Revisit Azur Lane

However, he could replenish the carrier-based aircraft simply by using the replenishment vouchers in the system's dock. It's just that—normally, the carrier-based aircraft of ship girls should be more technologically advanced than those of normal aircraft carriers, but it seems that technological advancement is not taken into account in the system's judgment. When the two aircraft carriers 0102 replenished their aircraft, they consumed five times the replenishment vouchers compared to the Shokaku and the others. The Shokaku and the others needed about 5 replenishment vouchers to empty half of their carrier-based aircraft, while 01 needed nearly 25. That's the life of twenty-five Sirens!

He felt the cost-effectiveness was too poor, so he didn't provide a full resupply to the two aircraft carriers for the time being, and decided to resupply them later when they were needed.

"Compared to this, how's your research in that area going?"

Leaving aside the topic of aircraft carrier resupply, Zhou He found an empty spot on the table, rested one hand on it, and asked Ling Min in a mysterious tone, so much so that Hermione, who had followed him, looked on with suspicion and listened intently.

"Ha! Commander, you can rest assured. Akashi and I have already made progress on that matter, and we will soon be able to enter the testing phase."

Lingmin was also very shrewd. She leaned close to Zhou He and deliberately lowered her voice. Her long, golden hair, styled into a ponytail, swayed in front of Zhou He, giving him an urge to grab and touch it. He suppressed it and smiled, "You guys were right after all."

"Of course, this little problem is a piece of cake."

With her sharp eyes half-closed, she glanced at Zhou He: "If you have any needs in the future, Commander, just let me know, and I guarantee I'll fulfill them."

"Lingmin, Commander, what are you talking about, meow? Lingmin, can you help me control the mechanical arm, meow? First, separate that 'person' from inside, meow."

Akashi spent half a day studying the Builder alone, but eventually ran out of energy and couldn't handle it without help. He came back and interrupted Zhou He's funny interaction, pointing at the Builder's body and saying.

"This guy is made of top-quality materials. The data stored in his ship equipment is yours, and the rest is mine. Is that alright?"

Lingmin glanced at it, but did not agree immediately. Instead, she discussed it with Akashi.

Akashi shook her head, her tone and expression serious: "I also need the materials and weaponry from her mecha for research, meow. Give me the data, and then we'll split the whole thing in half, one for each of us, meow."

"make a deal!"

Lingmin agreed. She gave Zhou He a "watch closely" look and then followed Ming Shi to tinker with the Builder's body. Zhou He took the opportunity to pick up Lingmin's notebook and flip through it to see what designs were available. However, when he opened it, he was met with a face full of Northern Alliance characters. The handwriting was very beautiful, but he couldn't understand a single word. He leaned back tactically, silently closed the notebook, and put it back in its place.

"Commander? What research were you referring to in your conversation just now?"

Seeing Zhou He enthusiastically fiddling with the mechanical objects on the sensitive table, Hermione hesitated for a moment before approaching and asking in a low voice.

Based on rational thinking, she understood that Zhou He's research was definitely not dangerous, but she couldn't help being curious to know.

"It is a semi-automated target acquisition and interception system designed for land-based armed forces."

Zhou He picked up a 20-centimeter-long black cylindrical lever, held it in the middle and shook it, then smiled and answered Hermione: "Initially, my idea was to rely on land-based armed forces to make up for our lack of manpower. I never expected that the Sirens wouldn't be able to find our port area at all. However, this technology can be used later to produce land-based armed forces to help guard against Sirens' invasion after the establishment of a second port area, so I did not stop."

"I see, I was presumptuous."

Hermione suddenly realized that she knew about the research project—but given Zhou He's mysterious demeanor, she really couldn't have guessed that it was this project.

Facing Hermione, whose cheeks were slightly puffed out and who hadn't even realized she was sulking, Zhou He thought for a moment, put down the little gadget in his hand, and stepped closer to Hermione's side to whisper in her ear: "This kind of communication is a little bit of fun for me. Next time, I will definitely take the initiative to explain the situation to you beforehand."

"Well."

Hermione was caught off guard, but she quickly regained her composure and, without even creating distance, smiled and apologized to Zhou He almost face-to-face: "It was Hermione's fault. It is the duty of a personal maid to satisfy her master's personal interests. Please punish me, Commander."

The maid was fearless, but Zhou He was a little overwhelmed. He took a half step back, straightened up, and coughed lightly: "There's no need for punishment. Just call me 'Master' a few more times and I'll forgive you."

"The commander is as gentle as ever."

Hermione spoke with a smile, but Zhou He sensed something was off. Before he could figure it out, he heard Hermione's soft voice and looked up to see the girl gazing at him with gentle, indulgent eyes: "Master~"

"Since it's not a commonly used term, the language is a little awkward. How does the host feel?"

Hermione stared at Zhou He, who seemed to be petrified, and couldn't help but smile.

