Elder brother's garrison

Chapter 2085 Scored twice

Ever since Xiao Bai opened up to Luo Lian and told her and Guild Master Er Gou many secrets about the newbie garrison and even Xiao Bai himself, Luo Lian's ability to accept things has improved dramatically. Now, it's hard for anything to genuinely surprise Luo Lian.

As Xiaobai said at the beginning, things like there is a deep-sea kingdom in the depths of Chapter 8, where several deep-sea deans who do not fight live in peace, etc., although they sound like a fantasy in every sense, the idea that a newbie garrison is raising hundreds of obedient deep-sea deans sounds even more exaggerated.

Luo Lian said that she had already seen a lot of things.

These are all minor incidents now; I can handle them.

But when Xiao Bai said the last sentence, Luo Lian said she couldn't hold back anymore.

"Xiao Bai, what did you say?" Luo Lian's eyes widened in surprise as she looked at Xiao Bai. "There's a Deep Sea Dean in the Deep Sea Kingdom who's even stronger than you?"

"Hmm...it seems so." Xiaobai nodded.

"You fought with her?" Luo Lian keenly sensed the uncertainty in Xiao Bai's voice and quickly asked.

"No, I haven't fought yet." Xiaobai shook his head.

"Then how did you know she was better than you, Xiaobai?" Luo Lian frowned.

"This... it's thanks to the combat power tester you gave me." Xiaobai replied, then dejectedly took out the wreckage of the glasses frame from the ship's equipment space. "Oh right, speaking of this, I should apologize to you... you just gave me a spare, and I broke it after only using it for a short while."

"It's broken?" Luo Lian noticed the broken glasses in Xiao Bai's hand and couldn't help but wonder. She took the glasses and examined them with a smile. "Hmm... it seems like there was a short circuit in the wiring inside the frame that's responsible for receiving messages. The circuit accumulated a lot of heat in an instant, and the high temperature caused the battery inside the receiver to explode... Are you hurt?"

"No."

"That's good... It's my fault, I should have taken some safety precautions." Luo Lian breathed a sigh of relief. "Xiao Bai, what were you doing with those glasses before?"

"I didn't do anything special, I just wore it to observe someone," Xiaobai replied.

"I observed someone..." Luo Lian fiddled with the inside of her glasses, paused for a moment, then nodded thoughtfully, "Is it the Deep Sea Dean you just mentioned, the one whose combat power is higher than yours?"

"Hmm." Xiaobai nodded, her gaze complicated. "I clearly observed myself in the mirror before, and I could see my stats without any problems. But when I wore these glasses to observe that Deep Sea Dean, the combat power measuring device malfunctioned and exploded. Doesn't that mean that the Deep Sea Dean's stats are higher than mine...?"

"..." Luo Lian listened to Xiao Bai's words, raised her head, and stared at Xiao Bai for a while.

"Lianlian? What's wrong?" Xiaobai asked.

“…Phew.” Luo Lian breathed a sigh of relief. “I thought you were going to say something… Turns out it’s because of this…”

"W-what's wrong?" Xiao Bai asked curiously, seeing Luo Lian's sudden relaxation.

"What I mean is, Xiaobai, you're overthinking it." Luo Lian casually picked up a screwdriver from the workbench and started disassembling the glasses frame, saying as she did so, "That Deep Sea Dean's strength may indeed be a dimension stronger than an ordinary Deep Sea Dean, but it's not necessarily stronger than you."

"Huh? Why?" Xiaobai was taken aback.

"Because this is a spare." Luo Lian waved the broken glasses in her hand and explained to Xiao Bai, "Isn't it natural that the quality of a spare is not as good as the original? This pair of glasses is different from the regular product that I gave you before, which has been improved and optimized many times. This is just a test piece that I made to test my ideas. Since it was my first time making it, there are many things I didn't consider in terms of structure, especially in terms of aura reception. I didn't choose a more stable one... Ah, sorry, you probably don't understand what I'm saying, right?"

Luo Lian was halfway through her sentence when she saw Xiao Bai staring blankly at her, so she smiled at Xiao Bai.

