The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"What... should we do now?"

After narrowly escaping death, Alicia looked at the carousel engulfed in flames from the grenade explosion and asked with lingering fear.

"That guy Huang Yan said before that this 'game' cannot be completed normally—we certainly can't lose, but if we just win the game, we're still doomed," Fish said. "Because after we get the reward, we'll be thrown out of the facility immediately... and then face a beating from a large group of 'Tai Sui' hosts."

"Uh, I remember that too..."

"So, we have to find a bug before the game ends, force ourselves to 'exit' the game abnormally, and then kill 'Tai Sui's' 'brain' inside the facility," Fish recalled Huang Yan's previous hint. "What did Huang Yan say back then? Right, it said it would give us hints if we could understand them... But where are the hints here?"

"The most likely place to find clues is somewhere on various displays and LCD screens. Whether it's providing clues through images or text, these kinds of devices are always the most convenient," Alicia said. "Maybe we should look for those."

"That makes sense, but the problem is, I haven't seen many of these devices." Fish remained vigilant, slowly moving among piles of plastic pumpkins while searching for the kind of equipment Alicia had mentioned. Unfortunately, the amusement park was not only limited in size, but also lacked advanced equipment. Notices were all written on blackboards, and apart from a few electronic scoreboards, there were no similar devices in sight.

"Maybe they're all hidden somewhere?" As they continued on their way, Alicia discovered a ring toss game that offered candy, so she joined in and had a great time. The two of them used only ten plastic rings to win a gift that could be exchanged for 80 candies.

Needless to say, the candy was exchanged for bullets and grenades of various calibers, especially 9mm bullets for submachine guns—Fish specifically brought his MP5 equipped with an infrared scope when escaping the carousel. After all, it would be a shame to just throw away something so valuable.

"Hmm, it would be nice to have decent tactical gear." After changing to the ammunition called "magic potion," Fish complained as he stuffed magazines and grenades into the pockets of the witches' skirts. Although the pockets on these skirts were as big as the pockets of the old kitchen maids and could hold a lot of things, they were still very inconvenient when they were full of these things.

The only saving grace was that since all the ammunition he received came with its own feeder, he could simply discard the empty magazines without them taking up any more space.

"Look, there seems to be a screen over there." After walking a distance along the row of pumpkin heads, Alicia suddenly pointed to a spot not far away. "Maybe we should go check it out?"

"Is this... a bumper car?"

Following Alicia's directions into a building, Fish noticed that the area was filled with small cars that could only seat one person. These toy-like vehicles were equipped with thick, inflatable rubber pads to absorb impact and were painted pumpkin-colored—something Huang Yan had mentioned before when introducing the culture of the old civilization era, something called "bumper cars." According to her, it was a strange game where people drove small cars, floored the gas pedal, and bumped into each other.

Of course, Fish couldn't understand why anyone would be foolish enough to play such a game: in that era, due to limited industrial capacity, vehicles using internal combustion engines, whether civilian or military, were extremely precious. Even a slight scratch or a dent in the paint was enough to cause heartache for a long time. In Fish's view, even if it was just a game, deliberately crashing cars into each other was simply insane.

It can only be said that the brain circuits of humans in the old civilization era are quite different from those of modern people—perhaps it is precisely because they have become so crazy as to be obsessed with driving cars into each other that they designed these murder games.

"Hmm, there seem to be words on that screen!" Alicia said after crossing the bumper car area. "It looks like... Eh? What does this mean? What does 'Flammable and explosive, use with caution' mean?"

She had barely finished speaking when a rapid ringing of the doorbell rang. Then, the bumper cars that had been parked in the corner suddenly began operating without drivers: shortly after starting, the first batch of bumper cars targeted the two of them and sped towards them at incredible speed!

"Whoa!" Seeing this, Alicia quickly jumped to the side, dodging the impact of one of the bumper cars. "That was close!"

"Um... don't worry too much," Fish said. "If I remember correctly, bumper cars shouldn't have too much impact..."

"I know! But inside! Inside!"

"What happened inside?"

"There are explosives inside!"

"Huh?" Fish was taken aback. However, as another bumper car passed by, thanks to Ange's extremely sharp dynamic vision, he also saw what was inside: a gas canister painted with a red warning sign, and a large bundle of bright red detonators. And on this bundle of detonators was an electronic timer, the numbers on it constantly ticking…

Of course, anyone who frequently participates in demolition knows that someone seriously planning to blow something up wouldn't make their equipment so flashy—however, in this "game," visual effects and the tension they create are more important than realism. While dodging the bumper car, Fish noticed that only thirty seconds remained on the timer.

While theoretically, in this absurd game, it wasn't impossible that after the countdown ended, those ridiculously large "detonators" would simply explode into a bunch of fireworks, along with a note saying "You've been tricked," Fish had no intention of gambling with his and Ange's bodies. "Get out of here!" he shouted to Alicia. "It's a trap!"

"I know! But the way we came from—"

"Damn it!" Fish then noticed that the entrance they had used to enter the bumper car area was now blocked by a group of bumper cars patrolling back and forth at top speed. Although theoretically he could stop them by feeding them rifle bullets, he had to rule out that method due to the risk of them exploding.

Worse still, apart from a few bumper cars that were watching the two collide, the other cars seemed to be under unified command, circling around the edge of the arena like a humpback whale hunting sardines, in order to prevent the two from escaping the arena.

