The Naval Base of the Unnamed Ship Girls

“No need for that, I’ve already recorded the coordinates.” Although he didn’t have that ability, he could do something similar to South Dakota, and said, taking a small psionic crystal out of his pocket:

"If you want to stay in touch, just leave this anywhere, and I can come over anytime."

"Aren't you worried that I might put it in some dangerous place?" South Dakota asked after taking the crystal and examining it.

“There’s nothing dangerous about this planet for me,” Adun said confidently.

“That’s not necessarily true…” South Dakota expressed some skepticism about Adun’s confident words: “Do you remember the Church of R’lyeh that I mentioned before?”

"The one that scared the Nautilus half to death? I heard it's a specialty of the deep sea?" For some reason, South Dakota suddenly brought up that organization, and Adun was a little curious.

"All I want to say is, if one day in the future, Tidu encounters those deep-sea ship girls, you should take her as far away from those guys as possible," South Dakota said in a very serious tone.

Noticing that South Dakota's words didn't seem like a joke, Adun was curious about this organization that even the Deep-Sea Princesses at the top of the food chain in the Deep Sea Territory found troublesome. After thinking for a moment, she asked:

"You mean you don't care if we abandon this naval base? I think if that day ever comes, given my admiral's personality, he probably wouldn't agree."

It's obvious to anyone that it would be incredibly difficult for Tidu to abandon his first garrison and desert.

"Aren't you her secretary ship? Giving Tidu a good whack on the head shouldn't be a problem, right?" South Dakota offered a classic solution to Adun's question.

"You sound quite skilled at this." I remember the head maid, Renown, mentioned before that as the admiral's secretary ship, the baseball bat she carries is much more important than any ship equipment, especially when dealing with an admiral who stubbornly refuses to admit that he is African and insists on trying to smuggle himself in, with extremely poor self-control.

"I was also a secretary ship before I sank in battle," South Dakota said, asserting his extensive experience.

"Senior!" Given that he could say "I knocked out the admiral" without batting an eye, just like Renown, and considering the previous relationship between South Dakota and his own admiral, it wasn't wrong for Admiral to call him "senior."

"But what exactly is this Church of R'lyeh in the Deep Sea? Is it very dangerous?" Seeing that the topic was getting a bit off track, Adun tried to steer it back on track.

“Danger is one thing, but the main problem is trouble, a lot of trouble.” When he mentioned trouble, a shadow fell over South Dakota’s face. After carefully considering his words, South Dakota continued, “Abyssal ship girls affected by that power lurking in the deep sea will become very strange.”

"How is it strange?" Adon pressed, dissatisfied with the vague answer.

"It's like their heads have been bitten by a tiger shark. They're perfectly fine ships, but they insist on spreading some ancient god power. They're so fanatical that they won't listen to the other deep-sea ship girls, even if those deep-sea ship girls used to be very good friends."

South Dakota, the Deep Sea Princess, spread her hands and shrugged, looking like she'd seen those guys before.

"The power of the ancient gods?" Upon hearing this, Adun's expression suddenly turned strange.

"You've heard of it?" Noticing the change in Adun's expression, South Dakota asked somewhat strangely. This Deep Sea Princess hadn't expected that Adun, a ship girl who had only just emerged from the construction vessel a few days ago, would know about that thing.

"Perhaps the ancient god power you're talking about is the same thing I know, or it might be something completely different," Adun replied vaguely, without denying that he had heard of it.

"What is the power of the ancient gods that you've heard of?" Given the close relationship between Adun and Tidu, South Dakota was still quite concerned.

“Those indescribable things are hard to describe, let me demonstrate.” Adun pointed a point of blue psionic energy with his finger, and conjured the image of a Xel'Naga ancient god in the air between himself and South Dakota.

“Although it looks a little different, the feeling is very similar…” South Dakota looked at the Xel'Naga squid-like body, the row of eyeballs, and the tentacles hanging down its body, and said with a look of disgust, “So you really have seen it before? Was it your true form?”

