Elder brother's garrison

“It was brewed by the seniors.” Missouri noticed Elizabeth’s confusion, pointed behind her, and smiled at Elizabeth.

Elizabeth looked in the direction Missouri was pointing.

On the beach where the newbie naval girls were stationed, a bonfire had been lit. Several girls were roasting tea over the fire, while the rest of the newbie naval girls were gathered around it, most of them holding a cup of hot tea. They squatted on the beach, sipping their tea from time to time, and occasionally casting glances in their direction.

"...When...did you...?"

“There are many ways to wait, and the seniors chose a more relaxed one… This is also to conserve the energy expended during this time, so that they can face the possible battles ahead in the best possible condition.” Missouri explained with a smile to Elizabeth, and handed the tea to Elizabeth again. “Elizabeth-senpai, what do you think?”

“…I’ve learned a lot.” Elizabeth stared at Missouri in a daze. After a few seconds, she lowered her head slightly and took the tea that Missouri offered. “…Thank you, Missouri.”

“You’re too kind, senior. Actually, it was Akagi-senpai and the others’ idea to bring the tea over,” Missouri said. “After all, as a ship girl, watching your admiral fight on the front lines despite his injuries, seeing his body weaken little by little without being able to help, would be unbearable for anyone… But even so, please, Elizabeth-senpai, try to calm yourself down, drink some water, and prepare for the possible battles ahead.”

"Yes, I will." Elizabeth picked up her water glass and gulped down two mouthfuls of the scalding hot tea.

“…If you find observing Admiral Haoding’s injuries to be a painful ordeal, then Missouri can take over the observation.” Missouri watched Elizabeth finish her tea and then slowly spoke to her, “After all… watching when your admiral will reach his limit is a bit too cruel for you to do.”

"..." After listening to Missouri's words, Elizabeth's fingers tightened slightly as she held the water glass, her knuckles turning a little white. However, she quickly shook her head and looked at Missouri seriously. "Thank you very much... But my admiral... is doing what he believes is right and is persisting in his goal no matter what. So, as a ship girl, I also want to fulfill my duty and accompany him to the end with these eyes."

“This is the right thing to do.” Missouri nodded and said to Elizabeth with admiration.

"..." Elizabeth gave Missouri a forced smile, "...However, once my admiral can't hold on any longer, this beach will be in your hands, Missouri, and your admiral's."

"Please rest assured and leave it to us. Admiral Missouri will not let your efforts and those of your admiral go to waste," Missouri nodded and replied softly.

"Thank you." Elizabeth handed the half-empty glass of water back to Missouri.

"Senior, may Missouri ask a few questions?"

"Ah."

"This inquiry is for the sake of our upcoming plans... Given Admiral Haoding's condition, how much longer can he possibly stay on the beach?"

“…Under normal circumstances, the Admiral can stay on the beach for three hours. However, since the last deep-sea counterattack, he spent an entire day directing operations on the beach, which caused his body to be invaded by the deep-sea aura. As a result, it has become very difficult for him to approach this beach again—it is possible that…this time, the Admiral will not be able to hold on for more than an hour,” Elizabeth replied.

“An hour…” Missouri glanced at Admiral Haoding’s expression and nodded. “Missouri understands. Missouri will inform the other senior officers in the naval base to prepare for taking over in an hour.”

"Thank you."

"...Missouri is the one we should thank."

"?"

"When the admiral from Missouri came over just now, you could have come out and stopped us, but you chose to pretend you didn't see her, right? Given the relationship between the admiral and you, if you had stepped forward to stop her, the admiral wouldn't have been able to treat you the same way he treats other ship girls. By tacitly allowing the admiral to come over, you've already done us a lot of work."

“…Ah…um.” Elizabeth nodded slightly, a bitter smile on her face. “It’s this…”

"Why do you trust the Admiral of Missouri so much, senior?" Missouri asked Elizabeth.

"...Is this a question asked in preparation for the upcoming battle?"

"This is just Missouri's personal question. If it's inconvenient for you to answer, you don't have to," Missouri said with a smile.

"..." Elizabeth lowered her head, pondered for a moment, her gaze somewhat lost. "I... I don't know. Maybe it's because I know that stopping you is futile... or maybe it's because I know your naval base is powerful, or maybe..."

"Is it still possible?"

"...It could also be...I just feel...if it were Admiral Lu Lin, she would probably have a way to resolve the current predicament."

Elizabeth's voice was ethereal.

-

at the same time.

The other side of the beach.

