Revisiting Azur Lane

"I really hope that others will also see how you bully others, Commander."

Zuikaku understood, but was used to it. She hugged her chest with her hands, tapped her arms lightly with her fingers, and sighed.

"I didn't bully you. In Shokaku's opinion, it was you who made things difficult for me."

Zhou He did not push his luck, but smiled and nodded to Xianghe who was looking at him from a distance, and walked past Zuikaku with the telescope in hand: "None of this is important. Next, I need your cooperation with Zuikaku. Come with me."

"…I always feel like the you I see and the you others see are not the same person. Never mind. What's the matter?"

Zuikaku also exchanged a glance with Shokaku, and intuitively felt the oppression hidden in Shokaku's gaze. He pouted and complained, then followed Zhou He down the slope.

Zhou He didn't pay attention to Zuikaku's complaints. He squinted his eyes and looked into the distance. He couldn't see anything with his naked eyes, but with a telescope, he could see the Siren fleet sailing slowly on the sea. He raised his hand and pointed: "There is a team of Sirens over there. Zuikaku, find a few people to sink them and come back."

"Aha?"

Zuikaku shielded her eyes from the sun with her hands and looked around. As expected, she saw the Siren fleet. She pointed in other directions and said, "Commander, you are right, we are surrounded by Sirens now. Aren't we afraid of being besieged by Sirens if we do this?"

"I'm not afraid, so why are you afraid?"

Zhou He coughed softly. He wanted to see how strong the cognitive distortion ability of his island was. As for the sirens around him? The dozen or so ship girls around him were enough to crush thirty or forty mass-produced fleets. He had nothing to fear.

"You said it, don't blame me if something goes wrong."

After another round of armor stacking, Zuikaku shook off her frustrated mental state in front of Zhou He, and walked towards Shokaku with high spirits. After explaining to her, she found Tosa, Jinto and Yudachi, and the others attacked as a five-man team. However, her behavior was discovered by Cleveland who approached her to ask about it and actively participated in the battle.

"Okay, you guys attack like this."

Zuikaku, who turned back to report, was recognized by Zhou He. Zhou He did not care how many people went out to fight. The key point was whether the system's cognitive distortion ability could directly make the Siren fleet that had "locked on the target" "lose the target".

If he could, he would have a lot more room for maneuver. These Siren fleets floating around the port area were pure experience packs.

-

With Zhou He's permission, a team of eight people from Sakura Empire and White Eagle ran to the coast, deployed their ship equipment and set out on the waves. Bismarck, who turned back to understand the situation, stayed by Zhou He's side and watched the performance of Zuikaku and others together.

When Zuikaku and his companions were sailing by the island, the Sirens outside were completely indifferent, and did not even react when the carrier-based aircraft took off. It was not until the aircraft reached a certain critical line that the Sirens in the distance seemed to smell something fishy and set up anti-aircraft guns for self-defense.

The same thing happened to Yudachi and Cleveland in the front row. They were discovered and attacked by the Sirens only after they left the island and reached a certain range.

"Five miles."

Bismarck calculated in his mind and gave an accurate number: if they were active within five miles of the island, they would not be discovered by the Sirens outside.

This technology is really incredible, but she did not find any hidden equipment base in the command building, the port dock or on the road along the way. This result made her realize that this matter was most likely related to Zhou He's existence.

After taking the initiative and having a numerically overwhelming advantage, the Siren's mass-produced fleet couldn't even put up a few resistances before all its members were killed.

Then, something unexpected happened.

Amid the explosion that destroyed the small fleet, a figure walked out.

Chapter 98: Detour ahead

"what?"

Zhou He held the telescope and saw the ship girls walking out of the war. For the first time, he felt unfamiliar with the system's probability of dropping rewards after killing enemies.

Before, there were no casualties in the fighting outside, but this time, they were killed when I went out to test it. What's more, the ship that was lost was not an ordinary ship - the main body of this person's ship was a living mechanical dragon (fish?) with multiple naval guns on its back. Extending from its main body was another mechanical dragon, which was shaped like a sickle and was very huge. On its high-raised head, there was a huge naval gun that should not be underestimated.

