The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"Yes, yes, this is exactly what I want..." Fish muttered to himself as he ran between the desolate, empty shells of houses. After patiently waiting a few seconds, he unleashed "Golden Soup" for a second offensive.

Although on the run, the "Golden Soup's" excellent fire control system remained firmly locked onto all opponents within range, constantly updating its firing plans. Therefore, Fish had just given the order through a thought when the second batch of guided plasma munitions and mini loitering munitions were immediately launched, forcing most of the remaining pursuers to scatter and create distance from the group that was still relentlessly pursuing them.

When the distance became large enough, Fish stopped in the arch of a concrete bridge.

Thanks to the enhanced leg strength provided by "Golden Soup," Fish had reached a relatively distant location from the "kindergarten" in just a few dozen seconds, and through a burst of speed, he had also created some distance between himself and the few "Loli Deaths" who were chasing him the closest. At this moment, he found himself in an open area filled with all sorts of strange structures. Whether it was the strange right angles and "S"-shaped bends surrounding him, the dilapidated shacks, or the equally incongruous concrete bridge above his head, everything looked quite eerie. Hundreds of abandoned cars were discarded near these structures, forming a maze of rusty scrap metal.

"Hey, where is this place?"

"You didn't know? This is simulating an abandoned driving school." Under Huang Yan's control, Fish's body quickly followed, like a referee on a football field. The floating container carrying Xiao Xing and Shuang Ye also followed behind her. "I remember, the appearance of places like driving schools doesn't seem to have changed much now—after all, wheeled vehicles driven by internal combustion engines are basically all the same."

"Uh, but I've never learned to drive," Fish muttered. "Never mind, you know what I'm planning to do, right?"

"Of course I know that."

Just two seconds after Huang Yan finished speaking, Fish felt his whole body, especially his chest, become much lighter—using the "test user" privileges, Huang Yan sent An Jie's body back into the container and transferred his consciousness into Xiao Xing's brain.

"Hey, come on!"

Before the first wave of "Loli Deaths" caught up, Fish had already activated Xiaoxing's smart combat armor "Grape" and its most important function—optical camouflage.

Within seconds, Fish—no, now Xiaoxing's figure—became a small, distorted trace in the air.

Although these bio-weapons resembling bunny-eared girls had demonstrated astonishing combat prowess earlier, thankfully, their observational abilities were clearly lacking, and their tactical judgment was only at the level of simple AI in some old single-player games. While their execution of assigned tasks was quite good, they were completely dumbfounded when faced with this situation.

Of course, Fish's body, currently controlled by Phoenix Flame, and the floating storage tank containing Frostleaf and Ange's bodies, remained unguarded, completely unprepared for any potential attacks—because there was no need. Based on the fundamental rules of the testing grounds, the "tester's" physical body and unactivated "equipment" were absolutely forbidden from being attacked; the only thing they needed to search was Xiaoxing's body, which was currently being tested.

After looking around, the "Loli Reapers" chose the simplest and most direct method: split up and search the driving school's training ground—a move that Fish was exactly what he wanted. He quickly found an opportunity: during the search, one of the "Loli Reapers" went into a parking shed facing a large number of abandoned vehicles, temporarily escaping her companions' sight.

Just as she disappeared from her companions' sight, Xiaoxing's figure appeared behind her.

Because optical camouflage cannot guarantee complete invisibility, it is especially easy to be detected during movement due to subtle differences in appearance compared to the surrounding environment. Therefore, Fish remained highly cautious, emulating Xiaoxing's usual approach, carefully observing the opponent's gaze and direction of movement, and patiently waiting for the right opportunity—Huang Yan once commented that Xiaoxing's tactics were more like those of old submarines. While concealed, they constantly adjusted their positions, searched for opportunities, and then suddenly launched a fatal attack.

At this moment, Fish was adhering to this "submarine tactic" quite seriously. Even when facing a lone opponent, he did not approach and attack recklessly out of overconfidence. Instead, he used "Grape's" unique weapon—a light crossbow coated with poison—to silently snipe the target from a medium distance where he could ensure a hit.

In the past, a target's striking resemblance to a child would have undoubtedly made Fish hesitate, putting him in a difficult position. Fortunately, after a series of brutal trials, this problem is no longer a concern for him. He now understands perfectly well that the enemy's appearance has nothing to do with their nature, and that hesitation can sometimes lead to more than just defeat.

Although Fish had never used a crossbow before, aside from launching marbles at temple fairs with similar-looking toys, fortunately, due to numerous real-world experiences and rigorous training under the supervision of the female officials led by Mint, Xiaoxing's body had already developed deeply ingrained muscle memory for it. Even now, as Fish, accurately hitting a target could still be as natural as breathing.

Within two seconds, three crossbow bolts pierced the unprotected nape of the "Loli Death," who was facing away from Fish. The latter only trembled slightly, unable even to turn her head to check the situation, before plunging into eternal darkness.

Fish wasted no time checking whether his targets were alive or dead—the organic toxins on these crossbow bolts were modeled after taipan venom, and any one of them was enough to kill a prey the size of an Asian elephant. After a quick jog, he left the parking shed and crawled across an area covered with plastic turf. Near the side parking area, he spotted his second adversary. The latter was peeking out from behind a low wall, trying to get a feel for the other side.

But she never expected the attack to come from her side and rear.

Although, as a bio-weapon, this bunny-eared loli had slightly better resistance to poison than an average human of similar size, a blow to the temple from the side still instantly took her life. Unfortunately, the sound of her falling attracted the attention of another companion. A series of hurried footsteps quickly approached.

