Nuo Xia and Tao Tu wandered around the 329 branch base for a long time, and it wasn't until it got late that they set out on their way back.
The cold wind howled, and snowflakes began to fall in the sky again.
"It's so cold."
Little Rabbit rubbed his hands, breathed hot air into his palms, tilted his head to look at Nuo Xia's neck, rolled his eyes, and suddenly inserted his hands into Nuo Xia's clothes through the gap in his collar.
"..."
A cold feeling came from behind. Nuo Xia shivered and turned to look at Taotu speechlessly. "It's very cold, Brigadier. You can keep warm if you want, but can you not stick it in through my neck?"
"Who told you to be shorter than me?"
Taotu raised the tip of her nose and snorted softly, "The closest thing to my hand is your neck, and it doesn't affect your walking. I think it's pretty good."
Nuo Xia fell into silence for a moment.
"...Brigadier General, originally my neck was only covered with ice, but when you said this, my whole heart became frozen."
"Then hurry up and grow taller, kid."
hateful!
Am I not growing up fast enough?
Obviously I'm almost 2.6 meters now, and I'm only a little shorter than you!
Huh, after half a year, and at most another half year, his height will definitely exceed three meters. Then he will want to see who can humiliate him in terms of height!
When they returned to the base, the soldiers of the 1st branch of Xihai were helping their comrades from the 329th branch to repair the walls of the fortress. Everyone was busy and looked like a big construction site.
Dingchun seemed to have been napping on the warship for a long time. He was so idle that he also acted as a porter. He could carry two to three hundred kilograms of bricks at a time with ease.
This caused the navy soldiers around to marvel at this amazingly powerful big dog.
"Going to have dinner?" Nuo Xia shook his head with a smile and looked at Taotu behind him.
With pets doing the work for him, he didn't bother to participate in the repair work himself. He wasn't Garp, so he really didn't know anything about this kind of thing.
"Let's go."
Taotu was finally willing to withdraw her hands from the back of Nuo Xia's neck. The two rabbit paws had become warm, and she stretched out comfortably:
"Although I'm not very hungry yet, well...it feels good to have someone help me with the work instead of me having to do it myself."
"Then let's divide the work." Nuo Xia shrugged, "From now on, you will be in charge and I will be in charge. I will leave the government affairs to you, and I will be responsible for the hard work of hunting down pirates.
"
Peach Rabbit looked at him with a half-smile.
"Ah, then all the credit will go to you. In less than a year, you will officially be on top of me, and you won't have to look at my face to act?"
"... Damn it, have you actually been seen through? You are indeed a brigadier general!"
The two of them laughed and walked towards the restaurant. Just after they turned the corner, a young navy man hurried over and was caught off guard, bumping into Nuo Xia's arms.
Boom!
The young sailor felt as if he had hit a steel plate, and his face was in great pain. He fell to the ground, covering his red and swollen nose, and tears were about to flow out, but he still took the initiative to apologize immediately:
"I'm sorry! I ran too fast and didn't notice... Huh?!"
Halfway through the words, he raised his head and saw Nuo Xia's face clearly, and couldn't help showing a look of surprise and surprise, "Mr. Nuo Xia! How...why is it you!"
"Long time no see, Penn."
Looking at the familiar little brat in front of him, Nuo Xia was slightly startled at first, then smiled apologetically, stretched out a hand to pull him up, "I am the one who should say I'm sorry, does it hurt?"
"I'm fine, sir!"
tPenn stood up straight, patted the dust on his body, his face was filled with uncontrollable joy:
"You don't know how desperate we were when we were besieged by pirates. When you came to rescue me, I was so surprised when I recognized you..."
"After the battle just now, I wanted to come see you, but I couldn't find you anywhere. I asked the commander of the first branch and said that you had gone out and didn't know when you would come back. I didn't expect to bump into you here..."
He rambled on for a long time, but Nuo Xia didn't feel bored and listened and waited with a smile.
It wasn't until Peng En saw Taotu looking at him curiously next to him that he suddenly reacted, stood up straight, and gave the two of them a military salute:
"Sorry, Major General Gion, I...I was so excited that I didn't notice..."
