The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"Alicia?!"

Startled by Alicia's scream, Fish turned around and saw a tarantula, easily a meter and a half long, pinning Alicia down. Fortunately, unlike the girls who were caught off guard and attacked, Alicia was a member of the kendo club. Although the "kendo club" was fake, she had indeed been given a considerable amount of swordsmanship experience.

Based on her experience, just as the tarantula pounced on her, preparing to tear her apart with its fang-like limbs, Alicia timely swung her short spear across her hand and blocked the attack at the last second.

Unlike other arachnids that possess stingers, whips, or other "secondary weapons," spiders mostly lack additional means of attack, even this extremely enlarged synthetic beast is no exception. Therefore, the two sides are currently locked in a stalemate.

"Kaelin, you go first! I'll hold it off!" Alicia said, her words carrying a strong sense of self-sacrifice... but Fish, of course, couldn't accept it.

After all, putting aside the fact that they were once companions, she was currently using Xiaoxing's body! Even if Alicia could be abandoned, Fish absolutely could not tolerate throwing Xiaoxing to these disgusting giant insects.

"Damn it... Watch this!" After spending less than a second thinking, Fish, who had no weapon at hand, decided to follow Frostleaf's fighting instincts—he charged directly at the giant tarantula that was pinning Alicia down, then leaped high and kicked the eight round black eyes.

The effect is outstanding!

As a new type of horse-like human, while she didn't possess the overwhelming physical advantages of the "horse racers" from the old civilization, Frostleaf's legwork was still far superior to that of the average person. Using only her muscle memory, Fish could effortlessly unleash a flying kick with astonishing power and extreme accuracy. After taking the blow to the eye, the giant spider released Alicia and temporarily retreated.

"No, no ...

Just as Fish pulled Alicia up from the ground, another scream came from outside Spider's Nest City—in this short period of time, two girls had been grabbed and thrown onto the mall floor, dying in this horrific way under the claws of the giant bats.

"Everyone, don't run around, lie down!"

Perhaps because they already had two companions who had died tragically as "role models," the remaining two girls finally listened to Fish's advice and lay down behind the glass-enclosed railing, hiding in the echolocation blind spot.

However, while this tactic might evade the bats' detection, the giant tarantulas and several other giant spiders in "Spider Nest City" had already reacted and were crawling back towards the entrance. Fish knew very well that if they continued to crawl on their backs, they wouldn't be able to escape the pursuit of these eight-legged predatory machines!

But if you were to stand up and run... those two giant bats would still be circling overhead.

"Kaelin, what should we do?" Alicia asked anxiously.

"There's no other way." Fish thought for a moment, then picked up a bottle with a centaur design lying not far away, smashed the top half of it on the floor, stuffed a rag torn from his skirt into the broken bottle opening, and set it on fire. "Get out of the way."

"Well?"

"Just do as I say!"

Under Fish's insistence, the indecisive Alicia finally complied. Then, Fish raised the bottle with the burning strips of cloth stuck in it above his head and began to wave it vigorously.

"Hey! I'm here!" he yelled at the giant bat that was circling around searching for its target. "I'm here! Come and get me!"

Although bats obviously can't understand human speech, their large ears are extremely sensitive to sound. Before Fish could even shout a second time, the two giant bats had already swooped down from the left and right.

Meanwhile, the giant tarantula whose actions had been disrupted by Fish had crawled to a few meters away from the gate of "Spider Nest City" and raised its front legs, ready to pounce.

Fish waited patiently until the giant tarantula was about to make its move. Suddenly, he ducked and rolled to the side, causing the two swooping bats to miss their target. The two enormous chiropterans didn't have time to turn and crashed into the giant tarantula from the left and right, the three animals tumbling and crashing into the deepest part of the shop.

Then, Fish threw the burning bottle in his hand with force.

Just as he had predicted, the bottle struck the distant liquor cabinet precisely, causing a spray of various liquors to erupt and ignite one by one. The raging flames spread rapidly and immediately set something ablaze…

...That's spider silk.

As a protein, spider silk, besides its exceptional toughness and excellent ductility, also possesses remarkable flammability. This means that it is easily ignited under relatively dry conditions…especially when soaked in high concentrations of alcohol.

Soon, the entire "Spider Nest City" was transformed into a giant oven by the chain reaction of the spreading flames. Giant spiders, giant bats, and human corpses all became fuel within it.

"Did you...done it all?"

Upon seeing the firelight behind her, the surviving pink-haired girl asked in a daze.

"If we don't get out of here quickly, we'll fall too!" Alicia glanced down the railing, then immediately grabbed the arms of the two surviving girls. "Hurry! That guy's coming!"

"Ah... wait?! Yes!"

Just as Alicia said, although the terrifying inhabitants of "Spider Nest City" and the two giant bats that could silently "fall from the sky" had all become firewood in the raging flames, the most troublesome thing in this mall was still unharmed: on the second floor, the black giant bear had also noticed the fighting and the flames, and was rushing up there at top speed!

Fortunately, Fish, Alicia, and the two surviving girls were a fraction of a second faster than it and managed to escape into the scented candle shop in time. With the help of the group left behind by Aqua, they managed to close the stainless steel roller shutter door before the giant bear could rush up to the third floor.

"Phew...that was close..." A member of the remaining team had just breathed a sigh of relief when he heard a loud bang from behind him and screamed in fright—at the same time, several conspicuous dents suddenly appeared on the roller shutter door, facing inward.