South Dakota was certain that no ship girls from the Church of R'lyeh had appeared in the vicinity during the days when Adun was summoned, so it was natural for them to attribute the reason why Adun had seen the indescribable existence to Adun's true form.

"Ahem, to be precise," Adun thought for a moment, then waved his hand, dispersing the Xel'Naga image drawn with psionic energy, and replied in a somewhat strange tone:

"My race, the Protoss, was created by this kind of guy, the kind of guy we call gods."

"Huh? The Ancient Gods' Families???" South Dakota was startled by Adun's words.

"Huh? What ancient god's familiar?" Adun asked, puzzled, not understanding what South Dakota was talking about.

"It's what those crazy Abyssal madmen in R'lyeh are talking about as the final evolution, becoming a familiar of the ancient gods or something." South Dakota looked Adun up and down, as if trying to see if Adun had any similarities to those ship girls from the Abyssal Church of R'lyeh.

“We Protoss have had this idea before, but it was just one branch of it.” Adun realized that the evolution pursued by the Church of R'lyeh in this world seemed to be very similar to the path of ascension of the Tal'darim.

“Wait a minute, judging from your tone, it seems like you don’t care much about your creator.” South Dakota asked, keenly noting even a hint of resentment in his voice.

"First of all, my creator was a Kalai-class engineer of the Kalai Protoss. Secondly... the Xel'Naga are just creators, not our masters." Moreover, they modified the Protoss with malicious intentions, so it would be strange if Adun had a pleasant expression.

“That seems to make a lot of sense.” South Dakota felt inexplicably convinced.

"Furthermore, the Old Gods of this world should be different from the Xel'Naga of my world, right?" Adun said, suggesting that the differences in their worldviews were so vast that any resemblance was purely coincidental.

"..."

[May 15th is almost here! I hope to continue my efforts to climb the 515 Red Envelope Ranking, and on May 15th, I can give back to readers with a red envelope rain and promote my work. Every little bit helps, and I'll definitely update harder!]

Chapter 122 South Dakota: His Family's Wealth

P.S. Here's today's update. Also, please vote for me in the Qidian 515 Fan Festival. Everyone gets 8 votes, and voting also earns you Qidian coins. I'm begging for your support and appreciation!

Just as Adun was contemplating whether to teleport directly home or explore this deep-sea port and witness the daily lives of the deep-sea ship girls, South Dakota, as if remembering something, said:

"Wait a moment, come with me to get some things to take back."

With that, she stood up and walked out of her office. Seeing that Adun was still standing there, stunned, she waved and continued, "Don't worry, these deep-sea ship girls won't do anything to you."

What was going on was already outside the window. Yaton glanced at the underwater scenery outside the window and found that the deep-sea ship girl that had been thrown out by the Deep Sea Princess South Dakota was already chasing the giant squid by the tail of the sperm whale.

As expected, compared to the deep-sea ship girls, these animals from nature are just trash with a combat power of less than five.

While touring this deep-sea home port, which is mostly underwater, with South Dakota, Adun was speechless when she discovered something: the deep-sea ship girls that South Dakota mentioned wouldn't do anything to her, not because of the intimidation of a certain deep-sea princess.

It relies on the deterrent power of a certain aircraft carrier, not on combat capabilities.

"Look, it seems that Lady Suki said that this is the ship girl who signed Captain Wo as a ship girl." A deep-sea ship girl hiding in the corner had no idea that her gossip was being overheard by Adun.

"Huh? Ship girls can be admirals too?" Hiding with this deep-sea ship girl was a deep-sea heavy cruiser that looked familiar but I couldn't remember where I had seen it before.

"If Lady Suhime says it's possible, then it definitely is. But I still feel so sorry for this ship girl." The deep-sea battleship, who used to be the main force of Wo-chan's fleet and loved to apply foundation while at work, continued to gossip.

"Why do you say that?" It seems that the other deep-sea heavy cruiser is unaware of Colonel Wo's power, or perhaps it knows only a little bit.

