Qianyuan: My crew comes from the world of anime.

Luo Tianming: "..."

It has nothing to do with him, so why does it seem like he did something wrong?

Levi, somewhat annoyed, stopped Luo Tianming and said to him, "Didn't you say you didn't like smoking? What? The cigarettes other people give you smell so good... It was the same at the last welcome party. Whenever I ask you to drink, you always use sailing as an excuse."

"You started drinking like an idiot as soon as that pretty Lucy started flirting with you?"

Levi was acting like she was on fire today, and Luo Tianming had no idea what she was so jealous about.

As for the reason for not drinking with Levi... need I say more?

When Luo Tianming was alone with her, Lai Ye was even more manly than any other man.

Once they've finished their drinks and gotten a little tipsy, they'll challenge you to a drinking contest. If you win, they'll laugh at you; if you lose, they'll cheat.

She smokes without restraint... sometimes so much that the ashtray piles up like a mountain in one night. She's extremely competitive—she even competes with Lucy to see who can smoke more.

Their lungs are mechanical prostheses, are yours too?

Therefore, Luo Tianming rarely engaged in those enjoyable activities with Levi... Rather than enjoyment, it was more like a young people's fancy self-harm contest.

"..."

"Hey~" Levi tapped his head impatiently, "I'm asking you why you don't want to drink with me~!"

Yes, just like that—it's like an old man in a small company using his position to forcefully harass his subordinates.

While being 'harassed' by a beauty like Levi is a decent experience, being treated like this all the time feels like being a little brother protected by a big sister.

Luo Tianming slapped Levi's hand away: "It's not that I'm unwilling, but I hate that kind of unrestrained drinking. Being forced to drink only makes people feel like they're being bullied."

Levi muttered in a very low voice, "It's all just an excuse you made up. When Lucy was making you drink, you didn't feel like you were being bullied."

To be honest, Lucy's drinking wasn't really forced... If she were really serious, the entire ship combined couldn't outdrink her, especially since she had a prosthetic body to regulate her alcohol levels.

“Anyway…” Levi said in a barely audible voice, “Anyway, I’m not likable at all, so I won’t force you to drink with me if you don’t want to.”

Luo Tianming heard those words clearly.

So he stopped Revy, who was about to leave, and tried to get closer to tell her:

"No, that's not true. Actually, it's quite nice to drink with you when you're drunk... It's just that you get really crazy when you're drunk, so people don't usually dare to drink with you that much."

As he spoke, Luo Tianming leaned close to her ear and whispered, "Last time, no one could stop you... When you got drunk, you wanted to take off your shirt to use as an eye mask and insisted that you were the captain of a pirate ship in the Strait of Malacca."

Levi's wheat-colored face instantly flushed red, and she grabbed Luo Tianming's collar, trying to stop him from saying anything more.

But his devilish voice still rang out.

"And the time before that, you got really drunk and insisted on putting on some kind of 'SM show' in front of me and Miaomiao, and you even wanted me to get you a leather queen outfit so you could ride on me..."

"!!"

Levi's face immediately turned bright red, and she frantically covered Luo Tianming's mouth, not wanting him to continue...

Despite being no longer angry after Revy's outburst, as mentioned before, Revy was too 'manly' and completely unaware of her own physical charm, rubbing her breasts, thighs, and other assets against him for free.

This is also why Luo Tianming didn't want to drink with her; he felt like he had a fire burning inside, his head was spinning, and his lower body was painfully swollen...

His mind was stirred by this teasing, and he decided to go to the infirmary to find Miaomiao...

However, when they arrived at the infirmary, Wu Jianmiao refused to let them in, citing that the new drug was not ready.

Luo Tianming: "..."

Feeling embarrassed, he could only sigh and decide to do some work that a real captain should do to extinguish his boundless energy.

…………

Checking each of the submarine's self-checking systems one by one is indeed a very tiring task.

Sometimes, I have to carry around a repair manual that's thicker than a dictionary, constantly comparing the meanings of various codes, and personally troubleshooting errors.

The tedious and monotonous work quickly wore away his energy for the day.

However, he had no complaints. After all, this was the captain's job, and those seemingly insignificant fault codes could very well cost them their lives on the next voyage.

After dealing with the last fault code and seeing the failure rate kept below 5%, Luo Tianming nodded in satisfaction.

"Alright, all that's left is the inspection..."

Once the Nautilus has been inspected thoroughly, the job is done.

Of course, the main targets of the inspection were the lower-level warehouses that had been severely damaged previously.

He re-inspected the lower warehouse and found that it had been completely renovated, with many reinforcing ribs added to the walls, and the internal warehouses had been replaced with safes equipped with anti-collision pads.

Luo Tianming had no recollection of buying these things himself, so it seemed that the major must have had the soldiers pack them for him.

With these things, he could start taking on some more dangerous cargo transportation... such as transporting torpedoes.

He looked at the mission Colonel Ivan had secretly sent him: 'Lieutenant Luo Tianming, please arrive at the 13th secret airlock of the military site in two days. This is a mandatory mission.'

Meanwhile, the captain's log also updated with this task—Luo Tianming had no intention of accepting it...

To be honest, he felt this mission was bound to fail... perhaps it was just his intuition—in this situation, according to traditional storylines, it would be:

The higher-ups at xx have developed an incredibly powerful new weapon, claiming it can kill the enemy in one shot and is absolutely effective. Do you know that we have accumulated xxx years of technology and strength?

Then the enemy appears—a trash-talking segment ensues, followed by the statement: "Our weapon can destroy you in one shot," and then fires...

explode……

No harm caused by smoke...

