The Naval Base of the Unnamed Ship Girls

"No man is perfect, and no ship is perfect." Ardon, not intending to argue why he was wrong, closed his eyes, seemingly enjoying this war-torn virtual world.

As Hyperion devised a plan to vent about Adun's mistake, Adun, who should have been asleep in the virtual pod, opened his eyes as his virtual character closed them.

"Hmm... Interesting." After glancing at the Hyperion playing a game in another virtual pod, Adun, sensing something through his always-online phase array system, turned into a mosaic of light and disappeared into the virtual pod.

In the intervals between several circulating water purification units of the waterworks that supply drinking water to the residents of this fortified city, there is a hidden room that is definitely not on the waterworks' design drawings.

The ruler of the fortress city, retired ship girl Tirpitz, is communicating with her former admiral, Admiral Xia Yuantang of Naval Base No. 233.

"My lord, has Helena discovered the secret stash of money?" Tirpitz asked General Xia Yuantang on the screen in front of him while eating a steel bar.

"What do you think?" Xia Yuantang on the screen moved closer to the camera, and the admiral, who looked almost like a gorilla, had a bandage wrapped around his forehead that was still oozing blood.

"Um... Lady Helena won't kill me, will she?" Tirpitz asked, sweating profusely.

“It’s not that bad. She’s just angry that Reputation brought Charlotte to you,” Xia Yuantang said with a sigh.

"Huh? Why? Even if I... even if I don't get along with Lady Helena, it wouldn't be enough to cause trouble for the young master, would it?" Tirpitz said awkwardly, unsure if Helena was eavesdropping.

"That's unrelated. By the way, besides the modified core, was anything else lost?" General Xia Yuantang asked about other things, letting Tirpitz know with his eyes that her concerns were valid.

"They're all still here. It seems those alien ship girls aren't very interested in these things; they just took the modification cores." Tirpitz said, while sending several photos of a crime scene at a bank vault to Admiral Xia Yuantang.

"What is this?" Xia Yuantang asked the general, who did not recognize the Protoss script, after seeing a note he had specifically photographed in one of the pictures.

"In the words of those alien ship girls, it seems to be an IOU," Tirpitz said, uttering words she shouldn't have heard.

"IOU? Interesting. What about those alien ship girls now?" Xia Yuantang asked with a smile.

“I’m playing a game, but I’ve turned off the surveillance system because I’m worried they’ll find out,” Tirpitz replied seriously.

"Playing games? They really want to win the competition?" Xia Yuantang asked with some surprise.

"It seems to be true. They seemed quite interested in it," Tirpitz recalled Adun and Hyperion's reactions at the time.

"Can you help them win the championship?" Xia Yuantang asked Tirpitz after a moment's thought.

"Huh? Regional championship no problem, but the finals... Sir, you're trusting me way too much." Tirpitz indicated that he couldn't carry out such a shady operation.

"Why don't you ask your mother for help?" Xia Yuantang asked, mentioning the family of the retired ship girl in front of him.

"My lord, don't you know the saying, 'A married daughter is like water spilled from a bowl'?" Tirpitz said helplessly when he heard General Xia Yuantang mention his mother.

"Ahem, to be honest, you didn't marry me." General Xia Yuantang on the screen seemed to be looking in another direction as he spoke, his eyes momentarily dazed.

“But to that old hag, I’m already a married daughter.” Tirpitz sighed and continued, “Besides, the Enterprise is watching the Grand Finals every year, so that old hag might not be able to interfere.”

"Enterprise, huh..." Xia Yuantang fell silent, realizing that it might be difficult to operate behind the scenes.

"Sir, if the intelligence is correct, it would be fine to contact the Enterprise directly, right? Since those two alien ship girls belong to that admiral, the Enterprise should at least lend a hand."

As a kind of intelligence investment by Xia Yuantang, Tirpitz naturally knew about the relationship between Admiral Admiral of Adun, Charlotte's boss, the Central Academy Demon Queen, and Enterprise.

"There's no need..." Admiral Xia Yuantang rejected Tirpitz's suggestion, then asked, "Let's leave that aside for now. Have you investigated the origins of the deep-sea ship girls who attacked Yin Wu?"

"Huh? You didn't do it, sir?" Tirpitz covered his mouth as soon as he said it.

"..." Xia Yuantang gave the retired ship girl who had spoken out of turn a reproachful look and said, "If I were to take action, would Yin Wu be able to leave his own naval base?"

