Elder brother's garrison

In Chapter 696, most of the ship girls are working overtime, and they are overjoyed to have a day off. However, Warspite is the opposite. Because the admiral is too outstanding, she hardly gets any chance to play, so she looks forward to going to sea to work every day.

So Warspite might be the first ship girl in the world who only wants to fight the Abyssal Fleet because she's been spoiled too much by her own admiral.

Luo Lian sighed: "You said you wanted to fight the deep sea, but your training level makes it very difficult for me to do things, Miss Warspite."

"Whose fault is it that my training level is low?!" Warspite was so angry with Luo Lian that she almost cried.

"Hahaha." Xiaobai couldn't help but laugh as he watched Warspite and Luo Lian interact. "Let's put the training level aside for now. Lianlian, how's Warspite's equipment going?"

"Equipment?" Warspite, who was hammering Luo Lian, paused.

"Ah."

"All four main guns are made entirely of gold."

Upon hearing Warspite's words, Nia quickly covered her mouth, looking at Warspite with a surprised expression.

"Didn't I make a little money during the autumn event last time? I used the merit points to equip Warspite with some gear." Luo Lian sighed, "No wonder it's a place where the high-sea admirals reside; the equipment shops have pretty good quality items."

“…Oh, I see.” Xiaobai nodded.

The quality and rarity of ship girl equipment vary depending on the ship type. For example, the equipment of destroyer or light cruiser ship girls is much cheaper than that of large ships of the same level. For battleships like Warspite, one of their gold main guns could probably be equipped with the gold equipment of a whole squad of light cruiser ship girls.

Warspite's current golden equipment is luxurious, not only in the first and second chapters, but even in the entire ship girl world.

Nia looked at Warspite with immense envy in her eyes.

"How are the equipment of your ship girls?" Luo Lian asked Nia.

“Uh… well…” Nia looked embarrassed, “Except for Cleveland, they’re mostly purple…”

"That's already pretty good." Luo Lian patted Nia on the shoulder. "The ship girls of the admirals here are mostly equipped with green gear, right?"

"Hahaha..." Nia chuckled twice but couldn't quite manage a proper laugh.

That makes sense, but the two admirals in front of us are top-tier players, one with full gold equipment and the other with full rainbow equipment...

"If your training level is low, then let's train together." At this moment, Xiaobai seemed to have thought of a good idea, and said to the two admirals in front of him with his palms together.

"Want to practice together?" Luo Lian shifted her gaze to Xiao Bai.

"Hmm." Xiaobai nodded, glancing at CV16 behind her. "CV16 is also a new ship girl, and I've gained several more ship girls these past few days, like Emerald, Enterprise, and Constellation. They all need to be trained."

"Oh, that's great!" Luo Lian's eyes lit up.

Xiaobai smiled and turned to Nia: "Nia, how are your ship girls' levels going?"

"They're all around level 40 or 50..."

"Want to level up together?"

“Okay, okay!” Nia quickly agreed.

"Then let's go to the fourth node tomorrow." Xiaobai smiled and extended her hand.

Luo Lian also reached out and patted Xiao Bai's hand together.

The two clapped their hands, waiting for Nia to join in, but Nia hesitated to raise her hand.

Xiaobai looked at Nia, who looked troubled and extremely conflicted.

"Nia, what's wrong?"

“…How about we go to the third node?” Nia asked.

"Is Nia worried? It's alright, with Bismarck and the others there, the training will be safe."

"Ah...that's not the point." Nia clenched her hands hesitantly, looking unsure whether she should say it or not.

Xiao Bai awaited Nia's reply. However, after glancing at Nia's expression, Luo Lian nodded thoughtfully: "Miss Nia, do you have enemies in the fourth node?"

Nia jerked her head up and hurriedly shook her head at Luo Lian, "No, no..."

"So you're being harassed by someone?" Luo Lian continued to ask.

As soon as Luo Lian said those words, Nia paused in her shaking head. She looked at Luo Lian with a hint of admiration, then lowered her head somewhat resignedly.

“…Mmm,” Nia responded softly.

Chapter 697 We're Here to Bully People

Regardless of how Luo Lian figured it out, she was indeed right.

In fact, Nia was indeed being harassed by someone.

The group that got entangled with Nia was a group of admirals, or more accurately, a team of admirals.

