Shipgirls and Salted Fish Commander, Port Survival Guide

"Laffey! Don't do anything rash, we agreed to be together." Ayanami and Z23's anxious voices rang out.

"Finding the commander is the most important thing!"

"Lafite, Lafite!!"

"Ayanami, thank you for keeping watch. I'll be there soon."

"it is good."

...

"It seems your little ones still care about you a lot; they came really fast."

"Let's check the time... wow, has it really been that long?"

"Hehe, what do you mean by long? For us Sirens, this is nothing, just a month."

"A month, converted to real time, is about two or three hours."

"So, you're leaving?" This time, the voice was filled with reluctance.

"Hmm, it's time. What, you're reluctant to part with me?"

"Heh, who do you think you are? Reluctant to part with me? Me, the mighty Siren host, would be reluctant to part with you? Human, you think too highly of yourself."

"Yes, yes, Lord Tova is right. Hey, who was it that hugged me last night and said they wanted to do *that*... Hey, hey, don't move! You just put it on, it's not fully healed yet!"

"Tch, serves you right for talking nonsense!" Towa glared at Jing Su and released his fingers. Jing Su's earlobes were terribly red, whether from the newly inserted rings or from being pinched by Towa's fingers, it was hard to tell.

"After you leave, are things alright on your end?" After a while, Jing Su suddenly asked, sounding somewhat worried.

"Me? What problems could I possibly have? If anything, it's that I was bullied by some bastard and there's nothing I can do about it."

"Don't talk nonsense! Honestly, you know better than me who's been bullying whom over the past month!"

“That’s the interest I deserve, and it’s a debt you have to repay.” Tova stretched, revealing her beautiful figure. Her light blue skin was much rosier than when they first met. “Anyway, once you’re out here, you should worry about your little ones rather than me. I won’t hold back.”

If you accidentally sink a few of them because of carelessness, don't be angry!

“You won’t do it~” Jing Su said confidently.

"Oh? So confident, then I'll..."

Before Towa could finish speaking, he felt a soft touch on his lips. He realized that Jing Su had bullied him once again.

"If they get hurt, I'll drag you back, lock you in the basement, and bully you so badly that you'll never see the sun again!"

I do what I say! "

"Hehe, just say you want me to be a star."

"Why don't you try asking me? Maybe, if I'm in a good mood, I might show mercy." A nameless rage suddenly ignited in Tova's heart. Sure enough, the more time she spent with Jing Su, the more reluctant she was to let him go. Now, hearing Jing Su care about other girls, even though she knew that the ship girls Jing Su cared about were the ones who were truly by his side, she still couldn't suppress the anger in her heart.

"beg...

"Oh, what are you asking for? Let's do something in return! I just hope the peerless, wise, brave, and beautiful Miss Tova will go easy on Dawn Harbor a little. I'll do anything for that!"

"ten times."

"Ok?"

"In the days that followed, ten times a day."

"Quack, you might as well kill me!"

"If you can't even meet this simple requirement, it seems you don't really care about those little guys under your command."

"Is this something you can't care about or not? It's impossible! People will die!" Jing Su cried out in anguish. If you don't want to agree, just say so. Why beat around the bush to refuse?

"If you can't do it, then practice. Just complaining here is a waste of time."

"Look into my eyes, and guess what I'm looking at?"

“Hehe, of course it’s the incomparably wise creator, the arbiter who possesses both power and beauty!” Tova said matter-of-factly.

"..." Jing Su indicated that she couldn't respond to this.

"Alright, stop spacing out. I won't go all out in this operation, but I won't hold back either. If you all suffer casualties, it's not my fault. You deserve it for being too lax." Seeing Jing Su's speechlessness, Towa said irritably, "This is the biggest concession I can make."

"Really? Thank you so much." Jing Su's joy was evident on his face. He was genuinely happy. Although he could roughly guess from the ship girls' daily conversations that the current strength of the port area was comparable to the port area level in the game, it was powerful enough to challenge Moonfall with just a team.

During the three years they were missing, the ship girls did indeed deal with the Siren host in the same way they dealt with the Moonbound.

According to the ship girls, the port is indeed powerful, but that's just one person's opinion. Who knows the specifics?

As a casual viewer of the storyline, Jing Su's most memorable line about the Sirens is: "You can't fight them seriously, but you can't not fight them either. Fighting these guys is really a frustrating thing."

