Shipgirls and Salted Fish Commander, Port Survival Guide

"If you're really nervous, why don't you just skip it? It's just an experiment; you can choose not to do it." Sensing that Qianwei seemed genuinely conflicted, Jing Su tentatively inquired.

"No, that won't do!" Upon hearing that the experiment was to be terminated, Qianwei immediately refused. He was joking, after all. As a legendary figure at sea, if others knew that he was afraid of being in a state of empty shells, he would be too ashamed to face anyone.

Of course, at other times, losing face is no big deal, and I don't really care about such intangible things as face. But this experiment allows me to be with Jing Su, which is such a rare opportunity.

You should know that Her Majesty the Queen is keeping a close watch on you. If you miss this opportunity, it will be difficult to meet her again in the future.

When I was practicing swordsmanship with Warspite today, don’t think you couldn’t see it. That guy was showing off. Even though she didn’t say anything, she was showing off that she had successfully risen to the top and even breached the last barrier!

That smug look, yet disguised by feigned inattentiveness—I truly envy it. Ah, no, I despise it. Yes, I utterly despise that attitude!

"Commander~" The vanguard who made the decision suddenly called out to Jing Su just before he was about to take action.

"what happened?"

"Can I...can I hold your hand? I'm a little nervous."

"Ugh, it still doesn't work. Just thinking about using up all the resources is terrifying. Not a single drop left. They don't want me anymore. Ugh, what should I do? What should I do? This is so embarrassing."

What will the commander think of me? Will he think I have no courage at all? Will he think I'm a coward who always considers himself a knight and always talks about honor, but in the end, he can't even do something as simple as this?

Ah, destruction is the end, I'm tired!

Qianwei's body began to tremble slightly. She regretted it, regretted that she had said such a thing. She wanted to say something to make amends, but her mind was blank, so blank that she couldn't say anything.

The avant-garde wanted to escape, but he couldn't. In this vast testing ground, it seemed there was no place for him to stand.

"Don't be nervous~" Seeing Qianwei's unease, Jing Su walked to Qianwei's side, hugged her, and whispered, "Don't worry, don't be afraid, I'm always by your side, I will always be with you."

"Commander~" Under Jing Su's comforting words, Qianwei's restless heart gradually calmed down, and his panicked emotions quietly dissipated.

'Is this the Commander's embrace? It's so gentle, so comforting. I wish it could last forever.'

Feeling the presence of the person embracing him, Qianwei knew that he had fallen deeply in love, could no longer leave, and was unwilling to leave.

The person embracing her from behind was her commander, her lover, and someone she could never let go of.

The waves crash against the beach; the wind whispers, creating a symphony.

The hazy moonlight spilled onto the fluttering leaves, casting a mesmerizing dance.

At this moment, time seemed to stand still; at this moment, the world cheered.

"Commander, I... I'm ready!"

After an unknown amount of time, Qianwei, with a determined gaze, raised his longsword and pointed it into the distance.

"Go for it, I'm right here with you. Go ahead and do your best, no matter what happens, I'll be there for you."

Jing Su released his embrace and instead grasped Qian Wei's hand, which was not holding the sword. Although he didn't know what he should do, a voice in his heart told him that he should stay here and accompany Qian Wei.

"Boom!"

Faintly, Jing Su seemed to hear a rumbling sound.

The sound seemed both distant and close.

"Buzz~ Buzz!"

Light converges.

First, tiny specks of light appeared, then converged into a beam.

From gentle to dazzling.

From faint to awe-inspiring!

A terrifying force gathered behind the vanguard.

That powerful aura stunned everyone present.

Not only Radiant, but also the other ship girls who were conducting other tests, all turned their heads at this moment to look at the terrifying source.

"boom!"

The white light was as bright as day.

The sound was deafening!

Chapter 131 Commander, you're more important than you think.

The dazzling white light and deafening sound attracted the attention of everyone present.

Whether they were resting, exercising, or taking tests, the girls all put down what they were doing and turned to look at the source of the strange occurrence.

Suddenly, a huge crater appeared in the vast sea.

To be precise, it wasn't just a large pit; it was accompanied by billowing white mist.

This was an incredibly powerful force; it evaporated the seawater, and even after that, the residual heat caused more seawater to evaporate than it had overflowed. As a result, the visual impression was that a large crater had appeared on the sea surface.

"What incredible power this is!"

As a firsthand witness to the shelling, Jing Su, who was standing closest to the target, had the deepest understanding. Looking at the slowly shrinking crater in the distance, he stared wide-eyed and muttered to himself.

"Cough cough, yes, this power is really frightening." Vanguard stared at his overheated cannon barrel, his face full of heartache.

This cannon barrel is completely ruined; we'll have to replace it with a new one later.

"Ah, what do you mean by that? You fired the cannon yourself, yet you don't understand its power?" Hearing Qianwei's voice, Jing Su turned to look at him, and following Qianwei's expression, Jing Su saw something amiss.

"Um, Commander, would you believe me if I said I genuinely didn't know my shelling was this powerful?" Vanguard said with a helpless expression as he tried to remove his ship rigging.

