The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"W-what...what on earth is going on?!" After activating the multi-functional optical sensor of her smart combat armor and confirming that she hadn't misjudged the situation, Yue Die, who had been smug just a second ago, was suddenly dumbfounded.

The force advancing towards the Penglai embassy is not one or two hundred people, nor seven or eight hundred, nor even the previously estimated maximum number of 1,500. After rapidly analyzing the images acquired by the sensors, the tactical program of the intelligent combat armor provided an astonishing figure: six to seven thousand.

This number alone has completely exceeded all previous predictions and cannot even be explained by "intelligence error": after all, no matter how chaotic the social order was in the slums and fish market area of ​​Oasis Harbor, or how frequent the flow of people was, it was already the limit of operation to slowly squeeze in a thousand or so rapid clones by mixing sand into the area over a few months.

The number of six or seven thousand people far exceeds the production capacity of those ancient rapid cloning devices. Even if they could actually be produced, the frequency of sudden deaths and accidental explosions caused by substandard products due to the extreme rush to produce them would increase several times over—and the resulting panic would likely not be limited to the slums.

"Could it be... that Fayun's army found a way to bypass the surveillance of various countries' intelligence networks and land at Oasis Port?" Yue Die muttered to herself in shock.

"No. These people are not Fayun's army. They are... uh..." With the help of that advanced optical sight and her own excellent eyesight, Melu was the first to see the true faces of the dark mass of people slowly approaching.

But the scene before her eyes only made her more bewildered.

Among this group, there were only a few hundred masked men in black. Not a single person was wearing the uniform of the Duchy of Fayun. Instead, most looked like… ordinary citizens of Oasis Harbor.

Yes, these were ordinary citizens, men, women, young and old, with a fairly even distribution in terms of gender and age. Most were not properly armed, carrying only sticks, wrenches, kitchen knives, and the like. Some were even thin beggars from the slums, clutching broken glass bottles and scrap bricks. Only a few carried a mixed bag of firearms. In addition, there were a few scattered individuals dressed in local military and police uniforms, who were more fully equipped, and even a few armored vehicles had arrived; however, these people constituted a very small minority of the crowd.

More importantly, this hastily assembled "army" did not appear to be coerced. On the contrary, they were quite coordinated and orderly, carrying out their assembly operations outside the effective range of the embassy district's defensive weapons.

"Could it be... could it be 'Tai Sui'?!" Ruan Aofu asked anxiously.

"No. These people are all normal... at least they seem so." Melu handed her sniper rifle to Ruan Aofu, allowing the latter to see the distant scene clearly through the scope.

"That's true..." After observing for a while, Ruan Aofu subconsciously bit his lower lip—after the fierce battle in the North, he was all too familiar with people infected by "Tai Sui". Apart from a very few hidden infected individuals, most hosts of "Tai Sui" would grow deformed, weaponized appendages, becoming twisted and ugly, and their abnormality could be seen at a glance.

Based on his experience from the last battle, Ruan Aofu was quite clear that the hidden infected were obviously only a very small number of the "Tai Sui" hosts—otherwise, if those guys had just sent a few more of these guys to infiltrate the refugees, their high ground defenses would have been breached immediately.

If we follow the proportions in the Northwest Lands, even if all the civilians in Oasis Harbor were infected by "Tai Sui," we probably couldn't gather this many people without visible mutations! But if they aren't "Tai Sui" hosts, why would these people...?

A deep, chilling sense of dread quickly spread among the people in the embassy—they realized that the facts they had so far accepted and used as a guide for their actions might be fundamentally flawed.

This is definitely not good news.

"Contact Princess Anjie immediately." After a moment's thought, Ruan Aofu said to Yuedie, "Use your armored warriors' secure communication channel to tell her what happened here!"

"Uh... but why?" Moonbeam still seemed somewhat bewildered. "Princess Ange has most likely already arrived at Dark Deep Island. Even if she knows our situation here, she still..."

“I didn’t expect her to come to our aid,” Ruan Aofu shook his head. “I hope she can consider changing some of her strategies… Perhaps our plan was flawed from the very beginning.”

Earlier, near Deep Dark Isle.

Although this island, which rises abruptly from the sea, with a smooth, barren surface and resembles an eerie monument, was nominally part of Oasis Harbor's territory over a century ago, it had no development value whatsoever. For a long time, Oasis Harbor had no interest in the island except for taking curious tourists around it on cruise ships to earn some money from ticket sales.

Because of this lack of interest, Oasis Harbor has so far only established a lighthouse and a radio tower on Deep Dark Island, with a squad of security troops stationed there for maintenance. When the cruiser "Inaba" approached the island, Ange and Fish watched the situation on the island with considerable tension, but finally saw the lighthouse's light signaling "Please identify yourself".

Of course, the Inaba immediately responded truthfully. The next question from the other party was, "Please explain your purpose."

"Tell them we have no hostile intentions," Ange said to Captain Rabbit, "we just intend to go up there to handle some issues to ensure the safety of Oasis Harbor."

"Uh... Your Highness, I don't think this kind of explanation will convince them," Captain Rabbit said uneasily.

"My husband and I will handle persuading them. You just need to patrol the area around the island at economical speed and guard against any potential enemies." After saying this, Ange hugged Fish tightly and then activated the fully charged "Golden Soup" anti-gravity wing once again.

Although Fish didn't have much experience with close contact with Ange, he didn't feel awkward at all because of the intelligent combat armor on both sides. Soon, the two flew up the towering cliff and landed on the flat, barren top of Dark Island, startling a guard who saw them so much that he almost fainted.