"It's okay, I forgive you for her." Nuo Xia smiled and patted his shoulder, saying happily, "I haven't seen you for more than half a year, Penn, you have grown a lot."
"Who is this kid?"
Peach Rabbit asked from the side.
"T Penn, when I failed to make it to the actual combat assessment, he sent me off overnight by sailing."
Nuo Xia shrugged and teased: "At that time, this boy was shy and timid, but now look at how confident and sunny his temperament is, and he has almost turned into a talkative..."
"Hehe, I think it has indeed changed a lot."
Penn scratched his head in embarrassment, "This is all thanks to your encouragement, Major General."
"I'm not that capable, it's up to you."
Nuo Xia laughed and shook his head. He glanced at Penn's epaulettes and was a little surprised. "You were promoted very quickly. You are already a lieutenant?"
Although the military rank of the Sihai branch was not as valuable as that of the main branch, he remembered that more than half a year ago, Peng En was just an ordinary soldier who was not even a sergeant.
This promotion speed is almost catching up with myself.
"Participated in several battles and made some achievements..."
Peng En smiled innocently and scratched his head. Suddenly he seemed to remember something. He was about to speak, but when he saw people walking around him, he hesitated a little:
"Major General, I want to tell you something, but it's a bit inconvenient here..."
Nuo Xia's heart moved when she saw the way he hesitated to speak.
"Follow me."
He winked at Taotu, who understood and left first to wait in the restaurant.
Nuo Xia took Penn all the way out of the base gate and came to a remote and uninhabited reef on the seaside.
"Tell me, what do you want to tell me?"
he asked softly.
"It's about Colonel Bacco, sir." Penn said, "You should know that in the past six months, he has made many military exploits, and even personally defeated several pirates with a bounty of 30 to 40 million beli, right?"
"Well, I heard what Gion said." Noxia nodded slightly, "The headquarters has passed the resolution for his promotion. It won't be long before he will be promoted to three levels in a row..."
"Promoted to three levels in a row? There is definitely something wrong with his record, sir!" Penn was shocked, "We must not let him get promoted just like that!"
"Is there really a problem..."
Nuo Xia frowned slightly. He had doubts before, but he was not surprised at the moment. He stared into the young man's eyes and said:
"Did you see something, Penn?"
"I haven't seen it with my own eyes, but sir, I have followed Bacco on several expeditions, and there are too many doubts!"
Penn said: "In the few battles I participated in, every time when he was approaching the place, he would take the first step and go there alone on a speedboat. By the time we followed, the battle was over."
"Others thought that Bacco was the one who took the lead and respected him. I was the only one who felt something was wrong. He never had the courage before! Moreover, none of the pirate leaders he defeated survived. This is really weird, sir.
!”
"in addition."
Penn racked his brains to think about it, and then said, "Another time, at noon, I felt that the room was stuffy, so I simply climbed into the watchtower to sleep. When I woke up, I saw him in the distance.
Stern, talking to others using a phone bug. That phone bug is encrypted. I have never seen him use it before..."
“Encrypted phone bug?”
Nuo Xia narrowed his eyes and sneered, "Small branches all over the world, this kind of thing is not common. Even if you have military information to report to your superiors, you don't need this kind of phone bug... Did you hear anything at that time?"
"No, sir, he was still very cautious at the time. He stayed close to the microphone and his voice was very low. I couldn't hear him clearly at all."
Is this so?
That means there is still no actual evidence.
Nuo Xia pinched his chin and shook his head again. The information provided by Penn was very important and it confirmed his conjecture. As for evidence, was he necessary?
He opened the system backpack, glanced at the "Lying Spray" inside, and fell into deep thought.
Since you suspect that there is something fishy about Colonel Bacco's record, should you just turn your tables today, go and take down this guy, and use the lying spray to force the truth out of this guy's mouth?
It seems a bit unnecessary.
It's easy to scare off the enemy, and there is a slight possibility that I have misunderstood Bacco, which will be embarrassing then.
He thought about it for a while and came up with a more solid plan.
"Keep an eye on him, Penn. There is basically something wrong with this guy."
Nosha left Penn his phone number and asked him to keep an eye on Colonel Bacco and notify him as soon as possible the next time he goes out to sea to hunt down pirates.
