Shipgirls and Salted Fish Commander, Port Survival Guide

Jing Su cut through the gold and cleaved the iron road.

"Waaah~" Changchun was discouraged after Jing Su said that. It was the first time she had seen Jing Su with such a serious expression. Knowing that there was really no possibility, she simply ran back to her room, lay on the sofa, and sulked.

"Alright, let's not talk about this anymore. I'll post an announcement in the group later so you guys won't keep nagging about it." Seeing Changchun's frustration, Jing Su chuckled and went over to comfort him. "Changchun, don't think this is a wonderful thing. The recovery process is very painful. Imagine having such a long needle sticking a hole in your body. Just thinking about it is scary."

Even if it recovers, it is prone to inflammation and pus discharge. If not properly cared for, it will also have a strange smell, not as wonderful as you imagine.

My Changchun is so adorable, it doesn't need any of these external embellishments; it's already captivating enough to steal the show. Besides, Changchun, don't you always wear a big hood? Even if you did, nobody would see it!

"If you can't even see it, what's the point of working on it?"

What Changchun wanted to do was actually very simple: she wanted Jingsu to pierce her ears. In fact, this wasn't the first time Changchun had wanted Jingsu to do this. Back when Jingsu was still in the Donghuang camp, one morning, while Jingsu was having breakfast and drinking soy milk, Changchun suddenly ran over and shouted, "Commander, I want to wear pretty earrings. Can you pierce my ears?" This startled Jingsu so much that he spat out all the soy milk he was drinking and almost choked to death.

When asked why she wanted to do this, Changchun said that she had just gone to the room to find Jingsu and saw Binjiang getting ready. She was particularly struck by Binjiang's beautiful earrings and was immediately captivated. She said she really liked them and suddenly wanted to wear pretty jewelry.

The port has never had any restrictions on what accessories ship girls can wear. Binjiang, with her bold and cheerful personality, immediately said, "Changchun, you want to wear pretty jewelry. You've grown up and know how to dress up. You're a big girl now, but you don't have pierced ears, so you can't wear earrings. How about I give you other jewelry? I have some big gold bracelets and gold necklaces here. Although they don't quite suit your temperament, they can still be worn after some modifications. I'll buy you some more if I find something you like in the future."

Or you could go to your sister Yixian; she has clip-on earrings that don't require piercing, but they might feel uncomfortable after wearing them for a while.

Then Changchun went to Yixian to ask for it back, but Yixian was sulking because Binjiang had stolen her wedding and made such a loud noise at night. Yixian was both angry and ashamed. When she heard that Binjiang had sent Changchun to find her, she didn't care about the matter and told Changchun to leave, saying that she had work to do and that he shouldn't bother her if it wasn't something important.

In the end, Changchun came to Jingsu for help, but Jingsu naturally refused firmly. Changchun was quite surprised and didn't understand, since this was the first time Jingsu had truly denied something.

In fact, Jing Su held a neutral attitude towards getting his ears pierced. He didn't approve of it, since it was something that could harm his body. It was a bit frightening to see someone stick a hole in their body for no reason, but he didn't object either. Otherwise, he wouldn't have let Bin Jiang and Hu Teng open his eyes. Hu Teng even enlarged the size for him, and he didn't say anything.

The saying goes that everyone has a love for beauty. If you've really thought it through and made a decision, Jing Su naturally won't say anything. After all, you're responsible for your own body. But Changchun clearly hadn't made that decision. After listening to her story, Jing Su said, "This is purely a spur-of-the-moment thing. With your tendency to make a fuss, it won't be long before you're crying and saying you're uncomfortable and want to take it off."

Changchun's goal was to wear pretty earrings. She saw Binjiang wearing earrings and thought they looked nice, so she wanted to try them out herself. Note that she wanted to try them out, not that she had actually made up her mind to get her ears pierced. In reality, there is a long recovery period between getting your ears pierced and being able to wear pretty earrings.

