Elder brother's garrison

Page 521

"Huh?!" Nia was startled, her face flushed red. Faced with Luo Lian's sudden words, Nia couldn't even make a proper reaction, and just stood there staring blankly at Luo Lian.

Seeing Nia's innocent reaction, Luo Lian sighed inwardly, "Youth is wonderful," before walking over to Xiao Bai's side.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

In the distance on the beach, the vice-captain of the admiral's team that had been ostracizing Nia and his subordinates were also observing Xiaobai and Nia's condition.

"These four little girls really think they're here to sunbathe," an admiral muttered gloomily, looking at Xiaobai's completely unhurried demeanor.

"Don't they have any self-awareness about their situation?" one admiral asked.

“Nia has looked this way several times; she must have realized it a long time ago.”

"Our ship girls didn't hold back when they set out earlier. If Nia isn't blind, she would have noticed it long ago."

"And why do they look so relaxed? We completely outnumber them and have far more ships than them."

"Maybe she's stupid. Does she think we'll let her go?"

Some of the admirals were chatting quite freely, completely oblivious to the slightly angry glances from the onlookers around them.

As the vice-captain, the admiral remained silent despite the gloating remarks from those around him.

Time continued to flow slowly. Just as noon had passed and the sun began to gradually set behind the water, a group of familiar ship girls finally sailed from the other side of the sea toward the shore.

It was Xiaobai, Nia, and Luo Lian's ship girls.

The ship girls returned to the beach, each running to their admiral with a smile, excitedly telling him what they had just won the lottery.

Cleveland and Kaohsiung's supporters talked to Nia for a long time before Nia finally showed a relieved smile.

Their expressions were naturally noticed by the admirals who had been watching them closely.

Seeing that the ship girls were not disappointed as these people had expected, but instead showed some joy of a bountiful harvest, all the admirals frowned.

"What's going on?" one of the admirals asked his companions.

"Hasn't our team found them?"

"No way, we have an aircraft carrier squadron. It shouldn't be difficult to find a squadron of ship girls at the fourth node."

"The premise is that the ship girls being targeted do not deliberately hide."

"This……"

“If they’re fighting a guerrilla war, they won’t have time to loot the spoils of war,” one admiral said.

The admirals chatted amongst themselves, and eventually all turned their attention to the vice-captain.

The vice-captain frowned as he looked at Xiaobai and his group, but remained silent.

After the ship girls returned to the beach, Shiro and the others quickly packed their belongings and were ready to leave.

They didn't look in their direction even once, as if they hadn't been targeted at all, and left in full view of everyone.

"Vice Captain...this..."

"Wait for the ship girls to return." The vice-captain raised his hand to stop the admirals around him, shook his head, and then stared intently at the sea.

Based on their experience of causing trouble for so long in the second chapter, now that the target has returned to the beach, their ship girls will also return in a very short time.

Despite their many doubts, the admirals could only keep quiet and watch helplessly as Nia and her ship girls left.

Then they began their long wait.

Chapter 708 A Lively Night

The admirals who were targeting Nia listened to their vice-captain's words, kept quiet, and waited for their ship girls on the beach.

The sun slowly sank, and the autumn sky darkened faster than usual. Shortly after Nia left the beach, the azure sky turned as black as if it had been stained with ink.

The deep-sea ships are still very aggressive at night. In order not to risk their lives, most of the ship girls did not intend to fight at night in the nodes. Therefore, the ship girls working in the nodes withdrew from the sea before the sky darkened and returned to the admirals with their own good or bad feelings.

They tidied up the beach with the admiral for a while, and after reporting the results of the battle, they left the beach together with their admiral.

Gradually, the beach at the fourth node, which was not crowded to begin with, began to become deserted as the ship girls and admirals left. The number of people on the beach slowly decreased as the sky darkened. Finally, the sun completely sank into the water, and the beach at the fourth node became quiet.

The vice-captain and his comrades stood alone in the cold wind, staring blankly at the sea.

They waited for several hours.

At first, when they saw Nia and her ship girls return to the beach unharmed, they were only puzzled. They wondered how Nia and her two new companions, those harmless ship girls, could evade the search of so many large ships.

