Shipgirls and Salted Fish Commander, Port Survival Guide

and many more!

How did the conversation turn to building houses? Weren't we just talking about the Sirens?

Jing Su noticed something was wrong; she felt something was off, but couldn't quite put her finger on it, so she could only ask tentative questions.

"So, is this island now our territory?" Jing Su asked after organizing her thoughts.

"Huh?" Warspite was taken aback, then said in an unquestionable tone, "We took this island, isn't this our territory?"

"Aren't you worried about the Sirens' attack?" Actually, what Jing Su was really worried about was the Sirens. After all, this island was taken from the Sirens. Putting aside whether there were traps on the island, since the island was originally in the Sirens' hands, the Sirens must have the coordinates. With the Sirens' abilities, if they really wanted to retaliate, it would be a very troublesome matter.

"If the Sirens dare to come, let them come! I'm just worried about not having many opportunities to attack. I'm practically rusting from staying at the base all the time~" Warspite rubbed his hands together, then, as if he had thought of something, he changed his tone and said, "Commander, don't worry, there won't be any problems. No matter how terrifying the Sirens are, it's not easy for them to deploy troops in large numbers. At the very least, they need to find a stable area, build a beacon, and open a portal through the beacon so that they can deploy troops across space."

"The activation of the beacon is quite a commotion. Small-scale invasions can be handled by our Royal Navy, but for a large-scale invasion, the suitable locations for deploying large beacons in this world are either on the front lines or in the uninhabited deep sea. In short, once we've captured this island, unless the Sirens send all their units, they won't be able to take it back."

The little warspite stood on a large rock, hands on his hips, looking proud.

"Ahem, it's good that you think it's okay." Startled by Warspite's adorable appearance, Jing Su blushed and turned her head away, feeling embarrassed.

It's not that Jing Su is being pretentious, it's just that Yan Zhan's appearance is too unfair.

Q: What would it feel like if an older woman with a loli-like figure acted cute in front of you?

However, thanks to Warspite's appearance, Jing Su finally confirmed one thing.

'Yeah, she really isn't wearing anything~'

As a veteran of the port area, Warspite was Jing Su's main battleship for a long time, and she was the ship girl who accompanied him through his entire beginner period. Therefore, Jing Su naturally gave Warspite everything she could: rings, retrofits, and useful ship equipment.

If you really have to point out a loss, it's that the ship equipment is a bit lacking. After all, these are ship girls from the early days. Back then, Jing Su didn't have any good equipment. If she could fill all six slots with gold equipment, she was considered lucky to get something good from opening a box that day. This also led to the fact that when the port developed later, Jing Su didn't change the ship equipment of many older ship girls. Firstly, changing it would be too troublesome because there were too many ship girls. Jing Su always longed for the Royal Navy to have a function to change the equipment of all ship girls with one click. Secondly, the older ship girls really didn't have many opportunities to be used anymore.

Take Warspite for example. As a colored battleship, it's one thing that she can't compare to other rising colored battleships, but she can't even compare to some purple-to-gold conversions, which is really frustrating.

However, that was in the past, and it doesn't apply to the current war-weariness.

Well, she's already a mature ship girl, and she's long since learned to change her ship equipment herself. The Warspite now has a really good set of gear. She got the fire control system from Vanguard, plus +13 armor-piercing shells. For anti-aircraft, she has a 60mm Bofors Mle1951T0 anti-aircraft gun. She doesn't aim for the best, but for the most expensive. What she's been pursuing all her life is a sense of luxury. Of course, this anti-aircraft gun does live up to its price tag; it's really good.

I switch between the MK7 and 457 main guns, and when I'm in a bad mood, I switch to the +10 MK6 to reminisce about the past. The auxiliary guns I currently use are prototype twin 137mm guns. It's not that I don't want to use better ones, but the light cruiser guns in the port area are still under development. The person in charge is Plymouth, and it is said that it is in the final stage and can be equipped. However, the cost is still being estimated.

But what's that to Warspite? Just fire up the colorful cannons, and I'll just pay up!

'Hmm, speaking of which, I should go ask Plymouth how far her research on that colored cannon is going. I need to order one right away!'

Chapter 172 The Disappearance of Jing Su

"Commander, the site is all set up, we can start preparing dinner tonight." Just as Warspite was fantasizing about the happy times she and Jing Su would have after the house was renovated, Plymouth's gentle voice rang out, startling Warspite.

"Hey, Miss Plymouth, what are you doing here!" Warspite said, panting and clutching her chest.