There's no point in asking now.
What he wants is to catch the bag on the spot and get both the person and the stolen goods!
————
That night.
After dinner, the warship of the First West Sea Branch left the dock and returned to the base amid the farewell of everyone from the 329th Branch.
The two major generals and the branch's main fleet are outside, and the base's defenses are empty. Since the battle has been resolved, there is no need to stay outside for a long time.
Nuo Xia went directly to Peach Rabbit's room and told Peach Rabbit all about his suspicions about Colonel Bacco, the information provided by Penn, and his next response plan.
"Suddenly you have become more stable, young man."
Little Rabbit leaned lazily on the bedside and said with a smile, "I thought with your style, you would just turn your back on the spot, catch Bacco out, and torture him to the ground."
"Mainly because I'm a little curious and want to see in person how he does it."
Nuo Xia spread his hands and said nonchalantly, "Anyway, the first branch is not far from here. No matter what happens, I can rush to the scene within a day."
"And then it's time for you to show off again?"
Taotu rolled her eyes at him, "Today you took all the limelight. I worked hard to establish my prestige for a month, but you suddenly overtaken me. Tell me, how should I settle the score with you?"
Of course Nuo Xia understood what she meant.
He sighed sadly, leaned back, and lay on Peach Rabbit's round and slender white legs:
"You can come however you want."
————
The next morning.
Nuo Xia went out feeling refreshed. After a simple breakfast, she went straight to the training room.
There were still several hours before arriving at the base, and he didn't want to waste this precious morning training time.
Although I worked out hard all night last night and didn't sleep a wink.
After entering the training room, Nuo Xia first opened the system panel and checked his latest basic attributes for the first time in a long time:
【Name: Romanov Norsha(romanov·norsha)】
[Age: 19 years old]
[Strength: 27 (200,000 points/point at the current stage)]
[Talent skills: toothy smile, rough skin and flesh (intermediate level), steel head (intermediate level), rebirth of severed limbs, amphibious breathing]
[Currently equipped: Light Boots, Armor of Thorns]
…………
Strength and endurance each improved a little during this period.
The hard work is not in vain.
The points had been saved for a long time but had not been used. Nuo Xia thought for a while and spent 100,000 points directly, clicking on the "+" symbol after the agility attribute, raising the agility to 27 points.
The points required to add points have also been doubled, reaching an exaggerated 200,000 points per point.
There is no need to continue to add points. Nuo Xia, who is used to planning for rainy days, does not intend to empty out his savings and leave enough points to avoid being unable to buy the products he likes in the prop mall. This is a good habit he has developed.
"Um?"
Nuo Xia was about to close the property panel and start practicing, when he suddenly noticed that a message like this had appeared in the information column:
[The new side mission "Rescue the Girl" has been triggered, please check it in the task bar]
Are there any new side quests?
Nuo Xia's spirit suddenly lifted. The previous task of getting married was too far away to be completed, and it was not possible for the time being. If you want to earn more points quickly, you still have to rely on other side tasks!
He immediately opened the taskbar in the lower right corner and checked.
"Side mission name: Save the girl"
"There is no doubt that in this world where pirates are wreaking havoc and the Celestial Dragons are at the top, there are too many ordinary people who will suffer unimaginable suffering. You may not be able to save everyone for the time being, but you can ultimately do your best.
part of the effort"
"Mission content: Rescue three important girl characters who appeared in the original work, and let them establish a father-like and brother-like attachment to you."
"Every time a girl is rescued, it will be regarded as completing a stage, and the task reward of that stage will be obtained."
"After the third phase is completed, you will receive additional massive rewards."
"Task basic reward: 200,000 points per stage, random attribute point*1"
"Additional rewards: After completing the third stage, you will receive an additional 300,000 points, random attribute points*3, and S-level gift box*1"
————————
ps: Seeing that some readers have doubts, let me explain it here.
In the original comic book, Robin's aunt's family went on a family trip to celebrate her eight-year-old cousin's birthday during the Demon-Slaying Order. They were not in O'Hara and survived. However, Oda did not explain what happened next.
"Robin has relatives" is not a setting imposed by me. I hope everyone knows.