The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"Phew... this is..."

"I apologize, Prince Fish, I'm a little late." As the two enemy loli armored warriors, first suffering a gruesome throat-slitting attack and then being struck by poisoned darts, collapsed to the ground convulsing, Frostleaf appeared behind Fish like a legendary "ghost." "Are you alright?"

"Not good," Fish moved her body, feeling several wounds still throbbing—although Phoenix Flame could eliminate these pains with painkillers, this tactical AI usually only took action on more serious injuries that truly affected combat and movement. According to her, this was because "learning requires lessons," and pain is always the best lesson. "This body... is still not very suitable for close combat."

"In fact, although Yue Die is far inferior to me, she is actually a master swordsman—at least for the average person, her swordsmanship is quite good," Shuang Ye said emotionlessly. "You are probably struggling because you are not familiar with this body."

"Indeed." Fish gasped for breath, feeling the extra weight in his chest: after every intense workout, he could clearly feel how much of a hindrance those two large lumps were, and the impact of the lack of testosterone-enhanced muscles on his explosive power. "However, 'Tai Sui's' fighting style is the key. This rational and reckless tactic..."

"This is indeed a bit troublesome... but I've found a solution, and that is—hey!" Frostleaf suddenly lunged forward, her long sword flashing from her waist like lightning, striking a figure hurtling towards her from the smoke. Then, as the figure clutched her slashed arm and fell to the ground, a dart struck its wound.

Although his apparent injuries were much less severe than those of his two companions who had their throats slit, this enemy armored warrior also began to convulse and tremble after being hit by the dart, before collapsing to the ground and becoming motionless.

"Xiao Xing?"

"Mr. Fish, thank goodness! You're alright!" A pale purple figure trotted up to Fish, making him blush—although back at Camphor Leaf Palace, Xiaoxing had already begun learning maid skills under Mint's training and taking care of Fish's daily life, seeing his own body speaking to him in Xiaoxing's tone was still too...embarrassing for Fish.

"That was...?"

"The combo technique that Princess Ange arranged for Xiaoxing and me to use," Shuangye said. "It's not really that complicated: it's easy for my slash to hit the opponent, but it's difficult to destroy the area around the spine where the core of the 'Tai Sui' parasite is located in one strike when the opponent has combat armor."

"I... can use 'grapes' to generate paralyzing agents—although when deadly poisons enter the body of armored warriors, the intelligent combat armor provides an antidote to neutralize them, certain paralyzing agents seem to be mistaken by the system as painkillers and not treated," Xiaoxing explained. "At least, that's what Miss Huangyan hinted to me in the communication."

"So you pulled this stunt?" Fish asked. "Having Frostleaf cut through the enemy's armor first, then having Lucky immediately start firing to paralyze the target before the intelligent combat armor could repair the wound?"

"Yes. However, Xiaoxing's paralysis potion doesn't last very long, but it's enough for us to finally 'deal with' these troublesome opponents," Shuangye said. "Miss Huangyan also told me that if Prince Fish could still use his original body, he could also become a very strong fighting force. It's just a pity that those two filthy things in this body are really too much of a hindrance, so..."

"Damn it! Is this how you always talk about me? What's wrong with me anyway?!" Through the smoke, Yue Die, hearing the voice, ran over shouting, followed by three enemy loli armored warriors. "These skinny, small bodies, like dried meat, are really terrible to use!"

"This guy, even at a time like this, he's still thinking about this?" Fish muttered.

"It seems that the noble and excellent Miss Moon Butterfly must be very composed," Frost Leaf said, not in a hurry at all. She even leisurely transformed part of her intelligent combat armor into a special handkerchief, slowly wiping the blood and mucus off the blade. "Perfect, let me see her abilities."

"Damn it, stop staring!"

"Oh, what did you say, Miss? Could it be that the exceptionally talented daughter of the Marquis of Ten Victories actually wants to help a 'nouveau riche low-class noble' like me? No way, no way?"

