Revisiting Azur Lane

"Who knows, maybe there are machines dedicated to logistics construction in the Siren?"

Zuikaku kicked the wall from behind, stirring up dust and then distanced herself from him in disgust. Hermione glanced at her and took out a handkerchief to wipe the dust off Zhou He's palms: "We only know that the Siren is the enemy, and we haven't been able to inherit more information. Doesn't the commander know either?"

"Know something, but not much."

Zhou He only learned a little about the specific situation of the Sirens from the game's activity plot, but he thought that the only things he could really refer to were those recorded in the official wiki, such as the internal structure settings of the Sirens, the general personalities of the purification agents and testers in the experimental agency.

As for more complicated things, he didn't delve into them while playing the game. Things like the Sirens' logistics, the Sirens' experimental purposes, the Sirens' level of black technology, etc. are all unknown. The only thing that is certain is that some of the advanced individuals within the Sirens are made by humans.

In the classic KanColle game, enemies and friends are of the same origin, but Siren's behavior of treating humans and KanColle as 'non-human' test subjects is extremely bad. It can be laughed off when playing the game, but now if he encounters these guys who are experimenting, he will order them to be bombed into pieces without hesitation.

He doesn't like being treated as a guinea pig by unknown creatures, nor will he be soft-hearted and put his own ship girl into crisis just because the opponent is suspected to be man-made.

"No matter the reason, we just need to defeat all the Sirens that stand in our way."

Zhou He gathered his thoughts and casually but seriously stated his position. Zuikaku followed him with a smile: "Commander is right, we must have this momentum! No matter what the Sirens are, we just need to defeat them all!"

Having said that, Zhou He was not actually a warmonger, so he chuckled twice and changed the subject, then led the two of them deeper into the base.

The buildings near the sea in this base suffered the most serious damage, and the damaged area becomes smaller the deeper you go. It's like being suddenly discovered by an enemy fleet and being bombarded with several rounds of artillery fire, but when they were done firing, they realized that this was an empty base and so they stopped and left.

Well, it might have something to do with the fact that there were fewer buildings as you went deeper into the building. Walking past the worst-hit area near the dock, Zhou He saw a scene that looked like a central square that was riddled with potholes from shelling. The roads extending from the square connected to nearby buildings and facilities.

He also discovered several of his family members who were out for a walk. Yudachi and Cleveland were swinging on the swings at the edge of the square, while Tosa, Hood, Bismarck and others were also observing the situation.

“It’s such an uncomfortable place.”

Zuikaku frowned and looked around. Zhou He, who didn't feel anything, looked at her in confusion. The latter raised her hand and pointed at various facilities: "There is absolutely no trace of living creatures here, and there is not even a single character of text information left. Even so, the Siren still designed this place to be similar to a human survival base, as if trying to imitate our living habits."

After she said this, Zhou He also felt a sense of absurdity in his heart, but it was quickly dispelled. As mentioned above, some of the Sirens were created by humans. At least before they "lost control" or "betrayed" humans, they lived according to the programs designed by humans. The architectural style of these bases may have been continued for this reason.

"really."

He nodded. "It seems that this place needs more than just repairs. I will redesign the plan when I have more money."

"?"

Zuikaku was walking forward, and when he heard Zhou He's words, he turned back and opened his eyes wide: "Commander, what do you mean by this? Could it be that?"

"you guessed right."

Zhou He hummed, raised his hand and snapped his fingers: "After we have thoroughly figured this place out, this will become our second port area."

"real or fake…"

Ruihe thought of his own command center which was almost undeveloped. Even the headquarters was still in the development stage, but Zhou He was already thinking about opening a branch base. Was he too hasty?

Her expression said everything she was thinking. Zhou He smiled and spread his hands. "Don't worry, it's just a pre-planned plan. As the saying goes, a cunning rabbit has three burrows. If our port area is besieged by the Sirens, this is a good temporary strategic point. Now that the Sirens are strong, we can't just stay in one place or drift around by boat, right?"

"Well, that's true."

Zuikaku closed his eyes and thought about it, and was barely convinced: "Then Commander, you must plan it carefully and add more elements of the Sakura Empire."

"I'll do the work, don't worry."

Zhou He pointed to the hat on his head. Although he was not competent yet, he was still a commander. He couldn't let his own ship girls dislike what he produced.

By the way, does the Home Store sell things like cross-sea bridges, so that we can directly connect a highway between here and home?

……

After meeting up with Bismarck and others in the square, Zhou He received intelligence information similar to that reported by Kursk.

All in all, he was very unhappy with the design structure of this port area. Zuikaku took the opportunity to suggest whether they should give this place a few more rounds of bombing to make it look more pleasing to the eye and help Zhou He save the effort of demolishing the house.

Of course, Zhou He denied it.

"The commander is very receptive."

Zhou He was praised for his calmness in the face of difficulties. He just laughed it off. After all, he was a man who had experienced the baptism of the information explosion era. Even if a tester suddenly popped up, he would only think it was troublesome and then let his own ship girl kill it.

