Revisit Azur Lane

Zhou He switched his perspective to watch Xuefeng continue running south, constantly illuminating the black mist, and couldn't help but lick his lips.

He also broke through several mirror sea areas, but the things that happened inside were all inexplicable, and he couldn't guess the purpose of opening those mirror sea areas at all. But this time is different. Will he finally be able to see a mirror sea area that is actually used for experiments?

Chapter 151 A Mess

While Zhou He was pondering this, the trio of observer, purifier, and tester inside the Siren base were also pondering it—through Purifier's 'collaboration with the enemy' behavior, they also learned that the people in this singularity did not have much information about the outside world.

But it's one thing for this group to run east, but why are they running north and south right in front of them?

Aren't you afraid of them?

"Some rats have sneaked into the D2 (northern) district during the ominous riots. We can't mobilize too many fleets, but it's enough to deter those few. What should we do here? Who of you is going?"

In the spacious conference hall, the observer's gaze shifted between the testers and the purifiers, but both remained serious and ignored her. So she fixed her gaze directly on the purifiers: "Purifier, why don't you go play with them?"

"I only play when I have the advantage."

Purification refused very seriously. What a joke! She had just escaped with her life two days ago, and now she was being asked to go again? This time she didn't have any gifts to bribe that unknown human, and giving her so few people was practically asking her to go out and deliver them.

"I can't go. If I go, the combat strength of this port area will be extremely weak."

The tester didn't seem so sinister today. She rubbed her forehead with one hand and said, "As for the observer, you've never fought against those singularity ship girls before. Perhaps you can catch them off guard."

"I'm not good at fighting."

The observer remained calm and showed no emotional fluctuation despite the two's refusal. She simply gestured in the air to project a live video, a faint smile playing on her lips: "Your emotional functions have improved considerably after coming into contact with this singularity. Very well, Purifier, you can make the trip and extract the core data from here."

"so troublesome."

As Qingzhen watched the projection of a multi-party battle centered around a black tower, he curled his lip and said, "This Mirror Sea has been restarted countless times, but it can only achieve this much. Naturally, the calculation system still has limitations, and its predictions of the future are full of loopholes."

"Hehe, as long as the experiment continues, a future direction suitable for our progress will eventually emerge."

Instead of refuting the purifier's complaints, the observer smiled and smoothed things over.

Their control over this world has reached its limit. The clashes with the board of directors and the ominous signs have put the arbitration body under immense strain. Now, with various "singularities" appearing outside the predicted range within the "world-class" mirror seas, they have no way to turn back. They can only try their best to "contain," "defeat," and "appease" these singularities to buy more time for those above them.

“I think…it’s fine. I’ll go there. Remember to contact the builder and have him transfer the highest level of access to me.”

Purification's big eyes flashed as she recalled her experiences from the past two days: the singularity ship girls in the vicinity knew of their existence, yet they were neither afraid nor hateful, simply regarding them as enemies, and behind them existed a human being who was suspected to be on par with their creator.

She believes that this singularity is on a completely different level from the previous singularities, and in terms of potential, it is no less than them. If it can remain active, it will definitely bring countless possibilities to this already solidified world in the future.

However, placing her hopes for the future on the singularity did not align with her values, so she got up and disappeared from the conference hall before finishing her sentence.

“After returning a few days ago, the Purifier’s behavior started to become strange.”

After the Purifier left, the test subject looked up and told the observer about the problem he had discovered. However, the observer on the other side calmly replied: "Our mainframe has a powerful learning ability. After collecting unknown information, it will analyze it and make adjustments. The Purifier's current actions are the result of optimization targeting this singularity."

"hope so."

The tester accepted this statement, but the observer's smile was quite mysterious.

……

"The Purifiers have come out of the base; it looks like they're heading to the southern islands."

Zhou He casually sat on the collapsed rocks, observing the enemy situation. He noticed the Purifiers leaving the western base of the Sirens. Unfortunately, the reconnaissance planes heading towards the Sirens base were all shot down, and the Purifiers quickly disappeared into the fog area.

However, simply observing her actions is enough to draw many conclusions: for example, it confirms the existence of the Mirror Sea in the southern archipelago, and the fact that the observers were in such a hurry to go to this Mirror Sea indicates that what is inside is very serious and is a testing ground for data collection.

"I really want to just rush in and see what's inside."

Zhou He clicked his tongue in amazement, but it wouldn't work. The Southern Islands were too far from his port. The reason his ship girls could fight the Sirens on equal terms was because the port was a safe area where his people could get enough rest. Being too reckless would be giving up his advantage. No matter how curious he was, he couldn't go on.

While he was brainstorming, the air force of Zuikaku, Shokaku, and Yorktown had already clashed with the Sirens' carrier-based aircraft. Neither side had the firepower support of a naval fleet; it was a pure clash of technological prowess.

