After having a simple portable lunch prepared by Roon on the yacht, Lin Lan soon spotted the distant horizon.
"We're finally arriving… If it weren't for you, we might have already wrapped up by now."
As Lin Lan gazed at him, the little profiteer Akashi awkwardly twitched her cat ears, putting on an innocent smile.
Lin Lan walked over to the window, looking toward Dongyun City in the distance.
Although it was midday, thick clouds had completely blocked out the sun, casting a gloomy shadow over the entire sea.
For some reason, a vague sense of unease began to rise in Lin Lan's heart.
Glancing at the cargo and passenger ships sailing nearby, he shook his head.
His girls hadn't noticed anything unusual, so perhaps this unease was just a psychological reaction to the overcast weather.
"Commander, you seem to have something on your mind?"
Just as he was about to return to the sofa to wait for the yacht to dock, Prinz Eugen walked up beside him, staring at him curiously.
"It's nothing. I just don't really like this gloomy weather."
Lin Lan shrugged. Seeing the silver-haired girl with crumbs still clinging to the corner of her mouth, he chuckled and reached out to wipe them away.
Eugen had initially smiled at his bold action, about to say something, but suddenly, her expression froze. Raising a hand, she pointed out the window.
"Commander, look over there!"
Seeing the seriousness on Eugen's face, Lin Lan immediately turned to look.
On the shipping lane not far from them, two passenger ships were heading straight toward each other, rapidly closing the distance—they were about to collide!
"This is bad! What are those captains doing? Prepare for rescue—"
It was already too late to prevent the crash. Just as Lin Lan was about to give the order for rescue, an astonishing sight unfolded before his eyes.
The two Tenou Group passenger ships passed through each other like intangible phantoms, as if neither had a solid form, without any impact at all!
"A ghost ship? No… What is going on?"
Lin Lan could hardly believe what he had just witnessed.
It wasn't just him—his shipgirls, having heard his urgent command, had also seen the bizarre scene. They all gathered around him, peering out the window.
Without hesitation, Lin Lan activated his Hero Skill—Elemental Vision.
Everything in the world contained distinct elemental properties, and an ocean liner made of steel should naturally be infused with iron elements.
Yet, when Lin Lan observed the scene through Elemental Vision, he saw that the entire sea was…
Completely empty, except for a dense white mist!
The passenger ships that had been navigating around his yacht were all illusions!
And he had no idea when these illusions had appeared.
At some unknown moment, they had already entered this eerie, invisible, and impossibly dense sea fog.
"All personnel, immediately leave the yacht, activate ship rigs, and remain on high alert! Ägir, deploy a mass-produced command ship—I'm transferring to it!"
Lin Lan took a sharp breath upon realizing the situation.
Exiting Elemental Vision, his expression turned solemn as he issued his orders.
Though his command came suddenly, not a single Iron Blood shipgirl hesitated.
They might joke around in daily life, but in moments of crisis, their disciplined efficiency was immediately evident.
Even the little profiteer Akashi, despite her confusion, refrained from questioning Lin Lan.
Instead, she simply followed orders, swept up by the Iron Blood shipgirls' serious demeanor.
Before long, Lin Lan boarded the specialized command ship—slightly smaller than a mass-produced destroyer, but equipped with radar, a signal hub, and shield armor.
Inside the command ship's control room, Lin Lan looked at the shipgirls patrolling the sea around him with their ship rigs deployed.
His sense of unease eased slightly.
The greatest advantage of a command ship was that, from its control room, Lin Lan could communicate directly with every shipgirl within its extensive communication range.
"Commander, are you sure it's okay to deploy ship rigs here?"
A concerned voice came from the comms—it was Nimi.
Z23's question reflected the unspoken doubts of the other shipgirls.
After all, numerous cargo and passenger ships were still present in the area.
The sudden deployment of Iron Blood's massive dragon- and shark-like ship rigs would undoubtedly be seen by everyone aboard those ships.
"There are no passenger ships around us—they're all fake. I'm sharing my power with you all."
Lin Lan's Elemental Vision wasn't exclusive to him. After upgrading it with Cognitive Cube conversion points, he could share its effects with others.
As he extended this hero ability to the shipgirls patrolling the sea, they too saw the eerie sea fog surrounding them.
"This fog… Could it be Sirens?"
Eugen's voice came through the comms. The Iron Blood had fought Sirens countless times, and upon seeing the fog, she immediately deduced its origin.
Almost simultaneously, Ägir's shocked voice followed:
"Commander, the radar system has detected a large number of Siren Executors in the area! They were completely invisible to our radar until just now—this is too strange!"
Hearing Ägir's report, Lin Lan immediately reactivated Elemental Vision and checked the command ship's radar screen.
Sure enough, without them noticing, a large number of Siren Executors and mass-produced units had appeared in the surrounding waters.
Somehow, he and his shipgirls had unknowingly wandered deep into the Sirens' formation.
Fortunately, the Sirens all seemed to be in a dormant state, remaining motionless.
"This isn't a Mirror Sea, so how are the Sirens able to cloak themselves from our radar?"
Lin Lan pondered as he glanced down at the portable leather pouch hanging from his waist.
Inside were prepared talismans and other artifacts crafted using his Hero Skills, including a Clear Sky Talisman capable of dispelling clouds.
Should he use it now?
Just as he reached for the talisman, his hand stopped at the edge of the pouch.
A sudden image flashed through his mind—a white-haired girl holding a stuffed toy.
The high-level Siren girl he had encountered before meeting his shipgirls.
"Creating illusions through fog outside a Mirror Sea while also disrupting radar… Only she could achieve this."
"The Compiler."
Recalling all the information about the Builder from the game, Lin Lan spoke slowly, announcing his deduction through the comms:
"The fog surrounding us—the one that conceals the Siren fleet, disrupts radar systems, and creates illusions to trap enemies—is the micro-layer compound controlled by the Compiler."
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50 advanced chapters on p@t re on (.) com/SenatusTheta
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