Despite being creations of the MindCube, ship girls are physically no different from ordinary girls when their ship equipment is not deployed. If someone is particularly strong, it's either due to exceptional talent or rigorous training. For example, the Royal Navy's knights train every day and have excellent physical abilities. However, this does not mean that ship girls' bodies are anything special.

"Can't I just get pretty earrings right after getting my ears pierced?" When Jing Su heard Chang Chun say this, she knew that Chang Chun had come to see her on a whim and hadn't known anything about her.

In fact, Changchun does indeed have this kind of personality. He is a cheerful person, lively, active, and likes to play around, but he will not take the initiative to cause trouble. Instead, he will use his cleverness to design a plan and get others to help him achieve it. He is impulsive in everything he does and will rush to implement it on a whim.

For example, after reading in a book that "Rupert's Tears," made of glass, could ward off "monsters after sunset," Changchun told Fushun about it. Fushun, intrigued, went and smashed the academy's windows to try and create his own Rupert's Tears. Changchun got the Rupert's Tears he wanted, while Fushun got a scolding. Both of them had a wonderful experience!

Despite her quirky and clever nature, Changchun dotes on her younger sister Taiyuan to an almost spoiled degree. She respects Anshan but disapproves of Anshan's way of doing things. She enjoys hanging out with Fushun, who is also a fun-loving person. With Changchun by her side, her little plans always come to fruition.

Jing Su naturally liked Changchun very much because of his obvious contrast and clear likes and dislikes. That's why he reacted so strongly when Changchun came to him to say he wanted to get his ears pierced. After listening to his explanation of the details of getting his ears pierced, Changchun clearly hesitated.

Thus, Jing Su realized that Changchun had fallen back into his old habits, acting on a whim and only having a three-minute burst of enthusiasm. In that case, rather than waiting for Changchun to lose interest and then complain and whine, it would be better to reject it from the start.

Later, Jing Su asked Yi Xian for a few pairs of clip-on earrings for Chang Chun to try out. As Jing Su expected, after discovering that wearing earrings restricted everything he did, whether running or jumping, Chang Chun quickly lost interest, threw away the earrings, and ran off to have fun elsewhere.

The above is the background and context of why Changchun first sought Jing Su's help to get his ears pierced. Why did he suddenly become interested again later?

Because, I don't know who, equated earrings with rings. To be precise, it's a recursive equation: ring = jewelry, giving a ring = vow, so giving earrings is also equivalent to making a vow. This situation arises because Jing Su only has ten fingers in total, so he is destined not to be able to make a vow to the entire port area through a ring. Or rather, he can give the woman a ring, but he can't wear them all himself.

This ship girl can't accept it! An oath is an oath. Either both of you wear it or neither of you wear it. How can there be a one-sided way of wearing a ring?

Faced with the reality that Jing Su didn't have enough fingers, the ship girls started looking for substitutes. They found that earrings were the most suitable—they fit snugly, match, and were eye-catching enough. The most important thing was that they were eye-catching. Why did the ship girls want Jing Su to wear the same ring as them? Wasn't it because wearing the same ring meant that the two of them were a couple?

While earrings don't immediately reveal the relationship between two people like rings do, requiring a second glance, they are sufficient for ship girls.

Jing Su felt that the blame for this situation should be placed on Bin Jiang. Strictly speaking, Hu Teng did Jing Su's first ear piercing, but it was Bin Jiang who insisted on wearing couple earrings with her every day at the base. In particular, Bin Jiang liked to show off. When they were at the Donghuang base, whenever they weren't drinking or busy, Bin Jiang would take Jing Su around the base, take pictures everywhere, and then upload them to his WeChat Moments.

After discovering that the two wore matching items, the incident greatly aroused the onlookers, especially Yi Xian, who would frequently wear clip-on earrings in front of Jing Su.

After the equation that earrings equal rings became a convention, for a period of time, Jing Su always felt that people were staring at her ears when she walked down the street. She was always on edge when she went out, afraid that some ship girl would suddenly jump out from some corner and hit her ears.

