The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"Entrance exam...? Alright then, I promise I won't let you down!" After a moment of hesitation, Fish nodded—although he was still not used to his current state, his confusion was quickly replaced by the excitement of having powerful strength for the first time.

For any man, even a seemingly soft and weak young man like him, a new and powerful force would be incredibly attractive, enough to make him obsessed, just like catnip is to a cat.

"Huff... huff... huff..." As the words "All functional permissions have been granted to the user" appeared before his eyes, Fish's heart began to beat rapidly, like a marching drum. He had to take several deep breaths to barely control his emotions.

"Hmm... can I just think about these things and bring them up?" After trying a few times haphazardly, a long list of options appeared in front of Fish's eyes.

Although he couldn't understand most of the text, Huang Yan thoughtfully provided a voice service, reading out all the options he had selected.

"Let me think... direct contact is out of the question... which means going out for a face-to-face fight won't work," Fish thought, racking his brains as he looked at the dense menu options. "If the targets are in the corridor on the other side of the wall, does that mean I have to take them down through the wall?"

"That's right," the fairy girl sitting on his shoulders watching the show said bluntly, "You're not so stupid as to be beyond redemption."

"Taking them out of the wall means this wall shouldn't be that thick." Fish thought for a moment, then recalled some rumors he'd heard in taverns in the atoll city about technology from the old civilization era. He then quickly selected "thermal imaging mode" from the "helmet sensor" options.

Then, he spotted a bright orange-yellow target... less than a meter away from him!

"Wow! It's out!"

"What the hell are you yelling about?!" Huang Yan muttered, both annoyed and amused. "Am I that scary?"

"No, no, no, I just... uh..."

"I get it! You wanted to use thermal imaging to see the target through the wall, but you ended up seeing my remote control instead, right?" Huang Yan said. "Idiot! This mode can only see targets that emit heat—my remote control has its own independent energy source and is made from biomaterials of warm-blooded animals, so it continuously dissipates heat. But the 'Reef Assassin' is essentially a highly complexly genetically edited cephalopod. Think about it, do the octopus and squid you eat actually have calories?"

"Well... it'll be there after it's cooked on the hot plate..." Fish laughed awkwardly.

"Still laughing!" This time, Huang Yan directly controlled Fish's hand and tied a knot in his own tail. The force was so great that the latter screamed in agony.

"Meow!"

This shout had no effect; a slippery, gurgling sound immediately followed from the corridor across the wall, clearly indicating that numerous soft tentacles were sliding across the floor. For a fleeting moment, this unsettling sound seemed to be approaching the room's door. Fish nervously ducked close to the door, pressing himself against the wall, preparing to use the power enhanced by the Phoenix Flame to fight off the intruders. But strangely, after hesitating for a while, the two outside ultimately didn't break in.

"What's going on?" Fish asked, puzzled.

"It's simple, they can't see the door here. Although those 'Reef Assassins' can distinguish far more colors than humans, or even New Humans, and have some thermal imaging capabilities, they still can't locate the door. They only know that 'a sound is coming from the other side of the wall,'" Huang Yan explained. "Do you know about the 'Virtual Paradise' system?"

"I've heard that when people venture deep into the ruins of ancient cities, they are sometimes deceived by this ancient illusion, like a mirage—"

"That's wrong," Huang Yan interrupted Fish. "These are two completely different things: a mirage is an optical phenomenon caused by the refraction of light in the atmosphere due to heating. However, the 'Virtual Paradise' system is not an audio-visual effect. It directly acts on the target brain's visual nervous system and cortex through artificial interference and the generation of neural signals."

"I...don't quite understand."

"In short, this technology is a highly developed branch of immersive virtual reality technology from the old civilization era, also known as VR technology. In that era, people could have special implants inserted into their brains through minimally invasive surgery to receive signals from surrounding base stations. These implants allowed users to 'see' scenes that were almost as real as reality, even though their visual, olfactory, and auditory organs did not actually receive specific signals."

"I don't understand it, but it sounds amazing..." Fish gasped. "Right, before they fell, Xiaoxing and the others said they saw a real coconut tree—even though it was just a fake tree broken in half—and they all seemed oblivious to the huge hole in the ground. Could it be...?"

"That's right. Many biotechnology-based creations from the old civilization era—such as 'new humans' like you, and most synthetic beasts—have been genetically modified. After birth, these individuals' visual nervous systems develop a special small organ that acts as a receiver, allowing them to automatically receive signals from the 'Virtual Paradise' base station system without surgery or wearable devices. In other words, here, seeing is not believing."

"Why is that?" Fish seemed even more confused. "What's the point of doing this?"

"Yes. Because the reason why humans in the past created chimeras, and even the ancestors of you new humans, was largely for... entertainment. And through the 'Virtual Paradise' system, the... uh... 'entertainment effect' can be greatly enhanced." As he said this, a subtle hint of dissatisfaction appeared in Huang Yan's tone, "In short, it wasn't a pleasant past."

"For entertainment purposes...? Okay, I understand." Fish nodded. Although he lacked knowledge about the old civilization era, he had seen all sorts of strange "entertainment" in the entertainment venues of Oasis City, which were a melting pot of all sorts of people.

"That's right. In the setting of 'Virtual Paradise,' the door to this room is set to 'invisible,' so those poor animals can only see an ordinary wall," Huang Yan continued. "Only a few special individuals, like you, will not automatically replace reality with virtual images after receiving a signal due to some special reasons. And among those qualified to use me, a considerable number are special individuals like you."

