The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"Hey, hey, hey, isn't this... a bit extreme?" After Phoenix Flame started the countdown, Fish was dumbfounded—although he could completely understand that this was to prevent him from being passive and deliberately slacking off, which would lead to his training not being as effective as expected if he was caught too early, but considering that the maze didn't seem very big, it seemed a bit much to keep running away from so many people for two hours...

...No, it should be said that this is really too much!

"Further words are useless," Huang Yan said. "Please hurry up and continue preparing. Fifty-five, fifty-four, fifty-three, fifty-two..."

"Damn it, there's no way around it." Fish shook his head—although the maze itself was intricate and complex, with upper-level staircases and lower-level underground passages, unfortunately, apart from a few pitfalls designed to trap unlucky people who weren't watching their step, there were no caves, secret rooms, or narrow crevices suitable for hiding. The various odds and ends piled up in the maze's passages, whether boxes, low walls, or railings, were more like cover that could be used in urban warfare. They were suitable for temporarily avoiding bullets, but not for long-term shelter.

This means that it is unlikely that one can find a place to hide and remain undiscovered for two hours.

"...Forty, thirty-nine, thirty-eight..."

As the countdown to Phoenix Flame continued, Fish finally grew anxious. He quickened his pace, searching the maze... but couldn't find a suitable hiding place. Undoubtedly, this place wasn't designed for long-term concealment. This was even worse than the underground hot spring bath he'd encountered before.

"...Thirty, twenty-nine, twenty-eight, twenty-seven..."

After quickly ascending a spiral staircase, Fish, from the upper level of the staircase about ten meters above the labyrinth floor, got a clear view of the entire place: the labyrinth was a square with sides no more than two hundred meters long, and further away was a high obsidian wall, beyond which was a dark virtual starry sky.

Aside from the obstacles that can only serve as temporary cover, there are several short underground passages that allow one to traverse the maze walls at specific points. However, these are far from suitable for prolonged hiding; attempting to conceal oneself within them could lead to being trapped and becoming a sitting duck. Furthermore, at each corner of the maze, there are small, distinctive black wooden boxes with red-painted edges. What they contain is entirely self-evident.

Undoubtedly, this setup means only one thing: to avoid being caught, one must rely on the terrain to move quickly and make full use of the rules.

Especially the most important rule...

"...Five, four, three, two, one...Go!"

Just before the countdown to Phoenix Flame was about to end, Fish quickly returned to the surface of the Pure White Maze via the spiral staircase—after all, while the view from the second-floor skybridge was excellent, for someone who had obtained a weapon, especially someone else, it was simply an obvious target.

Just as Fish had predicted, after Phoenix Flame's countdown ended, the first thing everyone did wasn't to look for him, but to search for the guns and ammunition scattered throughout the maze—everyone knew that having weapons made things easier. Soon, the sounds of wooden crates being smashed and dismantled, and guns being cocked, echoed throughout the maze.

"How is it, Mr. Fish?" Phoenix Flame, now reappearing in her fairy form, leisurely flew to Fish's side. "Hearing these sounds, aren't you very excited?"

"Oh, I'm fucking excited." Fish walked behind a low wall, opened a black wooden crate with red trim, inside was a submachine gun and three magazines. "You don't mind if I play with it too, do you?"

"Uh... according to the rules, you can't attack other people..."

"Yes." In the next instant, Fish noticed the first person to approach him—it was Luca. The guy was holding a large, magazine-fed shotgun, grinning at him.

"Hehehehehehe... Little fish, did you miss me?"

"Well, Miss Luca, considering we haven't been separated for long, we don't want to for now." Fish rolled to the side, taking cover behind a low wall. At the same time, a hail of shotgun shells rained down on the spot where he had just stood. Then, more shotgun shells pounded against the low wall, forcing him to curl up behind it, unable to move.