"What?! Find Dean Shenhai?!" Shenhai Yamato was stunned for a moment after hearing Xiaobai's words.

"Yes. Find the Deep Sea Dean." Xiaobai nodded seriously. "Judging from the current situation, the Deep Sea Dean of Chapter Eight must be spying on the beach in some way. That's why she learned that Admiral Haoding is currently being corrupted by the aura of the deep sea. Even with the Deep Sea Dean's eyesight, it's impossible for her to directly observe this place from the deepest part of the ocean. So I think this Deep Sea Dean has most likely come to the vicinity with these Deep Sea Abyssal Ships!"

"Hmm...that makes sense..." Deep Sea Yamato nodded thoughtfully, then his eyes lit up as he nodded to Shiro and said, "That's right! This deep-sea counterattack was planned by the Deep Sea Dean. If she's hiding deep in the ocean, then there's nothing we can do. But if she's followed us to the nearby waters, as long as we can find the Deep Sea Dean, who is the mastermind behind it all, we can just crush her without hesitation. Without the Deep Sea Dean's leadership, this group of deep-sea amphibious ships will also collapse!"

"Yes!" Xiaobai nodded excitedly, grabbed Deepsea Yamato's arm, and asked, "That's it!"

"Xiao Bai, you're such a genius! You even noticed that!"

"Hehe, no..."

"Don't be modest, don't be modest, you're amazing!"

"Alright, alright..." Xiaobai scratched her head sheepishly. She tugged at Shenhai Yamato's sleeve and said to her, "Yamato-neechan, do you have a way to find Dean Shenhai?"

"No!" Yamato Akagi replied instantly.

Xiao Bai stood there dumbfounded.

Chapter 1850 Homemade Methods

"Yamato-neechan, you... as the head of the Deep Sea Academy, didn't you find a way to find other Deep Sea Academy heads?" Shiro stared blankly at Deep Sea Yamato and murmured as she asked.

"Uh... how should I put it... actually... to be honest, there are ways, but I can't use them in this situation..." Abyssal Yamato shrank back, scratching her head, and said to Shiro with an embarrassed look, "Shiro, it's like this. Normally, when we Abyssal Deans want to find other Abyssal Deans, we rely on sensing the aura of Abyssal Deans at sea—in this respect, it's actually similar to how you ship girls sense Abyssal targets, except that compared to you ship girls, the sensing range between us Abyssal Deans is much farther and more precise—just like the radar you humans use, it beeps and it finds you in a flash."

"Isn't this a good idea? Why doesn't it work now..." Xiaobai wondered.

“Yes.” Abyssal Yamato pointed to the fiercely contested sea surface. “I told you it was radar… You see, the ocean is usually very open… Finding someone on an open sea is a simple matter, but now there are tens of thousands of deep-sea creatures in this small area, and so many ship girls are fighting against them. There’s just too much information displayed on my radar. The little red dots are almost filling the map. There are too many interfering factors, both in terms of sound and presence. Even I can’t locate them using this method under these conditions…”

"Uh..." Xiaobai was stunned. "Then... then there's no other way?"

"That's all... Speaking of which, I heard that your Admiral Network also has a function to find people, right? Why don't you give it a try..." Akami Yamato asked Akami Yamato.

"Uh... I'm not quite there either..." Xiaobai shrank back slightly and sighed softly. "My admiral network works on a similar principle to how you, Yamato-neechan, find people. I'm the same way. There are too many distracting targets on the sea right now... If this Deep Sea Dean hides her figure and aura, in this environment, even if I wanted to find her precisely, it would be quite difficult. At least... I need to have seen her once and know what her aura is like..."

"So, Xiaobai, your radar is a bit more advanced than mine."

"No matter how advanced it is, it's useless... I still can't find it..."

Speaking of it.

Shiro and Yamato looked up at each other, then both sighed.

"Ugh……"

"Ugh……"

Xiaobai felt like he finally had a moment of clarity and managed to deduce that the Deep Sea Dean was in the nearby waters. However, to his utter surprise, his and Deep Sea Yamato's method of finding the Deep Sea Dean failed them in the chaotic battlefield...

It's incredibly frustrating in every sense of the word.

"What should we do? Should we go back?" Yamato Abyss scratched his head, looking troubled as he asked Shiro. "We can't do anything about this Dean Abyss right now, and staying here won't do any good. Should we hurry back and tell the others that Dean Abyss is on the surface of the sea?"

