Elder brother's garrison

Page 1396

"..." Xiaobai felt embarrassed by Elizabeth's praise.

“However…” Elizabeth paused, her gaze lingering on Xiao Bai’s fair face for a moment, then glanced around before sincerely stepping forward and leaning against him, whispering, “Admiral Lu Lin…”

"Huh? What's wrong?"

“It is indeed a good thing to confirm information with your own eyes… but…” Elizabeth said softly, taking out a mask from behind her and handing it to Xiaobai, “After all, this is a special place shrouded in deep-sea resentment. The concentration of deep-sea resentment here has reached a level that can substantially damage the human body, so I still suggest that Admiral Lu Lin wear this and take some protective measures.”

"Huh? Oh... okay, okay." Xiaobai was taken aback, then quickly took the mask Elizabeth handed her and put it on under Elizabeth's gaze. "Thank you, Elizabeth... uh, may I ask what this mask is?"

"These are handmade masks with some fragments of our ship equipment sewn into them," Elizabeth said to Xiaobai. "Although it's only a small effect, our ship equipment has some effect in resisting deep-sea resentment. Wearing some of these special masks can also reduce the intake of some deep-sea resentment."

"Uh... I see." Xiaobai touched the center of the mask in a daze. Sure enough, there seemed to be something hard in the center of the mask, like a metal piece. This thing was not small, and it was difficult for fresh air to pass through the fabric, making Xiaobai feel unbearably stuffy.

"This was made for the Admiral. Since it's all handmade, the craftsmanship is a bit unreliable... Please forgive us." Elizabeth looked at Xiaobai's expression and could tell that Xiaobai didn't like wearing a mask. She smiled apologetically at Xiaobai, but still insisted, "However, for Admiral Lu Lin's health, we still recommend that you wear a mask on the beach."

"I...I will..." Xiaobai mumbled a few times and nodded.

Given Xiaobai's current physical condition, he definitely doesn't need such an unnecessary addition for protection.

However, Xiaobai didn't dare to tell Elizabeth the reason why she wasn't afraid of the deep-sea aura, so she could only wear a mask and give Elizabeth an awkward smile.

"I will cherish this mask..." Xiaobai felt the stuffiness inside the mask and thought to herself that she must find a chance to take it off later, but she still smiled politely at Elizabeth and said, "Thank you, Miss Elizabeth - it must have taken a lot of effort for you to make this kind of mask, right?"

"Well, Admiral Lu Lin, these are disposable masks. You can throw them away after you use them today. As for the remaining masks... if you don't mind, how about I provide them to you? Theoretically speaking, the fresher the ship equipment fragments, the better they are at dispelling deep-sea resentment..."

As Elizabeth spoke, she gently waved her hand, and a flash of white light appeared, revealing a large, snow-white ship rigging behind her. Then, as if demonstrating, Elizabeth retrieved a hammer and file from her rigging storage space and began chiseling away at the rigging behind her. Amidst sparks flying, Elizabeth removed a palm-sized piece of rigging metal and smiled at Little White.

"like this!"

Chapter 1824 Knocking Him Out and Taking Him Away (6000 words)

The ship equipment fragments that Elizabeth held in her hands were pure white and lustrous, exuding a noble and sacred aura on the beach where black smoke was faintly swirling.

"Uh... Miss Elizabeth, you, you just... just chipped a piece of metal off your body like that, doesn't it hurt..." Xiaobai stared in astonishment at the entire process of Elizabeth chipping off the ship's equipment fragments, and for a moment felt that the mask on her face was incredibly heavy.

