Elder brother's garrison

"The treatment here is definitely not as good as where you were before, I hope you can understand," the village chief said.

"Ah, no, this place is quite nice too... Huh?!" Xiaobai was about to politely decline a few words, but before she could say more, she looked at the village chief in shock.

What did the village chief just say?

Are the conditions here definitely not as good as where I used to live?

Did he discover that he was from the future?

Xiao Bai was so shocked that he couldn't speak for a while.

"The village you're in... oh, I shouldn't say that, little girl Lu Lin, the place you were in before must have been a much more advanced city," the village chief continued. "Don't be nervous, little girl, the texture of your clothes and the knowledge you possess tell me that."

Xiao Bai understood the meaning behind the village chief's words.

It seems the village chief doesn't believe he's from the future, but rather from another advanced village.

Although Xiaobai didn't mind her identity as a person from the future being exposed, she still felt that it was best to keep this information hidden as much as possible.

"Mm." So, Xiaobai nodded, taking it as a yes.

The village chief smiled with satisfaction: "I didn't come to you about anything important this time. I just wanted to ask you, young lady, if the city you used to live in has developed any technology for the deep sea, even just a little bit?"

"..." This question stumped Xiaobai.

Do you think Xiaobai means yes or no?

Xiaobai wanted to say no, but when she looked at the village chief, she saw a strong hope and longing in his eyes, which made her unable to say it.

"Probably... I'm not sure," Xiaobai said, "if it's just a tiny bit on the eyebrow."

Since Xiaobai comes from the future, he knows about the ship girls later on, and as an admiral, he also has some understanding of them. So, it shouldn't be a problem for him to just offer some vague suggestions on how to defeat the Abyss Sea.

As soon as Xiaobai finished speaking, the village chief's eyes lit up instantly, and his old face turned as red as an eggplant.

"Good! Good! Good! Good, good, good!" The village chief slapped his thigh and nodded at Little White, his tone full of ecstasy and relief. "Finally! Finally!"

Chapter 462 Summoning Ship Equipment

The village chief kept slapping his thigh, his usually composed face filled with an almost overwhelming joy that made him look like he was about to faint. He kept nodding, got up from the stool, and paced back and forth in the house with his hands behind his back, his rapid steps creating a whooshing sound.

Looking at the village chief's bewitched appearance, Xiaobai subtly regretted saying what he had told him.

It feels like if someone doesn't catch their breath, they might laugh themselves to death.

"Grandpa Village Chief... please slow down..." Xiaobai said to Grandpa Village Chief, who was jumping around in front of him, expressing his joy.

"Oh, okay, okay, I'm getting a little excited." The village chief heard Little White calling him and finally realized that he had been a little too lively. So he quickly composed himself and sat back down in his chair.

Xiao Bai could see that the village chief's hands were trembling at that moment.

She underestimated the impact of the existence of "deep-sea technology" on the people of that era.

"Is everything you're saying true?" the village chief asked again, his voice trembling.

Xiaobai could only nod.

I can't just go back on my word and say I was just kidding, or the village chief would probably be furious.

"Is it a cannonball that can penetrate deep-sea armor? Or something that can interfere with deep-sea ultrasonic waves, or some kind of small robot?" the village chief asked excitedly.

"Uh...neither."

"Is it a special drug that can make humans stronger? Or a glow stick or belt that can turn you into a giant superhero after activation?" The village chief started to speculate.

“...No, not exactly.” Xiaobai lowered her head.

"What is that?" the village chief asked expectantly.

“…They’re ship girls,” Xiaobai replied.

"Ship girls?" A hint of confusion appeared in the village chief's eyes. "Little girl, what are ship girls?"

Xiao Bai's mouth, well, then he couldn't open it anymore.

“Ship girls… um… those are the girls who appear under the name of a ship,” Xiaobai replied.

Xiao Bai's answer stunned the village chief.

The village chief was caught off guard by the nature of "deep-sea technology".

In the village chief's eyes, the Deepsea Abomination possessed incredibly tough armor and unparalleled power. To defeat this otherworldly machine, humanity would need to employ technology of at least the same level.

The village chief's first thought was that the shells could penetrate that layer of armor, which was also the most rational and scientific possibility.

If we let our imaginations run wild, perhaps deep-sea technology could create giants that can form a cross shape and shoot light waves to attack enemies. However, considering the enormous energy consumption that would require, they would probably only be able to operate for about three minutes. As a tool to fight against the deep sea, it's not very realistic.

Then, let's add a touch of masculine romance to that. The village chief's final idea was that the core of this technology might be a large robot that requires a human to operate.

—Then the girl in front of me told me that Deep Sea Technology was actually just a group of girls?

This stark contrast left the village chief speechless for a while.

"Grandpa Village Chief? Grandpa Village Chief?"

