The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"Hey, what do we do now?" As Ange transformed herself into a bipedal turret with a mountain of equipment, a bewildered Fish hurriedly asked Huang Yan in his mind, "These weapons of this young lady... uh... they're probably just intimidating to look at, right?"

"Please don't try to deceive yourself, Mr. Fish, it's a bad habit," Huang Yan replied coldly. "If you really want to know Miss Ange's strength, you can use my 'detection' and 'appraisal' functions directly. You don't need to ask me specifically like this."

"Uh..." Fish swallowed hard, then opened the menu and activated the two functions with a thought. Soon, a string of data appeared before his eyes.

Subject of identification: Anjie.

"Theoretical power of the intelligent combat armor: 4100 units (±80 units), strength level: four (lapis lazuli grade)."

"External weapon equipment 1: 'Clearer' 20mm six-barreled electromagnetic cannon, with a maximum rate of fire of 4800 rounds per minute. It can be equipped with armor-piercing rounds, high-explosive rounds, and other special ammunition. It poses a very high threat level."

"External Weapon Equipment 2: 'Moonshadow' Beam Saber, featuring a special armor-piercing enhancement design. Once activated, the confinement magnetic field can create a high-temperature ion blade of 7600 degrees Celsius near the blade, possessing extremely strong destructive power and a high level of threat."

"External weapon system 3: Two 'Hunter' shoulder cannons, firing high-energy plasma beams. The magnetic field guidance system allows for limited guidance after firing. The effective range is 1200 meters, and the penetration depth against homogeneous steel armor within the range is 750 mm. The level of threat is extremely high."

"External Weapon Equipment 4: Multi-functional backpack mini arsenal 'Pandora's Box', which can theoretically be equipped with a variety of weapons and tools. It has a scan-proof protective coating, but the specific contents and level of threat cannot be determined. Recommendation: Maintain the highest level of vigilance."

Overall threat level: Extremely high.

"Holy crap..." Fish was completely stunned. "This...is this the true strength of a great noble family? This firepower could easily take down a small warship, right?"

"That's right, which is why the 'Wave' didn't even dare to use its secondary guns and machine guns before, insisting on maintaining a distance of several kilometers to engage with its longest-range 105mm main guns. That's what it was wary of," Huang Yan replied. "Although I can guess that this kind of noble lady would have some high-end equipment inherited from her ancestors, her appearance is practically on par with the Yellow Warrior from the Twin Tail Squad... tsk tsk."

"Twin Tail Team? What's that?"

"Uh...that's not important. In short, the current situation is obviously unfavorable to us," Huang Yan said. "Although my theoretical output is far stronger than her golden glittering suit, considering the opponent's firepower advantage, I strongly advise against you going head-to-head with her."

"Do you even need to tell me?!" As Ange's three maids silently packed up the tables, chairs, parasols, and tea sets, they led Xiaoxing to the side. Ange also lowered the semi-transparent visor of her helmet and began to turn the six-barreled Gatling gun.

Seeing this, Fish immediately began to perform an "S" shaped maneuver—although no one had taught him, he instinctively knew that doing so would at least increase the difficulty for the opponent to aim.

"Excuse me, but for the sake of my honor, please accept this defeat honorably, Mr. Fish!"

"W-Who asks for help like this?! Meow—"

Amidst the barrage of bullets, Fish ran away, dropping several grape-sized spheres as he went: as a living organism, the syncytiotrophoblast formed by the genetically modified slime mold that constitutes Phoenix Flame is also constantly metabolizing. And some of the metabolic waste, after being collected and reused, is made into this special disposable equipment, just like squid use metabolic products to make ink.

As these spheres exploded one after another in the air, the area between the two was completely filled with a large patch of black ink.

"Ugh! Come out and fight me fair and square!" Ange shouted impatiently, suddenly losing her target. At the same time, she quickly adjusted the sensor modes of her combat armor, trying to locate her opponent... but all attempts failed. Visible light, thermal imaging, and radar were all powerless against this strange black mist.

