Elder brother's garrison

Empire was originally the kind of ship girl with an impressive bust. For someone with such large breasts, the increase of a few centimeters in bust size was diluted by her already very prominent base, so it was normal for people not to see any obvious changes in her at first.

Only someone like Yubari, who prefers to rely on data rather than his eyes, could spot the difference at a glance.

Thinking of this, Xiao Bai couldn't help but look to the side, her eyes shifting to Veneto beside her.

Veneto remained with her arms clasped tightly, trembling slightly as if she had suffered a great blow. Her head was lowered slightly, and her snow-white hair drooped down in front of her forehead, obscuring her eyes and making her breathing appear quite unstable.

"Big Sister, please calm down... calm down..." Rome sensed Veneto's change and quickly turned around, stammering as she tried to persuade Veneto, "The Empire is like a little sister to us... I know you're envious right now, but..."

“Veneto, Rome is right. For a ship girl, any growth in any part of her body is a rare and joyous event. We should congratulate the Empire.” Lexington also gently patted Veneto’s shoulder and bent down to say to Veneto.

“Veneto…” Xiaobai reached out her hand to Veneto with a complicated expression, “I…”

Just then, Veneto finally raised his head.

To everyone's surprise.

Although Veneto looked somewhat uneasy when she lowered her head, her expression was surprisingly normal when she raised her head again.

"I'm fine. In fact, I was just happy about the Empire's growth. Why are you all suddenly coming over to check on me, Admirals?" Veneto pouted, a rare sight for him, and asked the crowd.

"This..." Xiaobai quickly withdrew her hand, scratched her cheek with her fingers, and smiled sheepishly, "No...no, it's nothing..."

"That scared me to death..." Seeing that Veneto was calm, Roma couldn't help but let out a deep breath, turned around, patted his chest, and lowered his head.

But just as Rome was relaxing...

A small hand patted her shoulder from behind.

“Rome…” Veneto’s authoritative voice suddenly rang out behind Rome.

"Huh?!" Rome's shoulders twitched.

"I can let the Admiral and Lexington be, but Rome... you just said to me that you were envious, right?" Veneto's small hand gripped Rome's shoulder, and she slowly moved closer to him, her voice gradually becoming soft and resentful. "I don't quite understand what you just said... can you explain to me what I envy about the Empire?"

"Eek????! Big, big big sister, I, I didn't, I didn't... Eek!!" Roma was dragged to the factory gate by Veneto, who held his shoulders. Not long after, Roma's pig-like screams rang out from outside the gate.

Everyone silently watched the factory gate.

"Is Rome... alright?" Xiaobai asked worriedly.

"She should be fine. Rome is, after all, Veneto's sister. At least after those two sentences, she shouldn't be in any danger," Lexington said with a smile.

"Has it already escalated to a life-threatening level...?" Xiaobai broke out in a cold sweat. "Okay..."

“It’s just that the way the sisters get along is a little different from the others in the naval base. Veneto is a very sensible person, so there’s no problem.” Lexington chuckled, looking like she was very experienced in this area. “Instead of that, what you should do now, Xiaobai, is go and comfort the Empire that has just been renovated. They’ve been standing there for a long time. If you don’t pay attention to them, they might get sad.”

Xiao Bai only realized what was happening after hearing this.

Little White looked towards the Empire.

The Empire and Yubari stood directly in front of him, quietly watching.

Although the Empire's hairstyle and ship outfits have changed somewhat after the renovation, the overall atmosphere remains the same as before—tranquil and quiet. When everyone was discussing Veneto and Rome in front of her, the Empire simply looked over calmly, without any excitement or agitation at her successful renovation, nor any sense of dejection at being briefly ignored by everyone. She was quite composed.

Xiao Bai first smiled shyly at the Empire, then quickly walked up to the Empire and gave it a welcoming smile.

"Empire, congratulations on your successful transformation!"

"Thank you, Admiral."

The empire nodded, speaking normally.

"How did the Empire feel after the transformation was successful?" Xiaobai asked the Empire, looking it over with its attire.

"..." The Empire raised his hand, looked down at the palms of his hands, raised his eyes slightly, and then shook his head, "...I don't feel anything."

"It's alright if I don't feel anything." Xiaobai scratched his head.

