Revisit Azur Lane

Unlike the other four, Kursk had been wandering around exploring outside. When he returned to the speedboat, they met up. After exchanging words, the group boarded the speedboat and began their return journey.

……

In the unknown space, with the background of the data link flashing, three old acquaintances from the experimental agency were having a roundtable meeting.

"Did the Council's combat air-to-space carrier strike wipe out your base?"

The tester's comment made the observer laugh: "I already said those rats might head to the D2 sea area. You're not going to send Agent XIV to support the Purifiers, are you?"

"Yes, those ship girls are in there too."

The test subject's face was gloomy. Logically speaking, every step she took was a correct judgment, so why could she still not escape death?

"You underestimate the meta ship girls. The proxy is no match for her at all. Even that guy in the test field was taken down by Yukikaze."

After dying, she created a new account called Purification Qinle Ma. She was a little depressed about being executed by cannon fire, but compared to the testers, she was really lucky.

The council might only enter such a remote area as theirs and launch an attack on the base once in a decade, and he happened to be there.

"How is that possible? Although Yukikaze is a meta, her energy level is not up to standard. Executor XIV with Type III Executors should be able to handle her."

The testers found it hard to believe that a meta that could be corrupted by energy and go berserk was arguably one of the weakest metas. Even without directly measuring Yukikaze's firepower, the Proxy and the guy in the test site should have been able to handle it, right?

She asked the Purifier, "What exactly happened inside?"

"Don't rush, I'll explain it to you slowly."

Purification smiled leisurely and began to make up a story.

Chapter 202 serves as a bridge between the preceding and following chapters.

It was already daylight outside.

However, Zhou He couldn't get up. He looked down at Xi Li, who was half-lying on him, and squinted as he recalled what happened last night.

Because it was already very late when they got back, and Yuudachi and the others had been fighting for several days in a row, they were quite exhausted when they got home. After taking a shower and having dinner, they went back to their rooms to rest. He was still quite busy, giving Yuudachi, who hadn't showered for three days, a thorough scrub, and arranging a dormitory for Kirov. However, Yukikaze's massage was kept by Yukikaze because it was too late.

After reminiscing, the work to be done today is not much, but it's mainly troublesome and time-consuming.

"Hmm~"

Seemingly noticing Zhou He's subtle movements, Yuudachi opened her eyes groggily. Her ears are usually perked up, but they soften when she's asleep. After opening her eyes and seeing Zhou He, Yuudachi gave him a cute smile, then squinted and rubbed against his chest. The soft, fragrant little dog made Zhou He unable to resist reaching out and hugging her tightly. He put one arm around her back and stroked her hair with the other, feeling very content.

Yuudachi didn't resist; on the contrary, she enjoyed the feeling. After a while, Zhou He let go, rubbed her cheeks, and got up, leaving Yuudachi still rolling around on the bed—but after rolling around twice, she suddenly perked up her ears and sniffed carefully: "There's the smell of Yukikaze on the bed."

"Cough cough!?"

Zhou He was looking for clothes when she exclaimed in surprise, which made him choke. He hadn't touched Xuefeng last night, so he put on the clothes, turned around, and pointed to the bed with Xili: "This was left here before, right? Didn't you say that Xuefeng sometimes... takes a nap here?"

Halfway through his sentence, Zhou He instinctively stopped himself from using the wrong words, looked around at the door and windows, and only breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that Xue Feng was not eavesdropping.

Yes, he is now sleeping in the first-floor bedroom of the new dormitory with Yuudachi, just as he thought yesterday. There are two bedrooms. He feels at ease sleeping on the first floor and feels very safe on the third floor, so he doesn't mind sleeping on either side. It's just that the third floor is easy for passing ship girls to peek at or eavesdrop on.

"Ha! No wonder I slept so strangely last night!"

Yuudachi was like a dog whose territory had been taken away, lying on its back and twisting and turning on the bed with great effort, as if trying to cover up Yukikaze's scent with its own. But Zhou He's nose wasn't that sensitive, and he had never smelled Yukikaze's scent up close, so he couldn't tell the difference. Yuudachi's reaction, however, made him want to laugh.

After changing into his military uniform and washing up, Zhou He said to Xi Li, "I'm going to work now, Xi Li, you can rest a bit longer."

Yuudachi responded with a "whoosh," then wrapped herself in the blanket and continued rolling around, having a great time.

"So, what should we do?"

Stepping out of the dormitory, Zhou He stretched and glanced at the paved road before taking two quick hops and starting a slow jog.

"Hey, Commander, you're in good shape."

