Shipgirls and Salted Fish Commander, Port Survival Guide

Perhaps the speedboat is relatively close to the cruise ship at this moment, but even so, it is still within the range of the arsenal's shells. In other words, whether Jing Su drives forward to find Anshan or turns back to find Yixian, he will be attacked by the Siren Arsenal on the way.

Since that's the case, not going back becomes a good option. After all, Jing Su has to consider her future life. Most of the supplies for this trip are on the cruise ship. Even if it's just to have a decent meal in the next few days, she has to find a way to avoid the Siren arsenal attacking the cruise ship.

Now, the cruise ship is outside the arsenal's attack range, so the arsenal can't attack it. If it returns to port, it will be troublesome if Yi Xian and the others get anxious and send a ship to pick it up.

In addition, there is also the issue of the ship girls' attack habits. Under normal circumstances, when the ship girls go out to attack, they directly deploy their ship equipment and navigate on the water surface, which can better avoid shelling and better aim and counterattack. However, now that he is on the ship, Changchun really dares not leave the speedboat.

She was on the ship, so she could at least offer some protection if something happened. Otherwise, if any cannonball came flying at her and she didn't dodge, she would be instantly killed.

This is also the key reason why she had been subtly using her ship girl power without deploying her ship equipment. Without deploying it, who knows if that brainless idiot in the arsenal might mistake them for ships transporting supplies to the front lines? Although the possibility is very low, what if it happens?

"Boom! Boom boom!"

As the speedboat accelerated, the arsenal began its operation, unleashing a barrage of artillery fire upon the ship.

Jing Su's fingers danced, her brain worked at lightning speed, and various complex commands were quickly executed in coordination with the AI.

Shells fell one after another, but they always missed by just a little bit. They either grazed the hull or exploded without affecting the speedboat.

It would be a lie to say that there was absolutely no impact. The speedboat's high speed and the sharp turns it made to avoid the shells caused the two people in the cabin to be thrown about by inertia.

Jing Su was alright; at least he could hold onto the control panel and still stand firmly. At most, his earrings and necklace swung around, making him a little uncomfortable.

Changchun, on the other hand, suffered a lot. As mentioned before, she had trouble carrying her ship equipment and was rolling around in the swaying cabin because she couldn't hold onto anything.

"Ugh, Commander, I'm so dizzy!"

In the mirror, Jing Su could see that Changchun was currently performing a somersault while holding a cannonball, helplessly adjusting its course to keep the ship as straight as possible.

"Changchun, are you alright?" Jing Su called out.

"I...am...okay...!"

"Hang in there, I'm going to speed up!"

"Eh!!!"

...

"Woo~"

After a while, the number of artillery shots decreased, and Jing Su slowly slowed down the speedboat. He had to slow down, otherwise the generator would overheat.

"Commander, are we... safe?" Changchun asked in a trembling voice, staring at a small, mosquito-coil-like eye.

"Oh, we fell for it after all~ It's a trap." came the surprised reply from Changchun.

"Huh?" Changchun opened his eyes and quickly ran to the window, his pupils instantly contracting.

"Heh, no wonder those shells were so weak, only causing some ripples at most. So, they were forcing us to run in a specific direction!"

Chapter 325 Meeting with the Sirens

"Commander, get behind me, I'll protect you!" Changchun, noticing his surroundings, hurriedly walked up to Jing Su and said nervously.

“No need, Changchun. The homeowner has already cleaned the entrance area. There’s no reason not to go in and have a look.” Jing Su gently touched Changchun’s shoulder, signaling her to relax.

"But..." Changchun still hesitated.

"Let's go. What's the 'but' or 'no'? If we don't go in soon, they'll get impatient."

"Ah."

Just as Jing Su said, the enemy's attack had actually been guiding them toward a specific place. Because they were in a state of high tension while sailing and dodging, Jing Su subconsciously overlooked a fact—most of the shells that the arsenal had just fired were blanks and not very powerful.

Otherwise, the shockwave from the explosion alone would have been enough to give Jing Su a hard time.

From this, Jing Su guessed that the other party probably had no intention of harming their lives. Since that was the case, then let's meet them. It just so happened that Jing Su's goal this time was also to make contact with the other party. There were some questions he had wanted to ask a long time ago, even before he arrived at the front line.

