the qi when the glow suddenly turns into a silver beam that travels into the sky and contacts the grey barrier high in the sky causing a weird shimmer of a multitude of colours before settling back into the dull grey.

The qi inside him is back under control when the glow disappears, but that single action has given him two problems:

1. The might be the signal the event is ending soon
2. There is something within the palace itself that is related to the silver type of qi he just acquired.

The first problem is the most pressing, but the second one is the issue he wants to sort out the most as it could be related to a cultivation technique or treasure that will allow him to replenish the silver qi as it's used or even have some battle skills to actually use.

He really feels tempted to forget about catching a rabbit and trying to work out a way to explore the inner part of the palace again, strangely the ring hasn't responded ever since it opened up the treasure room door while Jack himself has felt like he's being watched much more intensely by something but this will most likely be the last time he can catch a rainbow rabbit and it's a personal goal to capture one using no tricks or traps.

Taking a deep breath, he closes his eyes and concentrates for a moment before deciding his next action.

Holding out his hand, he calls the Bunny Ears into his hand, placing them atop his head before adopting a serious expression and disappearing from the spot and reappearing 200m away before repeating the action, his speed and distance have improved considerably with the Bunny Ears that have luckily survived the plot of dirt.

Each time he has found a rabbit it has been near some long grass, so focusing his search on that he is quickly searching the area while not stopping as his muscles groan at him yet strangely it feels like he can continue going on as though something new within him is refreshing his muscles.

After several minutes of jumping around and not finding anything, he finds his first positive signs yet closely behind it is an extremely negative sign, a golden rabbit is running in a direction at a medium pace yet following it somewhat closely is the annoying group of people he first came across.

Jack wants to turn around and go in a different direction yet inspecting the group he can see something behind them, a sight that he has been looking for yet he is also cursing at whoever set this up.

The rainbow rabbit is not too far away from them also going in the same direction, somehow they haven't noticed it as the people try to chase after the golden rabbit with various grasses and herbs.

Xueli speaks up as if noticing Jack's problem, 'Why don't you make a trap for the golden rabbit so that hopefully the rainbow rabbit will be distracted by them as they work out what's going on?'

Jack quickly agrees with this proposal as the people haven't spotted him yet or perhaps they're too far away, quickly placing a bunch of herbs on the gold rabbits path before running in a different direction hopefully putting him at a position behind the group of annoying people.

The rabbit approaches the pile of herbs that Jack laid down quickly, he quietly hopes to himself that he placed the right type.

The rabbit stops its run and sniffs at the herbs; it looks like it will continue running away causing Jack's heart to sink yet it doesn't as it sits still and starts nibbling on the herbs and grasses.

The group of people confused by the rabbit stopping where it did quickly catch up, but Jack doesn't give them any time to notice behind them as he bursts out of his hiding spot not too far away and chases after the rainbow rabbit behind them.

"Friend, STOP!" the American guy yells out but Jack doesn't listen as he bursts after the rainbow rabbit that has noticed Jack.

The rainbow rabbit is still incredibly fast but Jack can somehow keep up with it for several jumps going in various directions leaving the people in the distance but he can still hear them yelling at him, seemingly not worried about the gold rabbit.

"COME... HERE!" Jack yells out as he makes a final jump in a different direction but this snap decision pays off as the rabbit collides with his leg almost tripping him over but he's able to catch the rabbit with much difficulty with his hand just before it can make another jump.

Jack is panting as his heart is thumping from the sudden actions yet he has a massive smile on his face as he holds the rainbow rabbit up to his face, the rabbit breaks down into a mote of rainbow light as Jack laughs while looking at the rainbow-coloured box within his hand now.

Wasting no time, Jack opens up the box when a system announcement comes over his mind.

Zeeksi

Sorry about that ending, I honestly wanted to include the stuff he gets but then I'd have to include a few further scenes and chose not to do it as this is already kind of long and I haven't been feeling great today.