The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"Huff... Huff... Meow..."

With his assault team forming a makeshift defensive line to seal off the entrance to the cave, hidden in an inconspicuous spot in the mountainside, Fish leaned against the concrete cave wall and began to pant—in fact, if Huang Yan hadn't injected him with a small amount of sedative earlier, he might have already vomited.

Previously, due to the "enthusiastic invitation" of Moon Butterfly and Frost Leaf, Fish was forced to force himself to join them in physically "overcoming fear." Of course, Ange, Xiaoxing, Mint, and even Luca herself, the main source of this fear, also joined the battle.

Fortunately, the battle went relatively smoothly without any major incidents: as an opponent who relied on stealth to achieve "first-meeting kills," the "Invisible Hands" were by no means easy enemies to defeat, but after their weaknesses were exploited and they were forced to reveal themselves, they were still no match for a group of the best armored warriors.

With everyone's cooperation, these guys were eventually caught one after another, their nervous systems were shredded, their central nervous systems were destroyed, and they were turned into piles of sticky, translucent remains that looked like jellyfish being pulled ashore.

After shaking off their attacks and entanglements, the commando team refocused their firepower and, under the cover of the flamethrowers of the "Red Cat" bandit gang commanded by Luca, carved a scorched road through the treacherous jungle, finally arriving at their destination: the entrance to the underground facility where the space teleportation device was located.

In short, the battle was quite satisfying in terms of its effectiveness... Unfortunately, it wasn't so good for Fish. Since his psychological aversion to slimy things wasn't, as Frostleaf mistakenly believed, a psychological trauma from being defeated by such monsters, no matter how hard he fought those slime-like creatures, he couldn't truly "overcome" his fear. Instead, he could only continue to be utterly disgusted.

That's why, after the last "invisible hand" that tried to harass them was dealt with, Fish's stomach was churning as if he had been thrown into a bucket full of sodium metal blocks.

"How was it? Was my support adequate?" Although the helmet and visor provided by Huang Yan effectively prevented Fish from being seen in an embarrassing situation by others, it also led everyone, including Shuang Ye, to mistakenly believe that Fish was perfectly fine. "Have you managed to overcome your fear even slightly?"

"Yes, yes!" Fish forced himself to say against his will.

"This is all thanks to me!" Yue Die said, quickly stepping forward. "I helped Prince Fish take down the most of those things just now."

"Really? I recall that I helped deal with a total of nine 'Invisible Hands,' and you only took down five... That's less than the seven Princess Ange killed. If you don't believe me, my intelligent combat armor recorded the entire battle." Shuangye replied immediately.

"That...that was clearly the result of your sneak attack while I was engaged in fierce combat with those things! This kind of deception and sneak attack is unsportsmanlike!" Moon Butterfly, who had just removed her helmet, immediately blushed and argued loudly—in the previous battle, these two rivals, like a certain elf and a certain dwarf outside the city of Minas Tirith, had engaged in a competition based on the number of enemy targets eliminated. However, Frostleaf was clearly the better fighter.

"I'm sorry, Lady Moon Butterfly, but war is war. There's no such thing as martial virtue when it comes to enemies, especially these soulless ones," Frost Leaf replied instantly. "Besides, at least twice, if I hadn't intervened, you probably wouldn't have been able to defeat your opponents, would you? In that case, our esteemed daughter of the Marquis of Ten Victories, bound up by a bunch of transparent tentacles and all sticky and wet, that wouldn't be a very... nice sight."

"Stop, let's not talk about this anymore!" Fish quickly waved his hand—not because he wanted to maintain the unity between Frostleaf and Moonbeam, but because Frostleaf's words had once again given him a rather unpleasant association.

After all, during the time he was happily raking in gold coins from Luca, he had to identify every single plant, animal, and algae that grew on the coral reefs near Oasis Harbor—plants, animals, and algae that were harmless to humans but secreted mucus. He didn't want to relive that memory a second time.

