The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

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"Mr. Finn Barnard! Look, look..."

Just as the techno-archaeology assistant sitting in the driver's seat of the "Goron" was gaping in panic, an infantryman accompanying the operation was the first to react. He quickly ran to the literally riddled-with-holes corpse of the armored warrior, bent down to examine it carefully for a while, and then shook his head.

"This is……"

"These are our own people! They're members of 'Crystal Knights'! Aaaaaaah!"

By the end of that sentence, the Imperial Guard soldier was already screaming—after all, while friendly fire wasn't particularly rare, it was common knowledge that these "Crystal Knights" were all invaluable assets to the Imperial Army. As loyal and reliable high-ranking armored warriors, each of them was worth at least a company of Imperial Guard infantry, perhaps even more. To accidentally kill two "Crystal Knights" was no ordinary case of collateral damage.

Undoubtedly, everyone present was destined for a bleak military career... assuming they could still have a "military career" after their trial in a military court.

"Ah... No, this can't be! How could this be?!" Finn Barnard was completely dumbfounded—he had just seen clearly that "Gorlon's" IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) device had no response at all!

What happened? Mechanical malfunction? Operational error?! The operational logs of "Gorlon" should theoretically be accessible and stored, right? Perhaps a military court could find something? If it's later determined to be a mechanical malfunction of the IFF system, maybe he could receive a lighter sentence…

Thinking of this, Finn Barnard finally felt a little more at ease. He took a deep breath of the circulating air from the "Gorlon's" ventilation system and then turned on his communication device.

In the intricate network of underground tunnels beneath the "funnel," there were three squads like his, each led by a Goron and consisting of an infantry platoon. At this moment, it was essential for him to contact the other squads. Firstly, to explain the situation immediately, and secondly, to warn them to avoid further friendly fire incidents.

However, after activating the communication system, Finn Barnard discovered that the situation was worse than he had imagined: although the "Gorlon" was equipped with a powerful communicator capable of penetrating thousands of meters of rock, at this moment, all he could hear on the communication channel was a hissing and buzzing sound.

Finn Barnard turned the communicator off and on again, repeating this process three times—but the result remained the same. Clearly, the communication system had been compromised, though the cause was unknown. This interference, along with the sudden failure of the IFF system, was certainly not a good sign.

"Let's go! Get out of here quickly!"

After some thought, Finn Barnard finally made a decision: staying down there was clearly unwise. The only reasonable option was to evacuate immediately. As it turned out, he was right. The only problem was… it was too late.

The moment the scientific archaeology assistant gave the order, clear gunfire could be heard from other directions in the tunnel—and from two different places!

This meant that the other two squads he couldn't contact now appeared to be engaged in battle as well. Then, on "Goron's" sensors, two more human-sized signals, enveloped in halos of energy, were rapidly approaching him from both ends of the arc-shaped tunnel!

"Oh no—"

Finn Barnard instinctively aimed his six-barreled machine gun at the approaching target from the tunnel, but the bolt only made a hollow sound. Then he remembered that he had emptied his 100-round drum magazine while shooting two Crystal Knights members. And in his shock, he hadn't thought to reload!

Now, it's too late to refill it.

The red shadow, like a phantom, leaped to Finn Barnard's feet in the blink of an eye, landing on the canopy of the "Goron." In the next instant, through the canopy, Finn Barnard saw the mysterious armored pilot: his entire face was covered by a red, closed helmet and black visors, making it impossible to see his features clearly.

Then, the mysterious red armored warrior swung his blade. The monomolecular longsword pierced the canopy, and then... stopped just millimeters from Finn Barnard.

Although the sword strike caused no real damage, the unfortunate techno-archaeology assistant realized that his groin area was now hot and wet. The red armored warrior then ignored him completely, continuing to swing his blade, swiftly slicing off the entire canopy like a watermelon, and tossing it aside. He then plunged his sword into the control panel in front of Finn Barnard, completely destroying it.

And so, the "Goron" was completely reduced to a pile of useless junk. At the same time, Finn Barnard heard sporadic gunfire and blunt force trauma behind her—another golden armored warrior had charged into the infantry squad and launched an attack. However, she didn't use any lethal methods, merely touching the soldiers with her electrified armored gloves. Just seconds later, everyone was stunned by the electric shock and collapsed onto the tunnel floor.

After rendering the entire squad ineffective, the two mysterious armored warriors, one in red and one in gold, immediately left the tunnel, disappearing without a trace like ghosts. Seeing this, Finn Barnard, his legs still damp, let out a long sigh, his body going limp as if all his bones had been removed.

At least he's alive now, and he doesn't need to take responsibility for what just happened. As for who those two mysterious armored warriors are and what they're planning to do down there, it's completely unimportant to him.

After all, he had really had enough.

"Phew...that solves it."

After rushing along the winding tunnel for some distance, Fish entered a small room hidden behind the tunnel wall and sat down with Ange. In this underground ruin located beneath the scorched, vitrified surface, there were many such hidden rooms of unknown purpose. Some were piled with various odds and ends, but most were empty.

Although the specific purpose of these small rooms is unknown, their entrances are cleverly concealed and disguised by illusions created by the "Virtual Paradise" system, which is common in facilities from the old civilization era.

Therefore, although the Imperial Scientific Archaeology Team, which was conducting excavations below, repeatedly cleared these tunnels, they only found a very small portion of them.

However, for Fish, whose eyes were completely unaffected by the "Virtual Paradise" system, these rooms were free safe havens, perfect for him to hide and rest at any time.

With the help of these "safe houses," Fish easily shook off the relentless pursuit of the "Crystal Knights" after plunging into the "funnel" with Ange. Although those guys were quite strong by the standards of armored warriors, none of them had the ability to see through the illusion of "Illusory Paradise."

