Elder brother's garrison

Page 480

After filling out the simple Er Gou-style form at President Er Gou's office and quickly completing the task formalities, Xiao Bai left President Er Gou's office.

As soon as Xiaobai stepped out of the office, he heard a loud bang.

Nia was standing in front of a construction device, looking at it with anticipation.

However, the construction device seemed to have no mercy on Nia. With a merciless explosion, a cloud of black smoke swept over Nia like a whirlwind, swallowing her whole.

"Cough cough cough cough—" Nia coughed as she waved away the black smoke around her.

"Nia, what are you doing?" Xiaobai walked up to Nia and asked her.

“Just routine construction,” Nia said to Xiaobai with an embarrassed smile.

"Oh..." Xiaobai nodded knowingly.

Building ship girls is an extremely expensive undertaking, with high costs and a low success rate. Many naval bases cannot support large-scale construction, which is unavoidable. However, if admirals don't build them, there are no ship girls; without ship girls, there's no way to become stronger; without becoming stronger, one cannot defeat the Abyssal Fleet; and without defeating the Abyssal Fleet, one cannot protect the land. Therefore, for the vast majority of admirals, construction is a very necessary task.

To incentivize admirals who lack resources to frequently use construction machines and are also short of ship girls, the admiral guild in the chapter sea area has a special policy: every once in a while, the admiral guild can reimburse a portion of the resources consumed by each admiral when using the construction device for the first time. This is the so-called daily construction.

Even with some reimbursement, the daily construction cost is still a terrifying number for most weak admirals, but Nia, who seems to have entered a virtuous cycle, can now accept this level of expenditure.

Looking at Nia amidst the black smoke, Xiaobai couldn't help but show a wistful expression.

Chapter 642 Tenfold Hope

In the first chapter, Nia's life was more difficult than that of most admirals. Not to mention daily construction, Nia was even unable to afford the most basic living expenses. In the end, she was only able to find a place to stay in the first chapter thanks to Mr. Barbatos for giving her a job as a kitchen helper.

Later, Nia met Shiro, who provided her with considerable assistance, giving this ordinary admiral a near-perfect platform for development and initial funding. After Shiro left, Nia didn't rest on her laurels; she made good use of everything Shiro had given her, gradually making up for her weaknesses and slowly becoming an admiral with the potential to reach the forefront of the world.

Time really flies.

Little White looked at Nia, who had a helpless expression as she stared at the construction device billowing black smoke, and thought to herself.

"Cough cough cough." After dispersing the black smoke, Nia still felt a little uncomfortable in her throat. She coughed lightly twice and finally gave Xiaobai a wry smile, "Oh dear, failed again."

“Construction is inherently difficult,” Xiaobai said to Nia. “Has Nia been constructing something every day lately?”

"It's not that frequent, maybe once every three or four days," Nia said with a smile to Xiaobai, "although it's almost never been successful."

Xiao Bai smiled helplessly.

Nia has successfully completed daily construction a few times, every three or four days.

In Nia's courtyard, Xiaobai saw Cleveland, Takao Atago, Javelin Laffey, Helena Wichita, and also the homeless ship girls who used to belong to Admiral Ian. In addition to these familiar ship girls, there were also a few that Xiaobai had never seen before. He guessed that those were the new ship girls that Nia had built during this period.

—So, Nia is actually one of those admirals who's a bit lucky; her construction success rate should be much higher than that of ordinary admirals.

Xiao Bai was so envious.

As an admiral who has never successfully built one, and has even completely despaired of himself and developed some psychological trauma related to shipbuilding, Xiaobai is extremely envious of Nia's good luck in being able to build a ship girl.

"Little White." Nia looked at Little White's envious expression and smiled, reminding her, "What are you looking at?"

"Ah, it's nothing, it's nothing." Xiaobai shook her head awkwardly.

"Do you want to build one too?" Nia asked.

"Huh?" Xiaobai was taken aback, and then a restless feeling began to stir in his heart.

As it turns out, even novices share a common human flaw: forgetting the pain once the wound heals.

Even after experiencing a disastrous construction under Lexington's watchful eye, and vowing never to build again, Xiaobai still had a tiny bit of a ulterior motive after witnessing Nia's construction and hearing about her achievements during this period.

What if it works out?

Xiaobai scratched his head and looked at Nia: "No need... I already have a lot of ship girls in my naval base."

“No admiral would complain about having too many ship girls,” Nia said with a smile to Xiaobai. “After all, it’s much easier for family members to take care of each other when there are more ship girls. Besides, a large-scale naval base needs the help and cooperation of many ship girls to operate.”

