The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

Like all entertainment activities in human history that are not meant to be made public, the "Special Games Area" of the "Moon Palace" is located at the deepest part of the entire ship. Surrounded by relatively "ordinary" functional blocks, it is like the yolk in the center of an egg.

After all, according to Huang Yan, even by the standards of the morally corrupt late era of the old civilization, many of the "games" here were far too terrible and belonged to the type that could not be exposed to the light of day.

Of course, every passage leading to this area required the highest level of security clearance. Fortunately, the captain-level guard controlled by Huang Yan happened to possess this level of clearance. Thanks to this, they were spared a lot of trouble breaking down doors and locks.

However, security clearance is not a panacea—on their way to the "Special Game Zone," the group encountered several brutal battle scenes: in order to seize control of the "Moon Palace" and prevent both ships from crashing onto the lunar surface at the same time, combat robots from the planetary fortress, and even hastily armed maintenance and service robots, were attacking frantically and recklessly, regardless of the losses.

While, objectively speaking, allowing the combat robots from the planetary fortress to take over the ship was the only chance for the "Moon Palace" and all its crew to survive, the crew of this ancient space empire clearly didn't understand the current situation—or rather, the mindless guards were incapable of truly "understanding" anything. They faithfully executed the defense plans established thousands of years ago, repelling their attacks from various positions.

Needless to say, setting aside Huang Yan's new "avatar," neither side in the midst of the chaotic battle could possibly consider Fish and Alicia as allies. In most cases, Fish and the others wisely chose to avoid the conflict. But when there was no way to escape, they had no choice but to bite the bullet and fight.

Fortunately, since the battle scene was a complex and enclosed space that she was most familiar with and had limited room to maneuver, Alicia finally had a long-awaited opportunity to show off in front of Fish.

Despite being a rapid clone specifically designed for the death gladiatorial game, Alicia's physical abilities significantly surpass those of an unmodified natural human. However, lacking the talent to use intelligent combat armor, her combat power, at least theoretically, should be incomparable to even the lowest-ranking "Jade" level armored warrior. On this perilous ship, she can only rely on Fish for protection. However, theory is one thing, reality is another…

"Hey, this is for you!"

Half a second after that cold glint grazed the forehead of his helmet, Fish belatedly realized that a guard from the "Moon Palace" was trying to ambush him from the side—the man's tactics were not flawed; using a row of green plant decorations along the edge of the luxurious living room as cover, he aimed a "cross sword" at Fish while he was fighting two combat robots from the planetary fortress.

As a highly specialized miniature anti-armor energy weapon produced at the end of an old civilization era, the "Cross Sword" anti-armor blaster, at its maximum firing power, can penetrate all known individual armor in history within twenty meters. The guard dressed as a maid was also very confident in her shooting accuracy. However, she did not notice that her target's companion had also made a move.

Although she was battling a bizarre, spider-like robot—or more accurately, managing to evade attacks from this mechanical spider that suddenly emerged from the ventilation duct and attacked her with its razor-like claws—Alicia, purely on instinct, drew one of her two purely decorative swift swords from behind a pair of small, round shields fixed to the wall and hurled it at the clump of greenery.

In doing so, Alicia didn't see her target at all. She acted solely on the slight rustling of leaves and the faint blue light leaking from between the plants—the dim glow emitted by the barrel of the "Cross Sword" anti-armor blaster during its charged firing—along with her intuition. The reason for the attack seemed utterly absurd. But the truth was, the decorative swift sword, like a short javelin, pierced through the vegetation and severed the guard's throat.

And this was less than a second before the other side prepared to fire at Fish.

"Alicia, nice assistance!" As the guard maid's body rolled helplessly out from behind the bushes, Huang Yan shouted in the voice of the guard she was controlling. Then, under her control, the new body raised the "Ripper" MK-9 pistol and directly blasted the "Spider," which was still trying to attack Alicia. The latter's smoking remains then fell from the ceiling.

"Alicia, nice assistance!" As the guard maid's body rolled helplessly out from behind the bushes, Huang Yan shouted in the voice of the guard she was controlling. Then, under her control, the new body raised the "Ripper" MK-9 pistol and directly blasted the "Spider," which was still trying to attack Alicia. The latter's smoking remains then fell from the ceiling.

"Well done," Fish said, as his single-molecule dagger pierced the central processing unit of the second combat robot, rendering it useless. "How did you find that guy?"

Unlike maintenance/utility robots that resemble humans (or more accurately, human skeletons) and walk on two legs, these combat robots all look like arachnids. Multiple long, powerful legs allow them to move relatively nimbly through confined spaces, while their scorpion-tail-like structures can be used for melee combat and to fire additional energy weapons. Fish initially struggled quite a bit, but after becoming familiar with their fighting style, he gradually found it easier to deal with them.

"Uh... to be precise, it was intuition, right?" Alicia shrugged. "I just felt first that 'something terrible is there,' and then subconsciously felt that 'I have to take this approach,' and finally... I did it."

"Is it really that casual?" Fish was at a loss for words.

“Uh… I was wondering about it too. But my gut feeling told me the same thing,” Alicia explained, drawing her second swift sword from behind the decorative little round shield. She weighed the slender, gilded weapon in her hand, then hurled it with all her might at the decorative pool in the corner of the hall, its surface dotted with water lilies. “Look, like this.”

"Splash!" After the sword entered the water, Fish heard a low thud—clearly, the swift sword had pierced more than just the surface of the water. Moments later, as a pool of blood spread on the surface, the body of a maid wearing snorkeling gear floated to the surface, the swift sword still embedded in her shoulder.

