Revisit Azur Lane

Thinking of this, Zhou He was convinced that the black vortex was the map feedback of the Mirror Sea.

Hey~

A sound as faint as the flapping of a mosquito's wings, yet with an extremely strong presence, rang in Zhou He's ears, startling him so much that he instantly abandoned his thoughts on the Mirror Sea and focused his attention on observing the battle situation on the map. At this time, the two sides had not yet met, only the formation of the Siren carrier fleet had changed, and there had even been casualties, but the most crucial carrier icon was still there.

"Not sunk?"

What was that system yelling about?

Zhou He frowned, switched to the map, found Zuikaku in the dock who was missing a quarter of her ammunition, and resupplyed her. He then opened the mission interface, his eyes widening slightly as he saw the fourth mission that had appeared:

④ Discover and explore a mirror-like sea area. Depending on your encounters and exploration completion, you can obtain the following rewards: 1 furniture selection box, 1-10 selectable research blueprints, 1-10 selectable ship equipment parts, and 1-3 Wisdom Cubes.

Note: In the Mirror Sea area, the drop rate of ship girls is slightly increased.

"Furniture! Oh, wait, they actually gave so many Rubik's Cubes. No wonder I felt the resource acquisition channels were unreasonable. It turns out I haven't reached the level to unlock missions yet."

The generous rewards were so enticing that Zhou He couldn't take his eyes off them.

However, he quickly realized that the biggest benefit of the Mirror Sea was not these fixed rewards, but the increased drop rate of ship girls below. With this buff, even if he encountered a super-large Mirror Sea where exploration was worthwhile, he wouldn't lose too much. In fact, he might go in with one team and come out with three or four teams.

"That's wonderful."

Zhou He suddenly realized that he could resonate with the martial arts faction, such as Ruihe and Xili. Since he was in this era and in this position, he had to strive to climb up. Tatakai, a self-drawn Tatakai!

beep—

After calming down a bit, Zhou He noticed something amiss when he looked at the map again. Almost half an hour had passed since Zuikaku launched its air attack, and the Sirens' aircraft carrier had not been destroyed yet. In fact, the accompanying Sirens fleet had formed a parallel line with the Sirens that were wandering around and gathering, and it looked like they were about to meet up with Tosa and the others.

Something unexpected happened?

After replenishing Zuikaku, whose health had been reduced by 30%, Zhou He frowned, thinking of Zuikaku's confident demeanor not long ago, and decided to give her another half hour.

……

"This is a tough nut to crack. If we confront them head-on, the pressure will be immense."

At this moment, Zuikaku's expression was also very solemn.

She launched the first air attack, penetrating the Sirens fleet's anti-aircraft fire and hitting the Sirens' aircraft carrier. She thought it was over, but the Sirens' hull was incredibly sturdy. Even though she hit five out of ten shots, the planes on the Sirens' runway were blown to pieces, but the runway itself wasn't breached. She was even able to push new planes out of the hangar.

Fortunately, the uneven deck runway was no longer able to support aircraft takeoff. Instead of being dragged into an air battle, Zuikaku decisively chose to bomb the bottom of the ship with torpedoes. It took a total of three rounds of suicide air attacks to finally pierce the bottom of the Siren aircraft carrier, destroy its propulsion system, damage the takeoff runway, and leave it helpless and waiting to capsize on the spot.

However, because they focused their efforts on the enemy's aircraft carrier, they did not harass the approaching Siren fleet much. The fastest Siren destroyer had already collided with Hermione and Yuudachi on the right side of the battlefield.

Unlike previous battles, this time the number of Sirens was extremely large, and they were coming from multiple directions. This meant that Hermione and Yuudachi were facing a mixed fleet of destroyers and light aircraft that was approaching from different directions and far outnumbered their own.

Boom boom boom boom boom!

While the firepower of destroyers is weaker compared to battleships and battlecruisers, their sheer numbers create an extremely terrifying barrage. Even the valiant Yuudachi had to retreat in the face of relentless artillery fire, and at one point, she even became separated from Hermione.

"Hermione, you go deal with the Sirens over there, I'll handle this one!"

Yuudachi's petite figure braved the wind and waves. The spray from the shells, along with shrapnel, swept across her body. Beneath her torn shirt were countless tiny wounds, from which red blood oozed. The strong wind dispersed the blood, staining her clothes a deep crimson.

The dense explosions forced her to shout even while using the team's voice chat. Her wet hair clung to her forehead, and her crimson eyes showed no fear, only a frenzied excitement and fighting spirit.

"Okay, Yuudachi, you..."