"Okay, okay, we're not here to learn how to dismantle a house. Does anyone here have any knowledge of repairing electrical systems?"

After calming everyone down, Zhou He turned the topic back to business.

However, when he asked this question, most of the people around him avoided his gaze without leaving a trace, just like students avoiding the teacher's questions in class.

Bismarck looked at Hood in silence, but Hood turned his gaze to Hermione, "Power system, Hermione, do you know?"

"A little understanding?"

Hermione tilted her head to think for a few seconds, then gave an affirmative answer: "If the damage is not serious, I can try to repair it."

The answer was like that of an excellent student, making everyone around smile with ease. Zuikaku even crossed his arms and nodded: "As expected, you are an elite who joined the Minato Ward on the same day as me."

"Are all the royal maids so powerful?"

Ignoring Zuikaku's humorous remarks that flattered him, Cleveland smiled and talked to Hermione: "I don't have any such knowledge at all. Let alone repairs, I can't even cook for myself."

"Well, maybe it's because I'm interested in these things?"

Hermione smiled and replied, "Everyone must have something they are good at. For example, Miss Cleveland, you have excellent athletic ability. The Commander pays a lot of attention to you and often says things like 'you are so handsome'."

"Huh~"

Cleveland was so shocked that she didn't even notice it. She turned her head to look at Zhou He and found that he had already left quickly.

"Is he handsome?"

She muttered to herself, thinking of Zhou He's "Dad Ke" when they first met, and suddenly became troubled. Why is he handsome? Isn't this right?

"What about me? Did the commander say anything about me?!"

Yudachi raised his hand and pricked up his ears to ask Hermione, who smiled and replied, "The commander is always worried that you don't have enough to eat, Yudachi. Just now when he was leaving, he was thinking about whether he should prepare some snacks first."

"hey-hey."

The puppy touched his belly and smiled silly.

"..."

"As expected of you who has spent the longest time with the Commander, why don't you ask the Commander what he thinks of you?"

Zuikaku listened to Hermione coaxing the child, paused slightly, and walked to Tosa behind the crowd and whispered in her ear.

"Meaningless."

Tosa moved sideways to avoid Zuikaku who was too close. Just by looking at Zhou He's reaction when facing her, one can roughly know how he feels about her.

"Yes, the commander should like you very much. After all, I feel very awkward every time I see you face to face."

Zuikaku touched her chin and exclaimed, "Commander, do you like this kind of tune?"

"Use your brain before you speak, or do you think the commander is such a superficial person?"

Tosa's eyebrows twitched. Was it because they had become more familiar with each other? Zuikaku was really speaking more and more casually, as if he was just enjoying watching the fun. He must be a natural black.

"No, look at the Commander."

Zuikaku raised his chin slightly, motioning Tosa to look at Zhou He's back as he walked to the front of the crowd: "He's just an ordinary person."

"..."

Tosa really didn’t understand what this guy wanted to express. Could it be that Zhou He was not an ordinary person but a superman?

She sighed softly, not wanting to talk to the idiot anymore, so she quickened her pace and caught up with Zhou He.

Chapter 49 New Discovery

As early as when Hood and others were fighting with the Sirens, Kursk, who was eating stewed potatoes and meat in advance, had already informed Zhou He of the location of the command center of this base.

It is located in the basement of a three-story office building directly opposite the square. Unfortunately, this building is one of the few places in the port area that was affected by the bombing. A very exaggerated large hole was blown out on the rightmost floor. Concrete, steel bars, shrapnel and various other hanging objects covered the basement room with a skylight, which contained the power supply room.

"Is it luck that I was able to hit this spot?"

Zhou He looked inside through the skylight. The room was not small, with many densely packed circuits and electronic parts along the edge of the wall. He couldn't understand what they were, and the air coming towards him was also very bad. So he simply gave up his place to others and walked into the other half of the house, which was barely intact.

This base is of human-like but non-human design, with poor functionality, but it has interior decoration. For example, this dusty house has many tables and chairs, which are consistent with Kursk and Hermione's "recent" judgment, and are 87% new. There are even hard wooden sofas, which are good things that can be sold for 1 Home Coin in the Home Store.

"You made your fortune by picking up trash?"

Walking through the rooms upstairs, Zhou He had already thought of moving all these things back home. However, his system warehouse could only store things like raw materials sold by the system or recycled by disassembling the system, not the normal and easy-to-use portable space bags.

It fits the game setting very well, but it lacks any human touch. Zhou He can only give the warehouse function 1 point.

"Commander, we've found the entrance to the basement."

As Zhou He kept leaving his claw marks on the tables and chairs, Z23, who was outside the door, poked his head inside and took a look. After spotting Zhou He, he came in and reminded him.

"It will be over soon."