Of course, this was entirely within Fish's expectations: while traveling in the Peregrine Falcon to find the Wave, he had already taken the time to carefully read through all of Phoenix Flame's currently available hidden abilities (of course, about a quarter of the parts were read aloud by Phoenix Flame for him). Among them, the "Aerosol Concealment Bomb" caught his attention.

Although the contents of these "ammunitions" appear to be just ordinary ink, upon contact with air, they form a dense, highly viscous aerosol with excellent heat absorption capabilities. Each black droplet suspended in the air contains a tiny phosphate crystal, forming countless micron-sized "corner reflectors" that can disable the high-precision detection radar that intelligent combat armor prides itself on.

Of course, these aerosols cannot remain suspended for long. Even if they are not dispersed by the wind, the droplets that make them up will evaporate within minutes due to excessive heat absorption or settle to the ground, thus limiting their usefulness in large-scale combat.

However, in a close-quarters duel, a few minutes is not a "short" time: after all, in the old civilization era, that amount of time would be enough to plant C4 several times in CS!

Therefore, when the vast black "veil" completely enveloped her, Ange immediately tensed up. However, she quickly suppressed her panic and activated another function of her intelligent combat armor, "Golden Soup": the enhanced acoustic monitoring system.

While even the lowest-grade "Jade" level armor for warriors can enhance the user's hearing to some extent, allowing them to hear subtle sounds that were previously inaudible, Ange's "Golden Soup" is different. Not long ago, she unexpectedly acquired a high-precision active/passive sonar device that was still functioning at a high price from the black market for relics from the old civilization era, and managed to integrate it into the "Golden Soup" system.

The moment the system was activated, the fire control computing unit of the combat armor immediately captured and identified a sound source coming from the ground and displayed the target's real-time location data.

"You think you'll be fine just because I can't see you? Hmph!" Ange sneered. It seems that the lowly, unclean creature is indeed no match for a noble like her. Even though he was lucky enough to possess the talent to use combat armor and actually obtained a powerful set of combat armor, he didn't realize that the sound of his footsteps would betray his location.

With the target locked, Ange activated the two "Hunter" cannons on her shoulders: of course, before firing, she deliberately adjusted the output of these two energy weapons to the minimum that they could not penetrate the smart combat armor—just like the machine gun shells she had just fired were all non-lethal rubber stun rounds, and their muzzle velocity was also deliberately reduced.

Although the honor of nobility is indeed invaluable, Ange also knows that she is currently in dire need of manpower while she is forced into exile. If she can obtain a powerful retainer, she may be able to increase her chances of making a comeback. Therefore, she plans to make this young man named Fish lose convincingly, and then give him a chance to serve her, the noble one.

"However, before I can have him serve me, I have to teach him the manners of a nobleman first," Ange muttered to herself as the shoulder cannon fired and two bright beams of ion disappeared into the dark "veil." "Serving under a nobleman of my extraordinary status requires absolutely impeccable manners."

"I agree!" Before Anjie could finish speaking, a bright red figure suddenly leaped out from her side—completely opposite to the direction of the footsteps that "Golden Soup" had detected earlier. Then, a fist slammed hard into the side of Anjie's head.

"Wow!"

Caught off guard, Ange instinctively crouched down to cover her head in defense, which inadvertently defused the attack: Fish's fist struck the round shield on the "Golden Soup" arm armor, causing no damage and making Fish wince in pain.

"Meow! This shield is way too hard! That's not fair!"

"You're being unfair!" Ange shouted, taking a few steps back. "I clearly locked onto your location! Why did you suddenly appear from somewhere like this?!"

"Guess?" Fish, whose attack had failed, had no intention of lingering with the young lady before him. He quickly retreated and withdrew back into the black "veil." To prevent the limited cover from dissipating too soon, he added a few more aerosol shield rounds.

"Damn it... I must have been flustered and misread the signal. I need to concentrate, concentrate, concentrate..." Ange muttered to herself as she restarted the sonar linked to her combat armor.

Soon, she detected another set of rhythmic footsteps. This time, to avoid missing her opponent while unable to aim accurately, Ange immediately unleashed a full-speed barrage with her electromagnetic cannon. In just two seconds, hundreds of rounds formed a wide fan shape, whistling into the smoke screen.

