"Achoo!"
At this moment, far away in the floating fortress of Lihu County on the Orleans Continent, Tirpitz was cramped in her own room.
Unlike her usual dignified and aloof demeanor shown to outsiders, Tirpitz was casually dressed in a loosely buttoned white pajama shirt and white short sleep pants, her silver short hair unkempt and carelessly draped.
She sat cross-legged on the bed, holding a game controller that the Commander had bought for her, and let out a hard sneeze.
There were still a few days left before their Ironblood faction would set off to return to the Old Harbor District.
Because the Commander had, by a fortunate coincidence, arrived at the Eagle Union faction, and after learning that the Commander was safe, all the Ironblood ship girls, including her, were relieved and made all the necessary preparations for departure.
"Oh? The lonely Northern Queen actually sneezed — that really is rare,"
In Tirpitz's room, sitting on the bed beside her was another Ironblood ship girl also holding a game controller.
She was the black-haired Ironblood little princess Deutschland, wearing a semi-transparent black short nightdress that left her fair legs exposed.
"Maybe someone is mentioning me. Is it Sister? Or Victory? Or maybe, the Commander..."
Tirpitz spoke while glancing toward the window in the room.
Through the glass, large snowflakes were falling outside, just like the time she once waited alone at that far northern dock for her destined fate to arrive.
"Ahahaha! You actually got distracted! Take my finishing move!"
Before Tirpitz could even sigh over this, Deutschland beside her burst into wild laughter.
Accompanying Deutschland's laughter, the large LCD screen in front of them flashed with brilliant special effects, followed by the sound of a character collapsing in defeat.
Tirpitz glanced helplessly at Deutschland, who sneaked an arrogant laugh while attacking her unexpectedly, then stared at the screen for a moment, finally sighing softly and saying:
"This game isn't fun. Let's switch to another one."
"No way, no way, we'll play this one! I finally memorized the combo!"
"Listen, the next game is even better."
"Really?"
"I've played them all; you have to trust me."
...
Lin Lan, of course, had no idea that Tirpitz was playing games with Deutschland in her room at this moment.
He was eating the lunch that Hammann had brought him by the basketball court on the artificial island.
It was his first time eating fast food from the Eagle Union's vending machines — a beef burger with lettuce and cucumber, a hot dog glazed with honey.
And of course, there was the indispensable chilled cola.
Speaking of Eagle Union, it was necessary to mention the faction's favorite specialty drink among the ship girls — cola.
After finishing the burger and hot dog, Lin Lan drank a refreshing bottle of chilled cola. It was both stimulating and invigorating; he couldn't have felt more comfortable.
"This cola is made with Georgia's exclusive secret recipe. Commander, how do you like it?"
Maury asked with a smile when he saw the content expression on Lin Lan's face after finishing the cola.
"Not bad, not bad. I give it full marks."
Learning that the cola was made using Georgia's secret recipe, Lin Lan suddenly understood why it tasted so good.
Just like Seattle, the party expert, battleship Georgia was Eagle Union's second-phase research ship, and also a huge cola enthusiast.
Lin Lan remembered from the official manga that Georgia could drink two dozen bottles of cola in one go, demonstrating her deep love for the drink.
At the sunny outdoor sports field, having lunch while enjoying the sea breeze with a group of young ladies was definitely a pleasant experience.
After resting a bit, while Lin Lan and the others were still there, the Sea Knights put on a 3v3 basketball match that was as exciting as a professional game.
Watching the agile Cleveland and the others perform brilliantly, Lin Lan once again secretly felt that his decision not to play was wise.
What a joke — could he really participate in such a high-level game? It was better just to watch and cheer.
After watching the entire Eagle Union Sea Knights' internal basketball game, it was already past two in the afternoon.
Lin Lan said goodbye to Enterprise and the others, who had just finished exercising with Cleveland and the other Sea Knights; they were about to leave for the next location.
Before sending him to the car, Cleveland smiled and said to him:
"Commander, remember to visit Helena when you have time. She's been looking forward to cooking for you herself."
Lin Lan naturally kept Cleveland's reminder in mind, especially since Cleveland was referring to "Helena ."
Unlike the later-added Helena META, Helena had been one of the mainstays of his fleet from the early game days through the late stages, alongside Enterprise.
However, compared to the confident and sexy Helena META after her transformation, the original Helena was gentler and cuter in personality.
At the party yesterday, he had chatted briefly with Helena.
But since there were many people around, Helena was still too shy in such a setting.
Under the auras of the sexy Saint Louis, the red-haired tsundere Honolulu, and the serious elder sister Brooklyn, Helena only weakly chatted with him for a short time before turning bright red and falling silent.
"Helena has indeed been worrying about you. She hasn't smiled for a long time before you came back," Enterprise added.
Hearing this, Lin Lan solemnly promised Cleveland he would definitely visit Helena in the next few days.
This was a top priority.
After all, whether his attack could successfully defeat the event boss back then depended entirely on Helena 's mood.
When the vehicle left the basketball court and headed downhill, Lin Lan looked at the roadside environment and quickly noticed that the feeling in the back mountain was obviously different from the front mountain.
The front mountain of the artificial island was mostly dense woods and large facilities on green lawns, with a bustling dock town near the sea.
But as Enterprise drove him, Anchorage, and Eldridge onto the highway in the back mountain wilderness, Lin Lan looked at the surrounding yellowish sandy ground, towering cacti, and half-withered weeds and bushes.
Suddenly, he felt as if he had been transported to the Eagle Union wilderness during the western development era.
The brown wooden road signs hanging on wooden racks along the highway and the increasingly close western-style wooden town ahead made Lin Lan draw a sharp breath.
It was fine when he looked at this wilderness from the mountain just now, but after personally entering the wilderness along the road, it truly felt like stepping into a new world.
If he hadn't turned his head and still seen the hills and buildings of the artificial island, he would have really thought he had traveled through time again.
But why did Eagle Union build the foothills of the back mountain to look like this?
Lin Lan pondered but couldn't figure it out. Although the Eagle Union ship girls usually had a generous lifestyle and liked watching various movies,
they wouldn't go so far as to recreate movie scenes to this extent, right?
"Commander, speaking of which, the idea to build this here like this was actually proposed by Akashi."
Noticing Lin Lan's surprised gaze around him, Enterprise smiled as she drove and said,
"When Akashi was still on the island, she once heard Nevada and my sister Hornet talk about the romance of cowboys.
So she had Manjuu build this place into a western-style tourist spot just like in the movies."
"Especially the western town ahead — it's exactly the same as the scenes in Hornet's favorite movies."
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