Revisit Azur Lane

The observer subtly shifted the topic with a wave of his hand.

In fact, her 'observation' of this singularity was nearing its end: the ship girls, whose combat parameters were increasing day by day, always managed to 'return late,' which meant that their cores were within their singularity space, so they could not go far away, or rather, they would not allow the cores that allowed them to exist to leave that safe area.

This alone is enough to predict that this singularity will not expand to the point of threatening their plans, at least for the next few years. In addition, they seem to know nothing about the outside world and need to go out fishing on weekdays, so their logistics may not be very good. As long as they are fed some 'harvest' at the right time, the situation can be controlled.

In summary, it's something that needs attention, but not so much.

Once they decide to expand and move away from the core singularity, we'll call the arbitration body to clean them up. It's simple and environmentally friendly. The number of fleets they've lost here these past few days is already quite significant.

The reason she is still here is because of the changes in the testers and the purifiers these days. In the past, although these two were somewhat afraid of powerful enemies, they were not so cowardly as to not dare to go out and face them. After coming into contact with the singularity here, their missing emotional systems have been visibly corrected, or rather, perfected.

Her curiosity was piqued, so she decided to die once in a long time to see what surprises these new generation of ship girls would bring her.

"..."

The observer didn't continue speaking, and the tester also fell into deep thought. Before long, she came to the conclusion that 'if these ship girls can break through the base, the outcome won't change whether she's there or not,' and calmly said, 'I'll go over tonight.'

"Hmm~ Have a safe journey."

The observer smiled and pointed to the observation view behind the tester. The tester frowned and turned around, only to hear a piercing alarm. It turned out that the Eagle Union and Sakura Empire fleet, which was already in position, had set up their formation. The four aircraft carriers, Zuikaku, Shokaku, Long Island, and Yorktown, launched a massive air attack on the base.

"madness!"

The tester snorted. These ship girls were indeed fierce, but their air power was exceptionally weak compared to their naval strength. She casually swiped her hand in the air, and a blue interface flashed across her fingertip. The aircraft carriers docked near the base began to engage in a collective attack.

……

The first move always wins. Adhering to this philosophy, Zuikaku heard the distant cannon fire from another of its own fleets that had started fighting. Zuikaku asked her older sister for permission to go into battle. Shoukaku discussed it with Yorktown, and Yorktown discussed it with New Jersey. They decided to just go for it.

So they launched an air raid on the patrolling Siren fleet with almost 70% of their aircraft. The massive formation of planes blotted out the sky and acted like a magnet, attracting large numbers of anti-aircraft fire lines as soon as they approached the Siren base. Bullets hit the planes and made a crackling sound.

Many planes were concentrated and exploded in the air, but as they fell, they maintained their dive and crashed into the dense Sirens' fleet, leaving their mark.

Zooming out reveals an epic battle of attack and defense, but it didn't last long. Once the carrier strike group in the core area of ​​the Sirens fleet launched its attack, the situation instantly descended into chaos. Large swathes of the sky were filled with carrier-based aircraft, which darted through the clouds and exchanged fire.

In terms of numbers, the Sirens had a significant lead, pushing their battle lines out of the airspace above the base in less than half an hour.

"Oh dear, the enemy has far too many aircraft carriers."

Zuikaku frowned, revealing an indescribable expression. She was confident that she could take on three at once, but the Sirens had more than 12 aircraft carriers. There was even an airport on the Sirens' base where planes were taking off. It was like they had touched a hornet's nest, attracting countless hornets, which they simply couldn't handle!

"Don't get distracted, the battle over there is over."

Shoukaku scolded her, as her stats weren't as high as Zuikaku's, and she was already drenched in sweat, but she couldn't show it.

On the other side, they did not disappoint her trust. After the skirmish ended, they launched an air attack on the Sirens base, drawing away a significant portion of the Sirens' aircraft and relieving the pressure.

"Is this siren determined to be a tortoise?"

Jean Bart watched the fierce battle raging in the sky, but the Sirens' fleet showed no intention of coming out, and couldn't help but curse twice.

“It’s a bit tricky.”

After observing the battle, New Jersey had to admit that the enemy force known as the Sirens was very difficult to deal with. Backed by a military base and with a significantly larger fleet, they had chosen to hold their ground.

They're probably going to have to leave empty-handed today.

Chapter 172 Disguised Infiltration

Judging solely from the number of combat fleets, the number of warships near the Siren base is more than five times that of Zhou He's fleet, including 16 aircraft carriers.

This is an astonishing number. Two adjacent Siren base islands are completely surrounded, and the black and red color scheme of the surrounding warships makes this area look like the habitat of some terrifying big boss.

However, faced with air attacks from both Shokaku and Royal Ark, they refused to come out, instead forming a purely defensive circular formation centered on the two islands. Not to mention aircraft, even a fly probably couldn't get through that anti-aircraft fire network.

After Zhou He replenished the engine rooms of his aircraft carriers several times, he had to admit that they did not currently have the strength to break through this port area; in other words, they were stuck.

"Holy crap, that's way too turtle-like."

