The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

While Fish was receiving intensive cultural lessons from Phoenix Flame in Camphor Leaf Palace, he had heard that in the past, people had a special fear of bats—they believed that these creatures possessed terrible magic and could even transform into evil demons, such as the legendary "vampires."

Of course, after the end of the old civilization era, the legend of vampires also disappeared with the loss of the ancient civilization. Although the pioneers of the Northland also spread the story of "vampire worms", it refers to leeches and mosquitoes that roam in the swamps and paddy fields formed after the permafrost melts, and has nothing to do with bats.

But at this moment, Fish, Alicia, and the five little girls who volunteered to leave the scented candle shop with them were all crawling on all fours, trying to avoid the "magic" of the two giant bats on the ceiling in the center of the mall.

Although they had managed to get underwear and safety shorts from the clothing store, so they no longer had to feel embarrassed about wearing miniskirts, crawling in such a shameful position was still a very… terrible experience for Fish and Alicia. But even so, they had no choice but to do it—because if they raised their heads, they might leave the protection of the glass panel and fall into the other's detection range.

According to Yakya's observation, the two bats had been on the ceiling since the "Open your eyes when it gets dark" announcement began, and had been waiting for an opportunity to attack people. At least three or four people have been killed—although it would be somewhat difficult for them to grab humans, hang them from the ceiling, and devour them, they could still manage to pull lighter girls into the air and drop them to their deaths, or kill them by swooping down.

Although everyone who left the protective iron shutter of the scented candle shop carried a short spear with a glass or ceramic tip, this alone was clearly not enough to reassure anyone when dealing with these silent "dive bombers."

Fortunately, the edges of the corridors on the second and third floors are all equipped with protective railings that are over one meter high. Perhaps to allow consumers to see the view below, these railings are a combination of aluminum alloy bars and transparent glass panels.

For most predators, this transparent enclosure would certainly offer no cover—but as is well known, predatory bats are characterized by their extremely poor eyesight, relying almost entirely on echolocation. While their eyes aren't entirely useless, in such dimly lit environments, they're unlikely to become anything more than decorative.

While a transparent glass plate cannot block the other party's vision, it is more than enough to block ultrasonic waves.

"Stay close to us, don't look up, and don't make any loud noises." Because the mall was extremely dark, with only a very limited number of emergency lights and green directional signs, Fish would carefully stop every so often to give the others behind him time to regroup, and make sure everyone was still in the group by whispering reminders and passing messages in a chain.

Just like before, this time everyone whispered the message to each other. Only after confirming that no one was missing or out did they continue to "wriggle" forward.

Is that the place?

"That should be true."

Not too far away, a small red emergency light illuminated a set of artistic letters spelled out in spiderweb patterns: "Spider's Nest City." Next to it were depictions of stemmed wine glasses and bottles wrapped in spider silk. Undoubtedly, this was the liquor store that Aqua had mentioned earlier... However, Fish really didn't like this dark gothic style of decoration.

"You guys stay outside, I'll go check it out first." After crawling a few more steps forward, Fish stood up and, using the posture of an infantryman moving through a trench, jogged towards the store entrance—he was now some distance from the center of the mall where the two giant bats were entrenched, and most importantly, there were plenty of decorative green plants nearby that could severely interfere with echolocation. Therefore, he no longer needed to rely on the glass panel as cover to be a "worm."

The glass doors of "Spider's Nest City" were open, but perhaps to emphasize the "spider" element, a white curtain resembling spider silk hung inside, and a huge decorative spider web seemed to stretch out deep within the shop. After carefully parting the curtain with a short spear, Fish and Alicia slowly walked inside.

Then, he found what he was looking for.

Inside the store, the liquor shelves were filled with bottles of all sizes. Fish tentatively picked up the nearest bottle, then struck a match he'd brought from the scented candle shop and briefly glimpsed the label: this barley-brewed liquor had an alcohol content of 68%, which, while not quite ideal, was certainly flammable.

"Everyone come over here and search carefully," Fish waved towards the door and whispered to the others, "Anything below 35 degrees won't light, so ignore it. We need at least 50 degrees, the higher the better!"

"Okay!"

"Okay!"

Several girls immediately followed suit, bending over and running into the store, where they began searching. Soon, they found several bottles filled with different colored liquors. Although Fei didn't recognize most of the labels, their alcohol content was consistently high.

One of the bottles, with its cork carved into an exaggerated crystal skull shape, even had an alcohol content of 88 degrees on its label!

"People in the past would actually drink such terrible things..." Fish looked at the unbelievable number with some unease.

In this era, although the new humans have rediscovered the method of producing distilled spirits, they only use it to make medical alcohol. Because the heroes, led by the "Three Heroes," left a warning urging their descendants to avoid indulging in pleasure, strong liquor is considered immoral and unseemly in most places. Even in the taverns of Oasis City, 40 proof is considered the absolute maximum. At least, Fish couldn't imagine what it would feel like to actually drink such a thing.

However, at this moment, it is always a comforting thing to find a large amount of highly flammable material.

"Hey, look at this!" Perhaps because the giant bats and black bears outside were no longer a threat in "Spider Nest City," the girls, who had been too tense, began to relax and even started chattering and joking around.

A girl in a blue tracksuit suddenly pulled out a huge spider doll with yellow and white stripes and placed it in front of another pink-haired girl in a dress, literally "startling" her.

"Ugh!" The pink-haired loli exclaimed, both surprised and angry, before grabbing a large Black Widow spider doll and throwing it back at her. The tavern was filled with spider dolls and spider silk decorations, clearly to match the name "Spider Nest City."