On the contrary, Fish could easily turn the tables and position them.

To achieve this, Fish first used the special ability "Breath of the Forest" at the entrance of this underground ruin when he entered the "funnel"—this move was originally a special ability of Frostleaf's intelligent combat armor. Its method of use is to spread special compounds that humans cannot smell, so that the target can smell the chemical traces after being exposed to them.

Although Huang Yan initially looked down on this move, for safety's sake, after the Oasis Harbor incident, she still used her "devouring ability" to obtain the ability from Shuang Ye... and finally put it to use at this moment.

After using chemical traces to determine the Crystal Knight's modus operandi, Fish then had Phoenix Flame activate another ability it had previously absorbed—the "Short-Range System Overdrive Control" derived from the "Black Destroyer" encountered in that ancient tower.

Previously, Fish had used this ability to manipulate various switches, small drones, and other low-level automated devices, but this time, his target was a "Gorlon" walking machine patrolling an underground tunnel.

Of course, since these walking machines are operated by drivers, directly taking over their control systems is beyond the limits of capability. However, it is not impossible to seize control of only a few subsystems.

After quietly approaching the three walking machines, Fish briefly took over and modified their IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) and communication systems without the passengers' knowledge.

After his modifications, these "Gorons" effectively ceased friend-or-foe identification, stopped responding to any friendly signals, and used a temporarily recorded white engine noise as an automatic response to all communication requests—of course, this problem could be solved by resetting the system settings. However, their pilots obviously had no idea what was actually happening.

After everything was ready, Fish completed the final operation: he and Ange appeared separately in front of the "Crystal Knights" who were searching for them, and cleverly led them to the patrol teams, hiding in the safe houses on either side of the corridor at the last moment.

The unfortunate "Crystal Knights" walked towards their doom in a daze.

"Based on my initial reconnaissance, the pilots of these 'Gron' walkers fought quite well," Huang Yan said after the two had waited patiently in the safe house for a while. "Of the seven 'Crystal Knights,' the energy signatures of five of them have completely disappeared—of course, this doesn't mean they're dead. But it definitely means their smart combat armor has malfunctioned, with its output power reduced to zero."

"Oh, that's enough." Ange nodded. "For us armored warriors, if the output power of our intelligent combat armor drops to zero, it's equivalent to death."

"At least in combat, they can't threaten us anymore," Fish said. "What about the rest?"

"I'm not entirely sure, but the two strongest 'Crystal Knights' of the 'Lapis Lazuli' level seemed to react very quickly and blasted the 'Gorlon' to smithereens before it could fire at them—one of the three 'Gorlons' also had its energy level drop to zero," Huang Yan imitated a series of click-clack sounds in his artificial voice. "Even friendly forces can be instantly killed as soon as they detect any abnormal signs. They're truly ruthless."

"I'm afraid that's the enemy's captain," Ange deduced, "and also the one with the most combat experience."

"Isn't that the noblewoman who tried to persuade us to join them?" Fish muttered. "In that case... what should we do now?"

"Continue with the original plan." Ange thought for a moment, and at the same time loaded the target location obtained by Huang Yan into the tactical map that "Golden Soup" tactical computer had just drawn based on the two's movement trajectory. "The remaining two 'Crystal Knights' are still far away from us. Let's take care of the remaining enemy patrol first, and then deal with them."

"Understood." After replying, Fish quickly leaped out of the safe house and rushed towards the location of the last remaining operational "Goron" in this underground ruin.

After taking down the last "Gorlon" and the infantry squad covering it, they resisted for a total of... fifteen seconds after encountering Fish and Angel. Compared to the previous raid, Fish wasn't so lucky this time. A 7.7mm rifle bullet fired haphazardly by an infantryman struck him in the abdomen at extremely close range. Although Phoenix Flame prevented the bullet from penetrating, Fish still felt as if he had been punched hard in the stomach, and the pain was excruciating.

Aside from that, their actions didn't encounter much resistance. All the infantrymen were taken down one by one by Ange's electrified fists, and the "Gorlon" was also destroyed by Fish, who boarded it, after a burst of indiscriminate firing. Its control system was destroyed in the same way, turning it into metal scrap like the empty armor decorated in the castle.

"That's it." After confirming that "Goron" would stop moving, Fish muttered to himself, "And then?"

"Based on my continuous monitoring of the vibration signals inside the tunnel, a large group of people is continuing to penetrate deeper into this place along the 'funnel'," Huang Yan said. "It seems that after Dr. Iskandar Lomonosov escaped, he has already notified reinforcements to enter this area and prepare to intercept us."

“That would probably number in the hundreds,” Ange said. “And given the configuration of a special Class A unit like the First Imperial Guard Brigade, in addition to high-ranking armored warriors like the ‘Crystal Knights,’ each of its infantry battalions would be equipped with a five-man squad of low-ranking armored warriors, serving as the spearhead of infantry assaults and the backbone for handling special situations. We’d better assume that these men also include ten to twenty low-ranking armored warriors of the ‘Jade’ or even ‘Agate’ level.”

"This isn't good." Fish made a face as if he were in a pained expression—although for him now, unless it was a genius like Frostleaf with extremely strong combat talent, a "Jade" level weakling armored warrior was practically a sitting duck in front of him, but a dozen or twenty people like this, plus a bunch of infantry... things were more than just a little troublesome. "Should we continue hiding in the safe house for a while?"

"No," Huang Yan said immediately.

The world created by Sokhov is fully revealed in "The Last Odyssey: The Fantastic Adventure of a Cat Boy".