Generally speaking, even if a ship girl doesn't have that "I'm full of power" feeling after being modified, she should at least have a sense of becoming stronger. Some modified ship girls might even be blinded by this strange feeling of becoming stronger, and their mentality might become inflated for a while.

The fact that the Empire claims it felt nothing after the modifications is truly a rare case.

Could it be that her transformation failed?

Xiao Bai's heart skipped a beat, and he looked at the Empire with some worry.

"Maybe... I have a little more strength now." Seeing that Xiaobai was speechless because of her answer, Empire remained silent for a while before adding.

"The Empire is really being modest." Just then, Yubari behind the Empire laughed heartily. She patted the Empire's shoulder and said to Shiro, "Admiral, don't worry, the Empire is definitely much stronger than before! I can't be sure about her actual combat strength, but at least in terms of ship equipment stats, the Empire is now a level above what it used to be!"

"The empire said she had no feelings..."

"Perhaps it's because she hasn't really had much combat or training in the Empire? Her concept of strength is still quite vague," Yubari explained.

"Oh! I see!" Xiaobai patted her chest in relief, then gave Yubari a wistful smile. "So, the Empire's transformation should be complete, right? As expected of Yubari, she accomplished such a difficult task all by herself in such a short time!"

"Hmm. Although accepting your praise, Admiral, isn't such a bad thing." Yubari nodded with his hands on his hips, hesitated slightly for a moment, and then said, "However, as a professional, I still have to clarify that the reason why the Empire's transformation went so smoothly and took so little time is not only because of my experience and professional expertise, but also because of another reason."

"What's the reason?"

“Another reason is the Empire’s own ship equipment.” Yubari shrank his hands and pointed to the Empire next to him, then said to Shiro, “Actually, I had a premonition when I first saw the Empire’s ship equipment, but at that time it was just some guesses and I didn’t dare to draw a conclusion. It wasn’t until I started to work on her modification plan that I was truly sure.”

At this point, Yubari gave Shiro a thumbs-up.

"I've discovered that the Empire's ship rigs are incredibly well-maintained!" Yubari said earnestly to Shiro. "Even though the Empire has never participated in training or combat, the level of its ship rigs is inexplicably maxed out. Moreover, both the ship rig's form and its level of completion are the highest I've ever seen—this highest level is different from the highest level achieved by Rome through gradual, meticulous training. The Empire feels more like it underwent a long period of invisible maintenance and fine-tuning shortly after its birth. The entire ship rig is like it's been molded into a mold, adjusted to its most potential and highest-level form. It's precisely because of this state that the Empire's modification was effortless for me. I only needed to follow the Empire's ship rig's form and direction, continue to leverage its strengths and avoid its weaknesses, and do some minor work. The modification process was naturally incredibly smooth."

“It’s been adjusted…” Xiaobai murmured Yubari’s words, blinking.

Huh?

Since its inception, the Empire has always been by the side of Veneto and Rome, and has almost no opportunity to come into contact with strangers. Veneto and Rome would also not allow outsiders to come into contact with the Empire at will. Therefore, what Yubari just said, that the Empire's ship equipment had undergone some kind of professional hidden maintenance, is basically impossible.

In other words.

Is it...

Xiaobai recalled that after Empire was born, because of her identity as a planned ship girl, her physical body in the real world quickly developed some symptoms of mental deficiency, causing her to often fall into a deep sleep and feel weak in her limbs. In the end, it was only after she followed Sukhbaatar's advice and used her own admiral network to personally nourish Empire for a long time that she gradually recovered her health.

Is it...

Yubari spoke of the people who maintained the empire...

Are you referring to yourself?

Chapter 1770 Sister and Sister Complex

Xiao Bai also lowered his head and glanced at his palm.

Xiaobai's network of admirals is so powerful because of her superhuman mental strength that she can often do things that ordinary admirals cannot imagine. Leaving aside the minor functions for now, the ability to instantly upgrade the ship girl's equipment level is enough to be astonishing.

Xiao Bai stared silently at his palm.

Could it be that……

In fact, besides improving the training level of ship girls, can one's spiritual power also improve the quality of ship girls' equipment, giving them better opportunities for modification?

Or rather, the reason why the Empire was able to enter a state of transformation was not only because she had been observing Rome's training and memorizing the training scenes of Rome, but also because of the contribution of her own network of admirals.

That would be really impressive.

Well known.

