Elder brother's garrison

"..." Xiaobai subconsciously touched his chin and nodded thoughtfully.

It turned out to be the case.

Jean Bart had been speaking to her from outside the door, but from Missouri's vantage point, she couldn't see where Jean Bart was standing.

It seems that in addition to "Jean Barthes taking the initiative to strike up a conversation," another condition should be added to make the bystander ineffective: "Jean Barthes must be in sight."

That's a truly amazing skill.

"Missouri, I'll be troubling you to take care of Jean Bart during this time," Xiaobai said to Missouri apologetically.

“It is Missouri’s honor to help the senior officers of the naval base.” Missouri smiled. “By the way, what brings the Admiral to Missouri so early this morning?”

"Ah... about this." Xiaobai nodded with a smile, "Nia and I are going to war today, so I came to let you know."

“The admiral can just use the admiral network to notify us, why bother coming all the way here in person?” Missouri said with a charming smile.

"I just wanted to see you again..."

"Admiral, there are outsiders here."

"It doesn't matter at this level." Xiaobai took Missouri's hand and brought it to her mouth. "Missouri, get ready. We're going to set off in a few hours."

Missouri understood.

Xiao Bai then released Missouri's hand with satisfaction and walked to the door.

"Well, Missouri, I'm off now. See you later."

"Admiral, see you later." Missouri smiled and waved.

Xiaobai withdrew her gaze from Missouri, and then her gaze landed precisely on Jean Bart, who was sitting in a sea of ​​red bean bread.

Jean Bart held his breath, seemingly using his Bystander ability to try and make Little White ignore her.

Xiao Bai smiled.

Jean Bart seems to enjoy doing things that are ultimately pointless.

"Jean Barth, and you too, will be coming with us on the expedition later. Remember to follow Missouri along."

“Eh————” Jean Bart let out a series of miserable howls.

After greeting Jean Bart and Missouri in the room, Xiao Bai left Missouri's room.

As Xiaobai walked outside, she looked down at her palm.

"Hmm... Jean Bart's ability just doesn't work on me... Why is that?" Xiaobai murmured. "Although it's possible that this ability simply can't work on the Admiral, that doesn't seem to make any sense... Hmm... So there must be some other reason?"

As Xiaobai was thinking, she had unknowingly walked downstairs.

Two figures appeared opposite Xiaobai.

"Oh? Little White, you're here!" Nia waved and smiled gently at Little White. "We've been looking for you for ages! Little White, want to come have breakfast together?"

"Xiao Bai, did you go to see Missouri?" Luo Lian followed Nia to Xiao Bai, looked at Xiao Bai, and suddenly asked.

"Huh? Lianlian, how did you know?"

“...You have a very strong smell of red bean bread on you,” Luo Lian said. “Missouri must have won a lot of red bean bread that day.”

"Ah..." Xiaobai tugged at her collar and sniffed. It did indeed smell like bread. She smiled shyly at Luo Lian and Nia. "I just went to see Missouri and told her about the expedition."

"Eh? Little White, are you going to war?" Nia asked in surprise.

“Yes, Nia, you’re going to war today too, right?” Xiaobai smiled at Nia. “I’m just sitting here doing nothing anyway, so I’ll go with you.”

"That's wonderful!" Nia clasped her hands together, moved. "Thank you, Little White!"

"It's nothing much to thank me for..." Xiaobai smiled and glanced at Luo Lian beside Nia.

Lianlian is really smart and intelligent. She knew that he had gone to Missouri when she first met him.

Ok……

Ok……

"Lianlian," Xiaobai suddenly said.

"What's wrong?" Luo Lian asked.

"I want to ask you a question."

"what is the problem?"

"If a ship girl has a special ability that works on everyone else but not on me, what could be the reason?" Xiaobai asked.

"...Perhaps it's because your mental strength is very strong?" Luo Lian replied.

"Oh..." Xiaobai blinked and looked at her palm. "So it's because of mental power..."

"Xiao Bai, what's wrong?" Luo Lian asked again when she saw Xiao Bai deep in thought.

"That special ship girl I built yesterday... do you guys remember her?"

"Hmm? I remember, you came out with Rome, right? I think your name was..." Luo Lian nodded subconsciously, but then she suddenly paused, her eyes looking somewhat confused, "What was your name again? I can't remember."

Luo Lian turned to look at Nia.