"Oh, Miss Warspite, are you alright? Are there any bugs? Do you need me to take care of them?" Plymouth asked with some concern when she saw Warspite's slightly pale face.

"Ahem, I'm fine, I was just startled. Um, dinner, what are we having for dinner tonight?" I don't want to reveal that I was startled by a light cruiser because I was so engrossed in fantasies about my wonderful life with the commander. As a battleship, being startled by a light cruiser is already embarrassing enough. If people find out that I'm infatuated, I'd rather the world be destroyed!

"As per Commander's instructions, tonight is a barbecue dinner. The utensils and ingredients are all prepared, just waiting for Commander to take their positions." Plymouth wore a pleased expression. He had finally completed Jing Su's orders perfectly. This time, nothing went wrong; everything was perfect. If he could earn the Commander's praise, that would be even better!

"Oh, that's great! The barbecue the Commander made is really delicious. It's a pity there were too many people at the banquet before, and I only got to eat one chicken wing. Tonight I'm definitely going to eat my fill." Upon hearing that it was a barbecue banquet, Warspite forgot about her earlier embarrassment and her face lit up with a look of ecstatic joy.

As a high-ranking member of the Royal Navy, Warspite frequently visits other factions. Whenever she arrives at a new place, the first thing Warspite does is sample the local cuisine. Then, she unconsciously compares it with the food of her own faction. After visiting all the factions in the entire port, Warspite declares, "Case solved! The Royal Navy must be cursed by the God of Food. Otherwise, there's no way to explain why, even with the same ingredients and the same preparation methods, the food made by the Royal Navy ship girls tastes so peculiar."

Having experienced the food of other factions, Warspite always finds it difficult to adjust to the local cuisine when returning to his own faction's base. It's not that there aren't any good options; the Royal faction's snacks are quite good. However, one can't eat snacks for every meal. Fish and chips can easily upset the stomach if eaten every day. So, bread is the better choice. At least bread with butter tastes alright.

Actually, Warspite gets depressed for a long time every time she hears ship girls from other factions complaining about how bad their faction's food is. It's one thing to be inferior to traditional gourmet powerhouses like the Eastern Empire, Sakura Empire, and Sardinia, but it's even more frustrating that they can't compare to the Stabilizer and Iris.

Q: What could be more upsetting than someone pointing out your flaws?

A: Being criticized by someone you dislike, especially when you can't say anything back, makes you even more depressed. It's so frustrating!

"So, where is the Commander?" Plymouth was not surprised by Warspite's ecstatic expression. In the entire port, no matter who it was, being able to eat the food made by the Commander himself was a happy thing, especially since it tasted really good. However, what Plymouth was more concerned about now was that she came to find Jing Su, but instead of finding Jing Su, she saw Warspite dragging Jing Su away.

"Hey, isn't the Commander at the camp? He separated from me ten minutes ago, saying he sensed something strange and wanted to go check it out. I went back because of him..." As she spoke, Warspite froze in place. She finally realized the problem: Plymouth had come over to call Jing Su back, and Jing Su had already separated from her. In other words, neither Plymouth nor Warspite had seen Jing Su in those ten minutes!

"What!?" Plymouth's eyes narrowed slightly upon hearing Warspite's words, her voice cold and sharp. "Miss Warspite, can I understand that you've lost the Commander?"

"Why are you still worrying about this? Hurry up and go find it." Once again, Warspite was overwhelmed by Plymouth's imposing manner, but it didn't take long for Warspite to calm down. Her long experience of cleaning up messes for Her Majesty the Queen had honed Warspite's composure, and the more critical the moment, the calmer Warspite became.

Warspite could sense that Plymouth was now furious, but Warspite told him not to get angry yet, and that even if there was to be a reckoning, they should wait until they found Jing Su.

"...What should we do now?" Plymouth asked after a moment of silence. Although she was really anxious, panicked, and her mind was blank, all sorts of emotions filled her brain. She was scared, really scared. What if Jing Su suddenly disappeared again like before?

'If the Commander disappears again, I'll go crazy!'

“Plymouth, calm down. The commander is probably just held up by something. This area was just cleared by me. The usable area is limited. If we search carefully, it won't take long. If we find the commander and he sees you like this, he'll be angry!”

Just as Warspite was about to head back to camp, she suddenly felt a force that made her very uncomfortable. Turning her head to look at the source, she saw Plymouth surrounded by a strange black aura, staring blankly ahead with unfocused eyes.

'This is... Metamorphosis!?'

