The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

The Final Odyssey: The Fantastic Adventures of a Cat Boy: Explosive word-of-mouth and rave reviews!

"Oh... this? You did a wonderful job, Miss Alicia," Fish paused for a moment, then quickly gave this unexpected reinforcement a thumbs up—he had originally thought that the first person to find him on the "Moon Palace" would be Xiaoxing, Ange, or even Shuangye or Yuedie. Unexpectedly, he encountered Alicia first. "When we get back, you'll definitely receive the recognition you deserve."

"Ah, thank you so much!" Alicia puffed out her chest proudly, like a kindergarten child who had just been praised by her teacher—after all, receiving praise and recognition from Fish was a very rare experience for her.

"Actually, I should be the one thanking you," Fish said, picking up the powerful custom-made pistol, turning off the laser sight, and tucking it into his belt. "To be honest, it was really dangerous just now."

"It's my honor to be able to help Your Highness." Alicia smiled even more brightly—after all, this was the first time she had such an opportunity since the death game in the Northland.

"So...where are the others? Where are they?" Fish looked behind Alicia for a while, but didn't see any of his other companions.

"I don't know about that." Alicia shrugged. "Actually, before I was teleported here, I felt... uh, something seemed to have gone wrong. The space we were in suddenly started shaking and spinning very violently, and then I passed out... When I woke up, I found myself lying on a thick carpet."

"Hmm, it seems that Huang Yan's previous instruction to Xiao Luo and Hua Sheng to change the teleportation coordinates of others caused this," Fish nodded. "But it's still not too bad."

"Is it alright?"

"That's right, it's much better than being thrown directly into outer space." Fish spread his hands, then spent about a minute explaining the purpose of Phoenix Flame's early teleportation to "scout ahead," and what had happened before. After hearing these words, Alicia trembled slightly—for someone like her who lacked the talent of an armored warrior and the protection of intelligent combat armor, being thrown into outer space was definitely no joke!

"Anyway, at least the others should be on the ships—maybe on the 'Moon Palace,' or maybe in that 'Pharsalus'-class planetary fortress. Our next step is to find them and stop those two ships from falling further to the lunar surface…wait a minute," after recounting what had happened, Fish suddenly noticed that Alicia's expression was a little off. "Are you feeling unwell?"

"The smell here is weird, and my head keeps spinning..." Alicia's cheeks were flushed, and her breathing was a little rapid. "My body feels hot. And... and... there are some strange sensations. I don't know..."

"Oh, right, take this." Fish immediately took out an Imperial Guard standard respirator from his backpack and handed it to Alicia. Although he didn't need it because of the Phoenix Flame protecting him, he and the other armored warriors each carried a set just in case.

This respirator is quite simple, consisting of a standard breathing mask and a filter box connected to the mask by a serpentine hose. The filter box contains an activated carbon tube and a reaction vessel whose main component is sodium peroxide. It can filter out impurities in the recirculated air and adsorb carbon dioxide to a limited extent to generate oxygen, thus sustaining breathing for several hours.

"Uh, this is..."

"The air here is full of weird drugs used by people from the old civilizations, so it's best not to breathe in them for too long," Fish said. "Otherwise, your physical and mental state might become...very problematic."

"They might even do shameful things due to hallucinations and mental instability," Huang Yan added, "just like those degenerate old humans back then."

"Ah...uh...uh...eh? Something...embarrassing?" Alicia blushed instantly, then quickly put on her breathing mask. Although she was created specifically as a Death Gladiator NPC, she had an extremely high tolerance for blood and violence. However, because she wasn't created for "that kind of need," she also possessed an excessively...innocent side. Even so, she still had some understanding of what the old humans had done in "that direction" back then.

"This is terrible. No matter how shameless and depraved those guys were in the past, they shouldn't have turned a perfectly good spaceship into a gas chamber." After making sure the breathing mask fit her face and opening the ventilation valve, Alicia took a deep breath. "This... it's beyond just being excessive!"

"To call this a 'gas chamber' wouldn't be quite right. After all, these compounds only have a certain hallucinogenic effect and enhance sexual desire," Huang Yan commented. "By the way, due to years of excessive drug abuse, people in the old civilization era are almost immune to this concentration of stuff, so it's nothing to them."

"This is absolutely terrible." Alicia shook her head. Just then, the girl who had cleverly disguised herself as a statue to ambush Fish in her semi-transparent Grecian dress regained consciousness and began trying to get up. So, Alicia simply grabbed her hair and pulled her up. "Hey, would you like to guide us? I'm really lost right now."

"Target identified, intruder," the girl's voice was alluring, but what came out was this depressing, dry statement: "Warning: The 'Moon Palace' is private property. Unauthorized intrusion is a serious crime. Please immediately surrender to the nearest judicial authority. Otherwise, according to the terms of the contract, this ship reserves the legal right to take lethal measures..."

"You can't get anything out of this kind of person," Huang Yan said. "She's similar to the 'Cain' twins that Mr. Fish encountered before... although her combat power isn't as exaggerated."

"Uh, you mean, cyborg assassins created from special clones?" Although only Fish and Ange had infiltrated the ruins beneath the "secret realm," they and Huang Yan later relayed what they had seen and heard to their companions, as well as several important figures such as the Duke of Penglai and Emperor Anthemius III. Therefore, Alicia was aware of this matter.

"Yes, this girl's original form is similar to yours, Alicia; she's also a specially designed and modified rapid clone," Huang Yan replied. "However, when she was being cultivated to maturity, she underwent semi-mechanical modifications, including enhancing her physical abilities through numerous implants and removing part of her brain tissue, replacing it with an organic computer structure. In essence, she's closer to a living robot driven by a read-only program. On ships like the 'Moon Palace,' they are used as reception staff... and guards in extreme situations."

