The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"You mean... intuition? Just for that?"

Although long-term cooperation had instilled in Fish and his companions a near-unconditional trust in Huang Yan's instructions, Huang Yan's explanation this time was simply too... astonishing.

"Hmph, hmph, hmph, don't underestimate my intuition," Huang Yan said. "In fact, possessing this intuition is the evidence that I am the crystallization of technology from the old civilization era."

"Huh? How did this get involved?" Fish asked.

"It's quite simple. Although people usually think that 'intuition' is something unreliable and that everyone has, it is actually a special product formed after human experience has accumulated and evolved in the subconscious over a long period of time. In the early stages of the development of artificial intelligence, human logical thinking was the first to be imitated and was eventually surpassed by artificial intelligence, while emotional changes were also quickly simulated by corresponding algorithms. However, simulating 'intuition' and the subconscious is much more complicated."

"Meow...that sounds...not very easy to understand." Fish shrugged.

"From a practical standpoint, intuition is largely irrelevant in most decisions—I am an artificial intelligence used in the military field, and military science is a science. Given sufficient and accurate information, calculations and reasoning can be performed. Correct theories and calculation methods determine the success of strategic and tactical decisions in over 90% of cases."

"You said this before..." Fish suddenly recalled the scene when he was cramming for basic courses. Although basic culture, etiquette, and art courses were taught by Ange herself, or by her female officers led by Mint, military knowledge was the area that Huang Yan was responsible for. At that time, this ancient military AI had said something similar.

"However, as we all know, if everyone can achieve that 90%—for example, the 'Singleton Staff Officer' in the memory you saw is an android almost on par with me in terms of logic and rationality—then the difference lies in the final 10%," Huang Yan continued. "In military decision-making, no matter how strong your intelligence gathering capabilities are, there will always be some uncertainties and fog of war left behind for various reasons. And in emergency situations, there are always times when there is no time to confirm the situation, or even to speculate, and decisions must be made hastily."

"Yes, that's right."

"In situations like this, logic and reason are no more useful than the sights on a mini self-defense pistol with a range of only twenty feet," Huang Yan explained, "while intuition can have an unexpected and crucial effect. What makes me unique is precisely this intuition—my creator invested a tremendous amount of effort in simulating intuition."

"So, how likely are you that your intuition will be right?" Fish took another step back. The cocoon was becoming more transparent, and the outline of what was inside was clearer—at first, he thought it looked somewhat human, but now he wasn't so sure. After all, no human could possibly have such deformed limbs, unless…

The image of the "person" transformed into a miniature "cannon" and a heavy landmine, which he had seen in Singleton's memory, appeared in Fish's mind once again.

"For standard strong artificial intelligence that lacks 'intuition'—like Singleton, whom you saw in those memories of unknown origin—when faced with unclear situations and the need to make a decision, they can only make random judgments, with a probability that can be considered 50%," Huang Yan continued, unaware of what Fish was thinking at that moment. "But according to my records, relying on intuition, my judgment accuracy in similar situations is higher than that of purely random judgments, reaching 77%."

"Oh, that's great." As soon as Fish finished speaking, the ion gun in his arm armor fired a rapid three-round burst. Three ion beams, each with the destructive power of a 40mm small rifle grenade, struck the nearest "cocoon" in succession, vaporizing most of the moving figure.

Due to the power of the ion gun, most of the remaining material inside the "cocoon" that had been hit was charred, and the organic slime that had once soaked the figure was completely evaporated. A pungent, acrid smell quickly spread, forcing Ange and Fish to activate the air filtration system of their smart combat armor to combat the terrible odor.

"Not bad, you actually believed my intuitive judgment so easily," Huang Yan said. "In the past, many people didn't believe in 'artificial intelligence intuition'..."

"Because I've seen these damn things in Singleton's memories." Fish took a deep breath and smashed the second giant cocoon, turning most of the contents into a large cloud of filthy steam. The charred cocoon shells scattered everywhere, looking like rotten eggs that had been boiled over high temperatures. "These guys...they...are probably humans infected by the Tai Sui."

