The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"Looks like we've been outmaneuvered again." After glancing at their opponent, Huang Yan said in a low voice, "This guy, no, her boss probably anticipated we'd come here all along. That's why he's waiting here to ambush us. By the way, this guy has good taste; he actually chose a T-rex as his mount."

"What's that?" Fish asked.

"It's the quintessential Tyrannosaurus Rex, the pathetic creature most beloved by children of the old civilization era, famous for its tiny, short arms with only two fingers," Huang Yan muttered. "People in the past liked deformed bodies, like short arms, or huge breasts..."

"Is that why they used genetic engineering to create these dairy cows?" Alicia asked. Driven by a subtle female instinct, she, like Huang Yan, harbored an almost instinctive hostility towards Katarina's "broad-mindedness."

"What did you say?! As mammals, our instinct is to like big breasts! What do you mean by deformity?!" Katarina, who had just been so confident, couldn't sit still any longer and started shouting.

"But the problem is, those useless fats in the breasts have no direct relation to the need for breastfeeding," Huang Yan, despite being essentially a military AI, seemed to harbor a lot of hostility towards the cow because her personality was set as female. "Admit it, you and these dinosaurs are just pathetic failures created by those crazy people who messed around with genetics in the old civilization era."

"You... never mind, everything here is under my control anyway," Katarina quickly regained her composure after a brief moment of anger. At the same time, several more dinosaurs emerged from the jungle, none of them looking benevolent—and their riders were clearly no pushovers either. "Too bad, but it seems you're doomed."

"Tsk..." Although they had successfully humiliated the other party through verbal exchanges, Huang Yan could still see that the current situation was clearly unfavorable to them.

"But then again, it's actually a bit unexpected that you'd be here—Dr. Iskandar Lomonosov sent me here to organize defenses using control of the entertainment system, just to 'just in case' prevent anyone from entering the control room," Katarina continued to mutter to herself. "But I didn't expect you to actually have a way to get here."

"With information from the Joint Operations Headquarters and the 'Akasha Compendium,' finding a way here shouldn't be too difficult, right?" Huang Yan said. "But you, do you know what you're doing?"

"Oh, I know. I'm assisting the wise Dr. Iskandar Lomonosov in completing his grand plan." Katarina crossed her arms proudly, a gesture that only made her large bulges of fat appear even larger. "Currently, this grand plan is underway. And I will make sure it remains undisturbed."

"A grand plan? Do you know that the out-of-control 'Tai Sui' will continue to expand until it assimilates all living beings on Earth?!" Huang Yan questioned.

"I don't know. Because according to Dr. Iskander Lomonosov's research, what you said isn't entirely correct," Katrina replied. "In fact, 'Tai Sui' is much gentler than you imagine."

"gentle?"

“That’s right. Once all intelligent life on the planet enters a state of eternal and carefree slumber and becomes part of it, it will automatically stop operating,” Katarina said with a smile. “Therefore, the natural environment will not be severely eroded. In fact, after the original intelligent life is swallowed up, the planet will return to normal in a very short time. Of course, some non-intelligent life will also be devoured by the ‘Tai Sui,’ but the overall ecosystem will not be affected.”

"Holy crap—you call this 'gentle'?" Fish asked.

"Isn't that right? After becoming part of the 'Tai Sui,' those pathetic realities unique to intelligent beings came to an end." Katarina shrugged.

"What does this mean?!"

"After that, there will be no more people in this world who are ostracized and discriminated against, no more people who are treated like livestock because of their genes that they cannot choose, no more people who are wantonly bullied and deprived of everything, and no more people who are branded as livestock, tagged in the ears, and then resold like commodities. Everyone will happily return to the chaos of acting solely on instinct."

"That's complete nonsense!" Alicia exclaimed.

"Ha! What right does a rapidly cloned human with only a little over a year of actual lifespan have to judge whether I'm talking nonsense?" The cow sitting on the Tyrannosaurus Rex tilted its head and asked Alicia in a contemptuous tone, "How do you know that many people think that it might be better if they had never been born? And all the gentle 'Tai Sui' does is allow these people to return to the state of 'never being born' as they wish."

"But...uh...uh..."

Alicia wanted to say something more, but Fish patted her on the shoulder, indicating that she didn't need to say anything more.

Undoubtedly, Alicia, who knew little about this era and this world, couldn't comprehend Katarina's words. However, Fish had fully grasped the situation: after receiving his introductory education in the Fayun nobility from Mint, he also understood the dark history and current state of the Fayun Duchy—this country was originally one of the most discriminatory places under the Pan-Pacific Empire. Although the public aversion to so-called "unclean races" was already common knowledge, in some of its remote and expansive outskirts, the situation was far worse.

Due to historical reasons, the outskirts of the Duchy of Fayun are home to a wide variety of rare new human species, some of which are considered to have significant "economic value." While the Duchy of Timor, for example, keeps the little girls of the Sartre race in specific towns to produce high-grade fur, this is actually a relatively humane practice. However, in the Marquisate of Liuli, the situation is... not so good.

The Katarina race resides on this newly formed island nation after the end of the old civilization's era. During continuous marine expansion, the Kra Isthmus was submerged, turning what was once the southernmost tip of the Indochina Peninsula into an isolated island and a westernmost fiefdom of Fayun. According to Mint, due to their beautiful faces and the legend that their milk possesses some kind of "magical power," cow-like new humans like the Katarina have always been highly sought after in the human market. Although the Principality of Fayun has long prohibited such practices, it has never successfully eradicated the black market.

Although he didn't know the specifics of Katrina's past, Fish could easily guess what she had gone through before meeting Iskandar Lomonosov and being entrusted with such an important task. Of course, he also knew that resentful, suicidal hatred was the most difficult kind of negative emotion to resolve.