Sensing this aura, Warspite knew things were going badly. If Plymouth were to truly metamorphose, forget about finding Jing Su; the entire island might be destroyed.

"Commander, you'll be angry!" Actually, Warspite Balala said a lot, but only this sentence elicited a slight reaction from Plymouth. "Commander, you'll be angry? No! Absolutely not!"

In an instant, a powerful aura erupted from Plymouth, knocking down a large number of trees nearby, which in a way helped Warspite clear land.

Plymouth, how are you now?

"I'm fine. I'm sorry for scaring Miss Warspite."

A slightly apologetic voice came from Plymouth.

Despite the commotion Plymouth caused, Warspite was somewhat relieved. The terrifying aura emanating from Plymouth had dissipated, and at least for the time being, she was mostly unharmed.

"You really scared me just now. Hey, stop talking. Let's go back to camp first. There are only two of us now, and we're not enough. Quickly send someone to find Miss Perseus. She's an aircraft carrier, and once the planes are launched, the search area will be much larger."

"Hmm." Plymouth's voice sounded somewhat tired, as if he had participated in some major battle.

Warwear was aware of this, and Plymouth had just managed to suppress the metamorphosis through sheer willpower.

Before Jing Su disappeared, there were quite a few Meta ship girls in the port, and the Royal Navy even had two Queen Elizabeths at one point. So Warspite had some understanding of Metamorphosis, mainly knowing one factor that induces it—when a ship girl experiences great despair, she may Metamorphose. Of course, this is a passive Metamorphosis process. It is said that the Sakura Empire is researching how to actively Metamorphose, since although Metamorphosis looks quite troublesome, ship girls do gain powerful strength after Metamorphosis. The Sakura Empire is arguably the faction in the port that craves power the most.

The mere disappearance of Jing Su has caused Plymouth to become like this; if Jing Su were to truly vanish, who knows what it would become?

The two remained silent the entire way, and returned to the camp in a few strides.

"Hey, Miss Warspite, Miss Plymouth, you're back. I've almost finished preparing here. Eh, where's the Commander?" The camp came into view, but all they saw was the busy Sirius and Huang Pingping's round little yellow chicks. Warspite and Plymouth's hearts sank immediately.

"What? Master... he's gone?! How could this happen?! What are we going to do?!"

After Warspite briefly described the situation, Sirius felt as if struck by lightning, his body went limp, and he collapsed to the ground, tears welling up in his eyes.

"Don't panic. The area we can operate on this island is only so big. Sirius, hurry and find Miss Perseus. Have her launch the planes to scout the area I've spotted. Miss Plymouth and I will search the vicinity for any caves or similar places. Maybe the Commander fell in there." As a veteran of the battlefield, Warspite, a Royal Legend, gave the order. At this moment, they absolutely could not panic. Things might not be as bad as they thought. Perhaps Jing Su had just accidentally gotten lost and was looking for them now.

This is also a drawback of newly occupied resource points. Generally speaking, undiscovered resource points are either newly emerged from the sea or located in remote areas and well protected by the Sirens. In short, new resource islands are basically places without signal. In fact, due to the presence of Sirens jammers, walkie-talkies do not work well at new resource points. Special equipment must be used to eliminate the old Sirens' magnetic field before they can be used again.

In other words, the war-weary women have no way to contact Jing Su using communication tools, which is why they are so panicked.

If they're on the main shipping lanes and really can't find it, they can at least make a phone call to ask. But because of this, Warspite is still able to maintain a semblance of stability. If there were a signal but no one answered the phone, Plymouth would probably turn into a villain on the spot.

"Yes, yes, I'll go right away, I'll go immediately." Whether human or ship girl, the worst thing in a crisis is to panic, but as long as someone can step forward to take charge, the ship girls, who are born warriors, can quickly calm down.

Upon receiving the order, Sirius immediately changed into its ship equipment, transformed into a bolt of lightning, and rushed straight towards the cruise ship.

“Miss Plymouth, come with me. We’ll go find Miss Vanguard first. The Commander might be with her. Little yellow chicks, search this area. Don’t overlook any clues.”

"Thumbs up~"

Seeing Plymouth about to set off to find Jing Su, Warspite quickly called her back. If she didn't know she couldn't stop her, Warspite would have wanted Plymouth to rest. She was on the verge of collapse, having just woken up from her metamorphosis state, and couldn't withstand any more stimulation. But Warspite also knew that if she didn't let Plymouth do something now, there might really be a big problem.

"Ah."

......

"where is this place?"

