Genius Chapter 5: Soul Rabbit

Chapter 5: Soul Rabbit

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

Su Mo saw a flash of light out of nowhere, and a prompt popped up in front of his eyes, indicating the comprehension of Myriad Palace Insight. After searching for a while, he finally found [Myriad Palace Insight] in the special skills section.

[Myriad Palace Insight (Upgradable): It is said that the star-seer Bai Zhi holds the treasure trove coveted by Celestial Horizon cultivators in their dreams, containing countless treasures. Those with destiny can use Myriad Palace Insight to randomly obtain a positive attribute, with an attribute bonus of 5%/10%/15% to the character’s own attributes, lasting for 24 hours, with a daily usage limit of (0/1).]

This was a skill that randomly obtained positive attributes, usable once a day. The basic bonus effect was only 5%, and as the level increased, the maximum attribute bonus to self was 15%.

After reading the skill description, Su Mo realized it was a very special skill, but not necessarily essential. As far as he knew, there were a total of 108 positive attributes in Celestial Horizon’s positive attribute library. However, considering the limited number of attributes that early-stage players could utilize when entering new professions, this skill seemed quite superficial and dependent on luck.

After reviewing the rewards, Su Mo continued to do newbie tasks. He was only at level 10 now, needing to reach level 15 to leave Newbie Village. He followed the main storyline, and when he reached the end of the task, he finally encountered the ultimate boss of the newbie tasks. While he could manage the small monsters with his fishing rod, the boss had far too much health for the rod to handle.

Su Mo glanced at the newly acquired skill and casually activated it.

[You have used [Myriad Palace Insight] and obtained the positive attribute [Luck], lasting for 24 hours.]

Su Mo opened the attribute panel to check. His initial luck value was at a normal level, and a 5% increase to his own attributes was practically negligible. Indeed, he shouldn’t have relied on this skill. Without reaching its full level, [Myriad Palace Insight] was essentially a mediocre skill.

It seemed he needed to think of another solution.

Su Mo could only focus on other tasks in Peach Blossom Village. Apart from the main quests, there were several scattered tasks, but he wasn’t sure if they came with additional equipment. As he took a few steps, a small rabbit suddenly emerged from the nearby bushes.

The Soul Rabbit shook its ears and looked up at him with its big round eyes.

Su Mo hesitated for a moment, but his hand had already found the advanced beast-catching net that came with the quest rewards. There was a line of small text in the item description.

[Advanced Beast-Catching Net (Special): A net gifted by the star-seee Bai Zhi, possessing special effects.]

Could it be this coincidental?

Instead of running away, the Soul Rabbit hopped around Su Mo’s feet, looking nothing like an extraordinary pet.

Su Mo locked onto the Soul Rabbit and used the beast-catching net. A large net descended from the sky and directly enveloped the Soul Rabbit. Soon after, a burst of light flashed, and golden words appeared.

[You have successfully captured Soul Rabbit.]

Did it really work like that!?

After capturing a pet, the corresponding pet panel would open.

[Pet: Soul Rabbit (Juvenile, Can Grow);

Tier: Special;

Personality: Gentle and innocent, likes quietness, enjoys being with humans.

Habitat: Variable;

Initial attributes: HP 2000; Magic Attack 500; Hit Rate 30%; Defense 200; Speed 50%;

Special Skills: Locked;

…]

Su Mo glanced at the basic attributes, “…”

The attack power of this pet was several times higher than his own.

Summoning Soul Rabbit, the little rabbit rubbed against Su Mo’s feet. Su Mo looked at the unfinished challenges in the task list, attempting to bring the pet to confront the boss in the back mountain, directing Soul Rabbit to attack. The rabbit hopped around in place, but as soon as it received the command, it sprinted at an extremely fast speed, arriving in front of the boss in a few jumps, using its long ears as weapons to fiercely slap the boss.

The boss’s health bar rapidly decreased, and finally, with a loud bang, it collapsed, ending the battle.

The little rabbit hopped back to Su Mo’s side, tilting its head as if asking for a reward. Meanwhile, the experience bar jumped up rapidly and stopped at level 13.

Su Mo rubbed its head, “…Well done.”

The little rabbit swayed its head back and forth before finally lying on the ground, striking a cute pose.

