Elder brother's garrison

Page 2584

Sensing Xiaobai's gaze, the submarine girl named Henry seemed to sense a strange threat. She quickly protected her body and stared at Xiaobai warily. Inside the transparent helmet on her head, the soft creature floating above her head kept wriggling.

“Henry, I’ve never heard of him before,” the pursuer remarked, sizing him up. “I don’t think I know any submarines with that name…”

“We don’t have any friends named Henry in our naval base,” Fubuki added from the side.

"..." Xiaobai smiled and patted Fubuki's head. She turned to the pursuer and said, "It seems that this is a brand new ship name. Actually, I've never heard of it before... I can ask someone to help me look it up later."

Xiao Bai had indeed never heard of the name Henry.

If even Xiaobai's memory couldn't find any information about Henry, then it means that the Henry in front of him must be the prototype ship in this world.

There's absolutely no information...

Xiao Bai sighed.

The so-called prototype ship refers to the first ship girl or deep-sea dean in the world to appear with the corresponding ship name. Before the appearance of this ship girl or deep-sea dean, there was no other ship with the same name in the world.

Although the existence of ship girls and the Deep Sea Dean both originate from the history and legends of ships, these corresponding legends are actually mostly from before the period of discontinuity. As for the period of discontinuity... that turbulent period created many gaps in the glorious history of mankind. Even though generations of modern archaeologists have spent hundreds of years trying to fill in this lost history, the historical information they have filled in still has a certain information gap with the history before the period of discontinuity.

Most of the legends surrounding ship girls were gradually compiled, summarized, and supplemented by people from various ancient books and lost and recovered materials after the corresponding prototype ships appeared.

In fact, there are many legends and histories associated with obscure ship girls in this world. Because the first prototype ship has not yet been created, they have not been discovered for a long time. The ship in front of Xiaobai is probably one of them.

However, there are some exceptions.

For example, the Iowa-class ship girls from Xiaobai's family.

Their presence in human history is so enormous that even though no prototype ship was ever created before Xiaobai, their existence and deeds are still vividly active in the legends of other ships. Relying on this strong presence, their existence still resounds throughout the admiral circle. They are the standard star ship girls whose voices arrive before they do.

"I didn't expect it to be a prototype ship," Xiaobai commented. "But I have absolutely no recollection of this name..."

Ugh……

Most ship girls with some fame have appeared in the legends of other ship girls in some way, such as "comrade-in-arms", "rival", or "sister ship". For example, Prinz Eugen and Bismarck, Hood and Bismarck, Tirpitz and Bismarck, etc. But Xiaobai really had no recollection of the name of the submarine Henry in front of him. This submarine seemed to have appeared out of thin air.

Since they're this unpopular... it seems like these are ship girls who have virtually no presence.

Xiao Bai was lost in thought, feeling confused and disoriented.

Henry, sitting in the submarine in front of Xiaobai and the other two, watched them warily. She felt helpless as their gazes lingered on her.

"Admiral, she doesn't seem very happy." Fubuki tugged at Shiro's sleeve and pointed at Henry, saying to Shiro.

“Ah…indeed, we seem to have neglected her too much.” Little White paused for a moment, then came to her senses, squatted down and smiled at Henry, “Hello, Henry, nice to meet you, I am human.”

"...?" Henry looked at Xiaobai in confusion.

Xiao Bai lowered his head, opened his ship equipment space, took out a long, thin chocolate energy bar, and handed it to Henry.

Henry was soaking wet, and she stared warily at the energy bar that Xiaobai offered her, initially reluctant to reach out and take it.

Xiao Bai immediately understood. The three of them had lured Henry over, beaten her up, pulled her ashore, asked her name, and then made a lot of comments about her. No wonder she was so wary of them.

"This is human food, don't worry, it's not poisonous, and it tastes great." Xiaobai opened the packaging of the energy bar, broke off a piece in front of Henry, chewed it, and then put the rest of the energy bar on the floor in front of Henry. "You've been busy with us for several nights now, aren't you hungry? Have something to eat."

"..."

Henry looked at Xiaobai's mouth, then lowered her head and stared at the energy bar with a strange expression. Finally, she tentatively reached out and grabbed the energy bar into her arms.

Henry, with her purple eyes wide open, observed the energy bar through the transparent helmet. She looked left and right, and subconsciously put the energy bar into her mouth, but the transparent helmet blocked it.

Henry could only taste air when she opened her mouth. She took a few bites from a distance but couldn't taste anything. Instead, chocolate crumbs got on her transparent helmet, which made her look a little angry. Her snow-white face gradually turned red.