Changchun, after becoming famous for this equation, rekindled his desire to get his ears pierced and would occasionally come to see Jing Su, to which Jing Su could only chuckle.

After being annoyed by Changchun to the point of being unable to stand it anymore, Jing Su simply issued an order: those who had pierced ears before, we will not interfere, they can wear whatever they want, but from now on, all ship girls in the port area, including Little Yellow Chicken, are not allowed to mention getting their ears pierced again!

In a sense, this was the first order issued by Jing Su after his return that was officially stamped with the port's seal, and it had nothing to do with port affairs or the Sirens' war!

However, it was this incident that made Jing Su realize the difficulty of the reform. Just a few minutes after the order was issued, Hu Teng called to express his opposition and hoped that Jing Su would rescind the order.

As a top non-mainstream rock music genius in the port area, the fact that she couldn't get her ears pierced was unacceptable to Hu Teng. Since Hu Teng was both a marriage ship and a secretary ship, her statement affected the attitudes of a lot of ship girls. Afterwards, there were more and more phone calls and messages hoping that Jing Su would retract her decision.

Some ship girls even said, "Our bodies are ours, and it's our freedom to do what we want. Commanders can't interfere with our human freedom!"

Especially after understanding the whole story, the news that giving other accessories and giving rings means the same thing spread, and the ship girls without pierced ears started to make a fuss. After all, if they are not allowed to get their ears pierced, then compared with the ship girls with pierced ears, wouldn't they lose a way to make a vow with Jing Su?

This clearly involves my own interests, I strongly oppose it!

After realizing that the situation was beyond his expectations and was developing in a direction he had never anticipated, Jing Su knew that no matter what the initial reason for issuing the order was, he had to carry it out firmly now, otherwise, he would never have a peaceful day again, or rather, he would be in excruciating pain!

Even before the order was given, Jing Su already felt a chill run down his spine as he walked down the street. If it was stopped now, the other ship girls, especially those without pierced ears, would probably slap him on the spot. Since wearing a couple's accessory can already replace the effect of the Oath Ring, wouldn't it be more romantic to leave a permanent mark on each other?

Some of the more eccentric ship girls might go crazy!

After Yi Xian explained the pros and cons, Jing Su said that the order must be carried out firmly and absolutely cannot be changed. Putting everything else aside, just from the burning gaze Yi Xian gave him while explaining the situation, Jing Su knew that if he canceled the order, Yi Xian would pounce on him on the spot.

During those days, Yi-xian was quite depressed because of the wedding being hijacked.

Ultimately, Jing Su carried out the order, but with a patch: he officially stated in the port announcement that other accessories could replace the Oath Ring. Before that, it was just a convention, or rather, something the ship girls comforted themselves with. If Jing Su didn't acknowledge it, the ship girls didn't really have any good solutions.

Now that everything's settled, Jing Su has made his decision: he'll accept anything that can be worn on his body, such as rings, earrings, necklaces, and watches. This has even extended to anything that can leave a mark, like a scar on his body, he'll admit to it!

This patch also takes into account that even including earrings, there are only so many places on Jing Su's body where she can wear jewelry, and how many she can wear at most? There will be a new patch eventually, so rather than having a headache later, it's better to set it up from the beginning: whatever you give me, I will accept.

Of course, clothes are not a good option, as they are too easily damaged. Jing Su has to change her clothes almost every time she is busy with a ship girl, and daily life also requires frequent changes of clothes, so clothes are excluded from the ship girls' list.

As Jing Su had predicted, the previously unruly ship girls quickly quieted down after the patch was released. After thinking about it, they realized it wasn't such a big deal and stopped causing trouble.

This is similar to Jing Su's initial thought. When he first issued the order, he thought that since she already had pierced ears, this order would not have a big impact on her. She would just not be able to get new ones in the future. Jing Su had been missing for three years. Before she disappeared, according to Yi Xian's account, everyone had lived in the port area for more than ten years.