As Jing Su steered the speedboat, it slowly drifted forward along the navigation markers on the ground. Soon, a huge roar sounded, and a pitch-black tunnel slowly rose from the seabed.

As soon as the speedboat entered the tunnel, the entire space began to vibrate violently, giving one the feeling of something that was initially extremely narrow, but after walking a few dozen steps, suddenly opened up into a bright and spacious area.

"Wow~ Commander, this place is amazing." Changchun exclaimed, looking at the strange numbers flashing by like shooting stars outside the window.

“It’s really amazing.” Jing Su nodded, also looking around the space with great interest.

Strictly speaking, he had seen this space before, when he and the others discovered that resource point. At that time, he had also encountered this kind of data stream.

'It seems we really have encountered sirens, but I wonder who they are.'

At this point, there's not much Jing Su can do anymore. The speedboat is moving forward entirely on its own, carried along by the data stream.

"Hmm? Commander, can you smell something? It smells so good~"

After an unknown amount of time, Changchun suddenly exclaimed in surprise.

"Huh? Scent? What scent? I can't smell anything at all?" Jing Su asked in surprise. His sense of smell was usually very sensitive, but after trying several times, he still couldn't smell anything unusual.

"Hey, Commander, can't you smell it? I can definitely smell it, it smells so good, um, but, I don't know why, ha~ I'm so sleepy~" As he spoke, Changchun's aura visibly weakened.

Then, very quickly, Changchun fell into a deep sleep amidst Jing Su's cries.

"Changchun, wake up, wake up!" Jing Su shook Changchun a few times, but to no avail. He sighed softly. Now he was completely isolated and helpless.

Despite being isolated and helpless, Jing Su wasn't too worried about her safety.

He'd already brought this place to him; if he wanted to make a move, he would have done so long ago. He didn't believe that Changchun alone could really protect him. So when he decided to come here, Jing Su was already prepared to have Changchun go offline. However, what he didn't expect was that Changchun would go offline so quickly.

"Phew~ Come out already, it's no fun hiding things at a time like this~" After waiting for a moment, Jing Su suddenly shouted loudly.

As Jing Su spoke, the entire space violently shook again, and Jing Su felt a wave of dizziness.

When Jing Su opened her eyes again, she found herself in a magical space, floating in the air with endless void beneath her feet.

"Changchun, are you nearby?" Jing Su tried calling out twice, but received no response.

Seeing no response, Jing Su began to look around. This space was larger and more eerie than the passage she had just entered. The light was dim, but it seemed to be able to see through everything, and her mind was very clear.

Just as Jing Su's heart began to race and her brain felt a slight stinging pain, a warm current swept past her ear and into her brain—it was the small yellow ring that Bin Jiang had hung on her ear earlier.

This surge of heat calmed Jing Su down, and she began to reflect on her surroundings.

"Hehe, you're calmer than I expected." Just as Jing Su was thinking, a clear, cold voice sounded behind her.

"Who?" Jing Su called out, quickly turning her head to look at the source of the voice.

The scene he saw caused Jing Su's pupils to contract sharply.

The figure was dressed in a blue and white color scheme, carrying a chandelier, wearing a black, white and blue short dress, blue high heels, and white stockings that covered her legs. Her hair cascaded down like a waterfall and was topped with a crown, making her look majestic.

"What an impolite outsider! Barging into my residence and being so rude. Aren't you afraid I'll skin you alive and pulverize you?" The cold voice rang out again, a hint of mockery appearing on the expressionless face, and a trace of anticipation in the eyes, as if he was really considering how to deal with Jing Su.

"Hehe, your residence? If I remember correctly, this area was originally just an ocean, right? You live in the ocean? That's a bit pitiful." Jing Su started to probe, partly to lower the other party's guard and chat casually, which would easily make the other party lower their guard, and partly to obtain some information.

Intelligence gathering isn't limited to interrogation or obtaining tokens. Using certain techniques to get key figures to reveal important information without their knowledge is also a method.

Jing Su had previously tried to use this method to get information out of Navigator TB, and he actually managed to get some information out of him. However, the information he got out of him lacked rigorous evidence to verify it.

What Jing Su can confirm right now is that TB and Zero from the Sirens' side are more or less related. The most obvious thing is that the character illustrations of the two characters are almost identical. If we exclude the fact that Huang Ji was lazy, even a fool could tell that there is something fishy going on.