Nia seemed to have a good speaking ability in this area; she spoke to Xiaobai in a very logical and persuasive manner, completely swaying Xiaobai's opinion.

—It needs to be stated here that although the newbie naval base is, as Nia said, a super-large naval base, and is currently developing into a small city, even so, the number of ship girls in the newbie family still far exceeds the number of ships operating the naval base.

No matter how lax the work arrangements are, most of the ship girls in the newbie naval base are in a state of being extremely idle all day long, so Nia's explanation cannot convince the newbies logically.

However, while they couldn't be persuaded by reason, they were successfully persuaded by emotion.

"Then, shall I build a little bit?" Little White turned around and asked Bismarck behind him.

Bismarck nodded, then walked to the counter on the second floor and began to speak with the staff.

Not long after, Bismarck returned under the watchful eyes of Little White and Nia.

"Alright," Bismarck nodded to Little White and said, "The supplies will be delivered soon."

"Do we need someone to deliver it?"

"Ah."

“I think I can handle the resources needed to start the construction device,” Little White asked Bismarck.

Bismarck looked at Little White with a puzzled expression: "Isn't it supposed to be one hundred portions?"

"Huh?" Xiaobai exclaimed in surprise.

"With a little construction, there are already a hundred copies available!"

“That’s what your brother always said,” Bismarck said matter-of-factly.

Little White looked at Bismarck speechlessly.

Bismarck looked at Little White with a strange expression.

After a long silence of several minutes, a series of orderly footsteps soon rang out from the warehouse on the second floor of the Admiral's Guild.

A group of burly men carried buckets of resources, marching in unison to Xiaobai and Bismarck. With a loud thud that shook the floor, they piled the resources on the ground.

"Do you need my help?" Bismarck asked the little white boy as she picked up a bucket of resources.

“Uh…” Little White looked at Bismarck, hesitating to speak.

"No returns allowed." However, the astute Bismarck seemed to have seen through Xiaobai's thoughts. She pointed to the resources scattered on the ground and said this to Xiaobai.

"..." Xiaobai looked at Nia beside her.

Nia, who was already used to Xiaobai's wealth and arrogance, quickly waved her hand and shook her head like a rattle drum.

Since things have come to this, it seems that Xiaobai has no choice but to build all these resources himself.

"A hundred rounds..." Little White looked at the iron barrel in Bismarck's arms, "How long will it take to build them all?"

“Ah, there’s no need to worry about that.” As Xiaobai pondered this, Nia, who had been shaking her head, quickly stopped. She clapped her hands and smiled at Xiaobai, “Building it here will be quick.”

"Soon?" Xiaobai looked at Nia strangely.

“Yes, the president is very capable; she modified the construction device,” Nia said to Xiaobai.

"The construction device has been modified?" Xiaobai was shocked upon hearing Nia's words. "The guild leader, right?"

"correct."

Xiao Bai stared, mouth agape, in disbelief.

The origins of the construction device are probably known to no one present as well as Xiaobai.

The construction device has remained unchanged since the beginning of the discontinuation era, after it was analyzed and replicated by Suzuran. Its technological content far surpasses the progress of human technology. For generations, human researchers have spent hundreds of years trying to truly understand the technology contained within the construction device, to improve it, and even to utilize its technology, but without any substantial progress. As a result, the current construction device is only superficially different from the discontinuation era's construction device.

However, how could President Er Gou modify the construction device?

Thinking about this, Xiaobai asked Nia curiously, "Why did the president modify the construction device? Did it speed up the construction of the ship girls?"

"Ah, no." Nia felt a little embarrassed looking at Xiaobai's serious expression. She smiled at Xiaobai, then shook her head. "Although in the end it did increase the construction speed... it wasn't some kind of high-tech modification..."

Under Xiaobai's watchful gaze, Nia looked around the second floor of the Admiral's Guild, then pointed to a construction device in a corner: "Xiaobai, look over there."

Xiao Bai looked in the direction Nia pointed and saw a rather ordinary-looking construction device sitting there obediently in the corner of the second floor.

"Is there anything special about that...?" Xiaobai looked at the machine, which seemed no different from any other construction device, and asked curiously.

“Xiaobai, look closely down there. That machine is connected to the other construction equipment,” Nia said.

"Huh?" Xiaobai looked down at the construction device and sure enough, there were several thin iron pipes connecting the surrounding construction devices.

Xiao Bai counted them and found that there were ten interconnected construction devices in total.

"The chairman calls this the 'Ten-Construction Device'."

"Ten consecutive pulls??"

“Hmm.” Nia smiled at Little White, “If you put ten resources into the construction device in the middle at once, you can build ten times at once.”

