Revisit Azur Lane

However, he couldn't say it, as it would damage his image as a commander. After calming down, he gave Zuikaku a composed smile, found a stool to sit on, put his hands together to support his chin, squinted, and brought up the system interface, directly locking onto the 'Research' and 'Dock' functions. With a simple selection, he went straight to the dock.

The empty dock only contained the portraits of three ship girls: Yuudachi, Hermione, and Zuikaku. Originally, there were only portrait illustrations, but now each person's portrait had two additional green and blue horizontal bars below it. Yuudachi's green bar was slightly damaged, while her blue bar was reduced by more than half. The other two also suffered slight damage.

A new 'Supplies' option has been added to the bottom right corner, making it easy to understand.

"We have a solution, so there shouldn't be any major problems."

Zhou He breathed a slight sigh of relief and tentatively clicked on the supply option. A pop-up appeared offering the option to repair ship equipment and ammunition by consuming '5 combat supply vouchers', with a helpful explanation provided afterward:

This material can be obtained after defeating the Siren fleet. One warship is worth 1 point. Dragging its wreckage back to the port and dismantling it will yield double the points and ship-related materials.

"Supplies are so expensive, and is there a feature to loot corpses?"

Zhou He covered his mouth. In the upper right corner of the selection options, there was a prompt that he had 9 points available. He directly selected to replenish (9-5=4).

"Huh!?"

As Ruihe sat sideways on the chair waiting for Zhou He's response, she suddenly noticed blue light spots appearing beside her and uncontrollably merging into her body. At the same time, she could clearly sense that the ammunition and shells consumed in the previous battle had been replenished.

The feeling was so strange that she couldn't help but reach out and put her hand on Zhou He's shoulder, asking, "Commander! What are you doing?"

"Yes, it's a secret."

Zhou He glanced sideways, wanting to feign nonchalance, but unexpectedly Rui He leaned in close. Her perfect face, radiating youthful energy yet exuding an air of authority, displayed a curious and excited expression, her eyes sparkling. Zhou He couldn't find the words to describe the beauty Rui He evoked in him at that moment; he only felt his cheeks burning, and the beautiful words he was about to say were swallowed back down.

"Hey~ Tell me, could it be that the Commander isn't actually an ordinary human like us?"

Zhou He's cheeks visibly became rosy, but Ruihe didn't care about the change at all. She kept asking questions and expressing her own opinions, directly changing Zhou He's essence to non-human.

"Miss Zuikaku? Please calm down, you've frightened the Commander."

Hermione, who had just finished getting ready upstairs and changed into a warm yellow loungewear, came to the kitchen upon hearing the noise. She immediately saw Zhou He, who was on the verge of crashing, and Ruihe, who was in high spirits. She quickly stepped forward and separated the two of them: "I felt it too. It was the Commander who used a peculiar method to replenish our ammunition, right?"

“The commander isn’t so easily scared. You know, after I finished talking to the commander about the supplies, the commander sat there in a daze for a while and then this strange thing happened.”

Ruihe had no idea how much pressure she had put on Zhou He. After being separated, she sat back in her chair, straddling him and leaning forward while talking to Hermione.

“I’ve already experienced it, and it is indeed amazing. But Miss Zuikaku, have you ever thought about how we would resupply ammunition given the sophistication of our ship equipment, since we are not real warships?”

Hermione gently wiped the sweat from Zhou He's face and forehead with the towel around his neck, and then asked Ruihe in a serious tone.

"Of course, yes, uh, disassemble the ship's equipment?"

When asked, Zuikaku instinctively wanted to answer, but she inherited the memories of the sea behemoth 'aircraft carrier Zuikaku'. All she had were common sense about normal aircraft carrier resupply. She was born knowing how to use the ship's equipment, but when asked how to resupply, she knew nothing.

"That's right! It's because Commander has the special ability to simplify complex tasks and can help us quickly complete ammunition preparation and ship equipment maintenance that Commander is our commander!"

Hermione stated what she believed to be the truth in a very serious manner.

After all, Zhou He was able to wake her up here without any external devices, which is a dreamlike existence. It's normal for him to have this level of ability, right?

"So this is ah!"

Zuikaku pounded his right hand with his left, then suddenly realized: "No wonder I knew the Commander was the Commander even though no one explained it."

"..."

Having regained his senses, Zhou He listened to their conversation but didn't know how to respond. He could only sigh inwardly that he was still too naive and lacked self-control, and that he needed to improve in this area in the future.

