The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"Congratulations, the difficulty you are about to face is - Level 2, Easy."

Perhaps it was some kind of wicked sense of humor from the god of fate, but just as Fish stepped out of the safe house, nearly a hundred meters directly above, another person confidently stepping through the door also heard the same voice.

"Who's there? What's going on?!" Liu Gang, who looked like a ferocious bipedal brown bear, subconsciously licked his thick lips, gripping the handle and carrying handle of his favorite large-caliber machine gun tightly. "Carpo, do you know anything?"

"I don't know either, boss," said the only armored warrior in the "Tidal Lightning" warband. This young man named Kapo, with square pupils like a goat and curved ram horns, was only the lowest rank of armored warrior, "Jade," but he was already the strongest in the warband and had the most experience adventuring in ruins. But even he had never encountered such a situation before.

"Maybe it's a prank? Sometimes these strange noises come out in the ruins," Liu Gang said, shaking his thick mane as he saw that Kapo didn't know either, and took a few more steps forward.

Although Liu Gang's "Black Storm" was far ahead of Fish, just as Huang Yan had predicted, to avoid running aground in the increasingly dense urban center, they had to slow down repeatedly, arriving at their destination more than an hour later than the "Lucky Star." Moreover, the "Black Storm" chose to dock on the north side of the island, where the water was deeper and the mangroves were less dense, thus failing to spot the "Lucky Star" hidden in the mangroves on the other side.

Behind Liu Gang, the sixty fully armed members of the "Tidal Lightning" gang remained outside the gates of the magnificent arena. They formed a tight defensive formation, vigilantly watching their surroundings, but did not advance a step.

Of course, they weren't afraid to advance. These sixty men were the elite of the Warband, all with extensive combat experience, far superior to Fish's squad, who had been tricked into serving as cannon fodder and bait. They were even equipped with as many as four armed Gorons.

It was Liu Gang's order to leave these people outside.

As a seasoned veteran with extensive experience venturing into ancient ruins, Liu Gang knew very well that when entering places potentially fraught with unknown dangers, it was better to send the most capable fighters ahead to probe the area than to send a large group in recklessly. This way, even if something went wrong, it would prevent too much loss at once. Furthermore, a small elite force was more likely to evacuate the danger zone quickly than the main group.

Besides, this has another advantage: a leader who frequently takes the lead and ventures into dangerous areas is likely to gain strong support from his subordinates. Therefore, although it involves certain risks, whenever they encounter dangerous areas, especially giant underground structures like these "mazes," Liu Gang always insists on being the first to enter.

Today is no exception.

While the ground floor of this "labyrinth" resembles an old Roman amphitheater, its interior on the first level is a distinctly cyberpunk urban area. Dozens of massive, dirty, and dilapidated buildings are crammed together, with gaps barely wide enough for two or three people to walk side by side. Various haphazardly constructed additions abound, and a spiderweb of electrical wires, skybridges, and fire escape staircases crisscross the air.

"It is said that before the Three Heroes led our 'Evolvers' uprising, the ancient humans of the old civilization forced our ancestors to fight and have fun in places like this," Kapo, who had some knowledge of history, said softly, looking at the messy buildings. "Hundreds and thousands of people died in places like this, just to... make those guys happy."

"I know."

"Although so many years have passed, there are probably still enemies and traps here. We'd better be careful."

"I know that too." Liu Gang weighed the .50 caliber machine gun in his hand. This weapon weighed more than 30 kilograms and had an astonishing recoil, making it impossible for an ordinary person to use alone. However, as a member of the strongest race among the New Humans, Liu Gang actually liked its weight.

This allows him to intuitively feel his own power.

After loading the first bullet, he pulled the trigger, unleashing a 100-round machine gun ammunition belt at the tall building in front of him within a dozen seconds.

When exploring the ruins of ancient civilizations, it is common to conduct probing fire like this—most synthetic beasts and autonomous weapons are not very intelligent, and just a few shots are enough to provoke them, causing them to rush out of their hiding places and unable to bear hiding any longer.

Of course, this time is no exception.

Just as Liu Gang was changing to the second ammunition belt, he was pleased to find that more than a dozen shadows emerged from the buildings.

These creatures were not living beings, but rather gleaming metallic machines. They had grayish-green shells, a red circular optical sensor at the front of their bodies, and moved rapidly using four slender mechanical legs. The ends of these mechanical legs were all sharp blades with dangerous barbs, clearly indicating that they could also be used as weapons.

"The Piercer." That's the name adventurers of this era gave to these things. As typical representatives of low-level autonomous weapons, these foot-long robots have very simple functions, tactics, and attack methods. They simply charge straight at their target and pierce their opponents with the sharp blades at the ends of their limbs.

