The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"Princess Anjie... uh, Lieutenant Anjie, do you think that person was just drunk and talking nonsense?"

After Anjie meticulously wrote down every word of the other person's speech in her notebook with penmanship so beautiful it could be displayed as a work of calligraphy, Xiaoxing, who was squatting next to her, leaned close to Anjie's ear and whispered something.

Although she had been listening intently, Xiaoxing immediately showed a cautious and suspicious expression after the down-and-out man in a dirty robe, with one of his two ram horns missing from his forehead, finished telling the story.

"I understand your thoughts," Anjie patted Xiaoxing on the shoulder—she knew very well that the girl had a serious psychological trauma related to lies because her family business had been taken away by fraud, forcing her to risk joining the Zhan Gang organization to make a living. "However, I think this gentleman's words have a certain degree of credibility."

"No, that's right! I swear everything I just said is true! I'd rather slit my own throat than lie to an honest person like me!"

"Yes, yes, I believe you." Ange nodded to Mint, who immediately took out another small bottle of sake from her backpack and handed it to her.

When leaving the Kingdom of Penglai, Anjie sent her maids to purchase a large quantity of cigars, fine sake, canned fruit, and chocolates with public funds. In her daily life, in order to maintain her health, she not only never touched tobacco or alcohol, but also rarely ate any sweets to prevent her figure from becoming out of shape.

At first, Fish found it quite strange that she was buying these things, but it turned out that they were very effective at "dredging" and "lubricating" along the way—as was the case with this scruffy guy. According to others, he was the sole survivor of a hunting camp.

However, perhaps due to lingering psychological trauma, he was initially unwilling to speak... until Ange gave him a bottle of sake.

After using a large amount of ethanol to numb his parasympathetic nervous system, the slovenly man with a flushed face finally overcame his psychological trauma and began to tell his story.

According to the disheveled man, he came from South Anadel-9 Colony. This area is adjacent to South Anadel-11 Colony, which was the first to "disappear," and is even closer to the ancient "containment facility" that Huang Yan discovered through the "Akasha Encyclopedia," which had been disturbed not long ago.

Of course, this unfortunate man knew nothing about the ancient facility hidden underground, or any other information related to the old civilization era. He also had no idea what had happened to the colony that had initially "disappeared." However, about three days before the official announcement that the South Anadel-11 colony had lost contact, he encountered an accident.

At that time, he and ten other villagers ventured into the depths of a remote forest, intending to hunt some valuable prey and gather some high-value medicinal herbs—especially hallucinogenic mushrooms that could fetch a good price on the black market—as autumn was just beginning.

Unfortunately, their initial efforts were not smooth: while the gathering of herbs and mushrooms proceeded relatively normally, the forest became unusually quiet during that period. Animals were scarce, and even the appearances of dangerous chimeras and ferocious animals like brown bears became much less frequent.

While this tranquility was certainly a good thing for ordinary travelers venturing into the forest, greatly benefiting their safety, it meant a shortage of prey for the hunters. Therefore, the group could only grumble as they continued deeper into the forest.

Despite decades of development and immigration, many areas in the North Pole remain sparsely populated, especially forests and swamps. Many deep forests, untouched for years, are theoretically the areas with the most abundant prey.

Of course, the enemy might also present a large number of poisonous insects, wild beasts, and dangerous chimeras, but this hunting party possessed more than ten rifles and several shotguns, along with thousands of rounds of ammunition. Technically speaking, as long as they didn't encounter bandits hiding in the forest, they had almost nothing to worry about in the natural world.

But they never expected that danger would come in a different way.

On their first day deep in the forest, the group didn't rush into a killing spree. Instead, they skillfully cleared a clearing to serve as their hunting camp. That evening, they leveled the ground, erected a wooden fence, and set up tents and huts for roasting their game. Then, someone found the place.

"That's the jinx!" the disheveled man emphasized, spitting as he recounted the story. "I know!"

