Elder brother's garrison

"Phew..." Xiaobai turned around and smiled at Luo Yingying, "Miss Yingying, thank you."

"No, you're welcome..."

"Could you please step back a little now?"

"Huh?" Luo Yingying asked, confused.

"I'm afraid it might explode again and affect you," Xiaobai said to Luo Yingying, holding up the pink metal in her hand.

"..." Luo Yingying's eyes widened.

Looking at Xiaobai's eager expression, Luo Yingying was shocked, but couldn't help but shout in her heart.

You...you still want to try?!

Chapter 2769 Special Ship Equipment

Luo Yingying subconsciously glanced around.

At this moment, the construction area around them was a complete mess, with metal fragments stuck in the ground, turning the place into a scene of carnage. The sharp edges of the fragments gleamed with a cold, eerie light, and the charred floors and walls seemed to emit faint, muffled crackling sounds.

Luo Yingying couldn't help but recall the whooshing sound of numerous metal fragments flying past her ears when the device exploded during its construction.

Luo Yingying's face paled, and her legs began to feel weak.

Why... is Admiral Lu Lin completely unafraid...?

Didn't that explosion just now instill even the slightest fear in Admiral Lu Lin...?

Waaaaah, the world's number one admiral is really terrifying.

"Admiral Lu Lin, don't you...don't you need to rest for a bit..." Luo Ying swallowed hard, nervously seeking Xiao Bai's opinion, "There was just an explosion at the ship girl construction facility here, perhaps we should have the Admiral's Guild's cleaning crew clean up the site first..."

"Ah, I'm fine." Compared to the extremely nervous Luo Yingying, Xiaobai seemed remarkably at ease. She first smiled apologetically at everyone, then looked at the others, "Because I think Miss Yingying's reminder just now makes a lot of sense, I really want to try it right away. As for the cleaning staff from the Admiral's Guild... well, I'll ask them to come over after I've tried it. After all, if it explodes again, it would be too much trouble to ask them to come again."

"..." Luo Yingying was momentarily at a loss for what expression to use when facing Xiaobai.

"Lianlian, Nia, you two should stay away too," Xiaobai said to her two friends beside her.

"And what about you, Xiaobai?" Nia asked worriedly.

"I'm fine." Xiaobai smiled at Nia, then exchanged a glance with Luo Lian. "I'll press the button and retreat to the safe zone."

"Can't you let the ship girls help you start the development device?" Nia asked with great concern.

“There’s no problem with the process…but…” Xiaobai thought for a while and said to Nia, “It’s my own willful idea to start the ship equipment development device immediately, and there is a risk of explosion when using directional construction metal, so I think it’s wrong to leave this dangerous task to others. Since it’s my own idea, I should carry it out myself.”

“It should be fine at a time like this—” Nia opened her mouth to try to persuade her again, but before she could finish speaking, Luo Lian grabbed her wrist from behind.

"Let Xiaobai go, she knows what she's doing." Luo Lian shook her head at Nia.

"Luo Lian...aren't you worried about Xiao Bai's safety?" Nia said hurriedly, "You saw the explosion just now, didn't you..."

"Of course I'm worried, but Xiaobai will be fine," Luo Lian replied.

Luo Lian's gaze was very serious, and she didn't seem to be joking at all.

Luo Lian cared about Xiao Bai's safety more than anyone else, but precisely because of this, Luo Lian also knew Xiao Bai's situation better than any of the humans present.

Little White is a human with ship equipment.

This secret is known to fewer than five people among humanity.

As one of the humans who knew Xiao Bai's secret, Luo Lian naturally knew very well how strong Xiao Bai's body was. After all, Xiao Bai was a woman who could fight and win against a deep-sea king like Frederick the Great. How could she possibly be harmed by an explosion of the level of a mere grenade?

Even if the ship's equipment development device really explodes again, the flying metal fragments that hit Xiaobai will probably only make a crisp clanging sound and have no other effect.

"Don't worry, if Xiaobai is really in danger, of course I won't allow her to do it alone. But Xiaobai has many methods. No matter who in this Admiral Guild is in danger, Xiaobai will not be in danger." Luo Lian explained to Nia, "For example, what you have witnessed at home recently, right? The world's number one admiral can do far more than we can."

“…” Nia stared blankly at Luo Lian.