That might not be the exact wording, but that's roughly the gist of it. The world the player inhabits is essentially an experimental field, but it was spared destruction because of the Commander's presence. It's also the world that the Sirens are most interested in.

Judging from what the Sirens said, at least during the main storyline, the ship girls were truly no match for the Sirens. However, in the port area, since they didn't fight the Sirens much, Jing Su had no idea what the actual strength comparison was like.

'Heh, you've really gotten hooked.'

Seeing Jing Su's overjoyed expression, Tova sighed inwardly, unsure of what to say.

She was both happy and sad. She was happy that she finally understood why Zero cared so much about the man in front of her, but she was sad because the price of knowing seemed to be too high. By the time she realized it, she could no longer live without him!

Jing Su's joy deeply stung Towa, and she couldn't help but wonder: 'If something happened to me, would he care as much as he does now?'

Probably not, after all, we seem to be enemies...

"What's wrong? Are you unhappy?" Jing Su was quick-witted, and with Tova's emotional changes being so obvious, she easily noticed something was amiss. After a quick thought, Jing Su understood why Tova had become so downcast.

Knowing this was one thing, but Jing Su genuinely didn't know how to handle it. The enemy's bigwig and the leader of their own faction—this kind of plot would be considered melodramatic even in a novel, but now, it was actually happening...

"It's nothing, I was just thinking about some things." Tova quickly changed the subject and said, "Speaking of which, who got that picture on your back? It has good taste."

"The image?" Jing Su was taken aback, then suddenly realized, "If I remember correctly, it was Hu Teng who created it before, saying... cough, no, it's been so long, hasn't it disappeared yet?"

I turned my head and tried to look behind me, and finally managed to find a mirror so I could see the pattern on my back.

'Hmm? This image is different from the one on Z46.'

The overall cross design made Jing Su feel like she had seen it somewhere before.

"Hehe, to remove this image, I'd probably have to use a laser~" Towa rolled her eyes at the bewildered Jing Su. She had figured it out; Jing Su was quite oblivious to certain things.

"?"

"To put it simply, I sensed the power of the ship's equipment in that picture. To be honest, you have more than one similar power within you. I thought you knew about it."

"If you put it that way, I roughly know what's going on." Jing Su understood. Wasn't this what Binjiang had done? Binjiang had drawn two dragons on her legs, echoing her own, saying it was a couple's design. Binjiang's reason was that it was like a location marker, which could be understood as Binjiang marking herself.

Later, the pattern on her leg gradually disappeared, and Jing Su forgot about it.

Now, according to Tova, the pattern on his back is also in this situation?

'I'll ask Hu Teng later.'

"Alright, whatever the situation, now it's my time."

"what..."

"What? You were just begging me to go easy on you, and now you're turning your back on me? Heh, it's not that simple. Judging by the time, it should still be about a week away."

Anyway, I'm starting to eat!

"!!!"

...

"Laffey, Ayanami, I...I'm here. Phew, what's going on with the cruise ship?"

Panting heavily, Z23 hurried and finally arrived at the cruise ship before encountering the enemy. Before he could even rest, he hurriedly asked Laffey for details.

The closer they got to the arsenal, the greater the interference with the communication equipment. Just after she issued the order for Ayanami to provide emergency reinforcements, the communication equipment completely lost its ability to function, and the signal was completely gone.

"..." The only response she received was endless silence.

"What's going on? Speak up!" Z23 was extremely anxious, but neither Laffey nor Ayanami stood silently in place, not saying a word.

Finally, Ayanami spoke up, "Z23, go in and take a look, and you'll find out."

"?"

Despite her curiosity, Z23 did as instructed and rushed into the room. Then, her pupils suddenly contracted, and she exclaimed, "What happened to them?"

"The ship girls of the Eastern Empire, Laffey and I have checked them, and they're fine, they're just asleep."

"...Asleep?"

"Yes, when Laffey came over, they were all lying on the deck, fast asleep, and we couldn't wake them up no matter how hard we called them."

"Then...where is the Commander!?" Z23 breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing that the ship girls were alright, but soon her heart began to race again, because the room was filled with ship girls, but Jing Su was nowhere to be seen.

"I don't know, I've searched the entire cruise ship but couldn't find it." Ayanami reached out and slammed her fist against the wall, causing the entire cruise ship to shake a few times.