"Wait, does that person have any mutations? For example, deformed, weaponized limbs, or appendages that look like swords or something..."

"Of course not! You're talking about characteristics only found on creatures infested by 'Tai Sui,' right?" Although the disheveled man looked down on his luck, he clearly possessed considerable knowledge in the field. "Recently, I've heard a lot of people spouting nonsense, saying that monsters are attacking people, causing this chaos—but I immediately understood they were talking about 'Tai Sui.' Those things aren't common, but they're not a big deal at all. Only ignorant fools would think the army ordered the evacuation of colonies because of these things."

"So what exactly happened to you? And what is this 'jinx'?"

"You probably know this too, right? In the wilderness of the North End, there are many ancient facilities left over from the old civilization era. Just like those ancient city ruins, dangerous chimeras and autonomous weapons roam inside and even around these facilities." The slovenly man took a few more gulps of wine as he spoke, as if only in this way could he muster the courage in his body to continue speaking.

“We know all that,” Fish said. “So what?”

"It is said that 'disaster stars' are some people... or more precisely, some very special people. They are different from us, without animal ears, tails, horns, sharp canines, or other wild animal features. They are pure, old humans."

"The old humans disappeared long ago!" Ange shook her head and said, "A long time ago, they were defeated by the rebels led by the 'Three Heroes.' They were either wiped out or escaped to distant space and never appeared again."

“Yes, I know what the official history books say,” the disheveled man said. “However, in the North, there’s a legend about a ‘disaster star.’ It’s said that the ‘disaster star’ would fall to Earth on a meteorite. People would then emerge from inside the meteorite. They were usually just children, and seemed harmless. But…”

"But what?"

"But...but..." The disheveled man began to tremble again. Clearly, the horrific scene had given him what is commonly known as post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. After downing a large amount of sake, he was finally able to speak fluently.

"...However, along with the 'calamity' come terrifying chimeras and autonomous weapons," the man said. "It is said that when a 'calamity' appears in a place, chimeras and autonomous weapons within a radius of several hundred kilometers will gradually converge on that place and then attack and eliminate anyone they encounter."

"Wait, aren't these things usually kept in place and didn't wander off?" Ange asked. "Ah... of course, the old civilization also created devices like 'Siren's Song' to attract chimeras, but those were only used in gladiatorial combat and hunting, their effective range wasn't very long, and they only affected chimeras..."

"But that's what the legend says," the man, his face already slurred with drunkenness, scratched his face, which was wrapped in dirty bandages, and began to tremble again. "Of course, this legend has been around for thirty or forty years. At that time, some immigrant groups planned to go all the way north, along the Kolyma River, to the vicinity of the Arctic Circle to establish settlements. As a result, their new settlements disappeared completely in less than a year."

"Is that so?"

"The official explanation at the time was that although the temperature was much higher than in the past, the areas too far north were still not suitable for large-scale farming, so those who went to explore went bankrupt and returned home... However, after that, almost no one saw those who went to explore. People said that they encountered a 'jinx' and were then wiped out by autonomous weapons and chimeras."

"Well……"

"Of course, until that day, I couldn't believe it. I thought it was just the nonsense of people who had eaten too many magic mushrooms in the forest. But that night... I really saw that girl," the disheveled man, despite having consumed a large amount of alcohol, was still terrified. "She... she... was only wearing a set of underwear that barely covered her chest and breasts, so I could see very clearly that she had absolutely no characteristics of a new human!"

"Hmm..." Ange immediately wrote down what she said. "And then?"

"That girl, that 'jinx,' was wandering around the forest and quietly approached our hunting camp. As she got close, I spotted her while on lookout duty and fired a shot in her direction."

"You just randomly shot at a girl you didn't even know?" Frostleaf, brimming with a sense of justice, glared at the slovenly man with the look of utter contempt. "Even if there's some kind of 'jinx' legend, you can't just do this, can you?"