"Oh, I'm here." The village chief's hands stopped trembling, his shoulders stopped shaking, and his gaze became steady. He looked at Xiaobai with a complicated expression. "Little girl, is what you're saying really true?"

"real."

After confirming this, the village chief felt a surge of energy escape from his chest.

The actual product of "Deep-Sea Technology" is surprisingly... kind of cute.

"Can you tell me why it's a girl?" the village chief asked.

"Uh..." Xiaobai was stumped by the village chief's question. She thought for a while and was about to say that she didn't know, but when she saw the look in the village chief's eyes that seemed to say "human pills," she felt that she had to give an explanation. "...Because, because girls have a better mentality! They are better able to endure loneliness!"

Xiao Bai said this to the village chief with great confidence.

The village chief silently watched Xiaobai's energetic appearance and nodded.

"Well, thank you, little girl. I understand." The village chief forced a smile at Xiaobai, then stood up from his chair and looked out the window with a melancholy expression. "That's all I wanted to ask."

This was already a fairly obvious hint, and Xiaobai understood it, so after saying goodbye to the village chief, she left the village chief's house.

That's really true. Ship girls are such beautiful, powerful, and humane beings, it's just too dreamy. If you tell someone this directly, they'll easily think it's just a child's fantasy.

Xiao Bai walked out of the village chief's house, feeling subtly down.

"Lu Lin?" Outside the village chief's house, Linglan had been waiting for Xiaobai for a while. She waved to Xiaobai and asked, "What did my grandfather want to talk to you about?"

"Grandpa Village Chief asked me if I knew about the existence of deep-sea technology," Xiaobai said as he walked up to Linglan.

"Oh...I see." Linglan thought for a moment, then reached out and hugged Xiaobai. "That's how my grandpa was, you have to understand."

Suzuran's reaction suggests that she is aware that Shiro comes from another advanced city.

"Sister Linglan, do you know that the place I stayed in before was a bit more advanced?" Xiaobai asked curiously.

In response to Xiaobai's question, Linglan simply smiled and said, "Of course. How could someone from a less capable place know so much?"

"..." Xiaobai felt that Linglan seemed to be much smarter than she had imagined.

—No wonder he's the deputy village chief.

"Sister Linglan, are the levels of civilization different in the villages of this world?" Xiaobai asked.

“It’s different.” Although Linglan was a little curious as to why Xiaobai used the phrase “this world”, she still explained to Xiaobai honestly, “Villages like ours don’t benefit from the glory of our ancestors and have few people, so we can only hang around like this. Those large villages with tens of thousands of people… can’t even be called villages anymore. Those cities have many people and may be able to directly receive help from the ruins of the civilizations that were burned down before, so their technology is definitely much more advanced than ours.”

Why don't you go look for those big cities?

“As I said before, the above is just speculation. Besides, we don’t even know where those big villages are exactly.” Linglan shook her head, her voice filled with helplessness. “You know our village doesn’t have many resources. If we just search randomly, we’ll quickly bankrupt the whole village. And even if we find them, it’s another matter whether they want us or not.”

Xiao Bai fell silent.

It goes without saying how difficult life was in Suzuran's village. Leaving aside the problem of scarce resources, the fact that the Abyssal Fleet would come every now and then was already a major issue.

Houses, tools, food, fields, and even lives would be destroyed with each visit of the deep-sea ships, leaving the village with no way to accumulate resources and strength or make technological progress. It could only struggle to survive.

Don't be fooled by how simply Linglan puts it; as the leader of this village, she and her grandfather must have worried about this kind of thing countless times.

Xiao Bai felt he had to do something.

"Ah, let's not talk about that now. Lu Lin, what did you say to Grandpa later?" Linglan felt that the topic was getting a bit heavy and not suitable for a child like Xiaobai to hear, so she changed the subject again.

"I told Grandpa the village chief that I did..."

"Huh? There is?" Lily of the Valley was stunned.

“Kantai Collection girls,” Xiaobai said, “are the personifications of those colossal historical warships, all beautiful older sisters who can effectively damage Abyssal Fleet ships, and…”

Before Xiaobai could finish speaking, Linglan's cool and soft hand covered Xiaobai's forehead.

Lily of the Valley looked at him with concern: "You have a fever?"

It seems that Suzuran, like her grandfather, doesn't have much confidence in the existence of ship girls.

Xiaobai and Linglan returned home. The children who had come out earlier were squatting at the door of Linglan's house waiting for Xiaobai. When they saw Xiaobai and Linglan return, the children rushed to Xiaobai and greeted him as Teacher Lu.

Xiao Bai knew that the children were just bored and wanted to study.

