“The Wisdom Cube got eaten?” Inside the Port’s main building, Enterprise and the other fleet flagships listened in stunned silence as Akashi filed her complaint.
Richelieu stood to the side and silently nodded, adding a few details of what had happened.
“When Mr.
Adam touched the Wisdom Cube, it dissolved like water… and then he fainted.” “…” The shipgirls exchanged glances.
According to everything they had learned from years of research on Wisdom Cubes, this should have been impossible.
Cubes were meant for warships.
They could grant a ship sentience and give birth to a shipgirl.
They could also be combined with resources to produce Bulins.
But they were never supposed to react with a human body.
The two weren’t even the same species.
“Then… where is Mr.
Adam now?” Yat Sen asked.
“Still unconscious.
Belfast and the Royal Maid Corps are looking after him.” “His body is fine.
It seems he suffered a severe mental shock.” Richelieu shook her head.
“That’s a relief.” The others let out a collective breath.
“That was the Port’s last Cube, ahhhh…
!” “Why did I ever show it to him, ahhhh…
!” Akashi slammed her forehead against the table over and over.
It was unclear whether she was mourning the materials used to make the Cube or the loss of a potential thirty-million-yen sale.
“Mr.
Adam is a guest of the Port.
How can you only care about your Cube?
We’ll just allocate more resources later and make a new one.” Richelieu frowned.
“I already gave him a full physical!
There’s not a single problem…
he’s healthier than a normal human.
No, he might even be healthier than a shipgirl!!” Akashi continued banging her head on the table.
“Healthier than a shipgirl?
You mean…” Enterprise froze for a moment.
They were girls formed from warships.
They could casually control thousands of tons of rigging, powered essentially by reactors and Wisdom Cubes.
Their strength, reaction speed, and durability far surpassed ordinary humans.
“It means he absorbed the Cube’s energy and didn’t even pay.
I got scammed.” …
“Ugh…” His head ached.
His consciousness felt foggy.
After the Wisdom Cube dissolved in his hand, Adam had felt his mind get thoroughly scoured by an enormous force.
In that half-asleep state, he seemed to see a series of blurred images.
Sirens, shipgirls, and all kinds of strange equipment.
It was as if everything in the Azur Lane world was contained inside the Wisdom Cube, but the images flashed by too quickly to make out clearly.
“Mr.
Adam… Mr.
Adam…?” He vaguely heard someone calling his name.
With effort he opened his eyes.
A hazy expanse of pure white filled his vision.
“Hm?” He realized that patch of white was getting closer and closer, until it pressed into a shape that definitely wouldn’t pass censorship.
The head maid was standing at the bedside, bent over as she straightened the covers.
Her long silver-white hair brushed against his face, tickling him.
“Belfast, you’re crushing me.” Adam muttered.
“Ah…
forgive me.” Belfast hurriedly took two steps back, face flushed, one hand covering the low neckline of her maid outfit.
Since the Port was filled entirely with shipgirls, no one normally paid attention to such things.
“You’re awake?
Does anywhere feel uncomfortable?” The head maid quickly recovered her usual composed professionalism.
“No.
Just a little dizzy.” Adam sat up and checked himself over.
Good.
All the important parts were still there.
He hadn’t turned into a shipgirl.
He had no interest in yuri.
“How long was I out?” “Two days and sixteen hours.” Belfast pulled open the curtains.
The glow of the setting sun spilled into the room.
“Akashi and I examined you several times.
Don’t worry…
there’s no damage.” “It’s just… that Cube seems to have dissolved into your body.
It’s very strange.
Humans shouldn’t be able to react with a Wisdom Cube under normal circumstances.” The head maid rested her chin on her hand, thinking aloud.
“Do you feel anything unusual?” “I think I’ve gotten a bit stronger?” Adam stood up and clenched his fists.
Right now his entire body felt full of endless energy.
Every trace of fatigue had vanished.
Compared to his old overworked office-worker physique, he was healthier by an order of magnitude.
“A Wisdom Cube is essentially a power source.
Absorbing one and gaining greater strength is normal.” Belfast answered.
“So I swallowed a reactor?” “You can think of it that way.
But a Wisdom Cube also reinforces the structural integrity of the recipient.
In theory, you should now possess durability similar to ours…” The head maid’s expression grew stranger and stranger.
“?” Adam blanked for a second.
Physical durability on the level of an Azur Lane shipgirl?
Tanking torpedoes with his face and naval gunfire with his body?
…
Several hours later.
Port coastline.
Adam stood in the middle of a testing ground.
The flagships of the major fleets, Akashi, and a large crowd of curious shipgirls had gathered to watch.
“Hit me.” Adam looked at the small silver-haired, animal-eared shipgirl in a sailor uniform standing opposite him.
Under normal circumstances he would never have dared say something like that.
Destroyers might look like little lolis, but their true forms were warships weighing thousands of tons.
Even without using their guns, a full-power punch could send a whale or an elephant flying.
“You dare challenge Lady Yukikaze?
You’ll regret this, hohoho~~” The little animal-eared shipgirl pouted, dropped into a sprinting stance, and charged straight at Adam.
Boom…
Adam caught Yukikaze’s punch cleanly.
The force that transferred into his hand felt close to a hundred tons.
“Oh!” The watching battleships and carriers couldn’t help widening their eyes.
A human blocking a destroyer’s charge was unbelievable.
“I’m getting serious!” Seeing that a direct attack had no effect, the little shipgirl jumped back two steps and manifested her rigging.
Three 127 mm main guns and two anti-aircraft machine guns opened fire at once.
Shells rained down on Adam like a storm.
At the same time the launchers on both sides opened, and two torpedoes howled through the air toward him.
They started out no bigger than pocket toys, but in midair they suddenly expanded into torpedoes over nine meters long…
powerful enough to punch through a battleship’s side armor.
Rumble…
When the smoke cleared, Adam was still standing in the same spot.
He brushed the dust off his clothes, completely unharmed.
“Wah…
!” The shipgirls erupted.
“It’s real!
He really absorbed the Wisdom Cube!” “Even 127 mm guns can’t move him?!
What about a 380 mm battleship gun?
Eh?
Too big?
Then what about 203 mm…?” “Can he tank Enterprise’s bombers…?” “Musashi, what do you think you’re doing?!
Put that main battery away right now…
that thing will actually kill someone!!!” The crowd hurriedly restrained the two overexcited Sakura Empire shipgirls who had started pulling out weapons that definitely violated the rules of the test.