The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"Is this... an old apartment building? It brings back so many memories."

After walking down the ancient concrete stairs for a while, Fish heard Huang Yan mutter to himself—indeed, these stairs didn't resemble the reinforced underground structures he'd seen before, but rather resembled the emergency stairs in ordinary buildings. The kind of thing that, even with elevators, people might only use a few times a year.

“Indeed.” Fish nodded after noticing the “2F” sign next to a window used for letting in light. For the past ten centuries, genetically modified corals, engineered by Shana’s parents, had been building their limestone “castles” at an unprecedented rate, far exceeding the rate of sea-level rise. The glass window that once overlooked the sea was now completely blocked by coral stones. Among these limestone formations, Fish also spotted an empty blue can with the word “Cola” written on it, its meaning unclear.

For some reason, Shana's expression suddenly became very... nostalgic when she saw the jar.

"It's alright. The secret formula for this stuff was accidentally preserved at the end of the old civilization era, and it's still in my database," Huang Yan noticed the change in the old civilization survivor's expression and comforted him. "There are also soda factories in this era. After all this is over, we can just invest in factories and produce that stuff again."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Fish asked, bewildered.

"It's nothing, you'll find out when the time comes," Huang Yan said mysteriously. "By the way, the reason this formula is kept in my database is to serve as a reward for those who cooperate in this era. I can guarantee that if you use it well, the benefits you can gain will be even greater than the benefits that the position of Grand Duke Fa Yun can bring."

"Ancestors above... what kind of formula is this? Is it an elixir of immortality?" Anjie asked, equally clueless.

"In fact, that's something that people in the old civilization would rather have their average lifespan reduced by a year than give up," Huang Yan replied.

"That does seem quite valuable... It might even help to fix our country's severe fiscal deficit. After all, apart from the Principality of Penglai, other creditors are now unlikely to agree to extend the debt of the Principality of Fayun..." Ange muttered to herself as she continued walking down the street.

Judging from the numbers on the stairwell walls, the upper three floors of this thousand-year-old apartment building have been completely destroyed. The original third floor location has now become the ground-level entrance hidden in the south section of the fish market. Due to the collapse of the floorboards, the stairwells on the second and first floors are blocked by rubble, so they are clearly unlikely to be where that guy used to hide.

The only possibility is the underground area.

"Hmm... what is this place down there? It's so spacious!" After stepping out of the stairwell marked "-1F," Fish's vision suddenly opened up: before him lay an extremely open underground space stretching for hundreds of meters. Due to the lack of light, most places were pitch black, but some areas were lit by dim lights or small campfires.

"This is an underground parking lot, and it should be shared by the entire community," Huang Yan explained. "People in the old civilization used a lot of private cars, so they needed a huge parking lot."

"That person is on this floor," Frostleaf said. "Everyone be careful, this place is perfect for an ambush."

"An ambush, is that it? I'd like to see which fool dares to ambush us." Fish said, fully activating the Phoenix Flame—since this wasn't the surface where people came and went, he naturally didn't need to continue disguising himself as an armored warrior. Soon, the red, tight-fitting armor covered his entire body again.

"Take this, my lord." As she activated the intelligent combat armor "Golden Soup," Ange handed Fish a short battle axe—this piece of equipment was also a relic from the old civilization era, and could only be used with the intelligent combat armor. Its magnificent design imitated the "Yellow Axe," an ancient Eastern weapon used to symbolize military command.

However, beyond its decorative and ostentatious purpose, this weapon can also connect to the energy core of intelligent combat armor, charging the axe blade in a very short time and covering it with a high-energy field. Its destructive power is even enough to destroy the armor plates of heavy armored vehicles.

"Generally speaking, I'm the one who should be carrying out the ambush, right?" Xiaoxing sneered, then activated "Grape" and vanished completely into the darkness. At the same time, Mint activated her intelligent combat armor "Emerald," while Xiaoluo and Peanut each took out a miniature submachine gun and stood guard on either side of the female officer. Even the seemingly frail Melu took out her hunting rifle from her backpack, quickly assembled it, and shielded Shana behind her.

"Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh..."

Although they had heard that Fish's team included armored warriors, the three members of the "Red Cat" crew were still utterly astonished upon witnessing the scene before them—and this was understandable. After all, the average citizen's daily encounters with city patrols and security forces rarely involved in hiring even one or two low-level armored warriors to occasionally handle the most difficult problems. The simultaneous appearance of several armored warriors was nothing short of a myth to them.

More importantly, even someone completely unfamiliar with armored warriors can deduce from the appearance of the Phoenix Flame and Golden Soup armor sets that their level is definitely not low. Although the legend of top-tier armored warriors being able to single-handedly form an army and fight against thousands is indeed a bit exaggerated, it is an indisputable fact that armored warriors of the "Lapis Lazuli" level or higher can fight against hundreds of enemies without heavy weapons.

"Don't be too surprised, everyone. This is our strength." Alicia, who took out a small katana and a double-barreled shotgun with its barrel sawed off from her wide cloak and assumed a fighting stance, patted the three children on the shoulder. "Relax, relax. With this kind of superhuman combat power, ordinary small fry are no match for us."

"Um... okay..." The three members of the "Red Cat" group nodded, clearly not yet fully recovered from the shock—however, this did not prevent them from continuing to follow Fish and his group.

Although they were wearing full suits of intelligent combat armor, thanks to the sound-absorbing material in the soles and linings of their armored boots, the group's voices were even fainter than before, barely audible, like rats slowly crawling in the dark. Soon, they approached the nearest campfire.

A small group of rather uncouth-looking people were gathered there.

There were more than a dozen people, most of them dressed in the simple undershirts commonly worn by men from the lower rungs of Oasis Harbor's society, with pirate-style checkered bandanas tied around their heads. A jumble of bottles lay at their feet, and judging from the smell emanating from them, they likely contained homemade slum liquor brimming with harmful fusel oils. Some were playing cards and gambling, while others were heating tin foil, inhaling large gulps of the rising smoke.

However, the strangest thing was that among these boisterous and hedonistic men, there were actually two young girls. Although their faces were partially covered by scarves with skull and jaw patterns, making it impossible to see their features clearly, these two petite girls with slender figures, wearing extremely short black lace dresses, were still like white moonlight among these guys.

What's even stranger is that, although many of the men were literally intoxicated by alcohol and psychotropic drugs, not a single one dared to touch the two little girls. On the contrary, all the rude men instinctively kept their distance from the girls in miniskirts, like Staphylococcus aureus bacteria hiding in a petri dish, concealing strains of Penicillium mold.

"These two girls... seem strange," Fish said in a low voice. "They're the ones that bother me more than the men."

"These are members of the 'Short Skirt Pirates' gang," Felipe said. "I didn't expect them to be hiding here."

"The Short Skirt Pirate Gang? What a ridiculous name!"

"These guys were originally a group of pirates who hijacked ships. Later, because the Oasis Harbor security forces purchased more patrol gunboats, their 'business' became less profitable, so they switched to being smugglers," Aiko said. "I heard that these people have many ways to get their hands on illegal drugs, and although their operation is not large, they are quite well-known in this area."

"But where did this name come from?" Shuangye asked. "A name like 'short skirt' won't scare anyone."

"That's not necessarily true," Felipe said. "In the past two months, the underworld of Oasis Harbor has been filled with terrifying stories about 'short skirts.'"

"Huh...?"

"Generally speaking, when these guys get into street fights, one side will have beautiful girls in lace miniskirts join the fray. These girls may look sweet and soft, but once they join the battle, they become extremely crazy and fearless, and their fighting power is unreasonable. They'll laugh as they slice people into pieces, and no other gang is a match for them. These people were originally called the 'Blue Shirts Pirate Gang,' but lately, everyone calls them the 'Miniskirt Pirate Gang.'"

"It sounds bizarre, but thanks to this horror story, far fewer people try to lay a hand on me," Aiko said. "Because those guys are scared, and I'm one of those girls."

