Elder brother's garrison

“I didn’t say that.” Luo Lian shook her head. “I just said that the admiral usually doesn’t stay in hotels.”

Warspite frowned, not understanding Luo Lian's words.

“The answer is right in front of you,” Luo Lian said. “The staff in these shops need to find a place to live. They can’t just rent land and build houses, can they?”

"Ah! Admiral, do you mean we need to find an inn for those shop assistants?" Warspite suddenly realized.

"Ah."

"Wow, Admiral, you're so smart!" Warspite's eyes were filled with undisguised admiration.

"Hmm." Luo Lian said without changing her expression, "It's just a seven-year-old's imagination, nothing serious."

Luo Lian led the war-weary group around the area and, sure enough, found a hotel in a secluded corner quite far from the city center.

Just as Luo Lian had said, most of the people living here were indeed not wearing admiral's uniforms and appeared to be shop assistants from the surrounding shops.

Only a few customers, dressed in white military uniforms and accompanied by one or two ship girls, walked in and out of the hotel with their heads down.

He seemed to not want others to know that he lived here.

In the world of admirals, strength is the ultimate truth, and weaker admirals always carry a slight sense of inferiority when participating in such large-scale events.

Luo Lian walked into the inn with her head held high, seemingly unconcerned.

Under the shop assistant's look that seemed to say, "Looks like I've spotted a lazy admiral again," Luo Lian simply inquired about the room's rental price and then took out his wallet.

Luo Lian finally booked a double room and went upstairs with Yan Zhan.

"Admiral, if it's about saving money... a single room is fine too, I can sleep on the floor." Warspite asked cautiously as she walked towards her room.

Luo Lian turned around and stared at Warspite's face for a while.

"It's alright, I'm not poor, I'll only be staying for a few days," Luo Lian said.

Luo Lian's words revealed a lot of information.

"Oh, Admiral, are you very rich?" Warspite was taken aback.

"I wouldn't say I'm rich, but I do have tens of thousands of yuan in my wallet," Luo Lian said calmly. "Speaking of which, my first paycheck will be paid in a few days."

"Huh? Where did you get your money, Admiral?"

“I used my pocket money to start a small business, and then I made some money by playing the stock market for a few weeks.” Luo Lian seemed to be thinking about something unpleasant. “I used to think that money was something too far removed from me, until not long ago when I was troubled by money…”

"???" Warspite looked at Luo Lian in shock. "Admiral, you can even play the stock market?"

"I can't win big, but I can still win a little money on small bets." As Luo Lian was speaking, she walked to her rented room, took out her key, and opened the door.

As expected of a hotel built for shop staff, and one that was rushed to completion, the amenities inside are quite basic.

Fortunately, neither Yanzhan nor Luo Lian were pretentious. After putting away their luggage, they sat down on the bed.

"Then, Admiral, what should we do next?" Warspite finally had time to ask her admiral a question. "Admiral, let me be frank. You know I haven't been out of the construction facility for long, and my ship equipment isn't strong enough to go on a rampage with just level 1 training. To be honest, I'm not very confident that I can perform well during the Abyssal Campaign."

It wouldn't be right to start with discouraging remarks, but Warspite felt she had to accurately convey her strength to her admiral. If the admiral misunderstood her abilities and took on some strange tasks, there would be no chance to salvage the situation.

"Mm." Luo Lian nodded, not surprised at all.

"...By the way, Admiral, how many merits do you have now?"

"Not at all." Luo Lian said with an expression that seemed perfectly natural.

Warspite sighed and rubbed his head in exasperation. Just moments ago at the city gate, he'd declared he was going to earn a million merit points. Where did his admiral get such confidence?

"Admiral...didn't you say that your close friend, the admiral named Xiaobai, is very capable? We're also in the early stages now, so how about we ask for some start-up funds?" Warspite asked.

“That won’t do.” Surprisingly, Luo Lian immediately rejected Yan Zhan’s question.