"Your Highness, the inventory of our personnel and equipment is complete." After Frostleaf and Moonbeam stopped their chattering, Ange approached Fish and said, "The assault team currently has 291 members. Apart from the 52 who evacuated with the transport airship that crashed, 158 assault team members went missing or were killed in the previous breakthrough operation—of course, if you include the crew of the aircraft that provided air cover, at least 72 are missing or killed."

"What about the remaining planes?"

"Since the airships responsible for the transport have already landed, and their range doesn't allow them to leave the Drifting Continent, I ordered Lieutenant Kokoro to lead the remaining aircraft to make an emergency landing nearby. We have recovered ten pilots, and the crew members from the landed airships have also come here with the assault team. Fourteen people died or went missing during the operation, leaving 192 people remaining."

"That means... there are nearly five hundred people here now," Fish nodded.

"Yes. In terms of weaponry, besides the equipment carried by the 32 armored warriors of various ranks, the rest of us have 90 pistols, about 160 rifles, and six heavy machine guns, as well as grenade launchers and light mortars for the fire support team. Ammunition is relatively plentiful, but unfortunately, the flamethrowers carried by Luca's men have run out of fuel by nearly 90%, and only a few are still usable. In addition, we have laid over a hundred anti-personnel mines in the jungle outside the cave entrance. Although they won't be of much use, they can at least cause some trouble for the pursuing enemy."

"Yeah, but it's just 'causing some trouble'." Fish shrugged—although they had indeed successfully defeated the enemy in the previous battle and fought their way here after landing, everyone knew that this was just a warm-up act for the whole show.

Indeed, thanks to the cover of the storm and clouds, and the lack of vigilance of the "Tai Sui" in this area, they did manage to catch the other side off guard and inflict a great blow on the "Tai Sui" host on the island. However, the problem is that for the "Tai Sui" which has already amassed a super army through "snowballing," this loss is nothing more than a drop in the ocean.

Anyone with even a slight understanding of these formidable adversaries would easily guess that it wouldn't be long before the controller of "Tai Sui," the "Grandmaster" released from the seal by Fish and the others, would realize the abnormality of the situation and, with cold, mechanical rationality, mobilize a force from the surrounding areas of the island, enough to surround and annihilate these attackers, and launch an attack on Drifting Continent.

In other words, if the attacker cannot complete the mission before it succeeds, there will be no chance afterward—after all, the only reason why "The Grandmaster" did not set up a tight defense on the Drifting Continent was simply because the information gap made it unaware of the value of this place before.

Once this is discovered, it will surely lay a tight net here, ensuring that no one will ever have the chance to set foot here again.

"Out of caution, I have rechecked the coordinates in the 'Akasha's Compendium' and confirmed that this is indeed our destination. According to the records available so far, the large-scale spatial teleportation equipment we need is on the third floor below this facility, less than 40 meters away from us as the crow flies."

"We can go down via the elevator or the stairs—of course, I suggest taking the stairs," Huang Yan continued. "The elevator may be damaged or tampered with by pre-set security programs. Taking the stairs is slightly safer."

"I agree." After suppressing another urge to vomit, Fish said, "In that case, in the name of Grand Duke Fayun and the commander-in-chief of this operation, I order the commencement of the third phase of the operation."

"Yes, ma'am." Moon Butterfly and Frost Leaf, who had already shown signs of fatigue and had just rested for a while, suddenly showed excitement again. Only Little Hsing, who was in the worst physical condition, looked a little tired, but she quickly stood up again.

"Are you alright? Do you want to rest a bit more?" Fish asked with concern.

"No need." Xiaoxing shook her head. "I... am fine. Besides, we can't wait any longer."

"Indeed." Fish took a deep breath—since, apart from the "Hand of Victory" and "Courage Forever" which had evacuated earlier, and the transport airship that had turned back due to a malfunction, all the airships that had landed on the island were now unable to take off again. Those who entered here could only execute Plan B, which was to hold their ground and wait for Fish's commando team to seize control of the "Falsalus"-class planetary fortress and end the battle completely.