The ship girl herself was sitting on a platform with the main body coiled around it and extending out like spider-like legs. Black was the main color of her clothes, the edge of the collar of her coat was mixed with red carvings, and there was a pair of small red horns on her head.

"Bismarck, that is a battleship from your Iron-Blooded Shipgirl, Ulrich von Hutten, born in the world line where Plan Z was successfully implemented."

Zhou He saw through her identity at a glance, not because she was a colorful ship in the game, but because Hutten (Ulrich)'s ship outfit was so easy to recognize and it was also unique in Iron Blood.

Bismarck retracted his gaze towards the distance after hearing this, frowned slightly and looked in front of Zhou He: "Commander, your memory observation area is so wide, it won't bring any burden to your body, right?"

Previously, I heard Zhou He talking about other world lines of the Sakura Empire. Later, the arrival of Senry Kaga confirmed the existence of other world lines that they were unknown to. Now here comes another person who is involved in their iron-blooded new world line. Can ordinary humans really accept and organize such a huge amount of information?

"Hmm? Ah, it's okay. I will only get knowledge related to you. I don't know the changes and trends in the world."

When asked this by Bismarck, Zhou He was stunned for a moment, then explained with a smile.

In fact, he was just looking for the personal information in the system dock and reading it out. He recognized Hu Teng only because he had played games before, so there was no physical burden on him.

If he had to say something, it would be that he didn't know Hu Teng in depth, and at this moment he felt a sense of unfamiliarity facing a strange woman. However, although the people in the Iron Blood camp were strange, they all had one advantage in common, that is, as long as you treat them seriously when you first meet them, you will be right.

"That's good."

Bismarck looked at Zhou He and made sure that he was not lying before returning his gaze to Hu Teng who had joined the Zuikaku team. He felt subtly happy. It seemed that their iron-blooded family had more people than he had imagined.

"correct."

Interrupted by Bismarck, Zhou He almost forgot to give new instructions to Zuikaku. He hurriedly informed Zuikaku through the dock, asking her to take the team to find the next nearest Siren fleet. Don't sink them all at once, leave a few ships to let them get closer, and finally withdraw to the island as a whole to observe whether they will catch up.

As for Hu Teng, Zhou He said: If she wants to fight with the team, then she can join the battle sequence; if she doesn't want to fight, let her return directly and reunite with him.

When he was done, he shut down the system and began to walk downhill toward the shoreline.

"Commander, isn't it too risky to go there now?"

Hermione also followed Zhou He. She did not stop him directly but asked from the side. Zhou He smiled and waved his hand: "I believe Zuikaku and the others will neutralize the Siren that approaches."

Even so…

Hermione actually wanted to persuade him again, but she didn't say it out loud. She believed Zuikaku and his group who were trusted by Zhou He: "I understand."

At this time, in addition to the members who went out to fight, there were 6 people following Zhou He. Needless to say, their safety was safe, but they needed to pay attention to the stray bullets that flew over from the battlefield. The battlefield was more than ten miles away from the island, and even a battleship needed to aim carefully to hit it at this distance - Zhou He was extremely cautious when letting his own ship girl go out for action, but he would not consider it rigorously when he took action himself.

This is due to his personality and also his character flaw.

It was difficult to see clearly when far away, but the closer he got to the coastline, the more Zhou He could catch the outline of his own ship girl on the sea with his naked eyes, even though there was only one person.

……

"When we first met, everyone called me Commander."

Facing the tall girl whose ship outfit disappeared after landing and looked at him with eyes close to light golden in color, with a calm face and seemingly casual but with a hint of oppression, Zhou He boldly stepped forward to talk to her, telling her story and introducing the people around him.

"Commander Zhou He."

Huteng picked out the name that Zhou He had deliberately mentioned and read it out, but he did not say much afterwards. He simply saluted Zhou He: "Ulrich von Huteng, you will take charge of the port area from today."

"Welcome."

Zhou He hadn't been called by his name for a long time, and he even felt something new when Hu Teng called him. After confirming that the other party was willing to join the port area, he relaxed and smiled and spread his hands: "Then, from today on, I will call you Hu Teng, is that okay?"

"Of course, only a name that can be used by the commander is valuable as a name."