"Phew...it tastes so familiar, doesn't it?" Fish muttered.

"Indeed, Your Highness." Ange nodded—after experiencing the battle with the pink beret-wearing beauty, the JK "zombie" siege, and the loli "ghost" and other ghostly scenes, they had a general understanding of the tastes of those bloodthirsty spectators in the old civilization era: for those guys, the greatest pleasure was watching beautiful girls wearing very little clothing slaughtering everyone, and the second greatest pleasure was watching them be brutally dismembered.

"Indeed, Your Highness." Ange nodded—after experiencing the battle with the pink beret-wearing beauty, the JK "zombie" siege, and the loli "ghost" and other ghostly scenes, they had a general understanding of the tastes of those bloodthirsty spectators in the old civilization era: for those guys, the greatest pleasure was watching beautiful girls wearing very little clothing slaughtering everyone, and the second greatest pleasure was watching them be brutally dismembered.

In other words, the reason why this originally unknown small-time pirate/smuggling gang suddenly had a bunch of incredibly powerful short-skirted beauties could only be one thing: these birdmen accidentally found a "human creation" device from an old civilization era, and in the process of messing around with it, they created a group of unexpected "foreign aids".

"In that case, the activation signal of the restricted-level device from the old civilization era detected by Huang Yan makes sense," Anjie said in a low voice. "But the problem is, what is the relationship between these people and the continuous series of bizarre murders..."

"Considering the shattered human remains you found earlier, I can conclude that there is definitely a connection," Huang Yan switched the voice chat back to the team communication channel. "In fact, I've already considered some possibilities. The real problem is that the relationship between this 'Short Skirt Pirate Gang' and those Fayun envoys is still unclear..."

"It's not difficult at all. Once we find their hidden rapid cloning equipment and interrogate a few people, we'll know the truth," Fish said. "However, please do not harm these people."

"Understood." Ange nodded—undoubtedly, the dozen or so people gathered around the campfire were merely outposts of the gang, responsible for standing guard near the entrance to the surface and watching out for intruders. The gang's main force, and the ancient device they had discovered, were clearly located much deeper inside.

So, to avoid alerting the enemy, the group didn't make any contact with them at all. Instead, they circled around the dark underground garage and continued forward, guided by the scent of Frostleaf.

Of course, the short-skirted pirate gang wasn't stupid either. In the darkness beyond the sentries' sight, they had prepared a variety of traps, from small anti-personnel mines they'd acquired from who-knows-where to explosive devices connected by thin metal tripwires—enough to pose a significant threat to any enemy attempting to infiltrate through the darkness.

However, thanks to the excellent night vision provided by the intelligent combat armor, these little traps posed no problem for Fish and his team at all.

After passing through the pirate gang's cordon, the group continued forward and finally saw another, brighter source of light—this time, it wasn't a dim campfire, but a specially made lamp filled with inert gas.

A quarter of the space at the edge of this underground parking garage had been completely transformed into their own haven by the Short Skirt Pirates. Huge lights hung from the ceiling of this area as if they were free, and in the corners were refrigerators for storing fresh ingredients and frozen drinks, as well as an electric oven that looked very valuable. The power for these power-consuming devices came from a container-like object located in the center.

"That is..."

"The Type 5C rapid cloning workshop. Under normal circumstances, it can produce a batch of rapid clones every one and a half months according to the gene template—of course, this is an early product of rapid cloning technology. Although it is faster, its products are more unstable at the physiological level, with frequent diseases caused by gene mutations, and an average life expectancy of less than three years. Even the gene therapy we use to remedy this is useless against it," Huang Yan explained. "In other words, it is not as good as Alicia and the others. Because of its poor quality, this equipment was later replaced by more mature rapid cloning methods."

"But no matter what kind of rapid cloning technology it is, it is ultimately an extremely heinous act of not treating people as human beings," Shana said. "This kind of terrible thing should be destroyed as soon as possible."

"I agree," Huang Yan said, "However, there is one more thing that everyone must pay attention to: in the upcoming battle, please do not fire at it."