Fortunately, having witnessed many "big scenes," Fish had already developed a calm and collected mindset under pressure. Therefore, it only took him a few seconds to notice a significant gap in the encirclement formed by the bumper cars: and this gap was directly opposite a small door leading deeper into the arena.

So, after dodging a bumper car, Fish first aimed at the lock of the small door with his crosshair, smashed it with a three-round burst, and then... he put his finger on the M203 grenade launcher hanging under the barrel and fired a grenade directly at the small door.

As the explosion swept through the space inside the small door, a burning figure tumbled out, screaming and flailing its arms. Then, all the bumper cars loaded with explosives came to a stop. "This trap was way too obvious," Fish shrugged. "It might work for someone panicking, but anyone with a clear head can see there's someone hiding behind that door."

"As expected of Karin... uh, Mr. Fish." Since there were no other teammates in this "game scenario," Alicia naturally didn't need to call Fish by his previous fake name from "school." "To be able to see the crux of the problem at a glance under these circumstances."

"Hehe, it's not that difficult," Fish said as he replaced the magazine on the M16A2. "As long as you're bold and careful, and accumulate enough combat experience, this kind of small trap is nothing to worry about."

"That's right."

"Anyway, we're safe for now. Let's go... what's up?"

"Um, Mr. Fish," Alicia pointed to a nearby bumper car that had already stopped. Inside, the timer on the detonator was still ticking, and the number had decreased to 10 seconds! "Why are these things still counting down?"

"Huh? Oh no, I forgot about this!" Fish shuddered, then immediately grabbed Alicia. "Run!"

Just as the two rushed out of the bumper car area, a series of powerful explosions completely destroyed the building. The scorching heatwave, like a raging beast, relentlessly pursued them. Fortunately, there happened to be a shallow artificial river nearby. Fish quickly grabbed Alicia, and the two jumped into the river together.

The blast wave, filled with dangerous debris, roared over the river.

"Phew... my god, are these guys actually serious?"

After the explosion, Fish surfaced from the water, letting out a long breath, and looked with lingering fear at the bumper car area, now a pile of smoking rubble. Then, he suddenly noticed that the data on an electronic signboard not far from the riverbank, which had been affected by the blast and was still emitting thick smoke, had flickered.

"This is……"

Fish wiped the water from his face and looked at the numbers displayed on the sign, which was illuminated by red lights. The sign, which read "Real-time Changes in Park Entry Numbers," showed two numbers: "Number of Little Witches" and "Number of Ghosts." The "Number of Little Witches," which had been "9," had suddenly become "10," while the "Number of Ghosts" had jumped to a whopping "52!"

"Damn, are there still so many?" The thought of fifty-two more insidious, invisible guys lurking in this amusement park, whom he would have to kill one by one, filled Fish with rage. However, what concerned him even more was the number of "little devils" in front of him.

Considering that the number of participants in this "game" has been decreasing rather than increasing since the start of the game, technically speaking, the number of "little witches" and "ghosts" should have peaked at the beginning of the game and continued to decline afterward. So why is the number of "little witches" increasing?

New people entering? No, that's unlikely—almost all the NPCs in these kinds of "games" are already in the game at the start. Although theoretically new players can be added at any time, Fish doesn't believe that anyone other than those few who have the disguise technology that Phoenix Flame just happened to plunder could easily enter this facility from the blockade of "Tai Sui's" puppet army.

So, is there a problem with the scoreboard? First of all, mechanical failure is almost negligible, so the only more likely reason is that some kind of bug occurred during the calculation process.

"Hoo... What are you looking at?" Just as Fish was pondering, Alicia surfaced from underwater and took a deep breath. "This is... a counting board?"

"Um."

"Look, the numbers have changed!"

As soon as Alicia finished speaking, a burst of small, rapid gunshots rang out from the other side of the amusement park, seemingly from a small-caliber firearm. Then, the number of "ghosts" dropped to "50," while the number of "little witches" fluctuated again, becoming…

"Eleven? This is... I understand..." Fish suddenly said, "Alicia, take a deep breath."

"Ah, okay," Alicia, lacking any initiative, immediately complied without hesitation, her cheeks puffed out like balloons. "Now?"

"Get underwater! Hurry!"

Although she had no idea what Fish was up to, Alicia dived back into the artificial river, which was only half a person deep. Two seconds later, the numbers on the sign changed again, and the number for "Little Witch" changed back to "10" from "11".

"I get it!" Fish clapped his hands. "This is the calculation bug! I'm afraid the way they calculate 'Little Witch' is based on whether she can be captured by the internal monitoring equipment! Instead of detecting whether she has vital signs! If they can't see her, they assume 'she doesn't exist'! Alicia? Look, we have a solution! Eh? Alicia?"

Because Alicia, hidden underwater, couldn't hear Fish's voice clearly, and mechanically following his orders, she kept her head submerged. By the time Fish quickly pulled her out, Alicia's face was already bright red.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

"I...I didn't hear your voice. Because I didn't know how long this would last, I just kept..."

"Idiot! If you feel uncomfortable, just stick your head out!" The thought of how his body almost suffered some serious injury because of this stubbornness made Fei Shi furious. "Anyway... never mind, I've already found the bug that Huang Yan mentioned."

"Really? And how do you plan to use it?"

"It's simple, just follow me."