After Luo Lian's reminder, Nia recalled how, during their time living together, Xiao Bai and her ship girls often displayed incredible abilities beyond ordinary imagination. For example, travel magic that allowed them to instantly travel thousands of miles away, level-up magic that granted ship girls max level with a single click, mental magic that allowed them to share ship girls' memories, and even magic that made them good friends with any ship girl…

Xiaobai is more like a magical magician than an admiral.

Someone this capable certainly doesn't seem to pose a threat to her safety.

“Okay…that seems to be the case…” After Nia figured it out, she suddenly calmed down. She blinked and nodded in complete agreement with Luo Lian. “It seems that Xiao Bai really doesn’t need to be worried…”

“Let’s worry about ourselves first, instead of Xiaobai.” Luo Lian patted Nia’s shoulder. “Xiaobai won’t get hurt, but we will, so we need to stay far away from her.”

"Yes, I understand!" Nia replied quickly.

Nia and Luo Lian quickly reached a consensus, and the group retreated rapidly to a safe area.

The ship girls stepped forward and stood protectively in front of Nia Loren.

Luo Yingying was too scared to look directly at Xiaobai's back. She covered her head and squatted in a safe corner, trembling all over.

Under everyone's gaze, Xiaobai took the directional construction metal and came to the ship equipment development device.

Ship Equipment Development Device – As its name suggests, this device is not used to build ship girls for admirals, but to develop ship equipment for ship girls.

As everyone knows, newbie garrison commanders never lack equipment.

In the newbie naval base, the equipment developed is the cheapest thing. For example, the gold-plated cannons, gold-plated bombers, gold-plated torpedo bombers, gold-plated torpedoes, gold-plated white radishes, etc. that can be developed by the development device... The newbie naval base has warehouses full of these things, and the ship girls can take as many as they want to use. Even a colorful bomber as powerful as the B-25 is more than enough to distribute to every carrier in the naval base with some left over (provided that Hornet is willing to give it). Therefore, after becoming the admiral of the newbie naval base, Xiaobai has never actually touched the ship equipment development device.

Xiao Bai examined the ship equipment development device in front of him with a sense of novelty.

"This thing looks a bit like a ship girl construction device, but it's much smaller." Xiaobai reached out and poked the outer shell of the ship equipment development device, then tentatively turned on the resource input button on it, randomly entered a string of development formulas, and put the directional construction metal in her hand into the resource storage slot. "That should work."

After doing all this, Xiaobai pressed the "Start Development" button.

The shipboard development device swiftly sucked the directional development metal into the cabin. As the four resources on the operating interface were cleared, the entire machine began to move in a very regular pattern.

The moment Xiaobai activated the development device, he quickly turned his back and ran back to the group hiding in the safe area.

"Phew, I'm back!"

Little White buried his head in Richelieu's arms.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that Xiaobai had returned unharmed.

"It looks like that device won't explode anytime soon." Luo Lian peeked out from under the ship girls' arms, glanced at the ship equipment development device working in the distance, and then turned back to the group.

"Yes," Xiaobai clapped her hands and said, "We can rest assured for now."

"We should be able to look forward to the development results now." Luo Lian rubbed her eyes and said, "Hopefully, we'll get some good products."

“Yes…” Xiao Bai followed Luo Lian’s words, but after thinking for a while, she continued, “However, if it’s just ordinary development equipment, my garrison should already have all of them, and even the lowest level has at least a thousand of them.”

"As expected of you."

"Ah! The research and development is complete!" Just then, Nia pointed to the ship equipment development device not far away and jumped up and down excitedly. "Look!"

"So fast!"

Everyone turned to look, and saw that the ship equipment development device, which had been moving around, had finally stopped, and the four big words "Successful Development" appeared on the screen of the control panel.

"It seems that the pink piece of directional construction metal really is for directional ship equipment!"

"In that case, the second piece of directional metal should not be called directional construction metal, but directional development metal."

"It shouldn't explode now, right..."

"No, no, it's not a real bomb! As long as you open it correctly, there won't be any problems!"

"What if?"

"If they explode like this, then the research ship girl is too cruel!"

Seeing that there was finally a result, everyone couldn't help but laugh a couple of times before approaching the ship's equipment development device.

Xiaobai was pushed onto the control panel by the ship girls. Looking at the four words "Research Successful" on the screen, she raised her hand and operated it a couple of times. As Xiaobai pressed the confirmation button, the reminder on the screen turned into a countdown representing the research time.

Xiao Bai didn't even look at the time displayed on it before quickly pressing the button to deploy the rapid construction device.

