The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"Th-what is that?!"

Along with the muffled explosion came a tremor that ran along the hull of the "Guanghan Palace"—clearly, something had just violently shaken this ancient space brothel, and something of considerable magnitude.

"Hmm... I hope it wasn't some critical facility that just exploded," Fish muttered to himself. "I don't want any more complications."

"Well, now I have some good news and some bad news for you," Huang Yan said. "Which do you want to hear first?"

"Given my recent bad luck, I'd rather hear the good news first," Fish said, shrugging. "At least it'll lift my spirits a bit."

"Alright, based on my comprehensive analysis of the location of the explosion and the ship's vibration, I can conclude that the explosion did not destroy any critical equipment that might affect the basic functions of the 'Guanghan Palace'," Huang Yan said. "Therefore, the situation you were worried about did not occur."

"Phew...that's alright. So, what's the bad news?"

"The bad news also concerns the explosion: further analysis confirms that it originated from the docking point between the two spaceships. It appears to have been intentional. It seems someone is attempting to destroy the obstacle that's stuck there."

Is this bad news?

"Yes. Because I just recorded a slight ripple in the air. This indicates that the barrier separating the corridor has been destroyed, and the passage to the 'Pharsalus'-class planetary fortress has been opened—however, this was probably not done by our own people."

"Eh...that's true..." Reminded by Huang Yan, Fish finally realized what was going on: although Ange and the others had been safely transported into the ship, in just a few minutes, they probably wouldn't have had enough time to figure out the situation, let alone clear a passage between the two ships. "But if that's the case, then who could it be?"

"Have you forgotten that the 'Falsalus' class is essentially a military vessel?" Huang Yan asked. "Although the high degree of automation in military vessels at the end of the old civilization era meant that they required almost no crew. Many million-ton ships only needed fewer than ten people. However, 'some other things' were much more numerous."

"You mean the shipboard AI-controlled automated equipment, right?" Fish immediately guessed what Huang Yan was going to say.

"Yes. This includes automated defense robots, as well as makeshift maintenance, engineering, and service robots. They can perform their tasks even without crew, especially in emergencies," Huang Yan replied. "By the way, I detected footsteps; those guys should have already broken in."

"Hmm, so it's to seize control of the 'Moon Palace' and then try to prevent the planetary fortress from crashing, right?" Fish, who had accumulated a wealth of combat experience, easily guessed the other side's plan. "Damn, if that's the case, it saves us a lot of trouble. Can we just lie back and watch the show?"

"Probably not. After all, we are also very likely to be regarded as enemies by automated combat equipment that has activated emergency response procedures," Huang Yan said. "At least, I am certain that I do not have an identification code that the 'Falsalus'-level defense system can recognize."

"Holy crap, you can do that?!" Fish shuddered. At the same time, a dozen meters away, an airtight door was suddenly scalded through by a laser cutting torch.

Several guys who looked a lot like the T-600 robot from Terminator stormed in, carrying ridiculously large guns. One of them turned his skull-like metal head and stared intently at Fish with the red optical sensors in his eye sockets.

"Emergency! Unidentified creature detected. Conduct friend-or-foe identification."

As the metal "skull" began to yell in a shrill, emotionless synthetic voice, Huang Yan immediately took action: without Fish's orders, she transformed one of Fish's arm armors into a bulletproof shield, barely managing to block a beam of high-energy plasma fired by the enemy.

"Damn, is this how these guys do 'friend or foe identification'?" Although the attack was harmlessly blocked, the impact of the ion beam still forced Fish back two steps.

"That's right, all these military ships have this problem. They'll shoot first if they see someone they don't know," Huang Yan said. "That's why, under normal circumstances, their inspection and combat operations must be led by a natural person security officer."

"The problem is, there's no security officer here now," Fish muttered, then transformed the right arm of his combat armor into a short sword. Since the corridor he was in was quite long and narrow, turning around and running away would only make him an easy target for these skeletal combat robots. Therefore, based on his accumulated combat experience, Fish chose to take the initiative: he first pushed off the floor, leaping high into the air with the power of the Phoenix Flame, then kicked the ceiling hard, and finally jumped directly into the arms of his opponent, who was still frantically trying to aim at him.

"Take this!"

After shouting out the last words that the tyrant Caligula heard before his death with great vigor, Fish, like a brave Roman centurion, first used his bulletproof shield to deflect the heavy ion gun in the opponent's hand, and then plunged his single-molecule short sword, which could cut through iron like mud, into the guy's chest. Although the weaknesses of these humanoid robots do not overlap with those of real humans, Phoenix Flame had already located the location of their power supply modules through infrared sensors.

No matter how many twists and turns there are elsewhere, as long as you get through this place, the problem will naturally be solved.

The unfortunate defense robot stared at its pierced chest with its red "eyes," then triggered an automatic fault protection program due to the power supply interruption, shutting down all its functions—meaning that until it was replaced with a new power supply module, it could only serve as a pile of scrap metal for the time being.

However, even scrap metal is valuable to Fish: after the opponent stopped moving, Fish immediately used the power of Phoenix Flame to carry the thing and use it as a shield. The ion beams fired by the other two defense robots hit its body, melting a small part of their companion, but they did not cause any trouble for Fish.

"Hey, catch!"

After charging a few steps, Fish hurled the pile of scorching scrap metal at his opponent, and the second "mechanical skeleton" fell to the ground... and was immediately struck by a sword. The last opponent, however, was quite sensible, immediately putting away his heavy ion gun and transforming one of his arms into a blade-like form suitable for combat.

Unfortunately, while its decision wasn't wrong, it clearly misjudged the time it would take Fish to finish it off. Before the creature could even demonstrate its fighting skills, Fish had already cleanly and efficiently taken it down.

