Elder brother's garrison

—This admiral probably doesn't know he's already broken the fastest record for clearing the first chapter. And that's with only himself as the ship girl...

Looking at Luo Lian's profile, and thinking about all the amazing things she did in the first chapter, Warspite couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

"War-weary, why are you sighing?"

"Admiral, you're amazing!"

"..." Luo Lian glanced at Warspite with a puzzled look, but she didn't pay much attention to Warspite's strange words. Soon, she started walking into the artificial city again, rubbing her chin as she pondered.

Warspite knew this was a unique habit of her admiral; before undertaking any major task, Luo Lian would spend a day or two thinking about it.

War-weariness did not interrupt Luo Lian's thoughts. She stretched out her hand, yawned, and looked up at the moon in the sky. Her stiff expression relaxed slightly.

Chapter 659... I didn't expect it to be an island. The environment seems quite nice.

Warspite gently inhaled the refreshing night air, and found that her steps had become lighter without her even realizing it.

Warspite felt that although she often couldn't keep up with her admiral's thought process, in the long time they had spent together, her admiral had never let her down. For example, in the first chapter, Warspite didn't even stay for a few days. She had just gotten along well with the ship girls living around her when she was vaguely led by Luo Lian to complete the fourth node and graduate from the first chapter.

Warspite still remembers the blank stares she received from the ship girls she knew in the Admiral's Guild when she submitted her application for Chapter 2 to President Barbatos after completing the fourth node.

That was pure, blatant envy.

Overall, Warspite felt that his future was still quite bright.

"Hmm?" Just as Warspite was secretly pleased, Luo Lian, who was walking ahead, suddenly stopped.

War-weary was a beat slower and bumped into Luo Lian from behind, causing Luo Lian to take two or three steps forward.

"Ah, Admiral, I'm sorry." Warspite snapped out of her daze and quickly apologized to Luo Lian.

"It's nothing." Luo Lian shook her head, then pointed to a spot, "Warspite, look over there."

Warspite looked in the direction Luo Lian pointed with a puzzled expression. In a corner of the artificial city, several construction devices were placed haphazardly.

Warspite counted them; there were exactly ten.

“That… is a construction device?” Warspite asked.

"Mm." Luo Lian nodded.

"Is it broken?" Warspite asked doubtfully.

"I don't know." Luo Lian thought for a while and walked towards the place where the construction devices were piled up. She reached out and patted the outer shell of the construction device, and carefully looked at it from all sides. "It looks pretty new."

"That's probably something that malfunctioned," Warspite shrugged.

“Only the Admiral’s Guild has construction equipment in this artificial city. Their construction equipment is usually maintained regularly. The sudden abandonment of so many construction equipment must mean that something unexpected happened,” Luo Lian said.

“Oh…” Warspite nodded, “But it shouldn’t be a big problem, it doesn’t seem to concern us.”

"..." Luo Lian, who was patting the construction device, thought for a while and nodded, "It seems so."

Construction devices are not rare items. Every admiral has some stock in their naval base. In theory, these things are just scrap metal to most admirals in artificial cities.

Luo Lian left the construction equipment piled in the corner and walked with Warspite to the place where their living quarters were assigned.

Fortunately, even though it was already past midnight and the Admiral's Guild had closed early, the service for assigning accommodations was still open. After Luo Lian handed over a certain amount of merit points, she led Warspite into a courtyard in an alley.

Upon arriving at the courtyard, Warspite acted like a young wife returning to her parents' home, looking around at the various empty rooms before darting from one to another with her little legs.

"Admiral, admiral, is this room alright for me?" Warspite pointed to a room in a location she really liked and said to Luo Lian, who was standing in the middle of the courtyard.

"Mm." Luo Lian nodded.

"Admiral, may I buy a new set of bedding?"

"Mm." Luo Lian nodded.

"Admiral, we haven't had dinner yet. Would you like me to make you some noodles later?"

"Mm." Luo Lian nodded.

Warspite, who was in the middle of her excitement, finally noticed that Luo Lian's mood was a little off. She turned around and looked at Luo Lian.

Luo Lian was standing in the middle of the courtyard, looking like she was deep in thought.