"Admiral Lu Lin, the ship rigging fragments we used in the initial masks were actually left over from our battles with the enemy at sea a few days ago," Elizabeth said apologetically, holding up the fragments in her hands and smiling slightly at Xiao Bai. "However, I gradually discovered that those battle-damaged ship rigging fragments were less effective at resisting the aura of the deep sea. In order to improve the efficiency of protecting the Admiral's body, we chose to use fresh fragments chiseled from the ship rigging—ah, please rest assured about this, it's not self-harm. Well... to give you an example, it's like clipping nails or trimming hair. The ship rigging fragments we peeled off are just some insignificant small pieces of metal that won't hurt us or cause us any pain. As for the damaged parts... they can be restored with a quick-repair kit after the next battle!"

“Restore them all together…” Xiaobai looked at Missouri, and after Missouri nodded slightly, indicating that what Elizabeth had said was true, she breathed a sigh of relief and her expression improved. “I see… then I’m relieved.”

"After all, there are only two humans on this beach in Chapter Eight: Admiral Lu Lin and my Admiral. With the number of our ship girls, we can provide you with enough masks." Elizabeth said to Xiaobai, pausing slightly before adding with concern, "However... even so, the effectiveness of these masks in blocking the deep-sea resentment is negligible compared to the concentration of deep-sea resentment around here... Admiral Lu Lin, please manage your time on the beach and prioritize your physical condition."

"Yes, I will be careful. Thank you very much." Xiaobai nodded.

"..." Elizabeth smiled slightly.

"By the way... this mask is really stuffy... Is it really okay for Admiral Haoding to wear this on the beach?" Xiaobai expressed her small doubts about the safety of this stuffy mask.

"As long as you don't do any strenuous aerobic exercise, it should be fine," Elizabeth said with a smile.

"……"noob.

It's true that you can't expect ship girl crafts to be compared to mature human crafts...

Xiao Bai touched the somewhat stiff mask, thinking to himself.

"Then, Miss Elizabeth, my ship girl and I will just go take a look around the beach. You can continue with your business and don't worry about me." Xiaobai pointed to a relatively remote area where there were no ship girls stationed at Haoding Naval Base and said to Elizabeth.

"Admiral Lu Lin, are you going over there...?" Elizabeth looked in the direction Xiao Bai was pointing, and when her gaze fell on the empty beach in the distance, she showed some concern. "Admiral Lu Lin, that beach is quite remote. Our infrastructure hasn't been built there yet. If you go there to survey, we won't be able to maintain the ability to provide support to you at any time."

"Huh? Can't you see over there?"

“Yes, the area of ​​this beach is actually much larger than what you see with your eyes…” Elizabeth nodded and said, “Why don’t you stay here and wander around a bit more, Admiral Lu Lin? Our naval base cleared the waters around the beach several months ago. The waters here are no different from other places. And if any accidents happen, the ship girls in the watchtower can come to our aid immediately.”

Elizabeth turned around and pointed behind her as she finished speaking.

Behind them on the beach, the ship girls were busy at work, and several watchtowers were under construction. On the beach nearby, every hundred meters or so, there was a completed snow-white wooden watchtower. The watchtowers were very tall and had no special equipment. They were just like a kind of observation tower. When Xiaobai looked at the watchtowers, he could vaguely see the ship girls' figures on the top of the watchtowers.

In other words, the operating principle of this thing should simply be "to allow the ship girls to stand higher and see further, thereby having a better ability to locate enemies."

Simple and crude.

"Is that so..." Xiaobai nodded slightly, her voice wavering.

"Then, Admiral Lu Lin..."

"It's alright, it's okay if you can't see me. I'm just going to take a look over there. Safety doesn't matter, I just want to satisfy my curiosity." Xiaobai smiled and shook her head at Elizabeth, still pointing to the distant beach, and insisted, "Don't worry, I'm the world's number one admiral, I'll still be aware of protecting myself."

“Admiral Lu Lin…” Elizabeth looked at Xiaobai with some helplessness. She sighed softly and then slowly said, “Since it’s Admiral Lu Lin’s wish, then very well… As compensation, I will lead Admiral Lu Lin and your allies…”

"Huh? Wait, wait... Miss Elizabeth, you're coming with us?" Xiaobai exclaimed in surprise.