If you haven't gotten it done in so long, then Jing Su can naturally conclude that you really don't like this thing. If you want it later, you can wear the clip-on type. Why bother getting a hole in it and going through all that trouble?

So, apart from Hu Teng, who still insisted on writing to Jing Su every week, hoping that she would retract her order, the other ship girls all quieted down.

"Changchun, I've kept all the promises I made to you before. If you wanted to play, I played with you; if you wanted a hug, I hugged you. Now, I hope that you can keep the promises you made to me, okay?" Seeing Changchun looking unhappy, Jing Su stroked her hair and said softly, "Changchun, you don't want to be seen as a dishonest child in my eyes, do you?"

"Changchun, I'm not a child!" At first, Changchun was just enjoying Jing Su's caresses, making soft, cat-like murmurs. But upon hearing Jing Su's last words, he immediately retorted.

Since Jing Su's return, the girls in the port area have come to a deep understanding of one thing—being treated like a child by Jing Su means they can easily approach him, and even be very intimate, but that's all that matters. They can't go any further. If they want to go further and achieve the final breakthrough, they can't be treated like children anymore.

Changchun was initially unaware of this and was happy that she could easily get close to Jing Su, while wondering why the other sisters were so distressed by her actions.

When she saw Javelin surrounded by the other four children as they went to choose their wedding dress, she realized, "Oh no! I've never had any first-mover advantage; Jing Su has always treated me like a child!"

But that's not true. She has a quirky personality, not a naive or ignorant one. She has lived in the port area for so many years. Even if you count her age from the moment she arrived in the port area, she is already very old. In the words of Sister Yixian, she is already a mature adult and should learn to live independently.

"Okay, okay, I misspoke. Changchun isn't a child, so he should keep his promises even more! How about I give you an ear clip?"

"Oh no, Commander, you're still treating me like a child!" Changchun muttered, annoyed.

"No way~" Jing Su rolled her eyes. I wanted to treat you like an adult, but you should act more mature.

I don't expect you to reach the level of your sister Yixian, but you should at least be like the four little ones in the port. From the moment he returned to the port, Jing Su knew that it was unrealistic and abnormal to judge a ship girl's age solely by her appearance. In reality, any girl in the port could be his grandmother.

So it depends on your psychological age. As long as you are mature enough, even if you look like a young girl, Jing Su said she can accept it, since there's no way to resist.

Take the javelin for example. Strictly speaking, his breakthrough with the javelin was entirely driven by the javelin itself; he was merely a receiver and couldn't do anything else.

"Commander!" Changchun was about to say something when his tone suddenly changed, and he shouted, "Something's wrong! Be careful!"

Chapter 324 Trap

The white light, the dazzling white light, hurt Jing Su's eyes.

Strictly speaking, it's around 2 PM now, when the sunlight is at its strongest. However, the large-scale gathering of Sirens can affect the nearby climate. Simply put, it will be cloudy and pitch black. At its worst, it can even turn day into night. Even if the sun is shining brightly outside, it can be so dark within the area that you can't find your way around even with a lantern.

The Sirens created this mechanism to target the ship girls' aircraft. Once aircraft carrier technology matures, aircraft will become the ultimate weapon of warships at sea, a fact that remained true even before the port area arrived in this world.

Before the arrival of the ship girls, the native inhabitants of this world relied on aircraft carriers and missiles to sink some Siren warships through saturation fire.

As for the port area, once air superiority is secured, victory in the battle is only a matter of time.

Since the aircraft are remotely controlled by the ship girls and there are no pilots inside, they can perform all sorts of incredible and astonishing super-attached actions. In the process of fighting for air superiority, a highly trained aircraft carrier can play the role of hundreds of ace pilots in the world.

So the Sirens tried various methods to target the ship girls' planes. The most classic method was darkness. Even for ship girls, the visibility was a major problem when they launched an attack at night. Battleships and battlecruisers, the main forces in the back row, were fine because they were long-range artillery and knew the coordinates. But for aircraft carriers, they would become blind when they actually launched an attack.