Hu Teng's speech made Zhou He somewhat unsure about the distance between him and this ship girl, but he felt a familiar atmosphere from these few short sentences: simple words mixed with a little elegance.

Facing the first colorful ship in his own port, he had many questions, such as her combat strength and whether she had any special abilities. However, considering that she did not have a "skill" panel, he thought she would not be much different from the others, so he simply talked about the recent match between the port and the Siren.

Further away, Zuikaku and Shokaku found the second unlucky Siren fleet and launched an air strike. This Siren fleet was configured with a battlecruiser and two heavy cruisers, which was the configuration Zhou He had encountered when he advanced to the second round area, and now it was hanging around right at his doorstep.

It is worth noting that the two sisters' air strike encountered strong obstacles this time - shortly after launching the air strike, a fleet of Siren aircraft arrived at the scene in the distance, and the two fleets collided with each other.

"Tsk, you react pretty quickly."

Zuikaku had already anticipated this situation. It was the same thing when she fought the Sirens last time. However, after she dealt with the first batch of the Sirens fleet, the Sirens' aircraft carriers gathered from all directions, making it very difficult for her and Shokaku to deal with them.

She skillfully controlled the fighter jets to shoot down the Siren's carrier-based aircraft. She took a quick look at the Siren fleet, which had one heavy cruiser crippled and two destroyers destroyed by their air strikes, and decisively conveyed instructions to others: "The goal has been achieved. Don't attract too many Sirens. We retreat."

"Aha!?"

Yudachi, who was sprinting towards the enemy position, braked suddenly and almost fell after hearing the news, but orders are orders. Yudachi looked into the distance with regret, drew a beautiful semicircular white line on the sea and began to move away from the Siren. On the way, he joined the Cleveland sisters who were running a little slower, listened to the artillery fire coming from afar, caught up with Tosa who had also turned back, and finally met the Fifth Carrier sisters who were standing in place and operating the fleet to wrestle with the Siren.

"Sister Shokaku, we are also retreating. Be careful not to sink the Siren and prevent new members from appearing and falling into crisis directly."

Zuikaku was complained by Zhou He more than once for not being able to fish out the boat, which gave her a feeling that "it would be her turn soon", so every time she retreated, she no longer desperately attacked the Siren fleet, to avoid the situation where she really "fished out" the boat, but was unable to complete the response because the enemy appeared in the Siren's position.

"Zuihe, you have grown up and become a little more careful."

Seeing the drops from killing the enemies, Shokaku quickly understood and let the carrier-based planes return while not forgetting to praise Zuikaku, which made the latter so happy that three carrier-based planes were shot down by the Siren on the spot. He quickly restrained his elated mentality and assisted the other carrier-based planes to return - even if Zhou He could have unlimited supplies, it would be more reassuring to try to recover as much personal property as possible.

She also said: "The commander has told us to wait until the Siren planes or warships approach before we enter the five miles of the port island to see if the Sirens will chase us in."

"As expected of a commander, the orders he issued are things that ordinary people cannot understand."

Cleveland knew that Zhou He was testing his guesses, but hearing these words from Ruihe still made her laugh and complain.

"It makes one wonder what kind of thinking he had in mind to conduct such an abnormal test."

Montpellier very rarely agreed with Zhou He's speech, mainly because what they were doing this time was too dangerous. Even if the Sirens could not find their port location, they could switch inside and outside during the battle. Were they really not afraid that the Sirens' ships or carrier-based aircraft would rush into the sky above the port and render their anti-reconnaissance protection ineffective?

"Hahaha, if the commander gave too normal an order, I would suspect that he was abnormal."

Ruihe joined the group chat. When it comes to Zhou He’s wonderful instructions, she definitely has the final say.

“…Your way of thinking is a little strange too.”

Montpellier felt that Zuikaku was a bit extreme. After all, there had never been any problems with the instructions given by Zhou He, so he should not be belittled like that.

Others had similar feelings. After a conversation, it was Ruihe who uttered an "Ah——" sound. She once again felt that there was a huge gap between the image of Zhou He in the eyes of others and the image of Zhou He in her eyes.

Although the Siren fleet was following behind them, everyone was not panicked at all, because they could turn around and destroy the enemy at any time. Retreating was just to complete the task assigned by Zhou He.

