Elder brother's garrison

"First of all, the ship equipment in this state will greatly affect the health of the ship girls," the Vestal said, her voice slightly lower. "Secondly, it will also interfere with my efficiency in repairing their ship equipment."

"It's that serious..."

"Well... actually, with my abilities, even a heavily damaged battleship's rigging can be repaired in an hour or two. Because a ship girl's rigging is heavily damaged, it not only protects the ship girl's body but also the rigging's basic structure and core areas. So, in a sense, the repair difficulty is no different from patching a hole. However, when you encounter ship girl rigging that attacked while heavily damaged and even inflicted further damage, the repair difficulty is much higher because the damage affects the core areas." The Goddess of the Hearth paused, then raised her hand to Xiaobai, "You saw it when they released their rigging just now, right?"

"Ah... um." Xiaobai nodded, "I saw it, it's quite... tragic."

“Those are the ship equipment that have suffered even greater damage. Because the structure of the ship equipment itself is already very blurry, I don’t even dare to repair them too forcefully, for fear that if I’m not careful, the ship equipment will fall apart on its own.” The Vess said with difficulty, “In their current state… they probably can’t even use the repair pool and the rapid repair device.”

Xiao Bai remained silent.

I did encounter a ship girl with severely damaged equipment once, when I had just become an admiral and went out to a banquet with Saratoga. At that time, Emerald and Enterprise were the escort ships on the ship I was on.

Leaving aside the fact that Emerald and Enterprise later became ship girls in the newbie naval base by chance, when they first met, Emerald, who was already heavily damaged, was surrounded by Abyssal ships, which caused her serious injuries. Fortunately, Enterprise, who was with her at the time, did her best to protect her, and Saratoga came out and went on a rampage, which prevented Emerald's condition from getting worse.

Thinking about it now...

Fortunately, Emerald was lucky at that time, and the Deep Sea Abyss ship's attack was not fierce. Emerald only suffered some physical injuries, and her ship equipment did not continue to be damaged. Otherwise, if Emerald had accidentally caused the damage to her ship equipment to continue to worsen, even Little White could not have saved her back then.

"In short, even I'm not entirely confident in treating ship girls with injuries like this," Vestal said to Shiro. "The success rate of treating them intermittently like this is probably only around 70% or 80%. If it fails... to save their lives, the worst-case scenario is that they might have to dismantle their ship equipment and become ordinary people."

Xiaobai could clearly feel it.

When the goddess of the hearth mentioned "disassembling ship equipment", the two ship girls sitting on the sofa, even with their heads down, clearly exuded a sense of panic and unease, and even their breathing became tense.

These civilian ship girls have never received education in human society since birth and severely lack the means to make a living in human society.

They're doing alright now. As ship girls, they can still rely on their ship equipment to defeat the Abyssal Fleet and earn a living. But once they lose their ship equipment, their only survival skill will be gone. They'll just be helpless, homeless, and weak women. Nobody knows what fate awaits such girls in this cold and ruthless society.

Xiao Bai looked at the calm-faced female Kitchen Goddess with a complicated expression.

"Miss Hearth Goddess...is this kind of thing...common?"

“It’s not common,” the female hearth goddess shook her head, “but we encounter it every three or four years. This year is particularly unlucky, as we’ve encountered two at once.”

"……"noob.

"Ha... Anyway, this is their current state." Vestal sighed. "I'll try my best to fix them... I need to go outside and bring in the next ship girl."

"Hmm..." Xiaobai pursed her lips.

The goddess of the hearth left the living room.

Xiaobai and Changchun silently watched the two ship girls on the sofa.

After the goddess of the hearth left, the ship girls on the sofa raised their heads slightly, their tense bodies relaxing somewhat. Their gazes moved from their toes to Little White sitting beside them, and upon seeing Little White, their eyes dimmed and lowered again.

"Sorry……"

"I'm so sorry..."

The two ship girls whispered to Xiaobai.

"You don't need to apologize to me..." Xiaobai raised her hand to the ship girls, but paused slightly halfway through her sentence, "Um... but rather than apologizing... what was the reason that your attack was so badly damaged?"

The two ship girls on the sofa hunched their shoulders.