Kirov also lived on the second floor of the new dormitory, but she got up early and went to find Kursk first thing in the morning. At this moment, she and Lingmin were doing sit-ups on the lawn next to the command post, massaging each other's legs. As for why she ended up with Lingmin instead of Kursk, it can only be said that Kursk had a strong sense of instinct and ran away beforehand, but Lingmin didn't run away. Kirov knocked on the door and led her out. She didn't know how many hours she had slept, but she couldn't stop yawning. She glanced at Zhou He and said lazily, "You said you had already occupied the Sirens' base yesterday?"

"Yes, the passwords inside have been changed to be for the commander's exclusive use. Interested?"

Kirov was the one exercising. The two of them were on a yoga mat. She could even talk to Lingmin while silently counting to 687. Her tight clothes showed some sweat stains, and there was a layer of fine sweat on her forehead, but that was all.

"Yes, haha... I'll go take a look when I have time."

Lingmin yawned again as she spoke. She seemed to have left the workshop at two o'clock yesterday and was woken up by Kirov before six o'clock. Mental work requires a lot of sleep to recover, so she planned to take a nap later and make a positioning device for Kursk after getting up, so that Kirov could mess with Kursk in the future.

On the other side, Zhou He followed the road into the Ironblood mansion and ran three laps in the yard. He turned around and stopped outside the restaurant. His legs were fine, and he felt better after twisting them a bit. However, he felt a burning sensation in his chest and his heart was beating faster. It took him a few deep breaths to return to normal.

"My physical fitness has indeed improved, but it's not as strong as I imagined."

Zhou He let out a breath, opened the collar of his military uniform to cool down, and pondered the improvement that the three medals had brought him. In fact, since taking up his post here, his physical fitness was much better than when he was sitting at home. It was barely at the level of a normal person, and now his physical fitness was probably above average. At least he could carry Yuudachi down the mountain for more than half an hour, which was much better than before when his heart would pound when he carried Yuudachi upstairs.

If he continues to receive medal bonuses, he will most likely become a superhuman among humans.

"So, the easiest medal to obtain is..."

He had just opened the system interface when he saw Anchorage walking out of the restaurant entrance. She had a bright smile on her face and walked quickly over: "Good morning, teacher."

"Hmm, having breakfast?"

Suppressing his movement, Zhou He nodded in response, turned his head and indeed saw Jarvis's figure, and even Xuefeng was among them. So he smiled and waved to the two of them, and then said to Anchorage, "Have you met these new friends yet?"

"Uh-huh!"

Anchorage nodded very seriously, then pointed to each person with his finger: "The one eating is Sister Yukikaze, and the ones exercising are Sister Kirov and Sister Reimin..."

As she spoke, she poked her cheek with her finger, trying to recall: "Are there still Yuudachi-neechan and Kursk-neechan that I haven't met yet?"

"so smart."

Zhou He praised her, but the unfamiliar Xi Li was still in his bed and hadn't gotten up yet. He wondered how Xi Li would react to being called "sister." Anyway, he could see that Miss Yukikaze had a smug expression that looked like a little devil. He really wanted to go up and pull her cheeks.

After exchanging words with Anchorage, Zhou He entered the restaurant. Fortunately, Xuefeng had already suppressed his smug expression, otherwise he might not have been able to control his hands. Instead of sitting down directly, he followed the guide, Manjiu, to the kitchen. After exchanging words with the head chef, Manjiu, he purchased 40 Home Coins (400 catties) worth of ingredients and put them in the storage room.

At this point, he only had 36 Home Coins left.

After ordering directly from the chef, he turned around, went back to the living room, sat down, opened the system interface, and found the 'Cumulative Home Coin Consumption' badge project, with a progress of 765/1000.

"You've already spent so much money?"

Zhou He was shocked to see that over 700 Homestead Coins had been spent. It was like someone who had worked for ten years looking back and realizing that he had actually earned xx0,000, but he was still short of money and didn't know where all the money had gone.

除了这个勋章，其他最容易完成的是‘重樱婚舰数量1/2’‘累计完成日常任务89/100’‘累计出击胜利63/100’和‘累计舰娘掉落16/20’。

The tasks closest to completion are the Sakura Empire's wedding ship and daily missions. He glanced at Yukikaze and felt he could complete the former at any time, but the cumulative daily missions were a bit troublesome. After all, he had already dealt with the nearby Siren base and the Mirror Sea, leaving only the daily attack victory and the daily collection of Home Coins.

"We don't want the Sirens to come and cause trouble, but we also want them to come and cause trouble. Human nature is always so contradictory."

Zhou He chuckled, opened the task interface, and his eyes widened slightly: at the very bottom of the four daily tasks, there was actually a completed 'achievement task'?

Moreover, the rewards are ridiculously generous, including increased attractiveness to ship girls, 3 selectable furniture boxes, and 1 'Unknown World Anchor Point'.

"What's going on? Was this a task that was completed when the UI was updated yesterday? No... 'Owning your own piece of sea' was an achievement task triggered because I occupied that Siren Island?"

