The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

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"What...what is this?!"

"There's no data. It's estimated to be a synthetic beast bred by Anthill Technology Company, but for various reasons, it never reached mass production," Huang Yan replied after scanning the Allosaurus-like behemoth. "Its specific abilities, danger level, and behavior patterns are unknown."

"What do you mean by 'unknown'?! I think it's pretty clear," Fish shook his head. "The people at that company didn't build this huge thing just so it could keep kids company while they play games, right?"

"I agree. It was clearly a chimera created for killing and destruction."

Meanwhile, after leaving the garage, the monster quickly moved towards the kindergarten where the bunny-eared girls were. Some of the girls seemed to notice something amiss and ran to the fence at the edge of the kindergarten, pointing at the monster, but they didn't seem panicked—probably because they saw the monster's appearance as just some harmless entertainment.

But Fish doesn't think so at all.

"I have to do something." After saying this, Fish transformed the right arm armor of Phoenix Flame into the form of an ion gun, and the familiar aiming ring once again appeared on his helmet display. But at that moment, something unexpected happened: when Fish aimed the aiming ring at the monster's head, preparing to fire, he saw a huge red X appear in the center of the aiming ring!

"What the hell is this?"

"Violation warning," Huang Yan said. "Currently, the system here mistakenly identifies you as a 'user' of this testing equipment. However, 'users' are not allowed to use their equipment to interfere with anything happening here. If you do, you will likely be teleported out of here and returned to the starting point."

"Damn it... what should I do?"

"Use the 'testing equipment' you brought—that is, Ange and the others."

"Huh?! Huh?! Huh?!" Fish was even more confused. "How did Ange and the others turn into equipment?!"

"Don't forget, this is a testing ground for biological weapons. And strictly speaking, the new humans created by genetic engineering—at least the combat-type new humans among them—are a kind of biological weapon," Huang Yan replied. However, judging from her tone, she herself was also amused and exasperated by this situation: the dignified princess of the Duchy of Fayun, actually being used as a "weapon"—who would believe it?!

"So..."

"Have you forgotten? In the arena, the bloodthirsty spectators of ancient times could directly link their consciousness to living weapons equipped with brain-computer interfaces, using those specially made 'clones' or 'skins' to fight. You've seen that before, haven't you?"

"That's true..." Fish immediately recalled what happened in the facility in the North End—at that time, his consciousness was transferred to different companions one after another, which was obviously the result of the system recognizing him as a "user".

However, if all of this is true, an even bigger and more difficult question arises: Why him?

At least in Fish's own eyes, no matter how you looked at it, he was just an ordinary cat-like new human. He had perfectly normal cat ears and a cat tail, and he also had the agility and reaction speed of a cat. He even reacted when someone waved a cat toy in front of him. Technically speaking, shouldn't he also be classified as a "weapon"? Why was it him who was repeatedly treated as a "user" by these ancient systems?

What is so special about him that would cause such a misunderstanding?

Undoubtedly, the "mystery" Huang Yan mentioned earlier referred to this very issue. However, Fish didn't have time to delve into that right now. "Think of something! Quick! That monster is almost at the kindergarten!"

"According to the rules, as a tester, you can 'equip' yourself with the body of any one of Ange, Xiaoxing, or Shuangye—that is, temporarily transfer your consciousness into their bodies. But how do you plan to choose?"

"This...uh...let's go with Ange. Her fighting style is most effective against large enemies." After a brief moment of awkwardness, Fish, his cheeks as red as fresh chili peppers, finally made his decision. "No...that's right, that's it! It's definitely not that I want to experience what it's like to become her again!"

"Understood." Huang Yan continued through the external megaphone, "Requesting to officially enter the testing phase!"

"Application accepted," the artificial female voice on the tablet said. Then, after a very brief period of dizziness, Fish found that his body had changed.

At this moment, "she" possessed a fluffy tail, curly platinum blonde hair, and a pair of impressive breasts. Although her flexibility had decreased, her senses had become more acute. Beside Fish, some strange, translucent liquid enveloped his body. Strangely, he could still breathe within this liquid!

Of course, this situation didn't last long. Before Fish could even begin to figure out what this strange liquid was, Ange's body was expelled from the bizarre chamber and landed on the ground.

Although Fish had been forced to use Ange's body in the Death Game in the Northland before, Ange's powerful intelligent combat armor "Golden Soup" was disabled due to the rules of the Death Game itself, so he was unable to experience what it felt like to use this "mobile turret".

This time, he can finally make up for this regret.

Just like when equipping the Phoenix Flame, Fish reconnected "Golden Soup" to Ange's body in a mere thought. Unlike the Phoenix Flame, this intelligent combat armor placed extreme emphasis on fire control. The helmet display showed a dense menu of primary and secondary weapon usage options, along with a massive amount of constantly changing data that would send chills down the spine of anyone with trypophobia. The moment it activated, a multitude of red lock-on markers representing "potential enemy targets" appeared before Fish's eyes, including that dinosaur-like monster, and... kindergarten children.

"Hey, what's going on? Is it malfunctioning?" Fish muttered as he instructed "Golden Soup" to cancel the lock on the children. But strangely, the smart combat armor was quite stubborn, displaying two warning messages in succession, asking Fish if he was sure he wanted to do this, before finally executing the cancellation command.