"...I...we don't have any money," the slightly older ship girl said softly. "Major damage repairs cost a lot of money, and we don't have the money to repair our ship equipment. If we report it to the mercenary group, we won't be able to work for several months while waiting for them to arrange the repair work. We'll just be receiving a very low pension and going hungry every day, so we've been keeping it a secret..."

As the ship girl spoke, the regret in her eyes deepened.

"We really didn't know things would turn out this way... We were just trying to get through that period... But then the mercenary group encountered a severe deep-sea disaster on our next mission. Our ship equipment was badly damaged and we were unable to resist. We were sunk at sea... Although we were lucky enough to be rescued by our comrades and survived after spending several months in the hospital, we found that we could no longer use our ship girl powers, and our ship equipment had completely lost contact with us... I, I'm so scared... I'll never do a heavily damaged Attack again... I'll never do it again..."

As the two ship girls on the sofa talked, their voices filled with fear and sobs, their words choked with emotion, and large tears streamed down their faces.

"..." Xiaobai remained silent.

Xiaobai really didn't know what to do in this situation.

Seeing the two ship girls in front of him sobbing uncontrollably, Xiaobai pondered for a long time in his seat, then sighed slightly, got up and walked to the two ship girls, extending his hand to one of them.

Xiao Bai's palm came into view.

The ship girl, her face streaked with tears, weakly raised her head.

"Don't cry..." Xiaobai tried her best to put on a gentle expression as she spoke to the ship girl, "Um... if you don't mind, could I shake your hand?"

"...Hands?" The ship girl looked at Xiaobai with confusion.

Perhaps it was the conversation between the goddess of the hearth and Xiaobai that left these ship girls with the impression that Xiaobai might also be a ship girl healer. Although Xiaobai's words came out somewhat suddenly, after a moment of silence, the ship girls on the sofa still obediently reached out and placed their hands on Xiaobai's palm.

The ship girl, her ship equipment damaged, had icy cold hands.

It's not the kind of perfectly cool coolness that comes from the deep sea, the kind that has a distinct racial style; it's the kind of temperature that you can feel is definitely unhealthy just by touching it.

Xiaobai squeezed the ship girl's hand and breathed a sigh of relief.

The admiral's network then spread out, entering the ship girl's body through her palm.

Generally speaking, even the most skilled and slow-witted ship girl would sense when Xiaobai's admiral network invades her body. However, perhaps because she had completely lost contact with her ship equipment, when Xiaobai entered this ship girl's body, she was still sobbing softly and felt nothing at all.

Chapter 1680 Offering a warm face to a cold backside

This was the first time Xiaobai had seen ship girls with such severe damage to their equipment, so she wasn't confident she could help them. Her only action was to try using the admiral's network to observe the internal condition of the ship girls' bodies.

After all... whether I can actually help her or not will have to wait until I analyze her ship equipment using the Admiral Network to confirm.

While the ship girl on the sofa was sobbing with her head down, Xiaobai's admiral network kept spreading out, gently enveloping the ship girl's cold palm. Without her noticing, it slowly pierced into her skin, then inch by inch along the ship girl's wrist and penetrated into her torso, like a tree taking root, spreading deeper and darker into her body.

Little White closed its eyes.

As Xiaobai's consciousness gradually sank into his admiral network, the cries of the ship girls in his ears slowly faded away. Xiaobai gradually lost feeling in his body, only feeling as if he had fallen into a bottomless dark abyss.

Xiao Bai's consciousness lingered in the darkness for a few seconds. Sparse points of light appeared in the darkness, and then a huge and twisted ship's equipment emerged in the darkness.

The ship's rigging was so massive that it covered the sky and the earth. Even a small screw on the rigging was larger than Xiaobai himself. As the massive rigging landed, the ear-piercing sound of metal bending and sparks flying echoed in the darkness, like the tolling of bells. Even the surrounding air was filled with a strong smell of burning.

—This is the image that Xiaobai received from the network of admirals.

Xiaobai's admiral network is not only massive in scale, but also far more precise than that of ordinary admirals. Under the full analysis of the admiral network, even the ship wreckage that is so twisted and broken that it is only half the size of a body can be magnified into an exaggerated scene like the creation of the world by Xiaobai's network, which is comparable to a super microscope.

