Revisit Azur Lane

"spa?"

Yuudachi tilted his head, and Zhou He smiled as he pointed to the stream flowing down from the mountaintop: "This is an important freshwater resource for the entire mountain. If I were to dig a hot spring here, it would seriously affect the ecological environment, so it won't work."

"Oh, is that so?"

Yuudachi then gave up swimming and, after Tosa let go, skipped over to Zhou He and squatted down, pointing at the fish swimming and hiding in the pool: "Commander, are these our ingredients?"

"Yes."

Zhou He smiled and ruffled Xi Li's hair: "But that's not enough."

His gaze shifted to the Home Mall, where he purchased rice, vegetable sets, beef, and seasonings. He also bought six Wilderness Kits (tent, sleeping bag, small chair, oil lamp, insect repellent spray, etc.), spending a total of ten Home Coins.

He usually saves up home coins to build more public facilities, but since he's out having fun, he'll definitely have to spend a little.

"Commander, don't slack off! Let's go collect some branches to cook!"

On the other side, after Harman helped Hermione set up a simple open-air kitchen (three pots and bowls), she found Zhou He and the others who were watching the pool. With her hands on her hips, she gave orders in a soft voice, as if she were coaxing him. This soothed Zhou He's spirits, so he stood up and raised his hands: "Okay! Now let's start dividing up the work. Those who are setting up tents here, raise your left hand. Those who are going to collect firewood, raise your right hand."

The team quickly split into two groups. Hermione, Bismarck, Jintsu, Shoukaku, Zuikaku, and Cleveland Montpellier set up tents at the camp, while Zhou He led the remaining destroyers out to gather firewood. Incidentally, Tosa, who hadn't raised his hand, joined Zhou He's team.

"Here are the tent and sleeping bags, please take care of them."

Zhou He waved and left the tent accessories at the campsite. Then, he led the destroyers back into the mountains and forests, where many trees had fallen due to various natural causes. They could collect a lot of branches and sticks without actively cutting down trees.

While gathering firewood, Yuudachi discovered many mushrooms growing on tree trunks and at the base of trees. Javelin and Z23 examined them closely but weren't sure if they were edible. In the end, after Zhou He's denial, they didn't touch any of them.

Instead of gathering firewood, Tosa, acting as a bodyguard, wandered around helping to cut down long, difficult branches. Haman kept a close eye on Zhou He, but Zhou He had no intention of slacking off. He worked hard to tie the sticks into bundles with vines, and everyone took them back together. In this step, Zhou He had a little trick up his sleeve. He arranged some lighter wood for himself, so that when it was finally distributed, the amount would look the same as everyone else's, making it less embarrassing for him.

"We're back!"

When they returned to the camp, it was already getting dark. Zhou He could see the campfire burning in the center of the camp from a distance. Six large tents were arranged around the campfire, and Ruihe, Cleveland Montpellier, and another person were standing by the pond, sticking fish with sharpened wooden spears. U556 sat by the campfire, pouting as if she was unhappy about being kicked out, and Bismarck sat beside her.

"Welcome back."

Xianghe, who was watching the three 'fishing', smiled slightly and welcomed Zhou He and the others back, while also guiding them to put the firewood they had collected in the designated location.

"call."

Zhou He walked at the back, and after putting down the two bundles of firewood he was carrying, he breathed a sigh of relief. He rubbed his arm and found Hermione, who had come out of the tent to light a lamp. He took out the ingredients and placed them on the stone stove, using the stream water next to them to process them.

"Has the commander assigned the occupants to each tent?"

By the light of the fire and the tent, Hermione stayed by Zhou He's side, asking him questions in a low voice as she washed the ingredients.

"Well, almost."

Zhou He's calculation method was very simple. If you include Kaga, there are 17 people in total, but if you remove Kaga, there are only 16 people. With a 5x3 personnel arrangement, he can stay in a single room.

However, Kursk probably didn't want to stay with other people, so he had to talk to Kursk at night.

"I'll leave Haman and Javelin in your care, Hermione."

Zhou He arranged Hermione's roommate. The maid subtly puffed out her cheeks, then quickly deflated, replying softly, "Commander, please rest assured."

As they were whispering among themselves, a sudden exclamation arose from the pool where a crowd had gathered. Faintly, words like "Amazing!", "They actually caught fish!", and "Can they still eat them?" could be heard, bringing smiles to the faces of those who heard them.

With everyone's enthusiastic participation, ten wooden spears piercing fish soon appeared in front of Zhou He. Although it was a bit troublesome, the fish were already in front of him, so he had no choice but to clean them up. Fortunately, today Miss Shoukaku no longer held back her strength. She and Hermione split the campfire into two piles. While Zhou He was processing and selecting edible fish, she cooked rice and started making soup and stir-frying vegetables. The aroma wafted far and wide. Suddenly, a 'coo coo' sound came from the conversation. Zhou He was attracted and looked over. It turned out that Yuudachi was pretending to coo like a pigeon. After being noticed, she stuck out her tongue.

