10: Chapter 10 Ship Equipment Issues

"Oh dear... this is almost as good as completely scrapped..." Looking at the pathetic rigging hanging on Fujian, Li Ming's expression turned a bit green.

Fujian stretched her legs somewhat awkwardly, trying to hide her unease.

The Yellow Chicken Engineers studied the set of rigging up and the down, while the Chief Engineer stood on a table to direct them, seemingly thinking of something afterward.

"Chuchu... Chuchu Chuchu!"

Li Ming nodded. "Fujian, can your rigging be unequipped?"

"Yes, I can."

Fujian squatted down and unbonded from her rigging. Then, the Yellow Chickens swarmed over, crawling all over the rigging. In the process, they tripped Fujian as she hurriedly tried to get out of the way, causing her to stumble forward two steps onto Li Ming, successfully pulling off a perfect assist. However, it was clear that neither of them was prepared for this.

After a moment of frantic confusion, the two sat down to watch the Yellow Chickens perform their analysis. Li Ming held his teapot, not even daring to glance at her.

"Commander..."

"Hmm?"

"Are you disappointed?"

"No," Li Ming shook his head. "I'm just curious how it ended up like this."

"Space-time distortion from crossing timelines and world suppression," Fujian answered honestly. "Right now, almost all the equipment is broken. If we want to perform maintenance..."

"Chuchu, Chuchu Chuchu." The Chief Engineer interrupted them and pulled a display screen over.

Maintenance for the high-tech Wisdom Cube equipment was out of the question; the current technology was insufficient, as was the supporting equipment. Maintenance for the rigging as a whole alone would require 800,000 resources. That was roughly equivalent to the entire base going without food, drink, or maintenance for half a month. To maintain the base's basic operations, it would take at least 25 days or more.

At the same time, even without counting maintenance, the fuel required for Fujian to sortie was also staggering. Even if the results of a single sortie were bountiful enough, the currently stored fuel would make it difficult to even ensure a single battle could be finished...

"Can it be repaired within a month?" Li Ming asked.

"Chuchu." The Yellow Chicken Chief Engineer nodded to indicate it was possible, but Fujian seemed...

"Commander, do you really want to repair it now?"

Li Ming turned his head to look at her.

"Even if the rigging is fixed, I won't have much combat power... I'll just be a burden..."

"Uh..." Li Ming scratched his head. "You mean, you don't know how to do propeller-plane dogfights, right?"

Fujian lowered her head and remained silent, which was a tacit admission.

"That's not really a problem..." Li Ming looked at the rigging. "We can just practice slowly."

Fujian opened her mouth, but in the end, she only managed to say, "I will disappoint you..."

"..."

Li Ming suddenly didn't know what to say. 'Me too,' he thought to himself.

"Start the repair work," he instructed. "We'll worry about the future when it comes."

"Um... okay." Fujian lowered her head again, though Li Ming wasn't sure exactly what she was worried about.

I should try to understand her, he thought, but he didn't know where to start.

The Yellow Chicken Masters began busying themselves with the repairs, leaving the two of them sitting there with their heads down, not daring to speak. It was like a game of chicken where whoever spoke first lost.

In the end, it was Fujian who broke the silence first.

"Let's go back, Commander. It's getting late."

"Yeah." Li Ming stood up and followed Fujian out of the Research Center.

The two awkward individuals had nothing to say to each other. In the end, they just bid each other goodnight and returned to their respective rooms.

Fujian spread out her schedule and continued writing. For now, the plan hadn't officially started, but judging by the Commander's performance, he shouldn't be opposed to it...

The young Commander really is a bit impulsive, liking to put his emotions above logic. The cost-effectiveness of repairing her rigging wasn't high, yet he still chose to prioritize it... but unexpectedly, she didn't seem to hate that?

Wuwuwu... why is the Commander always so attractive to me? It's like I've been hit with a Mental Seal...

Fujian tossed her pen aside and began to let her thoughts run wild.

She seemed unable to refuse any instruction or request he made. It had always been this way...

However, she would have to start learning WWII aerial tactics from scratch. That wouldn't be too difficult. Fujian set the plan aside and turned on the portable terminal in her room, looking up flight techniques and formation tactics from the WWII era.

On the other side, Li Ming tossed his math problems aside. His head buzzed whenever he saw science subjects.

But this was the homework Fujian had requested... Li Ming hesitated for a moment, then pulled it back in front of him.

Some unpleasant memories surfaced—memories of being watched by his family while doing homework in middle school, giving him a sudden jolt.

Forget it, forget it. Better start studying properly. Li Ming pulled out the teaching materials and continued his research.

Half an hour later, Li Ming was nodding off in his chair, until his head hit the table with a thud.

"Holy crap..."

Li Ming rubbed his head and looked around, feeling as if he had returned to the days of dozing off in class.

But looking left and right, he was still the same useless Commander.

Scratching his head, Li Ming tossed his math homework aside and turned on his terminal—not to play games, of course. He needed to look up the technology and necessary resources for creating Aircraft Carrier rigging.

He was shocked by what he saw.

Even with Carrier-based Aircraft technology, the time and resource investment required for rigging technology was astronomical. Unless there was an existing sample, they could only repair rigging and provide fuel, or have the Ship Girl deploy her hull to let manned carrier aircraft take off...

Fujian hadn't lied to him; the consumption of rigging technology was completely beyond what he could support.

But...

Did she long for battle? Li Ming wasn't sure, and he didn't dare ask. If he got a negative answer, he'd truly become a joker.

"I'm so hypocritical," Li Ming laughed at himself mockingly.

But regardless, expanding resource acquisition had to be put on the agenda. He couldn't just immerse himself in this gentle trap and forget about the important matters.

He had to build more Yellow Chicken Masters to establish new bases on the newly discovered islands to provide more resources. He couldn't keep being so stingy that even rigging repairs took forever and required interrupting the production of other units.

It looked like he'd be stuck in the starter zone for a long time. Even having a UR by his side couldn't stop that...

Thinking this, Li Ming leaned back in his chair, his eyelids growing heavier.

Taking off his glasses, he forced himself to take a shower and then threw himself onto the bed.

Tomorrow's problems can wait until tomorrow...

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