Not long after, they returned to the starting point of the island and saw Zhou He standing on the shore and chatting with others while walking. Ruihe was so frightened that he almost screamed, thinking in his heart that he must give Zhou He a good lecture this time.

After Zuikaku and Shokaku gave up the fight for air supremacy, the Siren's carrier-based aircraft quickly caught up with them, and as they were about to launch a dive attack, Zuikaku and his crew successfully entered within five miles of the island.

Miraculously, the group of diving Sirens interrupted the attack, circled in the air, and flew away.

Chapter 99: High-quality Vehicles

"Ah, it's just as the commander expected."

On the shore, Hamanman, the only White Eagle girl who did not follow the attack, looked at the scattered Siren fleet with an indescribable expression.

Zhou He just smiled and said nothing more. He suddenly remembered that when he first traveled through time, the system popped up a cutscene saying "Arrange game time reasonably and enjoy a healthy life". At that time, he complained about the system. Now it seems that he blamed the system wrongly.

Although he didn't know whether there had been any deep-sea attacks on player ports in Ships C and R, it had never happened in Azur Lane. In other words, the port was set up as the safest place. For him, this island was the 'safe house' created for him by the system.

“So it’s opened here.”

Zhou He couldn't help but laugh twice more. Before this, he felt that his system was just normal. Now he truly realized what cheating meant.

Since this is the setting, then he has a lot of room to operate. What is the scale of the Siren surrounding the island? That is the experience points and task indicators given for free!

"Commander, it seems that the Sirens surrounding us is not a bad thing."

Bismarck was used to Zhou He's smile, but this was the first time he saw him smile so happily. He silently judged in his heart that Zhou He did not have a complete understanding of this port area, and his recent arrangements were to test the upper limits and functionality of their port area and this island. He and they were in agreement about this unknown.

Hearing this, Zhou He touched his lips and restrained his smile. He looked at Zuikaku and his group who were approaching them and said, "Yes, as long as we take advantage of the peculiarities of this island, we can unilaterally attack the approaching Sirens without any consequences."

His ship girls can gain experience points through battles to increase their combat effectiveness, which means that he can let his ship girls level up.

Such a good thing actually happened. After the new dormitory was built, he started the construction. He used this wave of "benefits" to quickly make the combat values ​​of the new members close to those of the old members, avoiding the situation of falling behind due to insufficient combat effectiveness.

"So, shall we go back now?"

Hermione asked from the side. Zhou He thought for a moment and looked at the coastline and beach that began to turn in front of him: "I want to walk along this road. Hermione, do you know what's ahead?"

"Well…"

Hermione tilted her head and frowned slightly when being questioned. She seemed to think seriously before coming up with an answer. She bowed her head and admitted her mistake: "I'm very sorry. When I attacked normally, I was a bit far from the island and didn't observe it carefully."

"Ok?"

Zhou He was a little surprised, but he didn't care too much. Hermione didn't come out very often, so he turned his head to ask others. Bismarck saw through Hermione's thoughts at a glance, lowered his eyes, put his palm on U556's back and patted it. U556 understood and suddenly pulled up Z23's palm who was about to speak and ran to the front. He turned around and waved to Zhou He with a smile: "Commander, let's go to the front first."

Zhou He has always liked cute and sensible little guys like submarines and destroyers. He smiled and waved his hand: "Don't run around, be careful."

"I know~"

U556 took Z23 away. Zhou He looked at it and felt a little worried. He turned his head and found Javelin and Harman: "Javelin, Harman, you two should follow them. Help me keep an eye on them. Don't follow 556 into the water to swim."

"Huh? Commander, are you looking down on us? We know about things of this magnitude!"

Hamanman was still stubborn and coquettish as usual, but when she saw Zhou He smiling, her anger started to rise. She let out a "humph" and quickly caught up with the two people in front of her. Javelin was a little overwhelmed and could only apologize on behalf of Haman, then turned around and followed.

"It's so energetic."

Zhou He was not affected at all. Instead, he was in a very good mood. With his hands behind his back, he walked far behind the four little cuties as if taking a walk.

"Commander, please don't bully Miss Harman all the time. It's hard to comfort her if she's really angry. You should praise her once in a while."