Elder brother's garrison

Xiaobai stepped forward and came up behind Nia.

Ignoring the beautiful scenery on Nia's chest, Xiaobai examined the official documents on the table.

"Little White?" Nia turned around and looked at Little White curiously.

"It's alright, don't worry about me, Nia, you can continue," Xiaobai said.

"Oh... well, I'll continue then..." Nia picked up the pen, shifted her body slightly, and then quickly began writing on the official documents.

"I hope this didn't bother you?" Xiaobai asked Nia. "I've heard that some admirals don't like having other people present when they're working."

“I’m fine, Xiaobai, you’re not an outsider.” Nia shook her head and said with a smile, “I feel very safe with you behind me.”

"Oh, I see..." Xiaobai patted Nia's shoulder and smiled.

As Xiaobai said, even with Xiaobai watching her from behind while she was working, it did not affect her progress at all; in fact, it seemed to be much faster than before.

Nia's pen flew across all sorts of documents, and the processed pages piled higher and higher.

Based on Xiaobai's experience in handling documents, she could deduce that if Nia continued at this pace, she could probably finish completely two or three hours before dinner.

"Nia," Xiaobai said after thinking for a moment.

"Hmm?" Nia responded while writing the document.

"Nia, what's your naval base's ranking again?"

"Me? As for me..." Nia said while quickly writing in the document, "I don't remember very clearly, but it was probably around 11,000."

Have you considered improving your ranking recently?

"Well... I'll pass... Life here is pretty busy." Nia smiled. "Being ranked over ten thousand is not bad either."

“Oh…” Xiaobai blinked, then leaned down and looked close to Nia’s fair and delicate face.

"Huh? Little White...?" Nia paused, looking at Little White getting closer and closer, a look of confusion on her face. "What's wrong?"

"..."

Xiao Bai didn't say anything, but just got closer and closer.

Nia paused for a moment, then subconsciously stared at Xiaobai's pink lips, her face suddenly turning red.

"Little...Little White? Could it be..."

Nia closed her eyes, slightly raised her chin, and pouted at Little White.

However, the expected development did not occur.

Xiao Bai stopped just a hair's breadth away from Nia, then circled around to Nia's ear and whispered something to her.

"...Nia, do you want to...become one of the top ten admirals?"

"...?"

Nia's eyes widened, and the pen in her hand fell to the ground with a thud.

Black ink splattered instantly onto Nia's ankle.

"Huh?" Nia turned her head and looked at Xiaobai, who was standing right in front of her. "Xiaobai... what did you say?"

"Nia, do you want to be in the top ten in the world?" Xiaobai asked with a smile.

“…Eh? Me…me?” Nia blinked. “I…I probably can’t be one…”

"Do you want to be one?"

“Of course I want to.” Nia nodded, looking at Xiaobai seriously. “The top ten admirals are the idols of all admirals. No admiral doesn’t want to become one of the top ten admirals.”

After saying this, Nia stared intently at Xiaobai.

Besides... becoming one of the top ten admirals also means being more qualified to stand by Shiro's side and be with her forever.

Nia didn't say those words aloud.

"I see." Xiaobai smiled slightly upon hearing this.

“…But someone like me probably wouldn’t be able to become one of the top ten admirals…” Nia scratched her head and grinned at Xiaobai. “My naval base is no match for the current top ten admirals…and as an admiral, I’m still a newbie and need a lot of experience—Xiaobai, why are you suddenly telling me this?”

"Well..." Xiaobai patted Nia's shoulder and smiled at her, "Nia, don't be afraid of what I'm about to tell you."

"Don't worry, Xiaobai. With you here, I know I won't be afraid of anything."

"Admiral Zhao Kuo is resigning."

"Eh?! ...

"Nia, calm down, calm down." Xiaobai quickly grabbed Nia's shoulders. "I haven't finished speaking yet."

"Is...is this a joke?"

"No, actually the world's second-best admiral, the world's ninth-best admiral, and the world's tenth-best admiral will also resign along with Admiral Zhao Kuo."

"..."

"Nia, your reaction this time is much milder."

"..."

“…Nia?”

"..."

