The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"That bastard is really treating us like fools!"

Upon hearing Jorov's reply, Alicia, looking displeased, immediately went up to him, ready to give him a good beating. However, Fish stopped her from doing so.

"No need. He was telling the truth just now, I'm sure of that."

"Huh? Really?!" Alicia's mouth formed an adorable "o" shape in surprise. "But..."

"Huang Yan's lie detector test confirms that there's a high probability this guy isn't lying." Fish sighed and then looked at the others around him. "Although this kind of test isn't 100% accurate, I think even if he did lie, his friends would probably be happy to expose him."

Upon hearing this, the survivors of the Short Skirt Pirates all wore fawning smiles—Fish knew very well that the word "loyalty" simply didn't exist in the dictionary of these petty thugs. They were quite willing to switch sides, and once their leader fell from power, these guys would sell his secrets to the highest bidder in the shortest amount of time.

For this reason, most gang leaders keep the most important information, such as the location of stolen goods and the personal information of important trading partners, in their heads to prevent them from being betrayed by a subordinate.

However, finding and activating this rapid cloning workshop clearly couldn't have been accomplished by the pirate gang leader alone; he must have had many collaborators. Since no one has come forward to expose the leader's lies so far, it means he hasn't been deceiving them.

"So, in other words, you just found this device by accident and then used it to clone those girls..."

"Yes, yes!" Joroff nodded vigorously. "We discovered this device entirely by accident. When we found it, it was in... uh... a very strange state. None of us noticed it at first, until someone accidentally bumped into it, and it suddenly appeared before our eyes. As for the Fayun people's delegation you mentioned, we have absolutely no contact with them! I don't know any Fayun people!"

"It seems he was referring to the portable 'Virtual Paradise' system, exactly the same as the one installed on the tent that Melu and I used before," Shana said. "They can directly input false visual signals into the brains of people who come near them. Anyone who is a typical New Human or an Old Human with a special brain-computer interface will be affected. That way, the device can be hidden."

"In other words, the previous owner of this thing didn't just discard it carelessly. At least before abandoning it, they took some precautions to conceal it," Huang Yan commented.

"Uh, we don't know what it is. Anyway, after finding this thing by accident, it took me quite a while to get it moving. According to the machine, these girls are 'Standard Template No. 1,' although I don't know what that means, but the machine guarantees they will be absolutely loyal to us." Jorov shrugged. "Initially, we actually planned to sell these girls to the pleasure district I'm familiar with... but then the device mentioned that they possess combat abilities significantly beyond those of ordinary people, so..."

"So, you've decided to treat them as your subordinates?" Fish asked. "Then where did you get those cheap smart combat armors? I'm talking about the miniskirt-like equipment these girls are wearing."

"We found them near this device," Jorov said. "There were about three hundred sets in total, packed in a large box, and the remote control was also found inside. In their stored state, they were a liquid-like substance in jars. However, if the girls created by this device touch it, they will automatically transform into the form you see here."

"Do you know anything else?"

"Well, when I found that box, I also found several empty boxes lying around it. Those boxes probably contained the same thing, but when we found them, they were empty," Joroff added after a moment's thought.

"So, what's the success rate of these girls?" Huang Yan asked the next question.

"Yield rate? What's that?" The uneducated Joroff clearly didn't understand the term.

"Given the production speed of this machine, it's impossible that it only produced thirty or forty girls in these past few months—what happened to the others?"

"Uh... this..." The pirate survivors exchanged glances, some even showing fear, including Jorov, seemingly unwilling to discuss the topic. After a while, a teenage boy with messy, bird's-nest-like hair finally spoke up in a trembling voice.

"They're all dead... Many were born with fatal deformities, and some, like that person just now, just... exploded."

"As expected," Huang Yan said. "Could you elaborate?"

"Okay, okay! But I want to clarify, it wasn't our fault!" the boy quickly emphasized. "Ever since we discovered these machines, we've been trying to figure out how to use them. Luckily, after our boss fiddled with them for a while, the basic tutorial started up on its own. It explained the concept of rapid cloning and the basic operating methods—in short, we need to find and provide the necessary proteins, salt, water, and other nutrients, then set some values, such as minor adjustments to height and weight, and the machine will handle the rest."

"I think it shouldn't be too difficult to sit down and do these things," Felipe said, who hadn't been able to get involved in the fight. "The southern section of the fish market is full of tons of rotting fish entrails and small fish. There's plenty of protein, and water and salt can be obtained directly from the sea."

"Yes, yes!" said the young pirate gang member. "When the first batch of clones was completed, we thought that in a few months we would have an elite fighting force of several hundred men, and even the Oasis Port defense force would be no match for us. But soon, things went wrong: of the first batch of rapidly cloned 'products,' there were one hundred people, but only fourteen were not deformed. Moreover, three of them quickly detonated due to the shock, killing one of us in the process. The same thing happened in the subsequent batches."

"So, you actually produced several hundred people, but only managed to create a few dozen barely usable individuals?"

"Pretty much. Even those who seem fine can suddenly go out of control and attack blindly indiscriminately, or even explode, once they fall into extreme mental fluctuations or are overburdened," the boy with the bird's nest hair swallowed nervously. "In short, these people are a significant threat to us, and they're not very effective."