"Holy crap, you can do that...!"

"This is no 'casual' thing," Huang Yan said. "As far as I know, it means that Alicia's crucial potential has been awakened."

"Potential?"

"Yes. The special fast-cloning NPCs used in the old civilization era for various bloodthirsty death games were all designed to have special abilities—the most common of which is 'tactical intuition.' Of course, to be more precise, it should be called a high degree of sensitivity to the surrounding environment and 'tactical subconsciousness.'"

"What's that?" Fish asked as he picked up the weapon left behind by the maid-cloaked guard who had been shot dead.

"In short, for humans, the information provided by the senses has always exceeded what the brain, especially the conscious mind, can process. This is because humans need to concentrate on thinking, and even when focused on alertness, they cannot fully notice and analyze all the information they see, hear, smell, and touch; they can only select the more important pieces. This leads to a considerable amount of information being missed—after all, the human brain's processing power is quite limited."

"You've said that before," Fish muttered, somewhat annoyed. Shortly after meeting Huang Yan, when he was still staying at the Camphor Leaf Palace in the Penglai Kingdom, she had repeatedly emphasized the "poor computing power of the human brain" and the importance of relying on her assistance in battle. Because Huang Yan's tone was always so harsh when she mentioned this, Fish had been genuinely annoyed several times, and naturally remembered that rhetoric very clearly. "But what is 'tactical subconsciousness'?"

"Fast clones like Alicia have undergone specialized modifications. In theory, her subconscious can be separated from her conscious mind, allowing her to constantly gather and process information that is easily overlooked while remaining vigilant, and to think independently," Huang Yan said. "For example, just now her conscious mind only detected a slight anomaly during the battle, but because she was busy dealing with the enemy in front of her, she didn't have time to think further. However, her subconscious mind conducted a meticulous analysis, ultimately concluding that there was a 'dangerous enemy' and even providing an attack plan."

"Is that so? But last time in the Northwest..."

"Her performance back then wasn't as good as it is now, but that's normal—after all, 'theoretically possible' never equals 'actually possible'," Huang Yan interrupted Fish before he could finish speaking.

"Well?"

"To control the difficulty, although all fast clones produced for the purpose of death gladiatorial combat have this potential, by default they can only exert a very small portion of it... that is, to the extent of being 'a little more perceptive than an ordinary person.' This potential will only be unlocked after surviving a series of crises."

"No wonder... Only those who team up with players and engage in long-term death games, rather than being disposable cannon fodder NPCs, can survive in the crisis for a long time." Fish nodded, understanding Huang Yan's meaning. "In this way, the difficulty of those games is balanced, and it can make players feel like they are 'leveling up'."

"That's right, exactly," Huang Yan said. "Although Alicia hasn't shown any particularly outstanding performance since leaving the Northwest Land, she has still participated in every training session and battle with everyone. It's normal that her potential can be fully realized. And the current environment is precisely the most suitable environment for her to unleash her potential."

"Looks like we've had pretty good luck." After collecting the spoils, Fish handed the "Cross Sword" anti-armor blaster and a box of spare energy batteries to Alicia. He then took a short-barreled laser carbine from the guard maid floating in the pool. As Huang Yan had said, the equipment used by the security forces on the "Guanghan Palace" was considered top-notch even in the old civilization era. Although laser carbines were common weapons in the old civilization era, the power and reliability of this one significantly surpassed all mass-produced ones.

"Walk a little further and take that elevator down; that's the ground floor of the 'Special Games Area.'" After taking the laser carbine from Fish, the guard maid controlled by Phoenix Flame walked to the other end of the hall and used her privileges to open another door.

The moment the door opened, a set of security system-controlled trap turrets immediately emerged from the ceiling, aiming their 20mm electromagnetic cannons—powerful enough to penetrate light armored vehicles—at the group…and then they were blown up by Huang Yan's newly acquired laser carbine.

"I think this should be the last bit of trouble," Huang Yan said as the elevator started moving. "Of course, it's the last bit of trouble before entering the 'Special Game Zone'."

"Uh, you mean there's even bigger trouble down there?" Alicia suddenly became a little flustered.

"Well... I'm not really sure either," Huang Yan replied. "However, based on common sense, those guys from the old civilization era, especially the rich and powerful bastards, were pretty savvy. So, it wouldn't be surprising if you all saw something mind-blowing next."

"What does sanity loss mean?" Fish asked curiously.

"Well... it's too much to explain in a short time. But it's not important right now," Huang Yan said, as the slight feeling of weightlessness from the elevator's descent gradually subsided, once again assuming a gun-wielding, alert stance. "Get ready, three—two—"

Fish and Ange followed suit and pointed their guns at the elevator doors.

"one!"

The elevator doors slowly opened to both sides, and a damp, stuffy wind, mixed with decaying plant branches and soil, blew in from outside.

"Hmm, is this really how it is?" Fish was slightly taken aback—in his original imagination, this "special play area" should have been filled with narrow, secret rooms, piled high with whips, candles, traps, shackles, rocking horses, and all sorts of other props for special activities... He had previously found quite a few of these props and toys in the small room of the Camphor Leaf Palace. But unexpectedly, the outside was actually a sultry, dense, shady woodland.

"Wow! There's a forest inside the spaceship!" Alicia exclaimed.

“That’s…not surprising.” Fish shrugged. “Many of the ‘games’ people played in the past had strange and unusual scenes. We’ve seen forests before—there’s a fake forest in the ‘maze’ underground in Twilight City.”

"No, the situation here is probably different from that in Twilight City," Huang Yan suddenly said.