Zhou He walked to the curtain to wipe his hands, but they turned even darker. He could only put his hands behind his back and walked out of the room. His eyes passed over Z23, who was standing straight with a serious face and a bit of bookish air. After a moment's hesitation, he said, "Z23, are you interested in books?"

This person is one of the three major teachers. There are some strange memes about him, but he didn't pay much attention to him when playing the game. He just remembered that this person has a serious personality and has released free teacher-related skins. When they met for the first time a few days ago, the little influence he got from the game was transferred to this person.

If he had chosen her as the starting ship, he would probably have served as the commander with a more professional attitude and his life would have been more tiring.

"Yes! The book contains a lot of interesting and useful knowledge, which can be used in life and in battle!"

When talking about books, Z23 became visibly lively, saying things like knowledge is power and that she wanted to become as good as Bismarck through studying. Her unexpected chatterbox nature made Zhou He swallow the lines he had prepared, and he just followed beside her and listened to her chatter with a smile.

He remembered that there were not many books in the port area. He could buy some from the store to fill the bookshelves in his office. Then he could sit there like a librarian and see all kinds of beautiful girls with literary attributes coming in to borrow books from him. Just thinking about it made him feel comfortable.

"what!"

It took Z23 a while to react. He quickly took two steps forward and turned to bow to Zhou He: "I'm very sorry! I said something strange without paying attention. Commander, please don't mind it."

"It's great, it's a good thing to have your own hobbies. Z23, what kind of books do you want to read recently? I'll prepare some for you."

Zhou He smiled and raised his hand, trying to show his Asian attributes, but he found Z23 looking at his palm. He coughed and clenched his fist and said, "I forgot to bring my handkerchief when I went out just now."

This was a lie; he had no such thing as a handkerchief.

"Well."

Z23 searched in his pocket and handed over a blue handkerchief with a pattern: "If you don't mind, please use it, Commander."

"Thank you."

Zhou He didn't think that a young girl's handkerchief could wipe off the black dust on his palms, but he couldn't refuse Z23's kindness, so he took the handkerchief with a smile and prepared to return it to Z23 along with the pile of books when he got back.

The entrance to the basement was at the corner of the stairs. When Zhou He went downstairs, Zuikaku and Yudachi were guarding the entrance. As soon as they saw him appear, Zuikaku yelled that Tosa had bullied her and asked Zhou He to help her seek justice.

"You, Tosa's intelligence among the foxes is limited to Amagi. You can't beat her."

Zhou He didn't understand the reason, but he knew with his feet that it must be Zuikaku who was looking for trouble. This guy had no idea how difficult Tosa was to deal with, and he almost got into trouble last time.

"A pack of foxes? Amagi?"

Zuikaku blinked, thought for a moment and said, "Commander, are you saying that Akagi-senpai and the others are all vixens? And Amagi, could it be that she is Akagi's sister that he has never met?"

"Yes."

Zhou He realized that he had let the cat out of the bag, but it didn't matter. He looked at the cute Yuuri who came over and wanted to touch her head, but his hands were dark and he couldn't touch her. He could only smile at her and responded, "Yes, just like you never knew the battleship form of Kaga, I can also build the unfinished Amagi. In addition to them, there are many more ship girls in history who have never been completed, have not left their names, and even fought with the Sirens into the future."

He pointed to his eyes and said, "I have witnessed a world that you have never seen. All the ship girls I have observed will gather in our port in the future."

"..."

Zhou He's sudden speech shocked the three people present. Xili's eyes widened for a long time before he spoke: "Commander, so handsome!"

"Right?"

Zhou He showed a proud expression. The above words were probably the coolest things he had ever said in his life. He didn't know if he would have such a flash of inspiration again in the future.

"Damn it, you're pretending."

Zuikaku gritted her teeth. She had clearly come here to tell on Tosa Hei, but unexpectedly, she gave Zhou He a chance to show off - Z23 next to her didn't say anything, but when he looked up at Zhou He, his eyes began to sparkle.

"Ahem, anyway, Zuikaku, stop messing with Tosa all the time, let's go in too."

Knowing that he had little value, Zhou He quickly changed the subject, bypassed the two gatekeepers and went into the basement stairs. There was no light, only some light coming in from the door. The visible range was very low and the temperature was at least five degrees lower than outside. He could feel the coolness even with a coat on.

"Can you see in this dark?"

The stairs were only a short distance away, and Zhou He felt a little blind after taking two steps inside. He looked forward and saw pitch darkness, which meant that the basement was not small. It was not a straight passage, but the passages on both sides were made of metal, and felt bone-chillingly cold.

"No problem! Leave the leading to me!"

As if Yuli had thought of something, she came close to Zhou He and wanted to hold his hand. Zhou He noticed it but didn't react. Yuli grabbed her and pulled her forward. It was too late for him to say anything. He thought he had to take Yuli to wash hands later. After walking for a while, he felt it was so quiet that it was unnatural. He turned around and found Zuikaku standing far away in a bright place. Z23 seemed to be saying something to her.

Huh?