“Yes.” Elizabeth nodded. “Our admiral previously instructed us to take good care of Admiral Lu Lin’s safety. Since Admiral Lu Lin is determined to patrol somewhere out of our sight, then as the person in charge, it is only natural that I go and follow him…”

"No...please stop..." Xiaobai was sweating profusely.

The reason Xiaobai insisted on going to that beach that Elizabeth and the others couldn't see was to find a blind spot so that he could successfully reach the sea... If Elizabeth, that stubborn girl, insisted on coming along, how would he ever get out to sea...?

“Miss Elizabeth, your infrastructure construction work on the beach is still quite demanding, isn’t it? There’s no need to waste so much effort on me…” Upon thinking of this, Xiaobai’s heart skipped a beat. She was determined not to let Elizabeth go there with you and ruin her plans, so she quickly gestured with her hands and nervously explained to Elizabeth.

Generally speaking.

Since Xiaobai has already rejected her to this extent, any ship girl with a bit of sense wouldn't keep bothering her.

but.

It is clear.

Elizabeth does not belong to this type of ship girl.

"Please rest assured, Admiral Lu Lin, our infrastructure construction on the beach is proceeding strictly according to plan. My role is merely to supervise everyone as an inspector, so my departure will not cause any trouble for the construction work on the beach." Elizabeth ignored Xiao Bai's actions and then pretended to take off her yellow hard hat. "Please wait a moment, Admiral Lu Lin. I'll tidy up a bit, tell the others, and then I can take you for a walk on the beach over there."

"..." Faced with Elizabeth's enthusiasm, which left Xiaobai with no room for rebuttal, Xiaobai couldn't help but remain silent for a while before finally nodding helplessly, "Alright then... thank you so much... Elizabeth."

"You're welcome, this is what I should do."

"Admiral Haoding must have always praised you for your kind heart..."

"No, not at all. But our admiral often says that I'm too serious and cause trouble for those around me." Elizabeth hugged the yellow hard hat she had taken off, removed the crown from the hard hat, put it on her head, and smiled slightly at Little White. "I'm still very young, so I still have a lot to learn."

"……"noob.

Admiral Haoding's evaluation... is quite accurate.

I hope that Elizabeth will one day grow into a woman like Lexington who can guess what other people are thinking just by looking at them.

Xiao Bai had high hopes for it.

Elizabeth didn't leave Xiaobai's side. Under Xiaobai's gaze, Elizabeth simply turned around and waved her arms at the ship girls on the nearby watchtower, making a few exaggerated gestures before turning back to Xiaobai and saying, "Alright, Admiral Lu Lin, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. We can set off now."

"Huh? You've finished contacting them already?"

“Yes. I’ve already communicated with my comrades on the watchtower through gestures.” Elizabeth gestured with her arm. “After all, the sea is very rough at sea. Without the support of the admiral’s network, it would be quite inconvenient for us ship girls to communicate by shouting. So we prefer to use gestures to convey information, like a kind of sign language, except that sign language only moves two arms, while we use our whole body to express ourselves.”

"...What exactly did you say?"

"Hmm... I told them I was going to accompany Admiral Lu Lin for a stroll around the area, and asked them not to worry about my whereabouts," Elizabeth explained to Xiaobai, nodding her chin.

"Oh..." Xiaobai lowered his head.

"Hmm? Admiral Lu Lin, what's wrong?" Elizabeth looked at Xiao Bai curiously. "Your enthusiasm, which was so high at the beginning, seems to have suddenly dropped?"

"Really..." Xiaobai asked weakly.

"...Perhaps it's just my imagination." Elizabeth looked at Xiaobai's cheeks, pursed her lips slightly, turned her gaze to the distant beach, and said, "Admiral Lu Lin, we can talk as we walk."

"Oh..." Xiaobai nodded, sighing inwardly.