However, as time went on, when their ship girls were far beyond the normal return time, and even when the sun had sunk below the water and the moon was high in the sky, there was still no sign of them returning, even if these people had no sense of crisis, they couldn't help but start to panic.

—Could it be... even slightly possible that something bad has happened to my ship girls?

Thinking of this, the admirals couldn't help but slap themselves hard, burying this impossible scenario deep in their hearts.

"Vice Captain, what should we do now?" One of the admirals couldn't help but turn to the vice captain for help.

The vice-captain also had a gloomy face. He didn't speak for a long time, and after a while, he took a deep breath to calm himself down.

"Does anyone have access to the Admiral Network?" the vice-captain asked the admirals present. "Contact your ship girls in that team."

The admirals all lowered their heads and remained silent.

The vice-captain clicked his tongue: "Useless thing."

Without the Admiral Network, or without ship girls connected to the Admiral Network, these Admirals have no way to contact the ship girls who have been missing for half a day.

It's already quite late, and the deep-sea ships in the node have been amplified by the night, becoming much more warlike and ferocious. If their ship girls don't return soon, it will be a very bad situation in every sense of the word.

"Wait another ten minutes. If they haven't returned, go back to the team for help and search the outpost," the vice-captain said.

"Yes!" The admirals' faces stiffened, but they still agreed with the vice-captain's words.

These ten minutes were probably the most unbearable ten minutes for all the admirals. At night, the icy sea breeze blew in gusts on the admirals, seeping into their bodies through their sleeves. The resentment of the Black Deep Sea seemed to grow several times stronger at night, sweeping across the safe waters from the deep sea territory and blowing onto the surface, making the admirals shiver uncontrollably.

After ten agonizing minutes, all the admirals couldn't help but look at the vice-captain once again.

The deputy captain's face darkened; "Make an electric call..."

"Ah! Ship girls are coming out on the beach!" Just before the vice-captain finished speaking on the phone, an admiral who had been observing the horizon screamed with surprise.

All the admirals, including the vice-captain, relaxed and immediately looked towards the sea.

Under the moonlight, two groups of ship girls were slowly walking towards the beach. Judging from their figures, they were the same ship girl teams that had been sent to intercept Cleveland that morning.

"Finally back!" Several admirals breathed a sigh of relief, then burst into laughter. "I thought... Ah, I didn't think so, I didn't think so."

Even the vice-captain, whose face had been gloomy, had regained his composure. He quietly watched the ship girls walking towards the beach from the horizon.

The ship girls on the other side of the sea were moving towards this side at a rather slow pace. They walked and walked, until finally, the admiral on this side couldn't help but feel puzzled again.

The ship girl's movement speed is really too slow.

Just then, the moonlight slanted down, creating white waves on the sea, and the pale moonlight illuminated the figures of the ship girls.

The admirals' relaxed expressions turned into astonishment when they saw the state of their ship girls.

Under the moonlight, the ship girls, dressed in tattered clothes, were helping each other as they walked with some difficulty toward the beach. Because they were too far away, their facial features could not be seen clearly, but judging from their limping gait, their condition did not seem to be very good.

The admirals on the beach stared blankly as the group of ship girls walked on the sea for more than ten minutes before approaching the beach. They walked onto the sand and then tried their best to stick their clothes to their skin to minimize the amount of skin showing.

Their once pretty faces were now streaked with tears of humiliation. Some of them didn't even dare to look up. After feeling the gazes of the admirals, their shoulders trembled several times, and they almost cried again.

"You...you all..." Seeing such a miserable situation, even the vice-captain was a little dumbfounded. He opened his mouth and it took him a long time to utter these three words.

"..." The tall ship girl, the flagship of these two squads, stepped forward, clutching her chest and looking at the vice-captain with a red nose. She opened her mouth, wanting to look directly at the vice-captain's face, but after a while, she closed her eyes again. "I'm sorry..."

"What happened to you guys???" The vice-captain walked up to the tall ship girl and asked her, "Did you run into the Abyssal Commander???"

