The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"What's going on here? I...I don't understand..." Alicia was not at ease at all. Instead, she looked around in great panic and even pinched herself a few times. Undoubtedly, she wanted to confirm whether all of this was a dream. Unfortunately, the reality was obviously not optimistic for her.

"Warning." Just as Fish walked to a control panel, a dry, synthesized electronic voice said, "Warning, non-compliance detected."

"Why should I comply with the rules?" Fish retorted with a sneer.

"If a player violates the rules, it will be considered cheating, and the player will receive zero points for that round and will not be able to obtain any achievements or rewards."

"I didn't even want to play this game, so who cares about achievements or rewards?" Fish scoffed at the warning. "We're leaving. Miss Phoenix Flame, do you know how to operate this kind of thing?"

"To be honest, I don't know," Huang Yan maintained his consistent honesty, "but it's not a big problem. These kinds of systems are all pretty much the same, and their basic design was open source in the old civilization era—which means I should have relevant information in my database. Give me some time to look through my database, and I'll be able to figure out a general way to control them."

"Excellent." Fish glanced at the holographic projections again—at this moment, in most parts of the campus, the devastating outbreak of "zombies" (of course, actually the hosts of "Tai Sui") had come to an end. Most students were either killed or captured by the parasites and became part of these creatures. Only in a few places were people still hiding in their dorm rooms, classrooms, or even storage rooms, barely clinging to life amidst the surrounding chaos. But undoubtedly, these people had no chance of escape.

But Fish didn't care about that anymore.

"Kaelin, who...who were you talking to just now?" After recovering from her initial shock, Alicia finally noticed something unusual about Fish's behavior. "Do you...do you know what's going on here?"

"That's right. I know a lot of things." While Huang Yan was still analyzing, Fish took a deep breath and then turned his gaze to Alicia. "I... uh, what I'm about to say might be very hard for you to accept, but it's all true..."

"ha?"

Over the next fifteen minutes, Fish explained everything to Alicia in the simplest possible way: the truth of this world, the truth of the "game," the truth of her memories...

But to his surprise, after hearing these words, Alicia seemed... completely unconcerned.

"Eh? Aren't you surprised? Something like this..." Since Alicia wasn't surprised at all, it was Fish who was surprised instead.

"Actually, I was quite surprised at first too," Alicia said, shrugging. "But, with so many absurd things happening all at once... well, this absurd explanation isn't so absurd after all, is it?"

"Oh, that makes sense."

"Besides, for me, it's actually more acceptable to say that 'a wonderful daily life never existed' rather than 'I once had one, but then lost it,'" Alicia continued. "That way, at least I won't regret everything I've lost... because, in fact, I haven't lost anything."

Fish licked his lips, wanting to say something more. However, after seeing Alicia's relieved expression, he simply nodded—indeed, "never having had" was easier to accept than "losing."

"Alright, then I'll look forward to working with you from now on," Alicia said with a smile. "Can I really leave here?"

"It should work," Huang Yan activated his external megaphone. "I've just retrieved relevant past data from the database and found a potentially usable universal access code. Now, please take me off and place me on the second seat on the right."

"Okay, okay," Fish quickly complied. However, due to Moon Butterfly's enormous breasts, his effort took longer than expected, making the situation quite awkward at one point. Fortunately, he eventually finished the task and placed Phoenix Flame in the designated spot.

"Please open the storage box below the console. Inside is a universal data cable for connection. Connect the connector to my port," Huang Yan continued. "I need to access the system this way now."

"No problem." Fish continued to follow Huang Yan's instructions. Soon, he had connected all the data cables. "Is that all?"

"That's right, that's fine... I... went in," Huang Yan replied. A few seconds later, all the images from various corners of the school disappeared, replaced by a huge pie chart that looked like an orange sliced ​​horizontally. However, after looking at it carefully for a while, Fish realized that what appeared before him was not statistical information.

That's an aerial view of the "playground"!

"It seems that the 'game area' below is a cylindrical underground structure with a diameter of 1.2 kilometers and a height of 100 meters," Huang Yan said. "It is divided into eight roughly equal small areas by radiating high walls, each used for different 'games.' Currently, areas 2, 4, and 7 are active. In addition, there is a small circular space in the center with a diameter of 55 meters, marked as a 'rest area.'"

"Can you confirm where everyone is?" Fish asked quickly.

"Our current location is Zone 2, 'Zombie High School.' Frostleaf and Sachi—of course, I'm referring to their original bodies—are located in Zone 4, 'Black Beast Marketplace.' Zone 7, known as 'Pumpkin Secret Realm,' is where your own body and Princess Ange are located. As for Miss Shana, she's in the central 'Rest Area.' I guess the system detected her as a genuine former human and forcibly removed her from the game."

"Phew... at least Shana's alright for now," Fish nodded. "But what about the others? They're all..."

"Don't worry, there are no reports of casualties so far—in fact, although the venue has been restored to normal operation, surprisingly, the game there hasn't started, for unknown reasons," Huang Yan said. "I'm trying to shut down the game, but there seems to be a problem with the system's permissions..."

"At least let us out of here first," Fish said.

"I'm trying, but... oh no!"

"What's wrong?!" Hearing Huang Yan's words, Fish shuddered. However, before he could do anything else—exploring science fiction genres, there's always one that suits you—a powerful impact struck his head, causing him to lose consciousness in the blink of an eye…

"Looks like... things haven't been resolved..." Fish muttered to himself after opening his eyes again. "Where... am I?"

