The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

Author Sokhov personally recommends: I hope you enjoy the story of "The Last Odyssey: The Fantastic Adventures of a Cat Boy".

silence.

This was the only reaction in the conference room after Anthemius III finished recounting the devastating news in a trembling voice: That's right, because of Huang Yan's estimation, Fish and the others already knew that the military power of this era alone could not defeat the "Tai Sui" who was continuously implementing the "snowball" tactic.

However, knowing at the strategic level that victory is impossible is one thing, but actually learning the horrific outcome of the battle, learning that more than 20,000 people became numbers on the list of casualties and missing persons overnight, is quite another.

Even more critically, this exchange ratio also meant that the fleet of the Pan-Pacific Empire could not even delay the spread of "Tai Sui".

"We have already prepared a backup plan. The Imperial Guard, fleets from allied nations, and the remaining fleets from other vassal states that were not immediately deployed are currently assembling—the total number of ships is twice that of the mixed fleet that went out to attack before, but there are relatively few capital ships, only fourteen battleships, and most of them are old ships," Anthemius III continued when no one spoke, "this force can be used for one last naval battle... but only once..."

"And there's no way we can win." Fish said what he wanted to say for him.

"The imperial officers and soldiers will do their utmost," the emperor could only say.

No one answered, but everyone knew that the current situation was definitely not something that could be solved by "maximum effort"—with the "Grandmaster" in command and without the upper limit of computing power and command and control ability, the "Tai Sui" infection would begin to expand exponentially until it became completely unstoppable if it was not controlled immediately.

This also means that although the second fleet that has been assembled is larger in scale, if it were to engage in a major battle with the enemy, the outcome would only be worse than that of the first fleet that was just defeated.

"Um... can I talk about 'that thing' now?" After observing the reactions of everyone around him, Fish switched to the armored warrior's communication channel and asked Phoenix Flame directly in his mind.

"Yes. At least for now, the probability that Anthemius III will accept your suggestion is close to one hundred percent," Huang Yan replied.

"That's good." Fish took a deep breath. "Your Majesty, in fact, I... have prepared a plan to deal with the current situation. However, this strategy may not necessarily work, and its risks are also..."

"To hell with the risks." The emperor himself, without realizing it, uttered words that were very unbecoming of noble etiquette. "Even the greatest risks and the smallest opportunities are better than this hopeless and dire situation."

"So, my plan is to launch a small-scale counter-offensive ten days from now, using the existing forces."

"A counterattack?! With our current remaining forces and dire situation?" Anthemius III paused for a moment. "Hmm... well, since you've made this suggestion, I at least need to know where you intend to counterattack?"

"The Drifting Continent... is the large island that was called Bougainville in the old civilization era, a small group of islands that remained after the sea level rose. Unfortunately, it was recently occupied by the 'Tai Sui'."

"That godforsaken place? I remember it belongs to the Duchy of Irian, but even they don't care... no, they don't like it there," the emperor thought for a moment. "It's a very desolate place and not suitable for living. There are also ghost stories about people who mysteriously disappear when they go deep into the archipelago. The Irians only stationed a few outposts before the war, and the permanent population seems to be pitifully small."

“I know all this, Your Majesty,” Fish said.

"Then why do you want to counterattack that place? It's not a strategic location, nor does it have any key resources or other significant meaning..."

"Because, under the current circumstances, we have no possibility of reversing the situation using existing conventional military means," Fish said. "Even if it was possible at the beginning, that possibility disappeared when the main force of the Imperial Guard's First Brigade fell into enemy hands and we were unable to stop the actions of the 'Tai Sui' within the 'Secret Realm'—according to records left by the old civilization era, the 'Tomb Master' would command the 'Tai Sui' to devour every intelligent being in this world, incorporate them into the same control network, and completely change the biosphere itself."

"Iskander Lomonosov..." Anthemius III uttered the name again with hatred and anger, clearly still resentful of being misled and deceived. "What on earth was he planning to do, to go to such lengths to deceive us and unleash such a scourge?"

"We can't be completely sure about this yet," Ange said. "But what is certain is that since the combined conventional military forces of the Empire, and even other countries in the world, cannot defeat 'Tai Sui,' we can only turn to the power of the old civilization era."