In other words, it's probably unlikely that you can persuade the other party.

"Of course, Dr. Iskandar Lomonosov said that since you're here, you can stay here—although according to our plan, the 'Moon Palace' and the planetary fortress it hits will crash on the moon. But if you don't cause trouble, I can leave you an escape pod. Then you can at least spend the rest of your lives in the ruins of the old civilization on the moon."

"I'm sorry, I have no such intention." Fish took a step back, activating Phoenix Flame's weapon system—although the situation now seemed extremely unfavorable. But he knew very well that he had no room for compromise. "Living my whole life in one-sixth gravity? That's absolutely terrifying torture. I'd rather try my luck."

"Well, unfortunately, your luck has probably already run out," Katarina waved her hand. "Take care of them."

Upon seeing her gesture, the two riders riding pseudo-Grossaurus immediately spurred their mounts towards Fish and his group. In the next second, the skull of one of the behemoths was pierced by a beam from a high-output ion gun, but the other's forepaws were already close to its target—unlike the pseudo-Carnotaurus used for escape, this behemoth had long, strong arms, each claw as sharp as a short dagger…

...but it is no match for a single-molecule blade.

Fish leaped back a step, and with two flashes of sword light, both of the pseudo-Giant Thief Dragon's claws were silently severed. However, in that instant, he forgot that his opponent had another weapon: a massive maw filled with fangs, its bite force no less than that of other giant beasts.

However, just as that mouth was about to bite him, something unexpected happened.

With several explosions and a deafening crash of falling debris, the pseudo-Grossaurus, along with its rider, fell into a large crater that had suddenly appeared in the ground, along with tens of tons of soil, metal, and vegetation.

Of course, due to their close proximity, Fish, Alicia, and Phoenix Flame's newly acquired "clones" were also caught in the fall. Fortunately, being smaller and more agile, they reacted more easily than the seven- or eight-meter-long behemoths during the descent—Fish used a portion of his intelligent combat armor as a grappling hook to throw it towards a tree at the edge of the crater. Using that as an anchor point, he carried the other two down to the ground below with relative ease.

"Phew... Luckily, this 'clone' is smaller," Huang Yan sighed after landing. "If it were still that blonde, big-breasted girl from before, it probably wouldn't be easy for you to carry both of us down at the same time."

"Watch out, it's not over yet." The instant she regained her footing, Fish raised her arm armor, barely blocking a thrust—although the two pseudo-Gross Raptors attacking them were either already dead or on their way to their deaths, their riders were perfectly fine. Although the fall had left them dazed and confused, thanks to their cheap-quality smart combat armor, they quickly leaped up and launched an attack…

...and then immediately suffered a fatal blow from behind.

"My lord!"

"Are you alright, Lord Fish?!"

After his two opponents were knocked down, Fish found Ange and Frostleaf standing in front of him. Both of their smart combat armor had sustained some damage, but it was clearly not serious enough to affect their combat effectiveness—the fact that they were still standing in front of him was the best proof of that.

"Phew... I didn't expect you guys to be down here. Not bad, the rescue operation was quite timely." Huang Yan's "clone" gave them a thumbs up.

Although somewhat surprised and uncertain, the two, who already fully understood Huang Yan's abilities, quickly realized in just a few seconds who this white-haired loli was. "It seems that going up from here isn't a good idea," Anjie looked up at the blasted hole and, unsurprisingly, found more than a dozen enormous predatory dinosaurs gathered there. "Please follow me, Your Highness."

"On this point, I agree with you." Fish nodded and immediately followed Ange and Shuangye into an open, airtight door. After everyone was inside, Ange activated the welding equipment that came with "Golden Soup" and quickly welded the airtight door behind her shut.

"Phew...that's good enough." After finishing her work, Anjie said, "Your Highness, everyone is here, and there were no casualties."

"Hmm... I can confirm that too." Fish glanced at the people standing or sitting in the corridor behind the airtight door—including Shana, the weakest in combat and most vulnerable. Everyone who had left Earth via the spatial teleportation device was now gathered here. Like Ange and Shuangye, although they looked somewhat disheveled and exhausted, no one had suffered injuries more serious than minor scrapes and bruises. The moment they saw Fish, everyone showed expressions of relief.

"Hehe, don't be like that. Do you really think I can't even handle this little test?" Fish joked deliberately to avoid making the atmosphere too awkward.

"Excuse my frankness, but I did suspect that worst-case scenario," Shana shrugged. "Your Highness, you probably have no idea how worried I was when I finally managed to hack into the ship's system, only to be unable to find any personnel signal matching your characteristics inside the ship."

"Well, because Mr. Fish unfortunately had to play the role of an astronaut at the beginning," Huang Yan explained. "As far as I know, this may be the first time in the past 999 years that someone has been active outside a spacecraft."

"However, if possible, I would never want to experience that again." Fish couldn't help but feel a little scared when he thought about the spectacular "barrage" of debris that formed in space when the two ships collided. "Once was enough."

After that, Fish spent two minutes briefly explaining his and Huang Yan's previous encounter, the current situation in the area, and why the others had been thrown into the "Guanghan Palace." After hearing this, Ange and the others showed expressions of relief, but also seemed even more uneasy.

"I knew it! Why did we get thrown into this jungle?" Moon Butterfly muttered. "At first, I thought the teleportation system had malfunctioned and sent us back to Drifting Continent."

"However, the situation is still very bad," Ange said. "Your Highness, you said we are falling towards the lunar surface? If so, how much time do we have left?"

"I'm afraid it's much less than you all imagine," Huang Yan said.

The latest chapter has ignited the plot! Stay tuned for more updates.