"That's because you don't know how much Colonel Wo can eat! When she's hungry, everything in the world can be categorized as either delicious or not delicious in her eyes; there's absolutely nothing she can't eat."

Although they hadn't seen it with their own eyes, the deep-sea battleship, frightened by another deep-sea aircraft carrier, naturally repeated the original words in a similar manner.

In particular, this deep-sea battleship, just like the deep-sea aircraft carrier that described these things, also focused its attention on the ship equipment of the deep-sea heavy cruiser next to it.

In an instant, the deep-sea battleship realized what the heavy cruiser was trying to say. The entire ship shrank back, looking incredulous, and asked, "Impossible..."

Even if she can eat a lot, she wouldn't swallow all the other ship girls whole. If Wo-chan is that scary, how could Xiao Bei become her good friend?

"Or do you think the incredible legends surrounding the port, such as the mysteriously missing aluminum materials and the gates leading to unknown destinations—the ship-mounted devourers—are just baseless rumors?"

Because she was worried about being overheard by Adun and her Lady Suki, the deep-sea battleship deliberately kept her voice very low, and it was this low voice that frightened the deep-sea heavy cruiser next to her.

"I...I, I'll head back to port first. I...I suddenly remembered I have a patrol mission coming up, and I need to hurry back to resupply." With that, the deep-sea heavy cruiser crossed her arms and fled tremblingly.

"Hmph, you dare to ask me for money with such little guts? I've already inquired, and you'll be lucky to pay back half of what you borrowed." The deep-sea battleship said proudly as it watched the deep-sea heavy cruiser that wanted to borrow money to buy a bag run away.

"I mean... is this how you manage your subordinates?" Ardon, who had been listening in the whole time, followed behind South Dakota and said without looking at her. She knew that the Deep Sea Princess in front of her must have also heard the gossip conversation.

“The ship’s spirit is broken; it’s hard to lead the team now,” South Dakota said, covering his forehead, clearly embarrassed by his subordinates’ behavior.

Then, in Adon's perception, the deep-sea battleship that had been secretly following behind suddenly found a door that shouldn't be there.

"Huh? Could this be... this is... the incredible legend of the port, I don't know... Ah! Help..."

Startled by the sudden appearance of the door, the deep-sea battleship was pulled into the doorway by a powerful suction force before she could finish her stammering narration.

"And then where did she go?" Remembering how Xiao Bei often said she was threatened with having her ship's equipment dismantled and fed to sharks, Adun was curious about the final destination of the deep-sea battleship that had offended its boss.

"Hey, it's me. Throw her in the kitchen and make her wash dishes for three days." With the communicator to his ear, South Dakota showed Adun how he would punish the deep-sea battleship.

"Just washing dishes for three days?" Compared to dismantling the ship's equipment and feeding it to sharks, this punishment seemed a bit too frivolous. Aydon felt that South Dakota was somewhat unworthy of her terrifying identity as the Deep Sea Princess.

"She's only allowed to wash it on her own ship. Anyone who helps her will have their ship's equipment dismantled and fed to the octopuses." South Dakota, without putting down his communicator, glanced at Adun and added.

So they really do have the habit of dismantling ship equipment to feed fish. But why did they change from feeding sharks to feeding octopuses?

Unaware of the customs of the deep sea, Adon didn't know that feeding sharks was a punishment akin to death for deep-sea ship girls, while feeding octopuses... some deep-sea ship girls even quite enjoyed this punishment.

"Excuse me, how many Abyssal Shipgirls does your fleet have?" After asking this question, Adun realized that he was probing the enemy's situation, so he added, "I don't mean anything by it, I just want to see how many dishes she has to wash."

"Not many. There are just over a hundred ship girls with complete self-awareness, and nearly a thousand ordinary deep-sea ships with incomplete self-awareness. However, those low-level deep-sea ships are very common, so I don't know the exact number."