"Ah, I see. I always thought—oh no, I mean, I've now found out which sea those deep-sea ship girls came from," Tirpitz said awkwardly, realizing her guess was wrong.

“Oh, I already know that.” As soon as Xia Yuantang finished speaking, a red light suddenly lit up on the control panel in front of Tirpitz.

"Huh?" When Tirpitz saw the red light, he immediately cut off his conversation with General Xia Yuantang, turned around, pulled out a weapon, pointed it behind him, and shouted, "Who goes there?"

No one responded to Tirpitz's question. Meanwhile, Adun, hidden in a corner, looked at the crushed spider in his hand and said strangely as his figure slowly faded, "An alarm robot?"

Chapter 221 Adun and Hyperion's Newbie Car

"Adon! Focus on the game!" Hyperion nudged Adon in the passenger seat.

“I was very focused,” Adun replied, opening his eyes and feigning a puzzled expression.

"Focus my ass! Don't think I don't know you've been busy with other things. Are you just taking advantage of having multiple threads?" Adun's act of leaving a portion of his main consciousness out of the virtual world did not escape Hyperion's notice.

“You can do it too.” Adun glanced at the eerily quiet virtual battlefield and pulled his helmet down to block out the virtual sunlight.

“I’m a professional gamer.” Upon hearing Adun’s words, Hyperion immediately declared his professionalism and seriousness when it came to gaming.

"Yes, second place in the professional sector." Regarding Hyperion's self-praise, Adun only mentioned that she had spent three days surpassing the top spot in the sector rankings of the game "Lost Vikings".

With a screech and a clang, the jeep speeding across the battlefield came to a sudden stop.

Along with the jeep, the tires that had been rolled to the side also came to a stop.

"Have we arrived?" Adun asked, remembering that this was part of the game's mechanics, as he watched the tire roll out of sight.

"Well, we've arrived." The Hyperion, feeling somewhat dejected, turned the steering wheel, only to have it ripped off by the star cruiser.

The moment the steering wheel left the vehicle was like a signal; the jeep, which had already rolled off one tire, was reduced to a pile of rubble in the shortest amount of time, leaving only the relatively intact chassis and suspension supporting the seats where Adonis and Hyperion were sitting.

"Even though I know it's part of the game, it still feels really strange." Adon recalled that just a few minutes ago, this old car was speeding along under the control of Hyperion.

Presumably because of being late, in this opening scene of the game, the driver will encounter various artillery attacks on the way to the logistics department.

Players can also use the submachine gun that Adun just picked up to fire a few useless bullets at the planes flying overhead.

After experiencing this virtual artillery barrage, and arriving at the entrance of the logistics camp covered in gunpowder smoke, that's when this old car will finally meet its end.

Unfortunately, the route that Adun and Hyperion chose was not the route set on the blueprints, so the bombardment event was not triggered.

"Are there only the two of you? Where are your chariots?" The NPCs in the logistics camp responsible for receiving Adun and Hyperion were also pre-set.

Although the speech and actions are just like those of a real person, there is no interactive content for players to choose from.

Knowing this, Adun and Hyperion remained silent, while the NPC in front of them launched into a long, pre-arranged storyline:

"What? The tanks are lost? Why didn't you throw your heads away with them! Damn it! Without tanks, there's no way we can break through the enemy lines on time."

Perhaps it's because many ship girls play these games, or perhaps ship girls have become deeply ingrained in people's minds as a primary weapon of war.

In this game, all the NPCs currently appearing in Adun and Hyperion are women, including the soldiers in this logistics camp who are purely used as background characters.

The female officer who had accused Adun and Hyperion of losing military equipment paced back and forth anxiously.

Both Adun and Hyperion, who had already figured out these fixed plot developments, knew that the officer would use various pre-set reasons to assign them a novice tank.

For example, some might be found in nearby warehouses, some might be damaged and missed the previous wave of attacks, and some might even be delivered by courier...

However, seeing that the chance of triggering the option for the delivery is 0%, I know it's just some silly programmer's weird hobby.

Sure enough, after a brief moment of hesitation, the NPC female officer seemed to remember something and said, "Fortunately, during the previous battle, we captured a small enemy tank, which is just right for two people to drive."

If you bring not only Adun and Hyperion into the game, but also Kaga Wo-chan's Nautilus and Yu, then the NPC female officer will say that they have captured an enemy medium or heavy tank. In short, the maximum number of passengers will definitely be the same as the number of players.

