Revisit Azur Lane

Since Akashi didn't need to eat, Zhou He pondered for a moment and focused his gaze on the peaks on both sides of the bay in the distance. His port area had excellent terrain, but in the current state of complete lack of defense, even the best terrain was useless.

Yesterday's mission rewards included a number of selectable research blueprints, which are perfect for exploring the mountain and putting the air defense position project on the agenda.

"Meow?"

Akashi perked up. She had only advised Zhou He earlier because she could use his words as a shield to slack off and joke around anytime, anywhere. She had no intention of cheering him on at all. Why did she suddenly want to go mountain climbing?

"Actually, I haven't conducted any on-site reconnaissance of the terrain around our port area. There probably won't be any opportunities to launch an attack anytime soon, so I'd like to take a walk around and take a look."

Zhou He is known for his honesty. He believes that as long as he explains his reasons, his ship girls have an 80% or higher chance of agreeing with his proposition.

"Is this the kind of work the commander is supposed to do, meow?"

Akashi scratched her head: "Isn't this the work of the exploration team, meow?"

However, she quickly realized that there wasn't a single living creature in her port area when she returned. There wasn't even a reconnaissance team or anyone guarding the port.

Seeing that she had fallen into a daze while speaking, Zhou He knew that she had figured it out. Without explaining, he walked out of the open space between the command post and the canteen and looked around to find the mountain peaks. When he looked out from behind the forest earlier, he had simply remembered some things, such as that these mountains looked very steep from below, but in fact there were places to rest at every interval of altitude, and the top of the mountain was even more gentle. Even if there were trees growing there, they could be used as greenery to cover the position.

This is, after all, something created by the system. It has everything that should be there, and as for things that shouldn't be there—we haven't found anything that shouldn't be there yet.

"Commander~ For something this important, you should call on the others, meow. Akashi is a repair ship, she has no combat capability, meow."

Following Zhou He, Ming Shi followed in a soft voice. This wasn't because she wanted to slack off, but rather a sincere reminder. All she had acquired were memories and knowledge related to repairing and assisting ships in combat. Not to mention encountering Sirens, even if she encountered large carnivores like lions or tigers on land, she wouldn't dare to be the first to step forward.

"Don't worry, I'll call Kursk; she's very familiar with the mountain forests."

After a brief consideration, Zhou He chose the hill near the ship port platform. The reason was simple: it was very close, and the ship port was part of the port area, so the hill was practically right at his doorstep.

"?"

Akashi turned her head away without speaking. She hadn't actually memorized everyone in the port yet. She thought someone had mentioned the name Kursk yesterday, but she hadn't seen her in person and couldn't imagine how a ship girl so familiar with mountainous forests could be.

Without further ado, Zhou He glanced at the angle of the sun, opened the dock and locked the Kursk icon. After hesitating for a moment, he first sent a command saying "Let's discuss this," and then walked to the entrance of the command post before turning on the video function.

The scene before him blurred, and Zhou He saw Kursk's figure. She was sitting at her desk in the room, wearing a trench coat and wiping and maintaining her claw-like glove armor. This made Zhou He glance at the sharp horns on the top of her head. These things couldn't be removed. If he encountered someone taller than Kursk with her horns, it would be a serious accident if he accidentally poked her during a conversation.

"what's the matter?"

Kursk tilted his gaze slightly, noticing the change in Zhou He's eyes, and then reached out to touch the pointed horn on his head, saying, "These horns are also a type of weapon, Commander, you should know that, right?"

"knew."

Zhou He naturally understood this. He often watched Ultraman and knew that these metal horns, in addition to physical damage, were also highly likely to cause scientific and magical damage, such as both horns glowing at the same time, which could lower the surrounding temperature or condense ice pillars to fly into the sky and stab people.

Why would he think that way? Because Azur Lane has the nickname "Magic Lane".

Although his ship girls seem to be doing well now, the future is uncertain—after all, he is compatible with the meta series, and those guys are all incredibly capable. If others can do it, there's no reason why his ship girls can't.

Zhou He didn't like to discuss the physical characteristics of his ship girls too much, so he got back to the main topic: "I'm planning to find a mountaintop to plan out a defensive position. Do you have time?"

"Hold on."

