Colonia Storm Tour

"Well, Commander, what brings you here? And what is the reason for calling yourself an enemy of the Ring Messenger?"

Anshan didn't ask too many questions at once, as that would overwhelm the other party.

"The order of your questions isn't suitable for you to quickly understand why I found you. I know what you're wondering about. Can I continue calling you Anshan?"

Lin Haiyuan wasn't very interested in her real name.

"No problem, please go ahead."

Anshan has no objection to the common name.

"I'll skip the self-introduction. Judging from your appearance, you probably don't know much about the Foehn and Colonia flanks. You can't even remember where you've heard these kinds of terms before. But that's not important now. You must have come to this world on your first time, right? Well, my situation is much more complicated than yours. I came to this world for the second time with my own Ark."

Lin Haiyuan didn't waste any words and went straight to the point.

"You've transmigrated twice? That means you intentionally transmigrated to this world this time? By the way, Ark?"

Anshan exclaimed in surprise. She had never imagined that she could encounter a transmigrator who had taken the initiative to travel through time. Generally speaking, transmigrators were able to travel through time multiple times by relying on a magical power called a system. This Lin Haiyuan was able to travel through worlds simply by using a ship that sounded like a ship's name. No matter how you looked at it, Lin Haiyuan was an extraordinary transmigrator.

"This second time travel wasn't something I wanted; it was a completely random journey. As for the Ark... you can think of it as something similar to the Spear of Adun."

Lin Haiyuan shrugged, not directly mentioning his Colonia flank air base.

"You have something similar to the Spear of Adun? Judging from the Protoss language you were speaking just now, you definitely have a Spear of Adun, not something similar to it."

Anshan did not believe that Lin Haiyuan simply had a ship similar to the Spear of Adun.

"That's just my personal preference. The lines I mentioned weren't just from Comedy Showdown 2. I actually have the Spear of Adun. I would have summoned the Golden Fleet to fight those Ringed Messengers' warships long ago, instead of coming to you indirectly."

Lin Haiyuan truly wished he had an Adun Spear. Needless to say, the technology and equipment on the Adun Spear would be enough for him to roam the universe freely, but he didn't have one.

"Is that so? Then let's go back to the question from before. Why did you come to me? You don't seem like someone who is naturally hostile to the Ring Messenger."

Anshan looked at Lin Haiyuan with suspicion.

"First, let me tell you what the Ring Messenger represents. The Ring Messenger represents the Void Realm. What is the Void Realm? It is a dimension composed purely of spiritual energy. There are five powerful Void Realm entities in this dimension. The first is the Whisper of the Void, the second is the Thread of Life, the third is the Devourer of the World, the fourth is the Tool of Thirst, and the fifth is the End of Reincarnation. The Ring Messenger belongs to the End of Reincarnation. These five can be called evil gods. The End of Reincarnation and his messenger both appeared to bring about the end. They all come from a game called the Stars."

Lin Haiyuan explained the origins of the Ring Messenger to her in detail.

"So that means the Ring Messenger is an apostle of the evil god, trying to destroy everything and bring about an end?! And they are also products of that game called Stars."

Anshan immediately understood the content, but there were some misunderstandings.

"That [Ring Messenger] is not part of the Stellaris game. At least we haven't seen the name Ring Messenger in any mods. They shouldn't be products we see in the game... My personal intuition is that, judging from those Protoss ships and units, the controller of that Ring Messenger might be a transmigrator like us."

Lin Haiyuan revealed his guess: his opponent was also a time traveler.

"The mere use of Protoss ships and troops is not enough to prove that the leader of the Ring Messenger is a time traveler."

Anshan lacks sufficient evidence to prove that the Circular Messenger Fleet was led by time travelers.

"You haven't played Stellaris, so you don't know the form of the Void Forces. If they were the true End of Reincarnation Forces, they shouldn't and couldn't possibly use the form of the Protoss. On the contrary, they are just psionic consciousness entities composed of a distorted mass of consciousness, and would not have such ingenious ship construction. They are just a semi-transparent mass of energy."

Theoretically, anyone could draw upon the power of the End of Reincarnation in the Virtual Realm if they could communicate with it, but the probability is extremely low. However, that transmigrator must have struck gold, directly connecting with the End of Reincarnation and being bestowed with something both expected and anticipated.