However, the red figure leaped out of the smokescreen once again from a completely different direction and launched a flying kick at Ange's neck. Fortunately, Ange, who was on guard, raised her shield at the last moment and managed to block the attack. But the force of the kick still sent her tumbling a distance, nearly causing her to lose her balance.

When she tried to retaliate again, Fish had already escaped into the darkness once more.

"Not bad, not bad, 95 points!" Although Fish's two attacks failed to have a decisive effect, Huang Yan still encouraged him in his ear, "That's it, well done!"

"Hey, you're actually encouraging me? That's rare," Fish said.

"I just don't like that young lady," Huang Yan replied. "What 'noble bloodline'? She's just an ancestor who was deliberately designed to be a gladiator-specialized subspecies. In the end, she's just a plaything of the old humans. Is she worth her acting so arrogantly?"

"A Gladiator-specialized subspecies?"

"That's right, those fox-type Newhumans—formerly known as the 'C-3X' series—were one of the three Gladiator-specific Newhuman lines produced at the end of the old civilization era. They were used by those low-class individuals for various bloody 'entertainment' projects, including live gladiatorial combat, beast fighting, and life-threatening wilderness survival and obstacle courses," Huang Yan said with a disdainful tone.

"That sounds impressive..." Fish said quietly.

"That's right, they, especially the female individuals, did have higher physical abilities and combat adaptability, but back then, most of these guys didn't even survive a month in the arena. They were purely a bunch of disposable high-level cannon fodder!"

"Uh... what about someone like me?" Fish suddenly became very curious.

"Your ancestors were Newtypes from the 'A-9' series. Their main selling points were their cute appearance and gentle, likable personality. They usually served as... no, I mean, as intimate companions to the old-type humans. Although they were generally lacking in combat ability, their status back then was much higher than those foxes who could only please people with violence and bloodshed."

"Hmm..." Although Huang Yan's words were clearly intended to belittle An Jie, Fish realized something else: if what Huang Yan said was true, then perhaps the reason why his kind faced discrimination in the Principality of Fayun, which inherited many ancient traditions, would not be hard to understand...

"Anyway, let's do it again! Today I'm going to beat that arrogant noble lady until she cries! I'll make her beg for mercy, kissing your heels!" Huang Yan continued. "Someone like her thinks she can make you, a user of top-tier intelligent combat armor, her 'vassal'? Dream on!"

While making these bold statements, Huang Yan was not idle: she once again sent a signal to the miniature sonar carried by An Jie, causing it to send the wrong location to "Golden Soup".

As specialized equipment, the armored warriors' combat armor, along with the external weapons specifically designed for it, cannot be manipulated by the abilities that Huang Yan plundered from the "Black Destroyer." However, before the battle began, Huang Yan astutely discovered that the sonar installed on the opponent's intelligent combat armor was a universal device that anyone could use.

In other words, this ancient device falls within the scope of her abilities to control!

Once this was confirmed, everything became much simpler: Huang Yan directly used the ability he had acquired from the "Black Destroyer" to bring the multi-functional sonar under his control, and then began sending false signals to it. Guided by the false signals, An Jie's actions naturally went completely wrong, plunging her into a seriously passive situation.

Having learned from the failures of the previous two operations, this time, Huang Yan did not choose to use a false signal. Instead, she made the sonar receive Fish's real footsteps and even deliberately made the sound signal clear! As she expected, the sonar's position immediately changed: after receiving the signal, Ange deliberately turned in the opposite direction and began to be on guard.

Clearly, after suffering two setbacks, this young lady had realized the acoustic detection equipment was malfunctioning and learned her lesson. However, this was exactly what Huang Yan wanted.

"Mr. Fish, be careful when you make your move," Huang Yan reminded Fish as he leaped up. "Although this young lady is annoying, she is still useful."

"I know, I'll be careful—meow!" Fish was about to reply when he was struck hard the moment he emerged from the black smoke. The excruciating pain nearly knocked him out.

Then, as he fell to the ground, a foot stepped on the back of his head.