Good guy.

I never expected Elizabeth to be such a formidable opponent.

Now that she's got me hooked up with, it seems like Missouri and the others won't be able to go out to sea and will just be stuck wandering around on the beach...

"Senior Elizabeth." Just as Xiaobai was lamenting in his heart, Missouri looked at Elizabeth and suddenly asked with a smile, "Did Elizabeth mention when she would be returning in the message she just passed to her companions?"

"Hmm? No, there isn't."

“The time the admiral spent surveying the sea area may be longer than Senior Elizabeth imagined. If Senior Elizabeth is away for too long and her companions worry, wouldn’t that cause a lot of trouble?” Missouri said to Elizabeth with a smile.

“…I see…” Elizabeth looked at Missouri in surprise, then nodded slightly. “Then I’ll go tell my companions that I might be back very late.”

"Thank you for your help, Senior Elizabeth," Missouri said with a smile.

In front of everyone, Elizabeth made a few more gestures towards the distant watchtower, then smiled and said to Xiaobai, "Alright, Admiral Lu Lin, everything is ready now."

Faced with the enthusiastic Elizabeth, Xiaobai could only manage a wry smile.

Elizabeth led Little White toward the distant beach.

Elizabeth wasn't just a guide for nothing; she did indeed explain a lot about the beach to Little White as they walked.

"This area was the first combat zone where we fought the enemy who attacked the shore last time. It was afternoon then, and under our vigilance, a total of eighty-three deep-sea enemy ships appeared in the distant sea within five minutes..."

Elizabeth dutifully recounted this information to Xiaobai, information that Admiral Haoding had not written in the reclamation diary. If it were the usual Xiaobai, he would probably be very happy to listen.

However, Xiaobai is feeling a bit down right now, so Elizabeth's words just go in one ear and out the other.

while walking.

The group walked onto the beach that was supposedly outside the sight of the Haoding Garrison.

The sand on the beach gradually began to get cold, and the surrounding sea breeze became much more biting.

“Admiral Lu Lin, this beach is located in a remote area with a narrow landing surface, making it very unsuitable for deep-sea amphibious ships to launch a surprise attack. That’s why we didn’t prioritize this area as our target at first. Of course, if our infrastructure is fully developed, this area will still fall into our field of vision. It’s just that we haven’t paid attention to this area yet due to the progress of infrastructure development…” Elizabeth explained to Xiaobai as she walked.

"Oh? Oh, oh..." Little White replied to Elizabeth.

"How long will Admiral Lu Lin observe here? In my opinion, there isn't much investigative value here..." Elizabeth was speaking gently to Xiao Bai, momentarily ignoring Missouri and Prince Eugen behind her.

That's the time.

Missouri, standing behind Elizabeth, smiled slightly. She stepped forward silently, approaching Elizabeth from behind, then raised her hand, forming a chop, and with a swift motion, chopped Elizabeth's neck like lightning.

Boom!

A dull thud sounded at the back of Elizabeth's head.

Elizabeth, who was enthusiastically introducing the local customs and culture of the beach, didn't even utter a sound before her eyelids rolled back, her body went limp, and she fell unconscious onto the sand.

Missouri stepped forward and, just a second before Elizabeth's fair face was about to touch the sand, reached out and smoothly put her arm around her waist, helping the unconscious Elizabeth to her feet.

Elizabeth instinctively leaned into Missouri's arms, tilting her head to the side and resting it on his shoulder. Her blonde hair cascaded over Missouri like a waterfall, hanging in his arms.

"I am deeply sorry for offending you, Senior Elizabeth." Missouri felt no remorse as she had when she had just attacked Elizabeth. She smiled serenely as she looked at Elizabeth's face, which was only a few fingers away from her, her voice clear as a spring stream.

Missouri's actions were so smooth and seamless that, before Xiaobai could react, Elizabeth, who had been so enthusiastic just a moment before, lost consciousness the next.