Don't forget that the Sirens' shielding technology is so powerful that it's astonishing. For ship girls, unless they get close enough, they simply can't detect the Sirens hidden in the darkness without their eyes.

Therefore, unless it is an emergency, aircraft carrier ship girls generally do not go out at night, at most they will provide escort.

There are no Siren warships now, but there are Siren arsenals. When Jing Su first heard that the Siren arsenal could also affect the weather, he was quite surprised. But when Chang Chun looked at him like he was an idiot, he said helplessly, "Commander, the Siren warships are all assembled in the arsenal. All the parts can be found in the arsenal. If the warships can do it, why can't the arsenal?"

The way you're saying it makes it sound like a teacher, after teaching a student something, suddenly can't do it themselves.

The story ended with Changchun being pinched on the cheek by Jing Su.

As it turns out, the ability of an arsenal to influence the weather is far superior to that of a Siren warship. An arsenal can affect the weather within a radius of thirty nautical miles. While a Siren warship can at least let some light in when it affects the weather, its ability to influence the weather weakens as the number of warships decreases.

But the arsenal is different; it's a literal reversal of right and wrong. Once inside its coverage area, it's pitch black—not just a figure of speech, but a fact.

The most disgusting thing is that, due to the powerful operation of the AI, a lot of things are unusable within the coverage area of ​​the armory. It's not that they can't be used, but that using them would be very troublesome. For example, lighting devices, using lighting devices within the coverage area is equivalent to telling the armory your exact location.

The arsenal may sound like just a factory, but it's actually a maritime fortress. Once locked onto by the arsenal, even ship girls have to temporarily retreat.

After all, the Sirens' saturation design was no joke. The ship girls once conquered an arsenal that was a bit smaller than the one they had discovered now. In that battle, the ship girls deployed the main warships of three factions, taking turns to attack. Aircraft were bombarding the arsenal like they were free, and the battleships outside kept bombarding it. It took half a month to finally take it down.

This is also the key reason why Anshan and her team rushed into the arsenal after discovering it. They had to destroy it before it was activated and before it could organize a large armed force. Otherwise, once the arsenal was up and running, the cruise ship would not be able to escape with its limited strength.

The ship girls aren't a big problem, but the main issue is Jing Su's presence. This is a major drawback of the lord personally leading the expedition, as many things are unusable when the lord is nearby.

However, given the circumstances, there's not much anyone can do. Logically speaking, the soldiers on the front lines have made great contributions and deserve rewards. Thanks to the port's high productivity, the rewards the ship girls want are just as good as Jing Su's. So, to reward Yorktown, Jing Su needs to go to the front lines.

From battle reports to satellite reconnaissance to patrols clearing the way, everything indicated that all enemies in the defense zone had been eliminated, making it an absolutely safe place. There was no problem going to the front line, so Jing Su set off.

Who would have thought that halfway through their journey, they would run into the Siren Arsenal and get slapped in the face?

Now, the arsenal in Anshan, which had just issued a battle report stating that there had been no movement, suddenly emitted a bright light, illuminating the previously dim sky.

"Commander, shall we continue?" Seeing this scene, Changchun's expression became unusually serious. She stood in front of Jing Su, her ship girl power ready to be unleashed.

Changchun participated in the campaign to destroy the Siren arsenal. The flash of white light indicates that the arsenal has been fully activated and all defensive weapons have begun to fill and charge.

Just now, Changchun felt several waves of probes sweep over him.

This means that the ship they were on had been exposed.

For Changchun, being scanned by Sirens on the battlefield is commonplace for experienced ship girls. They often scan Sirens themselves, but it's not very effective. When the shells come flying, they just dodge. After all, ship girls are so small, they might not even be as big as the cannons of some Siren warships.

