The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"Damn, this thing is really ugly..."

After the thrown flashlight stopped rolling, Fish looked at the corpse on the cave floor and frowned in disgust: the thing looked like a giant bat with a wingspan of more than two meters, with forelimbs covered in skin and short hind limbs.

However, unlike ordinary bats, it has a spiky tail with a sharp, venomous stinger at the end. Furthermore, its head has a cone-shaped beak, like that of a hummingbird, designed for sucking liquids.

Undoubtedly, that thing shouldn't be used to suck nectar.

"Wow! That's impressive!" Just as Fish walked over and pulled his combat sword from the creature, Lulumeng popped up at the perfect moment. "How did you discover there was a chimera lying in ambush?"

"Well, that's because of my incredible luck, of course." Fish deliberately wagged his tail, trying to get away with it by being cute: his previous experience told him that seriously communicating with this malicious program was a pointless endeavor.

Of course, Fish didn't just escape the ambush by luck: although he had never had any experience challenging in this kind of ancient arena before, as the cute and handsome young man who had successfully received the most feedings from rich women in the Oasis Harbor tavern, he was by no means stupid.

After experiencing a series of "accidents," he had roughly figured out the basic principles of the guys who designed this place back then.

First of all, everything here is designed with a clear purpose, most of which are aimed at setting traps and harming unsuspecting challengers.

Secondly, almost all the dangers here can be avoided or resolved with certain tricks—after all, if the challengers cannot solve the dangers they face, then the game is not worth watching for the bloodthirsty audience.

What Fish needs to find is this very trick.

Upon discovering the "kindly" provided lighting equipment, he immediately realized that the designers probably provided these items for much more than just helping challengers see the path ahead.

In a dark cave, light not only dispels the darkness but also attracts lurking dangers. And indeed, this proved to be true.

After confirming that this part of the cave was safe, Fish used his combat knife to cut off the huge skin of the "bat" with its sharp beak, carefully spread it out, removed the long, thin finger bones inside, and then tied the remaining skin to his back like the cape of a famous rich kid in Gotham City.

The broad membrane immediately covered most of his body. At the same time, the bat's foul odor completely masked Fish's own smell.

"It's a bit disgusting, but it's a really clever strategy," Lulu admitted. "Because the chimeras in the arena are prohibited from attacking each other, those chimeras that rely on their sense of smell can't find you anymore."

Fish didn't answer, but instead retrieved the two flashlights and continued to carefully feel his way along the wall.

To avoid attracting attacks with his light source, he would briefly turn on his head-mounted light every now and then to quickly memorize the outline of the surrounding route, then immediately turn it off and move forward by holding onto the wall, relying on his memory.

During this process, he would occasionally turn on a flashlight and throw it out as bait.

Whenever he encountered a fork in the road, Fish would always prioritize the leftmost path. If he encountered a dead end, he would immediately turn back and choose the path that was relatively to the right, trying each path from left to right.

These common-sense skills for navigating in the dark were learned by Fish from several "Disassemblers" at the shipyard in Oasis City. These people were experts in dismantling and recycling massive man-made equipment from the old civilization era.

They dismantle everything from ships and buildings to giant vehicles on land, naturally accumulating a wealth of experience in exploring complex and confined spaces.

However, no one would have expected that Fish would use the tricks he learned from the "Disintegrators" in this kind of situation.

Fortunately, perhaps because the current difficulty level isn't too high, not every passage is teeming with enemies. Some passages contain simple traps, such as small explosives with tripwire-controlled fuses, or barbed wire painted black and hidden in dark corners to avoid detection.

However, for Fish, who always remained cautious, these things were not difficult to avoid.

However, while Fish did avoid most dangers through exhaustive exploration and cautious progress, the cave itself became increasingly "unfriendly": when he first entered the cave, the ceiling was high enough to accommodate a two- or three-story detached building. But as Fish gradually advanced through the cave system, the ceiling height steadily decreased.

When Fish dealt with the creature lurking in the cave for the eleventh time (this time a bizarre arthropod that looked like a blind spider with legs a meter long), he noticed that the tips of his ears had even begun to brush against the ends of some of the drooping stalactites.

After continuing forward for some distance, the height of the cave ceiling had dropped to less than two meters, and the stalactites even began to merge with the stalagmites on the ground, turning into stone pillars connecting the cave ceiling and the ground.

When the cave ceiling began to touch Fish's head, Fish finally shuddered for the first time and stopped in his tracks.

"What's wrong, Mr. Fish?" Lulu's image popped up "at just the right time" after she noticed Fish had stopped moving. "Are you having some trouble?"

"No." Fish briefly turned on his headlamp and glanced at his feet—just now, he had felt a chill from the soles of his feet.

And as he had predicted, the further he went into these caves, the lower the ceiling became, and the more recessed the terrain. Just like the third level, large amounts of water began to accumulate in these low-lying areas.

Unlike the forest, in the cave, the water was enough to submerge the entire path, turning the cave system into a complete underground river. Although the water was only up to Fish's ankles at the moment, he knew very well what would happen if he continued forward.

"Don't worry, Mr. Fish," the image chuckled, "you've been on the right track the whole time. Just keep going and you'll reach your destination."

"Are there no other forks in the road around here?"

"There aren't any more in the areas that haven't been flooded yet," Lulu said. "Also, if you're looking for oxygen tanks or other diving equipment, I'm sorry, there aren't any. Because on this level, it's entirely possible to complete the challenge without using those things."

