The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

The horrific event, later known in historical records as the "Oasis Harbor Catastrophe," lasted for a full fourteen hours. Shortly after the event concluded, the media of various states generally described its causes and consequences as follows: In the darkness of night, a large swarm of terrifying autonomous weapons suddenly emerged like an evil locust swarm from the barren, ominous island of the deep, dark, and launched an attack on the sleeping Oasis Harbor.

Although the defending forces fought valiantly and destroyed hundreds of autonomous weapons, the rest still caused tremendous destruction before retreating.

More than 17,300 people—and that's a conservative estimate—perished in a single day. Their blood flowed throughout the city, from the downtown business district to the fish market and slums. After the carnage ended, the undestroyed autonomous weapons abandoned the raging city and retreated to the terrifying island that stood abruptly in the sea.

Everyone understood that after such a terrible blow, what awaited Oasis Harbor was a long-term economic recession and a difficult situation.

Unsurprisingly, the day after the incident, General Rissmer, chairman of the Regency Council of the Principality of Fayun, immediately wrote to the ruling group of Oasis Port, announcing that he would provide the commercial city-state with a three-year unilateral tariff reduction and a large sum of reconstruction funds.

Meanwhile, both mainstream media reports and rumors circulating everywhere began to mention the same thing: a few hours before the "Oasis Harbor Catastrophe" broke out, the NHōrai Principality Navy training cruiser "Inaba", which was visiting Oasis Harbor under the guise of a "friendly visit", suddenly ignored the obstruction of the Oasis Harbor security forces and forcibly rushed out of the port, heading towards the Dark Island.

Undoubtedly, the timing of this event was far too "perfect".

As more eyewitness accounts and testimonies were made public, people were surprised to learn that the princess of the Principality of Fayun, who was in exile—who had previously entered Oasis Harbor under the guise of a "diplomatic attaché"—and her subordinates had also boarded the "Inaba" and landed on the Dark Island at that crucial moment!

The most irrefutable evidence is that the soldiers stationed at Oasis Port on the island did indeed see her heavy intelligent combat armor, "Golden Soup," which resembled knight's plate armor and had anti-gravity wings—as is well known, only Princess Ange herself could use this special equipment.

Interestingly, the media in the Principality of Fayun simply reported this fact without further investigation. However, newspapers and radio stations elsewhere began to sensationalize the event. Soon, people "logically" deduced that Ange and her companions bore undeniable responsibility for the horrific events that occurred in Oasis Harbor. Although no judge or legal expert accused her of directly causing the "Oasis Harbor catastrophe," millions had already accepted this "fact" in their hearts.

Of course, some reports and rumors vaguely mention that Oasis Harbor had already experienced unexplained riots and bloodshed long before those terrifying autonomous weapons flew out of the Dark Isle.

However, because most of the direct participants had perished, and the surviving citizens were mostly hiding in their homes in terror, with only vague memories of the conflict outside, these reports were not further confirmed. The vast majority of attention was focused on the massive casualties caused by those horrific autonomous weapons, and the potentially sinister conspiracy lurking behind them…

"What the hell is this!" As the cruiser "Inaba" once again sailed out of Oasis Harbor, Fish crumpled the last newspaper in his hand into a ball and threw it into the sea through the porthole on the side of the navigation bridge. At that very moment, on the harbor, thousands of Oasis Harbor residents were holding up signs that read "Get out of here, murderer!" and "Die, killer!" and shouting excitedly at the departing cruiser. Some were even using slingshots and catapults to hurl dead fish and rotten eggs onto the deck.

In their view, these guys who were "escaping" by boat were the culprits behind the terrible destruction of their city.

"Murder," "a mad crime," "a premeditated act of betrayal." These are the mildest terms locals use to describe them. Although the Oasis Harbour government and judiciary have not brought any charges or even declared them "persona non grata," most citizens have already identified them as murderers.