"Can't you take the helmet off?" Xiaobai asked.

Henry glanced up at Little White, then looked down again at the energy bar so close to her, trying to lift her helmet.

She lifted the helmet a crack, and Henry stuffed the energy bar into it, finally biting it down.

With a crunching sound, Henry chewed the energy bar into pieces in a few bites.

A few brief seconds passed before Henry stopped chewing. His wide purple eyes first showed a blank expression, then began to show surprise and fascination.

really.

For a life form with taste buds and a life structure similar to humans, but encountering food for the first time, human food is truly a thing with enormous destructive power.

We humans are truly amazing.

Xiaobai's method is incredibly effective.

"Is it delicious?" Xiaobai asked.

"Mmm-hmm-hmm!!!" Henry nodded hurriedly, his big purple eyes practically screaming, "Give me a little more, please."

Xiao Bai looked down and took out another energy bar from the ship's equipment space.

The moment Henry saw the energy bar, he seemed to throw all his previous wariness of Little White to the back of his mind and quickly moved closer to Little White.

The strong smell of the sea mixed with a faint, fresh scent of a young girl wafted towards me.

Henry placed one hand on Xiaobai's knee and raised the other hand towards Xiaobai's hand holding the energy bar.

As Xiaobai watched Henry's hand about to touch the energy bar, Xiaobai suddenly raised the energy bar high.

Henry's hand grasped at empty air. She pouted and looked at Little White with innocent eyes.

"You can have this, but we need to discuss something," Xiaobai said with a smile. "If you promise me one thing, this is yours."

"...Wh-what is it..." Henry shrank back and asked in a low voice.

"My request is that you can no longer attack the ship girls in this area," Xiaobai said to Henry. "Those ship girls didn't mean to hurt you; they just mistook you for their enemy."

“…If someone doesn’t offend me…” Henry seemed very resistant. She lowered her head unwillingly and withdrew her hand.

"If you promise not to attack them, I'll give you five more of these."

"Okay, I agree!" Henry suddenly looked up, his eyes fixed intently on Little White. "I... I want ten!"

Goodness, they've even learned to bargain.

Xiaobai smiled at Henry, but she didn't continue to lower her stakes. Instead, she simply took out a box of energy bars from her ship's storage space, grabbed a handful from it, and handed them to Henry, who was staring in disbelief.

Henry's gaze toward Little White was like that of a primitive inhabitant who tills the barren soil and lives as if he had seen a god descend from the sky.

She reached out and caught the food that Xiaobai spilled, but her eyes were fixed on the box that Xiaobai had placed behind him.

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, Xiaobai opened the box and found it filled with neatly arranged energy bars—at least a hundred at a glance!

Henry's little mouth was practically drooling as he looked at it.

After receiving the energy bar from Xiaobai, Henry quickly bent down, tore open a package, put it inside his helmet, opened his mouth, and chewed it incessantly.

"Henry, answer me while you eat," Xiaobai said with a smile, seeing that the situation was about right. "Actually, I can give you as many of these energy bars as you want."

"?!" Henry exclaimed.

“But you also need to know that we humans have an old saying: ‘He who eats another’s food is bound to him, and he who takes another’s money is bound to him.’” Little White said to Henry. “The first energy bar I gave you was our greeting gift, and the next ten were a deal between us. But after that… I can’t give you these foods for free.”

"..." Henry chewed on the energy bar, looking completely bewildered.

"To put it bluntly, if you want these energy bars, you have to join our naval base and live on land."

Little White finally revealed its true colors.

Chapter 3629 Come ashore with me

In their brief interaction, Xiaobai quickly confirmed a few things.

First of all... Henry does not have the aura of the deep sea, nor the aura of a ship girl. Her state is extremely similar to that of Shiro, Sukhbaatar, and Odin's Vestal. She is a neutral creature that is neither a ship girl nor a deep sea creature.

If that's the case, then this fulfills Xiaobai's basic requirement of bringing Henry ashore.

After all, just two days ago, Xiaobai handed over the last of her deep-sea aura shielding devices to the Deep Sea Phoenixes, and she didn't have any extra stock to give Henry as well.

The second thing... was that Little White discovered that Henry seemed to have just been born.

Henry clearly lacks knowledge of human society, the deep sea, and various aspects of daily life. She doesn't even understand concepts like the sun and moon, or day and night. Although her 999 evasion and 999 armor bring terrifying combat power, in a sense, she is just an infant in swaddling clothes. Although she attacked many ship girls in the sea area before, according to her own account, it all stemmed from a misunderstanding.

