The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

Good books and good stories accompany you every day.

"Um...I...I'm..."

After the white light and dizziness subsided, Fish opened his eyes to find himself lying on a bunk bed, a common sight in dormitories. Opposite the bed was a large wardrobe with a full-length mirror mounted on the door.

"Ah ah!"

Upon seeing his reflection in the dressing mirror, Fish instinctively let out a shy scream—at this moment, he hadn't been able to switch back to his original body and was still trapped inside the Moon Butterfly's shell. But unexpectedly, at this moment, he, or rather "she," was wearing a yellow-green plaid skirt and shirt, with an ornate armband on her arm—an abstract image of a peacock.

"What...is this?" Fish rubbed his chest—the designer clearly hadn't considered that the uniform might be worn by someone with such a large amount of fat. Therefore, after putting it on, he only felt an uncomfortably tight constriction around his chest.

"This is a high school uniform from an old civilization era," Huang Yan's voice entered Fish's consciousness directly, "which is what is known as a JK uniform."

"High school? What's that?"

"An educational institution... well, also a place where people from the old civilization spent their youth, usually accommodating young people aged 15-18. Some high schools are paradises where young people celebrate their youth, while others are mental hospitals more terrifying than prisons," Huang Yan's tone was somewhat... complicated, "Of course, this isn't a real high school. According to my location, you're still in this underground facility, but you've been teleported to an entertainment area that was closed off long ago in the old civilization."

"Huh? Is this the entertainment area?"

"That's right, and what's worse, my assistive functions were forcibly shut down after I entered here, and now I can only use it as a regular bulletproof vest—probably the work of someone who set up the teleportation point in the passage."

"Why would anyone do this?" Fish slightly tugged at the collar of the JK uniform and found Phoenix Flame: it had now reverted to its basic bulletproof vest form, completely hidden beneath the uniform. "Wait... could it be that the person who infiltrated here found the control center and deliberately set it up like this?"

"Considering that the 'brain' of 'Tai Sui' couldn't possibly tamper with the system here, this is the only explanation," Huang Yan said. "They obviously anticipated that someone might manage to get through 'Tai Sui's' defenses and enter here, so they deliberately activated the ancient death game and set it so that anyone who tries to enter the facility will be thrown into this game."

"Ah, but... what about the others?"

"My dedicated encrypted communication system has also been blocked, so I can only talk to you for now," Huang Yan said with some helplessness. "However, I can roughly guess where they are: just like the maze where we cleared the game and found the 'Akasha's Compendium,' the location of this kind of death game is usually divided into multiple parts, and the scene in each part is not exactly the same."

"Uh, so that means..."

"The others were probably scattered to different areas, and this 'high school' is one of them," Huang Yan replied, his tone unusually uneasy. "However, as far as I know, this kind of death game is different from the 'mazes' used for challenges before. Its key lies in a large number of 'dead people,' not in the game itself or in 'clearing the level'—even under the extremely low moral standards of the late Old Civilization era, this kind of 'game' was considered too unhealthy."

"Dead people?" Fish shuddered. "But there are only five of us, even including Shana. If it's a 'mass of dead people'..."

"Hi? Is anyone home?" Before Fish could finish speaking, an unfamiliar female voice came from outside the room along with the doorbell.

"Uh..." Fish hesitated for a moment.

"Don't worry, just answer directly," Huang Yan said immediately. "Don't reveal who you are. Just tell them what to do!"

"Ah...uh...there's someone here," Fish said quickly.

"Great! I thought I was the first one to move into the new dorm," the person outside said. "I'm Alicia from Class 2, from the kendo club. And you are...?"

"My name is Fei... ah no... my name is Karin," Fish was about to introduce himself when he suddenly noticed the name tag "Karin, Class 1 (3)" sewn onto the chest of his school uniform. He quickly changed his mind at the last second, "As for which department... uh... uh..."

"You don't have a club? Looks like you're in the home club." The girl who came in smiled as she pushed open the door. She was quite petite, looking more like a thirteen or fourteen-year-old junior high student than a high school student, with short, athletic blond hair. On her back, she carried a long, thin object wrapped in a black cloth.