Judging from the storyline of the Yellow Chicken, there is no clear explanation of where TB came from. It is only said that she is a super powerful artificial intelligence system in the port, and she is an assistant to players when fighting in the open world. She occasionally pops up in the event story to make her presence known.

Later, Akashi even created a TB raising system, which is like a mini-game. You don't need to worry about the specific gameplay, but the logic behind this system is revealed - TB has self-awareness!

Although it's not very obvious, players can genuinely raise TB like a daughter. To be precise, they raise it as a living, breathing entity. In the gameplay, TB can run and jump, requiring players to take good care of it. When it's upset, it will cry and make a fuss, needing the commander to comfort it.

All of this indicates that TB, the most powerful AI in the port area, is not simple.

After Jing Su disappeared, before TB fell into a deep sleep, the Sirens launched a near-frenzied attack, pushing the battle line to the port area.

The ship girls weren't about to give in. It wasn't like they were in a state of exhaustion and food shortages in the port after searching for Jing Su for a while. When the Sirens attacked, thanks to the massive reserves left by Jing Su and the port that hadn't split up yet, the ship girls worked together and pushed the Sirens back in one go.

The Royal Army even ventured into another world at one point; those strongholds mentioned earlier were built during that time.

Later, when the reserves were exhausted and the port area fell into internal strife, the battle lines were gradually contracted and the established strongholds were abandoned one after another. At this time, the Sirens' offensive also slowed down, and the various factions were able to separate and develop on their own.

Coincidentally, the slumber of the Sirens' offensive and the navigator TB falling into a deep sleep happened almost simultaneously.

It's almost fair to say that the Sirens' offensive slowed down as soon as TB went into slumber.

"Heh, this whole world is me... You're trying to trick me into saying something!?"

As Jing Su expected, the other party did indeed proactively reveal some information, but this information was somewhat explosive.

'This world was built by this guy?' Jing Su's heart was in turmoil, even though the game's plot did contain various explanations about experimental fields.

Simply put, the commander that the player takes on the role of wasn't originally in the world they're in now, but in a place called the Primal World. The specifics of what they do aren't detailed, but their status is quite high.

What happened next caused a catastrophe in the primordial world, almost resulting in its destruction; this event was known as the Great Destruction.

After the destruction of the original world, Antix, also known as the Sirens, and the remnants of the Torch organization fled. The Sirens used higher-dimensional portals to jump to various points in the past, constructing test sites and seeking solutions to save the world.

Since only a portion of the members escaped, the Torch Organization became the Embers, and Antix became the Sirens, setting up testing grounds and conducting various cruel experiments.

Do you remember one method of meta-transforming ship girls—experiencing despair?

Since the Siren experiment began, there have been more and more meta-ified ship girls.

At this time, the Sirens and the Torch Organization were still on the same side, helping and supporting each other. The Torch Organization was helping Antix with her experiments.

However, as time went on, the Torch Organization became increasingly unable to accept the cruel experiments Antix conducted at the testing grounds and the tragedies caused by those experiments. Since the corrupted corporations were unaware of the full picture of the Judgement Plan, they believed that the problem was not with the Salvation Plan itself, but rather with Antix, who had created a bug and needed to be met.

Subsequently, under the leadership of the corporation, Ember launched a surprise attack on Antix. However, Ember miscalculated severely and failed to locate the mainframe of Antix's highest leader, Zero. Instead, he was surrounded by the Arbitration Authority.

It seems that this incident caused a split within the Ember. One part followed the Enterprise and continued to fight against Zero. This part claimed to be the Torch of Destruction. The other part transformed into the Principle of Construction, calling themselves the Commander's absolute ally and companion, and had a strong desire to exclude unstable factors.

In a sense, Azur Lane is a ship girl who hasn't been corrupted by the dark side of the Construct, because the members of the Construct are basically ship girls who had good memories with the Commander in the original world. Even if they have been meta-ized, they still trust the Commander and watch over him.

Aside from the aforementioned factions, there are also some isolated meta ship girls, such as the meta ship girls born in the new test site, and the original Ember members ship girls who were separated from the Ember and scattered to various worlds.

