The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

As Fish and Phoenix Flame conducted their internal conversation within the "sculpture" covered in layers of solidified gelatinous substance, several deformed creatures, clearly transformed from humans, circled around them. Although the eyepieces were covered in an opaque, sticky substance, fortunately, this substance could not prevent infrared and centimeter-wave radar waves from penetrating, so Fish could still "see" them.

Fish noticed, through the outlines projected onto the helmet display by radar/infrared imaging, that these guys were indeed behaving strangely—normally, human soldiers, when faced with a defeated enemy, would usually either celebrate, or express their resentment by kicking, spitting, or humiliating the enemy.

However, these two just silently stared at them, observing them carefully and mechanically, behaving like two automated detection robots.

"This is terrible," Huang Yan muttered.

"Oh?"

"Putting everything else aside, just from this pattern of action, I can basically conclude that these guys are victims of the 'Tai Sui' infection," Huang Yan said, sounding quite frustrated. "The situation... has finally reached the worst possible point."

"But... when we came here, there weren't any signs of 'Tai Sui' infection, were there?"

"That's right. So I was careless—I even forgot about certain possibilities," Huang Yan said.

"Possibility? What kind of possibility?"

"Let's talk about it once we get out of here." After saying this, Huang Yan began to actively manipulate the intelligent combat armor, struggling back and forth. Then, the thick, heavy, and tightly sealed "shell" suddenly cracked open from behind. Just like that, Fish, like a cicada molting and emerging from its shell, easily slipped out of its restraints through the crack in its back. Subsequently, Ange also emerged from her "shell" in the same way.

Now, the ones who were surprised were the deformed creatures that attacked them.

Of course, Fish didn't give these guys much time to react—the "Tai Sui" hosts' reactions usually fall into two categories: for sudden situations that can be handled directly by instinct, they are allowed to deal with them on their own. However, the parts that require analysis, reasoning, and judgment—that is, those that would normally be handled by the cerebral cortex—are reported layer by layer, ascending along the tree-like command-control chain, and are issued only after receiving instructions.

Although this information is transmitted extremely quickly, it still takes a negligible amount of time for "Tai Sui" to think and analyze it. But in such a critical moment, this negligible time is crucial.

Unsure whether to kill or capture their targets, these deformed creatures' superior command/control nodes had clearly restricted their authority to act on instinct. Therefore, after Fish and Ange unexpectedly escaped, these creatures didn't act immediately—and Fish and Ange weren't going to talk about fairness. Before their closest adversaries could even react, they had already expertly swung the blades on their arm armor.

The high-strength monomolecular blade sliced ​​through those deformed, ugly bodies as easily as a hot knife through butter, granting these poor lives their final death.

Of course, the two combat-experienced individuals didn't expect to use such a short time to eliminate all their opponents. After taking care of the most likely targets to block their way, Ange immediately launched two smoke grenades from her arsenal-like "golden soup" to cover their retreat, and then she and Fish sped away from the area.

"Forgive me, forgive my bluntness, Your Highness," Anjie said, still shaken, after fleeing a distance, "I was... I was really scared to death just now. I thought I was going to die like this..."

"But Huang Yan solved the problem for us, didn't she? But speaking of which, how did she do it?"

"Simple. A top-tier intelligent combat armor program like mine can, in the most thorough and comprehensive sense, develop all the potential of the intelligent combat armor—some of which is even quite unimaginable," Huang Yan replied with a slightly proud tone. "For example, I can precisely control the apoptosis of the intelligent combat armor's cells."

"Cellular...apoptosis?"

"Ah, that's right. Have you forgotten? Shortly after we met, I told you that the intelligent combat armor is essentially a special kind of living organism, an aggregate formed by the aggregation of a large number of single-celled organisms and the functional differentiation. If you want, you can think of it as another kind of animal," Huang Yan said. "After emerging from its dormant storage state, the intelligent combat armor, like an animal, needs oxygen, water, organic compounds, and certain specific minerals, and of course, it also has metabolism."

"I know all of that," Fish said.

"Yes, but the difference is that I can control this metabolism, regulate the frequency and timing of energy bursts, and manipulate cell apoptosis—after being stuck to the surface, I directly controlled the cell structures on the surface of the armor to detach and undergo apoptosis, and then directly 'molted' from those things. Anjie's 'Golden Soup' can also do this, at least, after I established overdrive control to assist in it."

"I know all of that," Fish said.

"Yes, but the difference is that I can control this metabolism, regulate the frequency and timing of energy bursts, and manipulate cell apoptosis—after being stuck to the surface, I directly controlled the cell structures on the surface of the armor to detach and undergo apoptosis, and then directly 'molted' from those things. Anjie's 'Golden Soup' can also do this, at least, after I established overdrive control to assist in it."

"No wonder," Fish muttered. "Then...doing this won't have any impact, right?"

"This operation resulted in a loss of only 0.22% of the quality, nothing more," Huang Yan replied casually. "However, things here are not yet finished."

"I know." As he approached the "funnel," Fish was not surprised to find several figures loitering near the elevator leading to the ground.

Since the "funnel" was blasted open and the passage below was cleared, the engineering company of the Imperial Guard's 1st Brigade installed an electric elevator to facilitate the movement of personnel and supplies through the deep shaft. In addition, massive ventilation and air compression systems were installed to supply relatively cooler air into the underground facility to prevent oxygen deprivation.

Upon descending, Fish and Ange used the "Golden Soup's" anti-gravity wings directly, without using the elevator. Even so, they still clashed with the guards stationed there and were forced to kill them.

But at that moment, something strange happened: the soldiers who should have been gone suddenly stood up again. Among them were even two men whom Ange had beheaded!