"Really?" Ange asked. At the same time, she continued firing her plasma shoulder cannon without stopping, blasting several adjacent "cocoons" to smithereens.

"Theoretically, it's possible," Huang Yan said. "According to the data from the Shura Star battle back then, after being infected by 'Tai Sui,' some organisms would undergo special genetic modification, 'transform' into highly complex weaponized body structures, and become genuine living weapons. But the problem is... before we arrived here, the First Imperial Guard Brigade had been very stably controlling the entire 'Secret Realm.' If there were a large-scale 'Tai Sui' infection, this place should already be in chaos."

"But if it's not 'Tai Sui' (a deity associated with the Grand Duke Jupiter), how do you explain these things?"

Although Fish and Ange had already begun their efforts to clear out the "cocoons" in the room, there were still over a hundred of them. After the two of them destroyed more than a dozen, one of the "cocoons" finally broke open from the inside. What emerged from it was... a round, chubby creature.

This "person" still bore the remnants of the Imperial Guard infantry's grass-green uniform, but was clearly no longer loyal to Emperor Anthemius III. He still wore a helmet, but it offered no protection whatsoever. The changes within the "cocoon" had made his legs considerably thicker, but his upper limbs had atrophied drastically, becoming two shrunken bony clubs resembling those of an abelisaurus. His abdomen was swollen, and beneath it appeared to grow a layer of ossification resembling crocodile skin…

"Get down on your feet!"

As soon as Fish shouted those words, the man's dim yellow eyes looked at him and Ange. Then, he ran a few steps toward the two of them and immediately exploded.

Although Fish and Ange possessed high-level intelligent combat armor, even ordinary grenades or small rifle grenades detonating at point-blank range wouldn't cause them direct harm. Even if they accidentally stepped on an anti-personnel mine, they'd at most sprain their ankles. However, even for them, the power of this explosion was not to be underestimated.

Besides the high temperature and shockwave generated by the explosion itself, what was even more deadly was the bone fragments covering the man's abdomen. These tough bones, after being shattered, immediately turned into extremely deadly high-speed shrapnel—more importantly, to enhance their lethality, their edges grew extremely sharp. When two pieces of shrapnel grazed Fish's shoulder, the latter was astonished to find that Phoenix Flame's protection, which was strong enough to block full-power small-caliber rifle bullets, had actually been cut through!

Previously, this was an achievement that only the "Cain" twins, as professional super assassins, could accomplish.

Fortunately, upon realizing they couldn't completely defend against the attack, both Huang Yan and Jin Tang automatically adjusted their defensive priorities, focusing on strengthening critical areas like the head, chest, and abdomen, while weakening defenses in less vital areas. Therefore, the shrapnel only caused superficial wounds to their shoulders and limbs. While the shockwave and intense heat were extremely damaging, they didn't leave permanent damage.

However, even though they appeared to be unharmed despite the smoke, it took them several tens of seconds after the intelligent combat armor administered the painkiller before they could barely stand up again. During this time, more than a dozen enormous "cocoons" burst open one after another, each producing a similar, obese, and bloated humanoid figure.

"This is bad. It seems we don't have time to destroy all the targets," Huang Yan said. "Fighting these guys in a relatively confined space is very disadvantageous. I suggest we retreat immediately."

"Understood." Fish nodded—even without Huang Yan's reminder, he and Ange could see that although blowing up these bulky guys wasn't much harder than shooting at a stationary target, the danger was simply too great. In a confined space, avoiding being hit by the blast wave was practically impossible, especially given that the enemy possessed additional fragmentation capabilities.

Of course, Fish had also considered taking out these guys with a melee attack before they could detonate. However, before he could even voice this thought, Phoenix Flame gave him a "precautionary warning."

