42: Chapter 42 Summary

Since the four little ones were still asleep, none of them realized a new member had joined the ship when the cruiser set sail again.

After securing A6's equipment onto the Restraint Rack, Li Ming turned to look at her—she still had that look of waiting for instructions.

"A6? Is there anything you want to do?"

"Negative, Sir," she shook her head. "I am awaiting your arrangements."

"I don't have any arrangements for now. If you feel tired, you can rest for a while... I mean, I've prepared a room for you."

"Understood, Sir." A6 glanced at him again, then returned to the Restraint Rack.

Li Ming looked puzzled. "What are you doing?"

"Standby mode, Sir. Is there anything you require?"

"Standby... Why not go to the room to rest?"

"Correction: The physical body cannot be separated from the mechanical unit for too long." A6 glanced at him.

"Cannot be separated for too long..."

Human body, Wisdom Cube, conflict...

Li Ming seemed to understand.

"I see. If you find this uncomfortable, just tell me and I'll help you adjust it."

"Negative. This form is the optimal state for standby and can be deployed at any time."

Li Ming fell silent.

After a moment, Li Ming turned and opened the ventilation system for the storage bay. Usually, it wasn't needed here, but now it was surprisingly useful.

"This should keep it from getting too stuffy," Li Ming said, then turned and left the storage bay.

A6 watched his departing back, tilted her head, and then closed her eyes anyway.

A while later, she heard the sound of the door being gently pushed open. She opened her eyes to see Li Ming struggling but carefully pushing the storage bay door open while holding a coat and a box.

Li Ming placed the box on the floor, then came up to her and draped the coat over her.

"A blanket might fall off with the slightest movement, so I could only use a coat... I originally wanted to borrow one from Fujian, but her clothes are too thin..." Li Ming felt like he was rambling a bit. "Anyway, if you feel hot, just toss the coat aside; if you're cold, put it on."

A6 didn't speak, just watched him, seemingly analyzing his psychological state.

Heavens, why did he think she would feel cold?

She watched him take things out of the box. What were those?

She saw him plug a small gadget into a nearby socket and adjust the angle.

It was a... lamp?

Then he took a remote control out of the box, pressed it twice to confirm the light could turn on and off, nodded with satisfaction, and then held a black brick... Was that a mobile terminal?

He placed the mobile terminal and the remote on A6's track guard.

"Do you know how to use a phone?" Li Ming asked.

"Phone..." She showed a confused expression.

"Uh..." Li Ming facepalmed. "This phone is a touch-screen mobile terminal. I haven't set a password. After you pick up the phone, you'll see this white circle; just press it to start. This green one inside is the phone app. See, everyone's contact info is in here... Oh right, you don't know everyone yet; I'll introduce you later. This penguin on a white background is the messaging software; you can send us messages... Look, this is how you open the typing bar..."

Seeing A6's expression become increasingly bewildered, Li Ming suddenly realized something.

"Do you know Chinese?"

"I possess a Chinese language module," she answered.

"Meaning you can't read written Chinese." Li Ming pressed the phone a few times. "Do you understand German?"

She nodded. "I have recorded German-related textual content."

"As long as you know it." Li Ming nodded. "The basic input for this phone is now set to German, and the names have been overwritten in German too. This blue sketch of a whale is DeepSeek—you can think of it as an AI. Although it's localized without server support right now, it should still be able to answer some of your questions."

"Alright, that should do it." He did a final debugging. "That's about all I can explain... If you don't plan on going out for a walk, then rest. It just so happens... I have some things to do too..."

He stretched, letting out a groan as if he were about to die, and then returned to normal.

Seeing she had no reaction, Li Ming didn't think much of it.

"Well then, good afternoon. I'm leaving now."

Li Ming took the box and quietly closed the door. The main lights in the room went out, leaving only the light from the desk lamp, the hum of the ventilation ducts, and the occasional sound of waves.

A6 picked up the remote control and pressed it a few times, mimicking Li Ming, watching the lamp turn on and off. Then she gently put the remote back and tried picking up the 'phone.'

She unlocked it as Li Ming had shown and opened the white penguin.

"Li Ming... Li Ming...?" A6 murmured.

She quietly put down the phone, closed her eyes, and reflected on today's events alone.

——————

"Commander, this is the attrition record for this operation."

"...Not bad, the losses aren't too great." Li Ming took the report handed over by Fujian. "Overall, aside from ammunition expenditure and equipment wear and tear, other impacts aren't very significant."

"Indeed." Fujian nodded slightly. Li Ming had pre-positioned a supply ship for them near the battlefield, giving them the chance to expend ammunition freely. It had to be said he did a very good job this time. "The main losses are on your side. Six Manjuus went missing in the storm, two were hit by lightning, four crashed in the storm, and another thirteen aircraft sustained varying degrees of damage."

"My fault..." Li Ming lowered his head and rubbed his nose.

"No, it's not your fault." Fujian shook her head and leaned in a bit closer. "If it weren't for your decisive judgment, we wouldn't have had the chance to make contact with the Federation."

"But..."

"Commander, believe me, no one thinks you did a poor job." For once, Fujian spoke to Li Ming with such a firm tone.

"Is that so? But..."

"However!" Fujian's tone shifted sharply. "Please tell me, where did these 500 P-51Ks, 120 F4Fs, 60 P-38Ls, and 80 Ginga Model 11s come from?!"

Li Ming twiddled his thumbs, his gaze darting around.

Fujian sighed and adjusted the production line speed back to normal... Incidentally, why did such violent production only result in a short-term increase in resource consumption without affecting the overall reserves much?

Just when did her Commander develop such a massive industrial system to this extent?

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