The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

Bookmark this page to continue reading "The Final Odyssey: The Fantastic Journey of a Cat Boy" anytime, anywhere.

"Who's knocking? Guards! Didn't I tell you not to let anyone disturb me in the middle of the night? Even if it's the brigade chief of staff..." After Anjie knocked, a high-pitched, thin voice, even with a hint of childishness, came from inside the door.

Because the voice sounded more like that of a young boy who hadn't yet gone through puberty than an adult's, Fish and Ange were momentarily stunned, almost thinking they had mistaken the person for someone else—however, this confusion only lasted for a very short while.

After all, not long before he joined the Tidelight Warband and embarked on that haphazard treasure hunt, Fish had unexpectedly encountered Iskandar Lomonosov, who was heading to the End North, in a bar in Oasis City, and had struck up a conversation with him.

Fish recalled that the guy's voice sounded exactly like that back then. It even led him to mistakenly believe that the other person was a minor.

It seems that the person they're looking for is right here.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Iskandar Lomonosov, you seem to have misunderstood the situation," Ange said in a very polite tone. "We are not your subordinates or colleagues."

"What?" The voice inside the door exclaimed in alarm. Then, Fish heard the sound of something being rummaged through, as if the other person was taking out some self-defense equipment—of course, he and Ange wouldn't give them that chance. Upon hearing this sound, the two of them simultaneously kicked the door.

Although Iskander Lomonosov had installed three rather sturdy combination locks on the inside of the metal door of the barracks, to the heavily enhanced armored warriors, these locks were no different from sandcastles on the beach.

With just one blow, the poor metal door groaned as it detached from its hinges and fell to the ground, along with its damaged lock.

"Waaaaahh ...

"Sorry, Doctor, your guards are all asleep now—more sleep is good for your health," Ange and Fish simultaneously aimed the energy weapons built into their smart combat armor at each other. "So, no one will be causing trouble here now."

"Eek—" The archaeologist took a few steps back, his face filled with fear. Just as Fish remembered, this enigmatic doctor was less than 1.4 meters tall, with a classic slender, loli-like figure—however, upon closer inspection, one would discover that he was actually male. On that exquisitely beautiful face, like a toy doll, which could make millions of beautiful girls grit their teeth in envy, were a small nose and lips, and a pair of eyes the color of the finest rubies.

In addition, Iskandar Lomonosov had ankle-length soft white hair and a pair of somewhat pointed ears. He almost perfectly matched the XP of a certain group from an old civilization. What surprised Fish even more was that, although the powerful cooling system kept the room temperature below twenty degrees Celsius, this technological archaeologist seemed to find it too hot, wearing only striped beach shorts. Almost all of his fair skin was exposed.

"This guy really knows how to enjoy life." After glancing at the sparkling cocktail with ice cubes floating on the desk and the scoops of ice cream on the plate, Fish suddenly thought of the people who had to squeeze into the sweltering shed and only received very limited wages, and a surge of anger rose within him.

Perhaps sensing the anger emanating from Fish, Iskandar Lomonosov shuddered, took a few steps back, and pointed a pocket pistol at the two men: "Who are you?! Don't come any closer!"

"Oh, of course you know who we are—as someone who dared to participate in usurping the throne of the Grand Duke of Fayun, are you going to tell me that you don't know who the rightful heir of the Fayun Duchy is?" Anjie walked forward calmly, completely disregarding the weapon in the other party's hand.

After all, this pocket-sized pistol, perfectly suited to the small hands of a scientific archaeologist, was common in high society, but its primary purpose was to allow nobles to end their lives in a dignified manner under "special circumstances." The eight .25 caliber bullets loaded in the magazine were only effective when shot in the head; using them against even an unprotected ordinary enemy was virtually impossible to cause any effective damage unless one was extremely lucky and hit a vital organ.

As for using this thing against armored warriors, that's even more of a joke.

