The Naval Base of the Unnamed Ship Girls

Chapter 212 Oakleaf Knight Rodney

"You won it in a game?" When Rodney mentioned the origin of the modified core, the one who reacted the most was not the young master of Naval Base 233, but Hyperion, Adun's number one lackey.

This situation made Hyperion feel like she had wasted her time. If you can win a core upgrade by playing a game, wouldn't it be ridiculous for her to trick Adun into a bank robbery plan involving three ship girls and one Abyssal ship?

"Huh? Rodney, you actually won?" Tirpitz clearly knew which game Rodney had won.

"I almost got knocked out in the semifinals, but luckily I performed exceptionally well in the finals." Rodney continued with a proud expression.

"Which warship did you use in the finals?" Tirpitz seemed very interested in this topic.

"Of course, it's my signature battleship, the Tirpitz." Rodney, who was about to boast, suddenly realized the former identity of the retired ship girl standing in front of him and said somewhat awkwardly.

"Huh, so this means Tirpitz is the champion again this year. Her overall win rate is less than 50%. If she wins the championship again, won't the other ship girls accuse her of rigging the deal?"

Although she was a ship girl who once owned Tirpitz's ship equipment, this Tirpitz seemed somewhat incredulous that Tirpitz had won the regional championship for two consecutive years.

"Who said that? Although the Tirpitz's 380mm guns aren't great, it has torpedoes! I'm a master cricketer trained by the Queen of the North, so winning a regional championship is a piece of cake for me." Rodney commented on the Tirpitz battleship in front of her.

"Studied under the Queen of the North? Huh? What's your Battle.net name?" The retired Tirpitz suddenly asked when Rodney mentioned the Queen of the North.

“Um… my Battle.net name is London Suburbs,” Rodney replied somewhat awkwardly when Tirpitz asked him this.

"Wow, you're actually a junior from the suburbs! Come, come, let your senior sister give you a proper welcome." Upon hearing Rodney's self-introduction, Tirpitz suddenly became very happy and pushed Rodney to her desk, pressing her into her leather office chair.

"Who are you?" Rodney was surprised to meet someone here who called him "junior sister".

"Hehehe, I'm a die-hard fangirl. Come on, call me Senior Sister, or like in the game, Idol Sister." Tirpitz said, bringing out several bowls of ammunition, candy, steel, and snacks from somewhere and placing them in front of Rodney. These things, which were clearly treasured items, were not used by this retired ship girl to entertain the young master.

"Homebody...Senior Sister." Rodney dared not use the nickname "Homebody Senior Sister" in front of his senior sister.

"Come, come, tell me about today's battle, what kind of opponents you encountered?" Tirpitz, who was completely oblivious to the situation, asked Rodney.

"..." Rodney was completely different from her previous high spirits. She was reporting to her senior sister in the game as if she were reporting to the admiral as usual.

"They're weaklings, but they did try their best to make it to the knockout stage this year." Tirpitz scoffed at the name Rodney mentioned.

"Her strategic thinking isn't great, but her execution is excellent. Many veterans can easily fall into her trap. You beat her so easily because she probably underestimated her."

Tirpitz's expression turned serious when he heard about Rodney's opponent in the round of 16.

"Hahaha, she actually lost! Hahaha, she almost made me lose in the finals last year, and she lost so early, hahaha."

It seemed that Tirpitz was in a very good mood because one of his old rivals had been defeated by Rodney in the round of 16.

"What? She actually came this far this time? Did she find a good mentor?" Tirpitz gave a relatively positive assessment of Rodney's opponent in the quarterfinals.

"Well, she deserves to be in the semifinals, but unfortunately she's had bad luck. She ran into me last year and you this year. I guess she'll be third again this year."

Tirpitz spoke with a hint of regret when he heard about Rodney's opponent in the semi-finals.

"Eh? Say that again...tsk tsk tsk, the guy who's going to compete with you for the championship this time, tsk tsk tsk." Tirpitz said, seemingly clicking his tongue.

"Young Master, what are they talking about?" Seeing Tirpitz and Rodney chatting happily, Vanguard asked the young master, somewhat bewildered.

"It seems like Rodney and Tirpitz are friends in an online game." Charlotte also enjoys playing online games, but she's definitely not as experienced as Rodney and Tirpitz.

"Online game, is it that Thunder Battleship? I thought it was a single-player game." As a spectator cheering for Rodney, the avant-garde, although she plays games occasionally, is not particularly skilled, just like the young master.