Zhou He stared at the Siren fleet near the base for a long time. How exaggerated could these guys be? They didn't even move an inch. The icons were stacked up, and he couldn't count how many warships there were. He couldn't see if any Sirens had emerged from the Siren base.

'No, this can't go on.'

As the saying goes, "One effort is the best, but the second will be weaker and the third will be exhausted." He had encouraged his ship girls several times in the past few days, and he knew that they absolutely could not end so hastily, otherwise it would greatly affect their motivation and enthusiasm for going out. So he turned his attention to Yukikaze, who was stationed outside the two fleets. After thinking it over, he gave up the idea of ​​letting Yukikaze charge into the enemy's formation. Yukikaze was indeed very tough as a meta ship, but as a commander and as a person, he could not give the order to let her charge into the enemy's defensive formation alone.

Since Yukikaze couldn't charge into the enemy lines and couldn't make any progress here, he had no choice but to find another way. He directly targeted the still rotating Mirror Sea, located in the Southern Sixth District Islands, and conveyed new instructions to Shoukaku, Yorktown, Hood, Bismarck, and others.

Of course, he didn't really want his ship girls to charge into the Mirror Sea, but rather to make it look like he was going to charge in order to see if he could mobilize the Sirens who were staying at the Sirens base.

……

Zhou He's orders were quickly executed, and the two fleets, one in the north and one in the south, bypassed the Siren base and converged on the west side of the base.

After a prolonged aerial battle, the aircraft carriers of the Zhou family still had ample cabins after being replenished, while the carrier-based aircraft of the Sirens could only be replenished through transport. Therefore, after the Shoukaku and others abandoned the air attack, the testers also stopped the pursuit of the carrier-based aircraft.

"Hmph, they finally gave up. I thought they had an unlimited number of carrier-based aircraft."

In the spacious command room, filled with metal and computer equipment, the tester, looking at the combat records, had a cold expression and a stubborn mouth.

"Wrong. Look at the direction they're retreating. Isn't something off?"

The observer chuckled as she reminded the tester that, despite knowing that the ship girls' firepower was insufficient to breach the base, the tester remained unusually serious while commanding the operation. Had she not been constantly monitoring the battlefield, the tester's expression alone might have led them to believe that the ship girls were about to storm in.

"direction?"

The tester frowned, glancing over the radar, aircraft, and other feedback, and quickly discovered that these ship girls were not retreating, but rather bypassing them and heading towards the Mirror Sea where the Purifiers were located.

"According to the Purifiers, these ship girls have very little information about the outside world, so they will actively enter the experimental area to find the control center and collect intelligence and technology."

The observer, dressed in a light black dress, stood up and walked barefoot on the metal floor. She approached the test subject from behind, pacing back and forth. Her words seemed casual but were full of purpose, and her golden eyes seemed to be filled with data-like characters.

"You should know about the contents of that testing ground, right?"

The observer whispering behind the test subject was like a demon tempting people to depravity, but her words calmed the test subject, who had long seen through her nature: "What do you want to say?"

"If these ship girls don't enter the experimental area before sunset, they will most likely return to their singularity. Based on the time, they have 3 to 5 hours of controllable time left."

The observer never speaks directly; she prefers to let the test subjects guess for themselves. If they guess right, great; if they guess wrong, it has nothing to do with her.

"Send a fleet to intercept them? Are you sure we can still defend this area after splitting our forces?"

The testers silently compared the value of the test site and this base. The fact that the test site was breached and the ship girls became stronger again was unavoidable. However, if this place were breached, they would lose the key position to confront this singularity, and they would have to pay a heavy price to enter this core area again.

"I'll be back as soon as I go."

The observer let out an enigmatic laugh. She didn't look at the test subject, nor did she wait for her reply. She simply waved and left the empty command room where only the two of them were.

"You guy..."

The test subject realized what was happening and turned around abruptly. Looking at the observer's disappearing figure, he muttered with a gloomy expression, "What are they plotting now?"

……

The Siren base in the western fourth district is about 150 nautical miles away from the archipelago in the southern sixth district. Because they are backed by the enemy's combat base, the escorting destroyers and light and heavy cruisers have to slow down and keep in the same area as the main ships such as aircraft carriers. However, they were already about 80 nautical miles away from the Siren base, so it only took them an hour to approach the mirror-like waters of the archipelago.

Will the sirens fall for it?

Not everyone in the marching group was quiet. For example, the impatient Zuikaku couldn't help but ask Shoukaku a question. Even though she wasn't very thoughtful, she knew that her group couldn't take down this Mirror Sea because they hadn't brought any food or supplies with them.

The Royal and Ironblood duo had already annihilated the Sirens' large fleet in the north, but they hadn't accomplished anything—it wasn't that she necessarily had to fight the Sirens' fleet at their base; she just wanted to kill any Sirens that came out in the Mirror Sea. This expedition wouldn't count as an air force mission.

"I don't know. Since the commander has made this arrangement, there is a possibility that the Sirens will come to intercept us. Zuikaku, have you rested enough? Go to the plane and test the limit of our entry into the Mirror Sea."