Although Shuangye usually appears serious to the point of being rigid, she reveals her cunning side only when facing her nemesis... To be honest, this contrast is sometimes quite interesting.

"Damn it! How dare you look down on me! I... I may be forced to use this body of such lowly blood, but I will show you what the true power of the Marquis of Ten Victories is!"

With the smoke clearing and visibility increasing, Fish could see Moon Butterfly's fighting stance relatively clearly after being caught up by her three opponents. Theoretically, her intelligent combat armor was at level three, or "Crystal" level. Although Xiaoxing's physical condition was a bit lacking and her aptitude slightly insufficient, she should theoretically still have a fighting chance against three opponents of the lowest level.

Upon hearing Frostleaf's words, the provoked Moon Butterfly, while spouting nonsense (at least to Fish it sounded like nonsense), stopped fleeing and assumed a fighting stance. Meanwhile, Ange, who had been "marking up" the enemy's ranged attackers with her firepower, landed back on the ground but did not join the battle, instead watching quietly from the sidelines.

Although Moon Butterfly and Frostleaf had practiced swordsmanship together in the past, even Fish, who wasn't a swordsman, could tell that the two were completely different styles: Frostleaf used a katana focused on rapid slashes, while Moon Butterfly had chosen a slender and long swift sword.

Furthermore, Frostleaf almost never transforms her intelligent combat armor into any weapon, while Moonbeam, while drawing her Swift Sword, also transforms her left arm armor into a short sword that combines a small shield.

"Hmm... the swift sword tactics used in street fighting during the Renaissance? I didn't expect this move to have survived to this era... But then again, a large part of the new humans were originally slaves who performed gladiatorial combat, so it's normal for them to instinctively pass on various sword techniques and martial arts to their descendants..." Huang Yan started muttering in Fish's ear again, "However, she's going to suffer a great loss this time."

"Huh? Oh!" Fish understood Huang Yan's meaning in less than two seconds: After taking a stance, Yue Die used a beautiful movement to feint at one of the three opponents, intending to force the opponent to take a defensive stance. Unexpectedly, the opponent "whooshed" and pounced directly at the blade of the Swift Sword!

"Eek!" When the blade pierced the little girl's chest and abdomen, it was Yue Die who exclaimed first: after all, the main use of the Swift Sword is thrusting. Due to its high specialization, it becomes extremely cumbersome when facing opponents who cannot be easily assassinated.

Once the opponent intentionally resorts to this kind of injury-for-life fighting style, Moon Butterfly's situation is even more passive than Fish's just now: after all, the weapon transformed from the intelligent combat armor can withstand enough weight, and even forcibly lift the opponent stuck on it, but an ordinary swift sword, even if it is a top-quality product made for a marquis's daughter, can only be abandoned after it is stuck.

Having discarded the Swift Sword, Moon Butterfly was left with only the short sword she primarily used for defense. Although she immediately tried to transform the gauntlet on her right arm into a new Swift Sword, it was clearly too late.

Just as she threw away her original weapon, her second opponent charged at her with a longsword.

"No! Noooooo!" Faced with this situation, Yue Die's reaction was... she didn't even try to resist, but instinctively covered her eyes with her hands and curled up into a ball!

Fortunately, at that moment, Frostleaf made her move.

This time, she didn't choose to attack together with Xiaoxing, nor did she even draw her sword to slash. Instead, she charged towards her opponent in a very simple way. Fish noticed that Shuangye concentrated all the power of her lowest-level intelligent combat armor into her legs, allowing her to reach an astonishing speed of one hundred kilometers per hour!

As she sprinted forward like a sports car, she simultaneously swung her unsheathed katana horizontally, using the force of her acceleration to send the thick metal scabbard striking the necks of the three opponents surrounding Yue Die. With three sharp cracks, all three fell to the ground, their necks twisted at bizarre angles.

"Meow... This is..." Fish was stunned after witnessing all of this.