Little White and Prince Eugen stared wide-eyed at Missouri in astonishment.

“Missouri…Missouri, you, you took Elizabeth…”

"Missouri only saw that Senior Elizabeth was working hard and neglecting to rest, so she used some tricks to let Senior Elizabeth rest for a while," Missouri said slowly to Xiaobai with a smile.

"Ah this..."

Little White stared blankly at Elizabeth lying in Missouri's arms, remaining silent for a moment.

Ship girls protected by ship equipment will not suffer substantial damage to their bodies until the equipment is damaged. Most physical damage methods, poisons, and biological weapons such as viruses are ineffective against the bodies of ship girls.

However, this does not mean that ship girls are invincible.

For example, while physical attacks cannot harm ship girls, they can be stunned by powerful shocks. Although biological weapons such as poisons and viruses have negligible effects on ship girls, digestive aids and stomach-cleansing medicines have the same effect on them as on ordinary people...

The thing protecting the ship girl's body is ultimately just a membrane generated by the ship's protective field. Although this membrane is incredibly strong, in the end, the intelligence level of this heavily damaged protection is not very high. If one thinks carefully, there are still quite a few ways to affect the ship girl's physical condition through this membrane.

For example, Missouri just took advantage of Elizabeth's inattention to deliver a seemingly harmless chop to the neck, without actually harming Elizabeth, simply sending her to meet her mortal partner. This is a unique way to bypass the ship equipment's protective mechanism and directly affect the ship girl's physical condition.

—I've seen this move used by Bismarck before.

"Is Miss Elizabeth hurt?" Prince Eugen watched as Elizabeth collapsed into Missouri's arms, and he couldn't help but step forward, approaching Elizabeth with some concern.

“Senior Eugen, please rest assured,” Missouri said with a smile. “If Missouri’s chop just now had even the slightest deviation, resulting in a force that could have harmed Senior Elizabeth, then Senior Elizabeth’s ship equipment protection would have automatically activated and blocked Missouri’s attack. The fact that Senior Elizabeth has fallen so easily into Missouri’s arms is proof that she is unharmed.”

"Ah... then I'm relieved..." Prince Eugen patted his chest and breathed a sigh of relief.

"..." Xiaobai looked at Missouri with complicated feelings. She wanted to say something, but seeing Elizabeth sleeping so soundly in Missouri's arms, Xiaobai sighed, pondered for a few seconds, and finally gave Missouri a thumbs up, "Missouri, well done."

If Elizabeth were to stick close to Xiaobai, Xiaobai wouldn't be able to show off his ship equipment in front of her, and therefore wouldn't be able to go out to sea with Missouri and Prinz Eugen to find leveling spots. Every day in Chapter Eight is precious, and Xiaobai doesn't have much time to waste on the beach with Elizabeth. Missouri's fatal blow that knocked Elizabeth unconscious actually did Xiaobai a huge favor.

—As for how to explain it to Elizabeth after she wakes up… well, what's done is done, I'll deal with the rest later.

"It's a good thing that Elizabeth is coming with us this time. At least the ship girls over there won't bother us." Missouri said to Xiaobai, taking out a mat from her ship equipment space and spreading it on the beach. She carefully laid Elizabeth flat on the sand and even helped her into a princess-like sleeping position. "Admiral, this is a good opportunity for us."

"Hmm...that makes sense..." Xiaobai nodded and asked, "Missouri, how long will Elizabeth sleep after that stab?"

“It depends on the individual situation… Missouri isn’t an expert in this area… but it will definitely take at least two hours.” Missouri stared at Elizabeth on the mat, stroking his chin as he speculated, “Perhaps with good luck, it wouldn’t be a problem for Senior Elizabeth to sleep for five or six hours.”

"That really took quite a long time..." Xiaobai sighed with a complicated expression. "By the way, Missouri, when did you learn this move?"