Witnessing a magic trick where a person disappears is something I’ve never seen before, but seeing a rabbit turn into a person? Now that’s a first.
Clara (Moon Rabbit) held the chunk of meat, watching wide-eyed as a plump, oversized rabbit slowly transformed into a human right before her eyes.
When he sat up from the stone platform and stood to his feet—
That head stood at a full 1.8 meters tall, a height Clara’s true form could only look up to, not to mention her current Moon Rabbit combat body, which barely stood at a meter even when upright.
“Nix, can you explain what’s happening in front of me right now?”
Clara had long since developed the habit of turning to Nix whenever she ran into something she couldn’t figure out.
[Insufficient data. Unable to explain. But… should I say that Miss Fran is truly prophetic?]
So, there really are Moon Rabbits who can transform into humans.
Seeing is believing. With this rabbit-man standing right before her, there was no way to deny it, even if she wanted to.
But calling it “turning into a human” was a bit of a stretch.
These humanoid rabbits still had pure white fur all over, a body shaped like an inverted triangle, and a rabbit’s head perched on top, complete with a pair of long rabbit ears.
Rather than “rabbit-man,” it was more accurate to call them “rabbit brutes.”
[Follow them. Let’s see where they’re headed.]
Even without Nix’s suggestion, Clara already intended to follow.
She tossed aside her current “job,” cradled the chunk of meat she hadn’t fed yet, and quickly caught up with the rabbit-man ahead.
The rabbit-man noticed Clara, stopped, turned, and pointed back at the stone platform. There, she saw another large rabbit being lifted onto it by a group of “worker rabbits.”
The rabbit-man’s meaning was clear—Clara should take the meat and feed it to that one.
So, these humanoid rabbits really were produced on an assembly line? One transforms, and another takes its place?
Are these guys the oddballs among the Moon Rabbit population?
[Indeed, they do seem stronger than ordinary Moon Rabbits. Perhaps they’re the real trump card of the “Fourth Calamity.”]
Rabbit soldiers.
Following the usual naming convention, let’s call these rabbit-men “rabbit soldiers.”
These oversized rabbit soldiers, carried by the “worker rabbits,” were products of limited resources and constrained numbers—a way to pursue quantity nonetheless.
They looked stronger than the usual combatants, though who knew how they compared to the shadow soldiers?
[We need to figure out how many soldiers there are and get a sense of their strength.]
Clara wanted to go investigate, but she found herself unable to leave her post.
Surprisingly, these rabbits were rather disciplined. Any action that went against one’s function would draw the attention of all the other rabbits. Clara’s clean white fur made her stand out like a crane among chickens.
There was no helping it. Clara had to keep feeding meat.
Since this was a job, there had to be a break at some point—she’d snoop around then.
Come to think of it, would those passersby rabbits who saw her angry before think she was a deserter?
And just what kind of meat was this?
It wasn’t very large, the flesh a vivid red—somehow, it felt familiar.
Really, why didn’t these guys try to improve their process?
For instance, the “worker rabbits” could line up, form a real assembly line, and pass chunks of meat hand-to-hand to the big rabbit’s mouth. That way, the “worker rabbits” wouldn’t have to run back and forth so much.
But as it stood, it was still one piece at a time—feed one, fetch another, feed one, fetch another.
Clara was starting to feel tired from all the running.
Just before she could call out in exhaustion—
…the meat was used up.
Clara figured it’d finally be time for a break.
Instead, a rabbit soldier who looked like a foreman crawled out from another cave tunnel.
She watched as it rattled off a string of incomprehensible rabbit-speak, then started “calling roll” among the worker rabbits. Every Moon Rabbit it pointed to hurried over to assemble in front of it.
A bewildered Clara was also singled out.
“W-what’s going on now?”
She had a bad feeling about this.
[You might be chosen as meat.]
Huh?
[There’s no more meat left, so they need to replenish with fresh meat.]
Wait, so what I’d been carrying before—
[It was all Moon Rabbit meat.]
Nix’s answer came readily, though it was a bit chilling.
Cannibalizing their own kind?
Clara felt sick. Even as a freak herself, she still tried to avoid eating squid, yet these rabbits had no qualms at all.
At the end of the day, Moon Rabbits were just lower lifeforms.
[This is all to efficiently transport nutrients. Some Moon Rabbits are sent to consume indigestible trash and inorganic material, then transform it into easily absorbed meat to feed the rabbit soldiers.]
What a brutal survival strategy—necessary sacrifices for the continuation of the species?
Was the reason Moon Rabbits learned to walk upright so they’d have their front limbs free to carry things?
When resources are scarce, in order to concentrate what little nutrients exist to cultivate more rabbit soldiers, some worker rabbits must be sacrificed. Since Moon Rabbits breed rapidly, any gaps would quickly be filled by newborns.
Damn it, I don’t want to die here!
Nix, save me!
Realizing what was about to happen, Clara felt her scalp go numb.
[No need to worry. At worst, you’ll lose this small combat body.]
The plan for tomorrow was to die anyway.
Is there a way to extract data from the rabbit soldiers so I can become a soldier too?
[Impossible. The small combat body can’t perform extraction.]
[Also, the rabbit soldier’s body type cannot be generated in this form.]
[This is a game.]
Yet, this is one bloody, terrifying game.
Still, Nix’s reassurance worked to some extent.
For Clara, the worst case was giving up this avatar; even if sent to the slaughterhouse, there wasn’t much to fear.
But aside from Clara, the other Moon Rabbits called out showed neither joy nor sorrow.
From the reactions of the passerby rabbits earlier, it was clear Moon Rabbits had richer emotions than typical animals.
So why, at this moment, did they become numb instead?
Led by the rabbit soldiers, Clara and the other Moon Rabbits were brought into a blood-soaked room. The floor was red, and Clara recalled that undersea cave—the scene she hadn’t dared face directly.
Was this the original slaughterhouse?
If she hadn’t retreated back then, if she’d insisted on pressing forward, this gruesome sight is probably what she would have found.
This was the Moon Rabbit slaughterhouse.
The rabbit soldiers in charge of butchering the Moon Rabbits wielded large knives from who-knows-where, briskly chopping off heads and taking lives with terrifying speed.
But before each chop, the rabbit soldier would always bow its head to the Moon Rabbit about to be executed.
Was that a moment of silence? Or an expression of respect?
Hey, Nix.
Do Moon Rabbits reincarnate?
[No. Their souls leave no trace in the Divine Abyss.] This time, Nix’s reply was certain.
True death was a distant concept for people of this age.
But to be confronted with that “concept” so directly made Clara’s fur stand on end.
[Clara, run.]
Nix suddenly spoke, then explained:
[It’s better to disappear in a corner where no one’s looking than to vanish directly from the lineup.]
Clara looked around—sure enough, no one seemed to be watching her.
The rabbit soldiers, though selecting Moon Rabbits to die, weren’t paying much attention otherwise.
Taking advantage of the moment when a rabbit soldier turned away, Clara darted off down a tunnel opposite the slaughterhouse, planning to slip away at a deserted junction.
But when she glanced back to check if any rabbit soldiers were in pursuit—
“Huh?!”
Chasing after her weren’t rabbit soldiers.
It was several Moon Rabbits destined for slaughter.