“Although you may have never driven a tank like that before, I think you should try to learn how to drive it in order to avoid court-martial.”

Adun remained calm, while Hyperion touched his waist and discovered that the small revolver was not projected in the virtual world.

The NPC female officer remained silent for a moment, waiting for the players' various reactions so she could retrieve the appropriate response from the database. Even when Adun and Hyperion acted awkwardly, they initiated appropriate actions after a brief silence:

"It seems you are very wise. Come with me, I will take you to see that chariot."

"What are you looking for?" Adon asked, having just noticed Hyperion's movements.

"Looking for my little revolver?" Hyperion was puzzled that Adun didn't know what he wanted to do.

"What do you want to do?" Ardon remembered that apart from that useless pistol, players were not allowed to carry weapons in this scene.

“Let’s try giving her a shot,” Hyperion said, offering his opinion.

"You know how it ends." If the player actually uses various methods, such as violence, to kill the female officer who is leading the way, she will be killed by the NPCs nearby who are used as background characters, and then the game will switch to the next scene.

"What if we kill all the NPCs nearby?" Hyperion didn't think it would be difficult to do so.

"...Perhaps a system bug?" Adon recalled the game database but found no indication that the game was designed to cause this; it would probably only result in the game crashing or something.

But can virtual world games really crash?

"Forget it, let's not do anything unnecessary." Hyperion thought for a moment and decided it was better to continue playing.

When the two starship girls followed the female officer NPC to the logistics warehouse and saw the tank randomly assigned to them by the system, even though they had already prepared themselves for it to be a small tank, but...

"But this is too small!" Hyperion asked in surprise as he walked up to the tiny tank, which was less than his own height.

“Indeed, it looks a bit small.” Ardon was more worried that he might not be able to fit in.

"Let me check the model... Hmm, CV33, an Italian tank. Why does it seem so unreliable?" Hyperion had a bad feeling.

"Shall you drive?" he asked the Hyperion, struggling to squeeze himself into the CV33 Rialto.

“Of course! Experienced driver!” Hyperion followed suit and climbed into the tank. Compared to Adun’s somewhat cramped position, Hyperion, thanks to his size advantage, sat very steadily.

“Then I’ll be the commander.” Unable to bear the crowding any longer, Yaton removed some of the internal components.

"Huh? Okay then." Hyperion had originally wanted to say that he wanted to work part-time as a train conductor, but it seems that part-time work is not allowed in the game settings.

☆, Chapter 222 Beginner's Quest?

"Stop taking it apart! Stop taking it apart! If you keep doing that, this tank will fall apart!" Hyperion quickly stopped the tank commander, Ardon, who was clearly annoyed by being squeezed and started dismantling the internal equipment of the CV33 ultralight tank.

“But it’s really cramped.” As he said this, Adun broke off a piece of metal and threw it out of the small cabin.

"There's nothing we can do. There are only two of us, and there aren't many tanks that can be driven by two people." Hyperion struggled to adjust the weight and balance of the tank once again.

"How many siege tank drivers do you humans have?" Adun carefully examined the tank's compartment and realized that if he disassembled it any further, he would have to remove the chair and the only weapon, the 8mm machine gun.

“One person…” Hyperion turned her head to look at Adun, wondering why she asked this.

“Let’s find a place to build a siege tank,” Adun said, curled up in the CV-33’s cabin with his knees drawn up to his chest.

"Hey...actually, if you find it too crowded, you can stick your head out. These old-fashioned tanks all have this feature," Hyperion offered a good solution.

"Eh... so you're still somewhat useful." Adun, who was the size of a Hyperion, immediately opened the cockpit canopy and stood up.

“I have many uses, you know.” The Hyperion had barely finished speaking when Adun, who had stood up, squatted back down, causing the starship pilot to ask curiously, “What’s wrong?”

"I experienced a life-or-death race against time." Adun didn't want to tell Hyperion that she had just peeked out when a cannonball hit her in the forehead with a "Duang."

If he hadn't acted decisively and used the backdoor to lock his own health, the Hyperion would have immediately heard the message "Commander has been killed," which would have been a huge loss of his ship.

"Huh? What's going on?" Hyperion asked, not understanding what was happening, because in her observation and calculations, there was no danger on her route.

"What did that retired ship girl ask us to do again?" Ignoring Hyperion's question, a screen suddenly appeared in front of Adun after his cheating behavior.