Chapter 25

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25. If There's a Problem, Ask Directly

For each admiral, resisting the Abyssal Fleet is their innate mission.

Voluntarily coming from human society to this vast ocean, they engage in a life-and-death war with the monsters from the deep sea. Every minute, an admiral dies on the battlefield due to the base being breached, and every second, a ship girl sinks into the dark ocean.

Humans and the Abyssal Fleet are in a fight to the death. Even without the factor of a large-scale war, humans and the Abyssals have absolutely no possibility of reconciliation.

The existence of the Abyssals will gradually erode the land.

The living environment is being compressed, and the world's territory is irreversibly decreasing. For any human, resisting the Abyssal Fleet is an inescapable and urgent mission. However, resisting the Abyssal Fleet is not a task that can be easily accomplished.

For each admiral, the most critical task is to constantly update the information about the surrounding sea. Satellite monitoring has disappeared, and radar cannot accurately locate human-sized objects. Only the ship girls' sensory radars and visual confirmation can determine the flow of the Abyssal Fleet. Daily sorties, eliminating the Abyssals, and mapping the sea are undoubtedly the most important tasks.

Even a single oversight can be catastrophic for the base. If even one Abyssal Fleet is not recorded, the base may very well face death.

Moreover, due to the destruction of all electronic components and the large-scale loss of ancient data, which has caused a complete break in civilization, not only the names and numbers of the fleets are passed down orally, but even the hydrological observation systems and other high-tech technologies cannot be inherited.

Although the most painful period has passed and humans have entered a recovery phase, they have paid a significant amount of territory. Taking the Guam base as an example, a long time ago, this was a large island that, due to geological changes, became a small landmass larger than the Japanese islands.

But now, only this small piece of land remains. The other territories and the damaged weapons have been submerged in the dark ocean.

"Not enough data..."

In the base command room, the admiral, under the light of a desk lamp, frowned as he looked at the data in his hand.

On the table was a sea map drawn by the admiral himself. With the base at the center, the surrounding area was a dark ocean. Countless circles and triangles, drawn in pencil, densely covered the surrounding grid, making one's scalp tingle.

Each mark was clearly labeled with a model number and date in small pencil writing, clearly showing the direction of movement each day. The countless marks formed a perfect movement trajectory on the map. However, some were marked as lost contact, and others were marked as destroyed, making the entire map fragmented.

"What do you monsters want?"

Feeling the agitation in his mind, the admiral closed his eyes and took off his military cap. He extended his hand and deeply inserted it into his dry hair.

Just a slight touch with his cracked fingers could reach the scar of shame.

It was a mark of shame, a mark of contempt.

"Whatever... I'll just ask you directly."

The admiral sighed, opened his eyes, and stood up with a cold expression, walking to the window. He looked indifferently at the dark sky outside and suddenly pushed open the command room window.

The cold sea wind instantly blew his disheveled hair even more wildly. A cold light flashed in his sunken eyes as he stared at the pitch-black sea, took a deep breath, and roared into the dark night.

"You're watching me, aren't you? Abyssal!"

The sound traveled far in the lonely night. But the only response to the admiral was the sound of waves crashing against the rocks.

The admiral was just a human; he could see nothing but darkness.

But he could feel it, he could feel it.

He could feel a pair of purple eyes slowly opening in the dark sea, rising to the surface, and staring at him defiantly. The rage and fury in those eyes almost seemed to tear him, a mere human, to pieces.

But in response, the admiral's own anger was about to explode from his chest, turning the owner of those purple eyes into a mass of debris floating on the sea.

"..."

No sound, no sight, but he could feel the intense anger.

The human's anger was born from humiliation, and the Abyssal's was the same. Both sides could clearly sense each other's thoughts. The two angry thoughts intertwined, forming a nearly destructive malice.

'What do you want now?'

A cold voice slowly echoed in his mind.

"What else can I do? To stop you, to defeat you again."

'Is that so? I won't make the same mistake twice, human.'

"Hmph, that's not certain. Just like when I came, didn't you think it was impossible?"

'...'

The woman's voice in his mind fell silent.

If someone were standing next to the admiral, they would see that under his dry, disheveled hair, a fierce purple scar faintly glowed with a pale purple light, like a brand, flashing and transmitting some kind of message in the night.

The admiral had come here by passing through the northern defense line in some way, and at a considerable cost. All the ship girls knew this, but they didn't know what the admiral had paid.

This malnourished, frail-looking man had sacrificed his peaceful future.

'Let's see if you can still be so defiant a month from now, human.'

After a long silence, the voice in his mind said.

'Do you think your ragtag fleet is strong? Do you think you can withstand the attack of the true elite of the Abyssal Fleet? The true Abyssals will appear on this battlefield, and you think your half-intelligent rejects can stop me? This time, our attack will be a hundred times stronger than usual. We, with our intelligence, are not comparable to your team.'

'Don't disappoint me, human. I won't be the one to clean up your mess.'

After leaving these words in the admiral's mind, the cold spirit receded like a tide.

The sea no longer felt the gaze of those purple eyes. The only sound in his ears was the waves crashing against the shore, as if nothing had happened.

Looking at the dark sea, the admiral observed for a long time before sighing softly. He put on his naval cap, closed the window, and sat back down, organizing the charts on the blueprint.

That guy is actually an idiot...

After muttering to himself, the admiral scratched his head, lifted his pencil, and quickly marked various signals on the charts.

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