16: Farming?!
16: [IMP] 16: Farming?!
“Commander, Commander, hurry, hurry!
Let us show you the new house we built!” Beside the naval base a Gold Bulin and a Purple Bulin latched onto Adam.
The two retrofit girls looked like proud puppies waiting for praise, their expressions pure and simple.
“All right, lead the way.” As leader of the entire civilization, Adam felt he ought to familiarize himself thoroughly with the settlement.
Even if he couldn’t grasp the deeper principles of Azur Lane technology, he should at least understand, from a practical standpoint, what things did and what they were for.
Accompanied by Richelieu, one man, one shipgirl, and two Bulins boarded a small boat and entered the base.
“Commander, this base was built as a scaled-down version of the Port,” Richelieu explained as they walked.
“We’ve integrated every production line a naval force needs.
It can fully support the logistics of a fleet of fewer than one hundred shipgirls, including carriers.” In the Azur Lane world, fleet size was counted by the number of shipgirls rather than the number of hulls.
One hundred shipgirls equaled one hundred warships…
an absurdly large force by Earth’s standards.
Even the Eagle Union, the planet’s former maritime hegemon, had possessed fewer than three hundred vessels, many of them light escorts.
Being able to sustain logistics for a force of that scale only raised Adam’s estimation of the Bulins’ value.
“Strange… ever since I met the shipgirls I keep thinking about Bulins.
“Must be infrastructure addiction.” He gave himself a mental slap on the wrist.
“This is the carrier-aircraft assembly plant.
It can resupply the carriers with fighters, torpedo bombers, or dive bombers.” Inside the factory they were greeted by a long row of propeller aircraft.
F6F Hellcats, Seafires, Barracudas, Meteors, Fireflies… every one of them a classic World War II design.
Without the shipgirls standing beside him, Adam might have thought he had wandered into a museum.
“At full capacity this plant can produce three hundred to three hundred fifty aircraft of various types per month.
There’s been no combat lately, so the lines are idle.” Richelieu reported from the papers in her hand.
“Can I fly these planes?” Adam was suddenly curious.
The fighters looked identical in size and shape to real World War II aircraft.
Shipgirls simply used the power of the Wisdom Cubes to store them inside their rigging, and under that power their combat performance was greatly enhanced.
“Huh?!” Both the Bulins and Richelieu froze.
They had never considered the question.
“In theory, yes, nya.” Akashi appeared out of nowhere.
“Everything manufactured in the naval base can be used by the Commander…
carrier aircraft and any other weapons.
“But because you’re not a shipgirl, they can only perform at their original power, nya.” “…” Adam abandoned the idea of flying a carrier plane.
Without the shipgirl buff it was just an ordinary propeller aircraft.
Taking one out would be like offering yourself up as target practice for anti-aircraft guns.
Better to rely on his own physical strength and punch the enemy to death.
“Over here is the torpedo factory.
Monthly output is between twelve hundred and fifteen hundred units…
anti-ship, anti-submarine, aerial torpedoes, and so on… “This is the naval-gun assembly plant.
At the current scale of the base we can assemble guns up to 380 mm.
Anything larger has to be done at the main Port… “These are the docks, used for repairing shipgirl hulls and constructing new warships.
Monthly output is… “This is the small-arms plant… “And these are the shipgirl dormitories and the bathhouse.
Er… would you like to take a look…?” Adam nodded along the entire tour.
The wonder of Azur Lane technology was that the power of the Wisdom Cubes allowed them to push weapons that looked like World War II antiques to extraordinary heights.
Their production capacity was equally impressive.
This single small naval base already approached the industrial output of half the European Union.
After they finished the circuit, a thought suddenly struck him.
“We’ve seen so much military industry.
What about everything else?
“Agriculture, light industry, manufacturing?
What crops do you usually grow…
potatoes, wheat?
What’s the yield like?” “…” Everyone stopped cold.
“Agriculture?
What’s agriculture?
And what’s light industry?” Akashi and the Bulins looked completely blank.
“Commander, we’re shipgirls.
We don’t farm.” “?” “Then what do you eat?” “We drink naval fuel and coolant.” “Where do the bread and black tea in the Port come from?!” “Those are snacks.
Consumption is low.” “…” Adam stared at the production reports in his hand and fell into thought.
Without agriculture, without light industry, without education, without medicine, without even basic science, his civilization had achieved a leapfrog development.
It had raced ahead in the military-industrial field and could already thrash the vast majority of pre-space-age natives.
Cannon, fighter, and torpedo output was high enough that they could dump arms on other worlds.
Congratulations were in order.
Azur Lane technology…
truly awe-inspiring.
“Damn it… who maxes military tech first when they’re trying to farm?!”