"I remember, I remember, her name is..." Nia hurriedly began, but after only two sentences, she suddenly froze, as if she had lost her memory. "Eh... wait... name... um... her name is..."

Nia and Luo Lian exchanged a glance, then frowned and began to recall seriously.

When these two mentioned the special ship girl that Xiaobai built yesterday, their memories seemed to be shrouded in a fog, making it difficult to recall.

"Strange... How could I have suddenly forgotten?"

"I think I chatted with her yesterday..."

Nia and Lorene racked their brains.

“Jean Barth,” Xiao Bai reminded him with a smile.

"Oh, right, right! Jean Bart!" Nia shuddered, nodding hurriedly, then said to Xiaobai with an embarrassed and guilty look, "Xiaobai... I'm sorry... I have such a bad memory. I clearly spoke to her yesterday, how could I forget today..."

"..." Luo Lian seemed to be deep in thought, staring intently at Xiao Bai.

"It's alright, it's not your fault." Xiaobai shook her head and said to Nia and Luo Lian, "Jan Barr's special ability is to make others ignore her. I saw her use this ability today. Even if she stands in front of others, as long as she doesn't take the initiative to speak, no matter what she does, no one can notice her."

"Wow! That's amazing!" Nia exclaimed.

"..." Luo Lian's eyes widened, and she subconsciously covered her mouth. "Is this the power of a special ship girl?"

In Luo Lian's mind, keywords such as "battle", "espionage", "assassination", "kidnapping", "theft", and "sex" flashed by.

"It's probably related to her status as a special ship girl," Xiaobai said. "However, Jean Bart's ability is ineffective against me."

"So, Xiaobai, the special ability you just mentioned refers to Jean Bart?" Luo Lian asked.

“Yes.” Xiaobai nodded.

"I see." Luo Lian nodded in understanding.

"So it's because of my strong mental strength that Barth's abilities failed on me?" Xiaobai asked.

“I find it difficult to explain things related to the spiritual realm using scientific methods,” Luo Lian sighed. “However, if we’re just looking for differences, Xiao Bai, the biggest difference between you and the ship girls… and between you and us, is that you possess a vast spiritual power within your body, as boundless as the ocean.”

"It seems that's the only explanation." Xiaobai nodded in agreement.

At this point, Xiaobai looked up at the sky thoughtfully.

If one's mental strength is strong enough, can one become immune to Jean Bart's abilities...?

Ok……

How strong does one's mental strength need to be to be immune to Jean Bart's abilities?

……

at the same time.

One floor of the dormitory building that Xiaobai just walked down.

Kewei returned to his dormitory carrying a huge pile of red bean bread.

"Bu Nao, look! I ran into Admiral Lu Lin on the way, and she gave me a lot of red bean bread!"

"Sister Kewei, eating so many snacks will make you fat, won't it?"

"Eek—no, no, it's alright! A ship girl's figure won't change!"

"But sister, you're really bothered by people calling you a fat dinosaur, aren't you?"

"No way!!! You're so long-winded! I'm not sharing the red bean bread with you!"

Chapter 2674, Section 8: The Expedition

The news that Xiaobai would be accompanying Nia on the expedition today quickly spread among the ship girls.

After breakfast, when Xiaobai, Nia, and Luo Lian walked out of the cafeteria, many eager Nia's ship girls had already appeared outside. These ship girls were stretching and loosening their muscles around the cafeteria entrance, and while warming up, they were also secretly peeking at Xiaobai and the others who had just come out.

At a glance, Xiaobai saw a scene that was extremely lively.

"Nia, there are so many people at the cafeteria entrance today," Xiaobai said to Nia with a smile.

"They probably heard that I'm going to war today." Nia scratched her head sheepishly. "Our naval base rarely gets to rest for so many days at a time. I guess the ship girls must be feeling really restless these days."

"The ship girls of Nia's family are really hardworking."

"Xiaobai, yours is amazing too."

Xiao Bai and Nia engaged in friendly mutual flattery as they led Luo Lian through the crowd, seemingly oblivious to everyone else, to the assembly field.

Seeing Xiaobai and the other two leave, the ship girls who had been blocking the cafeteria entrance quickly followed.

"Nia, are you taking all these ship girls with you?" Xiaobai turned around and looked at the ship girls behind her, asking Nia curiously.

“Today’s main mission is to explore new sea areas, not to earn merit points, so I can’t bring too many ship girls.” Nia shook her head. She thought for a while and then said to Xiaobai, “Hmm… considering that we can level up while exploring new sea areas… I should only bring six today.”

