Elder brother's garrison

As soon as Xiaobai entered the lobby of the renovation building, he looked at the scene inside and immediately let out a relaxed breath, a faint smile appearing on his face.

—In the lobby on this floor, a hundred or so tattered ship girls, dressed in tattered clothes, were lying on the entire floor, densely packed and colorful, but with red safety helmets steadily on their heads.

Chapter 3602 What's given away can't be taken back.

Outside the building, the deep-sea construction team moved steel bars, shoveled cement, and the clanging of hammering on the building was deafening. Inside the building, hundreds of ship girls lying unconscious on the water's surface formed a neat square formation, which was quite a spectacular sight.

"Sigh... I knew it was here."

Xiaobai glanced at the number of ship girls present, finally feeling completely relieved, and sighed with emotion.

The facts were just as Xiaobai had guessed.

Although it's unclear what happened to these ship girls that caused them to be heavily damaged all at once, the reason they weren't dragged underwater by the Abyssal Fleet and put in an even worse situation was because someone rescued them before the Abyssal Fleet could do anything about it.

Based on Xiaobai's experience yesterday, Xiaobai guesses that the only person who currently has the strength and experience to rescue these ship girls is Abyssal Taihou.

"Eighty-four ship girls have been reported missing, and the number of ship girls lying here... well, the initial count is one hundred and eight. That means there are still several admirals who don't even realize their ship girls have been captured." Iowa walked to the middle of the hall. She first squatted down to examine the unconscious ship girls on the ground, then took out a document and carefully compared the ship girls' facial data. Finally, she returned to Shiro's side and said, "Admiral, the number of ship girls here is exactly a multiple of six. Apart from the possibility that some squads are completely missing, those lying here should be all the ship girls who have encountered the crisis."

"The number of missing admirals is slowly increasing, and the information we had before was incomplete," Xiaobai replied to Iowa. Then, turning to look at Deep Sea Taihou beside her, she smiled and patted her head. "Xiaohong, you did a great job! You rescued all of them, right?"

With her eyes closed, the deep-sea taihou nuzzled towards Shiro like a kitten enjoying being petted. Then she opened her bright, watery eyes and nodded at Shiro.

"You did a good job, you did a good job!" Xiaobai continued to stroke the deep-sea giants, her face full of satisfaction and appreciation. "It seems I should respectfully call you a reliable deep-sea rescue team from now on."

The deep-sea giant phoenix hugged Shiro and rubbed against Shiro's neck.

Iowa watched with a smile as the Deep Sea Daihou interacted intimately with Shiro.

To be fair, having the deep-sea Taihous serve as the rescue team is definitely more reliable than having the ship girls do this job.

This isn't because Xiaobai doubts the Admiral's Guild's rescue team's capabilities.

However, compared to the deep-sea Taihou, the ship girls do lack a lot of unique advantages when serving as rescue teams.

After all, the Abyssal Phoenixes are the true Abyssal Deans. They have absolute authority in this sea area and can move freely without hindrance. As long as they have their eyes on someone, no Abyssal can hold them back in this sea area. Even if a ship girl is halfway into the mouth of an Abyssal battleship, they can still drag her out alive and intact.

Furthermore, since the Deepsea Abyssal race is accustomed to coexisting with the aura of the deep sea, in their perception, ship girls who are inherently opposed to and repelled by the aura of the deep sea are obviously like flies in soup in this deep sea area filled with the aura of the deep sea. This feeling is even more obvious after the ship girls are in a heavily damaged state, and it is difficult for them not to notice them.

You see, whether it's rescue speed, location advantage, or intelligence capabilities, the Deep Sea Phoenixes are far superior to the Admiral's Guild's rescue teams by more than one level.

The Deep Sea race is practically the perfect rescue team for heavily damaged ship girls!

Moreover, to be honest, the biggest problem with the Deepsea Commander serving as the head of the rescue team lies in the opposing factions and irreconcilable differences between the Deepsea Abyssal Ships and the Ship Girls.

Fortunately, while the head of the Abyssal Fleet at Xiaobai's house wasn't particularly fond of ship girls, he wasn't as resistant as other wild Abyssal Fleet members. Out of respect for Xiaobai, who was the admiral, the Abyssal Taihou were willing to lend a hand to ship girls in distress, thinking about the reward they would receive from him.

