The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"Hmm... this is really troublesome."

Previously, while Huang Yan was still counting down, Fish had already roughly ranked the threats posed by the various "contestants" vying for his attention: Luca, skilled in negotiation and planning but slightly less adept at one-on-one combat, was relatively the least dangerous, while Melu and Xiaoxing fell into the category of "posing a significant threat under certain circumstances." However, overall, the most troublesome opponents were clearly Yue Die and Shuang Ye.

Although to outsiders, Moon Butterfly is a rather annoying, textbook example of a "bad girl" due to her stubbornness and arrogance, Fish, who lived as her for several weeks, knows very well that in terms of intelligence, knowledge, strength, and martial arts skills, she is definitely not bad—after all, she is someone that top swordsmen like Frostleaf consider a nemesis.

As for Frostleaf, Fish knew very well that this stubborn, headstrong horse girl couldn't be a commander or an excellent leader, but when it came to leading a squad in a raid or fighting alone, her abilities were absolutely top-notch. Aside from swordsmanship and physical skills, her biggest difference from Moon Butterfly lay in courage and mental fortitude: even in the most desperate circumstances, Frostleaf never easily panicked, and could even calmly strategize.

In a real, hard-fought battle, Frostleaf's advantage would be very obvious. However, this is a game where no one will actually get hurt, so it's unlikely that her and Moon Butterfly's performance levels will differ significantly. As for Fish, both Frostleaf and Moon Butterfly are people he can't afford to offend—without the boost to strength, speed, and reaction time from Phoenix Flame, Fish isn't confident he can defeat either of them, who have been immersed in swordsmanship since childhood.

Therefore, upon sensing Frostleaf's approach, Fish could only cower cautiously in a corner, like a mouse avoiding a hungry cat, barely daring to breathe. After all, Frostleaf's other advantage was her charging speed and leaping ability, comparable to a real warhorse. Without the aid of intelligent combat armor, Frostleaf's reaction speed was also faster than Fish's. Trying to simply knock her weapon out of her hand, as he had done with Luca, was practically unrealistic.

This means that once Fish is discovered by the other side, he will be in an awkward situation where he can neither fight back nor escape.

Of course, judging from the direction Frostleaf was heading, continuing to hide was not the best strategy. So, Fish began to move slowly and cautiously along the wall, intending to retreat to the nearest fork in the road before Frostleaf found him. However, just as he finally made it to that spot, an inexplicable sense of unease suddenly gripped him.

Although there was no evidence, Fish had a strong feeling that there was a very troublesome guy nearby who was very compatible with Frostleaf.

Then, upon hearing the sound of a shotgun blast, Fish instinctively ducked, dodging a heavy slug powerful enough to pierce a security door—although being hit in the virtual space wouldn't hurt too much, taking such a shot would certainly force him to retreat immediately. He then rolled twice to avoid the opponent's next two follow-up shots.

"Hey, hey, hey, that's going too far!" Yue Die, who was lying in ambush here, couldn't help but shout, "Even though you're a high-ranking duke now, you should at least give this marquis's daughter some face!"

"You're right—if you can convince that Phoenix Flame guy not to electrocute me later, maybe I can give you that much face!" Fish said. "Otherwise, if I may be so bold, forget it."

"Your Highness, I apologize for the electric shock you suffered—however, it would be a disgrace to the honor of the Marquis of Tokatsu if I were not ranked first among your concubines and instead had to be placed behind those women of low birth." Moonbeam persisted... However, before she could continue to aim at Fish, she caught sight of Frostleaf out of the corner of her eye.

In the next second, the daughter of the Marquis of Ten Victories and Frostleaf exchanged a silent glance for a second. Then, Frostleaf did exactly what Fish expected: she ignored Fish as her target, then drew a long sword and attacked Moon Butterfly!

"Damn it! It's...it's you again?!"

"Hey, hey, those are my lines!"

"Why do you, you disgusting piece of chewing gum, insist on showing up here? Can't you just get lost?"

"That's what I should be saying to you, a lowly fellow—never mind, try this!"

After letting out an angry growl, Moonbeam raised her shotgun and fired several shots at Frostleaf, but the latter dodged them all. Then, Frostleaf's ghostly figure quickly appeared beside her and kicked Moonbeam's right wrist, which was gripping the handle, causing the weapon to fly out of her hand.

The shotgun spun a few times in the air before gently grazing Fish's shoulder and falling to the ground beside him.

"Total damage points: 670; Points gained upon hit: 2; Remaining points: 668. Note that the target will lose the ability to act once the points reach zero."

"System determination... Miss Moon Butterfly has gained 2 points."

Perhaps because this extremely minor hit damage was not easy to determine, the system unusually took some time before adding the following sentence—clearly, it ultimately decided to award the points to the last person who held the weapon before it was released.

"Oh ho ...

The only downside is that 2 points is a bit too few; it would be even better if there were more points.

"Tsk..."

Like an enraged horse, Frostleaf curled her lips, revealing her white teeth, and her horse ears stood erect. She swiftly sheathed the knife she had just brandished and assumed a fighting stance. Meanwhile, Moonbeam, having lost her shotgun, drew two large, automatic pistols—who knows where she'd picked them up from—seemingly intending to engage in some gunfighting.

"You see the flaws of these two clearly enough, don't you?" Just as the two were about to confront each other, Huang Yan's virtual fairy avatar flapped its wings and landed on Fish's shoulder.

"Of course, I can see it perfectly clearly." Fish sighed. "Still the same old thing... He forgets everything the moment he sees his nemesis..."

"wrong."

"Meow? What did you say?"

"Mr. Fish, your summary just now was completely wrong... After all, you've lived and fought alongside these two for so long, don't you understand them at all?"

"Huh? Huh?"