"Please don't blame those who have suffered trauma, my husband," Ange said softly, patting Fish's back. "They were just terrified and panicked, and they were also misled to some extent. People in fear instinctively seek out a 'responsible person' to take responsibility for their undeserved misfortune. Only in this way can they believe that they have found the 'source of the disaster.'"

Is finding the "source of the disaster" really that important?

"Of course. Because the greatest source of fear is actually the 'unknown'," Ange sighed softly. "If people can't confirm where the disaster is coming from, they can't do any prevention or preparation work. This will keep them constantly trapped in anxiety caused by uncertainty. And this kind of anxiety is much greater than the pressure brought by pure fear."

“Okay, I can understand,” Fish shrugged, “but even so, these damn reports are infuriating—what does ‘the peace of Oasis Harbor was suddenly shattered by an ancient evil’ mean?! What does ‘blatant betrayal, heinous treachery’ mean?! Even if those guys who started the riots are all dead, there must have been some eyewitnesses! Why won’t they investigate properly?!”

"The situation at the time was completely beyond the scope of ordinary people's experience. Even if the investigation uncovered something, people would find it hard to believe. Moreover, in the chaos and high tension, people's memories would be distorted. Most people only remember the bloodshed, explosions, and gunshots that lasted from midnight until the next day, and they were not able to analyze the details carefully," Ange said.

"Besides, the guys on the Fayun Regency Committee have definitely prepared a lot of targeted propaganda strategies," said Yue Die, leaning against the corner. After the previous incident, she, Ruan Aofu, and the delegations from the Ten Victories Marquisate and the Penglai Duchy all chose to evacuate together. Also evacuating were some survivors of Luca's "Red Cat" bandit gang and the Short Skirt Pirate Gang—because they were seen acting with people from the Penglai Duchy, these people were now facing the danger of being subjected to vigilante justice. "Even if you want to defend yourselves, you'll probably only make things worse."

"I agree. So, our best strategy right now is to say nothing and remain silent for the time being." Ange sighed. "At least on the bright side, because those ancient autonomous weapons were activated in time, we protected those who needed protection."

"Indeed, but the enemy has already achieved their goal—Princess Anjie's reputation has plummeted, and the Duchy of Penglai and the Marquisate of Shisheng have lost the friendship of Oasis Harbor and are now under widespread suspicion." Shuangye shook her head. "In this respect, they have already won."

"In fact, it's probably more than that." Huang Yan's voice suddenly broke into the conversation.

"More than that? You mean...?"

"I don't think those guys went to great lengths and took huge risks to plan this just to damage Anjie's reputation and undermine the diplomatic situation of the Principality of Penglai—although achieving these goals can be considered a partial success. However, even such results are still not commensurate with their investment."

"That's not wrong," Ange nodded, "but besides that, I really can't think of any other purpose they could have."

"On the surface, it's true that we can't see what their motives are. But in less overt ways, the situation might be different," Huang Yan said. "Don't forget, under the current circumstances, we can assume that all the actions of the Fayun Regency Council may have been influenced by, or even planned by, the scientific archaeologist Dr. Iskandar Lomonosov. And you should all remember what he did before, right?"

“Let me think… Oh right, he unearthed that ancient civilization facility in the North, releasing a group of ‘Tai Sui’ that the ancients had imprisoned for their amusement, causing unrest in the area,” Fish said. “However, in retrospect, the damage caused by the whole incident wasn’t actually that huge.”

"That's mainly because there are many other facilities near that facility that are remnants of the old civilization era. After the spread of the 'Tai Sui' infection was discovered, the autonomous weapons in these facilities were activated and began to automatically exterminate the 'Tai Sui' hosts—after all, in the old civilization era, this thing was also a top priority," Shana, who had been listening quietly, said. "Moreover, the 'Tai Sui' central brain in that facility was of a relatively limited level and could not reproduce and control enough hosts at the same time, which also limited the escalation of the situation."

