After returning to the port area, Lin Lan's daily routine for the following week became exceptionally structured.
Each morning after waking up, he would use meta crystals on Sui Qiong to suppress her meta transformation.
After breakfast, he would, with the help of his secretary ship, handle some paperwork for the port, such as material reserves and exercise plans.
Although these documents had already been sorted and sent over by Bismarck and Ulrich, as the commander, he still found it necessary to understand the details.
If he had some free time, he would either flirt with the secretary ship to strengthen their relationship or go to the seaside docks to watch the Iron-Blood shipgirls conduct training exercises.
Of course, he would also occasionally play games like hide-and-seek or sea racing with the little chibis of the Z-class destroyers and the wolf pack.
Around noon, after Sui Qiong returned from flight, the three of them—he, Sui Qiong, and the secretary ship—would head to the cafeteria for lunch.
After lunch was his sparring time with Prinz Eugen, using his hero powers.
After nearly a week of sparring, Lin Lan's reaction speed had improved significantly, and the look in his eyes during combat had grown more determined.
But even so, he still couldn't break through Prinz Eugen's absolute defense.
In addition to sparring with Eugen, he would occasionally ask the secretary ship of the day to launch surprise attacks on him to improve his reflexes and prepare for sudden combat scenarios.
This was always a painful process.
On the first day, he was punched by Tirpitz and sent flying from the square in front of Akashi's shop straight into the greenery.
Even though he had the protection of enchanted armor with defensive magic and wasn't physically harmed, the force of the punch still left him unable to stand for quite a while.
Of course, that night, Tirpitz naturally paid the appropriate "price" in his bed.
And that set a precedent.
Almost every day afterward, during the sparring's beatdown phase, Lin Lan would get thoroughly thrashed by the secretary ship of the day, which he would later use to justify claiming his "compensation" that night.
After sparring and dinner, back at the office loft, Lin Lan would study for about two hours, reading various books sent by the Tian'ou Group.
He focused particularly on books about other countries' political systems, customs, supernatural powers, and biological encyclopedias.
After all, he would eventually have to visit other countries to retrieve shipgirls from his other factions, and this knowledge was indispensable.
After studying came a blissful night with the secretary ship of the day.
Over this week, the floating island fortress by the sea had already taken shape and was nearing completion.
Fortunately, both his port area and the coastline were shrouded in Iron-Blood's Mirror Sea, or else one could see the massive black-and-red fortress from miles away, standing by the shore.
Meanwhile, Sui Qiong's weapon systems—developed by Deutschland, Magdeburg, and other Iron-Blood shipgirls—had already produced a first-generation prototype.
Within the Mirror World born from the Mirror Sea, Lin Lan personally witnessed Sui Qiong's terrifying power after equipping the weapon systems.
With the deep-blue energy blades enhanced by Cube technology, Sui Qiong could effortlessly cut through mass-produced ships as if slicing through butter.
Her previously demonstrated long-range blade strikes, after Cube technology enhancements, had become several times more powerful.
The penetrative force was strong enough to cut through three mass-produced ships in one go.
It's worth noting that prior to this, the Overlord Mech didn't actually have the strength to directly take on mass-produced ships.
This level of power was already more than enough to delight Lin Lan.
Even more surprising were the homing missile swarms upgraded with Cube technology.
During high-speed flight with wings deployed, Sui Qiong could release massive salvos of homing missiles that not only effectively targeted airborne aircraft...
But also managed to annihilate entire fleets of Iron-Blood mass-produced enemies on the sea without taking damage.
Originally, the ammo capacity of the homing missiles was extremely limited. But thanks to Cube technology, her ammunition could now be infinitely reloaded.
Although it still took a few minutes to fully reload a new batch after launching the first wave of missiles...
Sui Qiong's greatest strength lay in her high mobility and high endurance during flight.
With this major advantage, she could easily strike and retreat, or kite enemies using blade strikes until the missiles were reloaded.
Of course, under the explanation of his chief Iron-Blood engineer, Lady Deutschland, Lin Lan also learned about some shortcomings of the weapon system.
First of all, since these weapons were still prototypes, their destructive power was designed to match mass-produced Sirens of Type I and II.
When facing Type III or IV Sirens, or even humanoid Type II Executors, their effectiveness would significantly diminish—let alone when dealing with high-level Sirens.
Of course, Lin Lan had yet to encounter any Siren stronger than Type II in this world. Though he had fought plenty in the game, leading shipgirls into battle.
Sui Qiong's weapon system still had plenty of room for upgrades, but there was no rush. Its current level of power was already satisfactory.
What Lin Lan found amusing, however, was that both the missile warheads and the honeycomb launchers, as well as the energy blades, were all emblazoned with the Iron Cross symbol of the Iron-Blood faction.
He couldn't help but mock internally—if this were the game, all of Sui Qiong's equipment would undoubtedly be considered part of Iron-Blood's research tree.
But that was fine. After all, Iron-Blood technology was the best in the world and highly reliable.
Afterward, Sui Qiong spent each day testing and tuning her weapon systems within the Mirror Sea, returning to rest in his loft only late at night.
With Sui Qiong's weapon systems nearing perfection, another important matter arose.
On the last day of that week, after having dinner with that day's secretary ship, Graf Spee, and preparing to return to the office loft...
He received a communication from Jian Qian'ou, who reported the latest intelligence on Battleaxe Arms.
The industrial zones in cities controlled by Battleaxe Arms were running at full capacity, mass-producing combat mechs without restraint, and shifting vast quantities of military supplies.
Such a massive operation naturally couldn't escape the attention of the Tian'ou Group and the Naval Department.
The Tian'ou Group began drastically reducing passenger flights between the East and West Continents, withdrawing staff and closing offices in cities under Battleaxe's influence.
Meanwhile, Naval Department leaders issued a complete severance order against Battleaxe Arms, authorizing port area commanders to retaliate immediately upon detecting unidentified attacks.
Although the online news still painted a peaceful picture, anyone with a shred of awareness could see it clearly—a war that would reshape the Western Continent's power structure was about to erupt.
Lin Lan wasn't surprised by Jian Qian'ou's report; he had long known that Battleaxe Arms was an extremely ambitious military conglomerate.
Once this powerful, nation-stealing industrial group began operating at full tilt, defeating the Tian'ou Group might be troublesome—but not impossible.
As for going against the Naval Department, Battleaxe Arms would likely employ a mech flood tactic on land, using overwhelming numbers to overrun Naval Department fortresses and drive port commanders into the sea.
Ultimately, Battleaxe Arms didn't aim to completely destroy the Naval Department—nor could it.
Without naval supremacy, Battleaxe's goal was to force the Naval Department's leadership to bow and swear loyalty.
Jian Qian'ou predicted that once the harsh winter passed, Battleaxe Arms would launch the war at the very start of spring.
But Lin Lan merely smiled at this.
By next year, Battleaxe Arms would no longer exist in this world.
In addition to the intelligence report on Battleaxe's preparations, Jian Qian'ou informed Lin Lan of another matter.
Under close observation, there had been a significant increase in merchant and passenger ships being attacked by Leviathan in recent days.
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50 advanced chapters on p@t re on (.) com/SenatusTheta
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