Although, as machines, the "Piercers" are much more durable than ordinary chimeras, their low intelligence and rigid behavior result in a threat rating of D-. Of course, the appearance of a dozen or so of these things at the same time would indeed be a big problem for ordinary people.

But Liu Gang and Kapo are not ordinary people.

As the "piercers" emerged from the buildings, Liu Gang did not rush to attack. Instead, he methodically reloaded the machine gun. Only when the target was less than thirty meters away did he reveal a cruel smile characteristic of a predator and begin to pull the trigger.

At this distance, the armor-piercing rounds of the heavy machine gun could penetrate the metal casing of the "Piercer" with 100% accuracy, completely destroying their critical systems. Moreover, firing at close range significantly increased the hit rate compared to shooting at greater distances—of course, due to the "Piercer's" extremely high speed, Liu Gang's machine gun fire did not eliminate them all; two or three managed to slip through and approach him…

...and then it was easily sliced ​​up like a cake by a curved blade.

"The difficulty here is lower than I imagined." After eliminating the approaching "Piercers" with his arm armor that transformed into a scimitar, Capo glanced at the autonomous weapon parts scattered on the ground and shook his head. "In my experience, a 'maze' of this size, even the first level, shouldn't be this easy."

As soon as Capo finished speaking, more shadows emerged from the building—this time, they were some dilapidated humanoid robots. Some of them still retained their silicone skin and artificial hair, revealing their original beautiful girl appearance; while others were reduced to mechanical skeletons, looking like skeletons summoned by necromancers from legends.

However, both the former and the latter were clearly hostile. Some of the humanoid robots were armed with "traditional" knives, forks, and sticks, which seemed relatively easy to deal with; but others carried a wide variety of shooting weapons, from shotguns and pistols to military rifles, a diverse array of options.

"This is finally getting a bit more interesting." Liu Gang licked his lips. "Mr. Capo, where's your 'big toy'?"

"Don't worry, it's ready." Kapo quickly took off the backpack on his back and took out a large silver cylindrical object from it.

If a regular army soldier were present, he would likely recognize it immediately as an anti-boat bottom mine, widely used during the war between the Trans-Pacific Empire and the Northern Alliance twenty years ago. They were deployed extensively along the coastlines of atoll islands where enemy landings were a possibility. The 60-kilogram high-explosive warhead inside could completely obliterate amphibious tanks or small landing craft.

Of course, after the war, these surplus weapons quickly found their way into civilian hands and were widely used by mercenaries and adventurers. Although they didn't have many landing craft and amphibious tanks to blast, they discovered the weapon's excellent effect in scavenging through ruins, using it to demolish obstructing piles of rubble and walls. For teams fortunate enough to recruit armored warriors, this thing had another clever use.

"The big one is here!"

After Kapo shouted those words, Liu Gang immediately and nimbly hid behind the corner of a building, while Kapo threw the cylinder with all his might, which had already activated the timing fuse.

Compared to the "original" bottom mine, this cylindrical mine had an extra outer shell and was filled with lead bullets, steel balls, and broken glass, resulting in a total weight of 112 kilograms, which would be impossible for an ordinary person to throw by hand. However, with the support of the intelligent combat armor, Capo still managed to throw it more than 100 meters away.

Then, the moment it landed, this modified heavy explosive turned the area within a hundred meters around it into a hell of flying shrapnel and steel balls.

Although the cyborgs don't have vital organs like blood vessels, hearts, and nerves like humans, their fate after being swept away by the shockwave and shrapnel was still gruesome. When the explosion subsided, only a few limping, struggling robots remained before Liu Gang. Then, he picked up his machine gun and took them down one by one with single shots.

"Now everything should be completely alright." As the smoke began to dissipate, Capo raised his left hand, and an antenna resembling the antennae of a moth immediately extended from his arm armor—this was the special ability of his intelligent combat armor, "Malice Detector." Although the name suggests a means of detecting all hostile forces, in reality, its detection range is limited to autonomous weapons and ancient civilization artifacts such as chimeras in the urban ruins.

At this very moment, a green indicator representing "safety" is flashing on his helmet display.

"Looks like this place isn't all that impressive after all," Liu Gang said, waving his hand with a sigh of relief. "All personnel, listen up! Form search formation and thoroughly search this floor before moving on! The thing we're looking for isn't very big, so make sure to check every building and every room carefully!"

"yes!"

Upon receiving their orders, the members of the "Tidal Lightning" warband immediately filed into the gates of the ancient arena—but just as the armed "Goron" bringing up the rear stepped heavily into the arena, the gates suddenly slammed shut behind them with a muffled roar.