After the two finished speaking, he stood up, thanked Hermione, and invited her to dine with him. Then he saw Yuudachi sitting by the hot pot, eating beef and breathing heavily. Yuudachi quickly noticed his gaze, swallowed the meat in his mouth, pointed at the hot pot with his chopsticks, and said to Zhou He and the other two, "Aren't you eating? It's delicious."

"Eat! This is the first time I've ever eaten anything."

As Zuikaku spoke, he skillfully used the bowl and chopsticks to search for prey in the pot.

"Let's have dinner together."

Seeing this, Zhou He invited Hermione again, and the maid readily agreed. So the four of them sat around the dining table and enjoyed their belated lunch.

Chapter Thirteen: Construction Begins with Paving the Road

After a satisfying meal, Zhou He casually inquired about the three of them and discovered that the ingredients exchanged in the Homestead System did indeed increase the ship girls' satiety level.

It was at least three times more, because the amount of food he prepared this time was only slightly more than when Yuudachi was alone, but all three of them were full—even though the previous food was also prepared by the system, is this the difference between spending money and not spending money?

"Thank you."

After putting the pots and pans back in their proper places, Zhou He turned around and thanked Hermione, who was wiping her hands, for helping him clear away the dishes.

"Hmm~ I'm happy to be able to help the Commander."

Hermione's soft silver hair cascaded over her shoulders, a faint smile on her face as she touched her hands in front of her: "It's amazing, isn't it? I've never received any similar education, yet I can handle housework skillfully. Is it simply because I have an interest in this area?"

"Well, maybe."

Zhou He chuckled awkwardly. He couldn't really say for sure. The game didn't explain why the Royal Maid Corps was a maid corps. If it was due to historical reasons, he would know even less.

The two chatted as they walked out of the kitchen. Yuudachi and Zuikaku, who had just been rubbing their stomachs and saying they were full, were nowhere to be seen. Zhou He subconsciously walked outside. The afternoon sun was still very bright. Zhou He, who had changed from short sleeves and shorts into a formal military uniform, felt a little hot. He casually unbuttoned his clothes and took a few steps when he heard voices coming from next to the command post. He went over and saw Yuudachi and Zuikaku sunbathing on freshly dried bedding, their hands behind their heads and their eyes squinting, looking very comfortable.

"You two have worked hard, would you like to lie down for a while?"

Ruihe glanced at Zhou He and his companion out of the corner of his eye, then casually extended an invitation with a shrug.

"Yes, Hermione, you've worked hard too, take a rest."

Zhou He naturally wouldn't lie down with them, but instead casually sat down on the grass nearby. The command post was situated on higher ground than the sea, and from this angle, one could look up and see the beautiful bay shimmering in the distance. If it weren't for the sirens and only the ship girls, it would truly be a vacation.

What a pity.

Thinking of this, he hesitated for a moment and asked Hermione, who was sitting on the cushion with her legs wrapped around her, and the two lying down, "Today you sank nine Sirens' ships. I want to ask if you can tow back the Sirens that are no longer able to fight?"

Do you want the materials recycled?

Zuikaku opened his eyes a crack and answered casually, "I could try with a destroyer, but I probably couldn't tow a larger ship."

"Can't it move? Is the power insufficient?"

Zhou He was quite surprised. Putting aside Yuudachi and Hermione for the moment, Zuikaku was an aircraft carrier! How could an aircraft carrier not be able to tow a destroyer?

"Yes."

Hermione answered on behalf of Zuikaku: "In terms of combat alone, we are not inferior to normal warships, but the actual tonnage of our ship equipment is far less than that of normal warships. As a result, we have also lost the horsepower of normal warships, and our battlefield rescue capabilities have been greatly reduced."

"That's what's going on."

Zhou He understood. It seemed that ship girl transformation wasn't all about strengthening; there might have been fatal weakening in areas he didn't usually notice—for example, the ship ammunition replenishment Hermione mentioned before dinner. Without a system, he couldn't understand how to replenish ship ammunition. Shells that could change size anywhere but maintain the same power? It all seemed exaggerated.

"So the commander needs to recruit other people to join as soon as possible. At least a simple squadron is needed for naval operations."

Ruihe, driven by personal motives, urged Zhou He to recruit more people and quickly bring Xianghe over as well.

Zhou He could only laugh at this. He did want to recruit more ship girls, but they could only be built from cubes obtained from missions or dropped from fighting Sirens. He had to study these carefully.

