Elder brother's garrison

The wide road suddenly narrowed, and the alley was only big enough for two people to walk side by side.

The surrounding light suddenly dimmed considerably.

Xiaobai walked at the front, not saying a word, just eating her crepe in small bites, lost in thought.

Seeing this, Changchun and Chaoda also silently followed Xiaobai.

Do not know why……

Between Changchun and Chaoda, it seems that Xiaobai is not in a good mood right now.

So Chaoda and Changchun secretly exchanged a glance, and then neither of them spoke again.

For a moment, only the sound of footsteps could be heard in the alley.

The pancake vendor made a huge family-sized wrap for Xiaobai. Even though Xiaobai had been eating almost nonstop the whole way, by the time she led Changchun and Chaoda out of the alley and finally saw the location of the Nvzha Shen Clinic in the distance again, the large wrap in her hand had only shrunk by about one-fifth.

Xiao Bai chewed, then looked up and glanced at the scenery in the distance.

Two years later, Xiaobai returned to this familiar place once again.

Compared to two years ago, at first glance, this place looks basically unchanged. As far as the eye can see, there are still rows of farmhouses close together, and the road in front of you is still filled with even more civilian ship girls than outside.

The clinic of the female hearth goddess is one of these farmhouses.

As Xiaobai passed by other farmhouses, she glanced inside and noticed that these farmhouses, which used to be inhabited by locals, were now mostly empty.

However, the vacant courtyard was not abandoned.

It is unknown who made some detailed renovations to these empty courtyards, turning them into a kind of homestay-like building. Xiaobai only saw civilian ship girls walking in and out of these courtyards together.

Xiaobai didn't see a single human.

……Um?

So where did the people who used to live here go?

Xiao Bai had a question in her mind, but she quickly nodded silently, suppressing her doubts for the time being, and then turned her gaze to the center of the street, which was the current location of the Goddess of the Hearth Clinic.

The clinic of the goddess of the hearth was noticeably larger than the previous expansion. Xiaobai guessed that her courtyard had probably been rebuilt by incorporating the smaller courtyards on the left and right. At this moment, her courtyard was filled with colorful ship girls. Although there were many of them and they were noisy, each of them was basically queuing up obediently. Some were eating burritos with their heads down, some were chatting quietly with the people next to them, some were sleeping standing up with their eyes closed, and some were anxiously waiting with their arms crossed. But in general, the scene was still orderly.

Such a peaceful scene was somewhat unexpected for Xiaobai.

The pancake vendor had said that things weren't very peaceful here, and Xiaobai thought she would see the ship girls cutting in line, arguing, and fighting when she came in. But when Xiaobai returned to the scene, she found that there was nothing peaceful about it.

Ok……

It seems that the civilian ship girls who use the repair pool are quite law-abiding.

Thinking of this, Xiaobai's somewhat gloomy mood brightened up a little.

Just as Xiaobai's mood improved, a gentle voice called out from beside her.

"Stop right there. Are you new here?"

A cold, indifferent voice appeared.

The voice belonged to a ship girl standing next to the courtyard gate, with long flaxen hair, golden eyes, a cold expression, a slender figure, and a black dress that resembled a butterfly.

She must have been standing here the whole time, but Xiaobai only just noticed her presence.

Xiaobai hadn't paid much attention to this ship girl before, because there were just too many ship girls on this street. She had assumed that this ship girl was there to use the repair pool, just like everyone else. But when she called out to Xiaobai, Xiaobai looked over and subconsciously noticed that this ship girl's aura was flowing normally and her complexion was rosy and healthy, not at all like someone whose ship equipment had been damaged.

Ok?

interesting.

Xiaobai stopped and carefully examined the ship girl.

After taking a closer look, Xiaobai found the ship girl in front of him even more peculiar.

First, at the clinic of the goddess of the hearth, almost every civilian ship girl would be queuing up, even if the queue meandered through the courtyard, the ship girls' positions were always along the queue's route.

However, this ship girl is not included in the queue.

Furthermore, Xiaobai noticed that the civilian ship girls present seemed to be intentionally or unintentionally widening the distance between themselves and the ship girl in front of them.

She... probably didn't come here to use the repair pool.