It was precisely because of this delay that by the time Fish aimed Ange's main shooting weapon—the pair of plasma shoulder cannons—the enormous Allosaurus had already crashed through the fence at the edge of the kindergarten, opened its terrifying, blood-red maw, and bit the rabbit-eared girl closest to it! Perhaps because she was stunned with fear, the girl remained motionless in place until the moment the monster opened its mouth.

"Oh no! Danger!" Since there was no time to fire, Fish could only scream in Ange's voice—but in the next instant, he saw a scene that was completely beyond his imagination.

The little girl with rabbit ears, who was only one meter tall, suddenly leaped up, jumping nearly three meters high from the ground, and then kicked the giant beast in the thick neck.

At first glance, compared to the behemoth's size, the little girl's attack seemed utterly insignificant. However, seconds after being kicked, a long, deep gash suddenly appeared on the side of the Allosaurus's neck! A large amount of oxygen-rich arterial blood gushed from the horrific wound like a high-pressure water jet, quickly taking its life. Moments later, this super-predator, over nine meters long, collapsed to the ground, beginning its final convulsions before death.

"What the hell is this?!" Even though he was using Ange's body, Fish still subconsciously blurted out his usual catchphrase, "Am I seeing things?"

"You didn't see wrong." The answer to this question came from Fish's own voice—after his original consciousness was transferred away, Phoenix Flame immediately took over his body, just like it had controlled the "clones" captured from the "Killing Factory" before, and then began to speak through his mouth, "That girl just used the monomolecular blade on her heel to directly cut open her opponent's carotid artery, a very beautiful kill with a small force against a large one."

"This...I'm afraid this isn't something an ordinary girl could do, is it?"

"That's right. Now I know what these girls are... no, I should say what they are," Huang Yan said. "Bioweapons D-04K-er, commonly known as 'Mimic Murderers.' But back then, people preferred to call them 'Loli Reapers.'"

"Huh? Sounds a bit like that 'Reef Assassin' we encountered before..."

"Please don't compare them to those killer octopuses that have only undergone limited genetic modification," Huang Yan said in a serious tone. "These creatures were a major taboo even in the old civilization era—because their primary purpose wasn't in the arena, but for genuine killing. Anthill Technology sells them to rival nations and giant corporate clients for infiltration and assassination. They are extremely intelligent, capable of mimicking various appearances of toddlers or teenagers, using their cute appearance to lower people's guard and deliver a fatal blow to unsuspecting opponents."

"This is just... damn it, can't these guys from the old civilization do something normal?" Fish quickly reset the "Golden Soup" fire control system, bringing all the bunny-eared lolis into the aiming range. And as he did this, the bunny-eared lolis all turned their gazes toward him.

That's the look in an animal's eyes when it looks at its natural enemy, whom it must eliminate.

In the next instant, these little girls all underwent a stunning transformation: their once-thin dresses shattered like ashes, replaced by a black carapace, like lizard scales, covering their entire bodies from the neck down. Curved blades silently emerged from their fingertips, elbows, and even heels; some even retrieved firearms and grenade launchers from the kindergarten's artificial river and rockery!

"According to the information I just found, these 'Loli Reapers' have been conducting various tactical tests at Anthill Technology's testing facility for a long time to collect data, iterate and adjust the product, and change assassination tactics," Huang Yan said calmly, arms crossed. Since she couldn't directly intervene, she, who was currently controlling Fish's body, could only act as an audience member and commentator. "It seems the system has identified you as someone who has come to conduct this kind of testing. You can't leave until the testing is completed."

"Uh... what's the standard for completing the test? Kill all these guys?"

"Not only that—besides them, there are five other tests on the list in this testing ground. To pass the testing ground, you have to deal with all of these guys—the other four bio-weapons have also entered the awakening process and may end their dormancy at any time," Huang Yan explained. "Please hurry as much as possible."

"Don't worry, I wasn't planning on wasting any time anyway." Fish bit his lip. "Everyone in Oasis Harbor is still waiting for us."

After saying this, he immediately activated all of "Golden Soup's" ranged weapon systems and opened fire on the locked-on opponent: the laser emitter inside the gauntlet struck the target at the speed of light, the intense heat burning a black hole in the forehead of the "Loli Reaper" closest to Fish. Then, two plasma missiles followed in quick succession; one successfully burned half of a "Loli Reaper's" body, along with her black armor, while the other was dodged by the target.

Finally, the mini loitering munitions flew towards their targets—and of course, their performance was the worst. Although these loitering munitions had some target recognition and autonomous guidance capabilities, the "Loli Reapers" were quite agile and could even skillfully use feints to induce the loitering munitions to accelerate, then suddenly dodge at the last moment, causing the latter to crash into walls or the ground meaninglessly.

Finally, none of the first six loitering munitions that locked onto their targets hit their targets... but this had already achieved Fish's objective.

Because he had already taken the opportunity to run a distance in the opposite direction.

Although Fish had great confidence in Ange's skills and "Golden Soup's" combat abilities, after witnessing the death of the large creature sent to warm up the "Loli Death Gods," he realized one thing—they absolutely could not allow these creatures to overwhelm them in close combat using their numerical advantage. Otherwise, even with the added strength and defense of "Golden Soup," they might not be able to withstand it.

However, if a little bit of tactical approach is adopted, the situation becomes completely different.

The main purpose of the attack just now was not to reduce the number of the enemy, but to force them to take evasive action—in this way, at least some of the "Loli Reapers" would not be able to immediately pursue him. And the remaining ones, in order to ensure that Fish could not escape, obviously could not stay behind to wait for their companions.

In this way, the number of his opponents has actually decreased by more than a third!

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