Zhou He was shocked. He had been too busy yesterday, and since he had already claimed his daily rewards, he hadn't checked for any new tasks and had completely missed it.

But what does "attractiveness up for ship girls" mean? Last time, the emergency mission increased the attractiveness of meta ship girls, but this time it applies to all ship girls? Could it also affect my own ship girls?

Thinking about his own situation, he felt inexplicably afraid and dared not accept the mission reward.

But the three customizable furniture boxes and the unknown world anchor point are really tempting!

So he chose to accept it, and then turned to observe the situation of Yukikaze and the other two. Anchorage noticed him and waved to him with a smile, but Yukikaze glanced at him without reacting, and Jarvis didn't even turn his head back.

"Oh, this probably increases the attractiveness of ship girls outside the port area, which is quite useful."

Zhou He now understood. He lowered his head and continued to check the system options one by one. Finally, he found the new 'Fleet Research' option in the research section. This function was also very simple. It categorized various ship types such as submarines, destroyers, light cruisers, and heavy cruisers. Research could be conducted once a certain number of ships were in each category. Level 1 research required 20 people plus 100 Home Coins. After completing the research, the ship girls of the relevant ship type would receive a bonus to all attributes. Level 1 was 10%, and each subsequent upgrade would increase the bonus by 2%.

This was also a very impressive research project, but Zhou He is now penniless and unable to meet the basic research requirements, so he has to reluctantly shut it down.

Once he arrived, he had checked the entire system and found no new features.

"Attacks increase attributes, enhancements increase attributes, modifications increase attributes, research increases attributes, and even marriage ships increase attributes. System, are you trying to make me go down the data stream all the way to the end?"

Zhou He was still thinking about skills, such as Anchorage's "Enemy of the Sirens," which immediately increases combat power by a percentage. With just this one skill, Anchorage would be much stronger than most other heavy cruisers in the later stages. Unfortunately, ordinary ship girls don't have skills, and even Yukikaze's enhanced search radar wasn't counted as a skill.

Forget it, once the attributes are strong enough, it won't matter whether there are skills or not.

After relaxing, Zhou He glanced at the 'Unknown World Anchor Point' in the warehouse and clicked on the description: As the name suggests, it means that after use, you can collect a spacetime anchor point of an unknown world.

It's used in conjunction with the anchor point function; it's probably a beginner's tool given to him by the system.

"Other worlds."

After reviewing the situation in his mind, Zhou He immediately closed the warehouse and began to observe the sea area. It was terrifying. A whole night had passed and not a single Siren had approached the base. Even the Siren fleet that had been probing and wandering on the edge yesterday had all withdrawn and left completely. Not a single Siren could be seen within a radius of more than 400 nautical miles.

"The observers actually did that, trying to keep me under their control?"

Zhou He was surprised, but to be honest, it wasn't too bad. After all, he now controlled a base that could produce Sirens, and he also had a system that allowed him to go directly to other worlds. This blockade didn't restrict him at all. On the contrary, without the harassment of the Sirens, he didn't need to be so timid when he moved around.

Without any worries, he opened the test site map of South Six. The map here was much more lively than the outside. There were still thirty people in his family here, plus the surviving data ship girls, scattered around the map. He counted and found that there were actually seventy-eight points of light.

'Such a large testing ground, and only forty-eight ship girls survived?'

Zhou He didn't know how to evaluate it, so he decided to just be a neighbor and visit later when he had time. After briefly explaining the situation of the core base to the leaders, including New Jersey Nagato, he began to enjoy his breakfast with peace of mind.

"Commander, are we going to the Siren base later?"

A short while later, Lingmin and Kirov entered the restaurant. Lingmin went straight to Zhou He, his wine-red eyes seemingly able to speak, filled with curiosity about the Siren base.

Zhou He smiled calmly: "Sure, want to come along? Let's invite Akashi too."

"Oh! Have breakfast first before calling. Why didn't Yuudachi come out with the Commander? Were they working overtime tonight?"

Lingmin didn't stand on ceremony at all and sat directly opposite Zhou He. Kirov also sat down next to him and was surprised when he heard Lingmin's whispers: "Commander, you've already shared a room with Yuudachi?"

Kirov had already seen the ring on Yuudachi's finger. She had no interest in Yuudachi's Sakura Empire identity. Since she had chosen to follow Zhou He, she thought that Yuudachi's ideology must have already taken on Zhou He's shape.

"Yes."

Zhou He felt helpless at Ling Min's teasing. In the end, it was also due to the circumstances. Ever since he gave Xi Li the ring, he had never had a normal, peaceful night. To this day, he had never seriously worked overtime with Xi Li.

However, now that even the sirens have withdrawn from this area, there shouldn't be any more trouble in the short term.

It's time to start practicing your shipboard skills!