The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

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"Hey, look over here!" After covering her entire body with moon-white intelligent combat armor, Yue Die flipped over the balcony railing and jumped down, then shouted loudly in Xiao Xing's direction. The two who were fighting heard this voice and quickly took a step back and looked at her.

"I'm here to help!" Yue Die transformed part of her armor into her favorite slender, swift sword form, rushing forward in three steps while deliberately shouting loudly—at first glance, her target seemed to be Xiao Xing. But in the next instant, Xiao Xing suddenly closed in on her opponent, engaging in close combat with the person using the short sword transformed from her arm armor.

Of course, Xiaoxing's opponent was obviously experienced enough in combat. After Xiaoxing forced her into his arms, he immediately abandoned the hammer, which was inconvenient to use at this distance, and instead used his shield to block the opponent's short sword thrusts one after another.

But at that moment, the swift sword that Moon Butterfly was originally aiming at Xiaoxing... pierced her helmet.

As a skilled swordswoman, Moon Butterfly, though not as adept as Frostleaf, still possessed considerable accuracy. In the next instant, a large portion of the armored warrior's helmet visor was sliced ​​off, revealing her face—none other than Katarina, the special envoy from the Duchy of Fayun who had just given a speech in the Coral Palace.

"Alas!"

Although Moon Butterfly deliberately avoided harming her, the cow envoy of Fayun still let out a panicked scream and instinctively tried to cover her face with her hands. Taking this opportunity, Xiaoxing immediately activated the "Grape" optical camouflage system and "evaporated" from everyone's sight like a chameleon blending into the bushes.

"Oh dear, I am so sorry!"

After Xiaoxing disappeared, Yuedie immediately sheathed her Swift Sword, revealing a genuine expression of "remorse." "I originally came to help capture the thieves, but I didn't expect such an unexpected mistake! This is all due to my poor swordsmanship; please accept my apologies!"

"Uh..." Fa Yun's envoy took a step back, wanting to say something, but in the end only said "thank you very much" - of course, Yue Die's actions just now were not to capture Xiao Xing, but were part of An Jie's last backup plan when she made the plan in advance.

Before the operation began, Ange had already considered that, in the worst-case scenario, the other side might have deployed armored warriors or powerful guards with corresponding combat capabilities within the embassy. Worse still, as Luca's "attendants" and "friends," their identities as armored warriors had to be kept secret unless absolutely necessary. Therefore, as a temporary measure, Ange could only instruct Yuedie to be prepared to launch an attack under the guise of "support" to help Xiaoxing escape should the situation turn against her.

Most importantly, as the daughter of a marquis from the Ten Victories Marquisate and her special envoy, as long as she behaves properly, the other party can't say anything.

"Thank you so much for your help, Princess Yue Die." Although he had his doubts, the envoy Fa Yun, having no evidence, could only bow his head and express his gratitude to Yue Die. "It was my mishandling that gave the enemy the opportunity to engage in close combat with me, which led to your mistake."

"Not at all, my swordsmanship certainly still needs improvement," said Moon Butterfly. "However, Envoy Katarina, it's quite unexpected that you are also an armored warrior."

"To be honest, I do have a talent in this area... though not exceptionally so. My benefactor noticed some of my special abilities and bestowed upon me this specially made intelligent combat armor," Katarina said. "Of course, while I practice using the intelligent combat armor regularly, it's mainly for self-defense in emergencies, not for building a career using my exceptional talent like you do."

"You flatter me, Your Excellency. I... uh... am I not that outstanding... am I?" Although she knew the other party was just being polite, Yue Die, who extremely enjoyed being praised and flattered, still smiled broadly. Meanwhile, as the commotion gradually subsided, Fish and the others on the Coral Palace terrace in the distance had returned to the infirmary on the palace's underground floor—Luca, who had just successfully escaped, had already returned to her hospital bed through the old underground passage connecting the two buildings, and no one had noticed her departure.