Then, he was immediately startled by his own voice—because it was clearly Frostleaf's voice!

"Huh? No way, no way..." Fish shuddered and jumped up from the cold ceramic toilet in a flash, arriving at a mirror covered with spider web patterns—this time, he seemed to be in the women's restroom inside a building.

This public restroom is quite large, capable of accommodating at least ten people at a time. On one side is a row of cold, impersonal toilets separated by plastic partitions, and on the other side is a mop sink and a row of washbasins.

Although the overall structure of the bathroom was still intact, the interior looked extremely dilapidated. A layer of grayish-black grime had accumulated on the floor, and cobwebs filled the corners. Water was slowly leaking from the cracks in the plastic pipes in the corners, and of course, the mirrors were all broken.

To make matters worse, the building was dimly lit, with only a single, flickering incandescent bulb hanging in front of the mirror. The filament seemed to be nearing the end of its life, its light turning a yellowish, dim luster. However, the remaining light was enough for Fish to see himself clearly: a somewhat thin, oval face with a slightly protruding chin, a pair of aloof phoenix eyes, and a pair of slender, horse-like ears peeking out from his black hair. After patting his backside, he unsurprisingly noticed the horse's tail dangling behind him.

"Great... but why did I turn into Frostleaf?"

"Sorry, sorry, can you hear me?" From a corner of the ceiling, a female voice came from a large hanging speaker—it was the synthesized voice that Huang Yan usually liked to use.

"Yes, you can. But can you explain what's going on here?"

"I must admit, this was my mistake." Huang Yan rarely admitted his mistake directly. "I actually intended to grant you temporary administrator privileges and use them to escape the game. But it seems I misunderstood some basic code. As a result, this idiotic system seems to have interpreted my request as 'Add Alicia from the NPC to the game participant list and log you both back in as players.'"

"What does this mean?"

"As you can see, the participants in this death game include 'players' and NPCs, the latter being cheap, quick clones like Alicia, temporarily implanted with fabricated memories. The former could be 'avatars' used by humans in the old civilization era, or they could be new human gladiators thrown into the game. However, due to my mistake, you and Alicia are now mistakenly regarded as the only two players. Everyone else is being treated as your backup 'avatars'."

"Huh?" Fish was even more confused.

"In the old civilization era, some players who came to play this kind of 'game' would participate in multiple 'game scenarios' at once. They would prepare several meticulously crafted new human bodies, each with different abilities and characteristics, as 'avatars' to participate in different games," Huang Yan quickly explained. "Due to a misunderstanding by the system, your original bodies and Alicia's original bodies have now been sent to the rest area and are in hibernation. Your consciousness has been transferred to Shuangye and..."

"Xiao Xing?" Fish asked as he saw a little girl with golden fox ears walk in from the bathroom entrance.

"I...I'm Alicia," the "Xiaoxing" in front of me said in a flustered manner. "What...what do I do now?!"

"Don't panic," Huang Yan said immediately. "This is only temporary, Miss Alicia. As long as you and Mr. Fish can safely complete this game, your consciousness will leave this body—provided, of course, that you survive until the end of the game."

"and then?"

"If I'm not mistaken, you'll be entering the next game, which is also the last one activated here. Fortunately, Mr. Fish will return to his original body and reunite with his dearest little brother. As for you... after that game ends and we leave safely, I'll use the equipment in the facility to let you switch back," Huang Yan continued. "However, there's one thing..."

"What is it?"

"As a low-quality, fast clone, the healthy lifespan of your body is at most five years. Even if I manage to provide additional health support, it won't exceed seven or eight years," Huang Yan said. "I don't want to discourage you, but please be prepared."

"It doesn't matter," Alicia, now transformed into Xiaoxing, laughed. Unlike Yue Die, who was always sullen because she was forced to use this body, she was now smiling quite happily. "From a fake life of only a few hours to seven or eight years... for me, that's like gaining thousands of times more time, like winning the lottery! Why should I be happy?"

"Uh...you're right," Huang Yan said softly. "Then please be careful at all times. If you don't survive, all those thousands of times the time you gained will be wasted. It will also implicate others."

"Of course!" Alicia said firmly.

"Alright, since we still have a little time left, I need to explain the current situation," Huang Yan quickened his pace. "First of all, the game scenario you're currently in doesn't seem to be the same as the previous 'zombie outbreak' type, but there are other NPCs besides you. Everyone seems to be divided into small teams of 2-3 people, totaling about 50 people."

"What are the specific details here?"

"Based on the information I have access to, it seems to be a replica of a large shopping mall from an old civilization era... at least that's the internal structure," Huang Yan said. "Different people will wake up in different corners of the mall: fast food restaurants, restrooms, storage rooms... and a battle royale will begin after the bell rings. However, the condition for completing this game is not 'surviving to the end' or 'reaching the exit,' but 'eliminating the monsters.'"

"What did you say?"

"In other words, cooperation with others is key. If all the monsters cannot be eliminated, there may be a zero-survivor ending."

"My God... Is this for real?" Alicia, who had just been excited, suddenly shuddered.

"Also, I'm not entirely clear on the monster's specific characteristics, but I'm certain it's related to 'Tai Sui.' The specific methods of fighting it are the same. However, there probably aren't many usable weapons here, so please don't blindly choose to confront it head-on."

"I understand." Fish nodded.

Then, a long, drawn-out bell suddenly rang out from outside the bathroom.