The idea of ​​looting the Sirens' corpses wasn't feasible for the time being, but Zhou He didn't care too much. Supply points were given as long as you fought Sirens, and he didn't need to go to the drop-off materials at this stage. However, his family had increased from 2 to 4 people. There was nothing at the command post, so he had to think of something to do outside of combat to keep everyone from getting bored. They couldn't just come out to sunbathe every day after eating.

"Are there any tools I can use to kill time...?"

Basking in the sun and feeling the breeze, Zhou He focused his consciousness on the system's Home Shop and started browsing. Although he only had 2 Home Coins now, he could receive 3 coins every day from now on, so he could look at items ranging from 1 to 5 Home Coins.

Five Homestead Coins can be exchanged for one acre of vegetable plot, which he really wanted to do, but after thinking about it carefully, he realized he didn't know how to grow vegetables at all, and learning this would only waste his personal time. He needed to find a more team-oriented approach.

He couldn't find it in the range of 1 to 5, so he moved back a little and found a good thing for 8 Homeland Coins: a hot spring.

With 8 Home Points, you can buy even more things, such as a small summer beach vacation package or a gazebo where you can hold tea parties, but none of these are as attractive to him as the hot springs: there are two types of hot springs with 8 Home Points, namely winter hot springs surrounded by vegetation and stone streetlights, and single hot springs simply enclosed by stones.

"There's nothing to cover you up, how thoughtful of you."

Zhou He gently rubbed his chin; the stubble was a bit prickly. He wasn't alone anymore, and he needed to pay attention to his appearance from now on.

He lowered his hand, looked at Zuikaku and Yuudachi who seemed to be asleep, stood up and extended his hand to Hermione: "Hermione, how about we go for a walk around the island?"

"I'd be happy to."

Hermione stood up, taking Zhou He's hand, smoothed out the wrinkles in her clothes, and followed him with a smile as they ventured deeper into the island.

On this side closer to the bay, the terrain rises higher as you go in, but the distribution is very regular. The area around the command post is all grass and no weeds or trees, except for the primeval forest at the foot of the innermost mountain.

“Construction of the port area has not yet begun. Hermione, what do you think we should focus on at this stage? Increasing personnel is not an issue.”

Looking down at the perfect lawn where one could fall asleep anytime, Zhou He casually picked a topic to start chatting.

He wanted to build hot springs, but he also had to consider the thoughts of his ship girls. After all, the so-called port area was a place he, as the logistics director, had built for his ship girls to live in, and the needs of the ship girls were the top priority—they could seek their own happiness later when they had spare money.

"Hmm, this is a real problem."

Hermione squinted and thought for a while but still had no clue. She had no experience in infrastructure construction either. She glanced back at the bare command post and then at the distant mountains around her: "Sure enough, it's a road."

"Start with paving the roads?"

Zhou He was somewhat surprised, but upon closer inspection, he realized there was a reason for it. Once the road was paved, a rough layout could be drawn up around the command post, providing a framework for building pavilions, gardens, hot springs, and other structures.

He clapped his hands happily and said to Hermione, "That works! It was definitely the right thing to do to ask Hermione."

"It is my honor to be able to help the commander solve his problems."

Hermione smiled faintly. She felt that Zhou He might have misunderstood her, but what did it matter? The road was made step by step, and she only needed to point out the direction when Zhou He was confused.

"Let's pave the road and go take a look over there."

Zhou He nodded more and more as he thought about it, and couldn't wait to start exploring the best road layout.

"Ah."

Hermione followed closely behind, watching Zhou He's cheerful expression, her beautiful eyes also filled with a smile.

Chapter Fourteen: The Basic Qualities of a Commander

The command post was surrounded by a large area of ​​grassland with varying elevations. Even Zhou He, who had never formally worked in civil engineering, could easily visualize a 'reasonable' road layout in his mind.

However, port development and road construction are matters closely related to the future of the port area, so he was not in a hurry to make a decision. He planned to spend time exchanging relevant books from the home store to study before making a decision.

Before transmigrating, he had already suffered enough from starting things without proper preparation, so at least here he needed to be relatively better.

With a general direction in mind, Zhou He felt much more at ease—after all, it was his first time being a commander, and he wanted to experience everything and buy every building, but when it came to actually taking action, he couldn't find a starting point, which was very frustrating.

The entire afternoon was spent leisurely in this contemplation and rest. As the sun gradually set outside, the command post became the only source of light on the entire island.