The training level of ship girls can be built up with time and resources. As long as you are willing to work hard, put in the effort, and spend the time, you can eventually max out the training level of any ship girl.

The ability of one's own admiral network to help ship girls max out their equipment levels is actually just a matter of shortening the time it takes for them to reach the maximum level, although the extent of this reduction is somewhat exaggerated.

But now, if one's own admiral network can not only help ship girls improve their training level, but also nurture their ship equipment, upgrade their ship equipment grade, and bring them opportunities for modification... then that's not an exaggeration, that's a magical problem.

As everyone knows, the opportunity to modify ship girls is extremely rare, one in a hundred and one in a thousand. Even in a behemoth like the Newbie Naval Base, which has conquered the world's number one, number two, number ten, and a series of other high-level naval bases with decent scale, the number of ship girls to be modified in the entire naval base is only a few hundred, accounting for less than 10% of the entire Newbie Naval Base.

If Xiaobai really could make the ship girls enter the pre-modification state at will, and modify all the ship girls in the newbie naval base who hadn't entered the modification state at the same time... that would be a huge boost... even if he had a brain fart, he could conquer the world without any problem, right?

Xiao Bai thought for a while, but instead of being pleasantly surprised, he suddenly became a little worried.

Even the slow-witted Xiaobai realized that if the admiral outside the naval base accidentally found out about his abilities, admirals from all over the world might be lining up at his naval base's gates the next day, and the admiral and governor-general would be eager to invite him to headquarters for tea, and then do all sorts of things to him...

Frankly, this development is a bit worrying.

Maybe I shouldn't tell Yubari...

"Admiral, what's wrong? Why are you suddenly not saying anything?" Yubari asked curiously when he saw that Shiro was just looking down and pondering something with a worried expression after listening to him.

"Huh? Ah...no, it's nothing." Xiaobai was taken aback. She subconsciously opened her mouth, but then shook her head and scratched her head sheepishly. "I was just a little distracted...where were we?"

"To be able to get distracted while talking about retrofitted ship girls, I must say you're truly worthy of being an admiral..." Yubari shook her head, both amused and exasperated, then sighed helplessly before perking up and giving Empire a thumbs-up. "Alright, alright, let's get back to business. Anyway, we were just talking about Empire's ship equipment... Speaking of which, Empire, it's time for you to summon your retrofitted ship equipment for them!"

As soon as the words "showcasing modified ship equipment" were uttered, Xiaobai and Lexington immediately turned their expectant gazes toward the Empire. Even the voices of Veneto and Rome, who had been passionately interacting outside, paused for a moment before the two of them poked their heads in from outside the door.

Without keeping her in suspense, the Empire gently raised her slender, snow-white fingers. A flash of white light appeared, and a pristine white aircraft carrier emerged from behind the Empire.

Compared to the Empire herself, the changes on her modified ship equipment were much greater. The Empire's modified ship equipment was much larger, more rugged, and more elegant than before, with an aura of spirits and totems.

However, for a complete novice like her, who was already clueless about ship equipment and was also burdened with land-based ship equipment, the impact of the Empire's modified ship equipment was rather average, and she couldn't figure out anything about it.

But the moment the Empire's ship equipment appeared, Lexington behind Xiaobai's eyes flickered slightly.

"What a magnificent ship outfit!" Lexington exclaimed.

"Is the Empire's modified ship equipment really that good?" Xiaobai asked curiously as he turned around.

"Hmm." Lexington scanned the Empire's ship rigging with the professional eyes of an aircraft carrier girl, nodding in satisfaction. "Because I'm also an aircraft carrier girl, I can see that the Empire's modified ship rigging is quite impressive. The runway curvature is excellent, and the hangar capacity below is large, especially the aircraft exits. When launching aircraft, no matter how many planes are launched at once, the ship rigging won't feel congested. It's a natural advantage. In addition, the distribution range of the ship rigging armor is also..."

As Lexington finished speaking, she noticed that Little White's eyes were starting to swirl, so she closed her mouth and smiled slightly at Little White.

"In short, Xiaobai, just think of it as the Empire's modified ship equipment being excellent."

"Oh! I understand!" Xiaobai nodded.

“Although it has just been modified, we should first celebrate with you, my little sister, the Empire…” Lexington looked at the Empire’s ship equipment with a look of great interest in her eyes. She asked the Empire and Yubari, “However, would you like to go to the training ground for some exercise before celebrating? I can be your sparring partner.”

