To an outsider, it might look like these ships were being sent to their deaths, but Hikaru could understand the deployment. A defensive war was a war to protect the homeland—if they lost, coastal towns would be the first to suffer. Shipyards and ports would be wiped out. In times like these, no one cared about suitability. If you could contribute even a little, you were going to be deployed.
Hikaru's group, along with Yamato and some personnel from the Windridge shipgirl division, boarded a small boat, passed inspection, and climbed up the gangway onto the Silent Horizon. The ship had already been converted into a forward command post and was now the center of operations for the Southern Seas war zone. The officers on board wore stiff, tight expressions, running to and fro under a heavy atmosphere of urgency.
"Wait here for a while," said Yamato, turning and heading off in the direction of what was presumably the command room.
Hikaru wasn't familiar with the layout, and everyone passing by had that unmistakable do not disturb face. He gave up trying to figure things out and simply turned to look at the sea.
They had arrived in the late evening, but tonight there were no colorful sunsets to enjoy. Looking out toward the southeast, Hikaru saw the horizon blanketed in thick black storm clouds, with occasional flickers of lightning and the distant rumble of thunder.
Wherever an Abyssal flagship appeared, a storm usually followed. In naval legend, those storms were seen like death omens—feared and hated.
Underneath that roiling storm front was likely the Abyssal Barbarossa—and her Abyssal fleet.
Hikaru hadn't received further intelligence, but based on what he could deduce, the Abyssals had deployed over a million troops to the Southern Seas war zone—and reinforcements were still pouring in.
On China's side, there wasn't much to spare. The total number of shipgirls deployed to the Southern front might be around seventy or eighty thousand—but not much more.
However, they had one major advantage: the average level of Chinese shipgirls was over 70 or 80. They were elite.
The Silent Horizon was filled with admirals and shipgirls. There weren't any weaklings among them—Hikaru barely saw anyone wearing just a Captain insignia; most were of a higher rank. It was a place where high-rank officers were a dime a dozen.
As for the shipgirls, all of them were seasoned and highly trained. The ship was packed with capital ships. Even with Tirpitz and Lexington among them, they didn't stand out at all.
Generally, shipgirl leveling had three main bottlenecks: Level 79, 89, and 99. Each was a threshold, and breaking through meant entering an entirely new realm.
To put it in game terms: going from level 1 to 80 required about 400,000 experience points. Level 80 to 90 needed another 300,000, and 90 to 100 took roughly 500,000.
In real life, raising a shipgirl to level 79 could take four to five years at best—or up to ten years depending on how many battles she fought and the quality of the enemies.
Still, an admiral who had even one shipgirl over level 80 could be called elite. Having a shipgirl over level 90 made you a giant. And if your shipgirl broke through to the full level 100 cap, then you were qualified to chat as an equal with the heads of the Shipgirl Headquarters or the commanders of entire national navies.
Kamizawa Masaki was called a legend not just because he was eccentric—but because he had raised Wilhelmina to full level 100. Even a relatively weak destroyer like her, at max level, was something to be proud of.
In contrast, Hikaru—who almost certainly had more than one max-level capital ship—naturally attracted the attention of military bigwigs and Shipgirl HQ. A person like him, if properly recruited, could become a pillar of the nation.
"My gut tells me something's off," Hikaru murmured, staring into the ominous clouds.
Lexington blinked at him. "We've already got that, and our level advantage is practically cheating. You really don't need to worry."
She kept her tone vague—others were nearby, after all.
Tirpitz, Lexington, and Fletcher were all at level 110—an entire tier above even Yamato, one of the strongest shipgirls in the world. In light novel terms, Yamato was the peak of the acquired stage. They were innately transcendent.
And beyond that, Hikaru had given them all a lifesaving trump card.
(End of Chapter)
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