"Uh, it's hard to describe, just call me Commander for now."

Zhou He narrowed his eyes, turned around and covered his heart with his hand. Just those two sounds boosted his heart's resilience once again, and on a mental level, it was as if a new world had been opened up.

'I can't hold on, I can't hold on'

He screamed inwardly, if Hermione had called him "Master" twice when she helped him bathe, he might have melted and gone in on his own without any support.

This way of calling someone is too provocative and immoral. Whether it's done publicly or in private, it's too dangerous and could be life-threatening.

"..."

Hermione watched Zhou He's slightly flustered retreating figure, and her mood brightened. It wasn't that she lacked charm, nor that Zhou He wasn't interested in her; it was simply that she hadn't used the right method.

"Ahem! Please do your flirting in private. Commander, come and take a look at this and see how to handle it."

While the two were struggling, Lingmin and Akashi had already used the mechanical arm to erect and fix the builder's body on the work platform. However, the ship girl's hearing was very strange. Zhou He's whispered conversation was equivalent to a loud conspiracy within ten meters, which made her a little nervous.

"Deal with what?"

As if saved, Zhou He quickly approached the two. With her keen pointing and gestures, he quickly understood that she was referring to the honeycomb shield that protected the builder's main body. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Reserve enough space for research. Break the excess. Get the people inside out first. The rest can be disassembled and studied slowly. You should be more professional in this than I am."

"That's the theory, but Akashi, can you break this thing?"

Having confirmed Zhou He's idea, Lingmin asked Mingshi, "The cutting equipment here is fine for ordinary materials, but I don't think it can handle this one."

"Of course, meow."

A proud smile appeared on Akashi's small face. She reached into her large sleeve and pulled out a metal device that looked like a pistol. It had no magazine, a long barrel, and a silver-gray color scheme with red lines.

"This is a laser cutting gun taken from the Siren base warehouse. I found it in the database, meow."

The kitten took the initiative, beckoning Zhou He and the others to help carry a table over. She stood on tiptoe so she could barely reach the upper layer of the Builder's shield. Then she activated the cutting gun, and a nearly half-meter-long multicolored beam shot out from the muzzle. It was so bright and dazzling that it was impossible to distinguish the specific colors. Zhou He and Hermione below squinted and looked away, while Ling Min put on goggles. Ming Shi above also put on a mask and began to cut along the junction area of ​​the honeycomb shield.

The cutting process was far from smooth. The Builder's inexplicably honeycomb shield took several minutes to be penetrated by the laser. It took nearly half an hour just to cut out an opening large enough to accommodate a 1.5 to 1.6 meter tall girl. Sparks and lightning crackled throughout the process. Zhou He was initially worried that the Builder's main body might be damaged, but remembering Bismarck's words that as long as the ship equipment was intact, the synchronized person would also be quite robust, he felt reassured and took Hermione out for a walk. They strolled around the dock and confirmed that the Shoukaku and the others who had gone out had not fought the Sirens' driving force but had turned back ahead of time and were on their way back.

Most importantly, Zhou He asked Xiang He if they had sunk the Sirens' aircraft carrier, and the answer was no.

"The Siren's shell is really hard. The density of anti-aircraft guns near the aircraft carrier is ridiculously high, and aircraft simply cannot dive or get close."

This is what Ruihe said after she discovered the video call and came over to curse and swear.

They failed to sink the Siren carrier, but they sank nearly ten escort ships, including two heavy cruisers. Therefore, Zhou He glanced at the progress of the research ship and found that Anchorage needed to kill 2 out of 100 ships, and that they would sink 98 more heavy cruisers to become a heavy cruiser research ship.

-

After the honeycomb shield was cut open, Akashi climbed in and pushed the Builder out. She sat inside and happily examined it. When Zhou He saw the Builder lying in front of him, he first frowned before touching her arm. It was ice-cold to the touch, like touching an ice block in winter. The only difference was that it was very soft to the touch, without the hard feeling of a dead person or the metallic feel of touching a robot.

Do you think she has any use?

After Zhou He stopped, he asked Ming Shi and Ling Min. He felt quite good looking at the Builder sitting inside the ship's equipment, but after taking her out, he felt a little uncomfortable. Let alone collecting her, he felt very uncomfortable just looking at her.

"It depends on your thoughts, Commander. These Sirens have similar physical structures to us, but they are much cheaper. If you want to add them to your collection, I suggest you go and capture two more alive."

Lingmin also touched it a couple of times, and after thinking and analyzing, gave her own answer.

"...Then what should we do?"

Zhou He's expression tightened. How did Ling Min know that he had ever thought about collecting it?

"Dig a pit, cremate the body, throw the entire small boat into the sea, and return it to the Sirens."

Lingmin provided four solutions, all of which were reasonable.

"Let's use a raft to carry it towards the Sirens' base."