South Dakota said he didn't care about any intelligence leaks.

"There seems to be quite a lot." After a moment of reflection, Adun also inwardly sympathized with the deep-sea battleship that had to single-handedly handle the cleaning of kitchen dishes for three days.

"Not many. My fleet is only considered medium-sized among the Abyssal Princesses. Some of the older, large Abyssal fleets have double-digit numbers of captain-level ship girls like Wo-chan."

South Dakota said modestly, though Arden could tell at a glance that this modesty was just him showing off.

Not to mention that after walking for a short while, Adon sensed that there were no fewer than five deep-sea ship girls in this deep-sea home port whose auras were close to Wo-chan's. The deep-sea ship girl who was just kicked into the deep sea by South Dakota and fought hand-to-hand with the sperm whale and giant squid was far superior to Wo-chan's quasi-hime in every aspect.

Of course, fishing is an exception. As Yaton was complaining in his heart, the deep-sea ship girl, who was about to become a quasi-Hime-class, was dragging the unconscious sperm whale and giant squid past the window.

[May 15th is almost here! I hope to continue my efforts to climb the 515 Red Envelope Ranking, and on May 15th, I can give back to readers with a red envelope rain and promote my work. Every little bit helps, and I'll definitely update harder!]

Chapter 123 Haunted Building

P.S. Here's today's update. Also, please vote for me in the Qidian 515 Fan Festival. Everyone gets 8 votes, and voting also earns you Qidian coins. I'm begging for your support and appreciation!

While Adun was trapped in enemy territory, Nelson, who had been ordered by young master Charlotte to be in charge of the coastal defense guns, was painting these coastal guns, which were much more conventional than the bold and imaginative railway guns, black.

As someone who always takes fulfilling her duties as her life's motto and does everything well, Nelson, whose personality is more like that of a German ship girl but without the same obsessive-compulsive tendencies, simply praised the nine-ring railway cannon idea proposed by Gogan before going on to write a long article about Gogan's unreliable and outlandish ideas.

Unable to find a rebuttal, Kokang almost burst into tears. If it weren't for the need to save Tidu from embarrassment, Kokang might have already cried.

Tidus was very glad that he hadn't taken these British ship girls to see his close-in weapon ballistic missile launchers, and had also found an excuse to send Nelson over to paint the coastal defense guns black.

It is said that it aims to maintain the same style as those dark Gothic deep-sea buildings.

Nelson wasn't upset about this at all; in fact, it would have been better if his sister hadn't been bothering him while he was working.

"Sis! Sister! It's haunted! It's haunted!" Rodney, who had finally found Nelson after searching for a long time, rushed up the still-wet cannon barrel in a panic and said to his sister who was painting the barrel.

Seeing the obvious propeller and high-heeled shoe prints on the paint, Nelson, knowing that his work of the past few minutes had been for nothing, jumped off the gun barrel, hung the paint bucket aside, and asked, "What's haunted? Is there a shipwreck on the seabed around here?"

Ship girls, who are themselves products of science but are not so scientific, would find it difficult to understand the concept of "oni" (demon).

The horror games that game companies rack their brains to create seem strange to the ship girls, but when they see documentaries about sunken ships, they scream and shout.

Especially when they see the corpses of their own historical counterparts, these ship girls are so frightened that they lose control of their bladders and spill fuel everywhere.

The only thing that can evoke fear in both humans and ship girls is something like a ghost ship.

"It's not one of those ghosts, it's really haunted!" Rodney said in a panic, insisting that he hadn't seen a ghost ship or anything like that.

Seeing that Nelson still didn't understand, Rodney grabbed his sister's arm and said, "Come with me and you'll see, it really is haunted."

"Wait a minute, let me put the paint cap back on." Nelson, who didn't forget her work even before leaving, truly deserves to be called a model of British ship girls.

Nelson was pulled by his younger sister Rodney to a small corridor in a dark, gothic, deep-sea-style port building that seemed rather eerie due to the lack of people around.