Revisit Azur Lane

In terms of specifications and design, it is indeed excellent, but Zhou He does not want his port area to be so militarized. After all, the island itself is an 'absolutely safe' area. As long as there is no internal strife, it will not be damaged and there is no need for so many defensive buildings.

So he thought for a moment, looked at Yukikaze who was half a meter away with her hands on her hips and a smile on her lips, and pointed to the grass and beach behind her: "Actually, I've been planning to renovate the storefront in the port area recently. Yukikaze, turn around and take a look. How about adding a plaza that goes up here?"

"square?"

Upon hearing this, Xuefeng turned and took two steps back to Zhou He's side. Looking at the clearly defined grassland and beach, he tilted his head and asked, "How big is the square?"

"Let me see. It's right in front of the command building. The specific area extends from the middle of the restaurant and the command building to the middle of the command building and the hot spring. Other spaces will be divided separately."

Zhou He also stood up and looked around. Logically speaking, if the port area wanted to look more vibrant, the first thing to do was to build a concrete dam around the inner part of the bay before proceeding with construction. However, he was reluctant to give up this beach, so he kept hesitating.

"...Is that okay?"

Xuefeng wasn't as tall as Zhou He, so she couldn't see very clearly, but she figured that if she just covered up the grass, it wouldn't look any worse than it did now.

"That's good, let's go take a look over there."

Zhou He hummed in agreement and started walking along the beach. He soon arrived at the location that marked the Iron Blood Mansion. From here, the beach began to curve. This was what made Zhou He realize how amazing nature was. Although it had a curve, you couldn't feel the curve just by looking at the sea and the tide.

After surveying the area, he looked at the dock and pier directly opposite and felt the location was excellent: 'It's not too far from the dormitory, the lighting is perfect, and when the development goes into full swing, we can preserve the area leading to the beach at the bay's mouth as a recreational area.'

Watching his ship girls play on the beach in cool, refreshing clothes during the summer was a dream he had since he came to this port. Therefore, he would never give up all the beaches. Between port development and personal desires, the latter was more beneficial to him!

"I wonder which camp will win the championship in this competition."

Having finalized the future beach leisure area, Zhou He turned his head and saw the faction location he had previously envisioned. It was quite close to here. In terms of openness, it might be more suitable for the Eagle Union ship girls. After all, they value freedom more. Being able to play on the beach just a few steps away can be considered a kind of freedom, right?

After acquiring the new faction residence today, he can purchase new functional buildings based on the situation between the new residence and the old buildings. Thinking about the increase in buildings in his own port area, Zhou He felt inexplicably excited and expectant, wishing time could speed up and get to night immediately.

"..."

Xuefeng followed Zhou He here, hoping to chat a bit more, but he entered a surveying state and completely ignored her. He looked around, pondered, muttered to himself, and then paced back and forth with a mysterious smile, making it impossible to guess what he was thinking.

'Strange guy.'

Left aside by Zhou He, Xuefeng couldn't help but mutter to himself, but he was in an unusually good mood.

……

With no troublemakers around, the competition got on track in the afternoon. The contestants scattered around the port area were like busy little bees, constantly cycling between setting nets, surveying, and retrieving them in their chosen spots.

Amidst the hustle and bustle, the sun in the sky also felt tired and began to set. Time quietly passed to four o'clock in the afternoon, and the competition was over.

Choosing to end the competition at four o'clock was Zhou He's decision after careful consideration, and it proved to be correct, because it wasn't until after five o'clock that the contestants leisurely escorted their fish baskets—the fruits of their catch—back to the fiery red sunset and returned to the port area.

The location for the investigation was an old-fashioned transport ship that had been taken from the Ominous Singularity and was moored at the dock. Zhou He asked Ming Shi to move the ship outside the berth, and after taking off his military uniform, he put on a mask and gloves and waited fully armed.

The first team to submit their results was the "Northern Union" duo of Kursk and Tosa. Kursk had dragged the fish back, and Tosa was standing beside him with his usual cold, poker face. But Zhou He couldn't help but feel that Tosa seemed quite depressed.

"Commander, let's begin."

Kursk hung the fish basket on the small crane at the front of the transport ship, and Yukikaze, forced to work, carefully operated it in the control room, afraid of tearing the net if he moved too fast.

Before long, the fish basket, which was more than five meters deep, was lifted to the stern of the transport ship.

"Hmm, that's a bit unexpected."

Zhou He leaned against the railing and spoke to Kursk, who was standing on the sea beside him.

Why do you say that?

