Elder brother's garrison

Good heavens... why are all the ship girls from Nia's family here so early in the morning?

As Xiaobai was thinking, her gaze suddenly fell upon a maid ship girl dressed in a black and white maid outfit, with a full and slender figure and two light yellow pigtails tied behind her head.

The maid ship girl was originally standing on tiptoe outside the ship girls, trying to look towards Nia's dormitory, but she seemed to sense Xiaobai's gaze and subconsciously glanced in Xiaobai's direction.

"Oh, it's Admiral Lu Lin."

As soon as the maid ship girl saw Shiro, she immediately stopped trying to tiptoe into the crowd and quickly bowed slightly to Shiro.

Good morning, Admiral Lu Lin.

Xiaobai blushed slightly when she saw the maid outfit on the maid ship girl, but she quickly shook off her inappropriate emotions and waved to the maid ship girl with a smile.

"Good morning, Kewei," Xiaobai greeted with a smile.

This maid ship girl with light yellow twin tails is none other than Nia's ship girl; her aircraft carrier is truly formidable.

The formidable one before us is, among the Nia Naval Base, the four Veneto-class destroyers, Cleveland, Takao Atago, Helena Wichita, and a series of clingy and adorable destroyers, the Nia Naval Base ship girl who has a relatively good relationship with Shiro.

"Wow, why are there so many people here this morning?" Xiao Bai asked Ke Wei curiously, having just run into someone he knew.

Kewei stared at Xiaobai, who had a curious expression on her face, and a clear look of doubt quickly appeared in her eyes.

"Admiral Lu Lin, didn't you... hear me?"

"Huh? What did you hear?" Xiaobai asked back.

"..." Ke Wei did not answer immediately. She stared at Xiao Bai's innocent and pure face, and then suddenly realized what she meant. She bowed her head and greeted Xiao Bai, "I see... It seems we have disturbed Admiral Lu Lin's rest. We were not careful in this matter and are very sorry."

"It's not really a matter of disturbing or not..." Xiaobai laughed upon hearing this, "Anyway, this time is about the same as my normal wake-up time."

"Thank you for your understanding," Kewei said to Xiaobai.

"More than such a trivial matter, I'm curious about what you just heard, Formidable... what did you mean by that?" Xiaobai continued to ask curiously, "Did all of you ship girls come here so early in the morning just for this?"

“Yes.” Kewei nodded and explained to Xiaobai, “Admiral Lu Lin, actually, around midnight yesterday, something strange seemed to have happened in Chapter 8.”

"What's weird?"

"The strange thing is... right at the stroke of midnight, the ship girls almost simultaneously heard a long, mysterious bell ringing... The sound didn't come through their ears, but rather appeared directly in their heads." Formidable, with one hand on her chest, continued to explain to Shiro, "At first, we thought it was just a hallucination from being half asleep, but when we mentioned it to our companions the next morning, we discovered that it wasn't just us who heard the sound, but all the ship girls heard it."

"The bell tolls..." Upon hearing this, Xiaobai was also stunned for a moment.

Last night... there were bells?

its not right.

I was sleeping soundly... I didn't hear any clock chimes at all... Uh... Did I just not notice?

Thinking of this, Xiaobai looked at the ship girls huddled together with a strange expression.

"So, after you discovered that the bells last night might have sounded unusual, you were worried that something had happened to Nia, so you came here to check on her safety?" Xiaobai asked.

“That’s right.” Ke Wei nodded immediately.

"Hey..."

Xiaobai sighed, glanced at the crowded ship girls in front of Nia's dormitory, and then at the deserted entrance that was very close to Nia's dormitory.

Ok……

In short, logically speaking... since the ship girls of Nia's family all heard that strange bell sound, then the ship girls of Xiaobai's family should have heard it too.

But none of the ship girls from Xiaobai's family came to "care" about Xiaobai's safety this morning.

Say something.

Even a novice like her felt a pang of sadness for a fraction of a second.

Fortunately, this sense of melancholy quickly dissipated.

Sigh... The ship girls in the newbie naval base... right now, the thing I'm least worried about is Shiro's safety, since Shiro is the strongest fighter in the entire naval base right now.

Most importantly, Xiaobai is not the naive Nia. She spends the night with her married ship every now and then. Although the ship girls in the newbie naval base rarely mention it, they are well aware of Xiaobai's nightlife.

