236: Chapter 236 Dawn

"Hoo..."

Li Ming struggled to get up; the three of them had been up late last night.

In the end, they even set up hammocks together, stubbornly sleeping in a parallel line, each in their own hammock.

God knows what they were thinking, not sleeping on the sofa but insisting on hammocks.

Luckily, he was on the outermost side and quickly rolled out of bed.

He checked the time; it was already ten o'clock.

He glanced at them. Yep, still asleep.

A spider descended from the ceiling, heading straight for Elsa's face.

Then it gently landed on her face. Elsa wrinkled her nose, "Kate, stop messing around..."

The spider crawled on her face, one leg stepping on her lip.

"Mm-mm?!"

She woke up and instinctively reached out to grab it.

Then she opened her eyes and saw a thumb-sized spider in her hand.

Next...

A scream that nearly pierced Li Ming's eardrums erupted from Elsa's mouth.

She sprang up from the hammock without leverage, predictably tumbling out and dragging Maria, who was next to her, onto the floor.

"Suka?!... Elsa? What are you doing..."

"A spider! There's a spider!"

"Ah?! Where? Get out of the way... Let go of me first!" Maria struggled, trying to break free from Elsa's bear hug.

Kate rubbed her eyes, watching the two of them fuss, then looked at Li Ming, who couldn't help but curve his lips into a smile as he took out his phone to record their disheveled state.

She must still be half asleep, she thought.

Then she lay back down, intending to go back to sleep.

As for Li Ming, he had already gotten what he wanted.

Blackmail material, got it!

——————

"Li Ming! Delete it! Delete it!"

Li Ming stuffed his phone into his pocket. "No."

"Give me your phone!"

Elsa pounced. "Who told you to film it!"

Li Ming sharply dodged. "I'm happy."

Elsa took a deep breath. "I'm going to get angry!"

Li Ming quickly hid behind Maria. "Hakimi is going to hiss."

Maria waved her hands repeatedly. Li Ming was full of energy today.

"So, Li Ming, do you have any plans for today?"

"Me? I don't have any plans." Li Ming shook his head. "Although normally I should be doing other things, I... I plan to rest for a while."

His gaze fell on Elsa, who still hadn't given up. "It's not good to keep yourself too tense."

Elsa lunged forward, but Li Ming still managed to use Maria as a shield to block her.

"Maria—" Elsa complained, "Don't always protect him."

"Elsa, it's not so bad." Maria waved her hand. "After all, it's rare to see you in such a disheveled state."

"You were filmed too."

Maria turned around and looked at Li Ming with a smile.

"So, Li, can you delete the file?"

"Ribbit? How can there be a last-minute defection?!"

Li Ming subconsciously took two steps back, then was caught on the spot by Elsa and Maria.

Then Li Ming's phone was snatched away.

"No—Give it back to me—"

Li Ming tried to grab it back from behind, but Maria held him tightly, unable to move.

Fortunately, Li Ming had set a password, but the bad news was that Li Ming had also set up facial recognition, so the phone was easily unlocked by Elsa.

"Ribbit! Give it back! You can't look!"

"...OK, deleted!... What is this...?"

Kate leaned over. "Isn't this Azur Lane? Let me see... Laffey, Terrible, who is this?... This art style looks like Mengluo Dalao's... Alert?"

Snatching the phone from Elsa's hand, Kate scrolled through Li Ming's photo album.

Li Ming immediately stopped struggling.

It's over now.

So embarrassing!!!

"... Dunkerque, Strasbourg, Royal Fortune, Ayanami... So realistic, is it 3D or is the artist's skill really that good?" Kate looked up, her eyes sparkling as she looked at Li Ming. "Hey, Li Ming, which artist made these drawings you have?"

"I... I said it's AI, would you believe me?"

"No!" Kate held the phone up to him. "So exquisite, and even with such realistic messy parts, how could it be AI?"

"Come on, it's been six years, DeepSeek is almost sentient, why not?"

"...Really?" Kate was suspicious.

"Really!" Cold sweat broke out on Li Ming's back. "I said these are real photos, I know them, would you believe me?"

This was actually the truth, but it was clear Kate didn't believe it.

Kate showed a suspicious expression. He didn't seem to be lying, but the existence of Ship Girls in reality was impossible.

Taking advantage of her holding the phone close to his face, Li Ming quickly snatched it back and stuffed it into his pocket.

Maria finally let go of him, but not before giving him a light kiss on the neck.

Li Ming felt a shiver, his heart stopping for a moment, but he quickly retreated two steps. "Believe it or not."

Elsa fell into thought.

"Alright, alright, I'll go cook." Li Ming quickly waved his hand. "You guys go play."

"Hey, hey, I'm coming too..." Maria followed him.

"Whew, I want to pick something delicious!" Kate thought of something and immediately ran to the storeroom.

Elsa watched them leave, her mouth twitching. It seemed she really had nothing to do.

Shaking her head, she looked at the generator in the corner.

Everything seemed to be getting better... right?

——————

"Here we are..."

"This is... Houston..."

"But the problem is... where is Commander?"

"I don't know... but maybe we can ask someone else."

Ever since their consciousness was pulled into this world, the small Ship Girls known as Lei and Dian had been living anonymously in Huaxia.

On one hand, they tried to work to earn living expenses—specifically, making a lot of money by being their own cosplayers—and on the other hand, they tried to find a way back.

Of course, they didn't know they were being monitored by the National Supervision Intelligent Center located in the New District—they were simply too special, lacking even ID cards.

However, for certain reasons, they were not invited for tea by the police, but instead obtained electronic ID cards under the surveillance of the National Security.

Until some time ago, Lei's phone suddenly received a recording from a strange account that wasn't a fan. It was the voice of their own Commander from a public broadcast, pointing directly to Houston.

So, after (with the tacit approval of National Security) inappropriately buying a whole truckload of heavy oil at a gas station, they immediately set off (swaggering under the surveillance of PLAN), even asking the Commander in Honolulu for supplies, and only then successfully reached Houston.

But now the problem was, how were they going to find Li Ming?

The two unlucky kids didn't seem very good at communicating with people...

...

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