The pink-haired dragon girl, with her dark yellow eyes locked on Lin Lan, gave him a sweet smile.
Then, her figure… simply vanished from his sight.
Lin Lan was momentarily stunned, his eyes wide open in shock.
Wait, ship girls can teleport?
But when he looked down and saw that the spot on the road where Rupprecht had just been standing had already developed several cracks, he quickly realized.
Oh, she's just so powerful that she moves too fast to be seen...
But still, that's shocking!
Lin Lan had long known that none of his research ship girls were weak—whether it was Mainz, Odin, Elbe, or Roon, they were all extraordinarily powerful.
But he never expected that this seemingly playful and arrogant girl would have reached such an exaggerated level of power, almost like a "saint in flesh"!
He hurriedly looked around, hoping no one had witnessed this bizarre scene.
Fortunately, even though they were in the county's inner district, Lihu County was still a suburban county, and this area was on the edge of the road with no pedestrians or cameras around.
The blocked vehicles had already reversed and left, so the road was now empty except for him.
The surrounding buildings were either tall or distant, so even if someone looked over this way, they would likely only see the mech units and not him and Rupprecht.
"Boom!"
A sudden explosion drew Lin Lan's attention to the direction of the Battleaxe Military Industries' troops.
The shocking scene before him made Lin Lan gasp.
In just a few moments of distraction, three tall mechs had been sliced in half cleanly and fell to the ground with violent explosions.
"What's happening? Enemy attack!"
Only then did the soldiers of Battleaxe Military Industries realize they were under attack, but they couldn't even see where the enemy was coming from.
"Boom!" "Boom!"
As they looked around in confusion, mechs were being sliced in half one after another.
To the soldiers, the supposedly impregnable mech armor seemed as soft as cake, easily cut by invisible blades with a single strike.
The terrifying attacks left all the Battleaxe Military Industries personnel stunned; they even forgot to run.
"What's attacking us?"
"Damn it, run! There's a monster… a monster…"
The soldiers on motorcycles, when they finally realized they needed to escape, had already been cut in half just like the mechs.
Without releasing her ship equipment, the dragon girl had destroyed all the mechs in less than thirty seconds and began mercilessly harvesting the lives of the Battleaxe Military Industries soldiers.
Even as the last screaming soldier fled, he was cut down by the scissors. The pink-haired girl with the large scissors appeared in front of Lin Lan with a relaxed smile.
Blood from the scissor's handle had dripped to the blade's edge, where it was evaporated by the orange dragon flames with a hissing sound.
Rupprecht seemed completely unconcerned about the recent slaughter; she waved her hand, making the scissors disappear into the air.
Like dusting off her hands, the pink-haired dragon girl proudly puffed out her chest, eagerly awaiting praise from Lin Lan.
Witnessing this girl who had ruthlessly taken dozens of lives, any normal person would be filled with fear.
But Lin Lan smiled and gently stroked Rupprecht's cheek.
Feeling the warmth and smoothness of the girl's face and watching her happily snuggle into his embrace, Lin Lan knew clearly that the true perpetrator behind the soldiers' deaths was not Rupprecht but himself.
The ship girls were merely weapons; only the wielder of the weapons was the true killer.
However, Lin Lan had never considered his girls as mere weapons.
He would never fear the ship girls who slaughtered to complete the tasks he assigned.
"Good job, Rupprecht. Let's go find the other unit and try to wrap everything up before dark."
Lin Lan praised the happy pink-haired girl generously, realizing he had revised his understanding of the research ships' strength.
Previously, in games, the strength of research ships was mostly highlighted during combat when deploying ship equipment.
Now, it was clear from multiple perspectives how formidable research ships could be.
"Hmm, I feel like your praise is a bit insincere. Are you just giving me lip service?"
Rupprecht pouted, looking at Lin Lan with a bit of disdain.
Caught off guard by Rupprecht's questioning, Lin Lan quickly shook his head, looking sincerely into her eyes, and said:
"How could I be insincere? I'm declaring you the MVP of this battle, my Lady Rupprecht."
After all, with Rupprecht single-handedly taking on the entire battle, who else could be the MVP?
"Hmm-hmm-hmm~ I just love the word MVP, especially when it comes from you~"
Rupprecht was easily appeased by Lin Lan's flattery and happily followed him off the road.
It wasn't until they had left for some time that people began to notice the horrifying scene and started to scream in terror.
As the sun set, its orange light bathed the streets of Lihu County's inner district.
Lin Lan held Rupprecht's small hand. Despite having just slaughtered dozens of soldiers, he found that he felt no trace of guilt.
The pink-haired dragon girl hummed a cheerful tune, skipping along with him.
For Rupprecht, the recent slaughter seemed as trivial as drinking a glass of water.
"I'm hungry. What should we have for dinner tonight?"
The girl suddenly turned to Lin Lan and asked.
Lin Lan had noticed that Rupprecht didn't seem to like calling him "Commander" and preferred to address him more affectionately as "you."
"I saw a self-service barbecue place near the hospital last time. If we have time, we could go there."
Lin Lan's suggestion made Rupprecht's eyes light up with interest.
"Barbecue? Hmm, it's been a while since I had barbecue. But what does 'self-service' mean? Can't we just eat and leave?"
"What are you thinking? Outside the port area, eating or lodging all costs money. It's not right to just take everything without paying."
Though he said this, Lin Lan couldn't help but remember that after killing so many people, they probably weren't in a position to discuss matters of morality.
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