The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"Ugh...oh...my head hurts so much, it feels like it's going to split open..."

In the midst of chaos, Fish felt as if a wedge or some other foreign object had been forcibly driven into his head, causing excruciating pain from the inside out. To make matters worse, because of the endless darkness around him, he could only endure this terrible pain in solitude, without even a way to distract himself.

This terrible torment lasted for an immeasurable amount of time—mainly because, in the darkness and chaos, he had no way to calculate the passage of time, nor could he find any point of reference. But thankfully, eventually, the torment began to subside, replaced by an urge to escape and break free…

Then, Fish suddenly saw a glimmer of light in the crack. Driven by instinct, he struggled toward the only light in the darkness and broke through it like a chick hatching from its shell.

"Huff...huff...huff..." The moment the darkness dissipated, the pain that had plagued Fish vanished as if it had never existed. However, after opening his eyes, he still felt something heavy pressing on his chest. Although it didn't affect his breathing, it still made him feel quite uncomfortable.

Then, Fish instinctively reached out, trying to remove these uncomfortable things from his chest... but failed.

The reason is quite simple: because those two lumps are growing on his body.

"Huh? Wait... Really?! Is this for real?!" Fish was shocked and immediately checked... Clearly, this had never happened before.

Admittedly, when he disguised himself as a maid and sneaked out of the Zhangye Palace, he had hidden ten layers of breast pads in his chest to avoid the eyes and ears of those wandering around. But even then, he had never felt his chest so heavy!

"Damn it... I... I'm not dreaming, am I? Hehehe, even if it's a dream, this is a bit too wicked..." Fish muttered to himself, but unfortunately, the excruciating pain that followed immediately made him scream.

In any case, this is definitely not a dream.

After the thought crossed his mind, Fish almost reflexively reached for the crucial spot—and sure enough, the worst thing happened (for him).

There was nothing there.

"Wa ...

"Shh! Shh! Quiet!" Less than a second after Fish let out a heart-wrenching wail, a familiar voice popped into his mind, "Please! Real noble ladies don't scream like that!"

"A noble lady?" Fish reached out again to check the area between her chest and legs before asking. Although the current situation was still incredibly perplexing, at least hearing Huang Yan speak to him made him feel somewhat relieved. "You mean—"

"Well, just go look in the mirror over there."

Fish let out a long yawn and dragged his strange body out of bed. Unlike his original body, this one was obviously much weaker and the limbs were slightly shorter. The extra weight in front of him made it difficult for him to maintain his balance, and he almost fell as he got out of bed.

At this moment, Fish was in a simple log cabin, seemingly converted from a small sawmill—of course, this "simple" was in comparison to proper urban buildings. Compared to the numerous tents in the temporary refugee camp, or even the shacks made of branches on earthen pits, this place was practically a mansion.

After all, the large bed that can fit two people, the dressing table at the head of the bed, and the dressing mirror at the edge of the room are things that those refugees cannot afford.

After moving to the dressing mirror, Fish's eyes widened instantly—in front of him was a face that was fairly handsome, but exuded an unpleasant air of arrogance and conceit. His cat ears had been replaced by a pair of small, round weasel ears; fortunately, the long tail behind him was of similar weight to its original one, preventing it from further disrupting his balance. And he remembered, this face was clearly…

"I...I...I...I...How did I turn into that Moon Butterfly?!"

"That's a good question. The facts that follow may be quite... shocking, but given the current circumstances, please accept them all," Huang Yan said.

Then, a group of people entered the house.

Leading the group was Ange, her expression complex. She looked anxious, yet also somewhat expectant. Behind her, Shuangye's expression was equally complex, and she maintained a subtle distance from Ange, which seemed... different from before. Xiaoxing, for some reason, currently looked extremely dejected, like a defendant who had just been convicted in court, and most importantly...

He actually saw himself!

In the long history of humankind, to see one's true self standing right in front of oneself is an extremely rare experience. In this respect, Fish is undoubtedly very "lucky." At this moment, the "Fish" facing him... no, now it should be said "her" has a very flustered and uneasy look in his eyes, constantly glancing at various corners of the room, and avoiding eye contact.

This looks a lot like...

"Xiao Xing?"

"Eeya ya ya ya!"

Upon hearing the name, Fish was literally startled and jumped up and down. Ange, on the other hand, first looked quite surprised, then showed a joyful expression.

"As expected of my husband! He saw through it at a glance! Your wisdom is truly a treasure bestowed by heaven!"

"Meow? Then... then... then it really is Xiaoxing?"

"Yes...yes." Fish said in a low voice, in Xiaoxing's usual shy tone, "I...I'm sorry."

"Then... who is this 'Xiao Xing' now?"

"It's...it's me!" "Xiao Xing," looking flustered, waved the large fox radish behind her and said with a flushed face, "I am Yue Die."

"Okay, great." Fish slapped his forehead—he felt like his brain was about to explode. "Where are the others?"

"The rest of us are still in a normal state for the time being," Ange said. "So far, only the three of you have been confirmed to have experienced a consciousness swap."

"Consciousness displacement phenomenon? What's that?"

"Let me explain this," Huang Yan said to everyone through the encrypted communication channel.

Only then did Fish notice that Moon Butterfly also wore a piece of intelligent combat armor that transformed into a lightweight torso armor. Clearly, this guy was also an armor master... and his level seemed quite high, reaching the upper-middle level of "Crystal," only slightly weaker than Ange. Because of this, even using this body, he could still join Phoenix Flame's channel through a neural link.

