Elder brother's garrison

"Huh? What's wrong?"

Xiaobai felt a distinct gaze upon her. She looked up and asked Iahua.

"The Admiral handled this matter... with surprising skill." Iowa hugged the documents in his arms, tilted his head slightly, and said with bright eyes, "The Admiral is usually very experienced?"

“Sigh… Chapter 8 is so big, similar situations always happen every now and then.” Xiaobai could only sigh, shrug with a wry smile, “But I’m just following the script. Usually, these things… as you said before, are handled by Miss Yingying.”

"But the Admiral's deduction of the salvage location was quite accurate..."

"I was just giving the search and rescue team a suggestion on the order of things; I'm not even sure if they're inside." Xiaobai shook her head, then glanced at her desk. "Any other official documents for today?"

"Reporting to the Admiral, there are none left," Iowa said, bowing his head.

“I see…” Xiaobai stroked the back of her chair and thought for a while. She looked at the documents in Iowa’s arms, then turned to look at the city view outside the office window behind her. After thinking for a moment, she finally raised a finger and said with a smile, “Hmm… This is a rare opportunity… How about this?”

"Does the Admiral have any new ideas?" Iowa asked, looking at Xiaobai.

"Anyway, I'm free right now, and Super and her won't be back for a while." Xiaobai held up one finger and said to Iowa, "Iowa, let's go to sea and look for the missing ship girl squad at the three locations I just mentioned."

"The Admiral is going to take action personally?" Iowa looked a little surprised.

"Is that not allowed?" Xiaobai asked back.

“Of course, that’s possible.” Iowa nodded and smiled at Xiaobai. “With the Admiral’s strength, if he is willing to take action personally, then this rescue operation will be a sure thing. I’m actually more at ease.”

"How about we make a bet?" Xiaobai said with a smile. "Let's bet on whether the missing ship girl squad is in these three dangerous sea areas."

"The Admiral is in such high spirits." Iowa raised his eyelids in surprise, but still nodded in agreement. "Alright then, let's make the bet. What if the Admiral loses?"

"If I lose the bet, I'll personally go to other seas and find the missing ship girl squad, then bring them back," Xiaobai said with a smile, holding up a finger. "If I win the bet..."

“If the Admiral wins the bet, then I will grant you any of your requests,” Iowa said with a smile. “I will do whatever the Admiral tells me to do, however I wish. How about that?”

"Is that really true?" Xiaobai's eyes lit up.

"A promise is a promise." Iowa nodded.

"Then let's hurry up and leave!" Xiaobai quickly walked up to Iohua, took Iohua's hand, and was about to leave.

Iowa was led by the hand by Xiaobai as she left the office and walked to the elevator in the lobby, amidst the surprised gazes of the ship girls.

Iowa looked left and right, letting Xiaobai pull him away from the Admiral's Guild.

"Admiral, why don't we ask Super and Sister to take us to the sea?" Iowa asked Little White.

"Super Big and she are busy right now... Anyway, the ship girl's damage protection lasts for 24 hours, so it won't make a difference if it's damaged a little longer," Xiaobai replied.

Iowa nodded and looked up at the distant sky.

Xiao Bai and Iowa left the Admiral's Guild and arrived at the beach in the 8-2 sea area.

When the two arrived at the beach, the admirals had already dispersed or left. Only a young admiral who looked to be about twenty-eight or twenty-nine years old was squatting on the sand, scratching his head with both hands, looking anxiously at the water.

It seems this is the admiral who called the police.

Beside the young admiral, the staff of the admiral's guild were comforting him and asking him about the missing ship girls.

"Yes, my ship girls are usually very well-behaved and don't run around. I don't know what's wrong with them today."

“After I sent them a message to return to Hong Kong, they should have been back within an hour, but as you can see, they just disappeared! I can’t even contact them using the Admiral’s Network!”

"Yes, I did bring the boss's ship girl to grind experience, but the anti-submarine squad has the capability to protect the boss's ship girl."