Su Mo had never kept a pet in real life. Growing up alone with his unique health condition made it difficult for him to take on the responsibility of caring for another life. Grandpa Zhang had a cat at home, and when Su Mo visited, the little white cat would occasionally rub against his legs. He naturally felt a great fondness for these furry creatures.

Soul Rabbit wasn’t exactly a real rabbit, and its habits were a bit different from regular pets.

Su Mo squatted down to look at it, suddenly hearing a rumbling sound.

“What’s this, customer service?”

Customer service: “Darling, pets need to be fed to have the strength to accompany you in battles~”

Su Mo casually opened the pet panel and noticed there was a pet nurturing system behind the name. Pets could fight alongside him, but they needed to be well-fed for that. After the recent battle, Soul Rabbit’s status had turned hungry.

“How do I feed it?” Su Mo asked.

Customer service: “The merchant NPCs sell spirit beast feed. In Peach Blossom Village, the NPC is Mr. Wang the veterinarian. Shall I guide you there?”

Automatically guided to Mr. Wang’s location, Su Mo looked at the low-level spirit beast feed priced at 2 gold each, then glanced at his own belongings, with only 2 gold and 8 silver left in his possession. His hand hesitated over the money.

Soul Rabbit rubbed against his leg.

At this moment, the customer service suddenly appeared again, “Darling, you can recharge online in Celestial Horizon. The recharge entrance is in the mall~ You can connect to StarNet to recharge and exchange game gold coins.”

After saying that, a recharge entrance popped up considerately.

Su Mo clicked on it and found that a large part of the interface had turned gray, with red text prompting:

—”Dear player, your loader does not support connection to the StarNet payment platform. Please use other methods to recharge.”

Su Mo: “…”

He forgot that his loader only supported logging into the game and couldn’t access other platforms.

Soul Rabbit hopped around Mr. Wang, then tilted its head to look at Su Mo, seeming to wonder why he wasn’t buying.

Su Mo: “I’m very poor.”

Soul Rabbit ran over and rubbed against him, acting coquettishly.

Su Mo looked at the price, remained silent for a moment, then said, “Buy one.”

The feed came in a paper packet, small enough to hardly feed much.

After feeding the rabbit half the packet, Su Mo barely managed to increase its satiety by a few points, just enough to pull it back to a full state.

The rabbit finished eating but still seemed to want more, licking Su Mo’s hand to indicate its desire.

Thinking that he could split the half packet for two feedings, Su Mo heartlessly put the feed back into his bag, “Eat sparingly, we’re very poor.”

With little money left in his bag, Su Mo had to focus on other side quests on the island. After completing all the tasks in the village, he barely scraped together enough money for half a packet of feed. His level stopped at 14, and the ship to leave this scene was already docked by the lake. If he wanted to earn money for the rabbit’s feed, he had to leave this place and do tasks elsewhere.

The boatman said, “The fare is 2 gold.”

“So expensive, could it be cheaper?” Su Mo glanced at the package, he only had 1 gold and 50 silver. 50 silver short of 2 gold. The boatman smiled, said nothing, turned back to the boat, and waited.

“Customer service,” Su Mo called out.

Customer service, “Darling, I’m here.”

Su Mo asked, “Can I exchange half a bag of feed for money?”

Customer service, “Darling, once it’s opened, it can’t be returned.”

Su Mo asked again, “Can I sell the rabbit?”

Customer service, “Darling, the system doesn’t recycle special spirit pets. The Soul Rabbit is very rare. It’s not advisable to discard it casually.”

Su Mo said, “I don’t have money to take the boat.”

Customer service, “Darling, you can earn gold coins by playing games or trading with other players.”

Su Mo, “…”

The only NPC merchant in Peach Blossom Village, Wang Dashu, can be traded with. The key was that this merchant doesn’t have the function of reclaiming other items, and the tasks are completed. The way to earn gold coins through the game system was  basically useless. Moreover, there was only one player on this island, and he could not trade with other players.

The exchange rate between game gold coins and real star coins was 1:1. The drop rate of game gold coins must have been planned by the official. If he had teleported first and then fed the rabbit, he wouldn’t have ended up in this awkward situation. It can only be said that this was  a pit, a pit that forces spending, even though this spending was only 0.5 star coins.

No solution for now. Su Mo had to focus on other systems and see if he could scrape together some money to pay for teleportation. The holographic game has a built-in player trading platform, usually used for normal item transactions. It can be opened through the personal panel, and after a successful transaction, the gold coins, minus the handling fee, are sent to the player’s warehouse.