Unable to find a better attack position, Fish could only roll away and hide behind a black plastic trash can next to the parking space. The instant the opponent's rabbit ears appeared above the trash can, he transformed one of his arm armors into a long, slender sword, like a swift blade, and pierced straight through the plastic trash can, thrusting it forward.

Fish estimated that the sword should pierce the opponent's chest cavity and destroy the vital organs. But to his surprise, he didn't feel anything like that from the blade. In the next instant, the plastic trash can was suddenly cleaved in two, and a curved monomolecular blade slashed toward Fish's face.

"Meow!" If it weren't for the exceptional reflexes honed by hundreds of brushes with death, Fish would likely have had his skull cleaved open by that single strike. Even though he managed to retreat in time, the monomolecular blade still managed to slice through the front of the "Grape" helmet's visor.

As the remains of the trash can, which had served as cover, fell to either side, Fish finally understood why he hadn't hit anything—the "loli grim reaper" who had come after the sound had actually removed her rabbit ears and used a thin iron rod to carry them to the other side of the trash can, luring Fish to attack first and expose his position.

"Damn, these ears can actually be detached?" Despite the dire situation, Fish muttered to himself instinctively. Then, when the murderous loli with the detached ear swung her knife again, Fish instinctively raised his longsword to block. As a result, the longsword, transformed from his intelligent combat armor, was completely unable to withstand the attack of the monomolecular cleaver, and was cut in two with a slight "clang".

"Holy crap..." Fish, having misjudged the strength of his blade, hastily retreated a short distance, crouching against the low wall at the edge of the parking space. His opponent didn't immediately continue the attack—perhaps sensing his predicament, the guy rather mischievously tossed the machete between his hands, performing a series of dazzling, acrobatic-level complex sword techniques.

Then, Fish raised his arm and fired two poisoned crossbow bolts directly at the jaw of his opponent, who thought he had the upper hand.

"Things didn't look too good just now," Fish heard his own voice on the encrypted communication channel after finally taking down his opponent—of course, the one actually speaking was Huang Yan, "Although these guys were a bit troublesome, I didn't expect you to almost get killed by them."

"How was I supposed to know those rabbit ears could be removed?" Fish, still shaken, nudged his motionless opponent with his toe. Only after confirming that the opponent was dead did he breathe a sigh of relief. "Also, these guys are smarter than I expected."

"I need to correct you on that point," Huang Yan said. "Strictly speaking, as bio-weapons that exist purely for assassination, although they are genetically derived from modern humans, their genes have been greatly distorted, and the development of their brains and nervous systems has undergone particularly significant adjustments. Therefore, they do not possess true consciousness. However, their brains are loaded with a large number of specific tactical cases to choose from, which makes it easy to encounter such tricks when dealing with them in actual combat."

"This is really a headache," Fish muttered. "But, that guy's performance in front of me just now..."

"I saw that too—don't forget, the sensor data of the smart combat armor can be shared," Huang Yan said. "That seems to be a special action deliberately programmed in to taunt a cornered enemy."

"While it's a good thing for me, it's really a terrible sense of humor."

"Oh, don't worry, things are getting worse," Huang Yan said. "I have two pieces of news for you: First, those 'Loli Reapers' you left behind have caught up to this area, so you'll soon be facing a much denser search, and opportunities to ambush lone opponents will be hard to come by; second... remember, these guys are just one of five test projects that started at the same time, right?"

"That's right, could it be the other four...?"

"The awakening process has ended, and we are about to enter the testing grounds," Huang Yan replied. Immediately afterwards, a series of illustrated reports appeared directly on Fishna's helmet display, which had been slashed open, showing him the situation of the other four gangs that were about to enter.

Fish had to admit that even setting aside their fighting skills and patience, these guys' signature moves alone were enough to give him a run for his money.

"Of course, there's also good news," Huang Yan continued. "Although I can't directly control the program here, I've exploited a bug that caused a very interesting change in its friend/foe authentication system. This... might be our opportunity."

"I understand," Fish nodded. "In that case, I know what to do."

"Oh?"

"Watch me." After saying this, Fish quickly left the side parking area and approached the concrete bridge in the center of the field, which was surrounded by piles of discarded tires, along the plastic turf on both sides of the S-shaped curve not far away.

His fourth prey was on the bridge, looking around and searching. Fish didn't hesitate to aim at her, and in the instant she turned her gaze in his direction, he shot a crossbow bolt into her eye socket.

Unlike the one who was taken down in the parking shed, this guy was in such a conspicuous location that when he fell to the ground on the concrete bridge, Fishna's hearing, enhanced by his smart combat armor, immediately detected footsteps coming from different directions.

With the help of the armor's identification program, Fish determined that there were many people approaching from all directions—just as Huang Yan had just said, in addition to the survivors of the first batch, the rest of the "Loli Death Gods" whose progress had been slowed down by his various attacks had also arrived at this "driving school".

Of course, these creatures still failed to spot Fish, who was lying prone in the grass near the S-bend, concealed by optical camouflage. After confirming their companion's death, they immediately realized that continuing the search while scattered would only provide their hidden adversaries with more opportunities to pick them off one by one. Thus, these killing machines immediately executed their pre-set tactical plan, forming a ring of defense not far from the concrete bridge, keeping watch over their surroundings.

In this situation, Fish was theoretically in a predicament: even with the optical camouflage provided by Xiaoxing's intelligent combat armor, he would be immediately located if he attacked again. Attempting to move would also expose him to a well-prepared opponent. In short, Fish was now checkmated.

However, he was not flustered at all. Instead, he calmly counted the number of the other party—there were a total of sixteen people.

"Hmm, there are quite a few of these guys," Fish muttered to himself. "Old Phoenix Flame, it's up to you now."