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"My God..." Fish muttered, "This thing is half a centimeter thick stainless steel alloy... Anyway, isn't that thing a bit too powerful?"

"Now I'm even more convinced that going head-to-head with that guy isn't a good idea," Alicia said softly. "I'm afraid even if we make a Molotov cocktail, we won't be able to take it down easily."

"Indeed, it seems we have to think of another way." Fish bit his lip, while reminiscing about the few sharp knives he had obtained in the previous level. Judging from the encounter with two mutated bears in the abandoned village in the forest last time, Frostleaf had at least a 99% chance of defeating the bear as long as he had a suitable weapon. Even if he were the one controlling this body now, he would still be 90% confident of defeating it.

The only problem is that there are absolutely no knives here. Forget about samurai swords used in actual combat; even in a kitchenware store where you'd expect to find plenty of cleavers, steak knives, and fruit knives, there isn't a single sharpened weapon in sight. Clearly, the guy who designed this game script is a master of the dark humor!

Just as Fish was racking his brains trying to figure out how to get a bladed weapon that was more decent than broken glass and ceramic shards in this dark and huge mall, the last two survivors of the five people who had gone with him to Spider's Nest City to find alcohol had told Aqua what had happened in a trembling voice.

"So, this floor also harbors monsters? In that case, we have to carefully consider whether there are still dangers in the unexplored areas of the mall," Aqua said. "However, this operation was at least not a loss: we eliminated the spiders in 'Spider Nest City' and dealt with the giant bats that had been staying on the ceiling. If we simply calculate the exchange ratio, it was advantageous for us."

"But Spider's Nest is also destroyed: I burned everything there," Fish said, still lost in thought. "Now, if we want to get weapons, we'll have to find another way."

"Indeed." Yakia nodded. "This mall is absolutely awful. Although it has hundreds of stores, they are mostly useless clothing stores, grain stores, or luxury goods stores. There are plenty of jewelry, toys, and candles, but very few of them are actually useful."

"There's not even anything to eat..." complained a little girl wearing a sun hat and a Rococo-style long dress. "I'm starving..."

"That's a problem too. If this drags on, we won't be able to maintain our stamina for long," Yakya said, punching his knee with his little fist. "The only saving grace is that we don't have anything to eat from that monster either..."

"That's not necessarily true," Alicia shook her head. "It probably doesn't lack food."

"But this place is clearly..."

"Have you all forgotten how many people have died here so far? Ten? Twenty? Maybe more!" Alicia said. "How do you think that monster will treat the dead? Will it close its eyes, put its hands together, chant 'Amitabha' to them, and then send them to the funeral home?"

"Well……"

"Well……"

Alicia's words completely silenced everyone present—at this moment, they were thinking not only about the huge advantage that the black monster had in terms of food supplies, but also about something else: what would happen to them if they died here.

"I'd rather stay here and starve to death than be eaten by those creatures!" After a brief silence, a little girl clutching a teddy bear shouted, "It's too scary outside, I don't want to go out!"

No one responded to her, but Fish saw approval in the eyes of the others—not a good sign. After all, as long as there is still fighting spirit, there is always hope in even the most dangerous and desperate circumstances. But once everyone starts to give up, things will get really messy.

"Everyone, please don't be discouraged," just then, Aqua suddenly stood up, "we are not without options."

"Miss Akia..."

"The 'solution' you mentioned is...?"

"The ground floor of this mall does indeed only have useless things like light luxury items, but have you all forgotten that there's another level underground?" Yakia suddenly pulled out a blueprint as if by magic—a structural diagram of the entire mall. "I accidentally discovered this when I was gathering the survivors on the first floor. As you can see from the diagram, the mall's underground area contains a parking lot and a supermarket, which is a very typical layout."

"and then?"

"There might be vehicles in the parking lot, and if there are any fuel-powered cars, we might be able to get fuel," Yakia said. "There might also be some truly useful supplies in the supermarket. Of course, there might be other monsters lurking underneath. But if this game requires eliminating all the monsters to complete, then we'll have to face them sooner or later."

"But that's pointless," Fish pointed out. "That giant bear usually roams between the second and first floors. If we don't take it down, we can't get into the underground area, and our main problem right now is that we can't deal with it."

"Perhaps, but we can definitely use a feint attack," Arkja said.

"What are you planning to do?"

“I noticed that the design of this mall is a bit…normal,” Aqua explained. “Although it’s very large, there are no regular emergency staircases. The only connections between the different floors are an escalator and a small elevator—but because there’s no electricity, neither of them are working right now. This means that, theoretically, as long as that guy guards the area near the escalator, we can’t get down.”

"So what are your plans...?"

"The floors here are open-plan, so we can use ropes or something to force our way down from the third-floor railing to the first floor and then down to the basement," Yakia said, pointing to the structural diagram. "Of course, we don't have professional rappelling equipment, only ropes made of strips of cloth, so it will take a long time. Therefore, we need another group of people to provide support."

"You mean... send someone to the escalator entrance to distract that guy?"

"Exactly. This shopping mall is big enough, with the furthest distance between the two ends approaching two hundred meters. Even a bear would need some time to run that distance. After the decoy team is deployed, we will immediately begin our descent, and then attract its attention as we reach the first floor," Aqua continued to explain his plan. "You've also noticed that the monster will never come to the third floor unless it finds a target, but will instead wander between the first and second floors—even if it knows there are people on the third floor."

"So, it's actually designed to prevent people from sneaking into the first floor, or even the mall's basement, when it's not looking?" Fish suddenly understood.