"Just six people?" Xiaobai blinked.

"When it comes to pioneering new lands... more people aren't always better." Nia smiled awkwardly at Xiaobai. "With the strength of our ordinary admirals' networks, we can only command a maximum of six ship girls at the same time."

"Oh..." Xiaobai nodded in understanding as she listened to Nia's words.

As a new admiral who came to the game halfway through his career, Xiaobai directly took over the ultimate level of strength and even unlocked the ship girl auto-discipline function in the super naval base. However, he still lacks some common sense experience regarding the self-management and difficult work life of an ordinary admiral.

Generally speaking, from a beginner's subconscious perspective, the more ship girls in a fleet, the better.

But that's not entirely true in reality.

If you're working in familiar waters, defeating the same old deep-sea ships, and routinely grinding for merit points, then the efficiency of earning merit points is directly proportional to the number of ship girls you deploy—the more ship girls you send out, the better. However, if the purpose of the expedition isn't to earn merit points, but rather to explore relatively unfamiliar waters, then having more ship girls isn't necessarily better.

Ship girls need to be familiar with the sea area.

Admittedly, the more ship girls there are, the stronger the fleet's combat power will be.

However, when ship girls engage in their first battle in unfamiliar waters, they often encounter unexpected situations and face numerous challenges, dangers, and unfamiliarity when confronting a new enemy fleet. In such unexpected situations, admirals on shore always need to use the admiral network to remotely issue commands to turn the tide and resolve the situation. Moreover, the operational limit of each admiral is not infinite—for example, Nia issuing correct and precise commands to six ship girls at the same time is already the limit for an average excellent admiral.

Therefore, when choosing to explore unfamiliar sea areas, it is common practice for admirals to only send out a team of six ship girls.

After all, although the number of ship girls is small, once you reach six, the team's functionality becomes more complete. Whether it's pursuing, tactically retreating, or maneuvering flexibly, it gives admirals a lot of command space. Besides, even the admirals in Chapter 8 aren't all rich like Xiaobai who treat resources like water. It's common for them to retreat with their entire ship damaged during exploration and go home for a bath. If they really take dozens or even hundreds of ship girls to explore at once, and if a mistake in command leads to the entire ship being damaged during the retreat, the cost of this exploration will make many admirals' hearts stop.

"Little White, have you ever explored the seas before?" Nia asked curiously, looking at Little White's seemingly clueless expression.

"Ah... well..." Xiaobai scratched his head, a little embarrassed, and said, "Does the reclamation task in Chapter 8 count as land reclamation?"

Standing before Nia now is the pioneering hero of Chapter Eight.

The pioneering work in Chapter 2675 can be considered a pioneering work in itself.

"Um... Xiaobai, your pioneering work, well, it probably wasn't exactly conventional pioneering work, was it?" Nia paused for a moment, then said awkwardly to Xiaobai, "Unlike us who pursue stability, before Chapter 8 became a chapter sea area, the sea was at least a hundred times more dangerous than it is now... To conquer such a sea area, Xiaobai, every expedition you launch must be risky and involve all your ship girls... Our philosophies are different, completely different... In terms of command ability, you are far superior to us ordinary admirals."

Seeing Nia's admiring expression, Xiaobai felt a little embarrassed.

The initial exploration of Chapter 2676... From beginning to end, it seems that the command tasks related to the ship girls were basically carried out by Admiral Haoding and Admiral Muchenglin, and Xiaobai really didn't issue any orders.

While Xiaobai's admiral network can support her connecting with hundreds or even thousands of ship girls simultaneously, unfortunately, Xiaobai's personal ability in commanding battles is rather lacking. If Xiaobai were to actually command the ship girls' every move, even the ship girls in the newbie naval base would probably be caught off guard and lose. Therefore, it is clearly easier and safer to let the ship girls in the newbie naval base act freely than to let Xiaobai personally command the ship girls in battle.

There are plenty of ship girls in the newbie naval base who can easily outmaneuver newbies, at least in terms of fleet command.

"Ahem, ahem..." Xiaobai coughed twice, looking down. "Well... actually, I didn't really give much command during the exploration of Chapter 8..."

"Xiaobai, you're too modest," Nia said with a smile.

"……"noob.

The atmosphere has been built up to this point; it would be impolite to explain further.