"Go back...?" Xiaobai sighed and shook her head after hearing Abyssal Yamato's words. "No need for that. Actually, even if we told Admiral Haoding and the others, it wouldn't make a difference. Even you, Yamato-neechan, can't find the Abyssal Dean, so how could the ship girls find him..."

"Uh." Deep Sea Yamato trembled slightly, clutching her stomach and bowing her head with a look of shame. "I'm sorry, Shiro... I don't know what happened, but I feel like I'm carrying a pretty big burden on my shoulders..."

"Ah? No, no, no! Really not!" Xiaobai quickly waved her hand, took a deep breath, and gave Shenhai Yamato an encouraging smile. "I didn't mean to blame you, Yamato-neechan. What I mean is, instead of going back now, why don't we take advantage of this time alone to think about a way to find out Dean Shenhai?"

"Oh, oh, oh!" Yamato Akami perked up, tapping her chin and thinking seriously for a while. "But I understand the logic. We Akami Deans don't really have a way to contact each other. The method I mentioned before about sensing the Akami Deans was just a unique application of my enemy detection ability. Now that method doesn't work, and I can't think of any other way for the time being..."

"Hmm... I see..." Shiro squinted, covered her head, and thought for a while with some distress before hesitantly saying, "Then... Yamato-neechan, how about we don't do it this way..."

"You have a solution, Shiro?" Yamato asked in surprise.

"I don't know if this can be considered a solution..." Xiaobai sighed, turned around and knelt on the beach, muttering to herself as she took out a small backpack from her ship equipment space. Then, in front of Abyssal Yamato, she opened the backpack and began searching inside.

"Shiro? What are you looking for?" Yamato Akagi curiously approached Shiro.

“This is the wilderness survival kit that Lexington gave me before. He said that if something happened to me, there would be some wilderness survival tools in here that could help… Ah, found it!” Xiaobai replied, and then took out two thick, long black tubes from the backpack. Xiaobai then handed one of the black tubes to Deep Sea Yamato, “Yamato-neechan, you take this.”

The tube that Xiaobai handed to Deep Sea Yamato was completely black, with one end for sucking and the other end for thickening. Its shape was somewhat subtle and also somewhat familiar.

Deep Sea Yamato felt he should recognize this thing, but couldn't recall its name for the time being.

"What's this?" Yamato took the tube from Shiro and instinctively twisted it. With a pop, she removed a pair of caps from both ends of the tube, revealing the lenses inside. "Huh? This is... a telescope?!"

"Yes, a telescope for wilderness survival!" Xiaobai nodded seriously at Shenhai Yamato.

Why did you take this out?

"Hey, Yamato-neechan, since none of our methods for finding the Abyssal Dean have worked, let's just use the most basic method... and search the Abyssal fleet one by one with our eyes. The Abyssal Dean's appearance is quite striking..." Shiro said earnestly to Yamato of the Abyssal Fleet. As she spoke, she clenched her little fist and cheered, "Yamato-neechan, I believe that as long as we are serious enough, we will definitely find the Abyssal Dean!"

"Ah..." Yamato Akagi stood there dumbfounded, holding the binoculars in his hands, not knowing what to say for a moment. "Shiro... are you serious?"

"Yes. Seriously."

"There are tens of thousands of deep-sea creatures here... and even with binoculars, we probably can't see the very back of them..."

"Yeah... but that's still better than us just sitting here doing nothing... I only have two binoculars, and these two are quite expensive. They're specially made to complement the ship girls' eyesight, and they work better than regular binoculars." As Xiaobai spoke, she raised the binoculars and looked towards the distant sea battle line.

"..." Yamato looked at Shiro silently. After a while, she sighed helplessly, stood up, moved closer to Shiro, and raised her binoculars to search the distant battle line. "Alright... let's just keep searching..."

"Thank you, Yamato-neechan!"

"You're welcome, we're practically family..." Yamato Akami glanced helplessly at the girl beside him, who was both his younger sister and his crush, and muttered, "I wonder when the Akami Dean of Chapter Eight will finally show her face... Hmm... Speaking of which, didn't you just say that the Akami Dean was watching the beach in some way? If she sees us looking for her with binoculars, will she just hide away and never come out again?"

"Ah... don't worry about that, I've considered that possibility." Xiaobai held up her binoculars and answered decisively, "Although I don't know how the Deep Sea Dean of Chapter Eight observed the beach, I'm pretty sure she couldn't see all the scenery on the beach at a glance. This is a blind spot on the beach. The reason I took you away from Admiral Haoding's side with you, Yamato, was to pull us away from him... After all, in the eyes of the Deep Sea Dean of Chapter Eight, paying attention to Admiral Haoding's condition is definitely a priority than paying attention to our condition right now."