"Luca, how are you? What happened at the Faron Embassy?" Fish asked after arriving at the infirmary. "What was that explosion...?"

"It was Xiaoxing who did it. We had no choice at the time," Luca said. "The people from the Fayun Mission were very cunning and set up many traps. They were obviously prepared for the possibility of an intrusion."

"Oh?"

"At first, our operation went smoothly," Xiaoxing said, appearing "out of thin air" beside the group with a slight buzzing sound. Of course, Fish knew very well that she had likely arrived here while still invisible after successfully escaping. "The underground passage on the structural diagram is indeed usable, separated only by a wooden door. Although the embassy had installed an alarm, Miss Luca easily unlocked the door and deactivated the alarm."

"As expected of Luca," Fish praised, "no one can match your 'skill' in this area."

"Hmph, of course," Luca said. "While ordinary burglars may have more experience in lock picking than I do, don't forget that those guys don't have access to the high-end rigging and new burglar alarm devices that only the wealthy use, let alone the money to buy a batch and study them slowly."

"You actually specialize in studying how to break through advanced locks and anti-theft devices?" Anjie asked in surprise.

"What else? The job of a righteous thief is to constantly tackle challenging targets," Luca grinned. "Snatching poor people's wallets on the street all day is not only unjust, but it's also not a real skill—besides, isn't the ability I've honed coming in handy now?"

"really."

"In short, thanks to Miss Luca, we unlocked several doors along the way and entered the archives of the Principality of Fayun's embassy. She even cracked the combination lock on the safe," Xiaoxing said with admiration. "Although my special ability is optical camouflage invisibility, I wouldn't have been able to complete the mission without Miss Luca. After all, I really had no way to deal with those doors and safes except by forcibly breaking them open."

"and then?"

"We found a batch of secret files that are very likely related to this Deep Dark Island purchase," Luca said, pulling out several file bags with the "White Lotus and Capricorn" wax seal of the Principality of Fayun and the "Diplomatic Secret" stamp. "Well, just then, I triggered a mechanism hidden in the safe."

"Even you can use traps?" Fish asked.

"There's nothing I can do. Everyone makes mistakes, even someone as young as me," Luca said, shrugging her shoulders and readily admitting her error. "Besides, the mechanism was very well hidden. The only way to disable it seemed to be to enter the correct password when opening the safe, otherwise it would automatically activate after the door had been open for a while. But I chose to just remove the lock."

"Hmm...you got trapped afterwards?"

"Yes. The archives itself is a safe house with heavy armor plates that can withstand direct hits from small-caliber artillery shells. In addition to the door I opened, there is a hidden drop-down armored door that will automatically fall and lock when the mechanism is triggered—in my experience, this is clearly some kind of trap specifically designed to lure intruders," Luca said. "Some big shots emphasize capturing intruders alive rather than killing them, so that they can obtain useful information."

"As a result, I had no choice but to use the main weapon of the smart combat armor to forcibly blast open the armored door..." Xiaoxing said. "You all know what happened next. Fortunately, the backup plan was executed in time, so at least there were no problems."

"And what's more, we unexpectedly discovered that the special envoy sent by Fayun this time is also an armored warrior," Fish said. "Her skill level..."

"It's a very rare 'lapis lazuli' grade, comparable to Princess Anjie's," Huang Yan said immediately. "Fortunately, Xiao Xing has accumulated a lot of combat experience and is very agile, which can minimize head-on confrontations. Otherwise, she might have already been defeated by the opponent."

"The 'Lapis Lazuli' level? This level of armored warrior is extremely rare, almost equivalent to a large warship in the navy," Ange frowned. "To specifically send someone like this as an envoy... I'm afraid the person who sent her foresaw that the potential opponent possessed the combat power of an armored warrior, so they deliberately arranged for this 'armored warrior killer' to hunt her down."