Looking at the stark black and white space around him, Jing Su fell into deep thought.

How did I end up here? Wasn't I chatting with Warspite? How did I disappear in the blink of an eye?

No, my memory is playing tricks on me. I remember, something like someone told me to go to the camp?

It turned out that just now, about twenty minutes ago, Warspite was gesturing excitedly to Jing Su about what kind of house she wanted to build. Warspite was talking, and Jing Su was listening, but as she listened, Jing Su suddenly felt a little thirsty and wanted to go back to the camp for a drink of water. Warspite said that she wanted to continue looking for a place, and she felt that there must be good land later, so she should take advantage of the current situation and quickly claim it.

This area has been repeatedly scouted by Warspite and Vanguard. There are no traps or hidden enemies, so it is theoretically safe. Therefore, Warspite naturally did not refuse Jing Su's suggestion to return alone.

And so the two parted ways.

But as he walked, Jing Su realized something was wrong. He had been thinking about how to prepare the ingredients for dinner and had become somewhat distracted. When he came to his senses, he found himself in a very strange space.

Why is it strange?

Because this place is like an electronic space in a movie, Jing Su can even see a long string of green numbers floating past his eyes.

After realizing something was wrong with the space, Jing Su didn't yell or search for Yan Zhan and the others. Who knew what was in this space? What if she shouted and attracted the enemy? After all, this island had just been taken from the Sirens, and she might have triggered some kind of defensive mechanism.

But as something felt off, standing still didn't seem appropriate either. If Jing Su wasn't mistaken, she seemed to be in the very center of a room, and staying still would make her easy to be discovered. It would be better to walk around and see if there was a chance to get out.

However, Jing Su couldn't distinguish up from down from left from right in this area. Some places were full of mirrors, and some places were upside down. At one point, Jing Su saw her own reflection in the sky. Even if she wanted to turn around and go back the way she came, it was impossible.

When Jing Su looked back, the path she had come from had vanished, turning into an endless abyss.

What can we do? We can only keep moving forward.

Fortunately, although the space was constantly changing, the path under Jing Su's feet was always there, and following the path was quite smooth.

"There's a room?"

After walking for an unknown amount of time, Jing Su was attracted by a white light. Suddenly, a door emitting light appeared in front of him.

After Chapter 173, we'll stay together forever.

As Jing Su approached the room, before she could even go inside, she heard voices coming from inside. This alerted her, and instead of going in directly, she chose to eavesdrop at the door.

"Hey, tester, what do you mean by that? I just got back from that world, and now you want me to go on another mission? Why should I?!"

"The Builder hasn't awakened yet, the Cleaner isn't here, and the Observer is unreliable, so isn't it just you who has to go?"

"And what about you? Aren't you still here? Why aren't you going?"

"I don't want to get beaten up."

"Huh!? So you just want to get beaten up? You're clearly stronger than me, so it's your turn to strike this time."

"If I go, I won't be able to control them and might sink them."

"So what if we sink them? So what if we blow them up? Have they ever held back against us? They always beat us to a pulp. You feel pain when you get hit, and I feel pain too. Every time there's a problem, they send me over to handle it. Before I even get there and figure out what's going on, I get beaten up. Don't I have any dignity?!"

"You talk too much."

"What!? What do you mean I talk too much? It's because you guys always interrupt me. Today, the others aren't here, so I'm not allowed to say more? Humph, I don't care. I'm not going this time. Whoever wants to go can go."

“If it gets damaged, he will be sad.”

"Sad? Who's sad? What does this have to do with me... Wait, who are you saying is sad? Him, he's back?"

"..."

"Say something! Why are you silent now? Are you trying to drive me crazy?"

"..."

"Okay, okay, I'll go, alright? I'll go, I'll go! You guys are really lucky."

"..."

"Hey, is he really back? I've searched hundreds of worlds and couldn't find him. How come I haven't received any news about him? Besides, even though he's back, the Agent and the Arbitrator haven't reacted at all. Is this news reliable?"

"I've confirmed with the Dream Weaver that he has indeed returned, but he hasn't informed anyone else yet. You're the first to know."

"Then I..."

"No, we can't meet now. Meeting too soon will be detrimental to the situation." He was interrupted before he could finish speaking.

"Okay, I'll know my limits. It's okay to peek, right?"

"Do not......"

"I'll take photos, high-definition and uncensored, maybe even some sleeping photos."

"..."

"If you don't say anything, I'll take that as your agreement. Don't worry, I know what's important and there won't be any problems."

"Ten."

"what!?"