“Indeed,” a man wearing sunglasses chimed in. Fish recognized him as the unfortunate fellow who had been hit by a car in the street carrying a large bag of human remains. “Every batch I produce, I have to dispose of a huge pile of dead deformed children and the remains of people who have exploded. It’s a complete hassle.”

"Furthermore, even with the added benefit of those cheap, intelligent combat armors, making them incredibly powerful in short bursts, we don't dare use them indiscriminately," Jorov added. "We're afraid they might go out of control in combat. So, they're only really useful against weaker opponents from other gangs. If we encounter a stronger enemy, they might not be effective... I only used them out of necessity just now..."

"I understand," Huang Yan interrupted the other's rambling. "Mr. Fish, I believe these people have provided the main useful information they might have. Now, connect me to that device. I have one more thing to do."

"Huh? Okay." Fish, already quite familiar with this method, quickly deactivated Phoenix Flame's equipment and placed it on a spot on the casing of the rapid cloning device that contained numerous data cable interfaces. Then, Phoenix Flame's surface began to slowly stretch and deform, forming a series of slender probe structures that drilled into the data interfaces.

Although Fish's companions were already used to such sights, Felipe and Jorov, witnessing this scene for the first time, were still deeply shocked. While most people in this era knew that intelligent armor could transform into various weapons and even armor at will, and could achieve a fusion of human and armor by integrating with the armorer's nervous system, it was very rare to find someone like Phoenix Flame who not only possessed independent thought and judgment but also had the ability to directly integrate with the electronic devices of the old civilization era.

"O god of the sea... who are you?" Joroff stared at Fish in astonishment. "Ordinary armored warriors could never have equipment like this..."

"Who I am is not important, but you should have heard of Miss Luca, right? She's kind of my... friend."

"A friend?" As the head of a large gang, Jorov naturally knew Luca's other identity. Therefore, he didn't immediately believe Fish's explanation. "What kind of friend?"

“Of course, it’s the kind of relationship we’ve had in depth,” Fish shrugged—considering his past encounter with Luca as a guest at the Oasis City bar, his statement wasn’t entirely wrong. “Also, I’m currently looking for collaborators. If you’re willing to help me, then I can consider giving you a… better job in the future.”

"Uh..." Jorov hesitated. Although he wasn't sure about Fish's relationship with Luca, it was certain that he had several high-level armored warriors as his subordinates and possessed an extremely rare, top-tier intelligent combat armor. Based on these two points alone, he could confirm that Fish was definitely not an ordinary person.

In other words, perhaps he really can make a deal with the other party.

"Excuse me, what does 'a better job' refer to...?"

“Although you are called ‘pirates,’ as far as I know, you are actually engaged in some… tax-free trade,” Fish said. “Perfect, I can arrange a tax exemption charter for you with a sufficiently high amount, allowing your merchant ships to be exempt from taxes when trading with a certain principality.”

"……make a deal."

After hesitating for less than ten seconds, Jorov faced the man who had just destroyed most of his fortune and made the most crucial decision of his life. At that moment, Huang Yan also detached from the device.

"Gentlemen, I have the information now. These guys definitely have nothing to do with the incident we're investigating," the intelligent combat armor said through its external megaphone.

"Ah, that's right! We really don't know anything!" Upon hearing this, Jorov was overjoyed and quickly seized the opportunity to distance himself, "We just found this equipment!"

"We already know that," Huang Yan said. "I just read the operation logs in the device system and found some... very interesting information."

"How so?" Ange asked.

"About six months ago, this equipment underwent extremely high-intensity production—the safe manufacturing cycle for rapid cloning technology should be around three months, with a maximum compression of two months. However, the customer who used it at the time actually chose to use extreme methods, such as overdosing on drugs that promote cell differentiation and accelerate the growth cycle, shortening this time to twenty-five days," Huang Yan said. "That's faster than fast-growing quails."

"Undoubtedly, it wasn't these guys who did this." Ange glanced at the short-skirted pirate gang member who was huddled together like a hamster seeking warmth.

"Yes, such extreme modifications cannot be achieved directly through a user-friendly interface; the underlying code must be modified, and even some hardware may need to be altered," Huang Yan explained. "This means a considerable amount of knowledge and technological reserves from the old civilization era... and these idiots don't even know how to restore the cloning cycle to a relatively normal level."

So...

"Therefore, those clones whose growth cycle has been compressed through extreme means will be in such a bad state," Huang Yan said. "Even if we follow the standard three-month cycle, the yield rate will at least be at a normal level."

"Waaah..." a member of the pirate gang sighed, "Poor Johnny... if we had known about this earlier, he wouldn't have been blown up by the clones."

"But the fact that rapidly replicating people can cause them to explode is strange in itself, isn't it?" Shana asked. "I had never heard of such a thing before I entered hibernation."

"This brings us to what I call 'hardware modification'," Huang Yan replied. "The previous users of this device added some extra production functions to it—all the rapid clones it produced had a special gland implanted inside the skull and near the heart. These glands contain a large amount of nitroglycerin and various oxidizing agents."

"What's the use of this thing...?"

"It's an organic bomb, it's that simple," Huang Yan mimicked a cold laugh. "In other words, these guys have bombs in their heads."