“Then we need to see what those documents actually say,” Fish said, opening the first file folder and pulling out dozens of documents bearing the official seal of the Principality of Fayun’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Hmm… these are…”

The first few pages of the document don't contain much noteworthy content; most of it can be found in currently available public information. The information about Deep Dark Island, including maps, the limited development activities carried out by the Oasis Harbor authorities in the past, and several surveys of Deep Dark Island by other states and independent explorer groups, is clearly just something cobbled together by a low-level clerk in a government department to get by with his assignment.

However, the content of the subsequent documents was... quite different.

They were two papers, stamped "Top Secret" at the top. One was titled "An Assessment of the Threat of Ancient Military Equipment on the Dark Isle," and the second was titled "An Analysis of the Possibility of Seizing Control of Ancient Military Equipment on the Dark Isle." Judging from the timestamps at the end of the papers, both articles appeared to have been completed less than three months ago.

Although Fish had received intensive training from Huang Yan and An Jie's subordinates over the past six months, the numerous technical terms in the two papers were still slightly beyond his comprehension. After reading the abstracts and introductions, he was completely overwhelmed by the large amount of equipment code, formulas, and unfamiliar citations, his eyes practically turning into mosquito coils.

"Damn, my head is spinning..."

"What's wrong, my lord? Are you feeling unwell?" Seeing that Fish's expression had become quite bad, Ange quickly asked.

"Oh, no," Huang Yan said with a hint of schadenfreude. "This guy just encountered too much complicated knowledge that was hard to understand in a short period of time, and his poor brain couldn't process it all—this is what happens when you don't study properly."

"I used to want to study, but the question is, do I have the means?" Fish muttered. "Besides, not everyone is like you, with a bionic brain that will never run out of power."

"However, this kind of paper is indeed very obscure," Anjie said, taking the paper and looking at it. She also frowned, her fox ears perking up. "When I take back the Duchy of Fayun, I must strictly stipulate that internal reports submitted by technical officials and government think tanks must be written in a simple and easy-to-understand way. We absolutely cannot continue to stuff unnecessary data and citations everywhere like this."

"Your Highness is right. An article must first be readable," Huang Yan said, much more leniently than with Fish. "Let me do it. Analyzing documents that are difficult to read but logically sound and data-rich is precisely where my advanced artificial intelligence excels."

"Then I'll leave it to you."

As it turned out, Huang Yan wasn't joking—she completely understood the obscure, semi-cryptic text in just a few seconds.

"The gist of these articles is as follows: First, although the conventional wisdom holds that the ancient automated weapons within Dark Isle are defensive and cannot be moved or redeployed to other locations, this is not the case. They are in fact offensive weapons and can be redeployed under certain conditions," Huang Yan explained in as simple a language as possible. "Second, the ancient legend about the founding of Oasis Harbor is likely true. Therefore, the people of Oasis Harbor do indeed have the right to use the ancient automated weapons within Dark Isle."

"Interesting," Ange said. "So, if we could acquire this right to use it, it would actually be possible to command those ancient weapons to attack our enemies on our behalf?"

"That seems to be the idea," Huang Yan replied. "In fact, this is what the author of the article—Dr. Iskandar Lomonosov—suggested. He believes that, contrary to what earlier researchers thought, the users bound to the automated weapons hidden within Dark Island are not the 'Oasis Harbor citizens' as a whole, but more likely the direct descendants of the earliest fishermen. Given that the latter do not give them instructions, or even forget their existence, they can only resort to de-radical measures, that is, providing security for the latter. This security, in turn, covers the entire Oasis Harbor."

“Iskander Lomonosov… I remember him as an advisor to the Regency Council and a close friend of Emperor Anthemius III,” Ange said. “Last time in the north, it was he who opened the underground facility in Anadyr that imprisoned the ancient ‘Tai Sui’ brain. Although there’s no evidence, it’s very likely that it was his act of opening the facility that caused the huge disturbance and chaos…”

"Indeed. The Joint Operations Headquarters has identified this person as a key figure requiring close monitoring," Huang Yan replied.

"So, the question is, what does he plan to do?"