"To put it simply, the quality and stability of this thing are far inferior to the one I gave you before," Luo Lian explained to Xiao Bai. "It becomes very easy to damage when trying to receive the aura of an overly powerful target. So, even if you had used this thing to observe yourself, the result would probably have been the same."

"Huh? Is that so?"

"It's true."

"Why didn't you tell me before, Lianlian...?"

"You can think of me as someone who only knows things after the fact..." Luo Lian sighed with some regret, "It's not just you, I myself only realized how low its measurement limit was when I first got the remains of this thing."

"Uh..." Xiaobai blinked, "So that means... that Dean Shenhai's combat power isn't actually stronger than mine?"

"Hmm." Luo Lian nodded. At this moment, she had already torn open the glasses frame in her hand and taken out a blackened, cube-shaped object from inside. Then, in front of Xiao Bai, she installed a brand new component and pressed the broken power button on the glasses frame again. "If you don't believe me, we can do a small experiment."

"What test?"

"War-weary." Luo Lian called out to the person behind her, handing over the glasses in her hand. "Could you hold this for me?"

"Oh." Warspite took the glasses.

"I just changed the battery in these glasses and fixed the circuitry so they can start up for a little while longer," Luo Lian said as she walked behind Warspite. Then she said to Warspite, "Warspite, put on your glasses."

"...Admiral, I have a feeling you're plotting against me." Warspite looked at the broken, blackened glasses frame with a look of resistance.

"Don't worry, trust me, everything will be alright," Luo Lian encouraged, hiding behind Yan Zhan.

“…Okay.” Warspite put on his glasses. “And then?”

"Look at Little White."

"I checked, but there's no reaction," Warspite said, adjusting his glasses and staring at Little White.

"Little White hasn't even exerted its full strength yet." Luo Lian gave Little White an OK sign. "Little White, activate your ship equipment power a little and let your aura show."

"Oh, oh..." Xiaobai responded subconsciously, then raised the ship's power, preparing to activate the ship's power throughout his body.

"boom!!!"

However, just as Xiaobai's ship equipment power was activated, before it even began to circulate on the surface of his body, the glasses on Warspite's head suddenly emitted a blinding light. Then, with a loud bang, the glasses on Warspite's head were blown to pieces like a powder keg, with fragments flying in all directions.

"Ouch!!" Warspite cried out in pain, a noticeable black smudge appearing on her face from her glasses. She staggered a few steps, clutching her cheek, then glared angrily at Luo Lian, "Admiral! You...you...you lied to me! Didn't you just say you were fine?!"

"You're really alright." Luo Lian gave Warspite a thumbs up. "You're a ship girl. This little explosion wouldn't even destroy one of your eyelashes. At most, it'll just be enough to wash your face."

"I'm so angry I'm stomping my feet, and even blurting out a few royal curses."

"Wash your face, thank you for your hard work." Luo Lian handed Yan Zhan a towel, her eyes full of gratitude.

"What a disaster!" Warspite sighed, grabbed a towel, wiped his face, and ran to the bathroom.

Luo Lian watched Warspite leave, and only after Warspite entered the bathroom did Luo Lian turn her gaze to Xiao Bai.

"Look, if you were the target of the observation, you would have been blown up too, right? And this time the explosion was even more thorough, it couldn't even be recovered after three attempts." Luo Lian shrugged.

"Oh, I see..." Xiaobai looked awkwardly at the closed bathroom door. "Um... Lianlian, you don't actually need to do the experiment. Just tell me the results and I'll believe you..."

“Even the best programmers in the world have to run their code a few times after they finish writing it,” Luo Lian said to Xiao Bai. “I was just verifying my own conjecture just now. There’s no other way. After all, there were only three of us here, and I’m just an ordinary human. If I were to observe you, that explosion would have blown my head to pieces. So I can only ask for Warspite’s help.”

“…Alright.” Xiaobai sighed and lowered his head. “If that’s the case…it seems that Frederick the Great’s combat power isn’t as exaggerated as I thought.”

“But she is indeed several levels stronger than the average Deep Sea Dean, that’s true. At least when I was testing spare parts, I went outside the factory to interview some Deep Sea maids and ship girls who passed by, and I could see that their stats were normal.” Luo Lian nodded. “Xiao Bai, you’d better not let your guard down with her. That Deep Sea Dean named Frederick the Great… her strength is probably not as great as yours, but it has indeed reached a level that is enough to threaten you.”

