Revisit Azur Lane

"Sister Akagi, aren't you trusting them too much?"

Kaga frowned. She wouldn't stop Akagi from forming a cooperative relationship with the Sirens, but leaving even this kind of thing to the Sirens to clean up was far too dangerous.

"Then, go ahead."

Akagi casually flicked his hand: "Make sure it's clean."

"understood."

Kaga turned and quickly disappeared, leaving Akagi alone to observe the battle, a smile playing on his lips, his narrow eyes half-closed, lost in thought.

……

"Commander, I see clearly now. It's the Sakura Empire's forces leading the Sirens to besiege the Eagle Union's fleet! The Eagle Union's carriers even offered to cover me so I could observe the battle."

Long Island's second batch of carrier-based aircraft suffered another complete loss. Such a loss rate would make any normal logistics manager furious and cursing, but for Zhou He, it was a common occurrence. He even felt that he had discovered intelligence and made a profit.

Upon hearing Long Island's excited report, Zhou He stroked his chin: "So, at least the people in the White Eagle Fleet are normal ship girls."

"Not only that."

Hood picked up the thread: "The fact that these White Eagle ship girls are covering Long Island's reconnaissance planes shows that they have seriously considered the possibility that Long Island might bring reinforcements to support them. This kind of thinking indicates that they have a huge force behind them, capable of easily dealing with these mass-produced and executor forces."

"Then it can only be state power."

Zhou He understood, his eyes flashing: "These Eagle Union ship girls come from the complete Eagle Union faction, while the Sakura Empire ship girls are mixed with the Sirens, and are most likely pawns produced in the Sirens' Mirror Sea."

In the game, some members of Sakura Empire and Iron Blood have formed cooperative relationships with the Sirens. However, even so, they would not openly join forces with the Sirens to attack other factions' fleets. Considering interests and international relations, this situation would certainly not occur in the real world.

Therefore, the best way for him to obtain the mission reward is to eliminate the Sirens and Sakura Empire's pawns by assisting the White Eagle.

As for how to allocate the support personnel, he needs to think about it carefully.

In the game, Royal Navy and Eagle Union are in the same faction in Azur Lane, while Iron Blood and Sakura Empire belong to the Red Axis. To avoid friendly fire, he decided to provide support from this faction.

"Although it's a bit rushed, Hood, Hermione, and Long Island, you should head to the Siren base from yesterday and meet up with Bismarck and the others. I will give you the next instructions after Zuikaku has explored the situation in the Western District 4."

Although Zhou He doesn't trust ship girls outside his own territory, he won't let legitimate ship girls be sunk by the Sirens right before his eyes, especially considering the mission rewards and the possibility of learning about this world from the Eagle Union fleet.

This support operation is imperative.

However, after saying that, he looked up at the sky and said, "Before we set off, let's go to the restaurant and have Manju make some bento boxes. Now that we have the means, we can't let everyone fight on an empty stomach anymore."

"Commander, isn't it unsafe for you to be home alone? How about we go together?"

Long Island glanced at the empty, deserted port area and made a suggestion.

"Don't worry, I have other arrangements."

Zhou He smiled confidently.

He still has reserve personnel who haven't come out yet.

Chapter Sixty-Eight Sister Ships

Under Zhou He's persuasion and arrangement, Hood, Long Island, and Hermione set off from the port area carrying large and small bags of lunch boxes.

After everyone from the port area had been dispatched, Akashi belatedly found Zhou He by the sea. She remembered that Zhou He's earlier arrangements included having a few people left to watch over the house together.

"There's been a little unexpected situation. I need to ask Hood and the others to go out and help out."

Seeing Akashi's slightly tense expression, Zhou He smiled and reached out to ruffle her hair: "Don't worry, Kursk is still inside the port area. You don't need to go out to fight the enemy if they approach."

"Meow~"

Hearing Zhou He say that, Akashi was instantly relieved. She leisurely wagged her tail, then suddenly straightened it, and hastily spoke up to defend herself: "Even if the enemy attacks, I will not abandon the Commander and run away by myself, meow!"

Although this statement was somewhat like protesting too much, Zhou He was still quite pleased to hear it.

After offering some words of comfort to Akashi, Zhou He took a stroll along the beach in the bay, but his attention was focused on the system map. Following his instructions, Bismarck and the others had already arrived near the Siren base, while the fast-moving destroyers such as Yuudachi had also reached the edge of the West Third District and were about to illuminate the West Fourth District.