Zooming in has its advantages. It makes it easier to observe the condition of the ship's equipment. Also, since the overwhelming amount of damaged ship equipment is just a simple image replica, even beginners can do some things about the damaged ship equipment that are impossible in real life.

Under Xiaobai's control, the huge, broken ship equipment that appeared in the boundless darkness trembled, sparks flew, and it kept making rumbling noises. Then, as if it had been cut in two by a sharp scalpel, it was smoothly broken into two pieces, revealing a complex and delicate cross-section.

Xiaobai had seen the ship girl's blueprints in Yubari's laboratory, so she wasn't entirely unfamiliar with the internal structure of the ship equipment. However, when she saw the cross-section of this huge, damaged ship equipment, Xiaobai was genuinely shocked.

Not only did the ship's rigging look miserable and dilapidated on the outside, but it was also a chaotic mess inside. What should have been an incredibly clear and detailed internal pattern in Xiaobai's memory was now mostly distorted. Various parts were either broken in two or bent abnormally. Sparks spewed out from various components, and high temperatures and red-hot iron filings kept burning and tearing apart the few remaining healthy parts, causing secondary damage to the ship's rigging that was already on the verge of collapse.

In real life, Xiaobai subconsciously clenched the ship girl's hand and frowned deeply.

The goddess of the hearth was right...

This ship girl's ship equipment... is indeed so fragile that we dare not even use a rapid repair device to fix it.

The internal state of her ship's equipment is now in complete disarray, but she is very lucky. The collapse of her ship's equipment is being maintained in a fragile balance, like a building block tower with many bricks removed. It is on the verge of collapse and about to crumble. In this state, whether you continue to remove bricks, add bricks, or even do nothing and just watch, the tower may collapse directly.

Since she had at least played the roles of divine doctor, ruling constellation, Hindenburg, and Empire a few times, Xiaobai was actually thinking that maybe with the strength of her mental power, she could also contribute to repairing this ship girl's ship equipment.

However, after seeing the ship girl's equipment status, Xiaobai immediately understood.

This ship girl's injuries are different from those of the Constellation Empire ships in the naval base.

The inherent weakness of the constellation empire Hindenburg is a weakness in mental strength. He can help with this with his strong mental strength, but the injuries of the ship girls in front of him are a purely "physical" problem, which he cannot solve with just his "mental" strength.

Ugh--

There's really nothing I can do to help now.

Xiao Bai silently withdrew from the Admiral Network and opened his eyes.

Open your eyes and lift your head.

The ship girl sitting on the sofa stared at Xiaobai with her slightly red and swollen eyes, as if she were clutching at a last straw.

"Please...please tell me, is there any hope that my injury can be healed?" The ship girl asked Xiaobai hopefully, suppressing her sobs.

"This..." Xiaobai was a little afraid to look the ship girl in the eye. She pursed her lips. "Hmm... there is hope, there is hope... didn't Miss Vestal tell us that she is very confident that she can cure you!"

"Ah..." The hopeful look in the ship girl's eyes gradually faded. She lowered her head, bit her lip, and nodded with a bitter and sorrowful expression. "Mmm..."

The female stove goddess said she was only 70% sure she could heal herself.

Conversely, I have a 30% chance of dying... 30%... not high, but not low either. Just sitting here, waiting for my final verdict with immense agony, constantly praying that I'm one of the 70% lucky ones... it's truly agonizing.

Of course, Xiaobai knew what this ship girl was thinking.

However, at this critical juncture, Xiaobai really couldn't say anything more to comfort her.

Xiaobai silently sat back on her sofa, her gaze lingering on the toes of the two ship girls.

—To be honest, Xiaobai isn't entirely without a way to save these two ship girls. Although, according to Vestal, their ship equipment is on the verge of collapse, making them unusable with rapid repair devices or through cannon repair pools, that doesn't mean he's completely powerless to heal them.

Damage control.

Damage Control Team.