"Yes, I'll be careful..." Xiaobai patted her chest and asked Luo Lian again, "Ah... by the way, Lianlian, can you still extract her data from the wreckage of the glasses?"

“The spare glasses don’t have a storage function, so they can’t be retrieved. But if you want them, Xiaobai, I can add a storage function to the genuine glasses. Anyway, I’m going to add some other functions to them.” Luo Lian asked, tapping her chin. “Want it?”

"Uh...no, never mind...when will the genuine glasses be finished?"

"Hmm... let's wait a couple of days."

"Ok."

"Are you in a hurry?"

"...A little...but it's alright, a few days later is fine." Xiao Bai smiled at Luo Lian.

Chapter 2086 The Happiness of Shipping a Couple

The genuine glasses would need to be processed by Luo Lian for another two days. Knowing that Luo Lian had a lot of work to do, Xiao Bai didn't stay and disturb her.

Before leaving, Shiro found the game console left by Yubari, turned on the surveillance footage of Missouri's room, briefly observed Missouri's condition, and then left.

Little White returned to the Bismarck family home.

At this moment, all the windows in Bismarck's house were open, and the empty beer bottles that had been scattered on the ground were collected and neatly stacked in the corner into square glass bricks. The heavy smell of alcohol in the air had dissipated considerably, and a cool breeze was blowing. The directors of the Abyss Sea Academy sat on the floor with their collars open and their faces flushed with alcohol, fanning each other with palm-leaf fans.

It seems these deep-sea deans have sobered up a little.

As Xiaobai walked into the living room, he looked at the state of everything that needed to be rebuilt and thought to himself.

"Admiral, you're back." Super Yamato, who was squatting next to Abyssal Yamato and fanning her to sober up, was the first to notice Shiro. She turned around, holding a palm-leaf fan, and obediently responded to Shiro. Her voice was not loud, but it appropriately attracted the attention of the other Abyssal directors in the living room.

"Huh? Shiro? You, you're back!" Yamato turned her head groggily and looked at Shiro. A hint of embarrassment flashed in her eyes. She quickly turned around and tried to stand up several times, but Shiro, who was walking over, interrupted her with a smile.

"Yamato-neechan, don't force yourself, just sit and rest. You must have been feeling cooped up at home these past few days, Yamato-neechan, having a little drink to relax is fine. I don't blame you." Shiro stopped in front of Deep Sea Yamato and smiled at her.

"Ah...uh...um." Yamato Fukami hesitated.

"No problem, a tolerant admiral is no problem." The voice of the guild leader Er Gou came from the sofa next to him.

Following the sound, Xiao Bai looked over and saw President Er Gou sprawled on the sofa, waving at him with a grin: "Hey, Xiao Bai, you're back so early! Did you get everything sorted out over there?"

"President Sister... well, I guess so..." Xiaobai smiled awkwardly. She looked up and down at President Er Gou's sofa, then searched in his empty arms, and asked curiously, "Speaking of which, President Sister, wasn't Bai Ying always clinging to you? Where is she now?"

Xiao Bai still remembers that this morning, Bai Ying, who was completely drunk, clung to her like a child, calling her "Mommy" repeatedly. If it weren't for President Er Gou suddenly having a burst of maternal instinct and offering to take care of the "child," Xiao Bai really wouldn't know how to get away for a while.

"Ah—you mean that white-haired guy, right?" Guild Master Er Gou nodded, scratched her cheek, and explained to Xiao Bai, "Actually, Xiao Bai, you should understand if you take a look at your family's situation, right?"

"Huh? What do you understand?"

"Look." President Er Gou gestured with his chin towards the dazed Deep Sea Deans scattered on the ground. "Look at them."

"Yamato and the others? What happened to them?"

"They were all sober this morning, but they're mostly sober now. The white-haired one you entrusted to me has also sobered up," said President Er Gou, shrugging his shoulders with a hint of regret.

"Ah... what the president means is that Bai Ying has returned to normal?" Xiao Bai understood.