Undoubtedly, Luca's tactics weren't wrong: suppress Fish's movements with shotgun fire, then take the opportunity to close the distance. However, lacking sufficient actual combat experience, she clearly overestimated how quickly this semi-automatic shotgun ran out of ammunition—after the magazine was empty, Luca pulled the trigger a few more times before realizing something was wrong.

Fish wouldn't give her a chance to change the magazine.

Although lacking the fire control assistance of Phoenix Flame, Fish's excessive combat experience allowed him to hit the barrel of Luca's semi-automatic shotgun with his first burst. The second shot struck the magazine well, causing it to deform. After the third bullet dented a large section of the foregrip, the weapon was rendered completely unusable scrap metal.

"Hey, is this alright now?" Fish asked Phoenix Flame. "Strictly speaking, I didn't attack Luca."

"Uh... well... it's not entirely impossible," Huang Yan replied. "Attacking weapons without harming people doesn't count as 'attacking others.'"

"Wow! You can do that?! You cheated!" Luca angrily threw the broken shotgun at Fish—she sometimes showed this kind of temper when provoked. Although Fish instinctively dodged, he was still hit on the shoulder by the butt of the gun. Fortunately, perhaps because it was just an immersive simulation, it didn't hurt much.

However, after being hit, Fish and Luca simultaneously saw a set of data.

"Total damage points: 1000; Points gained upon hit: 10; Remaining points: 990. Note that the target will lose the ability to act once the points reach zero."

"Congratulations, Miss Luca currently has the highest score."

"Huh? This counts?" Although she only got a mere 10 points, briefly becoming number one still slightly satisfied Luca's vanity. Then, she looked at the shotgun magazine in her hand that she hadn't had time to replace yet, and threw it directly at Fish.

"Damn it, is this considered damage?!" Fish suddenly bent over, dodging the magazine thrown by the other party, and then turned around and ran wildly in an "S" shaped path.

"In real life, if you got hit by something like that, you'd at least get a bruise or something, right? Is there anything wrong with this setting?"

"I think it's fine." Fish had barely finished speaking when he suddenly stopped in his tracks—because at the intersection ahead, he saw a shadow cast from above.

It was a petite figure carrying a long, tubular object. Even without a close look, Fish could easily guess who it was: clearly, Melu had somehow found her favorite long-barreled shotgun, or even a real sniper rifle, and was now lying in wait in her most skilled manner.

Fish knew very well that if the hit he had just received was considered a 10-point injury, then being hit by Melu, who was always accurate, at this distance would probably kill him on the spot... no, I mean, he would be eliminated.

Fish had no choice but to turn back and take another fork in the road—but unfortunately, Luca had somehow found another double-barreled shotgun and caught up with him. Luckily, her shooting accuracy was rather poor; the first two bullets hit a large white box behind Fish, the impact sending the box flying back several meters.

"Damn it! Little Fish, can't you stop running around like that?!"

"Who would stay put and let themselves be shot?!" Fish muttered, intending to do the same as the other man and continue to smash his weapon. But just as he aimed the ring sight of his submachine gun at Luca's shotgun, Fish caught a glimpse of the box that had been knocked away out of the corner of his eye... and then, a seemingly good idea suddenly popped into his head.

Fish didn't fire, but instead turned and ran—Luca took the opportunity to reload two rounds, but her subsequent shots didn't even manage to graze Fish's tail.

"It seems your lack of actual combat shooting experience is indeed a bit of a problem."

"Shut up! My scores at the shooting range are definitely not bad! It's just... ugh..." Luca's face flushed red as she continued the chase while loading her weapon. Soon, the two approached the intersection where Melu was lying in wait. Then, Fish forcefully pushed a box placed at the intersection.

The box, which looked quite heavy, immediately began to slide.

When the shotgun bullet hit another crate, Fish had already keenly noticed that although these crates were sturdy, their weight and surface friction seemed far less than he had expected. Therefore, with a push, they could slide quite a distance across the maze's floor.