"Nia? Are you there? Nia—" Xiaobai raised her hand and waved in front of Nia.

Nia simply stared blankly at Xiaobai, her eyes wide open, showing no reaction to Xiaobai's calls or touches.

Oh wow.

stunned.

Xiao Bai sighed.

She completely understood the feelings of ordinary admirals about the departure of the top ten admirals... but it seemed that Xiaobai had underestimated the reaction of ordinary admirals to this news...

Xiao Bai raised her finger and gently poked Nia's forehead.

A surge of spiritual energy seeped into Nia's body, forcibly restoring her sanity from her complete daze.

"...Uh...I'm a little dizzy..." Nia snapped out of her daze, rubbing her forehead and looking at Xiaobai in confusion. "Xiaobai...what did you just say?"

"..." Xiaobai smiled wryly at Nia, "Nia, let's put our work aside for a while and find a place to sit down and talk slowly."

"Oh? Oh, oh..."

Nia got up feeling dizzy and followed Xiaobai to the bedside.

Xiaobai and Nia sat on the bed, hand in hand.

“Nia, I went to see Admiral Zhao Kuo this afternoon. Actually, he is now…” Xiao Bai held Nia’s hand, continuously channeling spiritual energy into her body, while telling her about his time with Admiral Zhao Kuo.

Xiao Bai carefully recounted the entire story of what happened on Zhao Kuo's side.

Nia held Xiaobai's hand and listened to her retelling.

Even though Xiaobai's mental energy was constantly ensuring that her emotions wouldn't fluctuate too much, Nia still lost herself in thought several times when she learned about the details Xiaobai mentioned.

Finally, Xiaobai spent ten minutes relaying the entire conversation between herself and Admiral Zhao Kuo to Nia.

"In short, that's how it is," Xiaobai said to Nia. "In order to make the new top ten admirals catch up with their strength as soon as possible, Admiral Zhao Kuo entrusted me to train the next top ten admirals, and Nia is one of the people I decided on."

"Eh... eh..." Nia looked up, dazed, her face full of disbelief. "Me... me?"

"Yes."

"I...I can't do it..." Nia immediately began to back down upon hearing this.

"Whether it works or not, we'll have to try it first!" Xiaobai said earnestly to Nia. "Didn't you just say that you also want to become one of the top ten admirals? Since you have this idea, as someone who has helped you, I will continue to support you!"

"...Xiaobai, do you also hope that I can become one of the top ten in the world?" Nia looked at Xiaobai with complicated eyes.

"Of course!" Xiaobai nodded.

"...Am I... am I the first person you thought of, Xiaobai?" Nia bit her pink lips, lowered her head, blushed, and asked cautiously.

"Of course!" Xiaobai nodded again.

Nia's body trembled slightly.

"There are four new spots for the top ten admirals in the new term. When Admiral Zhao Kuo asked me to do this, you were the first person I thought of!" Xiao Bai pointed at Nia.

“…Little, Little White…” Nia looked up, her eyes reddening with emotion, “I…I…”

"And Lianlian!" Xiaobai added, "I immediately thought of the two of you!"

“…Little White…” Nia immediately deflated like a punctured balloon.

Chapter 2872 Nia's Resolve

Nia's expression was quite complex for a moment.

Nia's gaze as she looked at Xiaobai still held lingering emotions of gratitude, a touch of melancholy, and a hint of helplessness.

It's true that you can't expect a block of wood to suddenly become intelligent...

Nia sighed.

"Nia? What's wrong? You seem a little unhappy..." Xiaobai looked at Nia and sighed, then quickly asked.

"N-nothing..." Nia shook her head and gave Xiaobai a somewhat empty smile. "Hmm...you're right. Luo Lian and I have always been by your side, so when something like this happens, the first people you think of are definitely the two of us."

“That’s right!” Xiaobai immediately laughed. “Then Nia, what do you think?”

“Sigh… As for my thoughts…” Nia looked down at her hands, which were clasped tightly together with Xiaobai’s, “The top ten admirals are all very capable people. I really don’t know if I am qualified to be compared with them… But… if this is a task given to me by Xiaobai, I am willing to take on the challenge and give it a try.”