Warspite walked up to Luo Lian and looked at Luo Lian's face with curiosity.

Just then, Luo Lian clapped her hands.

"War-weary," Luo Lian called out to War-weary.

"Uh, oh, I'm here. Admiral, do you have any orders?"

“Okay.” Luo Lian nodded to Warspite. “Let’s go out and bring those construction devices back.”

"What the heck???" Warspite was stunned for a moment, then his eyes widened in surprise.

As mentioned before, construction devices are really not valuable to the admiral. If anyone wants to build a construction device, they can simply report it to their superiors at the naval base, pay a small amount of symbolic merit points and a little money, and a construction device will be delivered to them in a few days.

So, Yan Zhan really doesn't understand why Luo Lian would suddenly have ideas and interest in those construction devices that look like junk.

Looking at Luo Lian's resolute expression, Warspite felt a little dizzy.

Chapter 660 Little Red ———

However, no matter how much the War-weary woman didn't understand, she ultimately couldn't defy Luo Lian's actions.

After all, there were many times when Yanzhan didn't understand Luo Lian. In the end, Luo Lian didn't make any mistakes. On the contrary, Yanzhan himself couldn't keep up with Luo Lian's high level of skill.

So, with no other choice, Warspite and Luo Lian made four trips back and forth before finally transporting the ten abandoned construction devices piled up in the corner of the city back to the courtyard.

In the quiet of the night, in Luo Lian's courtyard, Warspite carried the last two construction devices and, with a thud, planted them into the ground.

"Ah, finally finished moving everything." Warspite twirled around, waving her arms. "Admiral, water, give me water!"

Standing next to Warspite, Luo Lian opened a bottle of mineral water and handed it to Warspite.

Without a word, Warspite took the mineral water and gulped it down.

"Ah!" After downing a bottle of mineral water, Warspite finally felt much better. Holding the empty bottle, she turned to look at the center of the yard. "Finally, it's over..."

The courtyard Luo Lian chose was quite large, one of the more expensive ones used in the second chapter. There were more than twenty rooms in the courtyard, each a double room. Even three people could squeeze in without feeling cramped, which was quite a luxurious place for Luo Lian and Yan Zhan, who were only two people.

In the middle of the courtyard, ten construction devices were set up one after another. From a distance, they looked dark and sinister, appearing like some kind of illegal equipment in the darkness of night.

Luo Lian walked up to the construction device closest to her, reached out her hand, touched the outer shell of the device, and pondered.

"Admiral, why do you want me to move this?" Seeing Luo Lian's mysterious look, Warspite couldn't contain her curiosity and asked her.

"Hmm... I feel like I can't let go of it." Luo Lian glanced at Warspite, her hand pausing as she touched the construction device. Then, Luo Lian skillfully pressed several points on the device, and with a click, it opened.

Luo Lian stared at the internal structure of the construction device, somewhat lost in thought.

With a dark expression, Warspite walked over to Luo Lian and looked inside the construction device.

"War-weary, do you feel nostalgic?" Luo Lian asked War-weary.

"Nostalgia? Nostalgia for what?"

"This is where you were conceived, it must feel like being in your mother's womb, right?" Luo Lian asked.

"What is that? It's disgusting." Warspite shrank his shoulders.

“Oh…” Luo Lian shook her head, then looked at the construction device for a while, and nodded. “I understand.”

"What do you understand now?"

“The bottom of this construction device has been modified. When materials are loaded in, they are transferred to other places. I guess it’s connected to other construction devices,” Luo Lian said, pointing to the inside of the construction device. “The connecting parts have been cut off, so this construction device is no longer usable.”

"Huh? It can't be used anymore?" Warspite asked.

"Ah."

"Then all my efforts were for nothing?" Warspite asked in despair.

“…It should…be like this…” Luo Lian said, pinching her chin and squinting her eyes.

After saying this, Luo Lian lowered her head and murmured a few words.

However, the voice was too faint, and even Warspite couldn't hear what Luo Lian said clearly.

Luo Lian shut down the construction device and then squatted down in front of it: "Warspite, help me flatten it."

"Oh." Warspite sighed, then laid the construction device flat.

