The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"Something interesting?" Upon hearing Huang Yan's words, Fish looked uneasy. "Excuse me, is this 'interesting' good or bad for us?"

"I'm afraid this isn't a good thing... In short, the records of the Joint Operations Headquarters have become inaccurate," Huang Yan replied. "Of course, this isn't surprising. The legacy left by the old civilization era is enormous, and it's often subject to frequent changes. Some slight deviations... are not unacceptable."

"Eh...eh...eh..." Upon hearing "a slight deviation," Fish immediately felt a headache coming on—he knew very well that what Huang Yan called a "small deviation" would likely be a huge problem for someone else! "What kind of deviation exactly?"

"Based on records retrieved from the 'Akasha Records' and compared with data from the Joint Operations Headquarters database, I previously told you that Dark Island was originally a tourist facility and an arena for deadly games, but it failed to be built due to the original owner's mismanagement. After being sold several times, it fell into the hands of Anthill Technology Company, which is famous for developing weapons and automated equipment."

“You said that yourself,” Fish said. “You also said back then that this might be where Anthill Corporation stored its unproduced experimental equipment and prototypes.”

"Ah, that's right, it's true to some extent," Huang Yan replied. "Anthill Technology Company was indeed the last user here. Experimental equipment and prototypes were indeed stored here... but unexpectedly, the main body of those 'experimental equipment' and 'prototypes' were various modified macroscopic biological weapons."

"Macroeconomics... what's that?" Fish was a little confused.

“I know that,” Ange said. “It refers to the living weapons that are different from ‘microscopic biological weapons’—that is, prohibited bacterial weapons, viral weapons, and various other weaponized microorganisms and parasites. For example, the various synthetic beasts that are aggressive towards humans and can often be encountered in the wilderness and urban ruins are a kind of macroscopic biological weapon.”

"is that so?"

"Theoretically speaking, our intelligent combat armor is also—after all, our basic unit is a highly specialized biological cell," Huang Yan added. "However, this place is not testing beings as advanced and important as myself."

"Oh? That's...?"

"Some special semi-mechanized synthetic beasts. According to the company's plan, they seemed to serve two purposes: the higher-quality varieties were used for the ongoing deep space colonization program, hunting and exterminating terrestrial planets with dangerous or troublesome native creatures to prepare for further reclamation; as for the others, they were further modified and sold to the arena to entertain the bloodthirsty audience at the time. Incidentally, the cheap version of the smart combat armor, which only worked for a short time, was also manufactured by Anthill Technology Corporation. Because it was impractical, it was used as equipment in the arena."

"So, the 'angel' who saved the ancestors of the Oasis Harbor people back then..."

"It's not entirely clear what they are yet, but based on the records I've found, they are likely automated security units deployed by Anthill Technology Company—they are used to prevent the bio-monsters developed by the company from escaping out of control," Huang Yan explained. "After the system was accidentally activated, these automated weapons identified the creatures chasing the fishermen as objects that needed to be eliminated and rescued them."

"Is that so?" Ange frowned. "So, the ancestors of the Oasis Harbor people didn't actually 'control' these things?"

"That's right. The system here shows that some of the speculations in the two documents from the Fayun people are wrong. The fishermen from back then were never registered as users at all—the security equipment here was simply activated accidentally and then performed its tasks based on its preset program. As for any actions taken based on this, they are meaningless."

"On the bright side, at least those guys can't take over the security system here and carry out their filthy plans," Frostleaf said.

"On the downside, I also can't gain control of the system from here. Although it's possible to activate all the equipment in 'Deep Dark Island' directly through this terminal, it's too risky," Huang Yan continued, "because we can't be sure what criteria those automated security units use to determine 'monsters'."

"What should we do then?"

"No problem. Any facility like this has a central control unit. Once I get my hands on that, I can rewrite the entire facility's program from the bottom up, including gaining command authority over the automated security devices," Huang Yan said. "However, there's a small problem..."

"Things as important as central control equipment are mostly in a state of physical isolation from the outside," Anjie said, even before Huang Yan could finish speaking, "In other words, you have no way to actively access that device from here, and you have to use a more... direct method to break through the physical isolation."

"Yes, that's right," Huang Yan said. "Also, unfortunately, there is no normal path to the central control room from here."

Why?

"Anthill Technology is extremely vigilant about theft and vandalism by its competitors... In fact, this vigilance is clearly excessive. They haven't even designed any regular entrance to the room where the central control equipment is located; only authenticated company personnel can be directly teleported in via a short-range teleportation system."

"These people are unbelievable... What should we do?"

"The most likely strategy is to go through the test area and then blow it up at its end, in the room adjacent to the central control room—the walls in this area are the weakest, and we can break through them relatively easily with our current firepower," Huang Yan quickly gave his answer, while opening the armored door in front of everyone.

"Then let's hurry up and go!" Fish said as he took the Phoenix Flame off the control panel, led the way and quickly walked into the gate. Then, following the direction indicated by the glowing sign that read "Test Area", he led Ange and the others toward the right fork in the road.

"Wait a minute, don't rush!" Huang Yan shouted as Fish re-equipped him.

"What's wrong?" Fish asked as he walked.

"I still have something to say, you'd better—damn it!" Huang Yan's next sentence was only half-finished when a dazzling white light enveloped Fish and his group. What followed was a familiar dizzying spin and a rapid descent…

"Damn it, where did this...get into?"