"Hmm..." Fish walked a little further and then sat down on a calcium carbonate stone platform: here, the cave was only one and a half meters high, and he had to bend over to move forward, while the groundwater was up to his knees.

At this moment, Fish finally understood what it meant to say that "the main challenge of this level comes from the maze itself": Admittedly, the chimeras and traps lurking in every nook and cranny were troublesome, and the dozens of branching paths of the cave maze were not easy to traverse, but at least they could be solved with strategy and caution. However, the challenge before him was different.

This is a test of his ability to resist fear.

Since the dawn of humanity, we have been accustomed to living in open fields and on the ground. As land animals, the possibility of being trapped in water and suffocating brings endless fear.

Although Fish's feline genes make him better at navigating narrow areas and less prone to claustrophobia than other new humans, a claustrophobic space filled with water and unable to breathe is still a terrifying place for him.

Of course, there are some new humans who are good at swimming, such as the Azure Scale Clan of the Principality of Irian and the Principality of Fayun. However, all new humans are warm-blooded animals that breathe with lungs, just like humans in the past. Even though the genetic science of the old civilization was highly advanced, attempts to make humans breathe with gills have never achieved a meaningful breakthrough.

After all, for a creature like a human with a high oxygen demand, breathing dissolved oxygen from water is far too inefficient, no matter what method is used.

Fish had no doubt that Lulu Meng had told the truth. After all, those bloodthirsty viewers from the past certainly wouldn't be happy to see a challenger unable to pass—to them, that would be far too unsuspenseful.

But the question is, how much of the truth did this utterly awful program actually tell?

Yes, completing the challenge is indeed "entirely possible." But what are the odds? One in ten? One in a hundred? These are all possibilities.

Moreover, Fish could bet that the chances of this happening were extremely slim—the bloodthirsty audience would probably have preferred to watch the contorted expressions of the losers as they died in despair rather than share in the joy of the victorious survivors.

But Fish knew he had no other choice. After hesitating for a moment, he tightened Phoenix Flame's helmet and dived into the water with a somewhat clumsy and awkward motion.

In a completely sealed state, the air inside Phoenix Flame could theoretically sustain Fish for four to five minutes—however, this figure is based on his condition of lying completely still with his body's tissue oxygen consumption at its lowest level.

Although Fish had no formal training in biology and physiology, he knew that his oxygen consumption would increase significantly as long as he moved around.

So he set a three-minute countdown on the inside of his helmet.

Shortly after entering the water, Fish encountered his first adversary: ​​a giant amphibian that was three meters long and had a mouth that looked like a toilet seat full of sharp teeth.

The slippery, pale creature cleverly concealed itself in a crevice in the rocks, launching a sudden attack as Fish approached, attempting a surprise attack from below, and then...

...And then that was it.

Although the limited amount of breathable air prevented Fish from advancing as cautiously and slowly as before, and the eyes of the pale creatures in the dark underwater caves had degenerated, making it impossible to attract their attention with a flashlight as before, one additional benefit of Phoenix Flame offset all these disadvantages.

As a living structure composed of a large amount of connective tissue and nervous system, the smart combat armor of the armored warriors is actually closer to a "second skin" after it is activated. They can directly feel the temperature, pressure and other stimuli felt by the nerve cells on the surface of the combat armor through neural connections.

The higher the level of combat armor, the more precise this sensory sharing becomes.

Although most of Phoenix Flame's active auxiliary functions have been turned off, as a "basic attribute" similar to the armor's own protective capabilities, this most basic skin sensory sharing will not cease as long as Fish is still wearing it.

On land, the added benefit of this sensory sharing is not significant, and can even be somewhat negligible. However, in water, often only a slight change in water pressure is needed to detect an impending danger in the blink of an eye.

A difference of a mere fraction of a second in reaction time can often determine victory or defeat... and even life or death.

After severing the pale amphibian's spine with his combat knife, Fish deliberately made several more cuts, slicing open its abdomen, removing its internal organs, and then letting the water carry it away.

Of course, this wasn't because Fish hated the animal that much, but because of another piece of common sense: adventurers who boasted in taverns had mentioned monsters they encountered in dark tunnels and old sewers, and had mentioned their common characteristics.

That is, while their vision is weakened, their sense of smell becomes highly sensitive as compensation.

The smell of blood is undoubtedly the most stimulating smell for them.

Although the timer on the helmet display kept changing, Fish patiently clung to a submerged stalagmite and waited for about a minute before continuing on.

Just as he had anticipated, a large group of pale figures were wrestling in the distance, all frantically fighting over the remains he had chopped up, completely ignoring him as he swam past. Fish quickly bypassed these disgusting creatures that resembled giant maggots and continued onward.

The cave ahead seemed to stretch on and on. Although Fish thought he saw the light at the exit several times, he later discovered that it was just the reflection of his headlamp beam on the mineral crystals.

Although no new monsters launched surprise attacks on Fish, the air inside Phoenix Flame was gradually approaching its depletion limit.

60秒……45秒……30秒……20秒……10秒……5秒……

Before the number finally turned "0", Fish had already begun to feel short of breath. However, with no way out, he still chose to continue forward, while keeping himself afloat on the top of the cave wall, constantly reaching upwards to test his way.

Finally, as Fish's consciousness began to fade, he noticed a large rock cavity and surfaced in time, removing his helmet and beginning to gulp in the damp, cold air.