At that very moment, Fish did just that: after a powerful push, he lowered his body and, hiding behind the sliding box, rushed into Luna's line of fire. A second later, he heard the sound of a sniper rifle firing—the bullet hit the surface of the box, but caused no damage.

Then, Luca, whose eyes were only on Fish, also chased after them... However, with her extremely keen intuition, she immediately noticed Melu—who, of course, had also noticed her. After a thought process measured in milliseconds, the two simultaneously reached the exact same conclusion: eliminating the competitor first was the best strategy.

"Damn, that's it." Upon seeing this, Fish immediately crawled out from behind the box that had stopped sliding, preparing to slip into the fork in the passage on the other side. But he only took two steps before having to change his mind: he had originally thought that, in any case, the fight between Luca and Melu would at least last for a short while, enough for him to escape this exposed area. But in reality, Melu had already won the moment they first met.

Although she had been distracted by the box Fish had thrown, and even wasted a bullet, she didn't even aim intentionally. She simply turned her gun on pure "feeling" and hit Luca, who was still trying to aim at her. Luca immediately lost her strength and collapsed to the ground.

"One person eliminated." The words appeared in Fish's field of vision. Then, before Melu could fire, he quickly hid behind the box—at least, the huge box was sturdy enough to render Melu, who was crouching on top of the pillar, helpless. But the problem was, this also "pinned" him firmly to the spot, completely unable to move.

Fortunately, less than half a minute into this awkward standoff, another gunshot rang out from the top of the pillar—much quieter than the previous sniper rifle shot, more like the popping of a balloon. Then, Fish saw another line of text.

"The second person has been eliminated."

"This is……"

After quickly peering over the edge of the box, Fish figured out what had happened: Just now, Xiaoxing had stealthily crept up behind Melu and fired a shot into her back with her pistol. Although Xiaoxing wasn't equipped with the intelligent combat armor "Grape" and couldn't become invisible or completely eliminate her footsteps, Melu, in a state of heightened concentration, was completely unaware of the danger approaching from behind. She was eliminated without a sound.

"It seems this is Melu's problem." Phoenix Flame in her fairy form suddenly flew to Fish's side. "Luca's problem is a lack of combat experience—but she's a commander, so it's not a serious flaw. However, Melu easily gets overly focused in battle and ignores the dangers around her, which is a problem that needs to be addressed."

"I understand." Fish nodded, silently noting it down in his mind. "However, Xiaoxing's shortcomings are also quite obvious."

"That's right," Huang Yan said as Fish leaped out from behind the white box once again, "He's good at stealth and ambushes, but his tactical awareness is too poor."

"Huh?!" When Xiaoxing was surprised to see Fish, who had been hiding behind the box and dared not move, suddenly appear, she immediately opened fire. The .25 caliber miniature pistol with a silencer that she was holding was certainly valuable as equipment for secret operations, but its lack of firepower prevented it from effectively suppressing Fish in place like Melu's sniper rifle.

Although Fish didn't dare to shoot the gun away directly like he had done to Luca while running, he was worried about breaking the rules. However, he knew very well that he could escape by enduring the weapon's firepower.

After all, the two sides were twenty or thirty meters apart.

"Total damage points: 990; Points gained upon hit: 160 x 2; Remaining points: 670. Note that the target will lose the ability to act once the points reach zero."

"Congratulations, Miss Xiaoxing currently has the highest score."

After escaping out of Xiaoxing's sight, Fish, leaning against a section of wall, crouched down, panting as he looked at the words in front of him—although he had run at top speed, he had still been shot twice. If Xiaoxing had thought a little further ahead and brought a more powerful weapon with her before launching the operation, those two shots might have been enough to kill him.

However, before Fish could even feel relieved, a series of hurried footsteps approached his hiding place... This time, Fish immediately realized who it was by the frequency of the other person's footsteps.

That guy, Shuangye, is currently less than ten meters away from him.