That's one thing, but there are also those who possess both technical skill and firepower. As Zuikaku said, her fighter squadron took the center position among the three, and like a sharpened dagger, it plunged directly into the black and red Sirens' squadron, tearing open a gap on the spot, and then carrying the squadrons of the two following behind, rampaging through it.

The reason why Zuikaku is so fierce is that her aircraft data is extremely high. Even when the two sides' aircraft are firing at each other, Zuikaku's carrier-based aircraft are full of bullets but seem to be unharmed, while the Siren carrier-based aircraft that are facing her are hit with their wings or other parts damaged, falling like birds with broken wings in large numbers, which is extremely spectacular!

"Tsk, these cowards."

Zuikaku, who had just completed her charge, looked dejected. She suddenly realized that there were no aircraft carriers among the Siren fleet approaching them. The Siren carriers vying for air superiority were all near the Siren base. The three of them could only control so many planes, so even if they gained air superiority, they couldn't get close enough!

At this moment, she probably understood the feelings of the Sirens when they were besieged: knowing that the enemy was nearby, but being unable to lock onto them, and even being attacked by enemies whose true location was unknown.

That's practically cheating!

"That's enough."

Shoukaku offered words of comfort, saying that the Sirens had more carriers than them, and it was already quite impressive that they could fight them to a standstill or even have a slight advantage: "What we need to do now is deal with the approaching Sirens fleet and further reduce the Sirens' manpower."

"understand!"

Despite his displeasure, Zuikaku knew exactly what he had to do. He continued to deploy the new aircraft that Zhou He had supplied, and together with Shoukaku and Yorktown, they adjusted the area for aerial combat with the Sirens, allowing everyone on the sea to see a beautiful sky during the battle.

—On the sea, the combined fleet of the Sirens numbered around 40 ships, including five battleships, ten heavy cruisers, several destroyers and light cruisers, and five submarines hidden beneath the surface.

In contrast, the Zhou He family, including the Tosa sisters, consisted of only thirteen people. Among them, the Sakura Empire's destroyers, such as Yuudachi, had just dealt with the scattered Sirens that were approaching and were beginning to converge on the battlefield.

"Huh, a submarine? I see."

On the sea, Yuudachi, with eyes as sharp as a hunting dog, was approaching the battlefield when she suddenly received Zhou He's order. Her expression instantly turned blank and cute. Even though it was just a one-sided order from Zhou He, she started talking to herself and asking and answering questions.

Yuudachi and her group were originally about 80 nautical miles from the Sirens base. Traveling one way would take 1 to 2 hours, but with the two-way travel, the time was greatly shortened. Zhou He had just given precise orders to his ship girls when he heard the deafening sound of artillery fire coming from afar.

Based on the location from which the sound came, it can be confirmed that it was the work of Tosa and Kaga.

"?"

Zhou He had a question mark above his head: Xiang He and the others had all been shot down by the Sirens' reconnaissance planes, so they should have no idea where these two battleships were. Shouldn't they be hiding now and waiting for the Sirens' fleet to get close enough before suddenly launching an attack on the enemy in the middle and rear?

"Wait, maybe my thinking is too idealistic. Since there will be no interference from the air, then as a battleship, we can directly take action and use our range advantage to reduce the enemy's manpower, which is also a good option."

Zhou He was thinking. When his fleet went out to fight, he usually only gave a general objective, at most naming a few people to deal with the Sirens' submarines. It was impossible to see how the battle was fought from the system map. Therefore, this battle could be considered the first time that his fleet had been observed up close since its formation.

He needs to study hard and learn properly.

Shortly after the two Tosa opened fire, the Sirens also began shelling. As can be seen from the map, the Sirens adopted a double column formation, with mass-produced models such as destroyers, light cruisers, battleships, and heavy cruisers mixed in. Therefore, the two Tosa had no so-called range advantage and were instead covered by the firepower.

Fortunately, Cleveland and Ashigara, who had arrived in advance, took advantage of the Tosa sisters drawing the Sirens' firepower and hurriedly cut into the battlefield from the side, avoiding the direction the Sirens' turrets were facing. Before the Sirens could react and adjust, they brought the Sirens fleet into the range of their main guns.

The two sides exchanged fire across the ocean. Yuudachi and his group, who had been singled out by Zhou He, accurately located the Siren submarine and destroyed it with torpedoes before joining the battle. With the boost from the numerical values, the scales of victory tipped in Zhou He's favor.

Over an hour and a half, the Sakura Empire and Eagle Union fleets went through several stages, including 'reconnaissance advantage', 'reconnaissance parity', 'personnel disadvantage', 'evenly matched', and 'data crushing', before finally annihilating the Sirens fleet.

"..."