Although the underground facility, located on a mountaintop with only one entrance, was extremely easy to defend and difficult to attack, allowing the commando team to hold it for an extended period despite being outnumbered, the team that arrived only carried a week's worth of supplies.

Considering that it accommodated approximately two hundred airship crews and airship-borne pilots, these supplies were only enough for four to five days. Their ammunition was also dwindling, and external aid and supplies were completely impossible to obtain.

Therefore, under the current circumstances, time is the most crucial resource. Every second that they can reach the ancient planetary fortress on the far side of the moon even sooner will greatly increase the chances of survival for those holding it there.

Even Fish himself didn't know exactly what the probability was.

After initiating the self-check program of the smart combat armor and conducting a double check on his current physical and equipment status, Fish led his companions into the depths of the dark concrete cave, eventually stopping in front of a sealed metal blast door.

Having previously trespassed into the ruins of the old civilization multiple times, Fish was extremely familiar with these heavy blast doors. Therefore, his first instinct was to locate the control panel next to the blast door…

...and then I discovered that it had already been taken apart.

"Someone was here before us," Huang Yan said. "They even managed to hack into the control panel to unlock the blast door—by the way, their methods were quite crude, causing a lot of damage. Of course, it's also possible that the intruder didn't care."

"Tsk... When did this happen?"

"No more than three weeks—this can be inferred from the degree of corrosion of metal components exposed to air," Huang Yan said. "In other words, it was probably shortly before the 'Tai Sui's' expansion fleet occupied the Drifting Continent."

"Damn... is that so?" Fish and his companions exchanged knowing glances—although signs of destruction and intrusion by scientific archaeologists and even treasure-hunting adventurers were common in the ruins of the old civilization era, it was almost impossible for anyone other than Iskandar Lomonosov to "coincidentally" arrive at this remote and obscure site at this particular time.

And this guy could very well do something pretty awful...

As the group ventured deeper into the ruins, their expressions grew increasingly serious. Just like the underground facility in the North Pole they had visited before, the access control systems along the way were being deactivated one by one. The security systems that had once protected against intruders were now shut down, and the automated equipment that had patrolled the passageways was damaged, lying on the ground as piles of scrap metal. In some places, there were even signs of gunfire.

"Compared to the situation in the Northwest Land last time, the battle here seems to have been much fiercer," Ange said after observing for a while. Her senses in this regard were always very sharp. "It seems that whoever came in, they must have encountered fierce resistance."

"Indeed," Fish agreed—after all, shortly after arriving at the second basement level, they discovered that the ground was almost entirely covered with all sorts of wreckage. The most numerous were multi-legged robots that looked like bacteriophages magnified millions of times. Their cylindrical "heads" were equipped with all sorts of weapons and equipment, from small-caliber electromagnetic guns to laser emitters to mini rocket launchers, a truly bizarre array that undoubtedly caused the attackers a great deal of trouble.

Of course, all of these defenders were eventually destroyed. However, judging from the density of firefight marks, which far exceeded those at the last site in the Northland Ruins, the attackers' victory was also quite difficult. On the second level alone, the number of wreckage exceeded three digits, and in some places, Fish and his group even found traces of dried, crimson blood.

"If it's Dr. Iskander Lomonosov who came in, that's a good thing," Moonbeam said, crouching down briefly beside the bloodstains. "Perhaps he's already been killed by the automated defense system? If so, it saves us a lot of trouble."

"I think it's best not to pin our hopes on the other party's mistakes," Shuangye said, shaking her horse's tail and pouring cold water on the other party's hopes. "Besides, I don't think that causing this little bit of bleeding is enough to kill someone."

“I think so too,” Fish said. Since their target wasn’t on the second floor, they briefly checked the “corpse-strewn” floor before continuing up the emergency staircase to the next floor.

The moment Fish pushed open the half-closed entrance door to the third floor, he saw a dazzling light suddenly approaching him.

The latest chapter of "《" has been updated. Come and follow the updates on Cola Novels!