"Little Red, these are all the ship girls you rescued, right?"

Xiaobai happily rubbed the Deep Sea Taihou's head for a while, then asked her a question.

The deep-sea giant phoenix reluctantly raised its head after being stroked by Xiaobai, and gently nodded its head a few times towards Xiaobai.

"No one was missed, right?"

"..." Deep Sea Taihou blinked and continued to nod.

"Great job!" Xiaobai happily hugged Shenhai Daihou and gently kissed her forehead.

"...%￥!"

The Deep Sea Taihou, whose forehead was kissed by Xiaobai, began to feel hot all over. She suddenly convulsed, trembled, and finally fainted in front of Xiaobai, falling backward.

Fortunately, several other deep-sea giant phoenixes rushed forward and supported her weak body before she landed.

Under the watchful eyes of Shiro and Iowa, the three Deep Sea Taihounds carried their unconscious companion out of the hall. Another Deep Sea Taihound, its eyes brimming with anticipation, emerged from behind the outer door, replacing the previous one, and came before Shiro.

"Huh? Who was that Xiao Hong just now...?" Xiao Bai looked at the departing figure outside the hall, somewhat surprised.

"..." The new deep-sea phoenix didn't say anything. She just closed her eyes and hugged Shiro contentedly, rubbing against Shiro's chest.

Feeling the itchy sensation on her chest, Xiaobai could only temporarily set aside her concern for the previous deep-sea Taihou and turn her attention to the new deep-sea Taihou in front of her.

"Anyway, thank you so much this time." Xiaobai said to Shenhai Taihou in a low voice, "With so many ship girls damaged at the same time, it would be very troublesome for the rescue team to search for them. As time goes by, some of these ship girls may never come back in this lifetime... Fortunately, you guys are there to protect us, so no ship girls have truly suffered unavoidable damage."

"~" Deep Sea Phoenix narrowed its eyes.

While stroking the head of the Deep Sea Taihou, Xiaobai looked at the ship girls in the hall.

Now that the ship girls have been rescued, the next step is to figure out how to "deal with" them.

There are quite a few heavily damaged ship girls this time. Shiro and Iowa definitely can't carry so many people on their own, so they have to borrow the help of Abyssal Taihou.

After a brief discussion, they opened their ship equipment space and took out all the remaining ship equipment aura shielding devices in one go—there really weren't many of these ship equipment aura shielding devices left. Including some special styles of hair clips, bracelets, and even rings, there were only about twenty or thirty in total.

Xiao Bai had previously thought that these ship-borne aura shielding devices would be enough for his deep-sea deans to use for a while, but he didn't expect them to be completely used up so quickly.

But... forget it.

The deep-sea aura shielding devices were meant to be used anyway. Rather than letting them gather dust in Xiaobai's ship equipment space, giving them to the deep-sea Taihou who need them is a good outcome. These deep-sea aura shielding devices, along with the six that Xiaobai gave to the deep-sea Taihou yesterday, will make up about thirty of them. Three or four round trips should be enough to transport all the badly damaged ship girls out.

Xiaobai handed the deep-sea aura shielding device to the deep-sea giants.

Watching the deep-sea giants eagerly scrambling for the limited number of pieces of jewelry, especially the few particularly sparkly rings, and even the sight of a large group of them fighting amongst themselves, Xiaobai couldn't help but laugh awkwardly.

—It seems the deep-sea phoenixes really like these shielding devices. I need to find some time to return to the naval base as soon as possible and discuss with Akashi and Lord Su about creating a new batch of deep-sea aura shielding devices.

These deep-sea air-shielding devices are not enough for the giant phoenixes of the deep sea.

How many pieces of ship equipment from Lord Su's body would be needed to create thousands of deep-sea aura shielding devices...

Xiao Bai thought about it again and again, and finally recalled the small and cute ship equipment on Lord Su's back, and suddenly felt a little emotional.

……

A dozen minutes later, the thirty victors of the Deep Sea Phoenix, holding aloft the Deep Sea Aura Shielding Devices given to them by Xiaobai, slowly put on the jewelry amidst the envious gazes of the other individuals.