In that case, there is no factional conflict between Xiaobai and Henry.

The third and final thing... this was somewhat expected.

Human food is quite tempting to ship girls, deep-sea ships, or even neutral ship girls, which gives Xiaobai a strong bargaining chip when extending an olive branch to Henry.

—This is a super submarine with 999 evasion and 999 armor!

—If it weren't for Fubuki's second skill's true damage, plus the special protection of her land-based ship equipment that can ignore torpedoes, our side really wouldn't have been able to do anything about her!

—In a way, this is a super ship girl whose combat power is comparable to that of Lord Su.

Who would mind having such a powerful submarine ship girl in their naval base?

Anyway, Xiaobai doesn't mind!

Even Xiaobai expressed a warm welcome.

And indeed, things turned out exactly as Xiaobai had predicted.

After hearing Xiaobai's recruitment announcement, Henry's hand holding the energy bar hovered in mid-air, staring at Xiaobai with a bewildered expression.

Henry still had bits of chocolate and puffed snacks stuck to the corners of his mouth.

"...What do you think of my suggestion?" Xiaobai asked Henry with a smile.

"...Go ashore with you?" Hearing Xiaobai's words, Henry initially showed some worry and resistance, but soon, when she looked at the box of snacks placed on the ground-based ship's floor behind Xiaobai, she began to waver strongly.

“There are plenty of energy bars,” Xiaobai said.

“…Ugh.” Henry’s shoulders began to tremble.

“It’s not just energy bars, there are many other things too.” Little White looked at the hesitant Henry and continued, “We humans are the best at making delicious food. As long as you come ashore with me, I guarantee you can eat something different every day of the year.”

"!!!" Henry stared at Little White in surprise.

Although Henry still doesn't fully understand how long "one year" and "three hundred and sixty-five days" means, she can still understand the three words Xiaobai said at the end: "not repeated."

"Besides this, is there anything else?" Henry asked immediately.

"Yes, there are plenty," Xiaobai nodded with a smile. "Want to come with me to confirm?"

"Mmm-hmm!" Henry nodded immediately.

"Then you still need to come ashore with me."

“Uh…” Henry shrank back.

"But you can try as much as you want," Xiaobai said with a smile.

“Okay!” Henry’s eyes lit up, and she placed her hands on Xiaobai’s knees like a kitten and nodded immediately.

Seeing Henry nod, Xiaobai finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Henry is indeed a "baby ship girl," so easy to fool... I tricked her into the naval base with just a few words and a little energy bar.

Well... no, strictly speaking, it wasn't exactly lying, since she could indeed fulfill the promises Xiaobai made to Henry.

Although we were talking about a tasting, Xiaobai felt that based on Henry's behavior just now, once she entered the newbie naval base, she probably wouldn't want to leave even if he wanted to.

Xiaobai still has this confidence.

After all, humanity's entertainment and food industries rank first on the entire planet, far surpassing the levels of other creatures.

The pursuers and Fubuki, who were watching the conversation between Shiro and Henry, exchanged glances.

"Sister Flower Q, are we going to have another companion at our naval base?" Fubuki clapped her hands and asked expectantly.

“You’re right.” The pursuer nodded, clapped her hands, and gave a thumbs up. “Our admiral is indeed good at the luck of salvaging ships.”

……

With things having come to this, Xiaobai maneuvered the land-based ship equipment and headed towards the deep-sea city.

Along the way, Henry sat upright on the land-based ship's equipment, holding the energy bar that Little White had given her, looking at the surrounding sea with anticipation.

Henry was looking at it when he suddenly felt a weight on his head.

Henry turned his head and saw that the pursuer had placed a green object on him. She raised her hands and stepped back.

“Here you are, little Henry,” the pursuer said. “This is a quick repair device. It’ll fix your damaged ship equipment. You’ll be coming out with us to meet people later, and you can’t be all ragged and battered.”

"...?" Henry looked at the pursuers, then looked down at herself.

Henry's bodysuit did have many small tears, caused by Fubuki. The ship suit on Henry's body was torn, with some parts exposing flesh and others just cracked. Although it was not to the extent that she exposed areas that should not be exposed, it still looked a bit unsightly.

The quick-repair device quickly repaired the tear in Henry's clothes.

Henry looked at the shiny, brand-new clothes and reached out to touch them with a sense of novelty.