Unlike Zuikaku, Shoukaku was not anxious. In the era of warships, their missions were counted in months. Now that they were ship girls, the sea was still the same sea. It was basically impossible to achieve anything in a day. She believed that Zhou He understood this as well, so she was not in a hurry.

In fact, including Kaga BB, everyone who aspires to be the flagship has similar thoughts to Shoukaku. However, Zuikaku, who joined the port one of the earliest, is used to fighting the Sirens as soon as he sorties, making great achievements and returning home to celebrate. His mindset has changed from the original traditional naval warfare.

"Yes~"

Zuikaku obediently began launching aircraft to probe the distance to the Mirror Sea. Shortly afterward, the four flagships simultaneously received a notification from Zhou He and quickly informed their team members: a fleet from the Siren base was following them, and the Siren leading the fleet was an observer, depicted as a silver-haired girl with tentacles and huge ship guns.

"Stop advancing! Get away from this mirror-like sea! Beware of a siren attack from both sides!"

Under orders, the fleet quickly began to adjust and move northeast, but did not immediately launch an air raid, in order to avoid the Siren fleet, which had just set out, being forced to retreat.

Inside the port area, Zhou He, sitting on the extended platform behind the shop with a teacup in his hand, fixed his gaze on the Observer who was leading the attack on the map. Even in the game, he had rarely seen this person get involved in the fight. There were testers inside the base, but the Observer had run out on his own. He didn't know what had happened, but he instinctively felt that this matter was not simple.

"call."

As his thoughts raced, he looked up at the calm bay in the distance, trying to recall the relevant information about this character in the game: First of all, this character was the brains of the experimental organization, responsible for monitoring, communicating with superiors and subordinates, and conveying information. His combat ability was unknown, but his disguise ability was excellent.

In the storyline, there seems to be a tendency for the character to become a double agent.

"What a traitor! Could this guy be using the pretext of a battle to infiltrate our fleet with his camouflage abilities and gather intelligence?"

Zhou He narrowed his eyes. If that was the case, he had to admire the Observer's skill and audacity. How many members did his own fleet have? Adding or losing even one would be obviously incongruous. Moreover, he remembered that when Yukikaze and Yuudachi were arguing, she said that she could see through the Observer's disguise directly.

Was this observer not here to deliver supplies?

Let's see how things go first.

He focused his attention on the map and spotted two figures roaming outside his main fleet: Yukikaze Meta, who was responsible for maintaining the rear, and Kursk, who was conducting guerrilla warfare. The best infiltration plan would be to impersonate one of these two, or to silently eliminate one of his ship girls and replace her.

'That's dangerous.'

Zhou He narrowed his eyes. He had great confidence in the firepower of the experimental unit and made a decision while thinking.

He first contacted Kursk, instructing her to keep watch on the Mirror Sea area away from the main fleet. He then contacted Yukikaze, instructing her to rejoin the vanguard squad and be wary of the observers' sneak attacks. Finally, he informed several flagships that if the observers infiltrated the fleet under Kursk's identity, they would see how she planned to perform.

After a few orders, he gradually relaxed a lot. His own ship girls were all very intelligent and he didn't need to worry about anything. Now all he had to do was keep an eye on the observer and inform his own ship girls of her location if there was any problem.

After the arrangements were completed, all that remained was waiting, which had become the norm for Zhou He. He looked at the mountains, the water, and the sky, his thoughts gradually drifting until he didn't even know what he was thinking. It wasn't until the waiter, Man Qiu, came over to refill his tea that his call brought him back to his senses.

"Thank you."

He poured the cooled tea directly onto the grass, handed the cup to Manju, and refocused his attention on the sortie interface. The observer led the sortie, and the fleet no longer overlapped after being deployed. He counted them in detail and conveyed the specific configuration of the Sirens to Bismarck and others before the two sides were about to meet.

Then, what he perceived as a silent battle erupted.

Using the system, he could roughly observe the development of the battlefield: for example, the Shoukaku and the others on the map had stopped, which meant they were releasing their carrier-based aircraft, while the vanguard, Yuudachi, was rushing forward very quickly and seemed to be breaking away from the formation. After Yukikaze caught up, the two of them began to slow down, and then gradually formed a formation with the destroyers such as Javelin Z23 and slowly advanced, which meant that the vanguard had encountered the Sirens' firepower.

Upon seeing this, he skillfully switched to the dock interface and indeed saw that the durability of the destroyers began to decrease to varying degrees. Yuudachi, who was at the forefront, had durability only lower than Yukikaze. Because they had enough health, their durability decreased more slowly.

Just as he was thinking this, Yukikaze's durability bar visibly dropped by a small bar, startling him so much that he immediately switched back to the map and locked onto the Observer's location—she was right in front of Yuudachi and the others.

"What a brutal shelling."

Zhou He's expression darkened slightly. It was one thing for Yuudachi, Javelin, and Haman to be harmless, but the stat growth of Ayanami and Cassin, who joined later, was still very slight. If they were hit head-on like this, they would most likely be killed in one shot.

He switched to the dock and informed Shoukaku of the observer's location. Out of caution, he directly used 60 units of the supplementary voucher to complete a full-scale repair.