“Yes, I believe you. If it were someone else, I would think she was being modest, but since it’s Qianwei who said it, I don’t think you’re lying.” Jing Su nodded, acknowledging Qianwei’s words.

"So carefree? Although the commander acknowledged my character, why do I feel like I've lost somewhere?"

Qianwei looked heartbroken. Wasn't Jing Su implying that her artillery fire wasn't powerful enough?

Well, among the colored battleships, if we only consider pure combat strength, she is indeed not top-tier. Her strength as a vanguard lies in her powerful support capabilities. At the end of each seasonal offensive, when the main Sirens appear and various savages emerge, that's when she goes into battle as a vanguard.

"Clang~"

After a while, the vanguard removed his ship's equipment, or more precisely, the gun barrels that were glowing red and steaming.

"Whew~ That feels so good!" With the cannon barrel removed, Vanguard stretched and let out a soft, tingling moan.

"Is it alright to do this?" Jing Su, who got goosebumps all over from the sudden strange cry from the avant-garde, silently recited a calming mantra in her mind, and then forcibly changed the topic to the ship equipment.

"What do you mean by important or not important? Ship equipment?" Upon hearing Jing Su's question, Vanguard first showed a puzzled expression, then realized, "Oh, Commander, you mean the gun barrel? This kind of thing doesn't matter."

After the explanation, Jing Su learned that the ship girls' equipment is divided into two parts. One part is the ship equipment that is materialized by consuming resources and using the power of the Mind Cube. Its external form is the ship equipment on the big-headed doll in the game and when it is deployed. This part of the ship equipment has a fixed form. What it looks like in the game is what the ship girls will look like after they are deployed in this world.

The other part of the ship equipment is external, which is the ship equipment created through various resources. For example, the cannon barrel that Vanguard has now thrown on the ground is MK6. Right now, it is still the ship equipment in Vanguard's illustration. When the power of the Mind Cube dissipates, it will gradually return to its original appearance.

In theory, even without external ship equipment, ship girls can still fight by using the ship equipment materialized through the power of their mental cubes. In the game, this would be called fighting without equipment. However, this would greatly reduce the combat power of ship girls, and the resource consumption would be much greater than when they have external ship equipment.

However, unlike in the game, in the game, once the equipment is crafted, you just attach it to the ship girl and then do whatever you want. Even if it's 24/7, as long as you have enough resources and the ship girl is in a good mood, you can do whatever you want without worrying about wear and tear.

In this world, external ship equipment can break down. If used for a long time without maintenance, the ship equipment will be directly destroyed. Or, like the Vanguard, injecting more power than the ship equipment can withstand in a short period of time will also directly shorten the lifespan of the ship equipment.

In the game, the enhancement function in this world is to increase the durability of equipment. As for other attributes, the ship girls have tested many variations, but at least in terms of power, they haven't found any significant differences.

"So, this thing is completely ruined?" He pondered, looking at the so-called MK6 that was gradually turning into a large, red-hot iron lump on the ground.

“Yes, although we’ve had our ship equipment destroyed a few times when fighting the Sirens before, this is the first time we’ve ever seen it damaged to the point where there’s no possibility of recovery.” The vanguard, coming to his senses, finally realized that he seemed to have done something really outrageous.

"Commander, are you alright?" At this moment, Glorious rushed over and hugged Jing Su, her voice filled with worry.

"Waaah, no, it's okay, I'm fine, Glorious!" Jing Su struggled a few times, but Glorious made too much noise and buried herself directly in her abyss-like deep ship, almost unable to breathe. This was the epitome of pain and pleasure.

"Ahem, Miss Glorious, the Commander is definitely alright, but if you keep going like this, I'm afraid something might happen to him!" Seeing Glorious's actions, Vanguard almost lost his temper, but he still managed to restrain himself and said in a resentful voice.

"Oh, sorry, sorry, Commander, I'm so sorry, I acted impulsively!" Illustrious quickly pulled Jing Su out. Due to the large movement, Illustrious's clothes almost slipped, and the huge bridge swayed back and forth in the air. Jing Su's eyes widened as she watched, her face still flushed, whether from not being able to breathe earlier or from some other reason.

"Hmph~" In this situation, Qianwei didn't know what to say. He just put his hands on his hips and tried to stand up straight, but he quickly went limp again.

"Waaah, damn it, I lost, I lost completely! It's so big, why?! Waaah, that size is just unreasonable, how could it possibly look like that? Ahh, my body is what you call a standard figure, damn it, I'm so angry."

I finally got serious, and I lost so badly!

Qianwei felt that his life from then on was bleak.

"Cough cough, I'm fine~" Jing Su has seen it all now, and quickly adjusted her mindset, trying her best not to look at Guang Hui, after all, there were other people here. "Um, how did the test data go?"

The best way to calm down is to shift your focus, and I happen to have other things to do anyway.

"Well, how should I put it, Miss Vanguard, your shelling just now was too powerful. All the target ships were reduced to ashes, and the detection equipment used for testing also overloaded and became unusable due to receiving too much capability data in a short period of time." Hearing Jing Su's question, Glorious finally remembered why she had come, and said in a low voice.

