The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"Could it be that the people on the 'Wave' knew that there were armored warriors on that small ship as well? Is that why they were so wary?" Fish said after thinking for a moment.

"Hmm... It took me a full 41.6 seconds to figure out this simple question, so I'd give it a 60 out of 100," Huang Yan said bluntly. "Although I don't know the specifics, this is the only reasonable explanation: a highly skilled armored warrior can take on dozens or even hundreds of ordinary armed personnel in close combat. If they still have anything to fear, it can only be this."

"Furthermore, this also means that the only armored warrior of the 'Tidal Lightning' war gang is not on the 'Wave'," Xiaoxing added. "Although they have the advantage in numbers and firepower, if the enemy armored warrior can successfully board their ship, their chances of winning are at least not zero. Therefore, the 'Wave' chose to maintain its distance, intending to use the range advantage of its ship's cannons to sink the enemy without being counterattacked."

"Very good, one hundred points," Huang Yan said.

"Hey, this is so unfair! Xiaoxing didn't answer the question before me, so why did she get a perfect score?!"

"Beautiful girls are born to be treated well, it's a natural privilege," this time, Huang Yan simply didn't intend to pretend at all, "If you're a gentleman, then you'd better bear with it."

Although Fish didn't consider himself a gentleman, he had little choice but to endure the situation.

"So, what should we do now?" Xiaoxing asked. "Should we go straight for the 'Wave'? Or should we focus on getting the VIPs we need to protect out of trouble?"

"This..." Fish began to ponder: Under the current circumstances, protecting the small trimaran's escape shouldn't be difficult: after consuming the organic parts of the "Black Destroyer," Phoenix Flame replenished a large amount of biomass, allowing it to generate quite a few interesting little "surprises." He had at least three or four ways to relatively safely destroy the masts of the "Wave," making it almost certain that it would be unable to catch up with the small trimaran, which was simultaneously escaping using wind power and internal combustion engine power.

However, while this approach is easier and safer, the problem is that after rescuing the people, they still need to compete with the "Tidal Lightning" warband for the old civilization's technological equipment, which is their primary objective. If the "Wave" and the "Black Storm" were to rendezvous, the difficulty of the operation would increase significantly. In comparison, taking advantage of the enemy's dispersed forces and defeating them one by one is a more reasonable approach.

Most importantly, for Fish, the entire Tidelight Warband was a legitimate target of his revenge—since these people conspired to lure him and his companions to their deaths, they were all, in his view, condemned to death.

Given this, he certainly couldn't let go of this golden opportunity to personally execute his target of revenge.

"How is it? Have you made up your mind?" Through the neural interface, Huang Yan noticed Fish's emotional changes.

“Of course,” Fish said, “how fortunate.”

"Damn it! We failed again! What are you guys good for?! Did you think the shells were free?!"

As yet another precious 105mm high-explosive shell grazed a skyscraper and shattered a row of glass curtain walls with a huge splash, Captain Cornish Moore of the USS Wave angrily walked away from the optical telescope on the bridge, bared his fangs, and roared at the gunner of the forward main gun.

Even among the diverse array of new humans, Cornish Moore is quite unique: this guy comes from outside the sphere of influence of the Pan-Pacific Empire, and his ancestors have lived for generations on the highlands of the mysterious island of Madagascar.

Although the island's original inhabitants were lemurs, a primitive primate, this dark-skinned, ferocious creature possessed genes from the extinct mountain gorilla. He was burly and muscular, with fangs and even a prominent sagittal ridge on the top of his head, giving him a thick, intimidating jaw and powerful teeth capable of biting through hardboard.

Of course, this guy is actually a vegetarian like a real gorilla, but that doesn't stop him from using his fangs and fists the size of bowls to scare his henchmen into running around like a bunch of monkeys.

Everyone knew that Captain Cornish Moore was an extremely volatile man: he had extensive seafaring experience, and at least twice as much combat experience, yet he still hadn't, or rather, disdained to, learn to control his emotions. On this mission to Twilight City, he had hoped to be the first to find what his employers wanted in the city center, thus receiving their promised reward. However, halfway through the journey, he received orders from Liu Gang to pursue this small boat that had suddenly wandered into the ruins.

Although Liu Gang is theoretically the commander of the "Tidal Lightning" warband, in reality, the warband adopts a shareholding system common in the early Age of Exploration: Cornish Moore, who owns one of the only two large ships, is the "second largest shareholder" of the warband and has the right to freely dispose of all the spoils obtained by the "Wave"—however, this also means that he will not share any of the profits from the "Black Storm".

That's why Cornish Moore was very reluctant when their client suddenly sent an urgent notification via radio, requesting the Warband to send the "Wave" to intercept a small sailboat that was escaping into the waters of Twilight City: after all, according to the previous agreement, the person who arrived at the destination first and won the "prize" would receive an astonishing bonus, while the additional bonus for intercepting this sailboat was less than half of that.

However, Connie Moore was well aware that their employer this time was quite special, and they couldn't easily disobey him if they wanted to continue in this line of work. Therefore, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and command the operation. But what surprised him even more was that the trimaran being pursued wasn't entirely defenseless: upon first spotting the target, his overconfident attitude led him to send a small speedboat with a commando team to "take over" the ship. As a result, those unfortunate fellows were all killed by the trimaran's armored crew within seconds.

Since the armored warriors in the fleet were all on the flagship of the warship, and Moore had already used his instruments to detect that the armored warriors on that small boat were at least Tier 3, or "Crystal" level, when the assault team was wiped out, he dared not let them approach rashly. After that, the two ships began a game of "hide-and-seek" among the ruins: the "Waves" tried to maintain distance to prevent the other from gaining a chance to turn the tide through boarding maneuvers, while attempting to sink the target with its main guns from a distance. Its prey, on the other hand, desperately evaded the shelling, trying to get close enough to fight to the death after escaping the shelling.

