Fletcher didn't even bother answering. With an anti-submarine stat close to 110, she could tear through underwater targets even without dedicated ASW gear—a mere transport ship was no match for her.
Lexington issued the order. "Fletcher, retrieve the enemy rigging from the seafloor. Be careful."
Fletcher acknowledged and dove into the water.
Seeing that nothing particularly dangerous had occurred, Hikaru looked puzzled. "Is this really what you were so worried about?"
Lexington nodded. "I'm afraid we're already too late. If I'd been better at anti-submarine detection, I might've noticed this last month."
California tilted her head, confused. "Too late? For what?"
Tirpitz, at some point, had silently put away her manga and was staring into the distance with a grim expression. Black stormclouds loomed across the horizon.
"The Abyssal main force may have nearly completed their redeployment and resupply. A storm is coming."
…
Fletcher hauled up what looked like the broken remains of a massive mechanical whale. The thing was over thirty meters long—though clearly lifeless now.
Despite its intimidating appearance, this steel whale was actually a non-combatant used purely for transporting supplies. It was the companion beast of a five-star rarity Abyssal transport ship-type shipgirl.
These Abyssal transport shipgirls were technically support vessels, with almost no combat capability. By level, they were all stuck at one. But their intelligence and rank were extremely high.
Unfortunately, this one had already been destroyed by Fletcher and had dissolved into foam. Otherwise, they might have been able to loot some extra gear from her.
What remained was just the whale—and what it carried in its mouth.
And it was a lot of resources. Enough to fill the entire hollow interior of the massive beast.
California nudged Hikaru in the ribs. "Commander, if I remember right, capturing one of these transport ships gets you a first-class commendation."
Hikaru waved her off. "Let me deal with the loot first."
Abyssal shipgirls needed supplies too. One method was slow auto-replenishment while stationed in the Black Sea. The other, used by elite units, involved direct shipments of massive resource caches—like this one.
Hikaru swam into the whale's mouth and stood before a veritable mountain of supplies, absorbing them like a glutton. As the materials poured in, various dormitory functions unlocked one after another.
10++ resources — Bathhouse module unlocked.
20++ — Dormitory unlocked.
30++ — Additional structures unlocked, including warehouse and gallery. Hikaru had expected these to require way more resources.
The final module—the in-game marketplace—was the priciest of all.
100++ resources!
But with the whale's cargo, Hikaru was loaded and fearless.
The mountain of resources surged into his body like flowing light: 30++, 70++, 90++, 100++.
Marketplace module unlocked!
[Main Quest: Materialize Naval Base – Completed]
Fully materialize your naval base to unlock future construction tasks (minimum area: 4 km²)
[Side Quest Triggered: The Wonders of Nature]
Spend resources to create a unique, growable, personal floating island.
Stage 1: 4 km² base island with editable shape, basic flora/fauna, and mineral traits.
Current required resources:
0/100k, 0/100k, 0/100k, 0/100k
Hikaru gasped.
The future building projects were probably parks, farms, maybe even amusement facilities. But this side quest, "The Wonders of Nature", was something else entirely—creating an island from nothing, customizing the terrain, flora, and fauna… practically divine-level power.
A floating island marked as uniquely his, 4 square kilometers large—6,000 acres—for just 100++ resources? That would cost 100 million in market price, or 50 million at Academy internal rates. At that price, how could anyone not buy?
Hikaru had only one thought: buy it all.
The whale still had around 20++ resources left. Hikaru absorbed everything without hesitation. Notably, a large portion was aluminum—suggesting the Abyssal fleet this transport was supplying likely had many carriers or light carriers.
After looting the rest, he'd already completed about one-fifth of the first stage of The Wonders of Nature. Progress was fast.
One Abyssal transport ship, one steel whale—and Hikaru had just pocketed 150++ resources.
That was like finding 1.5 billion yen lying around.
It felt amazing.
(End of Chapter)
[+50 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]