"Ah, yes, I don't participate in any clubs," Fish said, following the other person's lead, although he didn't quite understand what "Going Home Club" meant—did going home really require a separate club? "Hello."

"It's alright. Are you interested in kendo?" Alicia asked. "Practicing swordsmanship can not only improve your physical health, but also temper your spirit and will. If you like it, you're welcome to join us anytime."

"Uh... I... I'll consider it," Fish replied with a bewildered smile. Fortunately, Moon Butterfly's appearance was relatively cute for a "villainous heiress." Even if it was an unintentional excuse, it didn't sound too unacceptable coming from her.

"Okay, oh right, it's getting late," the kendo club girl glanced at the cute cartoon watch on her wrist. "The club president reminded me that the school festival for the new school year starts in fifteen minutes, so I must remember to be there on time."

"School festival?" Fish was even more confused, but at least he didn't ask the question "What is a school festival?" which would give him away. "Where?"

"The whole academy is doing it!" Alicia said excitedly and ran out, leaving Fish alone in the dormitory, bewildered.

"What... what's going on?" Fish asked in a low voice. "This doesn't look like a death game at all. And what about Alicia just now...?"

"That's a long story. But you'd better check the dorm first, take everything of value, and leave in five minutes," said Huang Yan, who had lost all support functions and become nothing more than a bulletproof vest that could offer advice. "The most important thing is anything that can be used as a weapon, followed by water and food—of course, just things like chocolate that can quickly replenish energy. Medical supplies and armor can also be taken."

"Understood." Having already learned the principle of "following Huang Yan's instructions regardless of the situation," Fish immediately sprang into action, deftly rummaging through the wardrobe, bedside table, and drawers, discovering a large quantity of supplies… though most were useless. He found pencil cases, Barbie dolls, strangely colored cylindrical plastic items, girls' underwear, bear pajamas, makeup boxes, and all sorts of bizarre skincare products, but nothing that could be used as a weapon…

But there was only one long wooden stick.

"A baseball bat? It would be even better if it had a few nails," Huang Yan muttered. "But in peacetime, it's probably the most convenient and legal blunt weapon for an ordinary person to carry. Oh, and that hat over there, remember to wear it too."

"This? Why are you wearing it?" Fish picked up a blue and white striped baseball cap.

"If a pretty girl is carrying a baseball bat, she absolutely has to wear a baseball cap," Huang Yan said, "otherwise she'll look like a delinquent."

"I'm not a pretty girl!" Fish yelled. "And what's this 'delinquent girl' nonsense?!"

"That's not important. Hurry up, we still have three minutes," Huang Yan didn't answer the question. "Also, although most of the things here are useless, some things can still be used. Just do as I say."

Under Huang Yan's direction, Fish deftly tore open his underwear and dress, cutting them into spare tourniquets with round-tipped scissors. He then smashed a mirror, binding a piece of fluffy pajamas to one end of a sharp shard of glass to create a short dagger, which he hid in a pencil case covered in heart patterns. Finally, he was lucky enough to find a box of painkillers and a plastic-wrapped bar of chocolates under the bedside table.

Except for the baseball bat, which was too long to fit inside, Fish packed all of these things into a pink plush rabbit backpack he found on the bedside table and carried it on his back.

"Not bad, not bad, we still have about a minute left, so we have plenty of time." As Fish left the dormitory, Huang Yan said with satisfaction—in a real high school, making the dormitory such a mess would obviously not be allowed. However, since this is just a "game," it doesn't matter.

"Now can you explain what this 'game' is all about?" Fish asked as they walked down the corridor. "This is so different from the previous 'maze'."

"That's right," Huang Yan replied. When Fish was teleported into the "maze," with each level he entered, all sorts of dangers and troubles would swarm towards him like scrap metal drawn to a powerful magnet, eager to pulverize him on the first encounter. But this time, the start of the "game" was extremely calm, completely devoid of any atmosphere of terror or danger. "Because the biggest difference between this type of 'game' and gladiator or level-clearing 'games' lies in its main theme: 'the destruction of everyday life.'"

