The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"Thanks for coming all this way to help, buddy."

When the "flying saw" got within ten meters of Fish, he suddenly said this. Then, the small drone that had been leisurely circling him suddenly sped up and rushed towards him... and began sawing the tree branches beneath Fish.

"Overdrive control established successfully." A line of small green text lit up on the helmet display.

"Phew..." Fish let out a long sigh of relief—this ability was something Phoenix Flame had previously taken from the "Black Destroyer" that was lingering in the tower complex through the "devouring ability".

After successfully acquiring it, it was placed under the "Subsidiary Ability System" category. Interestingly, like the Three Defenses System, the contents of this "Subsidiary Ability System" do not seem to affect its strength rating in the Arena, thus becoming one of the two subsystems that Phoenix Flame has not closed offline.

The effect of this ability is to manipulate a certain level of automated equipment under specific conditions. Previously, "Black Destroyer" used this ability to carry out several dangerous attacks, almost causing Fish's death.

However, while it can theoretically have many uses, this capability has many limitations. For example, its duration of control over a single target is limited, and its effective range is also limited when establishing control.

According to tests conducted by Fish before leaving the tower, the current maximum range for this ability is less than ten meters.

Fortunately, through his previous disguise and performance, Fish successfully made the not-so-intelligent autonomous weapon believe that it was completely trapped in a dead end, and seized control of it when the other party approached.

Although the "flying saw" has a very sharp blade, it was unfortunately originally designed to kill "soft" targets such as humans and animals. It is not very effective against branches made of cellulose and lignin.

After working for several minutes, Fish managed to cut a slit in the top of the branch, and then began to twist its spine and shake the branch beneath it.

After several shakes, the branch finally broke off at the sawed point. Then, with screams, Fish fell from a height of more than ten meters.

While real cats aren't afraid of falling from the sky, unfortunately, Fish's ancestors' genetic modifications didn't give him a similar ability—especially while his hands and feet were still tied to the branches.

Fortunately, he landed in a mud puddle covered with half-rotten leaves. The moment he fell into the mud, the sap that had been sticking to Fish's hands and feet suddenly melted away, freeing his limbs.

"How is this...?" Fish was initially surprised when he discovered that the sap had melted in the mud. However, he quickly guessed the reason: since everything in this arena was designed for entertainment, there would naturally be many convenient settings like "one thing counters another," the purpose of which was to take into account the "gamelike" aspect of the activity.

"But this is really a damn damn game," Fish muttered to himself as he swam to shore. But he had only taken two steps when he suddenly felt a sense of weightlessness from the downward pull.

Beneath the ground covered in decaying leaves, there was a trap that was as deep as a person!

"What the hell is this?!" Thanks to the speed advantage brought by his feline genes, Fish quickly grabbed a vine before falling into the trap, thus avoiding being trapped inside.

The trap wasn't dug by human hands, but rather a smooth, pale green bag-like object with a leaf-like hue. Its interior was covered in fine barbs, and a layer of clear, transparent liquid had accumulated at the bottom, making it look like…

"Nepenthes?"

"Congratulations to this guest, you got it right." Lulu Meng's image haunted him. "This is a pitcher plant that has been genetically modified to hide its feeding pouch underground. It can prey on fairly large land mammals and is a masterpiece of the genetic engineering enthusiasts' association... However, compared to the vampire dodder, it is actually slightly inferior."

"Eh? What is bloodsucking... Meow!" As a sharp pain shot through his palm, Fish noticed that the "lifeline" he had just grabbed had sprouted a sucker the size of a soybean and "kissed" the artery on his wrist!

If it weren't for the fact that the protection provided by Phoenix Flame is quite reliable against biting and cutting attacks, this thing would definitely have already invaded the body and bit through blood vessels!

"This is a truly remarkable creation. Ordinary dodder can only absorb water, minerals, and sugars from the vascular structure of its host plant, but this modified organism can absorb and utilize animal fat, blood, and lymph. Incidentally, it also has a certain degree of mobility, allowing it to actively hunt for prey."

"Damn it! Didn't you say there weren't any chimeras on this floor?!" Fish forcefully shook off the vine, then pulled a broadsword he'd gotten from the "Wave" from his belt and severed several other tendrils from the vampire dodder. "You lied to me!"

"Hey, Mr. Fish, it's really heartbreaking that you're making baseless accusations like this!" Lulu's image contrivedly struck a crying pose, and exaggerated tears suddenly gushed from her big eyes like a fountain. "On beginner difficulty, there are indeed no chimeras on this floor."

"So these things are... uh..." Fish wanted to continue questioning, but swallowed the rest of his sentence back—that's right, the damn program said before that there were no synthesized "beasts" on this layer, but it didn't say that there were no genetically modified predatory plants.

As the name suggests, the so-called "synthetic beasts" naturally refer to animals modified by the scoundrels of the old civilization era. And at least literally, plants cannot be called "synthetic beasts".

In other words, Fish really had no reason to complain that the other party wasn't telling the truth.

"Damn it, how many plants like this are there?!" After slicing up the large clump of dodder with his cleavers, Fish's feet began to disturb the soil beneath him again.

Some slender roots with needle-like sharp ends suddenly emerged from under the loose soil, and some of them nearly pierced his feet if Fish hadn't dodged quickly!

"Generally speaking, vegetation covers about 85% of the entire arena area, of which only 20% are genetically modified aggressive predatory plants," Lulu Meng's image said with a smile. Clearly, the panic and unease on the other person's face were quite a valuable "delicacy" to her.

After all, the bloodthirsty audiences of the old civilization era created Lulumomo as an intelligent program specifically for this purpose.