Just then, Linglan didn't let Xiaobai do any work, as if she was afraid that the rough work would hurt Xiaobai's body. Xiaobai didn't have anything else to do, and when she just sat there, she felt like she was dragging the whole village down. So she just taught these children to recite Tang poems for a while.

Linglan watched the child with Xiaobai, said nothing, and ran back to continue her civil engineering work.

After some time, when the children left satisfied, Xiaobai finally breathed a sigh of relief.

She looked up at Lily of the Valley, who was chopping wood with an axe not far away, for a while, then found a moment when no one was paying attention and quietly slipped away.

Xiaobai quietly followed the road and left the village where Linglan lived, slowly walking outwards in the open space on the edge of the village.

When you first leave the village, you might occasionally encounter one or two villagers carrying felled trees back to the village. But after walking for another ten minutes or so, you gradually stop seeing anyone.

They walked for a while longer, until Xiaobai could faintly smell the saltiness of the seawater, before slowly stopping.

For people from that era, the smell of seawater was a sign of a forbidden zone. Further on, they might encounter deep-sea ships or something similar, so there probably weren't many people around here.

Xiaobai closed her eyes and summoned her ship equipment.

With a thunderous roar, the massive land-based ship hull set foot on the ground like a fortress, standing firmly on the earth as if rooted to the spot. A faint white light swirled around its white-blue crystal hull, and the huge gun barrels and runway stretched outwards continuously under the burning blue flames.

Chapter 463 Launching Carrier-Based Aircraft

When Xiaobai acquired the ship equipment, she didn't know how to use it at all. She could only deploy and retract the ship equipment. She was completely clueless about things like firing cannons, launching aircraft, and aiming.

This situation began to improve gradually after the first fusion with Pachina's spiritual power.

Since then, Xiaobai's control over the admiral network has been gradually increasing, and he has even been able to make some controlling moves on the ship equipment.

Then, at that very moment, the Will of the Deep Sea facilitated Xiaobai's ascension. As it shattered Xiaobai's ship rigging, it also inexplicably caused Xiaobai's ship rigging to completely merge with her. Under the blessing of that mysterious power surging from her body, Xiaobai felt the existence of her ship rigging for the first time, and she became adept at controlling it. She could not only fire the cannons, but she could even aim.

"It must be the result of eating Lord Su's ship equipment fragments..." Xiao Bai murmured softly, looking at the white light covering his ship equipment.

She shook her head, banishing all distracting thoughts from her mind.

As Xiaobai gradually quieted down, the large ship-mounted beast's mouth behind her opened wide. Amidst the blue flames, small carrier-based aircraft burning with cold fire flew out of the beast's mouth like an assembly line, gliding along the long runway with a slight running sound, and finally wobbling into the sky.

As the plane took off, Xiaobai's expression gradually became serious.

Xiaobai's act of standing someone up was not for any other reason than that after talking to Linglan, she felt that she might be able to help the village in some way.

Although Xiao Bai is guaranteed to live to the modern era, that would be too long. If possible, Xiao Bai would like to try to travel back in time. The Will of the Deep Sea also said that if you want to travel back in time, you must overcome the energy hurdle.

The amount of energy required to travel back in time is beyond imagination. It's simply a pipe dream for a small village like Linglan to produce that much energy. Therefore, Xiaobai has to look further into the future.

The village of Lily of the Valley may not have it, but perhaps some other advanced city might?

Rather than wasting his life in the village, Xiaobai thought it would be better to go and find some advanced cities.

Finding a more advanced city has become Xiaobai's biggest goal. However, this world has no maps, no means of communication, no Baidu or Google, and there are no knowledgeable elders to consult. The village is surrounded by only an endless forest and ocean. Finding other cities is difficult to do by manpower alone, so Xiaobai can only seek help from some special means.

This is something Xiaobai learned when she was working as a teacher in Yuxiu: the carrier-based aircraft of the ship girls is a very useful search method.

Excellent aircraft carrier ship girls like Lexington and Saratoga Enterprises can even remotely control their carrier-based aircraft to fly very far away to investigate what they want to investigate.

So Xiaobai tried to rely on the carrier-based aircraft to see if he could find anything.

However, ideals are beautiful, but reality is harsh. The moment Xiaobai released the carrier-based aircraft, she encountered a huge problem.

Xiao Bai opened his eyes and looked at the carrier-based aircraft floating up and down in mid-air in front of him, revealing a rather embarrassed expression.

—She doesn’t seem to have any talent for launching carrier-based aircraft.

Xiao Bai covered his face as if he couldn't bear to look at his own embarrassing past, and squatted down on the ground helplessly.

Unexpectedly, Xiao Bai, who usually had a smooth life, encountered all sorts of terrible things when he was separated from his family.

"What...what should we do..." Xiaobai sighed helplessly as she looked at the carrier-based aircraft bobbing up and down in the sky, almost falling to the ground.