"..." Xiaobai's face darkened.

Xiao Bai had thought that the construction device modified by Guild Master Er Gou was something with technological advancements, but he didn't expect it to be just ten construction devices connected together.

“Although I’ve never used it before, the president said it’s really cool to build like this,” Nia said.

"Wouldn't it be dangerous to connect all these machines together?"

"The president said it's super safe, it will definitely not explode, and it won't affect the drop rate of ship girls."

"..." Xiaobai looked at the construction device in the corner.

"Little White, would you like to give it a try?" Nia asked.

Xiao Bai swallowed hard.

With Bismarck's help, Xiaobai poured bucket after bucket of resources into Guild Leader Ergou's ten-pull construction machine.

Then, after Xiaobai pressed the button on the construction device, the ten-unit construction machine quickly lit up and started operating slowly. Starting with the construction device that had been used to input resources, the surrounding construction devices also slowly lit up, like dominoes. From the inside out, all ten construction devices started operating one after another, and ten large chestnuts were continuously being built. The machine was humming incessantly, and from a distance, it really looked quite cool.

Then, something even cooler happened.

The ten large chestnuts that were spinning suddenly stopped, as if they had chewed on something dirty, and exploded with a loud bang. Ten plumes of black smoke shot out from the chestnuts with a clear purpose, instantly enveloping Xiaobai's body.

Then, the black smoke continued its relentless advance, and soon, half of the second-floor hall of the Admiral's Guild was enveloped in a cloud of black smoke amidst the rumbling sound.

Chapter 643 Ding————

Inside the manager's office in the chapter's sea area.

President Er Gou, who had just helped Xiao Bai get the back door, was now lying in bed sleeping soundly.

Sleeping is President Er Gou's forte. As a successful woman, President Er Gou has mastered many ways to slack off, one of which is falling asleep the moment her head hits the pillow.

This is an action that can greatly restore energy, and Guild Master Er Gou has been proud of having this skill countless times.

At this moment, Helena, sitting on the bed, hummed a song, rhythmically stroking President Er Gou's back while looking down and smiling quietly.

President Er Gou closed his eyes, resting his head on Helena's soft thighs. His mouth was open, and glistening saliva dripped down the corners of his mouth, mixed with a faint fragrance, crawling like little snakes onto Helena's legs. Helena didn't seem to care about the saliva; she seemed to be enjoying a rare moment of leisure, with a happy expression on her face.

Just then, a loud bang suddenly rang out outside the door, startling Helena so much that she almost sat up in bed.

"Huh??" Helena stared wide-eyed at the tightly shut door. "What's going on outside?"

The booming sound was terrifying, like ten cannons firing at once, like thunder, sending chills down one's spine.

"I remember this door is soundproof, right..." Helena stared blankly at the door. After thinking for a while, she was still a little worried. She slowly put her hand under the head of the Second Dog and gently lifted his head up.

"Mmm...mmm..." However, even in her sleep, President Er Gou was still quite conscious. When Helena tried to leave her side, President Er Gou quickly woke up. She immediately reached out and hooked her arm around Helena's leg, then started to act like a child.

"Don't go..." President Er Gou said to Helena with his eyes closed.

"Admiral, there's a noise outside." Helena shook her head, looking disappointed.

"Huh? Oh... that sound just now." Guild Master Er Gou didn't seem to care. She pulled Helena back onto the bed, then pouted, "That was the sound of my ten-pull construction machine."

"Huh? Wasn't that thing unusable?"

"No, it's usable." Guild Master Er Gou said, a smile playing on his lips. "Ten consecutive pulls, what a wonderful phrase, it represents the future, it represents hope."

"Admiral, you're talking nonsense again."

"Ten consecutive construction machines are no problem, don't worry. But even though that thing offers ten times the chance of success, it's just something simply welded together, and sometimes there are leftover resources, leading to incomplete combustion... Simply put, when it fails, the despair from that plume of black smoke is ten times greater. I bet the second-floor lobby is completely filled with black smoke right now, so don't open the door, it's awful." Guild Master Er Gou yawned and leaned back onto Helena's lap. "Goodnight."

"It's morning, Admiral."

"zzz..."

President Er Gou always falls asleep so quickly.

Helena sighed, though there was still a lot of helplessness in her eyes. She reached out and smoothed the messy ends of President Er Gou's hair, tidying up her long hair that had become somewhat disheveled from her earlier movements.

"Speaking of which, who's using the 10-unit construction machine?" Helena asked, glancing at the door with a puzzled look after finishing her task.

However, it seems that President Er Gou, who was asleep, was unable to answer this question.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.