"Admiral... now is not the time to be reckless. We can borrow it too..."

“That’s not the issue.” Luo Lian shook her head firmly. “If Xiao Bai knew I was in this city, she would definitely come looking for me.”

"Well, isn't it fine too?"

"We can't disturb Xiaobai's strategy event," Luo Lian said. "This event is an opportunity for her to showcase herself to the world, and I can't disturb her."

Warspite looked at Luo Lian with gratitude: "Admiral, you're so kind, but what do we do now?"

"Don't panic, it's not a big problem." Luo Lian gestured for Yan Zhan to stay in the room for a while, then took out her wallet and went out the door.

Warspite stayed in the room for a while before Luo Lian returned.

Warspite noticed that Luo Lian was holding a piece of black metal in her hand.

"Admiral, this is..."

“Deep-sea metal.” Luo Lian sat back on the bed and handed the deep-sea metal in front of her to Warspite.

"Uh...where did this come from?"

“I bought it from the other admirals staying at this hotel,” Luo Lian said quietly, staring at the deep-sea metal in Warspite’s hand. “It’s easier to buy deep-sea metal from those down-on-their-luck admirals.”

"Oh..." Warspite looked at the deep-sea metal in his hand with a troubled expression.

A piece of deep-sea metal is worth 100 merit points. Well, at least we've made at least one ten-thousandth of our progress.

"Admiral... are you really serious about that one million?" Warspite asked.

Luo Lian nodded as a matter of course.

War-weary felt as if everything went black before his eyes.

"In short, we have the tickets." Luo Lian nodded and said, then patted her thigh, stood up, and prepared to walk towards the door.

"Tickets?"

“There’s a fee to go to the restaurant in the middle of the Admiral’s Guild.” Luo Lian opened her wallet and counted the amount inside. “I’m going out again.”

"You're not going to buy deep-sea metals again, are you?" Warspite asked.

Does our admiral really think he can get a million merits by buying ten thousand pieces of deep-sea metal? That would be truly a case of money talks.

However, what happened next shocked Warspite even more.

This time, Luo Lian was out for a relatively long time; it was almost an hour or two before Yan Zhan heard the door open.

Luo Lian, with a calm expression, was followed by five other ship girls into the room.

The five ship girls, looking somewhat reserved and embarrassed, greeted Warspite one by one.

Warspite gaped: "Admiral, you went to build it?"

"No, these are temporary henchmen hired at a high price from other admirals staying at this hotel." Luo Lian looked calmly at Warspite, clutching her empty wallet, looking as if everything was under control. "It took quite a bit of time and more than a dozen admirals to gather these five ship girls."

There's... there's even this kind of operation!

Chapter 416 The Strongest Contractor in History

The Admiral Guild of Temporary Seas and the Admiral Guild of Chapter Seas basically perform the same function.

You can queue up to register, chat and gossip, get supplies from the ship girls, and even get some food.

After the long queues of the past few days, the lobby of the Admiral's Guild has finally begun to quiet down.

Admirals with merit points in their pockets, like following any trend, flocked to the Admiral Guild's lobby rest center before the Deep Sea event officially began, spending expensive merit points to enjoy a leisurely time that would cost at most a few hundred dollars outside.

In a sense, this can be seen as a way to demonstrate one's status.

Many familiar admirals would even sit together with one or two ship girls they had brought along to support them that day, chatting about nothing more than trivial matters.

"How many merits are you planning to earn this time?" an admiral asked with a smile to the admiral in front of him.

"This time, we'll just aim for a small profit; we're not planning to push too hard."

"You bastard, I've known you for so long and you always say the same thing, but as soon as the event starts, you start grinding like a mad dog."

"How dare you talk to me like that? Look at your hair! Don't embarrass yourself. You should just leave the group!"

—and so on.

The ship girls sitting next to the admiral could only look at each other awkwardly, revealing embarrassed smiles.

