Two hours ago.
Jian Qian'ou, a covert observer of the Tianou Group, took human form and stood with his hands behind his back on the top floor of the former Battleaxe Military Industries Building in Dongyun City—once the office of Zhu Mobo.
As soon as he learned that the city had been taken over by the Tianou Group, he used his spirit body's teleportation ability to arrive at the group's headquarters here.
Dongyun City, the shortest maritime transit hub between the Western and Eastern Continents, had long been a battleground between the Tianou Group and Battleaxe Military Industries.
However, due to Zhu Mobo's establishment of a mecha research lab and mass-production lines in the city, Battleaxe Military Industries had held control over most of its territory.
The Tianou Group's board of directors had always resented this and sought to claim the city as their own.
Now, with the assistance of the Supreme Leader, they had finally succeeded.
"Truly remarkable... I must admit, the Supreme Leader's methods are beyond impressive," Jian Qian'ou muttered, clicking his tongue as he examined the report stating that the Tianou Group had taken control without a single casualty.
He had initially expected the Supreme Leader to deploy shipgirls to destroy Battleaxe's bases and headquarters in the city, requiring Tianou Group's cooperation in a coordinated assault.
But to his astonishment, a report from the group's chief representative in Dongyun City informed him that after a thick fog engulfed the city that morning, every Battleaxe personnel and mecha had simply vanished.
The Tianou Group had taken over the city without bloodshed, without firing a single shot.
With the arrival of powerful shipgirls in the city, Jian Qian'ou could deduce—even without much thought—exactly who was responsible for this outcome.
Such an unfathomable, bloodless execution of events led him to reassess the Supreme Leader's power, elevating it to the realm of the divine.
He also felt immensely fortunate that the Tianou Group had pledged allegiance to the Supreme Leader.
When the Supreme Leader's shipgirls arrived, Jian Qian'ou had initially wanted to speak with them.
However, they seemed urgently focused on searching for something, ignoring his presence entirely.
He didn't mind and instead focused on stabilizing the city, quickly suppressing any unrest caused by the mysterious disappearance of Battleaxe personnel.
Jian Qian'ou had learned over his long life that the best course of action was not to ask unnecessary questions.
As long as he performed his duties well, the Supreme Leader would have no reason to find fault with the Tianou Group.
By afternoon, bodies of Battleaxe personnel and wrecked mechas began materializing throughout the city as if they had been transported from another world.
Under Jian Qian'ou's orders, the Tianou Group swiftly recovered the corpses and debris with professional efficiency.
Surviving Battleaxe personnel were found rambling like lunatics, babbling about traveling to an ancient battlefield and encountering the Natlan Extremists—claims that Jian Qian'ou found laughable, given his own experience in that war.
Naturally, he ordered these deranged individuals to be rounded up and thrown into the Tianou Group's prison.
The idea of "time travel to the Natlan Ancient Battlefield" was absurd.
Even if they had somehow experienced such a phenomenon, Jian Qian'ou had no intention of digging into it at the risk of offending the Supreme Leader.
The Tianou Group was now bound to the Supreme Leader's cause, and there was no need to pry into his actions.
However, amidst all these matters, the biggest headache for Jian Qian'ou was Dongyun City's Naval Base District.
As a major port city, its commander, Tang Yanxing, was a seasoned veteran of multiple wars against the Sirens and an incredibly difficult opponent to deal with.
Unlike Li Banan, the port commander of Yalang City, Tang Yanxing was completely incorruptible and unwaveringly loyal to the Navy.
The shipgirls under his command were elite veterans of the last decisive battle against the Sirens, frequently launching preemptive strikes against enemy fleets.
Tang Yanxing had already sensed something was amiss with the white fog and concluded that it was an attack orchestrated by the Tianou Group and the Sirens, prompting him to place the entire city on high alert.
Even the Tianou Group's headquarters had been surrounded and sealed off by his shipgirls.
"What a bunch of frogs in a well. Can those shipgirls really call themselves shipgirls?"
Jian Qian'ou sneered, recalling the colossal mechanical dragon ship rig he had seen at the Supreme Leader's port in Lihu County.
He also remembered the black-haired battleship shipgirl exuding an empress-like aura—an overwhelming presence.
Even if ten of Tang Yanxing's shipgirls fought together, they wouldn't stand a chance against her.
"Heh... the Navy, huh? I'd like to see how long you can keep up this act, Tang Yanxing."
Staring at the black-and-red fleet encircling Dongyun City, Jian Qian'ou let out a cold laugh as his human form gradually faded into nothingness.
He had other matters to attend to—such as ensuring that every communications network and media signal in Dongyun City was fully controlled.
With the signal towers now under Tianou Group's command, no messages could leave the city without their approval.
Jian Qian'ou knew that the Supreme Leader preferred to remain hidden, so he would ensure that everything was handled cleanly and discreetly.
…
As Jian Qian'ou headed toward the signal tower, within the Naval Base District of Dongyun City...
A lean, middle-aged man in a white naval uniform stood at the harbor, staring out at the terrifying black-and-red fleet on the horizon.
Jian Qian'ou wasn't wrong—Tang Yanxing was indeed unwaveringly loyal to the Navy, impervious to bribes or coercion from corporate conglomerates.
He held nothing but contempt for Yalang City's commander, Li Banan, and despised the exploitative nature of the commercial syndicates.
To him, the Tianou Group, with its ruthless pursuit of profit, and Battleaxe Military Industries, which openly disregard human life, were equally reprehensible.
He had witnessed the dense white fog that blanketed Dongyun City that morning—technology unmistakably belonging to the Sirens.
Then, in the afternoon, the Tianou Group swiftly occupied all of Battleaxe's former facilities and territories, raising immediate suspicions.
To Tang Yanxing, this reeked of a conspiracy between the Tianou Group and the Sirens.
He wasted no time dispatching his shipgirls to patrol the waters, surrounding the Tianou Group's headquarters while attempting to contact the Navy.
But just moments ago, his shipgirls had reported that the entire coastline of Dongyun City had been sealed off by an overwhelming fleet.
His heart nearly stopped—he thought it was a full-scale Siren invasion.
However, when he rushed to the harbor to see for himself, he froze in shock.
The terrifying black-and-red fleet before him was not an enemy.
During the desperate last stand against the Sirens, when the Navy had braced for a do-or-die battle, it was this very fleet of mysterious shipgirls that had appeared out of nowhere to annihilate the Sirens and save them.
After that battle, the Western Continent's Navy had signed a treaty with this enigmatic faction, a fact Tang Yanxing was well aware of as a major port commander.
In theory, they were allies.
But why had they suddenly appeared in Dongyun City, blockading the entire harbor?
And why did this mysterious faction possess such an overwhelming fleet of black-and-red warships?
Old warships like these were supposed to be obsolete against the Sirens, completely replaced by shipgirls.
Yet, for this faction to deploy so many of them so casually meant they held the Sirens in complete disregard.
What kind of power was this?
As Tang Yanxing reeled from the sight of the Ironblood mass-production fleet, his pupils contracted sharply.
A group of shipgirls was approaching from the sea—
Among them, he saw a tall, blonde figure clad in a black military uniform, gripping a black-and-red cross flag, and wearing a black officer's cap.
Tang Yanxing had seen her before—on that battlefield of despair, leading the charge against the Sirens, tearing through enemy lines like an emperor of war.
There was no mistake—this shipgirl was the flagship of the black-and-red fleet!
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