"I strongly advise against attempting close combat—based on my initial observation, the enemy is using a binary liquid detonating charge."

"What do you mean?"

"The target has two fluid sacs, each storing a relatively stable organic compound under normal temperature and pressure. However, if they mix, they become extremely unstable. This means that even with sufficient speed, there is still a considerable probability that an assassination or slashing attack could cause the compounds inside the target's body to mix and explode—at point-blank range, even I cannot guarantee your safety."

"This is too much trouble." Hearing Huang Yan say this, Fish had no choice but to give up the idea and started running with Ange's hand. Fortunately, although these bulky guys had two thick legs, they were not very fast. Even without the intelligent combat armor, Fish was confident that he could shake them off in the chase.

The only problem is... there are far more enemies in this labyrinthine underground facility than the group we just encountered.

Just as Fish and Ange found a glowing landmark left by the Imperial Archaeological Team and began to speed up their run toward the surface, another group of guys rushed out from a side alley and attacked them without warning.

Unlike the bulky, spherical human bombs of the past, these creatures are more agile and dangerous. Their bodies are covered in large, shield-like scales, and at least one of their arms has been transformed into a rough, gun barrel-like shape resembling a grenade launcher.

Thanks to Phoenix Flame's vibration sensors, which gave them an early warning of these creatures' arrival, Fish and Ange seized the initiative in their first encounter. Several scorching ion beams instantly heated the nearest enemies to the point of exploding on the spot, turning them into gruesome pieces of flesh stuck to the walls and floor.

However, compared to the total number of enemies in this wave, this achievement was clearly far from enough. Those enemies who were not immediately knocked down raised their weaponized arms and fired spherical projectiles at the two. Fortunately, these spheres, each four to five centimeters in diameter, were traveling at less than two hundred meters per second, and with the superhuman agility of the advanced armored warriors, dodging them was not difficult.

...provided that they do not have proximity fuses.

Just as they approached to within a few meters of the two men, these spherical projectiles with soft surfaces suddenly detonated from the inside. A large amount of viscous, yellowish-brown liquid sprayed out and stuck to the two men.

Fortunately, these substances appear to be non-toxic and harmless, and are neither radioactive nor corrosive—of course, even if they were, ordinary hazardous substances would not affect armored warriors protected by intelligent combat armor.

The only problem is that, although these things are non-toxic, non-radioactive, and non-corrosive, they begin to solidify and clump together very quickly after contact with air, turning into a tough shell like desulfurized rubber!

"Oh no, get this thing off!"

Although Ange quickly detected the danger, the problem was that by then it was too late to take action—more and more spherical projectiles were exploding around them. The sticky substance was spreading even further, making it impossible to dodge. Moreover, the two, already severely hampered by the thick layer of this substance on their bodies, simply had no time to evade!

Thus, the whole situation quickly escalated into a vicious cycle: the more the sticky substance rapidly solidified and clumped onto their bodies, the more difficult it became to move, and this lack of mobility further increased the attackers' shooting accuracy. Soon, Fish and Ange's bodies were completely sealed under a thick layer of gelatinous substance, utterly immobile, resembling two eerie sculptures.

Fortunately, thanks to the protection of the internal emergency gas storage systems of Phoenix Flame and Golden Soup, the two were at least not going to suffocate in a short period of time.

"Hmm, this is a more vicious attack than I imagined... Is it a coincidence? Or was it really developed specifically for armored warriors?" Although the situation looked bad, at least Fish wasn't panicking at all—and the reason he wasn't panicking was quite simple: even Phoenix Flame hadn't started to panic yet, which meant there was no need to panic at all. "However, it's alright, this isn't an insurmountable situation."

"I thought so too," Fish replied. At that moment, two extremely deformed creatures walked up to them and began to examine the two newly "created" "sculptures." "So, do you have a way to deal with them?"

"Yes, please wait patiently for thirty seconds... Although under the current circumstances, you have to be patient even if you don't want to."