“‘The Akasha Compendium’…I seem to have heard that name somewhere before…” Anthemius III murmured.

"This is actually a very special kind of software, with permissions sufficient to connect to the ruins and sites of various ancient civilizations and query their registry. Therefore, it can locate the position of most technological devices from ancient civilizations in real time and provide their latest status information," Fish said. "Through it, I can freely access a lot of information that even the best technological archaeologists of this era cannot obtain."

"In fact, it was a very dangerous time when we obtained it," Ange said. "The Regency Council, which controlled the Duchy of Fayun at the time, also hired a gang of explorers to search for the 'Akasha Compendium.' In order to safely enter the depths of the ruins of Twilight City, they even used a large number of tricked young people as bait to lure the autonomous weapons and chimeras wandering in the city—His Highness was among them. In the end, we had to find a way to defeat those ruthless guys before we could get the 'Akasha Compendium.'"

"The Regency Council of Fayun... if they hired the War Gang, then this matter was probably Dr. Iskander Lomonosov's idea," the Emperor nodded. "After all, General Rissimer is nothing more than a pathetic wretch who climbed up the ranks by relying on family background and currying favor with the powerful, with no opinions of his own and no virtue to deserve his position. The real decision-maker of the council is my 'advisor'."

"This shows that the 'Akasha Compendium' must have been of great value to Iskander Lomonosov as well—fortunately, it ended up in our hands," Fish said. "And now, thanks to it, we have discovered some very crucial information."

"What is it?"

"Location of the teleportation facility to the Earth-Moon Lagrange point."

"And then...?" Anthemius III clearly couldn't understand the word at first.

"In short, you should know about teleportation technology—it was a byproduct of scientists in the old civilization's research into faster-than-light travel. It was widely used in the late old civilization to transport items over certain distances," Fish said. "Such technological devices can be found in many ruins. Some of the most powerful ones could even send people and supplies to specific locations tens of thousands of kilometers away."

It was used by people in the past as a "railway elevator."

"Yes, Dr. Iskandar Lomonosov mentioned such technology to me. But what are you going to do leaving Earth?"

"We need to find a weapon that can stop the rampant spread of 'Tai Sui'," Fish replied, "which means a weapon that can create 'Secret Realms'."

"Wait, you're saying the 'secret realm' was created by weapons? In the past, the Empire's geologists always thought those black glass plains were created by volcanic activity... No, with the technology of the old civilization, it might actually have been possible to do that..."

"Indeed, I can guarantee that." Shana, a genuine citizen of the old civilization era, raised one hand. "The main guns of the 'Sunset' class space dreadnought and the main guns of the 'Falsalus' class planetary fortress can cause this level of destruction when firing at full power."

The emperor's image suddenly disappeared for a moment; clearly, he had temporarily moved away from directly in front of the projector, most likely to be discussing matters with his military advisors and staff of the Imperial Army's General Staff. A few minutes later, that aged face reappeared before everyone. "Are you sure about what I just said?"

“That’s absolutely guaranteed,” Fish said. “The ‘Secret Realm’ is almost certainly the result of a bombing of a ‘Pharsalus’-class planetary fortress—its purpose was most likely to completely seal off the underground facility where the ‘Gravemaster’ was hidden, and to ensure that even if the ‘Gravemaster’ could come out, it would not be able to find a large number of creatures that could be infected immediately.”

"Of course, all these precautions were breached by Iskander Lomonosov," Ange added unhappily.

"Considering that the records show the 'Pharsalus'-class planetary fortresses were all destroyed in the war at the end of the old civilization era, we can conclude that the 'heroes' who were the ancestors of the Lyndenhild family must have secretly kept at least one of them and held control of it to guard against unforeseen events. After confirming this, we tried using the code from the 'Akasha Compendium' to send an identification code to the Earth-Moon system space outside the atmosphere, and we received a reply."

"Oh?"

"There's something at the Lagrange point on the far side of the moon—the farthest Lagrange point that can't be directly observed from Earth," Fish said. "Although its details are encrypted, it's not hard to guess what it is."

