Elder brother's garrison

Page 181

"Dispose of? Dispose of what?" Sukhbaatar asked curiously.

"Huh? Don't I have that deep-sea scent on me?"

"Oh, that? I didn't mean to punish you. I'm just a ship girl. Didn't I tell you, you're a good person?" Sukhbaatar smiled. "Back to your ship equipment, if you can't see it now, how about you sneak a peek at it from your place tonight?"

Xiao Bai's heart finally settled down.

Sukhbaatar seemed more interested in the ship's equipment on his body than in dealing with himself.

"Okay, fine." Xiaobai nodded.

Sukhbaatar doesn't seem like a bad person, and she's the only one who can sense the deep-sea aura on her. Xiaobai thinks it wouldn't be a bad thing to let her observe the deep-sea ship equipment.

Little White told Sukhbaatar where he lived.

Sukhbaatar nodded, picked up the ice cream box, and stood up.

"Can I ask you a question?" Little White called out to Sukhbaatar as she was about to leave.

"Say it."

"Besides you, is there anyone else who can detect the deep-sea scent on me?" Xiaobai asked the question that mattered most to her.

Sukhbaatar smiled and said, "You're using the wrong words."

"Word choice?"

“I never said you smelled like the deep sea. I said you smelled like the deep sea,” Sukhbaatar said. “I didn’t tell by smell. You smell like a human girl through and through. There’s not a trace of the deep sea in you.”

"So how did you sense it?"

“You said it yourself, I rely on my intuition.” Sukhbaatar laughed. “I’ve lived in the deep sea for hundreds of years, and I can distinguish between the deep sea and humans by intuition.”

what?

The truth is often the hardest to believe.

Did Sukhbaatar discover the presence of the deep sea through intuition?

Xiao Bai was enveloped in a feeling of both relief and utter dread.

Sukhbaatar's statement implies that, at least physically, Xiaobai has not developed towards the deep sea; it's just that in terms of atmosphere, it resembles a deep-sea amphibious vessel.

—I was so frightened by Sukhbaatar's intuitive judgment.

"That's all for now, bye-bye~ See you tonight." Sukhbaatar picked up the popsicle box in front of him and said goodbye to Little White.

"...Bye-bye." Xiaobai didn't know what to say, so he just waved to her.

Sukhbaatar smiled and then walked back to his restaurant.

To the admirals not far from Xiaobai, what happened between Sukhbaatar and Xiaobai was just a casual chat between a popsicle vendor and an admiral, and it didn't arouse any suspicion.

Xiao Bai looked at the melted popsicle at his feet and sighed.

"It's so great that Lady Su is such an enlightened ship girl..."

Perhaps when ship girls get older, their thinking becomes more open-minded?

Just then, a train pulled up from the city center onto the beach, and Nia, carrying two plates of fried noodles, got off.

She looked at the suddenly deserted beach with some confusion and walked up to Xiaobai.

"Xiaobai, here's your fried noodles." Nia placed one of the portions in front of Xiaobai.

"Thank you."

"There are so few people on the beach, what happened?" Nia asked curiously.

"I heard that the deep sea, which was supposed to be the final destination, has disappeared, and there was nothing to be gained, so the ship girls have all returned to port ahead of schedule," Xiaobai said.

Let's keep Nia's conversation with Sukhbaatar a secret.

Xiao Bai tried her best to look at Nia as if nothing had happened.

"Oh, I see." Nia wasn't worried. She sat down in her seat and opened her plate of fried noodles. "But this has nothing to do with us. Our ship girls probably haven't even reached the finish line yet."

The beach was getting less and less crowded, and Xiaobai and Nia were now more like they had the whole beach to themselves for a vacation.

After the two finished their meal, they spent several more hours on the beach.

It's normal for admirals to wait; if a ship girl goes on an expedition, the admiral may have to wait at the port for several days or even half a month.

"A ship girl is back!" the admiral shouted from afar.

Little White raised its head and looked towards the horizon.

Six tiny figures, no bigger than sesame seeds, were driving this way.

Looking at these six tiny figures, Xiaobai felt a sense of connection with them.

“Veneto and the others are back,” Xiaobai said.

Just as Xiaobai had said, the six tiny figures in the distance had grown large enough to be clearly seen.

It was Veneto and her friends.

On the sea, Fubuki walked at the front, waving and blushing as she called out to Shiro, "Admiral—!"

Xiaobai and Nia stood up from their chairs and walked to the beach to greet their ship girl.

Fubuki ran back through the waves and excitedly jumped into Shiro's arms.

"Admiral! Admiral! Fubuki is back from her mission!"

Fubuki happily mimicked Kusanagi, lifting her leg and gently clamping it around Shiro's waist, clinging to him like an octopus, as if trying to merge into his body, rubbing back and forth vigorously.

"Welcome back, Fubuki." Fubuki's body was very light, so Shiro didn't feel any burden moving around like this, and she was lifted up by Fubuki.

"Admiral." Veneto and Cleveland followed them ashore and came to Little White. "Mission accomplished."

"Yes, well done. You truly live up to Veneto's reputation." Little White didn't hold back his praise.

Veneto's lips curled into a smile: "Of course."

Cleveland looked back to shore, patted his chest, and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Cleveland, how are you?" Nia first carefully examined Cleveland's body to see if he was injured, and then asked with concern.

"Yes, I fought for a long time at the finish line and gained a lot," Cleveland said as if she were living in a dream, her eyes filled with vicissitudes.