It was because the two of them had caught far less than he had expected. They didn't even need to turn on the lights. He could roughly count the fish in the fish basket at a glance: no more than 20 in total, of various sizes. Among them were two that were nearly half a meter long, but their bodies were slender and long. Zhou He didn't recognize them.

"It takes much longer to understand the activity patterns of fish than land animals—and probably the same for other creatures. This time, the outcome was purely a matter of luck."

Kursk gave an explanation without changing his expression.

Zhou He agreed with this explanation. Xuefeng had whispered to him when she deployed the ship's radar for scanning earlier that day that there were no traces of fish underwater in any of the five participating teams.

Despite saying that, Zhou He still dutifully stepped forward and reached out to verify. The total catch of the two men in Kursk was 17 fish: two large ones, eight medium ones, seven small ones, and a few crabs, which were all dead, a real pity.

After the inspection was completed, Zhou He tentatively grabbed the fishnet and activated the system's warehouse for retrieval. With a flash of light, he succeeded.

He breathed a slight sigh of relief, glanced at the fish baskets marked 'small harvest' in the warehouse, and then smiled and spread his hands towards Kursk and the other man: "Fishing must have been hard work, Tosa too. You two go back and rest for a bit. I'll let you know when the dinner starts."

"understood."

Kursk nodded and left. She had only participated to challenge her fishing skills and had no intention of competing for first place. Tosa glanced at Zhou He, hesitated, and obediently followed him away.

"Tosa has really lost this time."

Zhou He narrowed his eyes, feeling that this Tosa was also quite aesthetically pleasing.

"Commander! We're back!"

The second report came from the Sakura Empire camp. Yuudachi ran ahead and grabbed a spot, waving to Zhou He with a grin. After getting closer, she grabbed the railing of the transport ship with both hands, first peering into a puddle of water inside, before curiously asking, "How was Tosa-neechan's haul?"

"It's probably at the bottom."

Zhou He wasn't surprised. Tosa had only been genuinely helping for two or three hours in the afternoon. In the morning, Kursk was the only one working, and they hadn't found any fish yet, so it would be strange if they had a large harvest.

"Hehe, we caught a lot of fish here."

Dog chuckled slyly before turning back to the group and informing the others in Sakura Empire of the situation, which caused Kaga to burst into laughter: she didn't know why Kaga had the nerve to laugh.

In short, after a flurry of activity, the Sakura Empire's catch was finally hoisted up—the harvest here was quite extravagant, with at least forty fish. Just looking at it from the outside, it was a scene of 'fish crammed together,' reminding Zhou He of the Stargazing School.

After counting them carefully, Zhou He threw away the dead fish and put the rest into the fish basket and stored them in the warehouse. Chongying's harvest summary: 5 large fish, 16 medium fish, 24 small fish, all the crabs died, and there was one large lobster that was on the verge of death.

"Temporarily ranked first."

Zhou He's four words brought joy to the members of Sakura Empire, and even Ayanami showed a slight smile.

After letting them rest, Zhou He began to check the spoils of the subsequent camps:

The third report is from the White Eagle camp. Their catch was a few less than the members' side, totaling 3 large fish, 11 medium fish, and 29 small fish. Nearly ten fish died, which was a pity.

"It was really fun doing activities together. Commander, please organize more events in the future!"

The White Eagles weren't concerned about winning or losing; they were more distressed about the fish that had died. Cleveland, who had experience, was the quickest to accept it and chatted with Zhou He with a smile. Zhou He said he would definitely do it next time.

The fourth reporting faction was Ironblood. Count Spee and Ibe were holding the fish basket on either side. Z23 and Ibe were watching with great interest, while the other three remained expressionless. Their fish basket was the heaviest so far. The system-generated fish baskets had been deformed when the crane was working. The moment it came out of the water, Bai Ying and the others who hadn't left, as well as Zhou He, were stunned.

"There must be at least eighty of them, right?"

Looking at the strange fish huddled together, Zhou He quickly told Xue Feng to speed up the process of dumping the fish out, scattering them all over the ground. It was already dark when Zhou He turned on the lights he had prepared on both sides and spent about ten minutes collecting them before he could finish counting: 26 large fish, 24 medium-sized fish, 31 small fish, seven crabs wrapped in seaweed, three lobsters, and some other strange marine creatures that Zhou He couldn't recognize.

"Holy crap, this is a dimensional reduction attack."

After putting the fish basket into the warehouse, Zhou He couldn't help but laugh at the "overflowing catch" entry. He even suspected that U556 had driven the fish underwater to crash into the net, or had simply grabbed them by hand.

