The tech tree had gone sideways the moment he stepped out the door.
That was how Adam understood the current situation.
With the support of the Azur Lane shipgirls, the settlement had rapidly reached a pre-space-age level…
specifically, its military technology had.
Research work had not yet begun, and agriculture and light industry were essentially nonexistent.
The feeling only grew stronger after he saw the inventory.
The next day Richelieu placed a thick stack of reports on Adam’s desk.
“Commander, yesterday I organized a full inventory check.
These are all our current supplies.
Please review them.” As secretary ship she compiled daily statistics on everything in the settlement…
resource stocks, personnel changes, consumption, and production…
then reported them to Adam.
The handwriting was neat and elegant, every figure lined up with perfect clarity.
Her work ethic left nothing to criticize.
“Thank you for the hard work.” Adam opened the report.
As commander he needed a clear picture of every resource’s reserves and consumption so he could plan the next stage of development.
First, the strategic resources.
Iron ore: 10,000 tons in storage, monthly output 450,000 tons… Coal: 15,000 tons in storage, monthly output 320,000 tons… Tin: 2,000 tons in storage, monthly output 120 tons… There were also refined ores of aluminum, magnesium, copper, even uranium, and more.
The long-range fleet led by Essex had already established itself in the mineral-rich zones of the Balkan Peninsula, building mines and smelters there.
Even with a limited number of Bulins and Manjuus, their output was already approaching that of a mid-sized mining conglomerate.
Azur Lane heavy industry was equally advanced.
Every two weeks Bulin fleets loaded with ore shuttled between Athens and Constantinople, feeding the capital’s construction.
“Not bad.
Next time we open a passage, have the Port send more people over.” Adam was satisfied with the mining team’s results.
Iron and coal were the foundation of modern industry; the higher the output, the faster future infrastructure would rise.
Next came equipment.
“Currently the Port has 1,612 operational carrier aircraft, 582 torpedo bombers, fighters… “Torpedo stocks: 3,240 units total, including 240 of the 610 mm type and 330 quadruple 533 mm magnetic torpedoes… “160 self-propelled 155 mm guns, 4,200 aerial bombs… “26 hydrogen bombs.” “?” When the pioneer fleet departed, the Port had stuffed them with a mountain of equipment.
Even if the local naval base produced nothing, the stockpile would last a long time.
But one item jumped out at him.
“Where did you get hydrogen bombs?!” “Ah… Akashi built them earlier using captured Siren technology.” Richelieu thought for a moment.
“The Port was worried we might run into a powerful enemy, so every carrier in the pioneer fleet was given a few.” “…” “So Taihou, Formidable, Essex, Illustrious and the others actually have nuclear strike capability…” Remembering how Taihou and Richelieu had fought over the secretary-ship position not long ago, Adam felt a chill run down his spine.
Thankfully neither of them had gone completely over the edge.
“Wonderful.
We have thousands of aircraft, hundreds of guns of every caliber, and nuclear weapons on top of it.” He felt the martial spirit here was unusually abundant.
Back on Earth this would have been enough to make the Eagle Union representative get kicked out of the permanent seats at the United Nations so he could take the chair himself.
He looked at the remaining supplies.
“Agricultural products: 20 kg of rice, 10 kg of corn, assorted grain seeds.” “?” Compared with the hundreds or thousands of carrier aircraft, torpedoes, and shells listed earlier, the agricultural inventory looked almost comically modest.
Adam triple-checked that the units really were kilograms and not tons or tens of thousands of tons.
“Those were found in the cabin at your original landing site,” Richelieu added.
“…” Shipgirls had no need to eat and only occasionally snacked, so of course they had never developed agricultural technology.
The warehouse held more hydrogen bombs than rice.
“Commander, what do you think we should do next?” After the report, Richelieu waited for Adam to set the future course.
Adam rubbed his forehead and thought.
With virtually no economic activity and weapons stockpiled until the warehouses overflowed, only two directions remained open.
“We have two options right now.
“First, put real effort into developing agriculture and light industry here so we’re prepared for the future.
“Second, turn the neighbors into tributary states and practice sustainable over-exploitation.” … … For the moment Adam chose the first option.
The main reason was that his dimensional travel ability was still on cooldown; he couldn’t simply drop out of the sky and start beating up the neighbors.
The secondary reason was that, as someone raised in a culture that always began by planting fields when rebuilding civilization, the idea of not farming felt wrong down to his DNA.
Even if the shipgirls never needed to eat, long-term thinking still demanded some agricultural development…
just in case.
If guests arrived from other worlds he could hardly serve them naval fuel and coolant.
While checking the hyperdimensional star map he had noticed that somewhere far away a few million little girls were still waiting to be rescued.
“So… does anyone here know how to farm?” He gathered the pioneer fleet shipgirls.
“No.” Heads shook like rattles.
“Um… I might know a little.
Just a little… “Sometimes I grow things in the Port’s garden.” Ning Hai and Ping Hai raised their hands timidly.
“Oh?” Adam looked at the sisters.
As expected of Dragon Empery shipgirls…
they had a few skill points the others lacked.
“What can you grow?” “We’ve planted wheat, rice, cabbage, chili peppers and the like.
We know a bit about fruit too…
if we have seeds, apples, strawberries, and watermelons should be possible…” Ning Hai answered modestly.
“That’s basically everything!” Adam felt they were being far too humble, like top students who scored 98 and still insisted they had underperformed.
He patted both of them on the shoulders.
“Ning Hai, Ping Hai, I appoint you two as acting ministers of agriculture.
From now on farming here is your responsibility.” “Just the two of us in the whole Ministry of Agriculture?” Ping Hai blinked, feeling like a general without an army.
“I’ll assign each of you twenty Manjuus.
“The little yellow chicks can already handle simple jobs like hauling and mining.
With a bit of training, farming shouldn’t be a problem.”