The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"Huh...? What... happened just now?"

As Fish excitedly surveyed his surroundings, Ange, Shuangye, and Xiaoxing, who had unfortunately been used as "equipment" by the system without authorization, all regained consciousness. To them, what had happened in the "testing ground" was like a faint but terrifying daydream. They roughly knew that they had encountered some terrible danger and had even been drawn into a battle. However, they were not quite clear about the specifics of what had happened.

"Ugh... this... it's a long story..." Fish scratched his head, blushing as he began to explain what had happened. After he finished explaining in a few minutes, Ange sighed.

"I never imagined that such a terrifying test would remain unfinished in a place like this..."

"These tests are probably related to the wars at the end of the old civilization era," Huang Yan interjected. "Apart from the 'Loli Death God' that appeared at the very beginning, all the other bio-weapons cannot be found in the Unified Combat Headquarters' database. This indicates that they were likely hastily developed or improved during the final era of the old civilization. However, these new development/improvement models were abandoned along with the testing grounds before they even had a chance to complete testing. They then spent a long time in a sealed state..."

"Why develop and improve these things? To deal with the rebellious New Humans?" Fish asked.

"That's true in theory."

"However, I still have some questions," Ange suddenly said, "Is it really necessary to use those things to fight against the New Humans?"

"Of course," Frostleaf said with certainty. "Back then, the old humans were being driven back by our ancestors, driven to desperation, so they could only create these ugly and immoral things as their last resort. But in the end, besides suffering defeat, they..."

"That's the problem," Ange shook her head gently, unconsciously clutching a strand of her curly platinum blonde hair. "At the end of the old civilization era, humanity had already explored places hundreds of light-years away and began to expand beyond the solar system. As a galactic civilization, they possessed astonishing technology, which was practically indistinguishable from miracles and magic to people of our time."

"Indeed," Xiaoxing said softly.

"So, the question arises: why did they need to manufacture these bio-weapons? I admit they can be incredibly effective in certain special missions, but compared to the real military equipment of the old civilization, their overall combat capability is negligible. Why didn't the old humans continue using real, conventional military equipment, instead deliberately developing these things with rather limited combat effectiveness and relatively low cost-effectiveness?"

"Uh...that makes sense..." Shuangye nodded.

"Perhaps Miss Huangyan knows something?" Xiaoxing asked.

"Unfortunately, the records of the war in the final moments of the old civilization era are insufficient, and a large amount of data has been lost. Even I cannot know for sure what exactly happened in that last year," Huang Yan said, unusually unable to answer the other party's question this time. "Therefore, I can only tell you that a large-scale and devastating war did indeed take place, and a large number of special weapons were manufactured and deployed to the battlefield. Many of these weapons were not even recorded."

“We don’t have time for that now,” Fish said, walking over to the main control panel—but like the old civilization control panels he’d seen before, this thing looked completely uninstructed. “How do we activate the automatic security system here?”

"We can wait for this," Huang Yan said. "Miss Anjie, please move the three switches on the far right that are flashing red lights to the far right and wait for the green light to come on."

"Ah, I understand." Ange nodded and immediately did as instructed. Then, she noticed that the noise and interference that filled the armored warriors' dedicated communication channel suddenly disappeared.

"...Princess Ange? Lord Fish? Can you hear me?!" As the intense interference subsided, a tense voice came through the communicator—it was Mint's voice, "Ancestors of the Duchy of Fayun! Do you know how worried I was when I couldn't reach you?!"

"We're fine. The communication breakdown was caused by jamming equipment on the island, so there's no need to worry. Although we encountered some trouble getting here, overall, the issues have been resolved, and we've arrived at the control center of the 'Island of Darkness'."

"Great!" Mint exclaimed. Her words were followed by the crisp sounds of sniper rifle fire, shouts, and then the blaring of heavy machine gun fire. These sounds made Ange and the others frown.

"What happened? Has the embassy of the Principality of Penglai been attacked?"

"To be precise, we repelled the first wave of attacks. But this wave... is a little different," Mint said, panting. "I... really don't know what to do."

"Something's not the same? What happened?!" Fish asked.

"Now that the interference has disappeared, I think it would be best if you saw it for yourselves," came Moon Butterfly's voice. After a while, an image appeared on the displays of Fish and the others' smart combat armor helmets.

The source of this image is clearly the helmet camera of Moon Butterfly's intelligent combat armor—at this moment, she should be on the top floor of the Penglai Principality's embassy, ​​surrounded by fortifications hastily piled up with sandbags, boxes full of miscellaneous items, and even rice and flour bags, covered with scorch marks and bullet holes. The Penglai Principality's "Bright Moon Rising Over the Sea" flag on the flagpole has also been hit by several stray bullets, leaving several charred bullet holes.

At the edge of the image, Meru is pulling the bolt to load her sniper rifle, while a heavy machine gun not far away has been damaged by enemy fire; a large chunk of the gun body has melted away, and the gunner operating it has had half of his torso vaporized—clearly the result of a direct hit from an energy weapon from the old civilization era.

Clearly, the battle had not only begun, but had also reached near the main structure of the embassy. When Shana, standing on tiptoe, and Alicia fired their miniature submachine guns down at the building, Fish and the others were further certain of this—if the situation hadn't been so critical, they wouldn't have had the opportunity to use this small-caliber rapid-fire weapon with an effective range of less than 100 meters in the fight.

"What on earth is going on?! Is the enemy very powerful?!" Ange asked. "I remember our troops deployed in the embassy district..."