Although the contest is still undecided, Connie Moore is running out of patience.

"Captain, no matter how much you threaten us, it's no use." The main gun commander shuddered as he saw the silverback gorilla-like leader storming towards him. He pleaded hastily, "This gun's barrel hasn't been replaced in so long, it's severely eroded, and the rifling is damaged! Under these conditions, firing accuracy will definitely be limited, we really can't—"

"Yes, I know! But I can't threaten the cannons, so I can only threaten you!" Moore grabbed the main gunner's collar like a chick and lifted him up. "You have a maximum of twelve more shells to use, and at least cause some damage to that damned wreck! Otherwise, I guarantee I'll hang you on a hook as bait!"

"Yes! I, I will—" The main gun commander, who had been thrown off the deck, landed on his butt. He was about to get up when he suddenly stared at something in the sky and froze.

"What are you doing?!" Moore roared. "I told you to fire the cannon, what are you standing there for?! Are you trying to become bait?!"

"No, no, no, that's not it!" The main gun commander pointed frantically into the air. "There...there's something there!"

"Huh?!" The captain, who looked like a silverback gorilla, looked up and saw two shadows silently gliding through the air—because Fish and Xiaoxing had turned off the Peregrine's engines beforehand, they made no noise at all amidst the howling sea wind, and were not noticed by the people on the Wave. "What are those things?"

"Maybe it's a bird?" one of Moore's men asked.

"Have you ever seen a bird this big?" Moore slapped the man away with his backhand.

"Perhaps... it's an airplane?" the main gun commander tentatively offered his opinion.

This time, he wasn't knocked away—although Moore couldn't imagine who would pilot a plane to this depths of ruins at this time, and the two inverted "V"-shaped shadows looked very different from any plane he'd ever seen. However, based on his extensive past experience, Moore could still deduce that the thing flying in the sky wasn't a chimera, but a man-made aircraft.

Could it be... some kind of autonomous weapon?

Although they had abandoned the group of foolish youngsters they had specially recruited along the way on a tower upon entering the urban ruins, and given them a specially made "communication repeater" to significantly reduce the number of chimeras they might encounter by turning them into live bait, according to Liu Gang, the ancient device he called "Siren's Song" was only effective at attracting low-level chimeras lacking intelligence, but not so much for certain high-level chimeras and autonomous weapons. Therefore, he couldn't rule out that possibility.

"Captain, what should we do?" someone asked Moore.

"Don't make any rash moves! Don't fire unless attacked first," Moore ordered—though he was incredibly agitated and furious, he hadn't lost his basic judgment. Based on years of experience, he knew that when venturing deep into urban ruins, it was best not to provoke those strangely shaped autonomous weapons and automated devices, otherwise it could very likely lead to very…unpredictable consequences.

The two "V"-shaped shadows circled in the air and briefly disappeared into a large expanse of low-hanging gray-white clouds in the distance. However, just when Moore thought they would leave, one of the shadows flew back and skimmed low over the foredeck of the "Waves," causing a stir among the crew.

Then, something fell from there and landed on the teak deck with a thud.

"An armored warrior?!" This time, a hint of surprise finally flashed in Connie Moore's cruel black eyes: what landed before him was a young man completely encased in a fiery red, bodysuit-like intelligent combat armor. Based on his extensive experience, Moore immediately realized that this combat armor was definitely not one of those mass-produced items, but a super-quality piece that was one in a hundred.

In this era, armorers are a highly valuable asset, as only a select few possess the innate talent—usually inherited through bloodlines—to wield the power to control ancient and wondrous intelligent combat armor. Naturally, based on differences in talent level and the strength of the intelligent combat armor they can control, armorers are divided into several ranks. Currently, the mainstream classification system in the Pan-Pacific Empire categorizes armorers into five tiers, from lowest to highest: Emerald, Agate, Crystal, Lapis Lazuli, and Diamond. Each tier is named after the badge material obtained by armorers serving the official empire.

While this classification isn't perfectly precise, it's generally quite intuitive: the lowest-ranking "Jade" level armorers make up over 70% of all armorers and are considered "commonplace" within the armorer community. However, even these so-called "commonplace" armorers can possess an overwhelming advantage over even the most well-trained ordinary people. A single, ordinary "Jade" level armorer, after sufficient training, can fight against dozens of light infantrymen.

As for the mid-level "Agate" and the higher-level "Crystal" grades, they make up the vast majority of the remaining armorers. For many atoll city-states and inland colonies, even one armorer of this caliber is enough to be called a "treasure," and can even turn the tide of battle single-handedly in small-scale battles—which is why Moore was so wary of the armorers on that small sailing ship who might have reached the "Crystal" grade.

As for higher-level armored warriors, although they exist in theory, they are extremely rare and are like legendary figures to most people, not much different from "Jormungandr" in horror stories or disguise monsters. They account for less than one percent of the total number of armored warriors.

However… the boy before him, clad in red combat armor, was clearly a Master Armorer at least at the "Lapis Lazuli" level. What led Moore to this judgment was the "fairy" perched on his shoulder, a creature with two pairs of transparent wings and a height roughly the size of an adult's hand. While to an inexperienced person this "fairy" would likely appear as just a toy, Moore knew perfectly well that she was the symbol of the highest-level Master Armorer, a being referred to as a "Guardian Spirit" by a select few who understood the inner workings.

But why would such a high-ranking armored warrior suddenly come to his ship?

"May I ask your name?" Moore swallowed nervously. "As you can see, we are on an important mission. May I ask what brings you here?"

"What, can't I go back to our own ship? Or have my dearest brothers stopped welcoming me?" A familiar voice came from beneath the armored warrior's mask.