Hermione's subsequent words were drowned out by the sound of artillery fire, while Yuudachi had already begun her charge. Reaching her maximum speed, she carved white waves across the exploding sea surface. Facing the enemy's bombardment, she too raised the ship's cannon on the back of her hand:

Boom!

A shell landed on the enemy ship, followed by more intense explosions. Two destroyers were hit head-on. One ship's bridge was blown off and it listed on its side, while the other ship's ammunition magazine was detonated.

"I see. The siren ships on 'this side' are made of superior materials. How interesting."

At a distance on the front line, Kursk stood on the sea, his gloved, claw-like hand waving forward, his face still calm: "Fire."

Her arrival relieved some of the pressure on Yuudachi, but it also attracted more Sirens. However, she didn't bother to avoid the enemy's firepower and went straight to meet it, with her main cannons firing at full power, leaving smoke billowing in her wake.

boom!

Finally, a shell launched from afar struck Yuudachi as she charged forward. Despite Yuudachi's quick reflexes as she twisted her body to parry with the turret on her ship's rig, she could not change the fact that she had been hit. Her body was thrown out of the black smoke like an arrow, splashing water as she fell into the water. She was thrown back an unknown distance before coming to a stop.

"It hurts... wait, it doesn't hurt as much as I expected."

Soaked to the bone, Yuudachi staggered to her feet from the blood-stained sewage, gritting her teeth as she tried to get away from the shelling. But as she moved, she noticed something amiss—her injured body had been repaired by some unknown force while she was airborne. Now, she felt a sharp, stinging pain as her skin collided with the sea. She couldn't recall the feeling of being hit by the shells because her mind had gone blank when she was thrown into the air.

"Is that the commander?"

Yuudachi rubbed her aching arm and moved quickly, checking her ammunition and rations to find they were fully replenished. She knew only one person who could do this, and the emotions welling up inside her made her cry out, driving her back to the battlefield.

This time, however, she wasn't facing a one-sided barrage of enemy fire. A familiar formation of aircraft appeared in the sky, and a massive, dense barrage of artillery fire roared towards the enemy ranks from directly behind her, turning the destroyers and light cruisers blocking her path into fireballs with overwhelming force. She also received a new combat objective from Zhou He:

Anti-submarine warfare.

……

To be honest, when Zhou He saw Yuudachi's 'health bar' almost reach zero in an instant, his heart almost stopped beating. The speed at which he pressed the repair button was faster than he could ever imagine, to the point that Yuudachi's health bar seemed to have remained unchanged from the very beginning.

However, Yuudachi's stats changed instantly after that. Her maximum durability of 320 became 455, her torpedo attack increased from 110 to 146, and her artillery, mobility, reload, and anti-submarine capabilities all improved. This kind of significant growth reminded Zhou He of the breakthrough star-up system in the game.

"What's going on? Is my Yuudachi actually a Saiyan?"

Zhou He searched through Xi Li's panel for a long time but couldn't find a place to display the number of breakthroughs and levels, which made him very scratch his head, since the values ​​of other people didn't change much.

"Well, it's good that they returned safely. The destroyer's hull is indeed not very strong. We should keep a closer eye on it in the future."

He didn't dwell on it, but instead focused on splitting the map and the dock in half, observing the battlefield while resupplying his ship girls. The supply vouchers he used for resupply still had more than forty points left, even with his extravagant spending, and they were still rising. He would get one point for each Siren he sank, which was completely different from the stingy way the Mind Cube and Home Coins were given. He would call it the last bit of conscience of the system.

After that, the number of Sirens began to decline unilaterally. Finally, to his great anticipation, a new ship girl appeared on the map. She was a destroyer wearing a purple beret and with a bow tied in her short brown hair.

It's another familiar ship girl. Although Zhou He is quite familiar with most ship girls, this one is a familiar one among familiar ones, the kind of familiarity he saw last week when he first saw her artwork.

Z23! Nimi!

"Good luck! Could we get another one?"

Zhou He made an "oh ho" sound, briefly passed a command to Z23, and then scanned the edge of the current board. There were quite a few Sirens coming over here when the battle started, but there weren't any now, which was good.

This direct confrontation with the Sirens made him realize one thing: his ship girls were really strong. From Yuudachi easily escaping from a light cruiser, to the current six-person team fighting against a proper aircraft carrier fleet, they had always defeated the enemy with fewer troops and achieved great victories.

So, rounding up, the front-row ship girls can be compared to at least three of the same type of Siren.

As for the battlecruisers, battleships, and aircraft carriers in the back row... Zuikaku's initial attack this time failed to achieve an overwhelming victory, indicating that the combat gap between large ships is not very large. In the future, it is best to engage in battles with the enemy in a 1:1 situation. Too many ships will overwhelm the front row.