As the white light around him dissipated and the dizziness and feeling of falling subsided, Fish clutched his throbbing head and shuddered violently—after several previous experiences, he was pretty sure he'd been thrown into an absolutely awful death game once again…

...Now that things have come to this, he has nothing left to say except to sincerely curse the ancestors of those bloodthirsty spectators.

"According to my calculations, the distance traversed by that short-distance space jump was very limited—no more than sixty meters at most." The voice of Phoenix Flame answered Fish's question—which was a good thing. After all, it meant that, unlike the facility in the Northland last time, this "game" deep within the Dark Isle at least didn't deprive him of his ability to control his intelligent combat armor.

For a warrior, the difference between having and not having usable intelligent combat armor is enormous. After going through so many adventures together, Fish felt that as long as Phoenix Flame was by his side, he would dare to brave even the most literal mountains of knives and seas of fire.

Of course, the smart combat armor's communication system is still being jammed, preventing Fish from knowing the current situation at Oasis Harbor. But this jamming won't cause him any immediate trouble, so Fish isn't too concerned.

But... where are the others?

"Look behind you." As if anticipating Fish's thoughts, Huang Yan said.

"Ah... Eh?!" Fish quickly turned around... and then froze in place—Ange, Xiaoxing, and Shuangye were indeed there, but their condition looked quite abnormal: the three of them were sealed in a huge, semi-transparent jar-like container floating off the ground, floating with their eyes closed in a light green liquid.

"What's wrong with them?!"

"According to the signals from the life support system built into their smart combat armor, they are currently in good condition," Huang Yan replied, "except for being in a deep sleep."

"But what does that mean? Why am I the only one outside?!"

"Well... it seems the system here is treating you as a 'user'," Huang Yan explained.

"Users?! What does that mean? I don't understand." Fish felt like his brain was about to completely shut down. "Can you explain?"

"In fact, even for me, there are many inexplicable problems and mysteries surrounding the current situation," Huang Yan's tone seemed somewhat...complex. "In short, the current situation is that because you acted hastily, you unfortunately triggered this 'game'—I've already told you that this place was originally built as an arena to satisfy those bloodthirsty spectators, right?"

"You did say that. But didn't you also say that this place wasn't ever built as a gladiator arena?"

"Indeed," Huang Yan replied, "but the basic infrastructure is already more than half complete. According to the information I recently discovered here, after changing hands several times, Anthill Technology Company finally bought it and carried out a series of renovations on the arena."

"What's the purpose of doing this? Aren't they using this place as a warehouse?"

"Not entirely. In fact, the main reason Anthill Technology bought this place was to use it as a testing facility," Huang Yan explained. At the same time, Fish also began to look around: it looked like a very ordinary community, with roads, dozens of two- or three-story detached houses, small warehouses and shops, and even a complex of buildings that looked like an amusement park.

The only thing that seemed a little off was that this place was just too...desolate: whether in the old or new era, a residential area like this usually had plenty of greenery. But here, there were no trees at all in front of or behind the houses. Where hedges and green belts should have been, there were either low, gray concrete walls or symbolically planted rows of fake plastic trees.

In addition, most of the buildings look overly "plain," either just a wooden frame or a cement shell, as if someone had completed the basic construction of the residential area but failed to sell it to the end consumer, so it can only remain here in the form of a bare shell.

"Even you should have noticed the difference between this place and a regular death game venue, right?" Huang Yan asked. "The scene here is not finished, and there are no optimization details—because it's unnecessary. Although this place was originally an arena for playing death games, after it fell into the hands of Anthill Technology Company, its purpose has been changed to conduct combat capability tests for biological weapons... that is, what this era calls 'synthetic beasts'."

"The testing environment doesn't need to be so 'immersive,' just enough to get the job done." Fish finally understood. "Then, what about the 'users'?"

"It might be easier to let you experience it directly than to explain it slowly." Huang Yan turned on the external speaker. "Prepare to begin the test."

"User application confirmed. Test item -3 initialization preparation in progress. Please follow the directional signs to target area 10-25," said a synthetic female voice devoid of emotion. This was the same voice that had given various instructions in the arenas where the death games had taken place. "Now, a 600-second countdown begins."

After saying this, the voice paused for a few seconds, then repeated itself. At the same time, a golden light strip suddenly lit up on the concrete road, pointing to a facility that looked like a kindergarten not far away.

"Let's go take a look," Huang Yan said.

Of course, even if she hadn't said it, Fish was already planning to do it. After quickly running past the unfinished concrete shells, the empty parking lots, and the green belts adorned with crudely made plastic trees, he arrived near the kindergarten. Compared to the other areas, this kindergarten at least looked decent; the small playground was covered with plastic turf, there was a small artificial hill filled with interconnected caves, an artificial river with bridges, and colorful slides, seesaws, and ropes. And besides that, there were… children.

The children in this "kindergarten" are a dozen or so rabbit-shaped new humans, all petite girls only about one meter tall, wearing thin, unmarked white skirts. However, they are clearly quite bewildered by their situation. Some of them gather helplessly in the pavilion on the artificial hill, while others squat by the artificial river, watching the circulating water flowing in the channel.

Undoubtedly, they had all just been thrown in here.

"Countdown complete," the female voice said just as Fish stopped in his tracks. "Test begins."

Then, in the garage of a detached villa not far away, as the metal roller shutter door gradually rose, a huge bipedal monster, about the length of an Allosaurus from the Jurassic period, slowly strolled out with heavy steps.