"Disruption of daily life?"

"For someone like you who has never had a stable life since childhood, this may be a little hard to understand, but in the old civilization era and in the big cities of this era, the vast majority of 'respectable people' lived stable daily lives. And for the most perverse and bloodthirsty viewers, watching the collapse of 'respectable daily life' and the deaths of innocent people in pain is an excellent source of stimulation."

As Fish stepped out of the dormitory, a commotion ensued: this "high school," though small in scale, boasted beautiful teaching buildings, a spacious playground, and even a swimming pool, sports fields, and a small garden filled with grapevines. At that moment, hundreds of students were bustling about, setting up various banners, decorations, and stalls throughout the campus, seemingly preparing for a so-called "school festival."

All the students here are pretty girls, about half of whom are wearing short skirts with yellow-green stripes in their school uniforms. But some are dressed strangely, wearing all sorts of clothing that look neither breathable nor comfortable, made of rubber or synthetic fibers. One person is wearing platform heels that are at least a hand's width high and is holding a white oil-paper umbrella, while another is wearing a black wide-brimmed hat and carrying a broom, but it doesn't look like they're going to clean.

"Who...who are these people? I can smell something strange about their scent, it's a bit like those 'clones' I saw in the 'Killing Factory' before. But..."

"You're right," Huang Yan replied. "They're essentially similar to the 'clones' you encountered last time, and I even captured one along the way, but there are also significant differences: those 'clones' were essentially cyborgs. Although they had some flesh and blood, their brains and skeletons were computers and machines, so they could actually be considered robots. But these people are different. They have almost no mechanical parts; apart from a few brain implants, they are entirely made of flesh and blood."

"So that means they're all real people?"

"Yes. However, like the 'clones,' their genes have been greatly modified, creating reproductive isolation between them and humans. In the legal realm of the old civilization, their status is the same as that of the new humans—'livestock' and 'pets,' only they don't have the deliberately created animal characteristics of the new humans," Huang Yan continued to explain. "The characteristic of these genetically modified humans is that they can be cultivated and grow rapidly. In just twenty or thirty weeks, with the addition of a large amount of nutrient solution and drugs, a fertilized egg can become a living person like this."

"Was this even possible before?"

"Yes, but that's about it. The only advantage of these rapidly cloned humans is that they have many genetic problems in order to mass-produce them quickly. Theoretically, they only have a healthy lifespan of three to five years before they die from various diseases and organ failure, much worse than Mr. Boba's brothers in Star Wars... In other words, they are far less 'durable' than the new humans and are a failed product. They can only be used in this kind of 'game' that was considered inhumane even in the old civilization era."

"So, Alicia, uh..."

"Considering that this facility was sealed off during the old civilization era, her theoretical age is probably only slightly younger than Shana. Before waking up to 'go to high school,' she had been lying in the hibernation storage device for at least a thousand years," Huang Yan said. "Of course, excluding the hibernation period, her actual life experience is probably only a few hours."

"Isn't that a baby?"

"Yes. But the brains of these special genetically modified products are very special. With the right equipment, it's possible to implant fictional personalities and information into them—it's a bit like consciousness transfer between you new humans. Therefore, 'Alicia,' like everyone else here, has some memories, as well as a certain amount of knowledge and skills... Of course, they all believe they are real high school students."

"I see..." Fish nodded, subconsciously looking up at the sky—the "blue sky" here, upon closer inspection, was simply a blue-painted ceiling. The "sun" was just a giant spotlight. However, no one realized anything was amiss. Undoubtedly, none of them had ever seen a real blue sky or sun. "Then, what did Alicia mean when she said 'the school festival starts in fifteen minutes'? The school festival looks like it's still being prepared?"

"That's a prompt for 'players'—this kind of brutal game that sells itself on massive death and horror also has 'real players,' and you, who were teleported in, are in that position. Alicia was probably subconsciously instructed to say this whenever she encounters a player," Huang Yan said. "And 'fifteen minutes' is probably the official start time of the game."

"In other words, once the time comes, this place will..." Fish finally understood.

But just then, someone suddenly covered his eyes from behind!