Numerous wriggling granulation tissues extended from the cut surfaces of the two people's neck wounds, some of which had formed small eyeballs on their surfaces, replacing the original eyes and looking remarkably like the eyes of snails or slugs.

A year ago, Ange would likely have screamed "Ghost!" or "Monster!" and then hid in the arms of her female attendants, such as Mint. But now, having experienced a series of storms she could never have imagined during her time in the White Lotus Palace, she can now calmly deal with things that would make an ordinary person's sanity drop to zero.

After all, in this situation, all the troubles can be turned into "the work of 'Tai Sui'"... and it's at least 90% accurate.

"That's right, this is the result of the 'Tai Sui' infection," Huang Yan obviously guessed what An Jie wanted to say, "Moreover, according to the data in the database, this only happens when the 'Tomb Overlord' is present."

"I can tell." Ange fired a plasma shoulder cannon, instantly vaporizing a headless man who had just raised his rifle at them—although the eyes protruding from the severed neck and growing on the soft stalks were only the size of soybeans, they did not prevent him from raising his gun to aim.

Fortunately, after his entire chest and shoulders were vaporized and charred, his arms fell to the ground like two wooden sticks. Even the legendary god Xing Tian probably couldn't save him.

"Hey, now you can explain what's going on here, right?" As the other unfortunate infected men opened fire on him, Fish quickly conjured a bulletproof shield with his arm armor, blocking the small-caliber rifle bullets. Then he moved closer and "executed" them one by one with his blade. "Why are those people down there like that? How can these guys we killed before, even those who lost their heads, get back up? We didn't encounter anything this horrific when we fought 'Tai Sui' before."

"Yes, but the highest command and control node of the opponent we fought before was just a 'central brain'," Huang Yan replied. "This time, we are facing a 'Grandmaster'."

"Yes, I know, but isn't that guy already dead?" Fish asked after slitting the throat of an infantryman who was recklessly trying to engage the armored warriors in hand-to-hand combat with a bayonet. "You said..."

"To be precise, what died was only the biological body used by the 'Gravemaster'... After reviewing the data and information, I confirmed this. Unlike lower-level command/control nodes, the 'Gravemaster' does not rely too much on a physical body."

"What does this mean?"

"This means that, according to the speculations of scientists from the old civilization era, the essence of the 'Tomb Slayer' is actually a consciousness residing within a neural network composed of biological communities infected by the 'Tai Sui'—of course, 'nerve' here is used literally—and is a pure energy state of existence. It can transcend all physical bodies and adaptively modify living organisms without prejudice or emotion. This is why the 'Tai Sui' can be compatible with so many carbon-based life forms."

"So, this thing is..."

"It can transfer between different individuals, and may even coexist within multiple individuals. The only prerequisite is that those individuals have been infected by 'Tai Sui' and are under its control."

"Partially correct. In fact, I can roughly guess how those 'heroes' from a thousand years ago sealed the 'Tai Sui' beneath this place," Huang Yan said. "During the great war at the end of the old civilization era, the 'Tai Sui,' captured and brought back to Earth, and even used as toys by the entertainment-obsessed Earthlings, escaped from its imprisonment and caused a large-scale infection. Then, the 'heroes' of the new humans defeated the escaped 'Tai Sui'—but they failed to completely annihilate their opponent. Or more accurately, in order to avoid being eradicated, their enemy deliberately spread itself throughout nature at the last moment."

"That's right, just like Shuangye said, the infected creatures of 'Tai Sui' look like fungi and flowing liquids, and they are everywhere in the wilderness, forests and grasslands. They can parasitize all kinds of creatures, and it is impossible to completely eliminate them." After dealing with all the enemies and activating the elevator leading to the ground, Ange nodded.

"This is why the 'Tomb Dominator' wasn't killed—because if it were eliminated, the wild 'Tai Sui' population would produce a new 'Tomb Dominator,' just as a bee colony without a queen would breed a new queen. After all, every individual 'Tai Sui' retains a backup of some of the 'Tomb Dominator's' information, but these backups won't be activated while the flesh and blood on which the 'Tomb Dominator' relies still exists."

"In that case... yes, that makes sense..." Fish murmured, "Water..."

"What did you say?" Ange asked.

"Remember what Frostleaf said before? In the wild, 'Tai Sui' exists in two states: a fungus-like state and a semi-liquid state. The semi-liquid state can be mixed into food and water."

"Ah, yes, she did mention that," Ange nodded as the elevator rose with a low hum, remaining vigilant. "She specifically mentioned that thoroughly heating food and water can prevent infection from wild 'Tai Sui' (a type of fungus). So experienced people won't get infected."

“That’s right. But it’s so hot here that we can reasonably assume that the soldiers, workers, and scientific archaeology team members, who are exhausted from their work, would prefer to drink raw water,” Fish said. “And that means that, in theory, it wouldn’t be difficult to mix wild ‘Tai Sui’ into the drinking water and secretly feed it to people when they’re not looking.”

"Wait a minute, but if that's the case, why wasn't there a large-scale outbreak here before?" Ange asked. "If someone really did that, the entire 'Secret Realm' should have been in complete chaos by now."

"I don't know about that..."

"I can guess a thing or two," Huang Yan answered for Fish, "because of the dosage."

"oh oh?"

"As you probably know, Fish, at the end of the morally corrupt old civilization era, people actually conducted a lot of human experiments on 'Tai Sui'—mainly for the purpose of using it for entertainment," Huang Yan said. "The 'high school zombie outbreak' you encountered when you activated the 'game' in the underground facility in the Northwest Land was a typical example. Through these experiments, they gradually discovered some interesting facts."

"For example?"

"For example, applying small amounts multiple times may have... a very special effect."