That's outrageous! It completely crushes the top three contenders in terms of quality and variety. I feel like the Royal team doesn't even need to look at them anymore; they'll be second at best.

"commander."

Bismarck waited for Zhou He to finish his work, then called him aside and said calmly, "We participated in this competition only to prepare more seafood for the winter, not to compete for the top spot. Don't count us in the rankings; whoever is first is first."

"Are you sure? Hood and the others can't be so sure of a win, you know?"

Zhou He frowned. This was a serious competition, and this was really inappropriate. So he thought for a moment and said, "I will change the reward rules. The top two will each receive a building prize of their choice. If you have any facilities you want, you can come and tell me."

"understood."

Bismarck thought for a moment and then nodded in agreement.

—The royal team traveled the farthest and returned the latest; the moon had already begun to appear in the night sky when they finally arrived at the port.

"Sorry, Commander, we're late."

Javelin ran ahead very sensibly to apologize to Zhou He, but judging from her eager expression, the royal family's harvest seemed to be quite good as well.

Zhou He smiled and said it was nothing, then cooperated with Royal Ark and Hermione to use a crane to lift the fish basket out of the water. The moment it came out of the water, Zhou He's eyes widened.

"Hehe, the Commander didn't expect this either, did he?"

Javelin hadn't gone far, and instead struck up a playful conversation with Zhou He.

The reason is simple: the Royal Mackerel was suspected of encountering a school of saury. Under the moonlight and incandescent light, the fish basket was shimmering with silver light, which was simply too beautiful.

After counting, a total of 128 saury were found to be still alive.

"Everyone, go and rest first. I will announce the final rankings at the banquet."

After a busy day, it was already late. Zhou He saw everyone off, then used the water pump by the dock to wash the transport ship. Afterwards, he hurriedly took the 'selected' dinner ingredients to the restaurant. After cleaning up the fishy smell on his clothes, he returned to the brightly lit command building to take a shower first.

"...I saw it, Kaga-senpai, your duel with Bismarck."

Before even entering the door, Zhou He heard Zuikaku's fearless speech from that day. Turning his head, he saw Kaga, who had changed his clothes, feeding the red fox, and Zuikaku, who was laughing happily beside him. Sometimes, he even felt that Zuikaku's 'straightforward' personality was actually a kind of 'scheming'.

Under certain circumstances, what is said can be hard to believe, but there is no way to refute it. Kaga was clearly in this state. She herself did not understand why she was able to be defeated by Bismarck in one shot. She did not believe that it was just bad luck. The most likely reason was that she was not focused enough after fighting two battles and was caught out. But this was her own doing, and it cannot be said that Bismarck's victory was unfair.

“Zuikaku? Kaga-senpai has already tried his best, you understand that, right? Some things can’t be made up for by hard work alone.”

Shoukaku heard it too. Ms. Shoukaku, who came out of the bathhouse next door, was wearing loose casual clothes. She was walking with her head tilted to the side, combing her hair with her hands. She looked very charming.

Her tone was gentle, but the way she spoke was different from Ruihe's—it was 'uncomfortable'.

“Shokaku-nee...yes, but Kaga-senpai, don’t be discouraged, there will be another chance next time.”

Zuikaku let out a soft "Ah," paused briefly, and then offered words of comfort.

"You two, were you ruined by me when I was on the aircraft carrier?"

Kaga glanced at the two sisters out of the corner of her eye. She was used to losing and didn't really care. But the way the Shoukaku sisters talked made her look like a spendthrift dog.

“There is some responsibility, but you don’t need to take responsibility for that, Kaga-senpai.”

Zuikaku nodded, and Shoukaku also let out a soft "ah." Shoukaku approached and smiled, "As a senior aircraft carrier, Kaga was quite prestigious, before she lost to Enterprise of the White Eagles along with senior Akagi."

"Tsk, that Akagi guy hasn't improved much in all these years."

Kaga BB clicked his tongue: "If she could learn Amagi Kazunari's skills, she wouldn't be so hostile to you juniors."

"..."

The two Shoukaku sisters exchanged a glance, stopped saying anything sarcastic, and began to honestly comfort Kaga.

This only angered Kaga, who angrily chased the two sisters away. Then, she squatted down and poked the red fox's head in the cage with her finger, muttering, "Akagi, when are you coming to the port? I want you to experience what it's like to be nagged by your juniors after you make a mistake in the future."

Zhou He heard this, but he didn't know if he could build the Akagi in battleship form.

After all, it wasn't included in the game.