If the ship girls from the newbie naval base were to block Shiro's door the next day, banging on her dormitory door and shouting things like, "Admiral, come out and let us check if you're safe!"—all out of concern for Shiro's safety—Shiro would probably feel like banging her head against the bedside table, thinking about Akagi, who was still naked and huddled in bed, and how the ship girls would find her snuggled up with Akagi when they barged in.

Even a novice like Xiaobai has some sense of shame.

However, Xiaobai doesn't need much, just a little bit.

After all, Xiaobai is currently covered in the fragrance of flowers, so even if she doesn't say anything, it's unlikely that others can hide who she spent the night with.

Xiaobai coughed a few times, and after thinking to herself that her ship girls were still very considerate, she smiled shyly at Kewei.

"Well... in short, I understand the situation now, thank you, Formidable."

"It is my honor to be able to help Admiral Lu Lin." Upon hearing this, Ke Wei bowed to Xiao Bai, a graceful smile full of ladylike charm appearing on her slightly chubby, fair face.

Just then, the Nia Naval Base ship girls around Formidable also noticed Shiro.

"Hey! Isn't that Admiral Lu Lin?!"

"Admiral Lu Lin, you're awake!"

"Good morning, Admiral Lu Lin!"

"Oh dear...did we disturb you...we're so sorry..."

The ship girls immediately spoke to Xiaobai.

Xiaobai smiled and waved to the ship girls.

The news of Xiaobai waking up spread from the perimeter of the ship girls to Nia's dormitory in an instant. A moment later, clear footsteps came from Nia's dormitory, and then the ship girls immediately parted to make way for Nia, who was wearing pajamas and came running out of the way, panting.

"Little White! You're awake!"

Nia threw herself into Xiaobai's arms and hugged him tightly.

Chapter 3962 Who Heard It

Just by looking at Nia's current state, Xiaobai could roughly guess what happened to her this morning.

Hmm... Something strange happened last night. After the ship girls realized it wasn't their imagination the next day, they immediately rushed over to check on her safety. I guess she's been reassuring her ship girls about her safety until just now...

Xiao Bai patted Nia's back and could clearly feel that Nia's back was smooth and soft to the touch through a layer of fabric, and that she wasn't wearing anything under her pajamas.

It seems she had just woken up and hadn't had time to change her clothes yet.

“Nia, I heard something mysterious happened last night…” Xiaobai began.

"Little White, did you hear that too?" As soon as Nia heard Little White's words, she immediately raised her head and looked at Little White with hopeful eyes.

"Uh... I didn't hear that..." Xiaobai laughed awkwardly.

"Ah...no, didn't you hear that?" Nia looked at Xiaobai with a blank expression, but her eyes quickly brightened, and she immediately took Xiaobai's hand in hers. "It's okay! I'll tell you what I heard!"

"Thank you, Nia." Little White smiled at Nia.

"Okay, let's go inside and talk!" Nia said, glancing at the ship girls around her and grinning at them. "Thank you all for your concern for my safety, but I'm fine now. Thank you for your help! I need to go discuss last night's events with Xiaobai now..."

"Commander, we understand!"

The admirals of Nia's naval base understood immediately. They gave Nia an OK sign and then left with smiles on their faces.

Anyway, Nia is alive and kicking and in perfect health now. The ship girls have already completed their top priority task of ensuring Nia's safety. Since Nia has other things to do, they have no reason to stay here any longer.

Most of the ship girls retreated like the tide.

A small number of ship girls clung pitifully to the pillars in the corridor, peeking out like voyeurs to watch Nia holding Xiaobai's hands, their eyes sparkling as they gazed at Xiaobai, before finally leaving with unbearable envy.

“Xiaobai, let’s go to your dorm first…” Nia said, and then pulled Xiaobai toward Xiaobai’s dorm.

"Hey!" Xiaobai jumped up and quickly grabbed Nia's hand, pulling her back from her doorway.

"Xiaobai? What's wrong?" Nia's hand hovered in front of Xiaobai's doorknob, and she looked at Xiaobai blankly.

"Uh... my... my bedroom... I just woke up, it's a bit messy... how about I go to your place first?" Xiaobai scratched her cheek, glanced awkwardly at the tightly drawn curtains in her dorm room, and suggested in a low voice.

"Oh...I see..." Nia's eyes lit up a little when she heard Xiaobai say her room was a bit messy, but then when she heard Xiaobai say she was going to Nia's dorm, Nia's expression visibly turned disappointed. Even so, she still nodded and said, "Well...okay then..."