"Indeed," Huang Yan said. "If it's simply intended as a weapon of mass destruction for terrorist attacks, the 'Tai Sui' imprisoned in that facility is indeed somewhat lacking—as an entertainment prop for those bloodthirsty spectators in the past, while it caused a terrifying 'first-time kill' effect in this era, its expansion scale and speed were strictly limited, far from unleashing the true power of the 'Tai Sui.' Therefore, even the panicked Imperial Army organized a blockade after the initial chaos. But what if this is just bait?"

"Barefoot? Lure what? Us?" Fish asked.

"No, I think it's Shana."

"Shana?!"

"After reviewing the battle in the North, I noticed that the early 'Tai Sui' hosts' activities were very strange, pointing towards several underground bases used for hibernation—these bases were 'escape pods' built by dissidents at the end of the old civilization era, that is, by the residents of the reservation area where Shana lived, to escape that crazy and chaotic era and flee to the distant future. Because these people's position was highly neutral, they were never regarded as enemies by any side in any era."

"But the host of 'Tai Sui' attacked Shana and the others' hibernation location," Melu muttered, rubbing her bloodshot eyes after achieving numerous sniping successes during the embassy defense battle. "Then Shana was awakened from her hibernation and fled to our village..."

"Then, when your village was attacked, those autonomous weapons from the old civilization era that were originally waiting in the underground facilities swarmed out. Because in their programming, protecting humanity... no, to be precise, protecting unmodified 'real' humanity is the highest priority," Huang Yan continued. "At first, I thought this was some kind of 'accident' caused by those who activated 'Tai Sui' lacking understanding of the old civilization era—but the question is, what if this was their purpose in the first place?"

"Hmm...you mean, that technological archaeologist and his accomplices deliberately planned to activate the autonomous weapons of the old civilization? But what's the point of doing that?" Fish was still completely confused.

"I remember that during the battle with the 'Tai Sui' host, these autonomous weapons also killed a large number of ordinary people who unfortunately encountered them, right?" Huang Yan asked.

"Indeed..." Melu's body began to tremble uncontrollably. Shana quickly hugged her, trying to comfort her friend. "Back then, many people... were killed by the autonomous weapons... Some tried to resist them in panic, while others simply ran into the firefight zone by accident and were..."

"Although the autonomous weapons of the old civilization era were set with the rule 'not to harm humans,' this rule only applies to unmodified old humans. Large numbers of new humans, as well as bio-weapons made using human genes and... other things are not exempt by default," Huang Yan explained. "Of course, they will not attack new humans on their own initiative, but they will retaliate when attacked, and they will not deliberately avoid accidentally injuring new humans in battle."

"Well, it seems we really are worthless in the eyes of the old humans," Ange said with a self-deprecating laugh. "Their view of us is no different from their view of livestock kept in cages."

"Yes. At first, I didn't pay much attention to these collateral damages. But after the Oasis Harbor incident, I realized that these casualties were probably the key to everything," Huang Yan said. "Don't forget, before the proliferation of autonomous weapons, the situation of the 'Tai Sui' hosts in the North was very different from what it was afterward: initially, humans were not the majority of their parasitic subjects; wild animals were the main ones. This led those who encountered them to generally believe that they had just encountered some special mutated animals or synthetic beasts. Therefore, from the perspective of uninformed outsiders..."

"Actually, it was the autonomous weapons that acted first and began attacking and slaughtering the local residents. Before that, the area was only harassed by some 'more ferocious and special' wild beasts," Ange said. "And the large-scale parasitism of humans by 'Tai Sui' occurred after the autonomous weapons launched their large-scale attack."

"That's exactly right," Huang Yan said. "If we combine what happened at Oasis Harbor, we can probably conclude that the Regency Council of the Principality of Fayun, or rather, their manipulator Iskander Lomonosov himself, is trying to mislead certain observers into believing that someone is manipulating autonomous weapons from the old civilization era to attack humanity."

Following the updates on Cola Novels has never been so enjoyable.