Zhou He frowned. Of the four options, he certainly didn't want the Builders to bury his own port area, and sending it to the Sirens was also unreliable. Sending it a short distance was already a great act of chivalry.

I was really looking forward to it, but now I've completely lost interest. Maybe this is what they call "Lord Ye's love of dragons"?

Chapter 146 is outrageous!

The disassembly and research of the builder's ship equipment seemed to be going on for a while. After observing for a while, Zhou He took Hermione and left the production workshop, returning to the command building. They went around to the side and found several tree trunks with blackened bark that looked like they were about to grow mushrooms.

"Let's use this to build a simple raft. The Sirens should be able to help collect the bodies."

Looking at the tree trunks he had dragged back himself, Zhou He realized they were useless here, so he decided to let them return to nature.

After making up his mind, he went back to the storeroom inside the house and found the rope in the corner. As he was leaving, Yuudachi, who was lying on the sofa, woke up, stretched and made a comfortable sound. He sat up, rubbing his eyes, and saw Zhou He testing the rope's toughness with his hands, pulling on it. He blinked his clear eyes.

"Eat and then sleep, be careful not to gain weight!"

Zhou He muttered something casually, then turned and moved closer to the door: "Come help me out when you wake up."

"Ah, okay~"

Yuudachi scratched his head, put on his shoes, and jogged off to catch up with Zhou He, grinning from ear to ear: "I thought the Commander was here to kidnap me."

"You didn't do anything wrong, why would I tie you up?"

Zhou He's lips curled up. Even if Xi Li made a mistake, he would at most put a collar around Xi Li's neck so that others would know that Xi Li was a domesticated child and give him some face so as not to make things difficult for him.

"Is the commander going to make some kind of toy with that rope?"

Yuudachi chuckled, as if she knew the destination, and ran ahead of Zhou He to the place where the tree trunks were piled up to wait. Zhou He didn't hide it from her, and pointed to the trees and began to direct: "Yuudachi, you and Hermione line up these woods, I'm going to assemble a raft."

"A raft?"

Yuudachi didn't know why Zhou He was doing this, but she obediently ran over and stretched her arms. After Hermione arrived, the two of them lifted the pile of trees from under the eaves to the paved road and sorted them by length. They also followed Zhou He's instructions to help him lift the trees when ropes were needed. They were busy for a while.

The trio's group activity attracted the attention of many passersby, such as Ms. Hu De, who had just finished afternoon tea at the Iron Blood Mansion and was taking a walk. Don't ask why she was at the Iron Blood Mansion; the answer is that it has a garden pavilion, which is more stylish than other places.

In fact, no Ironblood members have moved into the Ironblood mansion yet. On the contrary, Hood is very fond of this place, so Enterprise and Jarvis will come over to clean and trim the yard when they have time, keeping it clean and impressive.

"The Builder's body? Commander, you like it so much, I thought you would keep it as a keepsake."

Hu De was quite surprised to learn Zhou He's purpose in doing this, while the latter squatted on the ground with a subtle expression: "Perhaps what I'm interested in is the Builder's mecha?"

"Besides, is that something you can collect? It would be strange just to leave it there!"

Zhou He couldn't help but mutter to himself. He discovered that his ship girl had a strange perception of his preferences, even though he had indeed thought about collecting them.

"Hehe, after all, those are high-level Sirens, and they have value as spoils of war."

Hu De stood two steps away from Jin Qu, not hindering Zhou He and the others from their work. He touched his lips with his white-gloved fingers and smiled: "Moreover, since the commander has allowed us to join the port in this manner, after research and development, we may be able to bring the Sirens under our command as well."

"..."

Zhou He paused for a moment, then immediately resumed his normal movements.

He did have this idea, but his system was based on the player's perspective in the game. There had never been a case of a Siren joining a player's shipyard in the game. He had tried it here too—after he reached an agreement with Akagi and Kaga, the two sisters immediately entered his shipyard as temporary workers. However, after reaching an agreement with the Purifier the day before yesterday, the Purifier did not appear in his shipyard.

Comparing the two, it is clear that the Sirens are not within the system's 'containment acceptance' scope. However, if you really want the Sirens to obey, there is a way: find their mainframe location, rewrite the data inside, and make them loyal to you.

However, it's clear that this is not something he can do at this stage, so it's out of the question and not considered.

In the midst of this casual conversation, Zhou He managed to complete the 'not-so-sturdy raft'. Putting aside the rough binding, the raft, which should have been rectangular, was made into a rough parallelogram, but it was definitely big enough for a person to lie on.

"This is pretty good for the first time... Can you lend a hand?"

Zhou He stood up and clapped his hands, his gaze sweeping over Hood and landing on Jinqi behind her. However, just as Jinqi stepped forward to answer, Hood beat him to it, smiling as she alternately kneaded her wrists with both hands: "Commander, you can't exclude me from the labor selection just because I'm considered 'Royal Glory' and usually act as a lady."