As for the White Eagle fleet that was engaged in fierce fighting, his map did not show that far. He could only see the Siren fleets in the East and North regions constantly being attracted by the sounds from that direction and converging. From the map, the Siren icon looked like a zombie in the Resident Evil game, attracted by the sound and approaching in an attempt to surround the source of the sound.

The reconnaissance report from Long Island revealed that the Eagle Union fleet in the North Fourth and even North Fifth districts was not surrounded by Sirens. They were facing Sirens from the North Third district and the eastern flank. The number of Sirens was at least in the hundreds. With so many Sirens, it was impossible for the Eagle Union fleet with its aircraft carriers not to have detected them. Therefore, it was highly likely that they were suddenly thrown into the Mirror Sea. Moreover, these Eagle Union ship girls were extremely powerful and did not panic or succumb to defeat even when facing Sirens that were nearly ten times their size.

"The number of sirens is really exaggerated, almost the same as in the game."

Zhou He curled his lips. In the game, you need to fight 5 to 6 ships in one map to fight the boss. In total, you need to fight 6 to 7 battles to defeat nearly a hundred Sirens. It's similar here. The area occupied by Sirens has at least fifty or sixty mass-produced Sirens. When combined with the Executors, it easily exceeds a hundred.

In the game, if a ship girl is sunk, she's just heavily damaged. But in reality, if she's sunk, she's gone. The difficulty is much higher. Even if he had fifteen ship girls, he would have to be careful. That Eagle Union fleet was really unlucky.

While he was observing and thinking, the destroyer squadron had already entered the West Fourth District. Then, under his watchful eye, Yuudachi and the others turned back directly to the West Third District, and Zuikaku's carrier-based aircraft stopped moving after flying very far.

Was it shot down?

Zhou He immediately recognized that the 3D figure staring at Zuikaku had activated the video. The scene flashed before his eyes, and on the screen in front of him, Zuikaku appeared with a furrowed brow. This was the second time he had seen Zuikaku looking so serious. Before he could even take a second look, Zuikaku noticed him, her furrowed brows relaxing as she looked at him with a rather helpless expression: "Could it be that you found out again, Commander?"

"I didn't see anything this time; your carrier-based aircraft were shot down too quickly."

Zhou He shook his head: "What's over there? A legitimate Siren base?"

"...You really didn't see it?"

Ruihe looked suspicious, to which Zhou He innocently shrugged: "I really guessed this time. There is no mirror-like sea area over there, and it is impossible for ordinary sirens to shoot down your reconnaissance plane so quickly. With such strong defensive capabilities, it can only be a regular base."

"So simple?"

Zuikaku still couldn't accept it; wasn't this reasoning formula too arbitrary?

"Don't dwell on these details. Take Yuudachi and the others to our second base to meet up with Hood and Bismarck. There's a new mission for you."

Zhou He dropped the topic. He had indeed guessed, but he hadn't expected to guess correctly so quickly, which gave him quite a headache. Hu De's plan to move westward to find land was directly overturned.

"Hmm? We're going to war with the Sirens?"

Upon hearing about the new mission, Zuikaku's eyes lit up instantly. At this stage, besides exploration missions, they only had attack missions left. Although she didn't understand why Zhou He suddenly changed his mind, she was looking for a perfect opportunity to vent her anger on the Sirens.

"More or less, you'll know the details when you get back."

Zhou He stroked his chin. Although he had said to Hu De that the Sakura Empire ship girls on the battlefield were Sirens' pawns, he, who knew some secrets (game plot), could not be completely sure whether the Sakura Empire ship girls mixed with the Sirens were pawns or real ship girls.

"clear."

After Zuikaku smiled and answered, she glanced sideways and whispered a few words. Zhou He guessed that she was passing a message to Yuudachi and the others. After she finished speaking, he waved to her before disconnecting the video call. He put one hand on his hip and looked into the depths of the sea, pondering whether to awaken a new ship girl to join the crew.

Before a decision is made, it is a question; but when it arises as a question, the answer becomes obvious.

“Build x4”.

Zhou He switched to the construction interface and put all four remaining cubes into use—the stored cubes are equivalent to reserve combat power. Now is the time when we lack ship girl combat power to fight the Sirens. When is a better time to use them?

boom.

The heavy iron gates of the construction interface clashed together, and Zhou He, who had become accustomed to the system's characteristics, simply closed his eyes.

The sea breeze gently caressed his face, and the familiar salty smell filled his nose. Faintly, Zhou He heard the clear and melodious sound of a flute coming from afar, and the rustling footsteps were close at hand.