"Can't find it!?" Z23 emitted a sharp crack, just as I feared.

The sleeping ship girl, the vanished Jing Su—a terrible thought began to surface in her mind.

"No, no, absolutely not. There must be something you missed, Raffi. Tell me, you must have missed something. How could you possibly search such a large cruise ship in such a short time?"

Z23 grasped at the last straw and said anxiously.

“We didn’t search the entire cruise ship, but the remaining places are nowhere to hide anyone. Or rather, if the Commander were inside, he would have been gone long ago…” Ayanami didn’t finish her sentence, but Z23 guessed what she meant and immediately fell into despair.

"No, there's still one place we haven't searched!" Suddenly, Z23 stood up abruptly, his face resolute.

"You mean?" Although she already guessed what Z23 was talking about, Ayanami still asked.

“Yes, it’s the one you’re thinking of.” Z23 walked to the window and looked into the distance. In the direction she was looking, there stood a giant tower emitting purple lightning.

That thing is the Siren Armory!

"If a destroyer attacks the arsenal head-on, people will die!" Although Ayanami knew what Z23 was planning to do, she still gave him a warning.

"So, you don't want to go?" Z23 asked back.

"Heh, how could that be? You're the flagship. We can't move without you."

"When you launched your attack without authorization just now, did you not consider that I was the flagship?" Z23 said with a smile.

Perhaps because I had made the decision, when I actually got to this point, I found myself quite calm, without any sense of impending doom.

"Hehe, wasn't it because you were in a hurry?" Ayanami's lips curled up, and she punched Z23 lightly. "Yeah, as expected, before we set off, let me touch Z23's 'Oops' one more time, otherwise, I'm afraid I won't be able to touch it again~"

"Eh?"

"I... also want to use the Z23 as a pillow. It's a bit hard, but it's still pretty good."

"Lafite!!!"

"Wow, it's so lively here! What are you discussing? Can I join in?"

One stone caused a thousand waves!

Just as the three little ones were preparing to go all out and charge towards the arsenal, a voice that they had been longing for rang out.

"Commander, is it really you?" Z23 turned her head, her eyes glistening, not daring to open them, afraid that she was just hallucinating.

"Commander~" Laffey was the first to react. The moment her voice rang out, she turned around and rushed towards Jing Su, knocking him to the ground. She buried her head in Jing Su's arms and shook him frantically, as if she never wanted to leave him.

“You guys~” Jing Su smiled and patted Lafite’s hair, “Yes, it’s me, I’m back.”

Chapter 336 Mimicry

"Commander, are you alright?!"

Upon hearing the sound, the three women were overjoyed and gathered around, looking Jing Su up and down to see if he was alright.

"It's nothing, what could possibly happen?" Jing Su looked around and saw the Donghuang girls lying on the sofa, fast asleep. She could roughly guess how anxious Z23 and the others must be to see this.

“But… Yi Xian and the others…” Z23 hesitated for a moment before offering her opinion. The cruise ship had been stationary for several hours without any response. Once inside the ship, the ship girls were all asleep. They had searched the entire cruise ship but couldn’t find Jing Su. This was clearly not a situation where nothing had happened.

"The specific situation is a bit complicated. Anyway, I'll explain what happened once they wake up. They should wake up in about ten minutes, and by then communication should be restored. I'll notify Yorktown that they don't need to rush over."

...

"We couldn't have already notified them, could we?" After giving the order, Jing Su saw Z23's troubled expression and immediately guessed what was going on. However, after thinking about it carefully, and analyzing it from the perspective of the four little ones, they would indeed do everything they could to come to the rescue if they couldn't contact the cruise ship and detected that they were surrounded by powerful enemies.

From the fact that the javelin wasn't nearby, Jing Su roughly guessed what had happened. They must have split up to find reinforcements. After spending time with Tova, Jing Su had gained a deeper understanding of the Sirens' techniques; they were indeed formidable.

Despite the explosive technological advancements in the port area today, making it easy to create a mechanical life form, it still can't do what the Sirens did—directly create an entire world.

In the story, ship girls can be created. The Ironblood faction's high seas fleet was awakened by Frederick the Great. In addition, many research ship girls are also created later. For example, Flanders of the Vichy Church was designed by Marco Polo of the Sardinian faction in the story.