"Ah, how is this possible?" Before Jing Su could speak, Qianwei exclaimed, "It's one thing if others don't know, but Miss Guanghui, you must know that although I am a colored battleship, my artillery firepower is at most at the level of a gold battleship."

"We've fought side-by-side on the battlefield before. You know better than I what a full-force attack looks like. Without a direct hit on the enemy, you can't even sink a battleship. Do you think my firepower could overload the testing equipment?"

Qianwei had a look on her face as if she were 'you're kidding me,' but not long after, she remembered the wrecked ship equipment lying on the ground, still warm from the fire. Suddenly, she raised her head, her expression turning to disbelief.

"Wait, Miss Glorious, are you saying that I overloaded all the testing equipment?"

With an excited heart and trembling hands, Qianwei's eyes widened and his voice trembled.

"When have I ever lied to you, Miss Avant-garde?" Glorious pulled out a folding fan from somewhere, fanned himself with it, and said with a smile.

"How can this be!?"

"So, was there something wrong with how you were acting just now?" At this moment, Jing Su finally found an opportunity to ask her question.

Since transmigrating to this world, Jing Su has not personally experienced any battles with ship girls. The only encounter was when she was traveling on a cruise ship from Donghuang to Donghuang's base. According to Yi Xian, she only encountered a small, scattered force of destroyers, whose level was not too high. Any ship girl in the port could easily handle them. The last ship to engage in battle was a missile destroyer, and she couldn't even record the specific details.

In this situation, Jing Su had no accurate concept of the ship girls' combat strength at all.

"Well, Commander, who do you think has the most powerful artillery firepower in our port right now?" Vanguard asked after a moment's thought.

"Musashi? Garden? I'm not really sure, but I feel like it's closely related to ship equipment." Jing Su gave his answer, recalling the colorful battleships in the game.

Jing Su originally intended to mention Su Meng, the Emperor of Full Sky Fortune, and Bismarck Zwei, but felt that if she did, it would be too much of a humiliation. There were only a few colored battleships in the port area, and when the Vanguard asked who had the fiercest shelling, four answers in a row mentioned them, which was somewhat embarrassing.

“There’s no need to be so honest.” Seeing that Jing Su hadn’t finished speaking, Qianwei gave a wry look. “Anyway, Commander, you also agree that my artillery firepower isn’t the strongest in the port area, right?”

"Mm." Jing Su nodded.

"The scene Miss Radiance described, as far as I can remember, is only similar to Musashi of the Sakura Empire, who achieved a similar effect after charging up her power."

Just now, I, the Vanguard, swear to the heavens on the honor of the Royal Knights that I absolutely did not use my full strength; it was truly just a casual cannon shot.

Most importantly, I fired the cannon while it was empty.

Under normal circumstances, when a ship girl is out of ammunition, let alone firing her cannons, it's highly questionable whether she can even deploy her ship equipment.

But now, I've not only deployed my ship's rigging, but I've even unleashed a barrage of fire beyond my limits. Commander, do you know what this means?

A hint of fanaticism flashed in his avant-garde eyes.

"What does that mean?" Jing Su was still processing what Qian Wei had just said and hadn't yet realized what Qian Wei was asking.

"This means, Commander, that your existence allows us to break through our limits!" The vanguard suddenly walked to Jing Su's side, hugged her tightly, and spun her around in the air.

'Hehe, I finally found a chance to get close to the commander.'

Sure enough, as long as I don't care and don't think about other people's opinions, no one can make me feel awkward.

Whew, is this the Commander's body? The stiffness is so cute, and it feels so good to be close to him~

"Crack~"

The smug avant-garde not only ignored the gazes of others, but also forgot that there was still one person present.

“Miss Vanguard, please have some self-respect. What if you hurt the Commander by doing this?” Radiant retracted the folding fan that had tapped Vanguard on the back of the head, her expression solemn and serious.

"Ah, haha, I'm so excited, so excited. Commander, are you alright?" Upon hearing Glorious's words, Vanguard was startled and almost dropped Jing Su. He quickly found an opportunity to put Jing Su down, patted her back, and asked worriedly.

"Cough cough, I, I'm fine~" Jing Su shook her slightly dizzy head and reassured him.

Being with these delicate girls in my family is great, but sometimes, the sheer power they display is something my small frame just can't resist. Not to mention when Vanguard made me do a flying acrobatic feat, I couldn't say anything when Illustrious pressed me against her bridge.

'Sigh, I feel like my family's status is in jeopardy in the future~' Jing Su thought to herself, wanting to cry but having no tears.

The so-called bittersweet experience is nothing more than this.

"So, can I amplify your power?" After a moment, Jing Su asked uncertainly.

"It seems that's indeed the case at present." Guanghui nodded, giving his opinion. "Actually, it should have been this way."

"Ok?"

“Miss Vanguard, you joined the port area relatively late, so you may not be very clear about this. In the early days of the port area’s development, our port area was not as large as it is now. We had no combat power, no resources, and not even many ship equipment to supplement our combat power.”

At that time, I even used blue equipment for a long time, giving all the good equipment to Miss Enterprise.