Lin Haiyuan then added his reasonable guess.

"If that End of Reincarnation really has such powerful forces, then helping it create an army is indeed not a problem. And having played StarCraft, using Protoss units makes it even less surprising. Everything makes sense..."

Anshan could sense that the logic made sense, but there were still a few doubts waiting for them to resolve.

First, what abilities did the so-called "End of Reincarnation" grant the transmigrator, allowing him to possess a Protoss army? Second, how can we be sure it was the transmigrator himself and not a distorted consciousness?

Lin Haiyuan had already considered all the problems she had thought of.

“Yesterday, you must have seen a very powerful flash, like a supernova explosion, right? That was the light emitted when my Ark and I traveled here.”

Lin Haiyuan raised an eyebrow as he looked at her.

"That's right. Just how big is your ark to be able to create such a powerful flash?"

She stared at him with a puzzled expression, her gaze fixed on him with an air of perfect composure.

"25 kilometers. Note that it's not a flash of light created by size, but something I myself can hardly understand. That was the situation when I was passively traversing the world. That's not the point."

To investigate which world I came to, I hid behind what you call the moon, the Azure Moon, and collected radio waves to learn of your existence on the planet. Then, I piloted a shuttle to Tokyo in the mysterious Sakura Empire, hoping to learn more about this world through local officials. This is because the world of Azur Lane has seen the appearance of Celestial Spirit ships and Ring Messengers, the latter being a name I've never heard of before. These shouldn't be things that appear in this world. As you know, the Ring Messengers' fleet began its invasion.

"My shuttle... to put it simply, a permanently stealthy special operations transport. That's why I wasn't detected by the Ring Messenger fleet, which carried a large number of low-altitude anti-stealth Prophet ships, while I was high in the sky. Then I discovered that in the destroyed city of Tokyo, only the Zao Heavy Industries Tokyo headquarters in the Sakura Islands hadn't been destroyed; it had only suffered some damage, which was then tightly controlled by the Ring Messenger."

Lin Haiyuan turned to look in the direction of the Cherry Blossom Islands: "This is not in line with the actions of the Void Realm. They only devour and destroy."

"25 kilometers... What are they searching for at Zao Heavy Industries' Tokyo headquarters?"

Anshan asked with wide eyes, not wanting to worry about the size of the ark for the time being.

“That’s right. According to my Ark AI combat report, they are searching for and have taken control of the equipment used to build ship girls, as well as a large number of Wisdom Cubes and resources. Do you think this is normal?”

Lin Haiyuan countered with a question.

"Based on my understanding of the Void Realm, and your understanding of the Void Realm, why would that group of man-eating evil god troops be interested in those?"

Anshan also truly realized the unusual nature of the Ring Messenger fleet.

"After that, I immediately called my Ark into action and sent out my Purifier forces to wipe out the headquarters of Zao Heavy Industries and the surrounding Ring Envoy fleet and forces. Then I moved all the valuable things there and left as soon as possible. We are now powerless to fight against the almost endless Void Realm forces."

Lin Haiyuan turned his head and looked at her again.

"I see. Then the actions of the Ring Messenger make sense. Haha, it seems we are facing a traditional villainous, overpowered transmigrator as our opponent."

Anshan needs no further explanation to understand why the other side is going to such lengths to destroy them.

"That's right, so I chose to temporarily avoid the limelight and observe the situation on Aquamarine from behind the Azure Moon. I realized that I couldn't just sit idly by and watch Aquamarine be swallowed up by the Void Realm, but I didn't have the ability to save any of the countries on Aquamarine. I could only choose to rescue some of the survivors with foresight to escape the calamity that was about to befall you. Coincidentally, I found you among those with foresight and became the transmigrator of Anshan."

Lin Haiyuan pointed out.

"………………Wait, Commander, how did you find out that I am a transmigrator? I remember I did nothing beyond what a ship girl is supposed to do."

Anshan looked at Lin Haiyuan with utter confusion.

"I won't hide anything from you. I used mind reading on you to read your inner thoughts and realized that there was a part of your mind that didn't belong to the ship girl. That's how I confirmed that you're a transmigrator who came to find me."

Lin Haiyuan said directly that he could read her mind.

Mind reading?!

Anshan immediately crossed his arms in front of him as if to protect himself from being read minds: "When exactly, have you been reading my mind since just now?"