"Lexington, you?" Little White looked at Lexington in surprise.

"Well, it's already after get off work, after all." Lexington smiled at Xiaobai. "Making a little time shouldn't be a problem, Admiral and Imperial Sister, what do you think?"

"Oh, I think it's great!" Xiaobai raised his hand.

Lexington is one of the most experienced carrier ship girls in the newbie naval base. Her strength is definitely enough to be an mentor to any carrier ship girl.

It just so happens that Veneto and Roma are both battleships, and they are completely incapable of teaching the Empire, which is an aircraft carrier ship girl, how to fight. The Empire is currently in need of someone who can mentor her. It would be perfect if Lexington, a naval commander, could take the time to volunteer to be the Empire's sparring partner.

—On the premise that the empire doesn't want to slack off.

Xiao Bai still looked at the Empire with some worry.

Before the transformation, the Empire had no interest in combat or training. It seemed that in her mind, being a parasite in a naval base was more enjoyable. Now, the Empire has also undergone transformation and possesses top-notch aircraft carrier equipment, but those changes are only superficial. Xiaobai is not sure if the Empire still retains its previous attitude towards life. If she still wants to slack off and read books after the transformation, then even if Lexington is willing to teach her, it will be useless.

Little White looked at the Empire.

As expected, Empire remained the same as before, her face displaying the same quiet and composed demeanor she had before the transformation. Even upon hearing the news that Lexington was going to be her sparring partner, she didn't show much excitement, only a slight twitch between her eyebrows.

then.

Under Xiaobai's tense gaze, the Empire nodded slightly and surprisingly readily agreed to Lexington's request.

"Hmm," the Empire responded. "Good."

-

When everyone left the workshop and arrived at the training ground, it was already late, and there weren't many ship girls still training on the training ground of the naval base, which strictly followed the base's schedule.

"Huh? Admiral? And Lexington-senpai?" On the beach of the training ground, Rodney, wearing a bright yellow hat with the words "Volunteer" prominently displayed, was carrying a trash bag in one hand and holding a used quick-repair device in the other. He looked at Xiaobai and his group walking towards him in surprise. "And Yubari, Veneto, Roma, Imperial Sister... what brings you all here at this time?"

"Rodney, good afternoon..." Everyone stopped in front of Rodney, looking at the yellow hat on his head with a knowing expression. "What's that on your head...?"

"Oh? This? This..." Rodney smiled and took off his hat. "My sister and I are volunteering here, cleaning up the trash on the beach for everyone who's focused on training. Isn't this hat cute?"

As he spoke, Rodney smiled sweetly and held up the yellow hat on his head.

Usually, these beach volunteer jobs are done by destroyers who have nowhere to vent their energy in the naval base, so the volunteers' equipment is mostly tailor-made for destroyers. This hat is also a standard elementary school cap, still childish. Now, when this hat is worn by Rodney, who looks mature, everyone just thinks it's strange... strangely cute.

“It looks pretty good…” Xiaobai said to Rodney with a smile. “Um, Rodney, we’re here to install it on the Imperial experimental modified ship.”

"Huh? Modified ship equipment? Imperial sister modified it?" Rodney's eyes lit up when she heard this. She quickly threw what she was holding behind her, clenched her fist, and ran to Imperial. She grabbed Imperial's hand and examined her closely. "Imperial sister actually modified it? I had no idea! Congratulations, Imperial sister! I thought Rome's modification would be faster than yours!"

"Uh." Rome clutched his chest.

“Everyone has their own destiny,” Veneto said to Rodney, now back to normal, arms crossed.

“That’s true!” Rodney nodded with a smile. As she said this, she turned around and waved to the beach behind her, shouting, “Sis—sis—! Come here quickly! Something big has happened!”

As Rodney shouted, a brown figure rose on the distant beach amidst the crowd's gaze.

Then, Nelson, wearing the same volunteer hat as Rodney and carrying a fishing rod, jogged over from a distance.

Compared to Rodney, Nelson seemed more serious about wearing the volunteer hat; she even properly fastened the black strap on the hat to her chin.

"What's wrong with Rodney? Is something wrong...? Admiral?" Nelson asked as he ran towards them, looking somewhat surprised when he saw Little White next to Rodney.