264: Chapter 264 The Cat Burned Out

"Hmm..." Kuznetsov looked at the situation on the sand table and fell into thought.

"So... how was it?" Li Ming sat opposite her. He couldn't see Kuznetsov's entire operation, so he could only stare at her expectantly.

"Better than I imagined," Kuznetsov replied. "Your application of the Ship Girl's characteristics is completely reasonable... Have you participated in actual combat?"

"Uh... I didn't participate in direct command; back then, I was just slacking off in the rear."

"What is 'slacking off'?"

"Just 'buying soy sauce,' you know what 'buying soy sauce' means, right?"

"What does that have to do with soy sauce?" Kuznetsov tilted her head.

"It means..." Li Ming raised a finger, craning his neck as he struggled to find an adjective. "What I mean is, I was in second-line logistics and didn't participate in actual combat; I only watched their training records and combat logs."

Kuznetsov understood and nodded.

"Of course, there are still problems, but overall, they are issues of experience rather than principle. Except for you pulling Enterprise to the front line—I really didn't understand that."

"Because the real Enterprise is just capable of fighting," Li Ming shrugged.

"How do you know that? The Eagle Union's battle records have never documented such things."

"I just know," Li Ming shook his head.

"Li Ming, you..." Kuznetsov was silent for a moment. "In that world of yours, did Eastern Radiance join the Atlantic Pact?"

"...Huh?"

"You know so much, and you're a Commander of Ship Girls. Are you the son of the Atlantic Allied Forces Commander-in-Chief?"

"No, do you think that's possible?" Li Ming didn't even know what to say.

"It's not impossible," Kuznetsov said firmly.

"...Whatever makes you happy," Li Ming rubbed his forehead. "I even know Aurora; when I find her, I'll definitely have to talk to her about this."

"Uh, Aurora..." Kuznetsov was taken aback, seeing that he didn't look like he was lying.

"Ah, never mind. I don't know where she is right now anyway." Li Ming stood up. "We've been at this for six or seven hours; if you aren't hungry, I am..."

"Hmm..." Kuznetsov looked at the clock on the wall; it was already pointing to three in the afternoon.

She was indeed not hungry, or rather, she basically didn't feel hunger.

In fact, Ship Girls didn't really need normal food; eating was mainly a matter of personal habit.

She turned her gaze back to the sand table. While Tallinn and Dunkerque were engaging, the three Gangut-class ships changed direction, setting their sights on the three-ship group led by Strasbourg acting independently.

At this moment, Li Ming's air power was forced to commit fully to the main force's battlefield, and the support that could be given to Strasbourg was quite limited.

Once it was confirmed that the Ganguts had appeared, theoretically, the reaction time available to Strasbourg was quite limited.

Li Ming decisively chose to retreat, leaving the battlefield to Ayanami and Z23.

Not long after the engagement began, they laid smoke. Although they were already semi-encircled, Ayanami still managed to hide, with Z23 covering Strasbourg's retreat alone.

Strasbourg needed high-speed maneuvering and couldn't be concealed. Therefore, even if they couldn't catch her, it was more than enough for their own Destroyer to entangle her.

However, Kuznetsov still overlooked one thing: she couldn't understand the true standard of World War II-era Destroyer Ship Girls...

When the three Ganguts passed through the islands to pursue Z23, Ayanami launched a surprise attack from the rear.

Because it was real-time server calculation, Kuznetsov could not detect the sudden attack without line of sight.

By the time she reacted, Ayanami had already closed in and launched torpedoes at Sevastopol.

Although Ayanami was moderately damaged, she still successfully laid smoke and retreated.

Sevastopol, having taken five full torpedoes, was instantly destroyed, incidentally blocking a few shots for Ayanami, allowing the Federation to break out of the interception circle, retreat in the opposite direction alone, and wait for another opportunity to join the battlefield.

Strasbourg seized the opportunity to press back. Relying on her speed advantage and secondary guns to force back the Destroyers, she fired at long range from 20 kilometers at Gangut and Poltava, while Z23 turned to deal with the Destroyers.

The next part was the most critical link: Li Ming gave up air superiority over Strasbourg. Since Kuznetsov had already committed her air superiority entirely to the main battlefield, the reconnaissance planes over Strasbourg, under Li Ming's orders, chose to...

"Tenno Heika! Banzai!"

Li Ming shouted it out directly at the time.

The target was naturally not the sturdy Poltava and Gangut, but the Destroyers surrounding them. As it happened, these were Enterprise's reconnaissance planes, and as it happened, Enterprise's ability was activated.

Heaven knows what this system's mechanics were thinking, actually counting kamikaze attacks within the scope of Enterprise's attack abilities.

Thus, under this stroke of sheer luck, Kuznetsov was certain that the scales of victory were tilting toward Li Ming's side.

However, she did not give up, because once she heightened her vigilance, both Tallinn on the main battlefield and the Ganguts on the flank became wary, choosing to keep as much distance as possible to avoid close-quarters combat with Li Ming.

After a round of kamikaze and confrontation, her own fleet still maintained the advantage, and in close-quarters combat, it was impossible for Li Ming's Destroyers not to take damage.

If they were to just grind it out, Li Ming's losses would continue to mount.

But Li Ming's next choice struck her as unexpected yet reasonable.

After a brief exchange of fire, Dunkerque began to retreat. The Destroyers organized a delaying line and a second torpedo net, blocking her offensive, and then broke contact.

Dunkerque pressed toward Strasbourg, putting on a show of support.

And in a direction she couldn't see, Ayanami had quietly bypassed the defensive line, retreated back to the starting point, and rendezvoused with the carriers that had evacuated early.

Under the cover of Dunkerque, Strasbourg quickly disengaged from the battlefield and turned northeast with Dunkerque.

The Destroyer detachment followed, relying on the locally regained air superiority to cover their movement.

Then Li Ming had them return to the starting point, finally withdrawing from the battlefield.

He had avoided battle once again.

Kuznetsov slowly pulled out the power plug. She had already obtained the information she wanted, and now she had other things to think about, namely...

"Li Ming, do you love them that much?"

Li Ming paused, then lowered his head and continued his work.

Kuznetsov paced toward Li Ming and placed her left hand on his shoulder.

"Perhaps it's because they are all I have," Li Ming said.

"Ah..."

"I don't like hurting others, but for them... what does it matter if I slaughter a city or a country?"