"At first, I used mind reading when searching for ship girls or people with foresight. After confirming that you were a transmigrator, I stopped using mind reading. It's also very simple for me to hide the fact that you can be mind-read. Telling you that I can read minds is my way of showing my sincerity. Don't worry that you will be mind-read all the time. You should know that mind reading is a kind of mental pollution for me. I can control it."

Lin Haiyuan shrugged.

"...Okay, fine..."

Anshan looked at Lin Haiyuan with some suspicion, but ultimately felt relieved.

"Now that I've told you all this, you should understand why I'm here. Do you want to live on with your three younger sisters?"

Lin Haiyuan asked again.

"That's without a doubt."

Anshan's answer was without the slightest hesitation or delay.

“Then I will help you and your three sisters survive. After all, as I said before, I can’t just stand by and do nothing.”

Lin Haiyuan explained his purpose for coming.

"Really? You're going to help us like this?"

Anshan blinked incredulously at Lin Haiyuan in front of him.

"What else could it be? Although I am not a messenger of justice, I still have a human conscience and morality. Of course I will try to help if I can. Besides, it is rare to encounter a fourth rational transmigrator. How could I watch you die?"

Lin Haiyuan replied.

"Wait, you're all alone now. You wouldn't come to save us so easily, would you? Besides, I remember a saying: the greatest enemy of a transmigrator is another transmigrator; it's like two tigers cannot share one mountain..."

Anshan was quite wary of this.

"That depends on what kind of time traveler it is. We marginal people who are excluded from mainstream culture don't have such ideas."

Lin Haiyuan disdained that kind of convention.

He stroked his chin, looking Anshan up and down, his scrutinizing gaze making Anshan feel uneasy.

"You said you wouldn't come to rescue you so easily, um... okay then, how about you pay with your bodies? My fellow villager, your sisters are quite my type. Hey, my fellow villager, you're pretty good too."

Lin Haiyuan finally burst out laughing, laughing exactly like Yuri.

"You...you can't lay a hand on my sisters! If you have something to do, come at me!"

Anshan shouted, his face flushed.

"Pfft, hahaha, look how anxious you are. Just kidding. As long as you promise to bring your sisters to join Burning Wind in the future, you will receive the same treatment."

Lin Haiyuan waved his hand to indicate that he did not mean that.

"Are you flirting with me?!"

Anshan then realized that he had been teased by Lin Haiyuan.

"Since you've considered so much, I'll just go along with what you say. I can't speak for other transmigrators, but I don't have that many bad intentions. That's all."

Lin Haiyuan expressed his thoughts very directly.

"Hahoo... are you going to take us sisters to join the Burning Wind and get on your ark now?"

Anshan took a deep breath and decided to pretend he hadn't seen what had just happened.

"No need. When the fleet of the Ring Envoys begins to attack Donghuang, I will appear in time to take you away. The satellite network I have deployed will closely monitor your area to ensure that we can react in time to rescue you if there is any danger."

Lin Haiyuan replied.

"Ah, I see... However, what I find strange is why you didn't choose to talk to the higher-ups of Donghuang about these things, but instead only came to talk to me, a transmigrator ship girl? I still don't understand this."

Anshan expressed his deepest doubts.

"If I had traveled to this world when the Ring Envoys had just attacked the Tricolor Continent, I might have been able to help the Eastern Empire mobilize and arm them to fight against the Ring Envoys' fleet. But as you know, the Eastern Empire has no safe rear area now. They simply don't have enough time to train the crew needed for the warships I'm helping. Defeat is only a matter of time."

Lin Haiyuan continued, "There are some deeper reasons behind this, so it can be said that there is nothing I can do to help the entire Donghuang. I can only choose to rescue the survivors who are willing to follow orders."

She knew very well how long it would take to train the personnel of those warships capable of fighting against the Protoss fleet, and Lin Haiyuan's words were indeed reasonable.

"Is that so? But I still don't want to see that kind of situation, Donghuang... it's like they're repeating the same mistakes again."

Anshan said hesitantly.

“I understand your hesitation and feelings perfectly, but this involves a group of interest. Sharing the same language and race is not a reason for them to unite under my Colonia flank air base. So if you want to alleviate your feelings as much as possible, do it while making sure it won’t endanger you and your sisters. I’m good at absorbing survivors.”