"Technically speaking, if you just want to paralyze your opponent, you don't necessarily have to use paralyzing drugs," Shuangye smiled. "Although the parasites of 'Tai Sui' are not easy to eliminate and are located below the neck, what's interesting is that they still need to use the human brain to process complex neural signals. So, as long as you cut off their heads or artificially create high-level paraplegia, you can also stop their movements."

"No wonder he has practical experience; he knows a lot," Fish muttered.

"In fact, I must thank Miss Yuedie for attracting their attention; otherwise, it would have been difficult for me to deal with these three targets so precisely."

"Ugh... Damn it... I actually... I actually got... by someone like you..." After realizing that she hadn't been split in two, Yue Die, still shaken, opened her eyes, her face showing a mixture of shame and anger.

"It's nothing, my dear Commander, Your Highness the Marquis's Daughter, you don't need to thank me," Shuangye snorted softly. "After all, the reason I intervened was because you were using Xiaoxing's body. If anything were to happen to Xiaoxing, Princess Ange and Lord Fish would be saddened."

"That's right, Xiaoxing is my good sister, and she's destined to become my husband's number one concubine. I'm even planning to adopt her into the Fayun-Lindenhild family and give her a formal title," Ange added immediately.

"Meow? You can say things like that in private, but you can't say them in front of everyone!" Fish exclaimed quickly.

"It's alright. From a political science perspective, in a monarchy, the marriages of high-ranking nobles are actually part of public politics," Ange immediately said. "Public politics should, of course, allow citizens to discuss it openly, so what's wrong with saying it in front of everyone?"

"Uh..." Fish was speechless for a moment.

"However, it seems that we have already defeated all the makeshift armored warriors the enemy has hastily assembled," Shuangye said, looking around as a mountain breeze dispersed the smoke. "But why haven't the other enemy forces attacked?"

"That's normal," Huang Yan answered the question. "After transitioning from a wild state to a weaponized state, this is what the 'Tai Sui' looks like when it loses command and control."

"Huh? But didn't you say before..."

"The command system of 'Tai Sui' is a very outdated tree-like topology, unlike the network-like decentralized model of autonomous weapon systems created by humans in the old civilization era. Once autonomous weapons are gathered together, unless they are isolated from the network after I take control, each device is part of the 'brain,' distributing the computational needs of tactical artificial intelligence through cloud computing. However, although 'Tai Sui' is quite dangerous, its command and control unit is independent, with only one root node."

"Meow... I'm not well-educated, what does this mean..." Fish's eyes suddenly spun like mosquito coils—he always did this whenever Huang Yan talked about something he didn't understand.

"In short, 'Tai Sui' has only one root node in a region, which is what we call the 'central brain'," Huang Yan explained directly to An Jie, who could understand, even though Fish couldn't understand it at all. "Below are multiple child nodes that control those poor, parasitized cannon fodder. Based on my judgment, the root node is not here."

"But we don't need to solve it immediately," Ange continued, "because it needs child nodes to issue commands to frontline combatants... and these child nodes are also the parasitized hosts."

"Uh...so that means..." Shuangye kicked the opponents she had knocked down.

"Yes, 'Tai Sui' also knows that child nodes need protection, so it specifically set these hosts, who are capable of wearing intelligent combat armor and have the best protective abilities, as child nodes. However, after discovering that we only sent a few elite armored warriors to break through, it ran into trouble again," Ange said, squatting down next to a fallen loli and using a sharp blade transformed from "Golden Soup" to cut open the armor on her back. "It can't judge our tactical motives."

"Let me think about it. In other words, it was worried that we were just making a feint, and that if it gathered its main force to eliminate us, the rest of its troops would have the opportunity to escape. However, it also suspected that we might be planning to escape on our own, so it couldn't just leave us alone," Fish speculated. "The end result was that it ordered the armored warriors who could deal with us to intercept us, while the majority of its forces remained in the encirclement."

"Yes, in essence, the intelligence of 'Tai Sui' is no match for mine," Huang Yan said proudly. "Of course, it obviously didn't expect that we could eliminate all the armored warriors it deployed in one go, thus annihilating the sub-nodes in this area."

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