"Holy crap!" Fish exclaimed, looking like he'd just swallowed a handful of flies. "What kind of beginner difficulty is this?"

"Most predatory plants are immobile and unable to chase prey, or have only extremely limited mobility, so their actual threat level is not high. Besides, isn't 80% of the vegetation safe?" Lulu asked rhetorically. "Therefore, the overall threat posed by these plants is limited. On this basis, adding a small number of autonomous weapons will just meet the 'beginner' difficulty level."

"Tsk—" Fish clenched his fists instinctively. Undoubtedly, he had been thoroughly outmaneuvered. However, now that he knew the details of this challenge, he didn't need to worry too much.

After quickly observing his surroundings, Fish picked up a long stick and cautiously probed the path beneath his feet, heading towards a relatively low-lying area.

As it turned out, he was right.

Unlike synthetic beasts and autonomous weapons that at least possess brains or CPUs, these predatory plants, despite having ferocious attack power thanks to the genetic modifications made by the past, have no intelligence whatsoever. They can only mechanically launch attacks when they sense their prey approaching.

Therefore, with just a stick, Fish easily detected most of the camouflaged predatory plants. As for those that couldn't even camouflage properly, he avoided them immediately.

Of course, not all predatory plants can only attack at close range. Once, a small shrub covered with huge pea pods suddenly transformed into a "pea shooter" after being touched by a stick, launching dozens of peas the size of a baby's fist at Fish.

On another occasion, a vine hanging above Fish's head shot out a poisonous thorn as long as an adult's middle finger towards the center of his forehead. If Phoenix Flame's helmet hadn't been sturdy enough, this attack might have pierced right through Fish's forehead.

In short, after seeing dozens of strange and unique dangerous plants along the way, Fish couldn't help but marvel at the level of psychological depravity of those people while also being deeply impressed by their astonishing genetic modification technology.

Strictly speaking, he himself is nothing more than a product of the same nature as these plants.

Finally, as a long, narrow lake came into view, Fish breathed a sigh of relief. After Lulu Meng mentioned "85% vegetation coverage," he had been deliberately heading towards low-lying areas, and the reality was much as he had expected.

Undoubtedly, this level of the arena simulates a jungle environment under natural conditions. Although Fish only has memories of living in the atoll city, he has heard plenty about jungles in bars.

According to those who have been to the jungle, plants in these places will frantically fight for every square centimeter of space where they can stretch their branches and receive sunlight, so it is almost impossible to find large open areas without vegetation under normal circumstances.

The only exception is open water bodies such as rivers and lakes.

As for how to find places with large bodies of water? Just go to the low-lying areas.

What delighted Fish even more was that in the middle of the lake, he saw an island that was less than a meter above the water and about the size of a basketball court.

Apart from a few clumps of duckweed and water lilies floating around the island, there is no vegetation on the island. The only building is a small, square concrete house with only one door, next to which is a sign that reads "EXIT" in bright red paint.

This is clearly the entrance to the next level.

"Phew... We've finally arrived."

Fish let out a long breath and began wading towards his destination. In the distance, several buzzing shadows were wandering back and forth in the air; they were probably the E+ level autonomous weapons operating on this floor.

However, perhaps because they had witnessed the scene where the flying saw that had tried to "execute" Fish was instead controlled by him, these guys just hovered at a distance and did not approach rashly.

Fish ignored them and continued wading forward. Although cat-like new humans like him, like real cats, generally didn't like water, Fish, having grown up in an atoll city, had practiced his swimming skills in the lagoon of Oasis City quite a bit.

Therefore, the one or two meters of water in the pond posed no obstacle to him at all.

...However, that is under the premise that there are no obstacles.

Just as Fish had swum about halfway across, he suddenly felt something flexible and slender wrap around his ankle and pull him underwater with tremendous force!

Although Fish struggled desperately, more ropes and objects came down from below, quickly binding him tightly!

"What the hell is this, meow?!"

"How about it? Surprised? Unexpected, right?!" Lulu's image popped up "at just the right time." "That's right, the vegetation coverage on this level is only 85%. However, it would be too presumptuous to think that a place with 'no vegetation coverage' is a safe place."

"Ugh..." Fish gritted his teeth and struggled to cut several "ropes" that were trying to bind him with his knife. But soon, one of the "ropes" tied his wrist, making him unable to move. At this moment, Phoenix Flame could no longer provide Fish with any power boost, so he was no match for these things in terms of strength.

Fortunately, the basic airtightness and watertightness were still guaranteed. When Fish was dragged underwater, he wasn't in immediate danger of suffocating. The Phoenix Flame's NBC protection system even had an additional function: it could filter dissolved oxygen from the water to supply oxygen to the sealed helmet.

However, although his breathing was temporarily fine, these green "ropes" were not content with simply trapping Fish. After realizing they couldn't drown him, they began to tighten the nooses with all their might, trying to break Fish's ribs and suffocate him.

While Phoenix Flame is effective against piercing, slashing, corrosive, and explosive attacks, it is virtually helpless against crushing and strangling attacks when it cannot provide additional power and exists only as a regular piece of armor.

Soon, Fish felt intense difficulty breathing. Although there was still air inside the helmet, he found it extremely difficult to even take a breath.

"Oh dear, Mr. Fish isn't doing too well," Lulu interrupted, adding sarcastically. "After all, the strangulation power of these 'giant lotus roots' is even stronger than that of real anacondas in the Amazon rainforest. If no one helps him, he probably won't be able to escape on his own."

"You...you bastard, you really do pop up anytime, anywhere," Fish laughed angrily.

"There's nothing I can do, this is my job."

"So, would you be willing to help me out?"