As the rapid construction device was deployed into the shipboard development unit, the countdown timer within the shipboard development unit instantly reset to zero.

"...Hmm?" Behind Xiaobai, Luo Lian stared at the screen in confusion.

"Luo Lian, what's wrong?" Nia looked at Luo Lian curiously.

"Before Xiaobai launched the quick-build feature, wasn't the time displayed on the screen a bit too long...?" Luo Lian squinted, "I vaguely thought I saw the number 999..."

"999? Hours?" Nia was stunned. "Longer than the construction time of a normal ship girl?"

"Maybe I'm seeing things." Luo Lian shook her head.

Chapter 2770 Missile Launcher

Generally speaking, the time required for ship equipment development is much shorter than the time required for ship girl construction.

Typically, depending on the star rating of the developed equipment, the final countdown time is only a few minutes to a few hours, or even two or three days at most.

The number 999 that Luo Lian just glimpsed... seems to be inconsistent with the normal time required for ship equipment development, no matter how you look at it.

"Have you not been getting enough rest lately, causing you to be too tired?" Nia asked Luo Lian with concern when she saw her shake her head.

"I don't know...maybe." Luo Lian lowered her hand and asked Nia, "Did you see the construction time just now?"

“I didn’t see it… Xiaobai pressed the quick key too fast. I only saw a black string of time flash on the screen and then it was cleared,” Nia said.

"I see..." Luo Lian didn't say anything more, but just stared thoughtfully at the cabin door.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, the hatch of the ship's equipment development unit opened.

puff-

A delightful white smoke billowed out from the hatch, then quickly dissipated, revealing a dark opening.

"It doesn't look like a main gun." The ship girls whispered to each other, looking at the dark hatch exit. "If it were a large ship-mounted main gun, it would be huge. The first thing you would see when you open the hatch would be its golden light."

"So it's a small one... Is it a torpedo? Or a light cruiser's main gun, or a heavy cruiser's main gun...?"

The heavy ship girls curiously turned their gazes toward the hatch opening.

Ship girls' equipment is very heavy for humans, so it is usually the admiral who instructs the ship girls to take out the equipment that is the result of their research and development.

"Thank you for your help, Enterprise," Xiaobai said with a smile.

"Oh! Leave it to me!" Enterprise gave Xiaobai a thumbs up, then skipped and hopped to the hatch of the development unit, sticking her entire upper body inside. "Let me see! Let me see! Is it a golden fighter jet, a golden bomber, or a golden torpedo bomber?"

The company, exposed to the outside, stuck out its rear end, the blue hem of its skirt swaying back and forth as it explored inside the hatch.

"Ah! Found it!"

"Huh? Wait a minute, what's this—"

"Wow! So awesome!"

Just then, three exclamations of surprise came from inside the cabin.

The crowd's curiosity was piqued by the company's voice, and they all moved closer.

"Company, what did you find?"

"Admiral—look!" Enterprise emerged from the dark cabin, excitedly raising her hands to hand everyone a golden object shimmering in the sunlight. "Look! This equipment!"

Everyone looked toward the company's hands.

Everyone present was stunned the moment they saw the ship girl equipment in the company's hands.

Logically speaking, the newbie naval base should have already collected all the equipment that the ship equipment development device can research. No matter what ship girl equipment the ship equipment development device can research, the newbie naval base's warehouse should have at least a thousand identical ones lying there by now.

Surprisingly, none of the people present had ever seen the equipment that the company took out of the shipboard development unit.

It was a mechanical block about the size of a girl's arm. The block was white with red patterns and had several neatly arranged honeycomb-shaped cylindrical grooves on it. These grooves were connected in parallel to each other, giving it a unique look and making it shimmer with a very eye-catching golden light.

This is not equipment that shipboard equipment development teams can develop!

"This is... a missile launcher?!" Changchun and Anshan exclaimed in surprise from the ship girl group.

"Missile launcher... Huh? And it's gold quality... I have no idea when shipboard R&D systems will be able to develop something like this!"

"Does this mean that targeted metal development allows you to create equipment out of thin air within the ship's equipment development system?"

Wow, limited edition equipment!

"First, forget about that—is this equipment any good?"

The ship girls around them started discussing it with great interest.

Under everyone's gaze, the company handed the missile launcher in its hand to Xiaobai.

"Admiral! Here! Look!"

"Hmm." Xiaobai covered her mouth, looked at the missile launcher's appearance, and commented repeatedly, "Hmm... I didn't expect it to be a missile... It's really an unexpected surprise."