As night fell, the temperature in the mountains dropped, and the wilderness was pitch black without any light. However, the campsite halfway up the mountain was brightly lit, becoming the only source of light in the mountains. The people sitting there chatted and ate. Zuikaku boasted that Shoukaku's cooking was the best in the world. Yuudachi and Haman had something to say, and the three of them argued for a while. Shoukaku's face turned red, and she gave her good-for-nothing sister Zuikaku a good scolding, which made everyone laugh knowingly.

After the lively meal, Zhou He assigned tent accommodations: the Cleveland sisters with Bush, Bismarck with the two Ironbloods, the Shoukaku sisters with Yuudachi, and Tosa and Jintsuyu each in a tent.

Zhou He lives in a single room by himself.

This arrangement displeased Yuudachi, who crawled directly into Zhou He's tent. After a commotion and the day's exercise, Yuudachi fell asleep amidst Zhou He's nagging.

"Thank you for your help."

After carrying Yuudachi out of the tent and handing her over to Shoukaku, Zhou He also felt tired. He sat by the campfire, adding firewood to keep it burning. As time went by, everyone else went into their tents to rest one after another. In the end, only Tosa and Bismarck remained, sitting outside with Zhou He.

Soon after, footsteps and the sound of water echoed in the darkness. Zhou He looked up and saw silver hair that shone brightly in the night. Kursk, dressed in a tight-fitting gray hunter's outfit, emerged from the darkness and sat by the campfire. He took a cloth bag filled with mountain delicacies from his waist and handed it to Zhou He.

"You are indeed here."

Tosa looked at Kursk. Seeing that Zhou He hadn't gone to rest yet, she guessed that Zhou He would definitely send Kursk over to deal with the matter in the mountains.

"Ah."

Kursk responded calmly. Bismarck, who was also sitting by the campfire, observed her. Even by the campfire, he could still sense Kursk's aloofness and reluctance to talk to others.

"Thank you for your help behind the scenes all this time."

Bismarck spoke up, and Kursk glanced sideways at the Iron Chancellor, whose eyes reflected the flames and whose calm and reliable demeanor made people unconsciously lower their guard. He then shifted his gaze to the campfire: "I am just following the commander's orders."

"Is that so? Now you have three choices: rest with me and Jintsuu, keep watch outside, or spend the night with the Commander."

Tosa pouted. Kursk ignored them but obeyed Zhou He's orders without question, which made her feel somewhat annoyed.

Kursk didn't answer, but turned his head to look at Zhou He, who was fetching stream water to wash the mountain delicacies by the firelight. Zhou He noticed this and looked up and smiled, "The fire is just right, and there are still some ingredients left. I'll make a pot of soup now, and you can drink some to warm yourself up."

"Ah."

Kursk lowered her head, her bangs obscuring her face, so none of the three could see her expression. Tosa gave a soft snort, got up, slung his sword over his shoulder, and went into his tent. Bismarck, seeing this, also stood up: "I look forward to seeing you on the battlefield."

After Bismarck left, Zhou He spoke up: "Don't pay attention to what they say. I heard from Kaga that there might be bears around here. Have you seen any?"

"So far, no traces of bears have been found near the port area."

When it came to his job, Kursk became very serious, and Zhou He breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, "Looks like I can get a good night's sleep tonight."

"..."

Kursk looked at him and nodded, "That seems to be the case."

Chapter Ninety-Seven: Experiments and Unexpected Surprises

It was Zhou He's first time camping in the wild and sleeping in a sleeping bag, so he didn't sleep very well and woke up twice.

When Kursk first woke up, he was resting against the tent door. When he woke up a second time, he was lying on his side on the other side of the tent. Zhou He, thinking he was dreaming, turned his head and went back to sleep. When he woke up again, it was already lively outside.

"I still couldn't sleep soundly."

Zhou He rubbed his left temple, sat up, crawled out of his sleeping bag, and glanced at the sleeping bag piled in the corner that had been given to Kursk as he walked out of the tent. This made him smirk. The sleeping bags provided by the system were of good quality, but the problem was that ship girls from factions like the Northern Alliance, Iron Blood, and Sakura Empire always had some distinctive features like horns or tails.

Last night, he saw Kursk holding a sleeping bag and examining it for a long time, but he couldn't find a way to put his tail in. As a result, he could only turn to the side and leave his tail exposed, which didn't keep it warm.

Shaking off the image of the overgrown grass, Zhou He bent down and crawled out of the tent. It was still dimly lit outside, and the people in the other tents also came out one after another and moved around. The campfire was still burning, and Hermione was boiling water. Noticing the commotion, she came to Zhou He with a smile: "Good morning, Commander. Did you rest well yesterday?"

"is acceptable."

A cool breeze tickled his cheeks. Zhou He rubbed his face with his hands and looked at the few remaining ingredients from yesterday: "Let's have some hot soup this morning. We'll cook more once we find the next campsite."

"Ah."

