Chapter 132 – Nature’s Masterstroke

Glowworm pouted and stirred the sea with her hand, sending up a spray of water.

The next moment, bubbles began to gurgle up from beneath the surface.

Glowworm blinked in confusion. "Huh? I didn't do anything… why's the ocean boiling?"

Lexington quickly pulled her into the air. "The water's not boiling—something down there is about to emerge."

As Glowworm looked out, she saw that the bubbling was happening across an area several kilometers wide. Her eyes widened like saucers.

"Commander is amazing!"

"There's something even more amazing than this."

Hikaru gave a light chuckle. He raised his hand and called out, "Rise!"

With a rumble, an island surged out from the depths of the sea, bobbing and swaying on the dark waves.

It was a floating island.

Tirpitz gaped. "Commander, did you just conjure that out of thin air?"

"Yup," Hikaru said, resting his hands on his hips. "Too bad it didn't turn out exactly the way I wanted."

Lexington hid her surprise behind a playful scolding. "It's already far beyond what we imagined."

The island, of course, came from Hikaru's earlier quest reward, a special, growable island. The first phase created a four-square-kilometer island, and Hikaru had planned to evolve it further, but under the circumstances, he had to manifest it early.

Even so, four square kilometers was already massive. And since it was a floating island, it meant the base could travel through the sea like a mobile carrier.

Hikaru sized up the landmass before him.

A perfect square of two kilometers per side didn't appeal to his sense of aesthetics, so he edited it into a circle with a 1.1 km diameter.

Now it was a perfectly round, clean island—bald and featureless.

"Too ugly," Tirpitz said critically. "It's just a bald patch of rock. Not even a blade of grass."

"I like it bald," Hikaru joked with a mischievous grin. "Kidding. Actually, I left it bare because we're about to build a base here. A super awesome one."

"You mean to tell me building a base could be more amazing than summoning an island?" Tirpitz looked skeptical. "Come on, even if you conjure a full-on naval district, I wouldn't be that shocked."

Hikaru raised an eyebrow. "What if I conjured our naval district?"

"Our naval district is already ours… what are you even—" Tirpitz trailed off, eyes widening as realization hit. She pointed at him but couldn't get the words out.

Lexington gasped. "You're not saying—you're going to bring our old base here?"

Hikaru nodded. "Exactly."

"Oh my god, I can't believe it!" Lexington clung to his arm and shook him excitedly. "Hurry, Commander, hurry! I can't wait!"

"Then stop shaking me. I'm trying to focus."

Lexington clamped her hands over her mouth, putting on her best obedient expression.

Satisfied, Hikaru nodded and began planning the layout.

He had already completed the [Main Mission: Manifest the Naval District], and could now bring the entire base into the real world.

The system broke it down into modular components: Commander's Office, Dining Hall, Academy, Bathhouse, Dormitory, Auxiliary Buildings, and Marketplace.

Except for the Marketplace, which existed only in his mind, Hikaru had to decide where to place everything else.

Naturally, he began with the Commander's Office.

With a silent command, he stretched out his hand toward the center of the island.

A stream of light shot from his fingertip, streaked through the air like a falling star, and landed at the heart of the island. In an instant, a three-story building erupted from the earth.

It was a Western-style structure—Hikaru thought it looked Mediterranean or Spanish. White walls, red tiles, neat and romantic.

California threw her arms around Glowworm and nuzzled her furiously to hide her own shock. Even so, she couldn't hold back a gasp.

Glowworm, unusually compliant, didn't even struggle. Just seeing their old base rise up again made her heart pound with joy—she didn't have the energy to care about California right now.

And Hikaru's miracle wasn't finished yet.

From the [Auxiliary Buildings] category, he placed a plaza directly in front of the Commander's Office.

To its left, on the plaza's edge, stood the dining hall—this one in a distinctly Chinese architectural style. Many people had worked as head chefs there over time: Yat Sen from China, big sister Lexington, even the tiny submarine Albacore had taken a turn in the kitchen.

Only the girls from the British faction, it seemed, had never been considered for the role of chef.

[End of Chapter]

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