In the first chapter, due to the insufficient number of ship girls, the chapter's sea areas were extremely difficult to conquer. Therefore, it was common for admirals to spontaneously form teams to combine their scattered ship girls into a stable fleet. This practice continued into the second chapter.

When Nia entered the second chapter, thanks to Xiaobai, she had enough ship girls to complete the campaign by herself, so she declined all offers from teams and became a lone wolf in the second chapter.

This is quite common, since as the sea level increases, the number of ship girls an admiral has will increase, and naturally there will be no need to use the form of teaming up to share the daily rewards with other admirals.

However, the tree may wish to remain still, but the wind will not cease. As Nia and her ship girls gradually improved their training levels in the second chapter, her fame grew. Soon, many admirals from the first to the fourth node had heard of Nia, and a group of admirals approached her, asking her to join them.

Nia initially thought it was just an ordinary admiral team, so she refused them as usual. However, things didn't go as planned. After Nia rejected the admiral team, her days in the second chapter became less than pleasant.

The main source of merit in Chapter 698 is the fourth node, where Nia usually likes to do her daily tasks. However, since that day, Cleveland and the others' earnings from the fourth node have started to decrease.

Nia later learned that ever since she rejected that admiral's team, whenever Cleveland went to sea, several teams of ship girls would follow them, attack the Abyssal ships they were targeting, and steal their targets.

Cleveland and her allies are indeed among the stronger ship girls in the second chapter, but no matter how strong they are, they cannot overcome the gap in numbers. Faced with three or four times their own strength, even Cleveland can only hold her breath in frustration.

After learning about this, Nia went up to argue with the admirals. However, when Nia questioned them, the leading admiral simply replied that the sea did not belong to Nia, so why couldn't he take action against the prey that Nia had set her sights on?

Faced with this explanation, Nia had nothing to say.

Subsequently, the admiral once again extended an olive branch to Nia, explaining that if they were on the same team, the situation could be resolved by splitting the spoils equally.

At this point, the admiral added that their team shares both the command authority over the ship girls and the right to use the spoils of war, and that Nia joining their team would be a choice that brings happiness to everyone.

—Nia only realized then that she was now entangled with him.

These admirals were interested in the number and strength of their ship girls and wanted to share them by forming teams.

Nia, of course, disagreed. Nia's ship girls were created by Xiaobai for her; they were family members that Xiaobai left for Nia. Each one was Nia's most precious friend. Nia could not, and would not, do anything like sharing her ship girls with others.

After Nia refused again, she could no longer stay in the fourth node.

No matter when Cleveland sets sail, she always encounters a large group of ship girls vying for her prey. Over the course of several weeks, Nia not only failed to gain much profit in the fourth node, but even lost a lot of merit points due to the need to resupply during expeditions.

Those admirals were determined to force Nia into their ranks.

Nia was distressed and had reported the problem to the Admirals' Guild. However, even Guild Leader Er Gou expressed helplessness. The behavior of these admirals was just barely on the edge of breaking the rules, and even Guild Leader Er Gou couldn't do anything about it. The only thing she could do was to ensure that Nia and her ship girls were safe from being violated.

Left with no other choice, Nia had to leave from the fourth node, even moving away from the third and second nodes, and arrive at the first node.

The first node yields virtually no benefit. Even with zero ship girls taking damage, aside from the increase in ship girl training levels, the other income and expenses are practically equal. That's why the admirals didn't bother Nia, as they didn't value the benefits of the first node.

Fortunately, Lexington had mentioned that panties could be exchanged for equipment, and supply ships were occasionally available in the first node, so Nia didn't feel stifled in the first node. She kept herself busy farming panties in Cleveland, and the days passed by like this.

Then came the day Xiaobai returned. Just then, that group of admirals came looking for him again, but after being thoroughly intimidated by Xiaobai, they remained quiet for a long time.

When Nia saw that Xiaobai was leading people back to the fourth node, she panicked a little.

"Lianlian, how did you figure that out?" Xiaobai asked Luo Lian.

"Basic routine." Luo Lian nodded, offering no further explanation.

Xiao Bai said "Oh," and then looked at Nia: "Nia."

"Ah. Um... I'm here."

"Are they the same people I saw at the first node?" Xiaobai asked.