"I... I aimed at the top of that girl's head, just to intimidate her and warn my companions!" The slovenly man was even more frightened after being glared at by Frostleaf. "After all, anyone who hunts in the forest regularly knows that people who wander around at night are usually not good people."

"Did you hurt her?"

"Of course, I was using shotgun shells for shooting birds, so a few iron pellets did hit her." The slovenly man avoided Frostleaf's gaze.

"and then?"

"Well, the girl is alright. At least those bird-shooting pellets aren't very dangerous to humans," the slovenly man shrugged. "However, after being hit, she tried to run away and tripped over a tree root, knocking herself unconscious."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, so we carried her back to camp to find out her identity. At the time, several people thought she was a 'jinx' and told us to run, but I refused to believe them," the scruffy man shuddered. "Shortly after that, a huge horde of chimeras and autonomous weapons attacked our camp and killed everyone. It was a really huge horde, hundreds of them! Some of the autonomous weapons could even talk!"

"say?"

"That's right, it seems to say something about 'upon discovering a threat to humanity, take immediate and decisive measures to eliminate it.' What the hell! Don't these things know they're attacking humans?!"

"So how did you survive?" Ange asked.

"I... I happened to be relieving myself on the edge of the camp, far from the others. When the chimeras and autonomous weapons suddenly rushed in, I wasn't attacked immediately. Then I took advantage of the chaos to escape." The disheveled man sighed. "On my way back to the village, I also discovered the camps of two other hunting parties. They were all killed like my companions."

"That's terrifying," Ange commented.

"After that, I tried to explain the encounter with the 'jinx' to the villagers, but they were all skeptical. The village chief finally agreed to contact the garrison patrol to search for the 'jinx' in the forest, but shortly after the report was submitted, we heard that one of the settlements had completely lost contact with the outside world." The disheveled man sighed deeply. "Then, the evacuation order came down."

"So you evacuated the village, preparing to leave the Zhongbei region?"

"Yeah, but who knows what those officials are thinking? We finally managed to get here, only to be told that everyone leaving has to be checked!" The disheveled man subconsciously touched his broken corner. "Because there are so many people, and only a limited number of people can be checked each day. So only by giving bribes to the checkpoint staff can we get priority for inspection... The rest of us can only stay here and can't go anywhere."

"Thank you for the news," Ange winked at Shuangye, who immediately handed the man a banknote worth 10 Imperial dinars. "Considering what happened, I suggest you stay as far away from the Northland as possible... The people at the checkpoint will be understanding."

"Thank you, thank you!" Seeing that he finally had money to bribe the guards and get priority for inspection, the man picked up the sake Ange had given him and ran away without looking back.

"So, everyone, what do you think?" Ange asked the others after the man left. "The situation seems to have become complicated."

"Yes. I never expected there would be two different explanations for the cause of the disaster," Fish scratched his ear, "'Tai Sui' and 'Disaster Star'... Which one is the real one?"

"I don't know either. But what's certain is that we did encounter animals parasitized by 'Tai Sui,' and they exhibited unusual organization and coordination. However, the survivors' descriptions of the 'jinx' are also very likely true," Ange said, looking at her toes and pondering. "Perhaps both things are true. Perhaps they are also connected in some way..."

"Perhaps Huang Yan knows something?" Xiao Xing suggested. "Why don't we ask her?"

"Ah, right!" Fish realized then that Phoenix Flame had been silent ever since they started questioning the disheveled man. This was very unusual. "Hey, Phoenix Flame, what do you know about what's happening here?"

"...Yes." Unlike his usual instantaneous answers, this time Huang Yan took several seconds to give a slow and deliberate reply, "I know a little about it. The so-called 'jinx'...I'm afraid..."

"Grab her!" Before Huang Yan could finish speaking, a furious roar suddenly came from not far away, "Damn it, stop right there!"

Then, a thin, small figure suddenly emerged from the corner and bumped into Fish without warning!

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