However, even with this level of potential, Fish could still be certain that Moon Butterfly was no match for Frostleaf: the latter's years of training and accumulated swordsmanship and combat experience were enough to bridge the gap in their innate potential to adapt to intelligent combat armor.

"In short, consciousness swapping is a special phenomenon that can theoretically occur in armored warriors. But please note that this phenomenon is not an accident, not a disease, not a malfunction, but rather... a characteristic that armored warriors possessed when they were created in the old civilization era. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that it was your ancestors' 'factory settings'," Huang Yan continued to explain.

"Is that so?!" Fish was taken aback.

"Yes, I was also very surprised when Huang Yan told us this... but it's true." Ange shrugged. "After all, this is indeed the history of our ancestors."

"But what is the purpose of this design?"

"This brings us to the purpose of the creation of the new humans: As we all know, at the end of the old civilization era a thousand years ago, the new humans were born into this world. Although your history books claim that the new humans are the product of the 'evolution' of the old humans and are superior to the old humans in every way, this is not the case."

"You mentioned this before." Fish recalled the true history that Huang Yan had told him before, "The new humans are actually slaves and playthings created by the old humans using genetic technology. They were designed to satisfy the various perverse tastes of people in the past."

"Yes," Huang Yan replied. "Some of these new humans became gladiators and combat slaves for bloody war games. However, many from the old civilization era felt that simply being spectators wasn't enough. Do you remember those cyborg 'avatars' we encountered in the 'Killing Factory'?"

Fish nodded. He couldn't forget the trouble those guys had caused him, even if he wanted to.

"The most distinctive feature of these 'clones' is that, as early as the embryonic stage, their brains are equipped with special organic information interfaces that can be used for uploading and downloading information. Of course, this also includes the most amazing part, namely the implantation and uploading of holistic consciousness. Among the various technological achievements of the old civilization era, this achievement was the latest and also the most astonishing."

"Amazing?" Fish, who knew little about ancient technology, shrugged. In his eyes, and in the eyes of most people in this era, things from the old civilization were no different from magic, so he couldn't understand what was so special about this.

"In short, the self-awareness of intelligent life is a rather, rather complex phenomenon. Just studying and understanding it has taken thousands of neuroscientists their entire lives," Huang Yan explained, trying to use vocabulary that Fish could understand. "Although the people of the old era created a high-level artificial intelligence like me, I am actually just an imitation of human consciousness."

"Oh, so?"

Even after breakthroughs in faster-than-light travel technology, the uploading and downloading of consciousness remained merely theoretical conjectures. For a long time after the creation of the new humans, all those "immersive players" could do was remotely control their chosen "avatars"—the ones we encountered before—online. However, five years before the end of the old civilization era, an outer solar system expedition team numbered 575 unexpectedly arrived at a world codenamed "Zhu Xu" and encountered an energy-state creature they called "Shura."

"What is that?" Fish couldn't understand the word at first.

"A complex structure formed by signals generated from pure energy fluctuations that can self-replicate. Although it differs greatly from true carbon-based life in physical properties, it is highly similar to consciousness detached from the body... or 'soul'. It was after contact with 'Shura' that consciousness transfer technology achieved a fundamental breakthrough."

"Shura...Shura...Shura..." Fish repeated the word, and some strange memories suddenly flashed through his mind: he saw once again the wilderness with swirling purple mist, the mountains, and the automated engineering robots building simple barracks beside the desolate and cold purple swamp—however, these fragmented memories quickly disappeared.

"What's wrong?" Ange asked, noticing the change in Fish's expression.

"It's nothing, please continue."

"In short, after this technological breakthrough, humans in the old civilization era began to modify the genes of new armored warriors, allowing them to develop specific neural interfaces during the embryonic stage—the main function of which is to connect with intelligent combat armor. However, in necessary circumstances, it can also be used directly for consciousness implantation... Some people from the old civilization era have used this method to give themselves completely new bodies."

"This is really...unbelievable." Fish continued to unconsciously touch his chest...and then his hand was slapped away by Xiaoxing, whose face was flushed red—or rather, Yuedie.

"Don't use my body to do such lewd things!"

"Okay, okay, I know... I was just curious," Fish muttered. "Anyway, that girl named Shana from before..."

"Without a doubt, she is from the old civilization era," Huang Yan said. "And she also carries some outdated technological equipment with her, such as that portable inflatable tent and the consciousness implantation device. According to my post-event analysis, she attempted to use this device to forcibly implant a controlled, low-level artificial intelligence into your body, temporarily controlling you to hold off the others—those clones in the 'Killing Factory' were controlled by similar low-level artificial intelligence."

"But it didn't work?"

"Yes, I activated the protection program in time to prevent the other party from accessing the site. However, my protection program conflicted with the other party's implantation request, causing a series of instructions to be executed incorrectly," Huang Yan's voice became somewhat...shy. "Although it is an extremely rare bug, I do bear some responsibility for it."

"After that, the erroneous command became 'swap the consciousnesses of different armored warriors,' and then, my husband, your consciousness was stuffed into Yue Die's body. Yue Die became Xiao Xing, and Xiao Xing's consciousness went into your body," Ange explained. "That's how it happened."

"I... I think I understand most of it," Fish sighed. "However, I still have one question: Logically speaking, Moon Butterfly shouldn't have been there, right? Why did I become her?"

"Oh, the reason is simple," Frostleaf, holding his sword, sneered, "because this guy was nearby at the time. And he was accompanied by a whole platoon of guards."