Xiaobai and more than thirty Abyssal Taihou led a group of unconscious ship girls away from the Abyssal City. They made several trips to the search and rescue team's route and, using the same method as before, secretly placed the unconscious ship girls' bodies in front of the search and rescue team's route. Only after seeing the team discover and take away the ship girls did Xiaobai and the Abyssal Taihou move on to place the next batch of heavily damaged ship girls.

Several times in a row, Xiaobai and the deep-sea giants traveled back and forth between the 8-2 sea area and the deep-sea city.

Two hours later, the last group of ship girls was placed in the nearby dangerous waters that had been cleared. After watching the search and rescue team detect the ship girls' presence and rush into the dangerous waters without hesitation, Xiaobai, who was hiding underwater, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

As the search and rescue team moved away, Xiaobai and the deep-sea giant phoenixes surfaced.

"Well, that was the last group of ship girls. We've completed our mission perfectly this time. We can..." Xiaobai turned around and started to speak to the Abyssal Taihou, but she was suddenly distracted by the movements of the Abyssal Taihou and unconsciously closed her mouth.

Upon hearing the words "mission completed" from Xiaobai, the Taihou of the Deep Sea immediately lowered their heads and covered their ship-equipped aura-shielding devices, such as necklaces, bracelets, hairpins, and rings. Although they didn't say anything and their faces were expressionless, their obvious reluctance was accurately conveyed to Xiaobai.

"..." Xiaobai looked at the Deep Sea Taihou with a wry smile, "...Well...since I've given you these ship-mounted aura-shielding devices, I won't take them back...don't worry."

Chapter 3603 Deep-Sea Submarine...Dean?

As the saying goes, jewelry represents the giver's feelings for the girl. Once it is given, as long as the feelings between the two parties are still there, there is absolutely no reason to take it back.

Although the deep-sea Taihou are not "girls" in the conventional sense in the eyes of humans, and the deep-sea aura shielding device is not "jewelry" in the conventional sense, in Xiaobai's mind, the concepts of these things are similar. Since she gave the jewelry to the deep-sea Taihou, she has no intention of taking it back, no matter what the reason.

As for the fact that the deep-sea aura shielding devices have run out...

Ugh.

It seems I, Lord Su, will have to suffer for a few more months.

As Xiaobai watched the deep-sea giants looking up at her with their bright, watery eyes, she couldn't help but reach out and touch the heads of the deep-sea giants in front of her.

"From now on, you can use these thirty or forty deep-sea aura shielding devices in rotation. I will expedite the production of the remaining deep-sea aura shielding devices and strive to equip everyone in your deep-sea city with them."

"—!"

Upon hearing Xiaobai's words, the deep-sea giant phoenixes immediately opened their arms and rushed over, embracing Xiaobai tightly.

……

Surrounded by the Taihou of the Deep Sea, Shiro returned to the Deep Sea City. After meeting up with Iowa, who was waiting there, the two bid farewell to the Taihou of the Deep Sea and returned to the Super Yamato side. Using the Super Yamato's teleportation ability, they returned to the top floor of the Admiral's Guild.

Back in her familiar office, Xiaobai sat down in her chair and let out a long sigh of relief. She looked up at the sky outside the window.

The incident of the heavily damaged ship girl going missing occurred after the Admiral's Guild had finished get off work. It took me and Iowa several hours to deal with it, so when they returned, it was already completely dark outside, and the sky was quiet with a few stars and a bright moon.

"Phew, we've been away from the office building for so long, and it seems like no one from downstairs has come looking for us." Xiaobai turned her gaze back to Iohua.

“Admiral, that’s because Miss Yingying has returned to work. She’s currently dealing with a lot of frightening matters on the first floor,” Iowa explained.

"Huh? Miss Yingying is at work?"

"Yes."

"No wonder... I was wondering why I suddenly had so much free time." Xiaobai sighed, "Miss Yingying must be really tired."

"Well, now that the Admiral has finished dealing with the matter, I believe Miss Yingying will also receive the news, and the work will be completed soon."

"hope so……"

Xiaobai murmured to herself as she took out her phone, opened the Admiral Forum, and began reading the posts.