"For example, they haven't actually 'forgotten everything' yet—while Moon Butterfly isn't exactly a paragon of virtue, she still has a basic sense of right and wrong. The reason she dares to abandon you and fight Frostleaf is simply because this is, after all, just a virtual game. Even if she loses the match and is relegated to the sidelines of those opponents she considers of lowly birth, it's only a slight loss of face for her."

"is that so?"

"Otherwise what? Don't forget, the marriage alliance with Grand Duke Fayun is enough to bring the Ten Victory Marquisate the political capital it needs. Since that guy doesn't have much affection for you, he certainly won't care about your specific position among the concubines. In fact, even if you really get married, Yue Die will continue to scheme in the political arena of the Ten Victory Marquisate, and you probably won't have many opportunities to meet in a year."

"That's good." Fish breathed a sigh of relief—he didn't really want to spend all his time with someone he had no connection with anyway, "but since that's the case..."

"I can guarantee that in a truly critical moment—for example, when we head to Drifting Continent for the final battle—Moon Butterfly will definitely cooperate perfectly with Frostleaf. Because she knows very well that not doing so means certain death. Of course, she will absolutely not run away or waver, because she's too smart; she knows very well that running away is pointless." As the two arch-enemies clashed again not far away, Phoenix Flame said, "As for her problem, you'll understand once you pick up that shotgun."

"Hmm..." Fish immediately did as instructed. After picking up the shotgun, he noticed that the weapon was loaded with powerful slugs, while the shotgun shells were left in the ammunition belt that Moon Butterfly was wearing and had not been loaded.

"Do you see anything now?"

“Yes.” Fish nodded. “This girl is taking a risk—normally, shotguns would guarantee a high hit rate in close-quarters combat within the maze. However, she deliberately sacrificed the spread of shotgun shells in favor of this type of ammunition. This indicates that she’s worried that if she encounters me, she won’t be able to take me down in one shot, so…”

"You're right," Huang Yan said. "These slugs count as 1000 points no matter which part of the body they hit, and a single shot can end the game. But each pellet of the 12-gauge shotgun is only worth 80 points. If you only hit a few parts of the body, you can't guarantee a win—that's Yue Die's real problem. She has a very speculative mentality and likes to put all her bets on a single successful gamble. Even in something as small as choosing ammunition, this problem will subconsciously show up."

"Hmm, I see..." Fish continued watching the fight between the two: among all the various duels he had seen, this one was quite unusual. Although she had a submachine gun hanging on her back, Frostleaf used her sword-drawing technique to fight from beginning to end—and most of the time, she was just making a threatening gesture, only drawing her sword and swinging it at her opponent a few times, but she would quickly sheathe her sword if she missed.

As for Yuedie, she didn't fire indiscriminately. Instead, she constantly changed positions and adjusted her pace, only using her pistols to close in and fire when there seemed to be an opportunity, reducing the chance of her opponent evading by shooting at extremely close range. Their performance was less like a battle and more like a strange dance.

"So, Mr. Fish, have you figured out Frostleaf's biggest weakness?"

"This..." Fish thought for a moment, then shook his head. "Excuse me for being frank, but I really didn't see that coming."

"Really? Then you'd better think about it carefully—if you can't figure it out, I'll add a twenty-second electric shock punishment afterwards."

"Damn it, I don't want this one!" Fish suddenly felt a chill between his legs and shivered violently. After all, he really couldn't see any weaknesses in Frostleaf now: although to an uninformed outsider, the battle between Frostleaf and Moon Butterfly seemed to be evenly matched on the surface, Fish had long since moved beyond the stage of "a layman watching the show" after a series of training sessions and accumulating a lot of practical experience.

After a few seconds of brief observation, Fish was now quite clear that Frostleaf held a significant advantage in the battle. Although it seemed evenly matched, Moonbeam actually had to periodically use pinpoint fire to force Frostleaf to dodge and retreat in order to avoid being killed in one fell swoop by the opponent who had the upper hand.

The problem is that the magazines for the two automatic pistols are not unlimited. Although Moonbeam carefully counts the number of bullets, emptying only one gun at a time and then immediately reloading with one hand, Moonbeam is very vulnerable when she only has one gun available.

In other words, at this moment, Frostleaf could easily break through the opponent's defenses and deliver the decisive blow. But strangely, she didn't do that at all: once Moonbeam started reloading, Frostleaf would deliberately slow down her attack speed, making it seem as if...

...It was as if they were deliberately trying to drag out the battle.

"It seems... you've thought it through?" As soon as Fish's expression changed, Huang Yan immediately asked.

"That's right, Frostleaf is deliberately stalling for time... Although she could easily defeat Moonbeam and win in a short time if she wanted to," Fish subconsciously bit her lip, "but she's deliberately not doing so. This isn't just because of her sworn enemy relationship with Moonbeam, but quite the opposite..."

"You guessed right, she was completely worried about you—because I deliberately suggested that if the game ended too early, you would be electrocuted. That's why Shuangye tried every means to stall for time, even if it would lead to more variables," Huangyan said. "You've spent so much time with her, haven't you realized yet? Shuangye actually cares more about her companions whom she approves of than herself. Most of the time, she prioritizes others over herself."

“However, this can also become a weakness,” Fish nodded. “In an emergency, protecting your comrades isn’t always the highest priority—sometimes, doing so can actually delay the fight. It seems that’s something we need to think about carefully.”

"That's right. The main purpose of this 'game' is to let you identify everyone's weaknesses and make thorough preparations when arranging battles," Huang Yan said. "However, I must remind you of one thing."

"What is it?"

"The secondary purpose of this 'game'—to let everyone compete and determine the winner and rank them—is also true," Huang Yan's virtual fairy terminal suddenly began to chuckle wickedly, "and... I now know who the winner will be."

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