Damage control is an extremely unreasonable ultimate recovery item. Not to mention a heavily damaged ship girl, even if the ship girl is directly bombarded and left with only her last breath, with her ship equipment turning into pieces of iron scrap and returning to the ocean, as long as the ship girl still has a sliver of life, just by pressing a damage control item, the target ship girl can instantly revive on the spot with full health.

only……

Damage control is different from rapid repair devices. Rapid repair devices are mass-produced, and if you're a newbie, you could easily give away thousands of them without feeling bad. But damage control is different. Damage control is far too precious compared to the former. It's the most valuable treasure of the top-tier naval bases. Even a newbie naval base wouldn't be so generous as to use damage control on ship girls outside the base without expecting anything in return.

After all, this thing at home is practically the life of a ship girl. As the admiral, how could I do something like using my own ship girl's life to save an outsider...

A hint of apology slowly surfaced in Xiaobai's gaze as she looked at the sofa ship girl.

Just as Xiaobai was struggling with her thoughts, a warm breath moved from behind her to her ear.

"Please believe in the Goddess of the Stove... She will definitely heal them." A clear and melodious voice rang out behind Xiaobai.

Xiaobai turned around and saw the third ship girl in the living room standing behind her, holding a cup of hot water. She handed the cup to Xiaobai with a concerned look on her face.

"Ah... thank you..." Xiaobai took the hot water cup handed to her by the ship girl and nodded slightly. "Hmm... I believe in Miss Vestal..."

After Xiaobai said she believed in the goddess of the hearth, a look of joy and pride appeared on the ship girl's face. She turned around, went to the water dispenser, filled another cup with hot water, walked to Xiaobai's side, and handed it to Changchun who was standing next to her.

"Would you like a drink, little sister? It's been cold lately, a drink will warm you up."

"Thank you, sister." Changchun obediently took the thermos, rubbing her hands together against it. "It's so warm..."

"The rooms in Kyoto don't have heating, and the windows aren't double-glazed, so the cold air easily gets into the rooms in winter. Keeping warm is a very important thing in winter," the ship girl said to Xiaobai and Changchun.

"Eh... from what you're saying, it seems you live in the north?" Changchun looked at the ship girl curiously.

"Yes, because it's very cold up north, our houses have ample insulation." The ship girl nodded. "Little sister, are you also a ship girl from the north?"

“Ah… I guess so…” Changchun smiled, holding the cup in his hands. “Well… although my naval base isn’t in the north… because of the ship’s name, I have some memories of living in very cold places.”

"Oh, I see... Maybe we're even related? Little sister, what's your ship's name?"

"I'm……"

Boom!

Just as Changchun was chatting with the ship girl, there was a soft knocking sound at the door of the living room.

Everyone looked towards the living room doorway, where the Goddess of the Hearth stood with a ship girl. The Goddess of the Hearth held the door shut, her face long and she looked at the ship girl standing behind Xiaobai with a displeased expression.

The ship girl, who was trying to get closer to Changchun, quickly shut her mouth, looked at the goddess of the hearth, and hurriedly walked towards her.

"Sister Goddess of the Hearth! You're back!"

Her expression and lines were exactly the same as when Xiaobai walked in. It made Xiaobai wonder if she did this every time the Goddess of the Hearth brought back a ship girl patient.

Chapter 1681 White Microscope

Of course, this time the goddess of the hearth still ignored the ship girl who came up to her.

Ignoring the ship girl's greeting, the female hearth goddess led the ship girl patients behind her to Xiaobai, then stretched out her finger, trembling, and earnestly asked Xiaobai and Changchun a question.

"You just spoke to that person?"

"Ah... um, we just chatted for a bit..." Xiaobai and Changchun looked at the female hearth god with strange expressions, their gazes sweeping over the ship girl standing at the door.

Even though the ship girl was ignored by the goddess of the hearth, she didn't show any sadness or resentment. Like a lucky cat, her friendly smile remained unmoved. Since the goddess of the hearth ignored her, she simply stood by the door and looked in this direction.

That's quite a thick skin...

Why does her relationship with the goddess of the hearth seem a bit strange?

Xiao Bai murmured to himself.

"Then you must never pay any attention to her in the future," the female Kitchen Goddess hurriedly instructed Xiaobai and Changchun, her index finger trembling.

"Huh? Why..."

"It's not convenient for me to explain right now, but just ignore her for now!" the female Kitchen Goddess explained to Xiaobai.