The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"Why...why would she do that?"

Despite having witnessed many shocking situations during her previous adventures, Alicia was still stunned by what she saw before her—not only by the gruesome sight of the girl with a large hole in her chest, but also by her resolute actions.

While still armed (though very unwieldy) and with help on the way, he chose to end his life in such a desperate manner. This greatly surprised Alicia, who had previously fought the ferocious black monster using only broken glass, mop handles, and bottles as makeshift weapons: just how terrifying must those monsters be to inspire such fear?

"I have a very bad feeling," Fish said quietly.

"Me too."

After exchanging this opinion, the two carefully stepped over the body of the suicidal girl (and, of course, retrieved the Desert Eagle with four rounds left in its magazine), and continued towards the carousel where the battle had likely taken place. Then, they saw a rather... astonishing sight.

Four corpses of "little witches" lay in different positions among the colorful carousel horses. The one closest to them was clutching an M24 sniper rifle, the barrel still warm. She lay supine between the iron railings separating the queues, her wide-open eyes filled with astonishment.

What took her life was a knife piercing her heart from the front.

The second "little witch" died on the back of a wooden horse, resembling a knight fallen in a classical tragic painting. It appears that before being stabbed in the back, she tried to climb onto the horse for a better view—perhaps to spot potential enemies—but failed. An MP5 submachine gun equipped with a laser sight and silencer lay at the girl's feet, surrounded by a dozen or so 9mm bullet casings.

Clearly, in the final moments, she seemed to be firing aimlessly in all directions.

The third and fourth bodies of the "Little Witches" lay at a distance. Although bullet holes remained on their bodies, both had been killed by having their carotid arteries severed by a sharp object. The gunshot wounds were most likely caused by indiscriminate firing from their companions after their deaths. Their shotguns lay nearby; one had never been fired, while the other was surrounded by spent cartridge cases, indicating at least three shots had been fired.

Even more alarming, aside from the recently deceased corpses of these "little witches" and the bloodstains everywhere, Fish couldn't find any other demonic remains. Including the one who suddenly committed suicide after escaping, the five "little witches" possessed a total of one M24 sniper rifle, one submachine gun, two pump-action shotguns, and one Desert Eagle. Excluding the handgun that wasn't very wrist-friendly, their remaining firepower was considerable, enough to cause a terrorist attack in a peaceful city that would result in hundreds of casualties.

Even so, they failed to kill even a single enemy...? What on earth happened?

"Could it be... that they're killing each other?" Alicia asked. "Maybe they had a conflict, or something went wrong, and then they started..."

“That possibility can be ruled out immediately,” Fish said, shaking his head. “All the victims… except for those who committed suicide, died from sharp force injuries, not gunshot wounds. And none of them were carrying any knives or swords. This means they were murdered by someone else.”

"But isn't that even stranger? These people are all armed and have plenty of ammunition. Even if their marksmanship is terrible, they should be able to kill one or two enemies who are armed with short weapons. Why were they helplessly approached and killed like this?" Alicia was even more confused.

"There are two possibilities. The first possibility is that the person who killed them was their comrade, or at least gained their trust in some way," Fish thought for a moment and then said, "However, I personally don't really believe in this possibility. After all, although what happened with Aqua happened before, if it's a high-intensity confrontation game, it would be too much to add difficulty with an inside man."

"Then, what about the second possibility?" Alicia asked.

"I'm afraid what attacked them wasn't some 'traitor' or 'one of their own'," Fish continued, "but rather the so-called demons and monsters mentioned on the broadcast. But, they... wait?"

A creaking sound of heavy footsteps on the wooden floor suddenly came from not far away, briefly attracting Fish and Alicia's attention—but when they looked in the direction of the sound, they saw nothing.

"Um...did I hear that right?" Alicia asked.

"It shouldn't be." Fish twitched the pair of fluffy fox ears on the top of her head—as a fox-type new human, Ange's hearing was certainly not as good as Frostleaf's horse ears, but it was definitely not bad either. Although she couldn't hear certain very low-frequency infrasound waves like Frostleaf, she was better at using her hearing to locate and even measure distances.

According to Anjie's distance measurement results, the sound came from inside the carousel, and the distance between them was no more than ten meters!

"By the way, Alicia, take a close look around. Is there anything strange happening around you?"

"Ah... this... there shouldn't be." Just as Alicia finished speaking, two more creaking sounds came from the wooden floor of the carousel, even closer. This time, Fish didn't choose to observe anymore. Instead, he picked up his M16 wand and began to cast a spell called "Three Short Shots" in the direction of the sound.

The results were outstanding.

After four short bursts of three-round bursts had used up more than half of the 20-round magazine, two figures suddenly appeared out of thin air as if they had materialized out of nowhere. The two women appeared to be young, one of whom was covered in bandages and had a golden cobra mark on her forehead, clearly dressed as a mummy; the other was wearing a red-topped official hat, a strange blue cheongsam, and had yellow talismans pasted on her face, seemingly playing the role of an Eastern-style zombie.

Of course, after taking those bullets at close range, they did indeed become the very thing they were playing, and were dead beyond any doubt.

"Wow, there are people in places like this!" Alicia exclaimed, picking up two sharp fruit knives from beside the two corpses—the people who had just been killed had been killed with these kinds of sharp weapons. "How...how did they get here?"

"You really didn't see it just now?"

"Uh-huh."