There was a warehouse NPC in Peach Blossom Village, but he had limited items to sell, and these low-level items may not be bought by anyone. Thinking of this, he suddenly remembered something, clicked on the hidden button of the other system, and noticed that the friend system that he had previously hidden was blinking with an icon, indicating that someone had sent him a friend request.

ClearWindIsHere: Brother!!! Where are you!

ClearWindIsHere: Why haven’t you logged in yet?! It’s been 2 days! Brother, you didn’t abandon the game with the rabbit, did you?!

ClearWindIsHere: OMG, you’re finally online!

…

ClearWindIsHere: [Screenshot]

The screen was full of messages from ClearWindIsHere, probably dozens of them. Su Mo didn’t read them carefully, his gaze fell on the last screenshot, which showed two screenshots, apparently in-game system announcements, with his name on them.

[System] Player momo has completed the quest [Legend of the Peach Blossom Spring] and has received the blessing of the healer Bai Zhi, obtaining the special skill [Myriad Palace Insight].

[System] Player momo has finally captured the spirit pet [Soul Rabbit] after enduring many hardships. It’s truly a cause for celebration.

Su Mo, “…?”

ClearWind has been livestreaming these past two days. Ever since the quest appeared on the StarNet forum, more and more people have been trying their luck in Newbie Village. In order to trigger the quest, players crowded under the big banyan tree in front of the village chief’s house, and in the secluded corners by the lake, there were fights and bloodshed over spots for ‘scenery viewing’…

As the only player with momo as a friend, ClearWind had been keeping an eye on the friend list these days, even specially adding it to favorites, just to get firsthand information when online. At first, momo didn’t log in for three days, and when he did, he stayed in an unknown scene for two days.

ClearWind could only see his level slowly rising. He was considering whether to go to the place to select a profession to wait for people, when he saw a message from the world system announcing the completion of a quest.

“Wow, he completed it.” ClearWind saved the system screenshot. “It seems to be the only quest, after completing it, momo’s name appeared as the only completer of the quest Legend of the Peach Blossom Spring.”

[Brothers in Newbie Village can disperse now.]

“What are the conditions? It’s been five days, and surprisingly, no second person has triggered it.”

“I guess we have to ask momo.”

ClearWind had just sent the screenshot to momo when he saw the system brush out a second message, indicating that the Soul Rabbit had also been captured.

“D*mn! afk brother is a winner in life!”

“Although I don’t know what the skill Myriad Palace Insight is, it sounds very newbie-like, and now there’s even a Soul Rabbit.”

“Livestreamer, ask him if he’s selling the account. I’m a high-level buyer, money is not a problem.”

ClearWind was very excited. He had never seen a unique quest or a Soul Rabbit before. That day by the lake, he couldn’t even squeeze through the crowd, let alone encounter a rabbit. Now, the only informant was lying in his friend list.

“!!! Livestreamer, look, you’ve got a mail from your friend!”

ClearWind clicked to check, it was a reply from momo.

“I’m here! Oh my God, brother finally replied to me.”

ClearWindIsHere: I’m here!

momo: Didn’t see the message, do you need something?

ClearWindIsHere: Brother, haven’t you checked the forum? Many people have gone to Newbie Village for the quest these days. I haven’t done any tasks and have been waiting in Newbie Village for five days…

momo: You haven’t done any tasks? Did you catch any fish?

ClearWind was puzzled by this message, “What fish?”

[The fish from that day, didn’t we borrow afk brother’s bamboo raft to fish?]

ClearWind immediately recalled what happened a few days ago and replied, “Didn’t catch any fish. But wait, is this related to the quest? Shouldn’t the key be the quest now?!”

[If you were fishing that day, you probably wouldn’t even see the tail of the rabbit.]

[Didn’t livestreamer fail to get into the crowd and chase the rabbit that day?]

[The little spirit fish in Newbie Village is too picky. I caught 80 fish before catching one little spirit fish.]

[Yeah, don’t remind me. I ran to the pole countless times that day and ended up giving up the quest.]

Before ClearWind could ask about the quest, there came another message on the other end of the friend mail.

Momo: Need to buy fish? 60 silver/each, through the in-game platform, handling fee on your own.

ClearWind: ?????

Author’s note:

Customer service: We suggest spending some RL money here.

Su Mo: …