In particular, she always felt that having ship girls control historical warships and participate in world wars hundreds of years ago was a very absurd game.

Not to mention the Thunder Tank and Thunder Fighter, which are in the same game as the Thunder Battleship. Vanguard doesn't understand why a ship girl has to learn to drive a tank and a plane, since they're just trash that can be taken out with one shot.

"If you have time, you can learn from those games." Reputation had some different opinions about Avant-garde's reaction.

"Huh? Why?" Avant-garde was curious why the head maid, who always disliked the ship girls playing games, would say such a thing.

"If I'm not mistaken, Tirpitz became a Hero-class ship girl by accumulating experience through playing these games." Renown revealed his guess about one of the seven mysteries of Naval Base 233.

"Huh?" Nelson, who had been trying to interrupt Rodney's rambling, looked bewildered when he heard what Reputation said and asked, "Is that even possible?"

As a proper ship girl, Nelson has always adhered to the idea that what is written on paper can never be transformed into experience, and that drill battles are never as effective as a direct confrontation with the Abyssal fleet.

Not to mention leveling up in games. If you could level up to a hero-level ship girl in a game, wouldn't that be a huge joke?

Didn't you see that even her own sister hasn't even reached the hero level yet? If you could level up in a game, she would have been a hero by now.

"Perhaps it's because this Tirpitz is rather special." Reputation indicated that this was merely his own speculation.

Upon hearing these conversations, Tirpitz silently gave his reputation a thumbs up in his mind.

While the speculation about reputation isn't the correct answer, Tirpitz's hero-level abilities were indeed obtained through playing the game, just not through the Thunder Battleship.

Chapter 213 Adun's Little Secret

“I’m heartbroken…” Hyperion took a drag of his ammunition cigarette and exhaled a weak, lifeless smoke ring.

“Oh…” Adon glanced calmly at Hyperion.

"I'm so disappointed..." Hyperion put his head into his increasingly swollen eyes, looking like he was about to hang himself with a smoke ring.

“Oh…” This time, Ardon didn’t even bother to glance at him.

"Hey, I'm almost completely lost on the ship, aren't you going to say anything?" Hyperion said angrily, seeing that Adun seemed indifferent to his reaction.

"How did you get lost?" Adun was curious about what had happened to Hyperion.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner that I could get a modification core by playing games?" Hyperion was still bothered by this. Rodney's method of obtaining a modification core by winning championships through games was a heavy blow to Hyperion, who had obtained his modification core by stealing from banks.

Not long ago, Hyperion was still feeling proud of its great operation of perfectly infiltrating the bank vault with three ship girls and one deep-sea ship.

I never expected the blow to come so quickly, so...unbelievably.

"I didn't know you could get modification cores by playing games." Adun was a little confused by Hyperion's dilemma. Besides, you were the only ship that infiltrated the bank from beginning to end. Compared to the Nautilus, that disgrace of the Dark Sanctuary, Hyperion, you ship girl who used the Mother Ship's abilities to steal things, are not far off.

"Where's your star array radar? You could have detected it a step ahead!" Hyperion was furious at Adun's indifferent attitude.

“If you insist on saying it this way…” Adon, seeing that Hyperion’s anger seemed genuine, hesitated for a moment before continuing:

"First of all, in this world, my phased array system and your shipborne full-band radar have the same scanning range. What I can see, you can see too."

A single sentence shook the very foundation of Hyperion's reason for complaining that Adon hadn't reminded her of this sooner.

"I'm just trusting you. Unlike you, I don't have the sun as my furnace. My full-band radar isn't always on." Unwilling to be defeated in words, Hyperion wanted to put up another fight.

"Secondly, even if you participate in that Thunder Battleship game competition, are you sure you can win the championship? I remember you haven't played the game in this world yet."

Ardon did not object to Hyperion's claim that she had a talent for gaming; in her memory, Hyperion was indeed a warship that enjoyed playing games.

However, enjoying playing games and having good skills doesn't mean you can become a top player when you try a brand new game. Relying on talent will only give you a head start in mastering certain skills.

For veteran players like Rodney and Tirpitz who have been immersed in the game for a long time, talent is far less important than experience.

"Tsk, I'm a legendary ship girl with an EX-level luck stat, okay? Why don't you believe me, Adun?" Hyperion found that she couldn't refute Adun's argument at all, so she could only change her reason.