Nia lowered her head, tacitly agreeing.

"What's going on?" Xiaobai asked Nia.

Nia looked troubled. She looked up at Little White, thought for a while, and finally gave up struggling.

She told Xiaobai about what happened in the second chapter.

After hearing these things, Xiaobai's expression became slightly unhappy.

When Xiaobai arrived at the second chapter, Nia had been staying at the first node to retrieve panties. Xiaobai originally thought that Nia might just have a strong and special hobby about retrieving panties, which was why she stayed at the first node for so long. But it seems that things were not so simple after all.

“Such things do happen,” Luo Lian said, nodding.

Nia nodded.

"So what time are we going tomorrow?" Luo Lian asked.

"Let's do it in the morning," Xiaobai said.

"Huh?" Hearing Luo Lian and Xiao Bai's conversation, Nia was taken aback. "Are we still going?"

“Of course, you can’t stay here forever,” Luo Lian said to Nia.

Nia lowered her head with a hint of guilt: "I'm sorry..."

“There’s nothing to apologize for. Your choice was right. Anyway, they outnumber you and you can’t beat them. It would be the stupidest thing to let your ship girl get hurt in vain,” Luo Lian said.

As Nia listened to Luo Lian's words, the feeling of being a burden finally dissipated a little.

Just then, a hand reached out from behind Nia and touched her head.

Nia turned around and saw Bismarck silently touching her head. Bismarck nodded to Nia, then withdrew her hand and left.

"Huh? When did Bismarck arrive?"

“Let’s start with that sentence about going to the third node,” Xiaobai said to Nia. “Bismarck’s intuition is still quite sensitive in these kinds of things.”

“Oh…” Nia reached out and touched her head.

"Nia," Xiaobai called out to Nia.

"Um... I'm here." Nia quickly looked at Xiaobai.

Xiaobai smiled at Nia: "I'm here."

After saying that, Xiaobai rushed off in the direction Bismarck had gone.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Time passed by in Nia's dazed state.

After Xiaobai caught up with Bismarck and chatted with her briefly, Bismarck gave Xiaobai an OK sign, and Xiaobai returned to Nia's side.

After that, Xiaobai didn't say anything more about what Nia had just said. She chatted normally with Luo Lian and Nia, was dragged away by the destroyer to play, and then ate and slept.

The time came the next day.

The deep-sea ships, who had been soaking in the fountain deep within the first node for a whole day, finally got their resurrection cooldown and returned to the surface. The first node, which had been quiet for a day and a night, once again became bustling with activity.

However, by this time, the instigators were no longer around.

The train came to a stop on a beach with a creaking sound, and Xiaobai and Lorenia got off the train.

Xiao Bai, who had just gotten off the train, looked ahead.

Ahead lay a golden beach, with a number of admirals standing at its edge. The admirals, who knew each other well, chatted in twos and threes. The sea was calm, and occasionally one could see a moderately damaged ship girl returning from the depths of the sea with a dejected look on her face.

"This is the fourth node," Luo Lian said, looking at the beach. "It looks pretty much the same as the first chapter."

"After all, it doesn't really matter how you change the beach," Xiaobai said to Luo Lian. "Speaking of which, Lianlian, is it really okay for you to come to the fourth node without letting me finish the previous nodes with you?"

"Hmm? What's the problem?"

"Only those who have completed the third node can come to the fourth node."

"It's just that I can't take the fourth node's mission. I'm just here to help Warspite and Des Moines level up. I don't care about those merits. Besides, I'm a person, and no one can control me," Luo Lian said. "It's okay, let's get started."

Xiao Bai nodded, and then walked onto the beach with Nia and Luo Lian.

The ship girls quickly set up sun umbrellas for the admirals on the beach, and under Bismarck's leadership, everything was ready.

As soon as the ship girls finished getting ready, Nia walked behind Xiaobai and pointed to the beach behind them with her index finger.

On the beach behind Nia, five or six admirals stood together, looking in her direction from afar.

"Are those the ones?" Xiaobai asked.

“That’s only part of it. Once they find out I’m here, even more admirals will come,” Nia said. “I reckon when we set off, it’ll be like before…”

"There are quite a lot of people here," Xiaobai nodded.

After saying this, Xiaobai looked back at Bismarck.