### Chapter 23: Two Questions
It wasn't just the sparrow hawk that was stunned; even Raymond was bewildered.
From his perspective, Miss Rabbit had just casually touched the sparrow hawk's left wing with the slender bamboo in her hand before lightly leaping away.
Yes, she just casually touched it without causing any visible harm, Raymond could see it clearly.
But then, a bizarre scene unfolded—
The sparrow hawk suddenly started spinning wildly in the air, and with a "rip," its left wing broke off and flew away. Its body then crashed straight into a wall, impaled by steel bars from the wall, with blood splattering all around. The whole process looked both tragic and comical.
"What happened?" Raymond pointed at the now dying sparrow hawk, astonished. "Why did it suddenly act like it went crazy?"
"Uh..." Miss Rabbit thought for a moment before replying, "It used too much force and threw itself off."
"...Are you kidding me?!" Raymond was speechless.
However, what had just happened seemed unrelated to pure speed or strength. It seemed more like some kind of mysterious ability.
Ability?!
Just like in a novel!
As Raymond lowered his head in thought, Miss Rabbit spoke up, "It's not dead yet."
"Oh, I almost forgot." Hearing this, Raymond glanced at the heavily injured sparrow hawk, which had lost a wing and was clearly incapable of flying away. He then looked at Miss Rabbit and said, "I'll take this kill, okay?"
"Sure," Miss Rabbit replied.
So, Raymond brushed off the dust from his clothes, picked up a rocket launcher from the ground, and walked toward the sparrow hawk. Looking at his now helpless, pitiful opponent, he felt no guilt about taking advantage of the situation. After clearing his throat, he asked, "Hey buddy, want some RPG?"
"Ahhh! I... hate you!!!" The sparrow hawk screeched angrily, its shriek piercing the sky. It seemed to know that it couldn't escape its fate, disregarding its injuries and shouting with all its might.
"Hate your ass!" Raymond said coolly, "I've been chased by you guys for no reason. I should be the one who hates you!"
"If... not... for her, you..." The sparrow hawk glared hatefully at Miss Rabbit, who stood calmly aside, then turned back to Raymond, angrily accusing him in broken human speech.
Clearly, it was extremely resentful about its defeat.
"Buddy, there's no 'if' in this world," Raymond interrupted, pulling the trigger, "Goodbye."
With a bang!
The fire engulfed everything!
Finishing the job, Raymond claimed the kill.
Ben Mao scampered over to collect the mysterious liquid, while Raymond reminded it, "Ben Mao, hurry up. It's not safe here."
"Then why use such a loud weapon?" Miss Rabbit pointed at the rocket launcher he was carrying and asked.
"It makes no difference," Raymond answered while strapping the launcher on his back. "Didn't you hear how loudly that guy screamed 'I hate you' at the end? He might have been severely injured, but his throat wasn't. He could still scream a few times before dying, and I couldn't stop him in time. Ugh, even in death, they make things difficult for me. Do you think they're nuts? Wait! Hmm, you also seem pretty annoyed with me. Never mind, let's not talk about it. Since it's unavoidable that other evolvers will be attracted here, what's the difference if I use a louder or quieter weapon? On the contrary, if I make a lot of noise, it might scare some away, making them hesitant to approach."
After saying this, he turned to Miss Rabbit and said, "Miss Rabbit, if you have any questions, feel free to ask. I promise to answer truthfully."
Miss Rabbit's earlier action was actually part of a deal between Raymond and her.
As for the terms, it was quite simple. Based on Raymond's guess, she must have moved next door out of interest in him (or perhaps in Ben Mao). So, the solution was straightforward—stop observing from the shadows, help him take down this guy, and ask him directly if she had any questions. He would answer.
Miss Rabbit agreed.
Of course, if she hadn't agreed, Raymond planned to offer food as a trade.
After all, this rabbit didn't know how to grow vegetables!
Haha! Thinking about it, farming skills really are essential for guys!
"Hmm..." Hearing this, Miss Rabbit raised her chubby paw and scratched the corner of her mouth. This seemed to be her habit when thinking. Then she slowly said, "You were very angry when it got hurt, right?"
It naturally referred to Ben Mao.
"No way! You got it wrong." Just moments ago, Raymond had promised to answer truthfully, but now he replied without blushing or skipping a beat.
"..." Miss Rabbit scratched the corner of her mouth again, looked deeply at Ben Mao as if confirming something, then turned to Raymond and asked, "Do you know the Eight Sufferings?"
This question was very out of the blue, completely unrelated to the first one.
Do rabbits always speak so illogically?
More importantly, this question left Raymond bewildered!
He had imagined many possible questions Miss Rabbit might ask, such as his birth date, past experiences, physical condition, the cat paw mark on his palm, Ben Mao's evolution, how he met Ben Mao, how humanity perished, why it perished, the state of human society, and so on!
He even thought it would be more understandable if Miss Rabbit suddenly asked him how to operate a computer or play a game than this!
The Eight Sufferings?!
"Birth, aging, sickness, death, separation from loved ones, association with the disliked, unfulfilled desires, and the Five Skandhas." Raymond was puzzled, "Why do you ask?"
Miss Rabbit smiled and said, "Just curious."
"Huh?" At this moment, Raymond was very confused, completely unable to fathom what this rabbit was thinking—whether she was asking randomly or had some deeper meaning.
"I've asked my questions," Miss Rabbit said.
By then, Ben Mao had also collected the mysterious liquid and ran over.