Zhou He, who had been watching the whole process, touched his forehead, wondering if he was still half asleep. How could his ship girls be so cooperative, almost winning every battle? No wonder Yorktown had been involved in several battles and was still in a state of existential doubt.

Because he's starting to have some doubts about life.

When Tosa joined the port, their tactics and teamwork were quite good. How did they end up like this? With Kaga and Tosa's recklessness, it would be strange if they could beat Amagi, who was methodical and strategic, in the game's story!

"The coordination between the joint fleets does require some time to develop."

After some deliberation, Zhou He agreed with Bismarck's statement. He just wondered if Bismarck's blood pressure would spike during the joint operation with Hood. He would have to pay close attention to the coordination practice when he got home, as well as the learning of tactical common sense. He understood that having knowledge in one's head and being able to use it in reality were two different things, but the gap shouldn't be this big.

'Aboard the Type 01 aircraft carrier for repairs.'

After complaining, Zhou He gave new instructions to the members on this side, and then silently turned his gaze to Xuefeng, who was heading south. At the same time, he opened a video call with Long Island. The screen flashed, and Miss Long Island, wearing a coat two sizes too big for him, was hunching her neck and muttering something.

Long Island?

Zhou He observed for about ten seconds without Long Island noticing his presence—

"Oh! Commander?"

Long Island shuddered, turned his head and saw the high-tech virtual video projection technology. He opened his eyes wide and tried to explore it, but failed. No one except Zhou He could touch or change the projection.

"I asked you to go south with Yukikaze and tell me what's going on with those islands now?"

Zhou He took a deep breath, trying to appear more composed. Unfortunately, Changdao wasn't the type of girl who would read other people's faces. After a brief moment of organizing her thoughts, she spoke: "Looking down from the sky, it's a small archipelago connected by reefs. It's very beautiful, but for some reason, carrier-based aircraft can't get close enough to observe it. As soon as they get close, they instantly lose contact, as if they've been transported to another world."

"It looks exactly like the real thing from the outside, but you can't get close to it."

Zhou He narrowed his eyes. These two points alone were enough to prove that the Southern Islands had been transformed into a special area by the Sirens, and that the defenses against external forces were very strong. Anyone who got close would be pulled into the Mirror Sea.

In this way, his current target has changed from one place to two: the base in the west and the southern islands. It is known that the Siren base cannot be breached in a short time, and the southern islands are far from the port area and the internal situation is unknown.

"Turns out neither side is exactly friendly."

Zhou He narrowed his eyes and found Yukikaze on the attack map. During the battle, Yuudachi and the others had been running south. At this moment, she had appeared in the South Sixth District. Because of the Nagashima plane, Yukikaze entered the South Sixth District, and the archipelago immediately appeared on the map. It was indeed a beautiful location.

The constantly spinning black vortex on the map looks a bit creepy.

"Can Yukikaze break through this mirror-like sea by himself?"

Zhou He wanted to see what was inside, but was worried that he wouldn't be able to get out if he went in, so his gaze fell on Xue Feng, who was still heading south, and then looked away after a moment.

He believed that Yukikaze could definitely solo the level, but since Yukikaze's level was already high enough, he might as well let the others in his party level up.

"What should we do?"

Muttering to himself, Zhou He gave Xue Feng the order to return to base.

Chapter 152 Deep Behind Enemy Lines (?)

Yukikaze, having reached South District 6, began his return journey, but the map exploration wasn't over. Nagashima received follow-up instructions from Zhou He, and a small number of reconnaissance planes scattered to illuminate the fog. To Zhou He's surprise, Zuikaku and Shokaku, after finishing their battle, voluntarily joined the map exploration. In less than half an hour, South Districts 4, 5, and 6, which were originally just a straight road surrounded by darkness, were illuminated, revealing a bright and clear landscape.

To Zhou He's surprise, the joint team did not return to the aircraft carrier, but instead went straight to the second port area where he was located to land.

Several days later, this abandoned and dilapidated port area once again welcomed guests.

"It's your turn."

The port area has a long coastline, and the landing team did not disembark in a concentrated manner. However, Tosa deliberately approached Yuudachi, and after stepping onto the ground, he casually patted the wet clothes and wrinkles on his body, and turned his gaze to Yuudachi, who was sniffing with his eyes closed.

"Hmm, it's too far."

Unfortunately, Yuudachi couldn't smell Zhou He's scent after sniffing for a long time. Instead, she was overwhelmed by the smell of dust and sea air mixed together. In the end, she covered her ears, shook her head, and scrunched up her little face like a bun.

"Is the commander really here?"

Hammanman and Bush, along with other White Eagle members, surrounded Yorktown, their words tinged with suspicion. Yorktown shook her head in response: Zuikaku's fighting style was too brutal; she found it difficult even just to follow behind and provide cover, and hadn't paid any attention to whether there were any traces of humans around.