"I believe in you, so keep it up," Adun said with his eyes closed, already used to Hyperion's stubbornness.

"Believe me or not, the competition is over, and the championship prize has been taken by that ship..." Hyperion muttered to himself in disappointment as he saw that Adun was unwilling to speak anymore.

"Wait, who said the match is over?" Tirpitz suddenly spoke up after overhearing Hyperion and Adun's conversation.

"Huh, is there another match?" Rodney, standing next to Tirpitz, seemed eager to try.

"Of course, you only won the regional championship for Thunder Battleships. The regional championships for Thunder Tanks and Thunder Fighters are also being held recently," Tirpitz said, standing on his desk without anyone noticing, holding a pointer.

"And after the regional competitions end, there will be a grand final for the Pacific region."

"Ah, the finals? Am I even qualified?" Rodney, as an ordinary amateur player, had only ever watched such world-class events through online streams before, and had never imagined that she could participate.

"Of course you're qualified. You're the regional champion here, and the grand finals are being held here this year, so you don't even need to go through the qualifiers."

Tirpitz was fully aware of all the rules and regulations for the game's grand finals that he was going to host on his own turf.

"Wow, Senior Sister, have you participated in the finals before?" Rodney said excitedly.

"Of course I've participated, and I even participated in the Thunder World Invitational, which combined three games," Tirpitz said proudly, standing on his desk.

"Senior Sister is amazing! Senior Sister, have you ever won a championship?" Rodney's eyes lit up with a string of golden stars.

"Ahem..." Tirpitz, who almost fell, slowly climbed down from his desk and said to his junior sister in the game in a serious tone, "As a well-mannered player, you must put friendship first and competition second, understand?"

"I understand... I understand." In reality, Rodney didn't understand at all.

“Your chance has come,” Adun said to Hyperion.

"How much is the prize money?" Even without Adun's prompting, Hyperion was already eager to try.

"Based on the last competition, the grand prize for the champion of each of the three games, Thunder Warship, Thunder Tank, and Thunder Fighter, is about three upgrade cores. The champion can negotiate with the organizer about what kind of prize to give. The grand prize for the Thunder World Invitational Tournament doesn't need to be converted. Every year it is a solid ten upgrade cores."

Tirpitz, who has extensive experience in professional gaming competitions, counted on his fingers as he spoke.

"So, if we win all the championships, we can get close to 20 modified cores?" the vanguard said excitedly, finally understanding what Tirpitz was talking about.

"Including what Adon and the others got from the silver... my dad's secret stash, and the one Rodney won before, plus what we've saved up, it's just enough with one or two left over." Hearing the avant-garde's excitement, Charlotte quickly did the math.

"Um, all the championships, well... although many excellent professional players can't come because they are active ship girls from the front-line naval bases, and their level might not be as good as the online finals, but if you want to win all the championships..." Tirpitz said, her lips twitching as she looked at the ship girls in front of her who seemed so arrogant.

“Adon! I think I need your help,” Hyperion, who was the first to realize that something was wrong, asked Adon.

“What do you need my help with? I don’t know how to play games,” Ardon replied.

"Hehe, to be honest, after knowing you for so many years, I've known you for a long time that you're a..." Hyperion whispered in Adun's ear, "...a total otaku."

"...We've only known each other for a few years." Although a lot has happened since they met, Adun still couldn't help but complain about Hyperion's forced attempt to show concern.

"These are all details, don't worry about the details. I mean, your ability to stay at home for over a thousand years is something I can't match." Especially after Hyperion casually glanced at Adun's favorite website when he was acting as Adun's signal tower, he was even more certain of this.

“That doesn’t mean I’m good at games.” Adon didn’t deny Hyperion’s guess.

"The player with the highest overall score in 'Lost Vikings' wasn't Phoenix, was he?" Hyperion said in a tone that suggested he had everything under control.

"Why do you think that?" Ardon asked curiously.

“Because the Purifier who possesses Phoenix’s memories has already changed his name~” Hyperion patted Adun on the shoulder, telling Adun that he no longer needed to hide such a small matter from his “brother”.

"Well, alright then, I'll test the game level of this world." As Adun said this, his aura suddenly became intense, just like when he led a bunch of human and Zerg warships into the Twisting Nether to confront the Fallen Xel'Naga head-on.

"Huh?" The other ship girls, not understanding what had happened to this interstellar ship girl, all looked over.

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