"Looks like they did a good job," Fish said. At this moment, the sounds of gunfire still rang out all around, which at least indicated that the guards on the "Moon Palace" were reasonably capable of fighting, and had not been overwhelmed by the boarding enemy in a short time.

"So, interrogating her is useless—of course, the 'Moon Palace' should still have some crew members who haven't undergone this kind of modification, mainly used to provide 'that kind of service' to guests, and some of them are probably still in hibernation. However, their intelligence and knowledge are limited to their 'professional field,' and once they leave their rooms, they're no different from idiots. Therefore, even if we could find these people, it would be meaningless."

"Tsk... So we'll just have to kill her then?" Alicia glanced at her prisoner with some disappointment. The latter was still stupidly repeating nonsense like, "Illegal trespassing is a serious crime. Please go to the nearest judicial department to turn yourself in immediately."

"Not necessarily, I think... there's still a way." After Huang Yan finished speaking, Fish discovered that his right arm armor had suddenly "melted"—a large mass of the substance that made up Huang Yan fell down, sticking to the face of their captives like a predatory slime that likes to ambush in a fantasy story.

Although a significant portion of her body had been mechanical, the girl was still flesh and blood and needed to breathe. After her face was enveloped by a portion of the Phoenix Flame, she immediately began to struggle in pain. However, this portion of the Phoenix Flame quickly seeped into her skull, allowing her to breathe normally again.

"Eek!" Alicia exclaimed softly.

"Don't worry, Miss Alicia," after a short while, the girl in the semi-transparent dress suddenly opened her eyes and said in a low voice, "I can only hack into mechanical equipment. There's nothing to worry about with someone like you who, although a rapid clone, hasn't been modified."

“That’s right, I remember you did that before,” Fish said. During his first adventure in the Twilight City Ruins, Phoenix Flame, after losing his fairy-like biological terminal, managed to forcibly capture a cyborg girl warrior in the Death Arena known as the “Killing Factory” to use as his temporary body.

After that adventure, the "avatar" that Huang Yan acquired was disguised as An Jie and resided in the Camphor Leaf Palace of the Penglai Duchy, creating the illusion that An Jie had never left the Fayun Duchy to deceive the spies of various forces. Only after the Timor Island incident ended and Fish became the Grand Duke of Fayun did this living "doll" cease its disguise and, along with the girls brought back from the Zhongbei Land, was incorporated into Yue Die's commando team…

Unfortunately, during the ground battle on the Drifting Continent, she was one of the victims in the fight against "Tai Sui" and failed to reach her destination.

"Not bad, not bad at all. Much better than the bodies I got before." After standing up, the girl, now under Huang Yan's control, muttered, "It's just that this outfit is a bit embarrassing... but it doesn't matter, we're all old acquaintances anyway."

"Um... do we still need to connect to the terminal?" Fish asked.

"No need. We're lucky; this guy is not only a service staff member and guard, but also a captain. We've already extracted plenty of information from her," Huang Yan replied. "In fact, based on the information I just learned, it would be very dangerous for us to force our way into the terminal as originally planned."

"Eh?"

"This ship was used to house the elite elites in the past, so its security measures are more extensive than I imagined," Huang Yan snorted, sounding half relieved and half displeased. "With my abilities, if I were to forcibly access the system here, I would most likely be detected by the security system in a short time. Although I have a way to escape, we would likely be marked as 'primary enemies' by the defense system, which would be difficult to handle."

"That's true..."

"Fortunately, the information in this young lady's head is enough for us," Huang Yan smiled and raised a hand to tap the girl's temple. "Since the database mainly stores information related to military and scientific research facilities from the old civilization era, the Joint Operations Headquarters is not clear about the status of the 'Guanghan Palace,' only recording its basic registration information. But now, I have the necessary data."

"Oh?"

"This ship weighs 8 tons, about half the weight of a 'Pharsalus'-class planetary fortress. Although it's a yacht, it's secretly equipped with a small number of military-grade shipborne defensive weapons, including 'Leopold'-type 16-cell multi-functional missile launchers and eight 'Eagle Eye' point defense laser systems," Huang Yan said. "The ship's rated crew size is 3200, more than a hundred times that of a typical transport ship of similar tonnage—needless to say, 97% of them are various service personnel."

"I know, after all, those guys are after the 'service'." Fish shrugged.

"By the way, when it was sealed off at the end of the old civilization era, there were about 2900 people on board. Apart from a dozen or so genuine human crew members who chose to evacuate, the rest were cryogenically frozen as 'property.' Although there were some unexpected losses, about 2700 people were still awakened after the impact an hour ago," Huang Yan continued. "Nearly half of them were individuals who also served as guards, like the one we encountered. They were quite armed... even possessing some heavy weapons."

"Oh, great," Fish muttered. "Twice the number of troops I brought to the Driftlands."

"Furthermore, I obtained the complete internal structural diagrams of this ship—it's divided into the engine and control area, the observation deck area, the regular leisure and entertainment area, and the 'special games area,'" Huang Yan continued to explain. "Well, the last area takes up almost half the space. Should I say this really is a decadent and depraved ship?"

“We’re not interested in ‘special games’,” Fish said. “What about the others?”

"Location unknown. But the squad leader received multiple intrusion alerts in the preceding minutes, most of which were located at the junction after the collision of the two ships, likely caused by the breach of combat robots within the planetary fortress... However, there are also several located in the 'Special Game Zone' deep within the 'Moon Palace,' areas that are almost impossible to be breached from the outside in the first instance..."

"In that case, Anjie and the others should be in that area."

"Yes. But there's one more thing," Huang Yan added as he set off to lead Fish and Alicia, "deep within the 'Special Games Zone,' there seems to be something... very interesting. I suggest you definitely take a look."