Just as the ship girls were exchanging speechless glances, another group of ship girls accompanied their admiral into the rest center of the admiral's guild hall.

The admiral, who was closer to the door, glanced towards it instinctively.

Then they all paused, stunned.

Wow, that's quite a grand affair.

A black-haired girl wearing glasses, followed by six ship girls, was walking towards them.

The ship girls following behind the black-haired girl were all elegant and tall, exuding an aristocratic air, clearly not ordinary ship girls.

It's probably going to be a row of proper battleship/heavy cruiser ship girls or light carriers, who knows?

The black-haired girl glanced at the two admirals, then walked further into the rest center without looking back.

"I don't recognize this face. Is she a new admiral?" The two admirals huddled together and started discussing after the black-haired girl walked past.

"So many ship girls following behind, and they all seem to be of pretty high quality."

"The ship girls' training level seems to be too low."

"That's true, it feels a bit low... but their quality is high."

"Um……"

The two admirals, who had just been bragging to each other, suddenly became interested in the black-haired girl. Their eyes involuntarily followed their gaze.

The black-haired girl surveyed the rest area before walking over to another table in front of the admirals.

The black-haired girl sat down directly across from the admiral without any hesitation: "Hello, my name is Luo Lian."

The admiral, greeted by Luo Lian, glanced at the six ship girls behind her, and straightened his posture, nodding to Luo Lian: "Hello, my name is..."

"How many merit points do you expect to earn in this operation?" Luo Lian interrupted the admiral and asked him.

The admiral, who was interrupted, was somewhat displeased, but out of consideration for the high-quality ship girls standing behind Luo Lian, he didn't say anything.

Who told them to be more capable than me? Besides, they might have some benefit in asking me this question.

"Earning seventy or eighty thousand is enough," the admiral said somewhat conservatively, stating his figure.

“Then let’s go with your figure of 80,000. I have a way to help you earn 100,000,” Luo Lian said quietly.

The admiral's eyes lit up when he was spoken to: "Let's talk in private."

Luo Lian's confident demeanor was indeed infectious, and the admiral who was being spoken to couldn't help but become somewhat interested in what Luo Lian was saying.

“Let’s form a team, and I’ll lead the battle,” Luo Lian said.

Upon hearing this, the admiral hesitated instantly. He glanced at Luo Lian with some concern, his brows furrowed deeply.

Rather than forming a team, this is more like a contractor and worker relationship.

“I’ll show you the results at the end of the first day of the deep-sea activity period. Give me one day. If you’re not satisfied, we can make an agreement that everyone can leave the team at any time after each day. If you feel I can’t achieve your goal, you can leave that very night,” Luo Lian said.

The team-up requirements are quite lenient.

The admiral who was being spoken to glanced at the ship girls behind Luo Lian several times, seemingly trying to find a sense of security in them.

"Can you tell me your tactics?"

"No comment."

"Why are you looking for me?"

"Because you are the weakest here."

"Hahaha." Receiving Luo Lian's merciless evaluation, the man who was being addressed was not angry, but rather breathed a sigh of relief, "You're right."

"Want to team up?" Luo Lian asked.

"Okay. So I can leave the team whenever I want, right?"

“Yes, as long as you don’t leave the team during battle, it’s fine,” Luo Lian nodded and said.

How are merits calculated?

"Based on the ratio of the time spent working to the total time of the deep-sea activity, your salary for the entire activity will be 100,000 merit points," Luo Lian said.

In reality, if the man who was approached had continued the mission on his own, he would have only earned a maximum of 80,000 to 90,000 merit points during a single Deep Sea event. Now that Luo Lian had helped him increase the reward to 100,000, he had no reason to complain about the extra 10,000 to 20,000 merit points.

Anyway, it was all agreed that we could run away at any time if things went wrong, so I didn't feel any pressure.

"Okay," the man nodded.