Königsberg was staring fixedly at Illustrious because Illustrious was the first person in the crowd to start laughing at her. In Königsberg's eyes, Illustrious was already a dead woman! A mere Gold-Plated Ship Girl dared to mock a great Five-Star Epic Ship Girl like her; she was simply tired of living!
However, even so, she couldn't kill Illustrious on the spot. After all, Königsberg was a Ship Girl with an Admiral, unlike Taihou, who was a Free Ship Girl and could do as she pleased without restraint.
If she couldn't do it openly, she'd do it secretly! Once she entered the ruins, she'd find an opportunity to finish off Illustrious! Königsberg thought darkly.
Königsberg turned her head and shouted at Dido, "Hey! I've said it! Why haven't you retracted this Death Qi yet?"
"Ah! Sorry! I saw you glaring at Illustrious with such focus, so I followed your gaze. Hmm! They really are big, but compared to mine, mine are still bigger." Dido put her hands on her hips and puffed out her chest, speaking proudly.
"It doesn't matter whose is bigger! Hurry up and retract this damn Death Qi." Königsberg was so angry she could spit blood. Is being big that impressive? I'm big too!
Königsberg looked down and found her own chest was only a B-cup. She looked at Dido's chest, then at Illustrious's chest, and immediately felt discouraged. But then she snapped her head up. Hmph! These 'chest-people' are truly cursed, especially that Illustrious.
Königsberg added another reason to kill Illustrious: You deserve to die for having a big chest!
Dido retracted the sky-covering Death Qi. The sky that was shrouded in black gas suddenly became clear. Seeing Königsberg's angry face, she smiled and said, "I won. I apologize for the offense earlier; I hope you won't take it to heart."
"Hmph!" Königsberg snorted and didn't reply to Dido, slowly walking back into the crowd.
"Hee hee hee!" Dido laughed softly and awkwardly. It seemed she had really riled her up; she only hoped she would follow orders in the ruins.
She suddenly gripped her greatsword and thrust it forcefully into the ground, shouting to the crowd, "Alright, who else wants to come up and compete for the position of Raid Team Captain? If no one else comes up, I'll be taking this captaincy for myself!"
People in the crowd looked at each other, but no one went up to fight Dido. The Admirals all thought: Big sister, don't joke around. You are a Five-Star Epic Ship Girl, and there aren't many Epic Ship Girls here. Königsberg was just defeated, and now there's only one other Five-Star Epic Ship Girl here, and that's Soryu.
All the Admirals looked at Soryu, as if asking why she wasn't going up.
Being watched by so many people, Soryu had no choice but to speak up, "I just fought that senior earlier, and my consumption was quite high. Even if I went up, it would just be asking for humiliation."
Hearing about Soryu's condition, everyone indeed felt it wasn't strange. After all, you couldn't expect someone to fight in a weakened state.
"Oh! I see. That's a pity. I thought I'd get to see a battle between two Five-Star Epic Ship Girls."
"Soryu is also a Five-Star Epic Ship Girl. I wonder if she would be even more powerful than Dido at full strength?"
"I think she's much more powerful than Dido. You have to realize she's a Five-Star Epic Ship Girl who has fought against a Legendary Ship Girl!"
Sōryū smiled and didn't answer. Although she had fought against the Legendary Ship Girl Taihou, Taihou had remained calm and hadn't moved a step while beating her until she was out of breath.
Sōryū's previous claim of being too exhausted was just nonsense. Her goal was to prevent others from knowing she couldn't defeat Dido, because Dido's abilities were too terrifying; she didn't want to try them!
"Alright! Since no one is coming up, from now on, I am the captain of your Raid Team! You don't have any objections, do you?" Dido happily announced her appointment as captain after seeing that no one else had stepped forward for a long time.
"No objections, long live Captain Dido."
"I hope Captain Dido can lead us to clear the Azure Island."
"With Captain Dido, we'll definitely gain a lot of opportunities this time!"
The crowd was overjoyed. After all, having a Five-Star Epic Ship Girl lead the raid was much safer than having their own Ship Girls explore alone.
"Hmph! What's so great about that?" Seeing Dido so majestic and gaining everyone's trust, Königsberg immediately became jealous and snorted.
"Thank you, everyone. Thank you for your support. Since I am the captain, you must follow my commands. You must not disobey my orders, and you certainly must not leave the team to act on your own. Otherwise, you will be dealt with according to military law. Do you hear me?" Dido started with a smile of gratitude, but her expression quickly turned serious.
"As it should be, as it should be. Anyone who doesn't follow Captain Dido's correct orders deserves to die!"
"Exactly! My Ship Girl is very obedient and won't disobey Captain Dido's orders."
"With Captain Dido's command, we will surely win from the start! Isn't that right, everyone?"
Hearing that they had to follow Dido's orders, no one in the crowd had any objections and they all agreed.
"Since everyone trusts me so much, I naturally won't let you down. We will now enter the gate of the ruins." Dido pointed at the ruins gate and led everyone toward it.
Upon reaching the gate, Dido raised her right hand to signal everyone to stop. Seeing the gesture, everyone halted beneath the ruins gate. She looked at the various patterns on the gate and felt a bit troubled. How was she supposed to open this? She didn't know anything about Mechanics!
Helpless, she turned around and shouted to the crowd, "The mechanism for this gate requires a knowledgeable Mechanics Master to open. Who among us is proficient in Mechanics? Step forward and open the gate!"
Seeing people in the crowd looking at each other without anyone stepping forward, Dido felt an even bigger headache. If they couldn't even open the door, what was the point of a raid? "Is there really no one here who knows Mechanics?"
Seeing the crowd still not responding, Dido immediately criticized them with disappointment, "Isn't it taught at the Admiral Academy and the Ship Girl Academy? Did no one bother to learn it?"
They lowered their heads in embarrassment at Dido's criticism, but it wasn't entirely their fault! The elective subject of Mechanics required a vast amount of resources and materials just to access and study. With that many resources, it was much more satisfying to just do a few heavy constructions!
Moreover, Mechanics was far more complex than tactical command. Combined with how dull and tedious it was, few people could understand it, let alone persevere.
As a result, not a single person stepped forward to claim they were a Mechanics Master to solve the door-opening problem for Dido.
Dido sighed, "If there's no one, I suggest we all go home and go to bed! If we can't even open the ruins gate, dreaming about clearing it is just a pipe dream."
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