Hermione had the same thought, but after waking up this morning, she noticed that there were many more wild delicacies and vegetables in the food preservation area, and the campfire had also been re-added. After thinking for a moment, she asked, "Last night, did Miss Kursk rest in the Commander's tent?"

"..."

The maid looked very easygoing, but her eyes were fixed intently on Zhou He, which dispelled his drowsiness. He nodded and said, "I guess so. I went to bed early and didn't notice her movements."

Feeling that this topic wasn't suitable for a long discussion, Zhou Heming managed to get away with it and turned his attention to Tosa-san, who had multiple large tails. She was sitting cross-legged by the pond, meditating, and looked even more aloof than usual. Fortunately, Zuikaku was also different from usual today. Instead of bothering Tosa-san, Zuikaku was sitting by the pond with Yuudachi and Bush, holding wooden spears, seemingly planning to catch a few more fish for breakfast.

The wildest episode yet.

Seeing that Zhou He didn't want to talk about it, Hermione didn't ask any further questions. She turned around, took out a towel from her suitcase, and then took the hot water off the fire stand and adjusted it to a suitable temperature with cold water before bringing it to Zhou He's side to help him wash up.

Before long, Zhou He sat by the campfire, greeting and chatting with other people who came and went for their morning exercise. After exchanging ideas with Hermione and Shoukaku, he cooked a pot of very nutritious mountain delicacies white fish soup. As a precaution, he also cooked half a pot of rice.

The sun slowly rose high in the sky. After tidying up the kitchen utensils and extinguishing the campfire, Zhou He waved his hand and put the tent, sleeping bag, and other 'system-produced' items into the warehouse. Although his ship girl didn't have ship equipment space, he had a portable warehouse when he went out, which was still quite convenient overall.

Of course, he also received a lot of amazement along the way.

……

Leaving the open stream and rocky area, we entered a mountain path overgrown with weeds and dense with trees, where even animal tracks were nowhere to be found.

Zhou He originally thought that going deep into the mountains would allow him to see different kinds of forests, such as a patch of maple trees here and a peach orchard there, all colorful and beautiful. However, as he walked along and kept an eye out for people, he only saw a large patch of wild bamboo at the foot of the mountain, which made him realize that the system was not yet humane enough.

The deeper they went, the more complex the road conditions became. Along the way, there were many novel natural products and animal communities that could not be seen in the port area. Zhou He observed the environment and amazed and played with the little ones, while thinking about where he could transform it into a residence. Bismarck also disappeared from time to time to the periphery of the group to search for the secret base she imagined, but the island was full of 'pure natural' creations and there was nothing like a hidden base.

The morning passed quickly as they walked and stopped. At midday, when the sun was high, the group emerged from the mountains and arrived at the large grassy slope that Changdao had drawn for Zhou He.

"Why does this place look a bit like our port area?"

Emerging from the woods, Zhou He stood at the highest point with binoculars and looked down. He saw many rabbits scurrying about in the grass, as well as several red foxes that appeared to be accomplices of 'Akagi' hunting prey. In addition, the terrain descending from here could be terraced if it were cultivated, and by increasing the distance between each step, large areas of usable open space for construction could be created.

"very good."

Zhou He put down his binoculars and felt that the hardship of climbing the mountain was worthwhile. This slope was extremely large, and at least a village with a population of over a hundred could be built here. After this area was built, a road could be built from the mountains to the command post. Then, the jagged mountain area could be developed little by little around this road, with bridges built and tunnels dug where necessary.

This large project will take at least 1 to 2 years.

Zhou He couldn't even imagine how lively the island would become in the future.

Should we continue?

Ruihe waited for Zhou He to finish his reconnaissance before approaching and asking, "Getting here was relatively smooth. You know the commander on the other side of the island; there's no way to get past him. We had to go through the mountainous area closer to the island, which was much more troublesome than this."

"No, let's stop here for now."

Zhou He thought for a moment. He was using the guise of 'camping' to bring his family out for fun. Three days and two nights would be enough. If they went any further and spent two or three days, it wouldn't be fun anymore. On the other hand, he could bring a few people out to explore on his own after a few more days.

"Humph."

Hearing his words, Ruihe raised an eyebrow and chuckled twice, her bright smile making Zhou He a little puzzled: "What are you laughing at?"

"I laugh at the commander for arranging his itinerary before leaving home, only to change it halfway through."

Ruihe explained with a grin, and Zhou He touched his hair, not feeling embarrassed at all: "As the saying goes, plans can't keep up with changes. As long as you don't mind, Ruihe, I can take Kursk with me and go back from that side."

"No, no, no, I won't laugh anymore, okay?"

Ruihe was shocked upon hearing this and quickly waved her hand to correct her attitude. She was genuinely terrified that Zhou He might suddenly decide to go back to that side. Even if she could accept it, others certainly wouldn't be able to accept Zhou He being away from home for several days.

She didn't want to be tortured by everyone in the port area.

"I still prefer your rebellious self."

Zhou He didn't know why she was so flustered, but the timing was perfect, and he said the line he had always wanted to say.