Kursk responded, put on the claws and twisted them to test them. After confirming there was nothing wrong, she took them off and placed them on the table. She got up and took off her trench coat. The screen next to her turned off in time. She glanced at it and took out her camouflage uniform for hunting from the wardrobe.

On the other side, Akashi, who had witnessed Zhou He paving roads and building defenses and shipyards with his bare hands, was not at all surprised that Zhou He could communicate with Kursk from a distance. However, when Zhou He's gaze was fixed on a certain place, she turned her gaze to his eyes and saw a light shining deep within them.

"Commander, may I examine your body, meow?"

Waiting for Zhou He to regain his composure, Akashi couldn't wait to ask. She reached out and touched Zhou He's palm, and after confirming that it was at a normal human temperature, she even wanted to lift up Zhou He's clothes to see if he was a pure human.

"Of course, but we'll have to wait until the port area has the corresponding equipment."

Zhou He grabbed Akashi's hand as she tried to lift her clothes and patted her head instead.

Even if Akashi doesn't say it, he will have Akashi thoroughly examine his body later to see if this system is a black technology program implanted in his body or a void creation bound to his spirit and soul.

"Meow meow meow."

Because he often practiced his techniques on Yuudachi, Zhou He's head-patting skills were already highly refined. Akashi was obviously unable to resist and became dazed after being shaken for a while. Zhou He even took the opportunity to pinch her ear, and the feeling was so soothing that it could heal the soul.

Although to outsiders it might seem like Zhou He was bullying the child.

……

"Where are the Commander, Kursk, and Akashi dressed like that going?"

Everyone eats at a different pace. Yuudachi, who was used to eating large chunks of meat, was full in no time. With a bone in his mouth and grinding his teeth, he walked out of the restaurant looking for Zhou He's whereabouts. He soon discovered that Zhou He was leading Kursk, who was dressed in camouflage, from the command post toward the newly appeared complex of buildings.

"Who?"

The newly joined members were all unfamiliar with Kursk, and upon hearing Yuudachi's words, they all stopped eating, either looking out the window or coming directly to the gate to observe.

"He really is a strange guy."

Harman glanced at it and turned away, but unable to contain his curiosity, he took a few steps and walked around to the door again. He leaned against the door and peeked out, muttering to himself as he asked Yuudachi, "Those two seem to get along very well, but why are they avoiding us? They're clearly colleagues from the same port district, yet they haven't even met or talked to each other."

"do not know."

Yuudachi gritted her teeth. Kursk hadn't left a good impression on her when they first met. She didn't dislike him, but she didn't like him either.

"Huh~ Yuudachi doesn't know either?"

Javelin was also eavesdropping and was quite surprised by Yuudachi's answer, even though she was the initial ship.

"Hey, it's not that mysterious. Just think of Kursk as this guy with social anxiety."

Zuikaku had almost finished eating and was now swirling a wine glass full of juice in her hand. Listening to the destroyers' quiet conversation, she spoke up, raised her glass, and gestured towards Tosa.

"Social anxiety, social phobia? Oh, so it's just that you're not good at communicating with people?"

Zuikaku's words caused Javelin, Haman, and even Jintsu to glance at Tosa, who remained calm but whose eyebrows twitched violently: "I really hope you can think before you speak next time."

"Next time for sure. Tosa, you met her before with the Commander. What was it like?"

Zuikaku snapped his fingers with a smile and even started interviewing Tosa.

"You're all really curious, why don't you chase after her now? The Commander is here too, she probably won't leave immediately."

Tosa ignored Zuikaku, picked up a napkin to wipe his mouth, put it down, stood up, tucked his sword back into his waistband, and walked out of the restaurant.

Everyone was interested in her suggestion, but after exchanging glances, Hamman and Javelin and the others returned to their own table. After all, the fact that Zhou He didn't introduce Kursk already said something, and if they insisted on following him, they would only cause trouble for Zhou He or Kursk.

Even Harman wouldn't be stupid enough to do something like that.

"Hmm~"

Yuudachi watched Tosa's retreating figure, then crushed the bone in one bite, hopped two steps onto the lawn, and cheerfully followed in Tosa's footsteps.

Chapter Sixty-Three: The Idea is Simple

"Speaking of defensive fortifications, there are readily available machine tools and materials here. Akashi, can you design some coastal defense weapons on your own?"