"It's my fault, it's all my fault, it's all my fault..."

"All I want now is for them to come back. They are my family, and I can't live without them..."

The young admiral, clutching his messy, bird's-nest-like hair, spoke anxiously and painedly to the staff member trying to comfort him.

The staff also assured everyone that the Admiral's Guild's rescue team had already set off, and the chances of rescuing the ship girl were extremely high, so please don't worry, etc...

A few admirals were also watching this scene from the beach.

The admirals watching were filled with a deep sense of shared sorrow.

We're all admirals...

Only the admirals themselves know how anxious and distressed they are when their own ship girls are in trouble.

Not far away, Xiaobai and Iowa silently watched the admiral. Xiaobai sighed, touched the magical baseball cap on her head, and tugged at Iowa's hand.

"Iowa, let's get going."

Iowa withdrew her gaze and nodded to Xiaobai.

Iowa and Xiaobai circled around to a secluded corner on the sea, and when no one was watching, they stepped onto the water and headed towards the depths of the sea.

The three dangerous sea areas that Xiaobai previously predicted were basically deep-sea areas, with the closest one being an hour's drive from the shore.

Xiao Bai and Iowa continued their journey.

On the way, Xiaobai didn't attract the hatred of the deep-sea creatures because she didn't have any ship girl aura. But Iowa was different. She was a proper ship girl. Her full, tall, and charming mature body was like a ripe persimmon on an autumn branch, which would emit a sweet and alluring scent in the wind, making the deep-sea creatures in the ocean unable to suppress their strong desire to attack.

Before Xiaobai and Iowa had been away from the coast for long, a small squad of deep-sea light cruisers soon came up to them, baring their teeth.

"Admiral, let me be clear, even for me, facing all the deep-sea enemies in the entire eighth chapter of the ocean by myself would be a bit of a stretch." Iowa wasn't afraid of the deep-sea enemies that came knocking on her door; she simply turned her head and smiled at Shiro.

"If you're really going to force yourself, why are you still coming along?" Xiaobai retorted.

“I’ll go even if it’s through fire and water, thanks to the Admiral’s invitation,” Iowa continued with a smile.

Upon hearing this, Xiaobai gave Iowa a thumbs up.

"It's alright, Iowa, you don't need to lift a finger. Let me, the admiral, protect you."

With a gentle flick of his wrist, Xiaobai sent the ice-blue land-based ship equipment crashing down in front of Iowa.

Xiaobai pulled Iowa's hand and walked into the land-based ship equipment. The next moment, the land-based ship equipment automatically enveloped Iowa and Xiaobai's bodies, like an air purifier, shielding Iowa's body odor.

The deep-sea light cruisers, baring their teeth, suddenly looked bewildered, as if they had failed to locate the enemy, and looked left and right, seemingly trying to find the source of the ship girl's aura.

The ice-blue roadbed slowly passed by the deep-sea light cruisers.

As the two sides passed each other, the Type 510 secondary guns mounted on the land-based ship were activated, firing several shots at the deep-sea light cruisers, turning the still bewildered deep-sea light cruisers into metal fragments.

Chapter 3585 Laser Cutting

With the protection of land-based shipboard equipment, Iowa will at least no longer be a target for deep-sea amphibious ships in this sea.

The land-based ship, carrying Xiaobai and his companion, continued its journey into the depths of the sea.

The ice-blue ship rigging tightly enveloped the two of them, making it look like a unique little metal boat from the outside. The ship cut through the dark sea as it moved forward, steadily advancing through the black waves.

As the two ventured deeper into the ocean, their land-based ship equipment often brushed past deep-sea amphibious ships lurking in the ocean depths.

On the high seas, Xiaobai's land-based ship rigging was quite conspicuous in terms of both size and vibrant color. Therefore, even though the land-based ship rigging had concealed Iowa's ship girl aura, the nearby abyssal ships, sensing the "strange ship rigging" Xiaobai and Iowa were riding in, would often peek out from the dark water, their crimson eyes gleaming coldly, staring thoughtfully at the departing land-based ship rigging with a discerning look in their eyes.