"A legitimate heir? Hehehe... As far as I know, Grand Duchess Susan hasn't appointed an heir yet." The scientific archaeologist started chuckling, seemingly trying to get away with it by being cute.

"I'm not talking about my aunt—seriously, you guys have no shame, pushing a child into that kind of position," Ange said, somewhat annoyed, reaching out to pinch the other's soft, round face. After all, in terms of appearance alone, Iskandar Lomonosov's cuteness and harmlessness were second only to Mary's, and no matter how indignant Ange was, she really couldn't bring herself to hit him hard. "Don't tell me you really don't know who I am."

"Your Highness, Princess Ange Katrina Tipharisa Lyndenhild-Fayun," the archaeologist of science and technology dared not speak nonsense this time, "Hehehehe... It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Yes, I'm glad to see you here," Fish said. "So, do you have time to answer a few of our questions?"

"Uh... well... I think even if I said 'no,' you probably wouldn't agree..." Although the indoor temperature was low, sweat still beaded on Iskandar Lomonosov's small forehead. Then, after considering for a moment, he placed the pocket pistol, which was of no use anyway, on the table behind him and raised his hands in a gesture that indicated "no hostility."

"I'm glad you understand," Anjie said with a smile. "First, the first question: Who exactly are you?"

"As you can see, I am just an ordinary scientific archaeologist, at most I just look a little young."

"You call your appearance 'a little too young'?" Fish scoffed. "Never mind... that's not important. Tell me, are you from the old civilization era or not?"

"You've already figured it out? Hmm... well, then there's no need for me to hide it anymore..." Iskandar Lomonosov scratched his long white hair. "That's right, I was born in the second year of the 26th century... about 1,040 years ago, right? So, indeed, I am the 'old human' you mentioned."

"And he's a very special kind of old human," Huang Yan suddenly interjected. "To be precise, this guy is actually a product of extensive genetic modification—though not as thorough as a true new human. But what's certain is that he was implanted with exogenous gene fragments that can significantly slow down aging, and he also underwent some other custom genetic modifications."

"Wow, it's actually an intelligent combat armor with its own consciousness?" The archaeologist's eyes lit up, clearly showing great interest in Huang Yan. "This isn't something just anyone can obtain! If I remember correctly, even in the old civilization era, it was generally forbidden to raise the autonomy of intelligent combat armor to L5 or higher. Where did you find this thing? And who did you contact in the process...?"

"We're questioning you now, Doctor," Fish interrupted immediately. "You're the one who needs to answer the questions, not me."

"Oh...oh...okay," Iskandar Lomonosov said, looking like a wounded animal, seemingly protesting. But in the end, he nodded. "Do you have any other questions?"

"Why are you assisting the people of the Fayun Regency Council? Why are you helping them seize the Fayun Duchy? As a person from the old civilization era, you should have no involvement in the political struggles of this era," Ange asked.

"Oh, well... I really don't care about the petty struggles under your quasi-feudal political system. You're right about that," the archaeologist of science smiled slightly, "but... well... to complete my work, I do need to overcome some obstacles."

"An obstacle?! You mean...?"

"Ah, it seems you've already guessed—yes, what I'm looking for is located beneath this 'secret realm.' But unfortunately, for the past thousand years, this place has been declared a 'forbidden zone' by the rulers of the Duchy of Fayun. Although I have ways to infiltrate certain facilities from older civilizations single-handedly without triggering alarms and defenses, excavating facilities beneath this 'secret realm' would require a massive investment of personnel and equipment. As long as the Lindenhild-Fayun family continues to prohibit outsiders from entering, I cannot do so."

"Just for this, you..."