Although Raymond couldn't figure out why Miss Rabbit asked that question, he felt that leaving was the most important thing right now. He looked at Ben Mao and noticed that thanks to its strong regenerative abilities, the bleeding on its right foreleg had already stopped, so he gave up on bandaging it.
However, he still picked it up and said, "Let's go, time to head back."
"Not going to that agricultural market you mentioned?" Miss Rabbit asked.
"No," Raymond said, "Ben Mao is injured. We're going home."
This trip out cast a shadow over raymond's Mood.When Raymond first discovered the meteorite, he had a premonition that the future would be tumultuous. Indeed, the day evolution began was extremely perilous. Ben Mao sustained nearly fatal injuries, Raymond lost two lives, and only managed to escape thanks to his prior preparations.
But after that day, life had been unusually peaceful, as if he were living in an ivory tower.
Unconsciously, he had grown complacent!
He underestimated just how dangerous this world had become for him.
Sure, awakening intelligence meant gaining rationality, but on this planet teeming with evolvers, even if only half were affected by that inexplicable hatred, that still meant half the world!
Half the world wanting to kill him—how could life possibly remain peaceful?!
Such was reality: if it weren't for enlisting Miss Rabbit, the battle with the sparrow hawk earlier would have been exceedingly dangerous. Even if he had won, being swarmed by other evolvers attracted by the sparrow hawk would have been hard to handle.
Never had Raymond so deeply realized just how terrifying his aura of hatred was!
Trying to test out special individuals?
What a naive goal!
Think about it—he hadn't even traveled far this time before he couldn't continue any further. If he stubbornly insisted on going further, one careless move could trigger a domino effect of disasters.
Raymond suddenly felt like he was trapped here.
In this limited space, he could still maintain some semblance of peace because it was Miss Rabbit's territory, and because it's only been a little over a month since the mass awakening of intelligence, and the outside world was still in chaos.
He was like being in the eye of a storm, where it was calm and peaceful but with no way out, and this calm was temporary, with no guarantee. It could shatter at any moment.
Chaos would eventually end, and order would be established.
Imagine, when the current chaos ends, what will happen to him, the target of everyone's hatred? How much time is left until that moment?
"This is really depressing," Raymond thought, sighing.
An evolver, being hunted... He originally thought his situation was similar to protagonists in movies and novels struggling to survive in a zombie apocalypse, but he was wrong.
Because evolvers had gained intelligence, intelligence made them as complex as humans.
The current most chaotic and lawless period gave him the illusion of being in a world full of monsters, but it wasn't like that. He was actually in a "society that viewed him as an enemy," and that was far more dangerous than "a world full of monsters."
How long can you survive in a zombie apocalypse?
How long can you survive in a human society where everyone wants to kill you?
Even though Raymond could revive after dying, it didn't mean he enjoyed being killed!
This failed attempt to travel far made him realize he had to find a way to solve his hatred aura problem, or he wouldn't last long in this society of evolvers.
Hearing Raymond sigh "depressing," Miss Rabbit casually asked, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, just feeling like my situation is quite bad," Raymond briefly replied, as there wasn't time to elaborate.
"... Oh, really," Miss Rabbit responded indifferently.
Raymond shrugged, checked his bearings, and then, holding Ben Mao, headed back the way they came. At this point, Miss Rabbit asked, "Do you have a map?"
"Yes," Raymond pulled a map from his pants pocket and tossed it to her.
Miss Rabbit caught it, unfolded it, and asked, "Where is our destination?"
"I've circled it in red," Raymond said, "A circle with a square around it, you'll find it."
Modern phone navigation systems were long unusable. Before evolution started, whenever he had to go to distant places, he would bring a map. To conserve and reuse it, he used different markings to differentiate locations.
Miss Rabbit glanced at the map and asked, "Where are we now?"
Raymond leaned over and pointed, "Here."
Then, he pointed to the circled agricultural wholesale market: "The market is here." As for their home, he didn't point it out.
After all, the rabbit could always find food and safely return each time, so the city's tallest building should be easy to locate.
After memorizing the location, Miss Rabbit put away the map, "I'll go find the seeds."
"Okay," Raymond nodded and walked off, not surprised.
Given the circumstances, it made sense she asked about the map. As he picked up the pace due to the delay, he suddenly remembered something and turned back to ask, "By the way, can you read? If not, you can look at the pictures on the packaging. Seed packets usually have pictures on them..." However, when he turned back, Miss Rabbit had already vanished.
"In such a hurry?! Maybe she's a foodie?" Raymond mumbled, not bothering with her, and headed home.
...
On the other side, after parting from the human and cat, Miss Rabbit was swiftly moving through the city streets.
Unlike Raymond, who had to tread carefully due to his hatred aura, Miss Rabbit had no such concerns and moved much faster, covering several kilometers in just a few minutes.
However, her way of traveling was rather reckless...
After stepping on the heads of several dog evolvers to borrow some momentum, a group of over twenty stray cat and dog evolvers began chasing her. "Stop!!"
"Meow! Stop!"
"Woof!! Have the guts to... stop!"
"Roar! Woof woof!!"
The roars and pursuit cries from behind were continuous, but Miss Rabbit ignored them, pressing on while looking at the map, a puzzled expression on her face.
Suddenly, turning a corner, a forty-plus-story skyscraper loomed ahead.
She glanced at it casually, then continued looking at the map, leaping up effortlessly over the hundred-meter-tall building as if it were a small mound.