……

Iowa sat in the land-based ship rig, gently stroking the metal seat-like compartment beneath her bottom. She turned her head to look at the passing scenery outside the rig, and immediately felt a sense of novelty.

"I think this is my first time riding in the Admiral's ship equipment," Iowa murmured.

"So, how do you feel as the first guest to board my ship?" Xiaobai asked with a smile.

"Being able to roam freely on the high seas without arousing the aggression of deep-sea creatures, apart from the Abyssal Fleet, I reckon you're the only one in the entire world who can do that." Iowa withdrew her gaze, clapped lightly at Little White, and said admiringly, "As expected of the Admiral, you've truly broadened my horizons."

"Actually, I'm not the only one..." Xiaobai scratched her head sheepishly, "Even if we don't consider the deep-sea deans at home, there are actually three other ship girls in our naval base who can do this too."

"Hmm? Who is it?"

"Lord Su, Odin, and Vesta, right?" Xiaobai asked.

"Oh...it's those three older sisters."

“Yes, Lord Su, Odin, and Vesta all have rather special constitutions… Strictly speaking, they are neither ship girls nor deep-sea creatures, but rather seem to be more like a special kind of neutral unit?” Xiaobai nodded uncertainly, then smiled and said, “In any case, they won’t be attacked by deep-sea creatures on the high seas.”

"Is the Admiral in a similar state to those three older sisters?"

"Then I don't know." Xiaobai shook his head. "There's no problem with the fact that my ship equipment comes from the Dean of the Deep Sea. And when I first obtained the ship equipment, the land-based ship equipment did have the aura of the Deep Sea. As for later... as you know, my ship equipment has undergone several major changes, so I can't say what's going on with its current state."

"Did the admiral's ship equipment also have a manned capability before?"

"It's always been available, after all, it's a land-based shipboard system," Xiaobai said. "It's just that there hasn't been much opportunity to carry people before."

How is the sound insulation here?

"...Why are you suddenly asking this?" Xiaobai suddenly crossed her arms and looked at Iowa with a wary expression. "Wait...you don't mean to..."

"Hehe..." Iowa covered her mouth and chuckled. "Admiral, please rest assured. We are still in the middle of a rescue operation. Even if it were me, I wouldn't choose to do 'that' with you at a time like this."

"...I'm right."

"So we'll have to test the sound insulation quality inside this land-based ship's equipment later," Iowa said softly, looking at the interior of the land-based ship's equipment.

"...Wait a minute?" Xiaobai felt a little dizzy from Iowa's explanation.

Iowa, of course, did not give Xiaobai time to sort out reality. Before Xiaobai could recover, Iowa asked Xiaobai questions again.

"Admiral, speaking of which, what is the first sea area we're going to?"

"Oh... the first sea area?" Xiaobai paused for a moment, putting aside the casual conversation for the time being, and her expression gradually became serious. "It's probably area B12. At the speed of the land-based ship, it should take about forty minutes to get there."

"Will we run into the Admiral's Guild's search and rescue team?"

"Probably not." Xiaobai shook her head. "The search and rescue team follows the routes marked out by the admirals on the sea map, while we take the shortest straight line route between two points. You know, we won't be attacked by deep-sea creatures, so we can walk freely through the deep-sea area. Therefore, what takes us forty minutes would take a normal ship girl team at least an hour and a half to travel."

Iowa nodded and turned her gaze back to the seascape outside the land-based ship's hull.

Before setting off, Xiaobai and Iowa selected three numbered dangerous sea areas as the locations for this sea voyage to salvage ship girls.

These three dangerous sea areas are all located in special waters close to the depths of the ocean, where the atmosphere of the deep sea is strong and the number of deep-sea ships lurking there is also extremely large. The B12 area that Xiaobai just mentioned is the area that is relatively close to the coast among these three sea areas, but even so, it is already an extremely obscure sea area that ordinary admirals would not enter even once every few months when they go on expeditions.