"No, I only said she sobered up, not that she's back to normal." President Er Gou yawned.

"...Huh?" Xiaobai was a little confused by what Guild Master Ergou had said. She quickly asked, "Then, Guild Master, where is Bai Ying now?"

"Over there." President Er Gou rested his chin on his hand and pointed to the corner of the living room.

Following the direction of President Er Gou's finger, Xiao Bai noticed a snow-white, spherical object crouching under the dining table in the living room.

Xiao Bai raised an eyebrow.

Oh.

It's not a ball.

It's Miss Bai Ying.

Miss Bai Ying was already short in stature. When she huddled in corners, under beds, or under tables, her soft body curled into a ball, her white hair covering her body. She looked like a lizard with camouflage, and with the help of blind spots and shadows, she was hard to spot.

"It seems that after sobering up, she clearly remembered everything she had done before. Like clinging to you and calling you 'Mom,' not letting you leave, and staying in my arms the whole time," President Er Gou explained to Xiao Bai. "Hey, maybe she felt embarrassed, so she went to stay over there after sobering up. If you ask me, it really wasn't necessary. Everyone has a bit of a dark past, right?"

"Uh... I see." Xiaobai gave a wry smile.

Xiao Bai tiptoed and slowly walked towards the dining table where Bai Ying was. She bent down, holding onto the tabletop, and softly called out to Bai Ying under the table.

"Miss Bai Ying?"

Upon hearing this, the spherical white ball under the table trembled slightly, and then quickly moved several steps further inside.

The desktop backgrounder smiled helplessly.

As for Bai Ying's drunken antics this morning—Xiao Bai didn't think much of it. In fact, when Bai Ying called her "Mom" in a coquettish way, she even found Bai Ying somewhat cute. But if she put herself in Bai Ying's shoes, it was indeed quite embarrassing for Bai Ying, who was several hundred years old, to call a girl in her early twenties "Mom" and cling to her. It was normal for her to have such a reaction after sobering up.

Let Bai Ying stay by herself for a while.

Seeing that Bai Ying was avoiding him, Xiao Bai didn't try to talk to her anymore. He just said "See you tonight" and left the table, returning to Chao Da and his side.

"Little White, are you going back to Chapter 8 again?" Guild Master Er Gou asked, sprawled on the sofa.

"Mm." Xiaobai nodded.

"Sigh, what a busy man." President Er Gou rolled over and crossed his legs.

"Does the president want to go too? We can take you!" Xiaobai asked.

"Me? Forget it~ If Haoding and the Mu family weren't there, I'd like to go check on them. But if I go now and get caught by my older sister and the others, how am I supposed to explain that?" President Er Gou waved his slender wrist. "For a retiree like me, I'd better just stay home and laze around."

“Okay…” Xiaobai pursed her lips and looked at Chao Yamato.

Chao Ya also understood Shiro's thoughts. She stood up and raised her hand to summon a black vortex.

"Then, President Sister, we'll head over first." Xiaobai and Chaoda said to President Ergou, then turned and walked into the black vortex, disappearing along with it.

After the black vortex disappeared, President Er Gou lay back on the sofa, one white leg draped high on the back of the sofa, squinted his eyes, and enjoyed the cool breeze blowing in from the window.

Not far away, under the dining table, a snow-white spherical object crawled out. Bai Ying stared with blushing eyes, grinding her snow-white teeth, silently staring at President Er Gou on the sofa.

"Even if you stare at me like that, I won't lose a piece of my flesh," said President Er Gou leisurely.

"..." Bai Ying stared at President Er Gou with resentment.

"Every wrong has its perpetrator, and every debt its debtor. I'm just a middleman. If you're really unhappy about something, you can go find Xiaobai." President Er Gou yawned. "Don't make things difficult for me, your employee."

"...I'll spill it on you." Bai Ying muttered resentfully in a low voice, then shrank back under the table like a slime.

President Er Gou raised her eyebrows, completely ignoring Bai Ying's "threat." Instead, she stretched lazily on the sofa, twisted her flexible waist, and struck a strange pose like a big cat. Her breathing gradually became steady and comfortable, and her expression became serene.

After a while.

Er Gou's pink lips parted slightly.