"No."

"That you?"

"We were ambushed by Cleveland's team," the tall ship girl said, her head bowed.

"They dare to make a move?" The vice-captain looked at the tall ship girl with disbelief, then frowned. "You can't beat them?"

The tall ship girl nodded.

"You have six battleships and six aircraft carriers, and you can't beat a force that can't match your numbers or types of ships?" The vice-captain's voice already carried a strong sense of distrust.

The tall ship girl gave a somewhat pathetic laugh, not even bothering to explain.

The vice-captain looked at the tall ship girl with a frustrated expression. After thinking for a long time, he raised his hand, then lowered it again. Finally, after pacing back and forth several times, he sighed helplessly.

"Why are you back so late?" the vice-captain asked.

"It's been badly damaged," the tall ship girl said, her head bowed.

"Who has been completely destroyed?"

The tall ship girl raised her hand, and most of the ship girls behind her also raised their hands.

Seeing so many ship girls raising their hands in shame, the vice-captain suddenly felt dizzy.

These are all large warships. Even a minor damage requires enough resources to repair for a destroyer to stay at sea for several days. Repairing a major damage ship requires several times more resources than a minor damage. Now, a major damage has affected a large portion of the fleet, which is a significant blow to the entire admiral's joint fleet.

"Don't you have spare rapid repair devices in your ship's equipment even if it's heavily damaged?"

"It's been stolen," the tall ship girl said.

"Stolen...stolen?"

"The resources used to power the ship's equipment have also been taken away."

"..." The vice-captain looked at the tall ship girl, his face weary, "Who stole it?"

"...Cleveland and the others."

The vice-captain took a deep breath, suppressing his anger: "In short, not only did you fail to defeat them, you didn't even manage to steal any spoils. You were ambushed and severely damaged, and they even stole the resources and repair equipment from your ship's equipment?"

The tall ship girl nodded slightly as she listened to the vice-captain's words.

"Why don't you give them the equipment too? Huh?" The vice-captain laughed angrily.

In the vice-captain's opinion, putting aside the issue of fighting between ship girls, even if a fight broke out, his two teams of ship girls should have no chance of losing.

However, these ship girls told themselves that they had not only lost, but had also been robbed and had nothing left.

Is this even possible? Is this scientifically sound? Does this comply with the Basic Law? This is utter nonsense!

The tall ship girl shrugged and gave a small "hmm".

"What are you 'huh' for?!" The vice-captain was furious at the moment, and she shouted at the tall ship girl.

"...The equipment...is gone too."

Looking at the tall ship girl, the vice-captain felt as if a bolt of lightning had struck him on the head.

"What did you say??!"

"The equipment... was also stolen," the tall ship girl said in a low voice.

"Who stole it?!"

"It's still them..."

With a thud, the vice-captain's legs gave way, and he collapsed to the ground. He stared blankly at the tall ship girl and the other ship girls behind her.

"Tell me you're joking," the vice-captain muttered.

The ship girls lowered their heads, not daring to speak.

"..." The vice-captain felt a sudden emptiness rise from the bottom of his heart. He panted and said to the tall ship girl, "Do you know how precious that equipment is?"

The ship girls remained silent.

The vice-captain pointed at the tall ship girl for a long time, panting heavily, but in the end, he couldn't say anything.

The vice-captain's wrist trembled for a moment, then suddenly lost its strength and fell to the beach with a thud as its owner let out a hiccup. The vice-captain then rolled his eyes and fainted.

At night, the exclamations of the admirals, the hurried footsteps, the sounds of phone calls, and the clear voices of the ship girls mingled together.

The beach at the fourth node, after a period of quietness, became unusually lively.

Chapter 709 On the Composition of Ship Girls' Strength

Before evening, Xiaobai and the ship girls returned to Nia's courtyard.

Nia, whose mind had been on edge the whole time, stepped into the courtyard. With the sense of security that came from seeing her own courtyard and the ship girls, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Ah... I'm back safe and sound," Nia murmured to herself.

Nia clutched her chest, her feelings a mix of emotions.