"I believe in Nia!" Little White released Nia's hand and encouraged her.

"Hmm..." Nia scratched her cheek shyly, "If it's Xiaobai's idea, I'll try my best to do it."

Nia is quite content with her current situation. After all, her greatest wish in life—to stay with Shiro forever—has been almost fulfilled. If Nia were left completely unattended, she might never pick up the Admiral rankings again and try to climb the world rankings.

This commission from Admiral Zhao Kuo gave Nia a renewed sense of purpose, as if "finally, something had come up to do."

"What do you need to do to become one of the top ten admirals?" Nia asked Xiaobai curiously.

"Hmm...aiming for a world ranking?" Xiaobai tapped his chin and thought for a while.

Nia's world admiral ranking is actually seriously inconsistent with the current combat strength of her naval base.

The reason for this result is that during the past year or two of her rise to power, Nia has been fully focused on conquering the main storyline, leaving her no time for anything else and no chance to participate in any admiral ranking battles. As a result, even though she has now become a high-ranking admiral capable of reaching Chapter 8, her ranking is still at the level of someone who graduated from the Naval Academy a year ago.

The admirals ranked outside the top 10,000 in the world rankings are probably new admirals at the level of the first or second chapter.

If we convert this to the average level of the admirals in Chapter 8...

Xiao Bai stared at Nia's chest for a while.

In fact, even if the admirals who can make it into Chapter 8 are weak, they can at least break into the top 1,000 in the world rankings if they want to.

Nia is considered a very powerful admiral in Chapter 8. With her skill level, even without Xiaobai's help, she would have no problem entering the world's top 100.

"Nia, you should try to improve your world ranking first," Xiaobai said to Nia. "Nia, your current ranking is too low. At a world ranking outside the top 10,000, even if I wanted to help you, I wouldn't know where to start."

"Ah... I'm so sorry..." Nia lowered her head awkwardly, her hands twisting together in a tangled mess. "The last time I played the Admiral Ranking Battle was two years ago... I should have played more these past few years..."

"It's alright, it's not too late now," Xiaobai smiled.

"Xiaobai, wait a minute, let me go find it..." Nia patted the bottom of the desk, reached under the desk and rummaged around for a while. After a short while, she finally found a folder. In front of Xiaobai, Nia blew away the thin layer of dust on the folder, then opened it and began to read carefully. "Hmm... This is my naval base's ranking battle record. According to what's written in the record, my naval base has only experienced twelve ranking battles since its establishment. The first ten were the placement matches required by the Admiral Headquarters, which happened right after I graduated and became an Admiral. I participated in all of them. However, the last two were challenges from other Admirals, and I forfeited both of them."

"Huh? Why are you abstaining?"

"Because I was working on the main story chapters at the time... I didn't want to get distracted." Nia smiled sheepishly and handed the folder in her hand to Xiaobai. "Besides, the people who can challenge me are all ranked outside the top 10,000. What's the point of us five-digit ranked people fighting each other? So I gave up."

"I see."

Xiaobai nodded and looked at Nia's folder for a while.

The so-called World Admiral Ranking is actually a website established and managed by the Admiral Headquarters, similar to an admiral points ranking table.

On this website, the combat power of all active admirals worldwide will be quantified as much as possible and ranked in the form of data.

For example, the merit points possessed by the naval base, the naval base's activity history, the points and medals earned in various events, including the number of naval base ship girls, records, training data, etc., are all factors that can be recorded and affect the admiral's ranking. Among all these factors, there is a unique score called "Admiral Ranking Battle", which has the greatest weight among all the data.

The so-called Admiral Ranking Battle refers to a unique ship girl exercise initiated by a lower-ranked naval base against a higher-ranked naval base. This unique ship girl exercise requires reporting to the Admiral Headquarters, and the exercise process is exceptionally formal and fair. If the challenge is successful, the challenger's world admiral ranking will be directly swapped with that of the challenged.

Initiating a ranking battle against higher-ranking admirals is one of the most common methods used by admirals worldwide to improve their global ranking.

Of course, launching an admiral ranking battle is not such a simple matter.