"Eh? So, Xiaobai, you don't recommend that we go back and tell the other ship girls the news because of this reason?"

"Huh? Uh... sort of. Yeah."

"...A brilliant strategy!" Yamato Akagi looked at Shiro with delight.

Xiao Bai gave an awkward laugh.

Shiro and Yamato, each holding a telescope, peered out at the surface of the sea, searching carefully and diligently.

Even with the vision of a ship girl and the assistance of high technology, searching for the Deep Sea Dean of a similar size in a sea full of deep-sea creatures with the naked eye is like looking for a needle in a haystack. In particular, Shiro and Yamato don't know if the Deep Sea Dean is in a blind spot that even a telescope can't see.

However, at this moment, Shiro and Yamato couldn't do anything else. Rather than standing on the beach anxiously, they decided to use their binoculars to search for the time being while trying to think of other ways.

that's it.

Shiro and Yamato, holding binoculars, searched and searched, and an hour passed unnoticed amidst the sounds of gunfire.

-

The booming sound of artillery fire echoed in my ears as the steel shells, covered with deep-sea creatures, were shattered by the hard shells and scattered into the sea.

Compared to the fierce and deadly battles on the deep-sea front, the rear of the deep-sea creatures' fleet was relatively safe. Here, the deep-sea creatures were poised to attack, and as their comrades fell in battle, they continuously replenished their numbers, advancing wave after wave without fear.

At the very end of the deep-sea creature fleet, in an inconspicuous and very remote place, there exists a small hollow area.

Once the frenzied deep-sea creatures enter this area, they become unusually calm, not even daring to utter a roar. The deep-sea creatures move their bodies, clearing out an open area of ​​about ten square meters in this sea.

In the very center of this insignificant body of water stood a white-haired woman. She gently closed her eyes, her hands cupped in front of her chest, her long white hair fluttering in the wind. She was utterly serene, her delicate appearance a stark contrast to the frenzied deep-sea creatures nearby. She seemed like a foreign princess who did not belong here, radiating a strange sense of holiness and nobility.

But whenever the deep-sea creatures turned their gaze to this woman, a hint of fear and panic would appear in their eyes, which should have been fearless.

at last.

Just now.

The quiet woman's pink lips twitched slightly.

The deep-sea creatures around her were so frightened that they quickly spread outwards, as if afraid of disturbing this being, and black water splashed everywhere.

The woman showed no reaction to her surroundings; she simply continued to hold up her hands, her eyes gently closed, her long eyelashes fluttering in the breeze.

"almost……"

The woman took a soft breath.

"...Almost there..."

"It's the limit..."

Chapter 1851 Newbies Go into Battle

The battle on the sea has been going on for over an hour since Xiaobai and Shenhai Yamato left Admiral Haoding's side.

In the span of an hour, Haoding Garrison, relying on its overwhelming firepower and the seamless coordination between its dozen or so formations of over a hundred ship girls, annihilated hundreds of deep-sea amphibious ships. The shattered deep-sea wreckage covered the sea surface like a junkyard.

Even so, the number of deep-sea creatures fighting the Haoding Garrison on the sea surface did not decrease at all. Whenever a deep-sea creature was torn to pieces by the ship girls' firepower, rows of deep-sea creatures in the rear of the deep-sea fleet would rush out to fill the gaps. They rushed onto the battlefield and used the most foolish and hopeless method in the eyes of the ship girls, frantically consuming their own limbs and lives to fight against the ship girls.

The battle between Haoding Garrison and the deep-sea creatures doesn't seem to be going to end anytime soon.

However, compared to the fierce and chaotic main battlefield at sea, the atmosphere on the deserted beach was unusually quiet.

The edge of a deserted beach.

Two figures, facing the sea, overlapped one above the other, gazing at the distant battlefield where cannons roared.

"Shiro, have you found Dean Abyss?" Abyss Yamato asked Shiro, who was sitting on his neck, while holding up his binoculars.

"Um... I'm sorry... not yet." Sitting on Yamato's neck, Shiro held the binoculars up to her eyes, squinting at the image reflected in them. After a long while, she let out a long sigh and responded to Yamato beneath her.

Shiro and Yamato have been using their telescopes to search for the Deep Sea Dean of Chapter 8 for an hour now.