This construction device is quite heavy. Although Luo Lian is powerful and strong in fighting, she is still just an ordinary person. It is too difficult for her to move such a behemoth that is measured in tons with her physical body.

After the construction device was flattened, Luo Lian couldn't wait to explore it.

"Warweary, could you go buy me some tools?"

What tool?

"Screwdrivers, jacks, and stuff like that." Luo Lian thought for a moment and rattled off a bunch of terms to Warspite.

After writing down what Luo Lian wanted on a small piece of paper, Warspite reluctantly ran to the street with the paper in hand and found a 24-hour hardware store, where he managed to buy what Luo Lian wanted.

After Warspite returned to the courtyard, Luo Lian had somehow managed to dismantle almost half of the construction equipment.

"Admiral, I'm back." Warspite returned to Luo Lian's side, carrying a large bag of ironware.

"Thank you." Luo Lian thanked Warspite, then took the iron tool from behind her. She picked up the wrench with considerable skill and quickly began operating it on the construction device in front of her.

As Warspite watched Luo Lian busy with various tools on the construction device, her initial confusion and doubt gradually faded.

Warspite watched with growing astonishment as Luo Lian busied herself with the construction device as if she were playing with a Rubik's Cube.

"Make a few minor adjustments here... and then do some welding later." Luo Lian, her sleeves peeking out, revealed her snow-white wrists as she worked tirelessly on the construction device. "...This screw is a bit old, it needs replacing. Hmm? How did it get like this here? Fix it. Speaking of which, over there..."

Luo Lian muttered to herself as she worked, and after a while, she smiled apologetically at Warspite: "Warspite, could you go buy me some ink?"

"..." Warspite nodded silently.

"Oh, right, I also need about this size of tin foil, and a steel plate too..."

In the tranquil artificial city, only the diligent, war-weary student continues to tirelessly run his errands.

Luo Lian worked on the construction device all night long, and it wasn't until dawn the next day that she finally wiped away her sweat and put down her tools.

"It's over." Luo Lian turned around and looked at Warspite behind her.

"Slurp slurp." Warspite squatted behind Luo Lian, her face streaked with black and red, as she slowly slurped up a bowl of instant noodles.

"...Thank you for your hard work last night, Warspite." Luo Lian smiled at Warspite.

"Hmm." Warspite nodded, gulping down the instant noodle soup into her mouth.

—At least this admiral has some conscience.

"Admiral, are you done?" Warspite put down the instant noodle cup, wiped his mouth, and moved closer to Luo Lian.

"It's done," Luo Lian said.

What did you do last night?

"Huh? Didn't I tell you?"

"You don't answer when I ask you questions." Warspite had a mournful expression on his face.

"Ah..." Luo Lian awkwardly covered her mouth, "I've fixed this construction device."

"It's fixed??"

“Well, there weren’t any major problems before. We just needed to connect the things below a little and block them up a bit.” Luo Lian said, looking at the construction device in front of her with a somewhat absent-minded look in her eyes. “But I made a slight modification.”

"Changed?"

"Well, since nobody uses this stuff anyway, I used my own ideas to modify the internal structure a bit..." Luo Lian said, "Let's give it a try."

"Oh... wait, Admiral, you said experiment?? What kind of experiment are you talking about?" Warspite paused for a moment, then looked at Luo Lian with a shocked expression.

"Let's use this to build some ship girls," Luo Lian said.

"Admiral, are you serious?" Warspite asked, somewhat bewildered.

Luo Lian nodded.

Warspite swallowed hard.

The construction device is one of the greatest inventions in human history. It brought humanity's guardian spirit, and the ship girls who emerged from its body defeated the deep sea and brought peace to humankind. From the moment humanity possessed the construction device, it poured the most outstanding talents of each generation into it and spent immeasurable sums of money to support a large number of outstanding researchers, all for the sake of improving the construction device even by the slightest bit.

However, the reality is cruel. Since its creation by humans, the construction device has not been improved in any way. Compared with the time of its discontinuation, it is basically the same except for slight differences in appearance.

War-weary looked at Luo Lian.

—However, Luo Lian actually said that she had slightly improved the construction device??