"Brothers and sisters, good news, good news! The Admiral's Guild has made its move!"

"The Admiral's Guild's rescue team is incredibly efficient. I don't know if anyone was on the beach just now, but you guys have no idea how fast the rescue team brought back ship girls from the sea, like scooping dumplings out of a pot."

"Yeah, hahaha, what a fast rescue speed!"

"World's fastest speed!"

"I'm the admiral who rescued the ship girls. Sorry I haven't had time to go on the forum. My ship girls have just been rescued. I'm here to say one thing: thank you Admiral Lu Lin, thank you Miss Yingying, and thank you Chapter 8 Guild! My wife, my love, and my companions were unharmed in this incident. They just received quick repair treatment and are all awake now. They're fine, they... I'm sorry, I'm a bit incoherent. What I mean is... I've never felt so excited since becoming an admiral. From now on, I'm a dog of the Chapter 8 Admiral Guild!"

Congratulations to the person upstairs!

Congratulations to the person upstairs!

Congratulations to the person above ...

"Great news! Just now, all the ship girls who were registered as missing have been recovered! Not a single ship girl is missing!"

"The Admiral's Guild is awesome!"

"The Admiral's Guild is awesome!"

"So was this incident an accident or...?"

"..."

Xiaobai quickly browsed this far, closed the Admiral Forum, and put his phone aside.

"Well, in short, the matter concerning the ship girls is now settled," Xiaobai said to Iowa. "The next step is to find out exactly what happened in this sea area."

"Would the Admiral like to see the investigation report on the rescued ship girls?" Iowa asked Shiro. "Judging from the timeline, the first batch of awakened ship girls should have already completed their investigations and interviews."

"Well, thank you for your help."

"Wait a moment, Admiral."

Iowa smiled, left the office, and went to the lobby on the first floor to retrieve the heavy documents and reports.

Iowa placed the report on Xiaobai's desktop.

"Admiral, these documents are the first batch of self-reports from the awakened ship girls, and they have been simplified and refined by the Admiral's Guild."

"Um... thank you." Xiaobai picked up the document and looked down at it.

These so-called self-reports, simply put, are the accounts by the ship girls who encountered accidents, detailing the entire process they experienced and remembered during the accident.

Xiao Bai carefully read through the reports page by page until the last one. Then, he let out a soft sigh and put the report back on the desktop.

"Admiral, what's the situation?" Iowa asked.

"Yes, it's very similar to yesterday's situation. These ship girls encountered a submarine with seemingly extremely high evasion ability and great power while they were blasting fish. In the process of fighting this submarine, some of them were wiped out by the submarine, while others were chased into the nearby dangerous waters..." Xiaobai replied.

"So, that mysterious submarine enemy really exists?"

"Now that things have come to this, it must be true," Xiaobai said earnestly.

"...Is it a deep-sea dean of the submarine type?"

"...I don't know...None of these ship girls' reports mentioned that they had ever sensed the aura of a Deepsea Dean." Xiaobai replied.

“Hmm…that’s strange.” Iowa thought for a while and said slowly, “Generally, the only deep-sea amphibious ship that can have performance that surpasses that of other ship types should be the Dean of the Deep Sea.”

“Yeah, I find it strange too.” After thinking for a while, Xiaobai asked Iowa, “Could it be that the Deep Sea Dean’s ability is to hide his Deep Sea aura?”

"Is it possible for someone in this world to have the same strange abilities as the Deep Sea Dean?"

“Yes, Musashi is one.” Xiaobai nodded in reply. “Haven’t you noticed? You’ve never sensed Musashi’s deep-sea aura. I haven’t even put a deep-sea aura shield on her, because it’s unnecessary.”

“…Ah, now that the admiral has reminded me, that makes sense…” Iowa thought for a moment.

Deep Sea Musashi was usually quiet and harmless, and Iowa really didn't realize that she didn't have a deep-sea aura shielding device.

“A Deep Sea Dean who can conceal his aura is terrifying,” Xiaobai said seriously. “Back then, Deep Sea Musashi relied on this ability to hide his aura to brazenly rush to the shore of the Chapter Sea and lived peacefully with the ship girls there for quite some time.”