But things are different now. Jing Su is on the ship, and Changchun is extremely worried. If things continue like this, will he be able to protect Jing Su? At the same time, he's praying inwardly, "Those idiots on the other side, please don't know about the Commander's existence, or we'll be in real trouble."

“Keep moving forward. There’s no time to retreat now,” Jing Su said firmly.

"But..." Changchun hesitated. They weren't far from the cruise ship yet, and they could catch up if they turned around and sped up. But if they sailed forward now to meet up with Anshan and the others, it would take at least half an hour by boat, and that would be at full speed.

"No buts, this is an order, Changchun. Trust me, there's no time to explain. Just deploy your ship equipment, but don't make any moves. No matter what happens, don't take any action!"

Did you hear that? "

"Yes!" Changchun did as instructed, quickly deploying the ship's equipment. A white light flashed, and a cannon barrel taller than Changchun himself appeared out of thin air, slamming heavily onto the ground with a loud 'bang'.

Then came the shells and the launch pads, appearing one after another.

Changchun laboriously lifted the cannon barrel and began filling it with shells.

As mentioned earlier, one reason for not including Fushun is that its ship equipment is still being tested and is an older type that cannot yet launch missiles.

Why do shipboard equipment need to be tested?

This can be seen from the fact that Changchun is currently struggling to reload its ammunition!

As one of the earliest guided destroyers in the Eastern Empire faction, Changchun's ship equipment was not perfectly tuned. Once deployed, she herself had difficulty supporting her own ship equipment, even with the support of the ship girl's power.

Simply put, the new ship equipment Changchun can't make it float behind her. Before the modification, she could control the ship equipment. Most ship girls' ship equipment floats in the air when they go into battle, hovering around them, allowing them to move at will and hit wherever they want.

However, after the modification, the missile's recoil and loading difficulty were both a level higher than the original ship-mounted missile. Changchun herself was not a particularly strong ship girl, so during use, she could only find a place to load the ammunition first, then hold the launcher to aim, and then fire.

Her older sister, Anshan, also used missiles in the same way. However, as the eldest sister, Anshan was much stronger than Changchun in both personality and willpower, so she was better at using missiles than Changchun.

This is actually a manifestation of the ship equipment not being properly debugged. However, the previous Donghuang ship equipment needed strong support so much that even though it wasn't properly debugged, Anshan and Changchun still used it.

The subsequent improved version was much stronger than the first generation. As the different factions developed separately, the conflicts between them eased considerably. The exchange of ideas on core technologies never stopped. Although the improved version was still very heavy and had a lot of recoil compared to the first generation, it was still much stronger.

However, since she obtained the technology for biological ship equipment from the Ironblood faction, Taiyuan, the younger sister, can get Xiaobai to help her.

Xiao Bai is Taiyuan's pet snake. It usually coils around Taiyuan's thigh as a leg ring decoration. When the ship's equipment is deployed, it becomes a giant python, helping Taiyuan carry the equipment. When in use, Taiyuan lies on the python to direct the operation, and at most, he is responsible for loading shells.

But this is ultimately an external force. Yi Xian still wants to see if there is any way to make the guided destroyers work as freely as if they hadn't been modified, especially in terms of firepower. In every battle, if more than two guided destroyers are not dispatched, it is impossible to cover the entire battlefield and launch at all times.

This creates a launch gap at crucial moments, which is a fatal weakness against the Sirens' naval swarm tactics.

Moreover, using missiles places a huge burden on the missile destroyers. After each launch, they have to wait a long time before they can launch again. This is an unacceptable flaw for Yixian, who values ​​her sisters in the camp more than her own life.

So although the third-generation missile ship equipment has been developed, it is still being tested. This time, Yixian said that if the ship equipment is not tested to the point of being completely problem-free, she would rather not have the ship equipment at all!

While Changchun was loading missiles, Jing Su began to steer the speedboat, accelerating towards the designated location.

He had considered Changchun's suggestion after seeing that white light, but after careful consideration, he realized that it was not a good choice.