Xiao Bai finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Xiaobai followed Nia back to her dormitory.

Nia's dormitory was as tidy as ever. When Xiaobai came in, the only thing in her room that was messy was the bedding on her bed.

Nia rushed to the bedside, grabbed the blankets, and threw them to the other side of the bed.

"Ahem, sit, sit here." Nia patted the bed and said to Xiaobai with a blush.

"Hmm..." Xiaobai nodded gently, then sat down next to Nia amidst her expectant expression. "Nia, about that strange sound yesterday... I heard the ship girls say it seemed to be a bell ringing directly in your head? If it's a bell ringing, why do you seem to have received some kind of information?"

“Mmm-hmm.” Nia nodded immediately and said to Xiaobai, “I heard my ship girl say the same thing.”

"Hmm? What you're saying sounds like... it's like what you heard is different from what the ship girls heard?" Xiaobai realized what Nia meant.

“It’s different.” Nia nodded immediately. She said, “Xiaobai, actually, the voice I heard was a more specific statement.”

"What are you talking about?"

“Yes…” Nia began, telling Xiaobai everything she had heard the previous night, word for word.

After hearing Nia's account, Xiaobai stood there for a long time, lost in thought.

"Huh... Difficulty zone open? First clear reward? What are these..." Xiaobai frowned, suddenly looked out the window, and rushed towards the direction of the 8-4 sea area.

“These are the words. I’ve tried my best to write them down word for word,” Nia said to Xiaobai.

"Is it also midnight?" Xiaobai asked.

"Yes, when I heard that sound, I was startled awake from my bed. I even checked the time; it was exactly midnight."

"Is it also a sound that reverberates directly in the head without going through the ears?"

“Yes!” Nia nodded immediately, then her expression became very strange. “It’s like someone is talking directly into your head, it gives you goosebumps, it’s really weird…”

"..." Xiaobai nodded silently, then took out his phone, silently launched the Admiral Forum, and took a look.

"Little White, what are you looking at?"

"I'm looking at the Admiral Forum... Hmm, it's very interesting. People on the Admiral Forum are also talking about this."

"Huh? The Admiral's Forum?"

"This is interesting." Xiaobai showed Nia the content of the admiral forum on his phone. "It seems that the people who heard that informative voice are all the admirals of Chapter 8. And the ship girls who heard the bell are also all the ship girls of Chapter 8."

Nia stared blankly at the forum on Xiaobai's phone.

The forum was refreshing at an extremely fast pace, with countless discussions emerging about the "strange sounds from last night".

"But... Little White, didn't you hear that sound?" Nia said with a puzzled look.

“Yeah… I was the only one who didn’t hear it…” Xiaobai muttered to herself, squeezing her phone a little angrily before putting it back. After putting the phone away, she thought for a while and said to Nia, “Well… but more important than that is figuring out what that message means.”

“The meaning of the information…” Nia thought for a while, then she and Xiaobai exchanged a glance.

Strangely enough, both Xiaobai and Nia saw the same thoughts in each other's eyes.

"...Nia, is that what you think too?"

"Well, after all, this was the only major event that happened yesterday..."

It seems that Xiaobai and Nia have completely the same idea.

"...Black Tower".

Xiaobai and Nia said in unison.

“If that strange sound came from the Black Tower, something must have happened there…” Xiaobai stood up and said to Nia, “Nia, I’m going back to my dorm to pack up, and then I’ll go to the Admiral’s Guild. Something so big has happened, Miss Yingying and the others are probably already waiting for me.”

"Huh? Something this big happened... Won't Miss Yingying call you?"

"Hmm... I guess it's because I said I'd be at work on time today?" Xiaobai smiled. "After all, I was on vacation before work today, so it's normal for her to feel bad about disturbing my rest."

“Ah…” Nia looked at Xiaobai and uttered a series of knowing sounds.

Xiao Bai got up, said goodbye to Nia, and then left Nia's dormitory.

Nia subconsciously raised her hand on the bed and waved at Xiaobai's departing figure. She watched Xiaobai's figure disappear outside the door and felt a sense of loss.

"..."

"Ugh……"

Nia gently placed her hand on the spot where Xiaobai had just sat, her fingers slowly dragging and rubbing across the sheets.

"...Did I help Xiaobai today...?"