"So... you actually modified the 'Virtual Paradise' system base station here? To ensure that only 'talented' people like me could get in?!" Fish quickly realized something. "Then couldn't you just make me invisible, and then..."

"No. First of all, going to the hospital was your request, and the battles along the way are a test for you. If you can get through it easily, then there's no point. Secondly, the 'Virtual Paradise' system is ineffective against autonomous weapons and certain advanced synthetic beasts. Therefore, I don't want you to rely on it too much."

"Alright," seeing that his attempts to take shortcuts were futile, Fish could only continue to think of solutions—he first tried to activate the X-ray scan mode, but found that there was a layer inside the wall that the rays could not penetrate. Then, he switched to the miniature centimeter-wave radar mode, but that had the same effect.

Clearly, unless he smashed through the wall or risked opening the door, he wouldn't be able to see the two "Reef Assassins" from here.

Fortunately, the other person couldn't see him either; they could only hear the scream he had just made.

Wait... can you hear something?

On a sudden inspiration, Fish switched the helmet sights back to "standard visible light window," then crept up to the wall and threw a punch at it.

Normally, the force of that punch would have been enough to tear Fish's hand, potentially causing minor fractures. But now, thanks to the Phoenix Flame, although a crater-like depression appeared on the wall and made a loud noise, he didn't feel the slightest pain in his hand.

Before the echo of the loud noise had completely faded, the sound of a slippery object sliding across the floor quickly approached. Seeing that the other party was acting according to his plan, Fish smiled slightly and then selected "Wrist Blade (Long)" from the "Built-in Weapon" section of the menu in front of him.

In the next few seconds, Fish's arm armor on his right arm gradually deformed and lengthened, becoming a sharp longsword over a meter long and less than five centimeters wide. The moment the weapon took shape, Fish pressed his helmet against a recess in the wall, relying on the sensory amplification brought by the Phoenix Flame to carefully listen to the sounds coming from the other side of the wall, and then thrust his bayonet into a certain spot with all his might.

The incredibly sharp monomolecular blade sliced ​​through the wall like it was cutting through a block of butter, and then pierced into something else.

"Screech—" Although cephalopods generally do not have vocal organs, this "Reef Assassin" let out a piercing scream the moment it was pierced through a vital organ and was about to die, just like a rat being thrown alive into a pot of boiling oil.

Then, Fish swiftly drew his wrist blade and, with mechanical precision, carried out a second assassination attempt, following the sound.

"Target confirmed and eliminated, well done." After Fish stabbed twice, the fairy girl landed gracefully on Fish's head and announced, "Although it took a bit of trouble, your entrance exam score is barely acceptable... I'd give you a 70."

"Oh, I see... You tried so hard just now, I thought you should get at least a 90." Fish seemed a little disappointed.

"Considering that you haven't received any training before and your IQ doesn't seem to be very high, it's already quite good that you were able to come up with the most appropriate solution based on the situation," Huang Yan said to Fish for the first time in a way that could be considered encouraging... although it still sounded a bit strange. "Now, I will project the recommended route into your helmet display, but please don't just blindly follow the route—it's very important to stay alert and be aware of any unexpected events that may occur while moving forward."

"Understood." Fish nodded, then carefully pushed open the door. Not far away, the corpses of the two chimeras he had stabbed through the wall lay sprawled on the floor like broken plastic toys, black ink mixed with dark blue blood forming a large, eerie stain. A striking green arrow flashed before his eyes, pointing to the right front of the corridor.

After running several dozen meters in the direction the arrow indicated, Fish found the entrance to a stairwell. However, just as he tried to push the door open, the green arrow suddenly turned red and was marked with an X!

Startled, Fish reacted swiftly, leaping backward with both legs, narrowly avoiding the two thick tentacles that had pierced the door panel and were topped with several claws.

It was a particularly large "Reef Assassin". Perhaps it was the last scream of its dying companion that made it guess what was happening in the corridor. This cunning chimera chose to wait in ambush: it hid behind the door that the enemy might pass through, waiting patiently for the enemy to approach, and then suddenly pounce and launch a fatal attack.

As it turned out, this guy was just a hair's breadth away from succeeding—but in such a life-or-death situation, a tiny mistake could mean a world of difference.

After dodging his opponent's seemingly inevitable strike, Fish closed in again, plunging the longsword from his wrist into the door panel. He then watched with satisfaction as the two tentacles began to struggle violently, spewing forth copious amounts of translucent, corrosive venom from the injection holes in the claws at the tips of the tentacles, scorching the walls and floor with plumes of smoke.

This is a sign that the creature is near death.

Unwilling to waste time, Fish did not wait for it to die. Instead, he gave Phoenix Flame further instructions, expanding the slender blade in his hand into a broadsword and slashing it horizontally, completely shredding the opponent.

"Good response," praised the fairy girl flying beside Fish—who was also Phoenix Flame's remote control—after he kicked open the broken door along with the remains of the chimera behind it. "However, even with Phoenix Flame's defensive boost, recklessly entering the opponent's attack range for close combat was still a bit risky. 80 points."

"Eh... that's too harsh..."

"Being strict is for your own good, after all, you're destined for great things," Huang Yan chuckled. "Anyway, how about we try out my built-in ranged weapon on the new target later?"

"Understood." Fish nodded. After achieving several kills in succession, his courage and confidence began to grow significantly, and he was no longer as panicked as he had been when he was besieged by the chimera horde. Even when Huang Yan referred to the chimeras and autonomous weapons as "targets," he not only didn't find anything wrong with it, but even felt a sense of eagerness to try it out.