"Phew... these guys are a bit troublesome." Fish muttered after taking care of all his opponents.

"But it's only 'somewhat'—on the bright side, they're not even 'professionals'," Huang Yan said.

"What?"

"These things have very basic combat capabilities. If I'm not mistaken, they're actually utility robots, responsible for inspecting and maintaining the planetary fortress and doing odd jobs on the ship. Combat is just a secondary task," Huang Yan said. "So, even though they are real military robots, you can still take out these three in one go."

"Holy crap... these are just 'amateurs'?" Fish panicked slightly. Yes, he had indeed taken care of those few, but considering the size of that planetary fortress, there were definitely far more than just three robots charging into the "Moon Palace" from different directions! If they ran into their main force, the odds would be extremely slim!

"Well... on the bright side, at least we can hide for now." After thinking for a while, Fish dragged all three wrecked robots into a cabin on one side of the corridor to prevent them from being discovered by other robots of their kind that were coming to the scene. The cabin was dimly lit and crammed with several bunk beds, but apart from a metal cabinet embedded in the wall, there was hardly any decent furniture. It was unclear what the cabinet was for, but it was perfect for hiding these scrap metal.

"Hide?" Huang Yan asked. "But if I may be frank, I don't think we can hide safely for long."

"Anyway, this ship is a luxury cruise ship, so it probably doesn't have much defensive capability," Fish said, closing the door to the small cabin after stuffing the robot wreckage into the cabinets and under the bunk bed. "I reckon it won't be long before these guys who stormed in from the planetary fortress take control of the ship and try to prevent it from crashing to the moon—which aligns with our objective. Then we can try to infiltrate the planetary fortress and seize control. Besides, I think the others will probably do the same..."

"I'm afraid that's unlikely," Huang Yan said. "You know, a luxury cruise ship like the 'Guanghan Palace,' a 'million-dollar' vessel, doesn't accommodate ordinary people. Although I don't have the relevant information, based on basic common sense and logic, it's definitely not without defensive measures. Besides, don't forget, many signs indicate that our old friend, Dr. Iskander Lomonosov, is also nearby. Who knows what tricks he might play on us?"

"That's true..." Upon hearing the name of a certain archaeologist specializing in scientific research, Fish immediately tensed up. "So, do you have any suggestions?"

"Seize control of the 'Moon Palace' before those combat robots from the planetary fortress arrive—no matter what happened here before, as long as we can seize control, we can gain a certain degree of initiative."

"I like to be in control... but do you know how to get to the bridge?"

"I don't know, but it's not hard to solve," Huang Yan replied. "As long as I find any usable terminal that isn't physically isolated from the ship's systems, I can extract all the information on the ship for you in three minutes."

"Hopefully." Fish looked around and then cautiously began to advance deeper into the "Moon Palace." After turning several corners, he finally spotted a piece of equipment resembling a standard terminal at the entrance of a staircase adorned with ornate gilded decorations. However, just as he jogged over, preparing to have Phoenix Flame complete the connection process, a strange chill suddenly ran down his spine.

Fish's instincts had helped him many times in battle before. This time was no exception. Guided by pure instinct, he subconsciously looked up at one side of the corridor and noticed something unusual.

Unlike the relatively plain corridor with its simple light green paint that led to the emergency exit, the surroundings quickly transformed into the kind of decadent place that Fish would expect as he ventured deeper into the "Guanghan Palace": in addition to the intoxicating musky scent in the air becoming stronger, there were thick brocade carpets under Fish's feet, walls covered with dazzling and intricate Rococo reliefs, and many paintings of unknown meaning hanging on the walls.

In the corners of the corridor, there are imitation Collins-style marble columns everywhere, with sculptures of various materials placed on them. These sculptures range in style from realistic to abstract, and most of them depict beautiful women wearing very little or no clothing.

One of the lifelike painted sculptures just moved slightly.

No, that wasn't a sculpture at all! When Fish saw the girl pull a pistol with a laser sight from under her semi-transparent Grecian dress, he finally realized his mistake: his opponent had chosen an extremely unusual ambush method—instead of trying to hide, she stood brazenly in the most conspicuous position, taking advantage of Fish's blind spot to gain a crucial moment.

"Damn it—" Fish instinctively tried to react, but his tactical intuition told him it was too late: the two were within ten meters, and the laser sight projected from the lower barrel of the opponent's pistol was now aimed at the forehead area of ​​Fish's helmet. At this moment, he could only pray that Phoenix Flame's helmet would be able to withstand this shot, or that some other miracle would suddenly occur...

...and a miracle did indeed happen.

The next second, the girl in the semi-transparent dress suddenly bent into a sideways "V" shape, flying across the entire corridor before crashing heavily into a real brass statue. Her pistol flew out of her hand, spinning as it landed at Fish's feet.

"Wow, it's the 'Ripper' MK-9 special operations pistol, not bad," Huang Yan quickly identified the weapon's model. "It uses an upgraded electromagnetic accelerator to fire .45 caliber armor-piercing rounds with 3.5 grams of high explosive charge and artificial diamond caps. It was a very rare custom-made weapon used by the security personnel of the powerful and wealthy at the time. Within ten meters, it even has a high probability of penetrating my armor."

"Phew...that was close," Fish said, a bead of cold sweat trickling down his forehead—at the same time, gunfire erupted in other areas of the "Moon Palace." Clearly, Huang Yan's statement that "it's impossible to be completely defenseless" was true. "If..."

"Your Highness Fish, I've finally found you," a foot stepped on her back as the girl in the long dress tried to get up, forcing her to fall back down. "How did I do?"