The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"What? That can't be possible, right?" Shana's face flushed red upon hearing Huang Yan's words. "Even in the dark and terrifying era I lived in, implanting objects into cloned human bodies with the malicious intent to take their lives—such as bombs or other explosives—was a first-degree felony..."

"Ah, that's right, but the penal code of the old civilization has been buried along with that fallen civilization," Ange patted her shoulder. "There's no point in discussing this now."

“That’s right,” Huang Yan said. “The alteration records of the equipment indicate that these implanted organic bombs are controlled by neural signals and can be detonated by specific external commands. I believe this is undoubtedly a measure to prevent human rebellion or disobedience resulting from cloning.”

"Eh? But..." Just as Jorov opened his mouth, he was interrupted by Huang Yan.

"I know what you mean by 'but'," Huang Yan said. "You want to ask why those things you created would self-destruct for no reason, right? The reason is simple: extreme rushing led to extreme problems."

"Well……"

"Because the production cycle is compressed to less than a month, these rapidly cloned humans have developed significant problems with their nervous system development—like some special animals on Earth with genetic stress or even epilepsy, they become very susceptible to stimulation or loss of control... and this loss of control can lead to an explosion."

"That's terrifying," Frostleaf commented.

"Oh, not necessarily," a member of the short-skirted pirate gang suddenly interjected. While she was also wearing the same short skirt as the other crazy girls, her skirt was the real thing, not a cheap imitation of intelligent combat armor. And she herself was a genuine, eighteen-year-old new human, not a rapidly cloned "product." "Actually… that has some advantages."

"Eh?"

"Before these little girls were created, the interpersonal relationships within our gang were actually quite bad. Because the smuggling business was highly competitive and we were frequently caught by patrols, everyone was always in a bad mood, and we would argue and even fight at the drop of a hat," the girl pointed to a scar on her face, clearly left from a violent brawl. "But after they were created, that stopped... because everyone was worried that if they were provoked, something terrible would happen. So everyone became very polite and friendly to each other."

"Ha, that's quite ironic," Ange said. "A bunch of people with bombs in their heads can actually make interpersonal relationships more harmonious. Maybe we can learn from this approach in the future."

"Please don't do that!" Everyone, including Fish, reacted instinctively—while making everyone's relationship harmonious and friendly was a good thing, having a bomb in your head could really be fatal! "Our relationship is already very harmonious! It's fine! Really!"

"Well, in short, this is all I've found from the equipment usage records so far: the previous users modified the equipment, producing a large number of poor-quality, high-speed clones with bombs in their heads—in fact, the records show they had four of these machines," Huang Yan continued, as everyone was arguing. "Because they forced production at the maximum speed, three of the machines were eventually worn out and had to be abandoned. Only one was still in good condition when the production plan was completed, but its product quality had deteriorated drastically."

"And then it was hidden here?" Fish asked.

"Yes. It's probably because the users didn't need it for the time being, but they couldn't bear to throw away this kind of old civilization-era equipment that was becoming increasingly rare, so they simply hid it. Unexpectedly, it was discovered by these guys by chance not long afterward," Huang Yan said.

"So... those cheap versions of smart combat armor..."

"Those junk items were also brought by the first batch of users," Huang Yan deliberately emphasized the word "junk"—clearly, to her, those things that were similar in function to her but were purely disposable were a very despicable existence. "In their adjustments to the hardware, I discovered records of improving the clones' adaptability to neural implants... This is a prerequisite for effectively utilizing all intelligent combat armor."

"I see."

"But they obviously prepared too much of that cheap stuff, so there was some left over. They left this non-combustible waste here with the last usable piece of equipment... and it ended up in the hands of the pirate gang," Huang Yan continued. "In addition, I estimated the production capacity of the four pieces of equipment. After excluding defective products caused by the extremely compressed production schedule, it is estimated that they most likely produced a total of 1500 to 2000 people during the entire production cycle."

"So many?! Wait, this number... could it be..." Anjie frowned.

"Yes, about the same number as the mysterious groups of people we found in the abandoned factory before," Felipe said. "Those people were definitely created using this kind of equipment."

"And the so-called 'murder' mentioned earlier was most likely not murder. Rather, it was the death of a rapid clone that was born with a self-destruct device but had a severely unstable nervous system, due to an accidental shock," Fish continued to deduce. "As for the 'disappearance'... it was most likely a failed prototype that died from an accidental self-destruction or other causes, and its remains were disposed of."

"In other words, these hastily created, rapidly replicated humans, carrying artificially fabricated memories, infiltrated Oasis Harbor in batches over several months," Ange concluded. "Is...that even possible?"

“Basically no problem,” Fish, a local native, replied immediately. “If we have two thousand people, we can just let twenty people in every day for a hundred days. The slums and fish market area of ​​Oasis Harbor, and even the port area, are notorious for their chaos, disorder, and lawlessness. Although the customs and security forces responsible for immigration control will check the information of outsiders, no one would ever imagine that someone could ‘create’ people directly within Oasis Harbor.”

"Indeed. If a dozen or twenty people suddenly appeared in a place like this every day, no one would care," Huang Yan said. "It's like in Jurassic Park, the park management didn't notice that the dinosaurs on the island were multiplying - because they didn't consider this in the first place, nor did they add an instruction to 'monitor the increase in the number of dinosaurs' to the monitoring program, and the increase in the number of dinosaurs is almost negligible relative to the area of ​​Isla Nublar, and it would be difficult for humans to detect it."