He opened his eyes. The sun was high in the sky above the bay. He turned around and, without realizing it, four different figures appeared on the beach and walked toward him from a distance.

"Yay! Comrade Commander!"

The girl at the front was wearing a very strange outfit. It looked like she was wearing full-body stockings, but upon closer inspection, you could see that the colors of her upper and lower body were slightly different. Her upper body was made of leather and didn't have any particularly revealing or revealing features. What was more noteworthy was that she was wearing white shorts, a white tall hat unique to the Northern Union, and a loose trench coat draped over her back.

"Speaking of the Northern Alliance's super genius mechanic, that's me. Let me test you, Commander, do you know my name?"

Slightly shorter than Zhou He, about 165cm tall, a girl with light yellow pigtails and a delicate and cute appearance like a doll stood three steps away from Zhou He, one hand on her hip and the other lifting the side of her trench coat, with a proud and bright smile on her face.

"Sensitive".

Zhou He pondered for a moment, then quickly remembered the name of the girl in front of him. There weren't many Northern Alliance ships implemented in the game, and he didn't remember many of them either. This was a destroyer that appeared alongside a certain colorful ship with an awkward name—the Kiev was also released at the same time.

He remembered clearly that before this event began, the North Union, whose world had already fractured, was embroiled in internal strife, with Kyiv being one of the focal points of the conflict. Various sarcastic remarks flew around, making it arguably the most memorable North Union event he had ever attended.

"correct!"

Lingmin snapped her fingers, placed her hand on her chest, and proudly introduced herself: "I am Lingmin, a super genius mechanic from the Northern Alliance! If any machine in the port malfunctions, Commander, feel free to come find me!"

"Yes, welcome to the team."

Zhou He didn't dislike lively girls. After a brief self-introduction, he shook hands with Ling Min, then pointed to the dock platform and said, "Our port's resources are stored there. If you're interested, you can use them freely. In return, I'll leave the mechanical maintenance of that area to you. How about that?"

"no problem!"

Ling Min glanced at the crane and other machinery, her eyes gleaming: "I'll make sure they work at full capacity every day!"

"rely on you."

Zhou He didn't remember what the workload was like at his own shipyard, but since Ling Min said so, he had to cooperate to some extent.

Having received the task assignment, Lingmin excitedly ran towards the dock platform. In that instant, she had many wonderful ideas and couldn't wait to bring them to fruition.

While Zhou He and Ling Min were talking, the other three had already arrived in front of him. Suppressing the smiles on their faces, Zhou He spread his hands towards the three of them: "My name is Zhou He, and I am the commander of this port area. Welcome to our port."

"I don't know what a body like that can do."

The girl, dressed in a black dress with a red Ironblood flag apron around her neck, calmly gazed at Zhou He, her tone as calm as her expression beneath her silver-white hair with red highlights: "But I will do my utmost to fulfill your orders, Commander."

“I look forward to your performance, Admiral Earl Spee.”

Zhou He nodded to Spee, then turned to the red-eyed girl with airplane ears and long silver hair beside him: "Montpellier, Cleveland is currently on a mission outside. I will arrange for you to meet up with him later."

"understood."

Montpellier, who had a slightly Sakura Empire style, nodded: "Please let my older sister Cleveland accompany me on future missions."

"Will do."

Zhou He hummed in agreement. She remembered that all of Cleveland's younger sisters were doting on their older sister. As long as Cleveland was around, it was like having the instruction manual for their family, which was ridiculously convenient.

After finishing his conversation with Count Spee and Admiral Montpellier, Zhou He looked at the last silver-haired girl holding a flute. Her crane-wing sleeves already indicated her identity. Her bright blue eyes radiated a soft light, and when her eyes met Zhou He's, the corners of her lips curved into a gentle smile. Unlike the lively and warlike Zuikaku, she could make people feel what a Yamato Nadeshiko was just by standing there.

"It seems like this will be a big surprise for Zuikaku."

Zhou He had previously argued with Ruihe about wanting Xianghe to cook for him, but when he actually faced Xianghe, he didn't have anything special to say. He just really wanted to see how Ruihe would behave when she met Xianghe.

"Really? That child arrived before me. Thank you for your trouble, Commander."

Xianghe's eyes flickered, and he bowed slightly to Zhou He while holding the bamboo flute in both hands.

"Don't be so formal. Zuikaku has helped me a lot. I should really thank her."