"I am Ange Katrina Tifaliha Lyndenhild-Fayun, the rightful heir to the Duchy of Fayun. I request to see your commander and have a sincere negotiation with him," Ange said politely to another guard who had run over upon hearing her voice. "We have a small request that we hope you will accept."

Of course, the lieutenant in charge of commanding the lighthouse reluctantly agreed to the request a minute later—after all, it was definitely not a wise move for a few sentries with only pistols for self-defense to clash with two high-ranking armored warriors. Soon, the elevator basket installed on the edge of the Dark Island was lowered, taking Frostleaf and Sachi, who had arrived with them, up as well.

Next, an armed squad consisting of crew members from the Inaba was also transported to the top of the Hundred-Foot Cliff. Their task was to supervise the guards in a "peaceful and friendly" atmosphere to ensure that the lighthouse continued to emit normal light signals and to monitor the use of the radio wave transmission tower to prevent any inappropriate information from being transmitted.

Then, after further "coordination," Fish and his group learned even more important information from the guards: the location of the entrance to the interior of the Dark Isle. However, the guards claimed that the entrance consisted of only a dead end a dozen meters long and a control panel that no one knew how to operate. Long ago, the people of Oasis Harbor had tried various methods to open the door at the end of the dead end, but no one had ever succeeded.

"This isn't what the legends say," Fish muttered after listening to the guards' explanation and following them to the vicinity of the entrance. "The local legends all claim that their ancestors found an 'altar' or some kind of device after escaping to this island, and then prayed to it..."

“That’s not surprising, my husband,” Ange said, spreading her hands. “You should know that the biggest difference between legends, myths and historical records is that the former contains a lot of misinformation, erroneous records and repeated fabrications.”

"Uh, I know that..."

"In other words, it's still hard to say what exactly the 'thing that seems human but isn't human' encountered by the ancestors of the Oasis Harbor people was. The so-called 'altar' and other similar concepts may not necessarily be facilities used to worship gods or elves, but may be a metaphor for something else," Ange said, pointing to the standard control panel from the old civilization era next to a heavy armored door after passing through the entrance, walking through the narrow corridor, and finally arriving near a heavy armored door. "For example, the control panel."

"Are you sure a group of uneducated fishermen can understand how to operate the control panel?" Shuangye asked. "Even I, who attended military academy, only learned some basic knowledge about this in my course on the history of technology in the old civilization era."

"To operate the control panel, you don't necessarily need to input information through a keyboard or other devices," Huang Yan suddenly interjected. "Many control panels have special default settings. For example, they can automatically run programs immediately after detecting any human use, or they can launch preset programs after recognizing a specific face, a specific voice, a specific fingerprint, or even certain specific genetic information."

"So, under certain conditions, it's possible to activate them simply by randomly touching or even getting close to the terminal?" Fish asked.

"Oh, of course—just like how you stumbled upon me back then," Huang Yan said. "Most of the old civilization's devices that were activated in this era were due to accidents... However, most accidents don't end well, usually ending with the person who accidentally activated the device being shredded, blasted away, or dying in some other bizarre way. To encounter me, the pinnacle of old civilization's military technology with a mission to fulfill, is your greatest fortune."

"Phew..." Just thinking about how he was surrounded and had no choice but to try anything in the tower of Twilight City, Fish couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat. If he hadn't stumbled upon Phoenix Flame back then, but some other troublesome thing, he might not even be alive today.

"Wait, I think I've received a communication signal," Xiaoxing suddenly said as Fish examined the terminal. "It's coming from the dedicated communication channel between armored warriors. The sender is Mint."

"It's her? Hmm... I received it too..." Ange said, "and also a message from Lord Yuedie."

"What did they say?" Fish asked.

"Um...this..." Xiaoxing and Anjie exchanged a glance, and then...shaked their heads at the same time.

"The signal has been severely interfered with, and most of the information cannot be recovered," said Huang Yan, whose overall performance is the best among all intelligent combat armors. "Even I can only confirm a few things, including the words 'engagement,' 'second wave of attack,' 'unexpected situation,' and 'civilians.' Oh, and one last thing: 'The situation may be different from what was expected, please be careful.'"

"How is it different?" Shuangye asked. "Can we continue communicating?"

"No, this sudden jamming interference is too severe, and the source of the interference seems to be inside the Dark Isle, which cannot be eliminated for the time being," Huang Yan said. "Unless we get away from the Dark Isle, we cannot restore communication."

“We don’t have that time,” Ange said. “If fighting breaks out in Oasis Harbor so soon, it means the enemy has indeed acted ahead of time. In other words, every second is extremely precious—even if it means taking risks under unclear circumstances, we must move forward as quickly as possible.”

"Agreed," Huang Yan said. "This terminal should still be within my capabilities. Mr. Fish, you know what to do, right?"

"I understand." Fish nodded, deactivated the Phoenix Flame's equipment, and took it off his body. Although he had taken off his clothes in front of other women in bars many times before, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, he would always feel embarrassed and blush every time he did so. Of course, customers like Luca liked him the most when he looked like this.

Then, just like before, Fish placed Phoenix Flame on the control panel. The flame quickly extended several thin, tentacle-like bio-data cables, which plugged into the control panel's data interface. Just a few seconds later, the indicator lights on the control panel lit up, indicating that Phoenix Flame had successfully entered the system.

"Hmm, thank goodness... the system here isn't particularly encrypted." Huang Yan said as he started up the system. "Give me a little more time... uh, I've found something interesting."