The enemy is unharmed!

Finally, he uttered that classic line: "No...impossible!"

Then the protagonist should step in and defeat the enemy using the same old methods.

Afterwards, no one will hold the researchers who developed the new weapon accountable; everyone will silently pretend that nothing happened.

"..."

When this kind of scenario occurs, Luo Tianming immediately thinks: This is just another case of researchers making grand promises in a PowerPoint presentation, and when they fail, they just say: "We didn't know the enemy's intelligence..."

That was the end of it; nobody really cared what happened to the hundreds of millions of research funds anyway.

"%..."

He could already imagine the scene: he launched what he called a torpedo, and then the 'Scarlet Queen' not only didn't chase after the torpedo, but instead charged towards him.

Therefore, instead of relying on unreliable deception tactics, it's better to focus on improving your own strength.

So, Luo Tianming opened the captain's log.

Seven days have passed, it's time to refresh the product lineup for the next round...

Chapter 64 Commodities

"emmm."

This refresh surprised him; the fifth page, which he had never been able to access before, now showed new products.

Well, it can't really be called 'new'—after all, he's seen this before, and he already has a 2B fragment. Last time, he told the customer service representative at Zai Shang Yan Shang that he wanted a fragment, and she got him one.

This favorability system is really useful, isn't it?

"&..."

However, aside from the surprise on the fifth page, the other items also caught Luo Tianming's eye.

Especially the first product: a device that can deploy an energy shield for protection anytime, anywhere, as needed.

This is practically the perfect defense of his dreams... Take another look at the price: 8 regular recruitment tickets.

Now let's check our balance.

Six recruitment tickets, and one more is for reserving additional Stinger anti-ship missiles.

Therefore, he can't afford it now... which is a bit disheartening.

Turn the page again, and the second item—this one doesn't look so good.

He knew about electromagnetic coils.

It is essentially a protective device that needs to be used 'actively', capable of generating a large amount of electric current around the submarine to kill monsters.

Although coils are much cheaper than energy shields, their drawbacks are also obvious: they are only effective against smaller monsters, and their effectiveness is greatly reduced once the opponent becomes larger.

It's a rather useless general-purpose weapon, only effective when facing large groups of small monsters attacking a submarine.

This can basically be skipped.

The third item is best left unmentioned; Luo Tianming couldn't figure out what its purpose was.

The fourth item was the highest-value item Luo Tianming had seen so far.

The Burst Shotgun – just hearing its name evokes its unparalleled power and domineering presence. Shotguns are the best cure for humanity's 'fear of insufficient firepower'. The essence of any game changes the moment you get your hands on a shotgun.

Of course, this unparalleled weapon also comes with an unparalleled price. Just look at the price... 12 ordinary recruitment tickets.

My heart, which had been hanging in suspense, suddenly snapped and died.

If we add the 2B fragments that refresh on the last page, then he currently needs a total of 30 recruitment tickets to obtain these items.

So what's the current balance?

5 cards - 25 cards short!

[Ahem~ We've noticed our customer is having some trouble, your dedicated customer service representative is now available.]

【Hi, would you like to try our special service?】

Luo Tianming wrote on the paper:

What services are offered?

Log: [Loan sharking]

"..."

He nearly coughed up blood; the so-called special service turned out to be 'loan sharking'.

In response, the customer service representative gave a straight-up answer to what was completely nonsensical:

[That's how I see economics: as long as enough lending leverage is used to stimulate consumption, the economic system can quickly take off.]

Luo Tianming: [What do you take me for?! Some kind of livestock to stimulate consumption? I'd like to consume, but do I have any money in my pocket... How am I supposed to consume these things if you don't lower the price?!]

Customer service representative: 【That's why you need a loan! I can provide you with a small loan, and the interest will increase by 10% every 7 days. It's a great deal.】

Luo Tianming: "..."

This damn loan shark's interest rate is higher than lamb's pawn rate; it's equivalent to a tithe every seven days. If it's compounded, it probably won't take many rounds for the interest to snowball and ruin him forever.

Therefore, he only took it as a joke.

However, it was the last sentence from the energy shield that really bothered him.

So Luo Tianming asked:

What does it mean that high energy consumption is a drawback...? How high is the energy consumption?

Log: [Hi~ Let me take a look.]

[Your ship's maximum power generation is approximately 10^6 kilowatts. At this power generation, if 92% of the ship's total energy is used, this energy shield can only be deployed for one second.]

Luo Tianming: "One second?!"

He shouted it out exaggeratedly.

Although the Nautilus is not a giant submarine, after its last modification and the adoption of a thorium-fueled nuclear reactor, Luo Tianming believed that no submarine in the Cold Cave area could catch up with the Nautilus.

Even with such extreme energy modification, the shield can only be deployed for one second.

This is a high-risk, low-return investment...

Seeing that Luo Tianming seemed to have doubts about the so-called 'energy shield', the customer service representative quickly tried to smooth things over:

[They're not as invincible as you think. Even in a real battle where fleets are exchanging fire, shields are only activated when the shells are almost upon them. In most cases, no one can keep their shields active indefinitely.]

"..."

After hearing its explanation, Luo Tianming finally understood. The so-called 'shield' was not a shield that provided protection all the time, but a deflection field that could be actively deployed when needed to deflect or guide kinetic weapons away from their direction.

Even so, the value of that 'energy shield' is still incredibly exaggerated. Imagine: a shield that can withstand an attack in a second, which is often the most severe blow that causes a submarine to leak and sink.