“Indeed.” Fish nodded. Although he hadn’t seen any ancient films, Michael Crichton’s novel was indeed one of the few ancient literary works successfully preserved to this era—mainly because the ancestors of the Lyndenhild family, the heroes who stood up against humanity in the old civilization, loved the novel. Therefore, while everything from the previous era vanished like ashes in the wind, it survived in the form of a copy.

Because those people believe that the new humans, like the dinosaurs resurrected through genetic engineering in novels, still have the right to oppose their creators, even though they are creations of the old humans.

"But the question is, what exactly were the previous users of this device thinking?" Ange muttered to herself. "If they were Fayun people, the coup in the duchy hadn't even happened yet when they started preparing all this. What is the relationship between these people and those who seized power? Why would they place thousands of fast clones infiltrating Oasis Harbor? And what does this have to do with the plan to buy Deep Dark Island?"

"Under the current circumstances, I cannot answer these questions either—overall, we still have too little information, and a large number of clues cannot be connected for the time being," Huang Yan said somewhat helplessly. "The only thing we can be sure of is that these people 'are not doing anything'."

"Oh? For example?" Fish asked.

"First of all, this is unlikely to be a military conspiracy to conquer Oasis Harbor—not to mention that the straight-line distance between Fayun and Oasis Harbor is over two thousand kilometers, occupying it would be completely counterproductive, and the fact that we have no historical conflicts with them, the very characteristics of these rapid clones determine that they are unusable." The most astute answer came from Anjie, "After the production schedule was extremely compressed, the physical condition of these rapid clones became extremely unstable. Although the first few batches of 'products' should be more decent than the defective ones made by the Short Skirt Pirates, they are still unsuitable for organizing into an army for organized combat."

"That's right, that's right," said Joroff, who had experience in this area. "I can guarantee that."

"Furthermore, while the cheap version of smart combat armor, a failed product of the old civilization era, can give these people explosive combat power in a short period of time, the extremely short duration and the extreme physical burden during high-intensity use create serious limitations," Ange continued to analyze. "In this case, these infiltrators are actually unable to carry out tasks that require meticulous planning, such as 'conquest' and 'occupation'."

"So, perhaps it's to coordinate with others to complete the occupation? For example, first activate these people to create chaos, and then after the guards of Oasis Harbor are in a state of disarray, a real invading army will enter to clean up the mess?" Frostleaf offered his speculation.

“It’s possible,” Ange said, “but the problem is, where is that ‘real army’? Taking over a medium-sized city-state like Oasis Harbor would require an army of several thousand men—which means a corresponding fleet deployment. As far as I know, two or three escort cruisers, five to ten small gunboats and supply ships, five to six troop transports, plus an equal number of transport ships carrying supplies and weapons, is the minimum requirement to achieve this objective. However…”

"A fleet of this size cannot be completely concealed during an operation," Fish continued. Over the past few months, Ange's ladies-in-waiting had taught him etiquette and political common sense, as well as some basic military science. Therefore, he could now somewhat keep up with Ange's thinking in this regard. "Not to mention the inevitable information leaks during the preparation of supplies, the assembly and loading of army troops onto ships, and the preparations for departure, the merchant ships encountered along the way, aerial reconnaissance, port informants, abnormal resource allocation... all of these would be detected. This is completely different from sending one or two warships for an attack."

"Well said, my lord!" Ange clapped her hands, wagging her fluffy tail vigorously, looking very happy. In her view, Fish's ability to go from being clueless about most things to his current level in just a few months was enough to prove his intelligence—and also proved that she had a keen eye for talent.

"So, so far, neither the Duchy of Penglai, the Marquisate of Shisheng, nor Luca and her 'Red Cat' who are well-informed in Oasis Port know anything about this. This means that such an army does not exist... Hmm... It seems that this possibility can also be ruled out." Shuangye scratched her chin and nodded.

"The last possibility is that this is some kind of terrorist attack," Ange said. "Its main purpose is not to destroy or kill people, but to affect the psychology of the local people and achieve some goal by creating terror."

"And this purpose is related to Fayun... no, to the traitors who have now seized the Duchy of Fayun," Fish continued. "Speaking of what they plan to do at Oasis Harbor, it's the plan to acquire Dark Deep Island... Could it be that launching an attack could advance this process? If so, how?"

"To answer this question, we need some new clues—but unfortunately, there's probably no possibility of finding any more here," Ange glanced at the old device, shrugged, and said, "The good news is that your friend, Miss Luca, should be able to help us in this regard."

"Hmm... Although Luca has quite a few sources of information on both the legitimate and criminal sides, I don't think... Wait, you don't mean...?"

“That’s right, I hope she can make good use of her greatest interests and put them into practice,” Ange smiled. “Let me think… As the current head of the Sherin Group, she is a proper ‘socialite.’ And as everyone knows, socialites always have to participate in various high-society social activities.”

"For example... with foreign envoys?" Frostleaf, who was also a noble, realized what Ange was about to say.

"Yes, the Sherin Consortium's business spans more than a dozen duchies, marquises, earls, and city-states. Even I've heard of it. How can we not cultivate good relations with diplomatic envoys? Especially when we happen to meet envoys from several countries on diplomatic occasions..." Ange said. "It's perfectly normal for the special envoys from the Duchy of Penglai and the Marquis of Shisheng who are on a friendly visit to Oasis Port to send a few invitations to the Sherin Consortium when they are having a friendly exchange with the delegation from the Duchy of Fayun."

"Indeed," Fish said. "So, when should the invitations be sent out?"

"Tomorrow afternoon," Ange said, "the sooner the better for these things."