The girl in the blue tracksuit who had started the disturbance quickly ducked to avoid the black widow spider doll thrown at her. The doll flew over her head and landed on the head of a girl with a bun hairstyle wearing a high-slit cheongsam.

"Ugh!" The girl with the pigtails glared at the two of them, clearly annoyed. She then grabbed a large Jorogumo doll hanging on the nearby table, ready to retaliate. But in the next instant, she suddenly realized something very unpleasant…

...The "doll" that I picked up seems to be moving!

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-"

As the "doll's" slender legs began to wave, the girl in the cheongsam and bun let out a scream that nearly blew all the air out of her lungs. But her scream abruptly stopped the moment she was forced to "kiss": the enormous Jorogumo, with a torso half a meter long and eight legs as long as the largest giant spider crab, bit her face with its sharp claws, turning her scream into a painful, suffocating gurgling sound.

"Waaaaaaahh ...

"Eeya yaa ...

Like a classic trope in every classic B-movie, the girls, who had been laughing and causing trouble just moments before, panicked upon discovering that a monster was indeed lurking among them. Although Fish had given each of them a short spear before they set off, in the chaos and terror, not one of them thought to use it!

Then, everyone did the exact same thing: they ran towards the exit of "Spider Nest City".

"Damn it!" Fish bit his lip in annoyance—after numerous adventures involving ancient ruins, he had gained a considerable understanding of the perverse tastes of those from the old civilization. Clearly, this "Spider's Nest" was another trap deliberately set by those same bloodthirsty bastards: misleading unsuspecting NPCs and even unfortunate players into believing it was a safe haven filled with scary dolls, only to find themselves confronted with genuine monsters. This would obviously greatly please those cruel bastards.

...although they are no longer in this world.

As a rustling sound came from the ceiling not far away, Fish warily raised his short spear, pointing the tip of the spear entirely by sound of hearing in the direction of the approaching danger—then, with a force, something slammed heavily into the short spear.

It was a fairly common orb-weaver spider… well, by "common," I mean its size. However, a normal orb-weaver spider's body is at most the size of a pea, while this one's abdomen was the size of a ripe watermelon. If it were any larger, its weight would have completely crushed its exoskeleton, rendering it immobile.

Of course, the animal's enormous weight became its death knell when it attempted to leap down from the spiderweb hanging from the ceiling to attack: using the impact force generated by its gravitational potential energy, Fish's spear tip easily pierced its mouthparts, killing it instantly. However, this impact also broke the spear in Fish's hand, rendering it unusable.

"Phew... so close." Fish shook his horse ears, kicking away the dead giant spider with lingering fear. If it weren't for Frostleaf's powerful hearing and reaction speed as a horse-type Newtype, and her incredibly strong muscle memory honed as an excellent swordsman, the outcome of that giant's sneak attack might have been very different...

However, there were clearly more than just two spiders hiding in this "spider's nest city." As everyone screamed and rushed out the door, even more rustling sounds came from inside the room! "We can't stay here, let's go!"

"Eh? But... but we haven't taken these liquors away yet..." Alicia pointed to the row of high-proof liquors that the girls had found and placed on the counter.

"Ah..." Fish swallowed hard. Without these highly flammable liquors, his plan to manufacture Molotov cocktails and other incendiary weapons might not have been feasible—after all, he didn't know if there was anywhere else in the mall where he could find a large quantity of fuel. However, moving these bottles by himself wouldn't be easy. The reason he brought five people with him was precisely to make it easier to transport the "spoils of war."

Unfortunately, having spent so much time with seasoned veterans like Ange and Shuangye, he forgot how easily someone without any combat training can fall into chaos when facing a crisis.

"Come back here! Don't run around!" After lamenting for a few seconds about the bottles of liquor that couldn't be moved, Fish suddenly remembered something else and shouted at the crowd that was running wildly out of the "Spider's Nest" store.

Of course, nobody listened to him—the fear of arachnids, for many vertebrates, is a legacy passed down from the Ordovician period 500 million years ago, deeply ingrained in their genes. Even these girls, quickly cloned and implanted with only a few negative memories, were no exception.

The primal fear instilled by the sight of the giant spider attacking humans had completely destroyed their rationality, leaving them with only one thought: to escape as quickly as possible.

This also means that they have forgotten the other dangers that exist in the shopping mall.

"Chirp chirp—chirp chirp chirp—chirp chirp—"

With a short, piercing scream, the girl in the blue tracksuit who had come in first place in the sprint race to escape Spider's Nest City suddenly noticed that her body seemed to have become lighter! A second later, she realized the truth: a pair of strong claws had just grabbed her shoulders and pulled her into the air!

After they made a chaotic running and screaming noise, the two bats that had not previously spotted their prey were finally awakened and started to move.

A second later, as it approached the mall's ceiling, the giant bat released its claws, sending the girl in the tracksuit tumbling and crashing to the ground dozens of meters below! To make matters worse, she didn't even touch the ground.

In the very center of the mall stood a ten-meter-tall decorative Christmas tree. The girl who fell from the sky was pierced through the chest and abdomen by the decorated top of the tree, leaving her hanging there in an ugly and grotesque manner, like prey caught by a shrike...

"Oh no... I forgot about this part..." Fish muttered as he ran to the exit, when he heard another scream from behind him.

"Kailein!" Alicia shouted as she was pinned to the ground by several hairy legs, "Run!"