While he was reflecting and summarizing, the battle continued. Including the lurking submarines, less than half of the original Sirens remained. Even without seeing it with his own eyes, he could imagine how horrific the battlefield must be.

In the quiet waiting and observation, time gradually passed. The sun unknowingly climbed to its highest point and began to decline. Zhou He moved from sitting at the door to the guest room to wait, and finally returned to the kitchen to start preparing ingredients for the celebration banquet.

It's hard to imagine that the first Siren aircraft carrier to be crippled was actually the last to be sunk.

As a strange bell rang in his ears, Zhou He knew that the mission was complete, and at the same time, he saw the second new member who had fallen in this battle.

Chapter Thirty-Seven focuses on a matter of fate.

"Tsk, isn't this luck a bit strange?"

Upon seeing the new member who had fallen, Zhou He grinned. Could it be that fate really exists in this world?

As for who fell? Judging from her appearance, she was dressed in a black military uniform, holding a black and red flag, and had long, dazzling golden hair—she had done something world-famous: she sank the Royal Glory with a single shot.

That's right, the new ship is Bismarck, who belongs to Ironblood just like Z23. It's a version without the Great Dragon, and you can see her meticulous temperament just from the 3D chibi figure.

Overall, it should be a good thing.

Zhou He was happy to have a new ship joining the fleet, but he had only just begun to get closer to Aunt Hood when another ship of equal weight arrived…

Gradually giving up on thinking, Zhou He sent Bismarck the basic command to rendezvous and return to port. He then switched his attention to the mission interface, received a cube for the sortie mission, and the original mission ① disappeared, only to reappear with the following mission:

① Deploy your fleet to defeat a well-organized Siren fleet. Rewards vary depending on the size of the defeated fleet: 1-3 Wisdom Cubes

"Oh? So it's really become a daily task now?"

This change surprised Zhou He, especially the change in the reward amount. It gave him the feeling that the more he put in, the more he would get out, which was very gratifying.

As for the newly acquired Rubik's Cube, Zhou He frowned and thought for a moment before deciding to use it directly. It would be perfect for him to be a fellow student with Bismarck and Z23. He just hoped that it would give him an easy-going ship girl.

Knowing the system's stubborn nature, Zhou He walked out of the kitchen, stood behind the command center door, brought up the construction menu, and selected to build—the metal doors collided, and golden lettering gradually appeared.

bump!

The command post door, which had been open, closed automatically without any wind. The loud noise startled Zhou He, who was fully prepared, so much so that his heart skipped a beat and his ears rang. As he rubbed his ears, he couldn't help but click his tongue: "Don't they really want me to see how the ship girls appear?"

Despite his complaints, Zhou He quickly composed himself, took steady steps forward, grasped the doorknob with both hands, and stepped back to open the door.

It was just past one o'clock, and the sun was still shining brightly. A figure stood on the road that Zhou He had paved yesterday. The girl's white shawl was blown by the cool breeze. She wore a blue short-sleeved shirt with a black skirt with red trim, and knee-high socks with a star and stripe pattern, which directly revealed her faction.

"K...K's dad!?"

Zhou He opened his mouth. If there were a few characters in Azur Lane that he could remember for many years, then this person in front of him would definitely be one of them. However, with the updates and iterations of the game version, this person had long since become a dock warehouse manager. Seeing Cleveland under the sunlight at this moment, he was reminded of the scene when the game was first launched. The long-lost nostalgia caused an unusual shock.

"what!"

At that moment, Cleveland was looking around while holding onto her fluttering shawl with one hand. She only looked over when she heard Zhou He's voice. Then, she touched the back of her head apologetically and walked over with a smile: "Sorry, sorry, the view here is too good, I was a little distracted."

As he spoke, Cleveland pulled down his shawl, walked up to Zhou He, and extended his right hand, his face becoming more serious: "However, Commander, the correct way to pronounce my name is Cleveland. Please don't just give me a nickname because you want to be lazy."

"I couldn't help myself, well, I won't do it again, Cleveland."

Zhou He wasn't unable to pronounce Cleveland's name correctly; he smiled, shook hands with Cleveland, and made a promise.

"That's good!"

Cleveland scrutinized Zhou He carefully. Although her black hair made her look somewhat gloomy, she didn't seem like someone with strange fetishes. Why would she involuntarily call her "Daddy Cleveland" or something like that? After all, she was a girl.

After a brief handshake, Zhou He walked out the door, spread his hands, and looked at the empty grass: "As you can see, this is a port area that is still under development. I would like to solicit some proposals. If you have any ideas, Cleveland, you can tell me or leave them in an envelope on my desk."

"I understand. But I remember that the development of the port area should require a large workforce, right? Is it just that it's not our turn yet?"