"What's going on?!"

"Why did the door close by itself?!"

"What exactly happened?!"

Although Liu Gang forced himself to remain calm, his subordinates were beginning to feel uneasy—in the ruins of an ancient metropolis filled with traps and dangers at every turn, a door closing behind you was usually not a good omen.

"Don't worry, we've cleared away the danger here," Capo shouted, trying to reassure the others. However, his words were barely out of his mouth when a sharp female voice rang out.

"Greetings everyone! Please note that we have an important announcement: due to the detection of a large number of new challengers, we will be adjusting the difficulty of this level!"

"What?!" Liu Gang exclaimed in surprise—he had never encountered such a situation before.

"Congratulations, after appropriate adjustments, the difficulty you will face is—Level 5, Doomsday Level!" the voice continued to say to itself.

"Aa ...

Just as the crowd erupted in panicked screams, one of the massive buildings suddenly split open to the sides, like a cocoon being torn apart by a molting insect. Then, several enormous four-legged machines emerged from within the building.

These creatures resemble giant mammoths, except they are several times larger than any proboscis animals that have ever lived in history, and their size is closer to the giant mammoths sent by the Harads in The Lord of the Rings.

The bodies of these mechanical behemoths, which are over ten meters tall, are covered with sturdy armor plates. Multi-barreled machine gun turrets and rocket launchers are densely packed on both sides of their bodies. Their skull-like heads are covered with all kinds of complex sensor arrays, and a pair of sunken eye sockets gleam with a chilling dark red light.

"This is unbelievable! This is... 'Ganesha'!" Kapo swallowed hard. "A level A autonomous weapon!"

"What?! Why have I never heard of such a thing before?" Liu Gang asked.

"Because 'Ganesha' are extremely rare! There have only been a handful of sightings in history. However, every time they appear, they cause immense destruction—last time, just one of these creatures wiped out a 300-strong expedition from the Duchy of Irian. That expedition included six armored warriors of the 'Jade' and 'Agate' grades!"

"You...you're not kidding, are you?" Liu Gang's bear-like face was completely drained of color, looking like a blank sheet of paper. Kapo slowly nodded.

Then, they both let out desperate screams.

"Hmm... I didn't expect... such a thing could happen?"

As the massive explosion, billowing flames, and flying limbs filled the screen, Fish gasped—yes, he had desperately wanted to see Liu Gang and the others meet a tragic end, to pay the price for abandoning their comrades. But what he saw before him chilled him to the bone.

"That's why I told you not to rush out," Huang Yan whispered in Fish's ear. "I just checked the database and found that there's a 'the stronger the opponent, the stronger you become' rule in this arena—the stronger the challenger's overall strength, the stronger the opponent they will face. Moreover, the increase in the opponent's strength will far exceed the increase in the challenger's strength."

"Then wouldn't I be...?"

"As the top-tier intelligent combat armor, my very existence will earn you the highest rating," Huang Yan said with a hint of pride... but in the current situation, such pride was rather inappropriate. "In other words, you'll probably be facing the same 'Doomsday' level difficulty as them."

"You... can handle this for me, right?"

"I'm sorry, but according to my calculations, even based on the most favorable estimation standard for us, the chance of winning is still less than 2.75%," Huang Yan replied immediately.

"Not bad," Lulu said. About fifteen minutes ago, after Fish left the safe house, this "host" made of holographic projection reappeared.

To Fish's surprise, she did not immediately announce the difficulty of the third level, nor did she begin the challenge of this level. Instead, she "conjured" the screen in front of Fish, allowing him to witness everything that happened on the first level, and then waited for him to make a decision.

Fish knew perfectly well that this practice undoubtedly stemmed from the perverse tastes of those extremely sadistic and bloodthirsty spectators of the past. Although those people had long since disappeared into the annals of history, the programs they designed continued to follow the same formula in pursuit of "drama."

"So, before the difficulty level is determined for this floor, what are your thoughts on this, Mr. Fish?"

Fish remained silent, while Huang Yan gave him an annoyed "humph" in his ear. "It's those old bastards' twisted sense of humor again," he muttered. "Those people from the old civilization era really enjoyed watching other people's expressions of despair and terror, so they deliberately arranged this kind of scene, am I right?"

"Indeed. After all, isn't the value of the new humans to please real humans with everything they have?" Lulu Meng answered very frankly. Of course, Fish just snorted in annoyance at this.

"So what should we do?"

"Theoretically speaking, there is another way," Huang Yan said, "but in that case, everything will depend on you."