After a period of travel, the land-based ship finally arrived at the entrance to area B12.

Sitting in the land-based ship's equipment, even through the layer of armor, Iowa could clearly see that the black smoke around him had become much thicker.

Xiaobai steered the land-based ship equipment and charged into the entrance of area B12 without any hesitation.

In an instant, darkness descended.

The land-based ship equipment was like rushing into a huge stage shrouded in darkness.

The deep-sea aura surged and drifted around, and then, as if sensing some sweet fruit, the aura transformed into countless thick, viscous black mist-like gases, sweeping over and entangling Xiaobai's ship equipment, surrounding it layer upon layer.

Almost simultaneously, Iowa could clearly see that behind the viscous deep-sea airflow, countless blood-red eyes suddenly lit up in the darkness, staring straight at him.

These gazes were completely different from the gazes of the deep-sea creatures Iowa had encountered along the way.

The previous deep-sea ships couldn't detect the ship girl aura on Iowa at all, so when they looked at the land-based ship equipment, their gazes were mostly blank and confused, as if they were seeing something they had never seen before and couldn't help but take a few more glances.

However, upon entering area B12, Iowa clearly sensed that the blood-red eyes surrounding him were filled with ferocity and mania.

“I see. The deep-sea creatures in the danger zone are like deep-sea forces that have occupied this area and made it their nest. They are different from the deep-sea ships that stay in the public areas outside. They have already tacitly accepted this place as their territory.” Iowa stroked his chin and nodded. “So even if fellow deep-sea creatures enter here, they will be regarded as enemies invading their territory by the deep-sea ships entrenched here.”

Iowa had just finished speaking.

Sure enough, as if echoing Iowa's words, more and more blood-red eyes flickered in the darkness. Then, the massive deep-sea battleships began to emerge from the water, dragging their huge and terrifying black bodies. Countless deep-sea heavy and light cruisers emerged from all directions, baring their teeth and surrounding the land-based ship rigs. The buzzing roar of carrier-based aircraft began to echo in the sky. The deep-sea creatures growled, and their ear-piercing roars reverberated in the boundless smoke. Combined with the roar of the carrier-based aircraft descending from the sky, it was like a savage and ferocious opening theme.

"It seems this battle is inevitable."

Iowa sighed softly, closed her eyes, gently covered her knees with her hands, and made as if to get up.

However, the next second, Xiaobai pressed Iowa back into her seat.

"Admiral?" Iowa looked at Xiaobai.

"Iowa, you should just sit here quietly," Xiaobai said with a smile, pressing down on Iowa's shoulder.

“...But they don’t seem like they can talk properly.” Iowa paused for a moment before speaking slowly.

“Indeed.” Xiaobai nodded in agreement. She glanced at the scenery outside through the transparent window in the wall, her gaze lingering on the bodies of the deep-sea ships for a moment. “These deep-sea ships are quite brutal, even among all deep-sea ships. Judging from the bloody smell emanating from them, they must have done a lot of infighting.”

"So, what are the Admiral's thoughts?"

"Don't worry, this is nothing for you to handle." Xiaobai patted Iohua on the shoulder. "In the end, they're just a bunch of deep-sea minnows who happened to gather together."

After speaking, Xiaobai looked around.

The deep-sea forces—or rather, a deep-sea army operating over a small area of ​​the ocean—have completely surrounded the land-based ships in the center of the area.

Dark, mechanical figures surged across the water, while carrier-based aircraft filled the sky like locusts in flight, leaving almost no gaps between the sea and the sky.

The land-based ship, facing the deep-sea army, was like a pure white, harmless lamb facing a whole herd of hungry wolves, drooling and with bloodshot eyes, utterly helpless.

Sitting in the land-based ship equipment, Xiaobai pressed Iowa's hand with one hand, and gently raised the other hand, her slender index finger pointing to the sky.

The outer land-based ship equipment deformed in response, and the thick metal walls that enveloped Xiaobai and Iowa disintegrated.