Xiaobai came to this conclusion almost immediately. Then she became a little more serious and continued to observe the ship girl in front of her.

Under Xiaobai's admiral network, no ship girl in the world can hide her body's secrets from Xiaobai.

With just a quick scan using the Admiral's Network, Xiaobai gained a fairly in-depth understanding of the ship girl's physical attributes, equipment types, and equipment grades.

Xiao Bai retracted the Admiral Network, his gaze momentarily surprised.

Huh?

The ship girl in front of me... she's actually an aircraft carrier ship girl?

This is a bit powerful.

It should be noted that the construction of civilian ship girls is not very successful due to the imperfect construction methods. Not only is the success rate low, but the probability of producing a main battle ship is extremely rare.

Especially aircraft carriers...

According to Mutsu, each of the aircraft carriers is a well-known figure in the fan-made ship girl community, whose name alone can cause a stir.

Thinking of this, Xiaobai's gaze shifted slightly downwards.

The ship girl who called out to Xiaobai had a white handkerchief tied around her left arm. The handkerchief was in a very conspicuous position, forming a stark contrast with her black and red outfit. Xiaobai could sense that she was intentionally trying to get attention.

Xiao Bai seemed to be deep in thought. She withdrew her gaze and looked around a few times.

really.

Around the Vestal Clinic, Xiaobai could see ship girls with white handkerchiefs wrapped around their bodies in many places. Some of these ship girls wrapped the white handkerchiefs around their arms, while others wrapped them around their thighs, calves, or necks. Some even used the handkerchiefs as hairbands and tied them on their heads.

This handkerchief... could it be something like a marker or an ID card?

It's like the red scarf that Xiaobai wore around his neck when he was in elementary school.

Could these ship girls wearing white handkerchiefs be some kind of administrator of the current Vestal?

When the ship girl who called out to Xiaobai saw that the three of them didn't speak, her delicate eyebrows furrowed slightly, but quickly relaxed, and she spoke again.

"I'll ask you one more time, are you new here?"

The black-clad ship girl's tone was somewhat cold, but her attitude wasn't bad.

"Yes, we're new here." Xiaobai finally finished her observation and nodded to the ship girl in front of her, then asked, "Sister, may I ask who you are?"

"I'm in charge of managing this area, don't ask any more questions." The ship girl shook her head, her gaze sweeping over Xiaobai and the other two, lingering particularly long on Chao Yamato. "Since you're here, you must all be ship girls with damaged equipment?"

"..." Xiaobai exchanged a glance with Changchun and Chao Yamato, then looked at the ship girl in front of them and nodded in tacit agreement.

"Report the damage to the ship's equipment," the aloof black-clad ship girl said.

"Uh... this little wreck." Xiaobai blurted out instinctively.

“We’re just a small, run-down place too,” Changchun added.

"Take a look at the ship's equipment." The aloof black-clad ship girl nodded slightly and spoke.

"Huh? Why?" Xiaobai asked curiously.

"How can we determine your injuries without looking at your ship equipment?" the indifferent black-clad ship girl said calmly. "There is only one repair pool. There are many people and little space. Those with serious injuries or those who urgently need treatment can queue for expedited treatment. Those with minor injuries will be queued for regular treatment depending on the specific situation."

"Ah...I see."

Xiao Bai understood.

Xiaobai scratched his cheek, looking somewhat embarrassed under the gaze of the black-clad ship girl.

"What's wrong? Is your injury report inaccurate?" The black-clad ship girl tilted her head and asked when she saw Xiaobai hesitate.

"..." Xiaobai smiled sheepishly.

It's not really about the injuries... although Xiaobai did lie about his injuries...

However, among these three people—Lu Ji, Shen Haiyuan, and the missile ship equipment specialist—it wouldn't be good for any of them to release their ship equipment...

There's such a large group of people watching.

Seeing that Xiaobai looked quite troubled, the black-clad ship girl stared at Xiaobai for a while before finally speaking slowly.

"If you don't want to show off your ship equipment, I can only put you in the regular queue."

"Then let's go with the regular team," Xiaobai quickly agreed.

