“The Mind Cube… It was eaten?”
Inside the main building of the port district, the flagship captains of Enterprise and the other few fleets stared dumbfounded as Akashi reported the situation.
Richelieu stood silently beside her, nodding and adding a few details from back then.
“When Mr. Lu touched the Mind Cube, it dissolved like water, and he fainted afterwards.”
“…”
The ship girls looked at each other in disbelief.
Based on their long-term research on the Mind Cube, this shouldn’t have happened.
The Cube was meant for warships, granting them sentience to birth ship girls.
It could also be used to create Bri along with resources.
But it couldn’t possibly react with the human body, they were completely different species.
“Then… where is Mr. Lu?”
Yixian asked.
“He’s still unconscious, Belfast and the Royal Maidens are taking care of him.”
“He’s physically fine, it’s like he suffered a severe mental shock.”
Richelieu shook her head.
“That’s good.”
The others breathed a sigh of relief.
“That was the last Mind Cube in the port district AAAAAAAA——“
“Why did I show it to him AAAAAA——”
Akashi slammed her head against the table repeatedly.
She didn’t know whether she was more heartbroken over the materials in the Mind Cube, or the 30 million in lost income.
“Mr. Lu is a guest of the port district, why are you only concerned about your Mind Cube? We’ll allocate more resources for you, you can just build a new one.”
Richelieu asked, frowning.
“I’ve done a physical examination on him, he’s absolutely fine! Extremely healthy! Better than a normal human, no, maybe even better than a ship girl!!”
Akashi continued to bang her head against the ground.
“Better than a ship girl’s body? You mean…”
Enterprise paused for a moment.
They were all girls who had transformed from warships, able to control thousands of tons of warship equipment with ease, essentially powered by reactors and Mind Cubes, their strength, reflexes, and speed far surpassing those of normal humans.
“It’s that he absorbed the Cube’s energy, he hasn’t paid yet, I got scammed.”
…
“Hmm…”
His head ached, his consciousness was groggy.
After the Mind Cube dissolved in his hand, Lu Chen felt his consciousness washed over by a massive force.
He was half-awake, and saw many blurry images before his eyes.
There were Sirens, ship girls, and all sorts of strange equipment.
It felt like everything in the Azur Lane world was contained within the Mind Cube, but the images flashed too fast, he couldn’t make them out clearly.
“Mr. Lu, Mr. Lu?…”
Lu Chen faintly heard someone calling him.
He tried to open his eyes, a hazy white appeared before him.
“Hmm?”
He noticed that the white was getting closer and closer, eventually squeezing into a form that wouldn’t pass censorship.
The Maid Captain was standing at his bedside, bent over, rearranging his bedsheets.
Her silvery-white hair cascaded down her shoulders, tickling his face.
“Belfast, you’re on top of me.”
Lu Chen mumbled.
“Oh, my apologies.”
Belfast hastily took two steps back,
Her face reddening as she covered her low-cut maid outfit.
Since the port district was filled with ship girls, everyone wasn’t so sensitive about these things.
“You’re awake? Do you feel unwell?”
The Maid Captain quickly returned to her usual cool and collected manner.
“No, just a bit dizzy.”
Lu Chen sat up and examined himself.
Good thing, all the important parts were there, he didn’t turn into a ship girl.
He didn’t want to go down the yuri route either.
“How long have I been asleep?”
“Two days and sixteen hours.”
Belfast opened the curtains, the evening glow spilled into the room.
“Akashi and I have performed several physical examinations on you, don’t worry, there’s no damage.”
“Just… the Mind Cube seems to have dissolved into your body, it’s strange, humans shouldn’t react to the Cube in theory.”
The Maid Captain held her chin, thinking as she spoke.
“Do you feel anything unusual?”
“It feels like my strength has increased a bit?”
Lu Chen stood up and clenched his fists.
He now felt like he had endless energy, all his fatigue had vanished, his body was far healthier than his previous miserable salaryman’s body.
“The Mind Cube is a kind of energy supply, after you absorbed it, it’s normal for your strength to increase.”
Belfast replied.
“So I swallowed a reactor?”
“You could understand it that way, but the Mind Cube also enhances the recipient’s structural strength, theoretically you should have a similar resistance to damage as us…”
The Maid Captain’s expression grew increasingly strange.
“?”
Lu Chen was stunned for a moment.
The same physical strength as an Azur Lane ship girl?
Taking torpedoes to the face, withstanding cannon fire with his flesh?
…
A few hours later.
The port district coastline.
Lu Chen stood in the experimental field, surrounded by the flagships of the major fleets, Akashi, and many other ship girls who had come to watch.
“Hit me.”
Lu Chen said to the small ship girl in front of him, wearing a sailor uniform with silver hair and beast ears.
Under normal circumstances, he would never dare to say such a thing.
Don’t underestimate the destroyer girls, they may be little loli, but their original forms are thousands of tons of warships, even without using cannons, a full-power punch could send a whale or elephant flying into the air.
“Challenging Snowwind, you’re gonna regret it, hohoho~~”
The beast-eared small ship girl pouted, ready to charge, rushing directly at Lu Chen.
Boom——
Lu Chen steadily caught Snowwind’s punch.
He felt the force in his hand approaching hundreds of tons.
“Whoa!”
The battleships and aircraft carrier ship girls watching could not help but widen their eyes.
A human being can withstand a destroyer’s impact, unbelievable.
“I’m getting serious!”
Seeing that her direct attack didn’t work, the small ship girl jumped back two steps and materialized her warship equipment.
Three 127mm main guns, two anti-aircraft machine guns opened fire at the same time, shells raining down on Lu Chen like raindrops.
At the same time, the launch racks on both sides opened, and two torpedoes roared through the air.
They were only the size of miniature toys when they were just launched, but they suddenly grew into 9-meter-long torpedoes in mid-air, their power so great that they could even penetrate the side armor of a battleship.
Bang——
The dust settled, Lu Chen stood there, brushing the dust off his clothes, unscathed.
“Wow——”
The ship girls instantly went wild.
“It’s true! He absorbed the Mind Cube!”
“Even 127mm cannons can’t hurt him?! I wonder if 380mm cannons would work? Eh? Too big? What about 203mm…?…”
“Can he withstand Enterprise’s bomber squad?…”
“Musashi what are you doing Musashi?! Put away your cannon, your thing can really kill someone!!!”
Everyone hastily restrained the two heavy cruiser ship girls from the Sakura Empire who were about to draw out their forbidden weapons because of their excitement.
…
(This is Belfast)