The three people traveling together, from left to right, were Akashi, Zhou He, and Kursk, each taller than the last. As they walked through the harbor near the modern industrial base, Zhou He looked around and casually started a conversation with Akashi.

He also needs to consume research blueprints and related components to develop weapons using the system. For example, a coastal defense gun requires one main gun component and one research blueprint of the corresponding specification, and the same applies to an anti-aircraft gun.

If it's a one-time development and no further blueprints are needed, Zhou He could easily create them by hand. However, judging from the fact that the patrol boat on the shore wasn't retained after its development, this system inherits the tradition from the game of having to submit materials for each development.

It's fine if they give a lot of parts from dismantling ships, but they only give one general research blueprint per ship. There must be at least twenty or thirty anti-aircraft guns in each defensive position, right? How many Siren corpses will he have to loot?

"Hmm, designing from scratch is a bit tricky, meow."

Akashi put her hands in her sleeves, thought for a moment, and turned to look at Zhou He: "If the Commander can give me design drawings or actual samples for reference, I can give it a try, meow."

"That's fine... well, there are still some issues. We'll discuss them in more detail later."

Hearing Akashi's words, Zhou He was pleasantly surprised and was about to agree when he suddenly remembered that all the cannons in his system were for use on ships. It might not be ideal to move them directly to land and make some minor adjustments.

Before transmigrating, he was a struggling writer who did research a lot of random information to write novels. However, the most popular novels on the market were fantasy and magic-based power systems, and he focused his efforts in that direction. He knew absolutely nothing about hardcore gun and cannon parameters.

Who would have thought that time travel actually exists? It's truly baffling.

"..."

Kursk had no intention of joining the conversation. What bothered her more was that something seemed to be watching her from behind. So, as she passed a green area, she bent down and picked a leaf with her hand, glancing behind her out of the corner of her eye: about twenty meters away, Tosa was staring intently at her. This feeling was familiar, just like when she spotted a highly wary creature in the forest and would observe it closely to prevent losing it.

But how can you track your prey if you can't even hide your own scent?

"Commander, someone is following us. May I leave for a moment?"

It seemed that Tosa wanted to play a game of hunter and prey with her, so Kursk thought for a moment, reminded her, and consulted Zhou He.

"Hmm? There's no need to avoid this, is there?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou He turned around and saw Tosa striding towards him and Yuudachi teasing the flowers and plants beside him. After speaking, he received no reply, so he looked at Kursk again and noticed a slight change in Kursk's expression. Kursk said thoughtfully, "Don't go too far."

Upon receiving the reply, Kursk's lips curled slightly upward. He turned around, using the small trees in the green area as cover, and with a quick movement, disappeared into the alley next to him.

"So fast, meow!"

Akashi glanced sideways at them. She could do these actions too, but they were troublesome and tiring. It would be better to walk slowly and feel which spot had the most comfortable sunlight and was the most suitable for resting.

"Kursk told me she was a hunter, but she was not quite the hunter I had in mind."

Zhou He was used to it. If he had Kursk's physical abilities, he would definitely do the same thing: suddenly hide and make others search for him.

As for why Kursk walked so fast, it was most likely because of Tosa behind them—Zhou He glanced back and saw that Tosa had indeed disappeared as well. Yuudachi was left somewhat at a loss, but after noticing Zhou He's gaze, she immediately ran over sneakily: "Commander~ Where are you going?"

"Go there and have a look."

Zhou He pointed to the distant mountains, then reached out and pressed down on Xi Li's shoulder as she ran over, earnestly instructing, "Don't run around like this right after eating; it's bad for your stomach."

"Yes~"

Yuudachi didn't understand what Zhou He was talking about, but she agreed anyway. After that, she blinked and looked at Akashi next to her: "Akashi, do you also like mountain climbing?"

I don't like cats.

Akashi shook her head very honestly, raised her hand and shook her sleeve, pointing with her fair finger to the bench by the roadside: "I like sunbathing, it looks so comfortable there, meow."

"Oh? I also like sunbathing, it's warm and makes me sleep well."

Upon hearing this similar statement, Yuudachi instantly forgot that she had come along to prevent Zhou He from falling for feline ship girls. She quickly ran to the bench, sat down, squinted her eyes, and invited Zhou He and Akashi to come and sunbathe together.