The black-clad ship girl didn't say anything more. She lowered her head, took out a piece of paper from her ship equipment, wrote a few words on it, then took out a square stamp, stamped it, and handed it to Xiaobai and the other two.

The three of them took the piece of paper and glanced at it.

The slip of paper reads "Ordinary numbers, 241, 242, 243".

The stamp on the piece of paper was a red bird wing, which looked quite elegant.

Xiaobai flipped the paper over and found another line of text on the back.

"Regular numbers have lower priority than express numbers and will be prioritized by express numbers under normal circumstances. The interpretation of this rule belongs to the Pure White Wings Mercenary Group."

"..." Xiao Bai looked at the words on the paper, and his originally kind expression immediately turned into a frown.

Pure White Wings?

What kind of mercenary group is this?

Chapter 3417 Whether to Do Good or Not

The Pure White Wings Mercenary Group... Little White searched through his memories but couldn't find a single matching target.

Xiao Bai remembered... the person he had entrusted to repair the pool before was Lin Yueyue. Wasn't Lin Yueyue's mercenary group called Obsidian?

How come the final interpretation right fell to the Pure White Wings mercenary group, which appeared out of nowhere?

The more Xiaobai thought about it, the more her brows furrowed as she looked at the piece of paper.

The black-clad ship girl noticed Xiaobai's expression. Seeing Xiaobai staring at the piece of paper without saying a word, looking somewhat unhappy, she assumed that Xiaobai was dissatisfied with the name in the queue.

"If you can demonstrate your ship equipment, I can re-evaluate your queueing slots," the black-clad ship girl said. "But unless your ship equipment is severely damaged, you generally won't qualify for the express service."

"...No, I didn't mean that." Upon hearing this, Xiaobai shook her head, put down the piece of paper in her hand, and looked up at the black-clad ship girl, asking, "Sister, what kind of mercenary group is Pure White Wings?"

"..."

The black-clad ship girl silently watched Xiaobai, her gaze sweeping behind her.

Changchun and Chaoda, who were behind Xiaobai, showed no intention of leaving.

The black-clad ship girl's gaze lingered on Chaoda and his face for a long time.

After a while, the black-clad ship girl spoke.

"Pure White Wings, that's Pure White Wings." The black-clad ship girl said coldly, "That's the mercenary group I belong to, and the mercenary group that manages this repair pool. Everyone here must abide by the rules of Pure White Wings."

"Did you build this repair pool?" Xiaobai asked after a moment of silence.

“…No.” The black-clad ship girl answered decisively.

The black-clad ship girl had always been rather quiet, but when Xiaobai brought up the topic of the repair pool construction, she surprisingly became more talkative.

"This repair pool was built with funds from a human admiral of high moral character and integrity. That admiral is the true owner of the repair pool." The black-clad ship girl paused slightly before continuing, "That compassionate admiral didn't want to see civilian ship girls suffer any more injustices, so he hoped to use this repair pool to protect them. Therefore, this repair pool is open to all ship girls free of charge. Our Pure White Wings Mercenary Group is a follower who is carrying out that admiral's idea and firmly walking on this path. We don't want this admiral's good intentions to be tainted by bad people, so we came here, that's all."

"..." Xiaobai raised an eyebrow subconsciously as she listened to the black-clad ship girl's words.

Ouch……

That answer is... actually pretty good?

"...Are you sure you didn't charge any of the ship girls who came here?" Xiaobai asked.

"No," the black-clad ship girl replied calmly.

Xiaobai silently watched the black-clad ship girl, and after a while, she nodded.

"It's alright now." Xiaobai left and walked into the courtyard.

Changchun and Chaoda hurriedly followed Xiaobai into the courtyard.

The black-clad ship girl guarding the door followed Chao Dahe's gaze into the courtyard. She stared at the backs of Xiaobai and the other two for a while before slowly withdrawing her gaze.

……

The courtyard of the Kitchen Goddess was bustling with noise.

The ship girls from all directions were chatting enthusiastically. Xiaobai briefly observed the ship girls present and found that they all had some injuries, some not serious, and some severely damaged. But no matter how serious their injuries were, none of the ship girls present showed any worry or panic. Instead, they showed a strong sense of reassurance and security.