"In fact, the group of conspirators led by General Rissmer had been plotting to seize power for many years: the Duchy of Fayun had long regarded many new human races living on the border as 'unclean' and discriminated against them, leading to frequent unnecessary internal conflicts. In order to avoid being destroyed by rebellion, it had to maintain a bloated army relative to the size of the country in the name of 'martial spirit' and grant it all sorts of privileges—which would inevitably lead to the continued expansion of the latter. Under such circumstances, it is not surprising that I could find enough collaborators among the army generals."

Upon hearing this, Ange fell silent for a moment—because she was quite certain that everything the other person said was true. Years ago, Ange had already been intimately familiar with the problems of the Principality of Fayun, and most of the Regency Council members… no, to be precise, the vast majority of the military and government of Fayun had long been rumored to be “unreliable.” In fact, when the informant handed her the list of the Regency Council members, Ange wasn’t even particularly surprised.

In fact, deep down, she had long had a vague feeling that this day would come sooner or later.

"Of course, I reiterate, I personally do not care about the trivial political issues of this era, and I am completely indifferent to the minor conflicts within your dynasty's ruling family—including my cooperation with Emperor Anthemius III, which is only for my personal needs," Iskandar Lomonosov continued. "I need him to provide some necessary assistance... for example, the Imperial Guard and engineers currently under my command."

"So what's your purpose? To dig up the 'Tai Sui' and then turn it into a weapon?"

"Oh, that's His Majesty the Emperor's idea—I've noticed since I woke up in this era and came into contact with him that he's always been anxious."

"anxiety?"

"As you should know, the royal family of the Pan-Pacific Empire is the direct bloodline of the so-called 'heroes' of the past. Therefore, the royal family possesses a large number of records originating from those 'heroes'," the archaeologist of technology said. "Many of these records mention that 'a great calamity may occur a thousand years after the end of the old civilization era.' And the imperial family seems to interpret this 'great event' as 'those who have survived the dormant era of the old civilization will lead an army of autonomous weapons to reclaim this world.'"

"Such a thing shouldn't exist, right?" Fish said. Because of Huang Yan, a relic from the old civilization era, and Shana, a genuine old human, he had inquired about the old civilization era quite a bit when he was bored. But both Huang Yan and Shana repeatedly claimed that while some old humans were indeed in a dormant state, they had no plans such as "reclaiming the world." Even Shana's companions in the reserves were merely disappointed with the old civilization era and planned to awaken thousands, even tens of thousands of years later to rebuild civilization on an Earth where everything had returned to its original state.

“Oh, that’s basically right, but the royal family is unaware of this. And for me, this misunderstanding is very useful,” Iskandar Lomonosov’s smile widened. “After gaining His Majesty’s trust, I used the opportunity of the investigation to successfully induce the autonomous weapons of the old civilization to launch several large-scale attacks… thereby ‘proving’ the royal family’s suspicions.”

"You mean, in the North Pole, you lured autonomous weapons to respond by destroying the old humans' hibernation facilities and spreading a limited amount of 'Tai Sui' infection, and you used the guardians of the 'Deep Dark Island' to massacre civilians in Oasis Harbor?"

"Oh, I didn't do the latter thing—you and I both know that someone else gave the order." The archaeologist of science smiled meaningfully.

"You—" Perhaps touched a raw nerve by those words, Ange instinctively clenched her fists… then relaxed them again. After all, at this moment, she couldn't afford to let anything happen to this important source of information. "So, what exactly is your ultimate goal…?"

"After his suspicions were confirmed, His Majesty the Emperor naturally panicked—he knew very well that with the current military capabilities of the new humans, it would be difficult to defeat the legacy left by the old civilization. Therefore, when I told him that there was a way to create a powerful, one-off army so that he would at least have a way to deal with the crisis, he immediately agreed to my plan."

"You... could you be deceiving His Majesty by saying that the 'Tai Sui' buried beneath the 'Secret Realm' and sealed by our ancestors is the weapon that can defeat the legendary 'Great Calamity'?!" Ange asked.

"That's right. And to some extent, what I said is indeed true."

Let reading always be a chapter faster than others.