Volume One, Chapter Eight: The Great Rabbit

A gentle flutter of her eyelashes, and Xiahan Zhong murmured softly.

But at that moment, her entire body stiffened, as if struck by an electric shock.

Suddenly, a thought flashed through her mind.

Last night, she had actually shared a bed with the man before her?!

My goodness, what on earth happened to me last night?

Why did I so inexplicably agree to him?

And now I’m still pressed close against him, one leg draped over his body?

Would he laugh at my sleeping posture?

At the thought of this, Xiahan Zhong felt her face flush with burning heat.

Flustered and anxious, she hastily sat up, moving as quickly and nervously as a startled rabbit.

At this moment, only one thought occupied her mind: under no circumstances must Zhuang Fan discover her embarrassed state.

Zhuang Fan, playing along, pretended to be startled awake.

When he opened his eyes, he immediately saw the young woman hurriedly leaving his side.

Seeing her panicked and flustered demeanor, Zhuang Fan almost burst into laughter.

...

Today, Xiahan Zhong was much more reserved, not daring to meet Zhuang Fan’s gaze.

Seeing her relatively mild reaction, Zhuang Fan smiled faintly and then told her about the cattails.

Both of them were hungry, so relying on their memory, they hurried to search and finally found the swaying cattails in a damp area.

Zhuang Fan quickly approached, pulled out a cattail by its root, peeled back the stalk, and chewed on it.

“Hmm, it’s really sweet and tasty! You should try it,” he said after finishing one root quickly, urging her.

Xiahan Zhong’s stomach was empty; she abandoned all restraint and took hearty bites.

Looking at the vast expanse of cattails before them, they immediately began harvesting.

After more than an hour of hard work, they finally gathered all the cattails.

Without hesitation, Zhuang Fan placed them into his backpack for decomposition.

Although this caused some loss, it saved a great deal of processing time.

Besides, they couldn’t carry all these cattails around everywhere.

Seeing over a hundred cattail stalks inside the backpack, he felt immense relief.

The food problem was now solved.

Next, they needed to figure out how to procure water and make clothing.

Cattail leaves served many purposes, so Zhuang Fan was unwilling to recycle them into plant fiber.

Instead, they began searching nearby for wild grasses and branches.

After nearly a morning of effort, a sweat-soaked Zhuang Fan finally acquired 97 units of plant fiber and 47 units of branches.

“No tools make this so slow,” Xiahan Zhong collapsed onto the ground, exhausted.

Zhuang Fan nodded, glancing at the crafting menu.

“Basic Stone Pickaxe: requires 3 flints, 1 rope, 2 wood.”

“Basic Stone Axe: requires 3 flints, 1 rope, 2 wood.”

“Basic Wooden Stick: requires 5 wood.”

He knew that 5 units of plant fiber could be made into 1 unit of rope.

“But what exactly is flint? The thing for starting fires?”

What he didn’t know was that flint was much harder than ordinary stones.

Thousands of years ago, early humans had already used flint to craft various stone tools like axes and knives.

Zhuang Fan first used plant fiber to make clothing.

Looking down, he couldn’t help but comment, “Isn’t this just woven from grass and leaves?”

Though crude, once worn, it made a difference.

His previously pale, bare body was now covered except for his limbs and head.

Their appearance now resembled that of wild savages.

The statuses of slight hunger and mild hypothermia had healed, but the slight thirst condition remained.

Zhuang Fan decided to first make a wooden stick for defense, then search the riverbank for water.

However, making a wooden stick required 5 units of wood, meaning 50 units of branches to exchange.

He was far from that.

So he had to keep collecting wood first.

While exploring, Zhuang Fan discovered that plants growing on the ground could not be directly recycled through the system.

Only after gathering them could they be recycled.

Additionally, the system’s recycling limit for object volume was about one cubic meter; anything larger could not be recycled immediately.

This meant he had to use tools to break down a whole large tree into parts before recycling it.

With this insight, Zhuang Fan broadened his focus beyond small branches.

He began targeting larger wood resources such as thick logs and stumps.

Before long, he had acquired 5 units of wood and crafted a simple wooden stick.

(Item quality levels: Common < Excellent < Superior < Perfect < Legendary…)

Swinging it a few times, it felt quite handy.

Feeling somewhat confident, Zhuang Fan prepared to enter the forest.

The great river lay deep within, so to find water, he had to risk venturing inside.

As for Xiahan Zhong, Zhuang Fan did not plan to take her along.

“What? You want me to go back? Zhuang Fan, do you look down on me? I definitely won’t slow you down!” she immediately protested stubbornly.

Zhuang Fan sighed and explained, “You’re too slow when running. If danger comes, I can’t look out for you. Take the materials you’ve collected back, and check around the cave if you have time. When I return, we’ll plan our next move.”

Xiahan Zhong pouted, ready to argue again.

Seeing this, Zhuang Fan teased her: “Don’t want to? Then come with me. But if we have to run, don’t let me carry or hug you again—I don’t want people to think I’m taking liberties. You don’t weigh much, but you’d be uncomfortable, alright?”

“Ah!” The proud little girl couldn’t stand his words, losing all composure as she wrestled with him again.

In the end,

Zhuang Fan got his wish and entered the forest alone.

As he walked, he smiled, savoring the fragrance in his hand.

In a fight, Zhuang Fan was no less than any woman!

...

The forest’s outskirts were relatively calm; Zhuang Fan encountered no dangers there.

But deeper inside, he faced many monsters.

Dangerous leopards exuding a threatening aura, terrifying man-eating plants, and more forced Zhuang Fan to tread carefully, avoiding them step by step.

After nearly an hour, he spotted a large rabbit.

Not a small bunny, but a nearly one-meter-tall gray rabbit.

It had powerful, thick hind legs, capable of leaping over ten meters at once, moving extremely fast.

Its red eyes gleamed coldly, and its large rabbit teeth were chilling.

“This doesn’t look friendly. Could this rabbit be carnivorous?” Zhuang Fan was startled, murmuring to himself.

“Should I try to take it down?”

“But it looks so fierce—what if I can’t beat it?”

Weighing the strength gap, Zhuang Fan couldn’t help but worry.

After all, he only had a wooden stick and wasn’t very strong.

Causing harm to this giant rabbit would not be easy.

Yet, he was reluctant to give up.

He didn’t know if there were more cattails nearby.

If not, what would they eat later?

Rabbits were probably among the weakest creatures in this other world; missing this chance would be regrettable.

After hesitation, Zhuang Fan decided to observe before making a move.

He cautiously approached, attempting to identify the giant rabbit.

But the result left him puzzled.

“Blood Delusion Rabbit (Common): ???”

No detailed description could be seen.

After checking the system help, Zhuang Fan learned that for monsters, detailed information only appears after the first kill.

Alternatively, one must use advanced identification skills to see it.

With that, Zhuang Fan could only rely on his own eyes to understand the Blood Delusion Rabbit’s traits.

He silently followed behind it, carefully observing its movements.

Soon, a good idea came to him.