"There are quite a few, but unfortunately, they are still far fewer than the enemies we are facing." After hesitating for a moment, Yue Die walked to the edge of the embassy's rooftop and placed the camera close to a firing port, allowing Fish and the others to see the surrounding scene: At this moment, the area around the embassy had become a sea of ​​fire, with the most recent exchange of fire occurring just tens of meters away. Black figures were firing at each other in the night, the muzzle flashes and tracer marks flickering, making it unclear who was firing and who they were shooting at.

"Far less? If I remember correctly, including the embassy guard, the special envoy's honor guard, the people we secretly brought in on the 'Inaba,' 'Red Cat,' the short-skirted pirate gang, and the mercenaries hired by that Luca guy, you should have four or five hundred armed personnel, plus heavy machine guns, three light armored vehicles, and small-caliber artillery," Ange said. "The total number of enemies is between one thousand and fifteen hundred. And theoretically, most of them will be sent to attack the civilians in the city, with only a few being deployed to attack the embassy district, and the duration of the operation is limited, so they can only be deployed in batches. In any case..."

"I'm sorry, but the situation is completely different—in fact, I'd like to know why your predictions are so different from reality?!" Yue Die asked angrily, seemingly feeling deceived. "At least several thousand locals—yes, I can confirm with 200% certainty that those guys are all locals—joined the ranks of those rapid clones and launched an attack on the embassy district!"

"Why are they doing this?! Do you have any clue?!" Fish was completely confused.

"I'd like to ask you what leads you have!" Yue Die shouted hysterically. "By the way, after the previous attack was repelled, Princess Anjie's ladies-in-waiting, led by Miss Mint, launched a counterattack and captured several prisoners. Those people..."

"Did they also self-destruct?"

"No! They've checked repeatedly. Those people aren't rapid clones! They're just ordinary citizens who have no grudge against us! There are businessmen, employees, soldiers, police officers, fishermen, and beggars! But they're all in a state of extreme mental frenzy, and apart from screaming and yelling, they can't communicate with us at all!" As a stray bullet swept past not far away, Yue Die hurriedly crouched down to take cover, temporarily removing the scene outside the embassy from the video communication. Alicia and Shana, who were standing nearby, also stopped firing and hid behind sandbag fortifications.

"Can't communicate? Is it poisoning or...?" Ange muttered.

"How would I know? However, Your Highness's female official does know something about poisons and such. According to her, the probability of those people being drugged or hypnotized is extremely low."

"Hmm, since it was Mint who said it, it's probably right..."

"Perhaps," several heavy explosions followed, and the enemy's automatic weapon fire sweeping across the rooftops temporarily ceased. Moonbeam then stood up again and continued transmitting the scene around the embassy to Fish and the others. "What I can confirm is that while those locals are of average combat ability, they are utterly reckless and don't care about machine gun fire! In the previous battle, to stop their advance, we had to waste a large amount of precious ammunition on them, and as a result, we were unable to continue resisting the enemy's breakthrough."

As if to prove the correctness of Yue Die's words, just as she finished speaking, the enemy suddenly launched another large-scale attack from the direction of Qianyi, the embassy in Penglai.

At the heart of the attacking force were twenty or thirty masked men in black. Once their inexpensive smart combat armor was activated, they temporarily possessed abilities equivalent to mid-level armored warriors. They could also convert a portion of their armor into ranged and melee weapons for combat, serving as the vanguard and providing fire support.

However, the main force of the attacking force consisted of a motley crew of four or five hundred men: these men were dressed in all sorts of different styles and varied greatly in age and gender, ranging from elderly people in their sixties and seventies to elementary school girls in short skirts. Only a few of them carried weapons and ammunition, while the majority carried various things, including homemade Molotov cocktails, wooden sticks, and glass bottles with broken bottoms, and charged forward with crazy and distorted expressions.

Based on any normal military theory, such an untrained rabble should be completely incapable of being organized, let alone coordinated in combat. But at this moment, the situation is "abnormal": this seemingly unreliable and chaotic group, under the command of that small team of masked men in black, has actually demonstrated a certain degree of tactical coordination.

Armed with only simple weapons, the elderly, women, and children, with their weaker combat abilities, swarmed like frenzied ants, charging to the front lines. They drew the defenders' fire while simultaneously detonating booby traps and triggering other traps, trying to deplete the defenders' "surprises" as much as possible. Meanwhile, the armed and physically strong individuals split into smaller teams, advancing under the cover of the masked men in black, firing along routes now free of traps and booby traps, taking advantage of any gaps in the defenders' fire.

The defenders on the embassy side noticed the attack immediately and took immediate action: the heavy machine guns that could still be deployed roared into action, raining bullets down on the coconut and palm groves already shrouded in smoke; snipers, led by Melu, also opened fire, taking out high-threat targets. 60mm mortar shells landed above the trees along steep trajectories, their fuses triggered by large blades, exploding in mid-air, and a rain of shrapnel felled people to the ground.

Even so, these men did not stop. Like a real army, they continued firing and advancing fearlessly, ignoring the dense enemy fire.

"This... what is this...?" Upon seeing this scene, Fish, Ange, Shuangye, and Xiaoxing were all completely baffled. After all, the fact that a large group of civilians who seemed to have received no training at all could launch an attack so fearlessly and in such an organized manner completely violated any common sense of military science.

"I want to know what's going on too!" Moon Butterfly shouted. "Don't you guys really know what's going on?"

"No... I understand." This time, it was Huang Yan who answered the question.

"Oh?"

"I'm afraid," Huang Yan explained, "we misunderstood the purpose of those Fa Yun people from the very beginning. What they really wanted to trigger and exploit was this curse... a curse originating from the bloodline of the people of Oasis Harbor."

"curse?"

"That's right. If my guess is correct, I'm afraid the bloodline of those true Oasis Harbor natives has been problematic from the very beginning."