This expedition has exhausted all of Cleveland's sense of wonder; Cleveland will never be surprised again.

"The end?" Nia asked, somewhat puzzled. "Isn't the end where the deep sea ends?"

“Yes, a lot.” Cleveland shook his head. “There are almost several hundred in total.”

"Several hundred??" Nia exclaimed in surprise.

"Hmm." Cleveland was still somewhat questioning his life.

Veneto and Fubuki led themselves to the finish line, mowing down enemies along the way, and then went on a killing spree there for an entire noon.

Basically, he can kill one deep-sea monster at a time, two at a time, and a whole team at a time, just like he's using a cheat code.

As the fight progressed, even the Deep Sea's regeneration speed couldn't keep up with Veneto's killing speed.

“Many ship girls came back before, saying they couldn’t find Abyss at the finish line,” Xiaobai said to Veneto.

"Hmm? Is that so?" Veneto nodded. "Oh, then maybe they can't beat us to it."

After finishing his sentence, Veneto shrugged nonchalantly.

The battle at the finish line was truly exhilarating, and Veneto was really into it. If he hadn't run out of ammunition, he could have stayed there for another afternoon.

Veneto's simple question startled Nia, who was standing next to him: "You've all packed up?"

“Yes. Thinking about it carefully, it is indeed quite difficult to find the Deep Sea later on, but with Fubuki and the others around, locating the enemy is still quite simple,” Veneto explained.

Nia looked at Cleveland.

Cleveland nodded.

Nia knew very well what Cleveland's combat capabilities were. Cleveland was strong, but she was still a light cruiser. She could fight at the finish line and win, but she couldn't be called a sweeper.

However, according to Veneto, this team completely swept through the first node's finish line.

What is meant by "sweeping"? It means sending you to your death with a single shot upon first sight, looting the spoils, finding the next target, and then sending them to their death with another shot.

Only this kind of VIP-level efficiency can be called a sweep.

Only at this speed can one dominate the deep-sea territory to the point that even the speed at which the deep-sea creatures are born cannot keep up with its annihilation.

“They are very strong, ten times stronger than me,” Cleveland said to Nia in front of him.

Nia stared wide-eyed at the ship girls surrounding Xiaobai.

Nia knew that Xiaobai was strong, but she didn't expect Xiaobai's ship girls to be so strong.

If someone can lead Cleveland into a sweeping rampage in the first chapter, then they must at least have the strength to roam freely in the second chapter, right?

Luo Yin and Ian are not even worthy of carrying Xiao Bai's shoes.

"Anyway, now that we're all back, let's spend some time at the Admiral's Guild," Xiaobai suggested, noticing Nia's complicated expression.

It seems Nia will need some time to adjust to this news.

Nia swallowed hard.

Xiao Bai patted the snow off her body.

Fubuki loosened her legs and fell to the ground.

"Oh, by the way, Veneto, how much deep-sea metal did you harvest?" To divert Nia's attention, Xiaobai asked Veneto.

"I don't know, Cleveland, can you estimate how many there are?"

Cleveland nodded and extended his hand.

She activated the ship's equipment space.

A gurgling sound, like a tap, appeared on Cleveland's palm as deep-sea metal poured out as if it were free, quickly filling his hand and forming a miniature metal mountain.

Cleveland answered slowly, his gaze unfocused on Nia's unfocused eyes.

"Probably seventy or eighty."

Chapter 229 Guild Second Floor

Cleveland's hands were clasped together, a large amount of black metal coiled on her hands, tightly stacked together, forming a small, dark mountain.

The metal mounds were piled so high that they completely covered Cleveland's face.

Nia stared blankly at the small mountain in Cleveland's hand.

As all admirals know, deep-sea metal is their hard currency, a valuable item that money can't buy.

Because of its preciousness, most transactions between admirals use deep-sea metal as currency.

The chances of deep-sea metal "dropping" from deep-sea destroyers are not high. With ordinary deep-sea destroyers, you might not find a single piece of deep-sea metal even if you have dozens of them. Only on some high-ranking deep-sea destroyers with a strong deep-sea aura can you find deep-sea metal more easily.

However, this so-called advanced deep-sea amphibious ship did not exist in the first section. In other words, if you wanted to get the seventy or eighty stacks of deep-sea metal that Cleveland had, you would have to sink at least seven or eight hundred deep-sea princesses.

"Quick, put it away!" Nia waved her hand anxiously, afraid that others would see it.

Besides myself and Xiaobai, there were other admirals on the beach. If they were seen by others, trouble would ensue.

Cleveland nodded and put the small hill back into his ship's equipment space.

"Don't worry, no one will dare to steal it," Veneto said kindly, looking at Nia's expression.

Nia was also taken aback by this windfall, which is why she reacted this way.

An ordinary six-man team might only manage to collect a single-digit amount of Deep Sea Metal after playing all day in the first quarter, but Veneto and Cleveland collected nearly eighty in just half a day in the sea—that's the result of two months of hard work for others.

Even if you're not afraid of being robbed, it's still uncomfortable to suddenly pull out so much deep-sea metal and have people staring at you with red eyes.

"Did you do all of these?" Nia asked.

“Yes.” Veneto nodded.

Nia didn't know how to react.

"Let's split it evenly," Xiaobai suggested.

"That won't do. We'll just take a few... These are probably all Xiaobai's ship girl spoils of war," Nia said apologetically.

Cleveland couldn't possibly intervene in this level of sweeping. Since they weren't contributing, Nia figured a few deep-sea metals would suffice.