And, most classicly, the meta that joins the ship forces within the test site due to various events or reasons, that is, the meta that joins the port area, this part of the meta is called the Flame of Light.

Some of them pledged allegiance to their former leader, such as Black Retaliation and Black Renown, who swore allegiance to Queen Elizabeth. On the Ironblood side, there was also Scharnhorst Meta, who swore allegiance to Bismarck. She joined the port purely because of Bismarck.

Of course, regardless of the reason for joining the port, they will eventually be attracted by the players, i.e., the commanders, and become a powerful force standing by the commander's side. (Although their performance isn't really reflected in the game.)

Most of the new meta ship girls born in other test sites will be recruited by Ember to become new fighting forces against the Sirens. A small number will join the port, and a very small number will completely lose their minds and become Flickering Flames. These meta girls are monsters through and through. Whether it is the Sirens, Ember, or the Principle of Construction, they will all regard them as monsters and fight and destroy them when they see them.

As the story progresses, there is another meta who operates independently but occasionally provides assistance to the port, or more precisely, to the Commander—Helena Meta. She was originally a member of the Embers, but later, for unknown reasons, she left the Embers and operated independently, playing the role of the Riddler in many events.

After making contact with the commander of the Beta Test Site, he has been engaging in unexplained personal activities.

Although Jing Su quite dislikes this kind of riddle-solving character, she must admit that Helena meta is indeed very important in some events. Without her help, Yorktown II might not have been able to land.

In the story, Yorktown II was originally just a creature formed from Yorktown's memories, a creation of memories. At the end of the event, Yorktown II was supposed to dissipate, but Helena Meta preserved the mental information of Yorktown II and other second-generation ships, and extended it to the Beta Test Site.

In this way, the second-class second-generation ships could finally be considered to have their own bodies and become members of the port area.

The above is all the plot connection between the Sirens and the meta ship girls that Jing Su can recall. There may be some discrepancies in the details, but it is basically the same.

Therefore, Jing Su could tell that the guy in front of him was definitely lying. It wasn't that he doubted the guy's ability to construct an experimental field, but rather that he was judging from the plot that the world the commander was in was very special, a world that was a reenactment of history.

The majority of the game's story takes place in this experimental field.

Moreover, this experimental field also contains many smaller experimental fields, which is the key reason why leaders of various factions can encounter some strange things every now and then.

Such a large experimental field cannot be constructed by an ordinary arbitrator.

Chapter 326 Tova

Jing Su's meaning was simple: if this world was a Beta test site, then it obviously couldn't have been created by the Sirens in front of them. A test site of this level would have to be personally supervised by Zero.

If this world isn't the Beta Test Site, then it's even less likely that it was constructed by this guy in front of us. The port area was parachuted in; it appeared out of thin air.

It can be said that before the arrival of the port, this world had no way to resist the Sirens' invasion. In the game's storyline, Jing Su had seen a similar world, namely the world where the High Seas Fleet was located.

In that world, ship girls didn't exist. They relied on the first-generation warships to fight the Sirens and even shot down several Sirens' warships. When the High Seas Fleet was awakened by Frederick the Great, a certain ship girl from Ironblood expressed deep admiration, finding it incredible that they could sink the Sirens with such an old hull.

A world without ship girls is either a resource zone or a simple observation field for the Sirens. In either case, the level would not be very high. Therefore, for the guy in front of them, it would be too low-class.

For her to design such a world as a military region commander is indeed a bit too much. Moreover, before her, the Siren host in charge of this world was an old acquaintance. In the game's vast world, Jing Su would see them almost every month.

In conclusion, Jing Su concluded that the guy in front of him was most likely transferred from another world to temporarily assume the position of Siren commander-in-chief, but why he wanted to see him was unclear.

"Hehe, your analysis is quite interesting." The mature and sophisticated woman opposite her changed her posture, crossed her legs, and said with an air of superiority, "However, I can tell you why I'm here."

I've come to—annihilate you!

"Oh, how do you mean to eliminate them?" Jing Su was shocked, but her expression remained unchanged as she asked in return.

"Aren't you afraid?" Siren raised an eyebrow, seemingly trying to see a change in Jing Su's emotions, but after observing for a while, apart from detecting a slight increase in Jing Su's body temperature and a slightly faster heartbeat, there was no change.