"I understand." Fish nodded and fired the remaining bullets from the magazine into the air. He then picked up the MP5 submachine gun left behind by the "Little Witch" who had died on the carousel and continued firing. When the MP5's magazine and chamber were completely empty, a bullet-pierced sphere, smoking, landed on the back of a wooden horse, where Alicia reached out and caught it.

"This is……"

"A holographic projection robot, a device from the old civilization era, capable of creating moving holographic images to cover a target." Fish nodded—previously, in that old era ruin, he had used the superhuman control ability gained from the Phoenix Flame devouring the "Black Destroyer" to control such a robot to scare and deceive Liu Gang and the others. However, when he first sensed the presence of invisible enemies around him, his first thought was actually the "Virtual Paradise" system.

However, after Alicia repeatedly claimed that she hadn't seen anything, Fish dismissed this idea: after all, Alicia was currently using his body, and for some reason he couldn't explain, Fish's eyes seemed to be inherently immune to the illusions created by the "Virtual Paradise" system. This was true both in the "Labyrinth" and when facing Shana's tent.

After ruling out the influence of the "Virtual Paradise" system, only one reasonable explanation remains.

“At least that’s a good thing,” Fish said. “These projection robots are slow, and when used as camouflage, the effect is inconsistent. People covered by them have to stay still or move slowly to avoid being detected. This means they can’t run fast.”

"Uh... in that case..."

"As long as we take precautions, we're not without options," Fish said, glancing at the weapons the two "ghosts" had left behind. He immediately understood—clearly, the "little witches'" wands and "magic potions" were unusable by the "ghosts." Otherwise, these two wouldn't have had to resort to using fruit knives as makeshift weapons.

In this way, the "ghosts," who have limited stealth abilities but are prohibited from equipping firearms, can only choose to kill their opponents with melee weapons after getting close. Their advantage is thus artificially limited, preventing a one-sided massacre.

If that's the case, then there's still a chance to fight!

"To the left, at the five o'clock position!"

After hearing the creaking sound of the wooden planks being trampled again, Fish quickly pinpointed the location and shouted. Then, Alicia decisively turned around and fired a shotgun blast in the general direction!

One of the bullets successfully hit "something," and blood splattered out from under the cover of the hologram, fanning out onto the carousel floor. Then, Alicia fired two more shots, completely eliminating the attacker—a girl dressed as a werewolf, clutching a short knife used for slicing fish sashimi.

Although the holographic projection effect almost perfectly concealed her figure, it was useless against the shotgun shells. The dense barrage of lead-type projectiles shattered half of her chest cavity.

"Huff...huff...it seems this game area isn't as difficult as we thought," Fish said. "The lack of information and the stealth attacks make this 'first-time kill' mode very challenging. But if we know that the 'demons and monsters' are actually these invisible people, then it's not so hard to deal with."

"But not being able to see the enemy's location is always a little scary..." Alicia muttered to herself as she reloaded shotgun magazine. "It would be better if we could see the enemy..."

"But these enemies also have weaknesses: their invisibility doesn't rely on the 'Virtual Paradise' system interfering with our brains—of course, it would be better if it did, because my body is completely unaffected by this system—but on ordinary holographic projections. Therefore, footsteps won't be masked, and they can't move quickly, otherwise the projections will be exposed due to moving too fast, so they can only remain still or move slowly to look for an opportunity."

"Oh……"

"Plus, these guys have the 'no ranged weapons' restriction, which makes things even easier: don't forget, our new human bodies are far more functional than those of the old humans," Fish said, wagging his tail smugly. Ange's "Fox Radish" was heavier than his own cat tail, making it a bit cumbersome, but considering its fluffy and comfortable feel, it wasn't a big problem. "Especially the senses other than sight. Just being 'unable to see' isn't enough to deal with us."

As if in response to his words, the old carousel suddenly started operating as a burst of loud music began!

First, the massive prototype chassis of the carousel equipment began to operate. Then, driven by the old hydraulic system, the colorful horses began to "bob" up and down, flashing colorful lights continuously.

"Ding ding ding—"

Ding ding ding—

Jingle bells—

Ding ding ding ding ding—

Jingle bells, jingle bells—

Although the music itself wasn't anything special, and the buzzing old-fashioned carousel didn't trample anyone who couldn't dodge it like real horses, Fish was still taken aback: whether someone had taken advantage of the situation to activate the carousel system, or whether it was part of the "game" program from the start, it all meant one thing...

His once-proud, keen hearing is now completely drowned out by noise!

"Damn it, they pulled that on me!" Fish muttered angrily. "Alicia, get out of here right now!"

"Hmm." Alicia nodded, but just as she was about to rush off the carousel, she was grazed by one of the horses, and then she lost her balance. Before she could stand up, Fish suddenly noticed that there was a tiny, mirage-like fluctuation in the air not far from her.

"You bastard, try this!"

Fish pulled the trigger of his "wand" three times in succession, firing nine bullets at the point where the air rippled. The first six rifle bullets only hit a red wooden horse, completely blasting its head into pieces. The last three bullets, however, hit a girl dressed as a ghost, holding two kitchen knives, sending her flying "out of thin air" and falling to the ground dead.

"Fortunately, these holographic projections have weaknesses if they move too fast." Fish pulled Alicia up, and after escaping the carousel, he fired two more grenade launchers at the sound system and power supply equipment. With the explosions, the loud music finally subsided.

Even so, Fish knew that their current situation was already very unsafe.