"I understand. In other words, you must launch a forced attack on the former Bougainville Island, now the Drifting Islands… seize its ruins, and then attempt to capture the 'Pharsalus'-class planetary fortress to reverse the situation." After saying this, Antemius III disappeared from the image for nearly two minutes. When he reappeared, his expression had improved considerably. "My advisors and strategists believe that this is theoretically feasible. The Empire will do everything in its power to support you. If you require the assistance of the Royal Guard…"

"Given the current situation, given the extreme disparity in strength between the enemy and ourselves, the best course of action is for a small, reliable elite force to launch a surprise attack—Angie and I will personally lead the team," Fish said. "Deploying a large force could very well alert the 'Tai Sui' side, thus reducing the success rate. Of course, we hope that the Imperial Navy can launch a diversionary attack on the 'Tai Sui's' vanguard south of Luzon after the operation begins, drawing the enemy's attention."

"No problem, the General Staff will begin formulating the corresponding plan immediately," Anthemius III nodded. "May the spirits of your heroic ancestors protect you and grant you victory."

"I think so too." Fish nodded, and then the Emperor of the Pan-Pacific Empire shut down the communications.

"Well then, that's settled." After taking a deep breath, Fish turned his gaze to his companions in the conference room. "To be honest, the situation is worse than we imagined, but thankfully it's not beyond repair yet. However, I'm afraid this operation will be extremely dangerous... If anyone wants to back out, please raise your hand now."

No one raised their hand; everyone looked at Fish with calm and trusting eyes—including Shana, who was not usually considered a major fighting force.

"All right."

Fish didn't say anything more—in fact, he had only asked the question of whether to withdraw out of habit. At this point, everyone knew that this adventure to the Drifting Continent was very likely the world's last chance. If they failed, no one would escape. They had nowhere to hide, nowhere to run.

In a sense, even dying in the course of an adventure is better than staying behind to face despair.

And everyone present knew this.

"Based on my suggestion, an operation of this scale should be divided into two phases," Huang Yan said. "First, after the joint fleet of various countries begins its diversionary attack, we will land on the island where the destination is located. In this phase, we may face the 'Tai Sui' guard force on the island. Since the success of the operation depends on stealth and surprise, the landing personnel should be around two hundred people, and a limited amount of heavy equipment can be deployed as appropriate to provide fire support."

"So, the next stage is entering the planetary fortress..."

"Yes. Since the target is located at the farthest Lagrange point on the far side of the moon, the energy consumption of space teleportation increases significantly with the teleportation distance. In my estimation, the facility's energy can only teleport a maximum of five to ten people," Huang Yan continued.

"Is that all?"

"Very likely. Therefore, I suggest that you and your most trusted companion carry out the final assault, while the rest of you stay around the occupied Old Civilization Era facilities to form a defensive line and buy time."

"We happen to have five to ten people here," Ange said. "Your Highness, Mint and I are all high-level armored warriors with considerable combat power. Although Xiaoxing and Shuangye are slightly weaker in absolute strength, they make up for it with targeted special abilities and rich combat experience."

"Indeed." Fish nodded.

"In addition, Yue Die is also on her way to support our country by commanding the fleet of the Tokatsu Kingdom. Although neither Shuang Ye nor I like her, I think she can still be of some use in this operation."

"If needed, a few of us can help." Alicia raised a hand. "Although I can't use intelligent combat armor, this body of mine was designed for gladiators by people from the old civilization era, so it's quite sturdy."

"I... am very familiar with the technology and equipment of the old civilization era," Shana continued. Finally, the taciturn Melu patted her almost ever-present hunting rifle—after switching to anti-armor ammunition and aiming equipment specially made in the late old civilization era, she was now fully capable of taking down most high-level armored warriors through ambushes. Of course, other enemies were no match for her either.

"Count me in if you don't mind." Luca was the last to raise her hand. "Although I don't have any special abilities, it would be a lot of fun to go on the biggest adventure of my life with Little Fish. At least, I can promise I won't hold everyone back."

"Of course." Anjie shrugged indifferently.

"Very well. Well then, we still need to do some final preparations," Huang Yan said. "If no one has any objections, I suggest we begin now."

This isn't a no-go, it's a recommendation for the treasure book "The Final Odyssey: The Fantastic Adventures of a Cat Boy":