Azur Lane: Isekai'd with Maxed-Out Port

After teasing Essex for a while, Lin Lan followed a few Eagle Union shipgirls toward the destroyer dormitory where he had woken up yesterday morning.

At this moment, the sun had just begun to rise. Crisp birdsong echoed among the surrounding green trees, announcing the start of a new day.

Since the villa he was staying in was not far from the Eagle Union destroyer dormitory, the group decided to go on foot.

"Enterprise, I remember you and Essex usually like to go for motorcycle rides, right?"

Lin Lan looked at the two tall Eagle Union carrier shipgirls flanking him on either side. 

It suddenly occurred to him that, in the game, both of their alternate skins at this point featured cool motorcycles.

"Yes. At first, it was just me who liked going for rides, but later Essex seemed to get interested too. She borrowed a motorcycle from Jamaica and joined in," Enterprise explained with a bright smile.

"I only thought Enterprise-senpai looked really cool while riding. After trying it myself, I fell in love with the feeling,"

Essex admitted without hesitation. After all, the outfit she was wearing had been a gift from the Commander, and she'd already mentioned this to him.

Heavy cruiser Jamaica from the Royal Navy—Lin Lan remembered her well. 

She was a true motorcycle enthusiast who even managed to scavenge parts from the sly merchant Akashi and painstakingly assembled her own bike piece by piece.

Eventually, when Akashi realized this, she had no choice but to make Jamaica the spokesperson for the port's motorcycle products, since her tech monopoly had been broken.

That just went to show how deep Jamaica's love for motorcycles ran.

But upon hearing that Essex's motorcycle came from Royal Navy's heavy cruiser Jamaica, Lin Lan was reminded of a parody video he'd once seen.

In that video, Essex had stolen the motorcycle from Jamaica…

"Commander, I feel like you're thinking something bad about me," Essex said seriously, staring intently at Lin Lan's face after noticing the subtle change in his expression.

"No, no, absolutely not."

Lin Lan denied it flatly. After all, those parody videos were just players teasing this comedic beauty—there was no way to explain that.

"Really?"

Seeing Lin Lan's guilty head shake, the usually stoic Essex looked very doubtful.

"Then why does the Commander always call me a sand sculpture, and say things like 'I bet you're not using your full power' and 'where did your firepower restriction release go?' during battles?"

"Doesn't the Commander know that was just a drill back then? I was saving the real firepower restriction release for actual combat!"

Hearing Essex's string of accusations, Lin Lan responded with a guilty twitch at the corner of his mouth:

"Ahem, I only called you a sand sculpture because I thought you were cute. That's actually a compliment in Chinese—it means someone's adorable."

"As for the firepower restriction release... hahaha… maybe I was just mesmerized by your heroic form during the drill, yeah, haha, ha..."

Being stared at by this cool beauty with her long pale-purple ponytail and suspicious amber eyes, Lin Lan could only laugh awkwardly and try to bluff his way through.

Back in the early days of the game, the developers had launched a co-op event—Essex-Class Special Drill.

In that event map, Essex was the boss, and she taught every player a painful lesson.

Firepower restriction release was a special mechanic enhancement she had on EX difficulty, unleashing barrages with such high damage that it practically wiped out 99% of players' frontlines.

The reason it wasn't a full 100% was because that 1% consisted of players using cheats.

Back then, the dev team was inexperienced. Not only was the difficulty too high, but getting sunk by Essex on EX would actually reduce your shipgirls' morale.

This led to massive player backlash, calling the event "wife-destroying hell," with overwhelmingly negative reviews and a large number of players quitting.

Fortunately, the devs admitted their mistakes and provided sincere compensation, and from then on, similar special drills no longer had those cruel morale penalties.

As an original launch player, Lin Lan had of course been brutally crushed by Essex's firepower restriction release—and he remembered it vividly.

That's exactly why, ever since Essex joined his port, Lin Lan would always joke about her slacking off during tough maps, saying she wasn't using her firepower restriction release to teach the Sirens a lesson.

Originally, Lin Lan had only meant to explain himself out of guilt—but unexpectedly, Essex took his words seriously. Her eyes widened, and she grabbed his arm excitedly.

"Re… really? That's what the Commander truly thought?"

"Ah… yeah, really. Totally. You totally impressed me during that drill."

Lin Lan didn't expect Essex to care so much about what he thought of her. But after a moment's thought, he realized he hadn't said anything wrong.

Being a sand sculpture was one of Essex's charms, and he had indeed been left with a strong impression of her from that event.

So he smiled confidently at Essex and said once more.

"The misunderstanding Essex had about the Commander is finally cleared up."

Maury chuckled from behind them and added:

"Even though you had a promise with Essex and bought her all those alternate outfits, she always seemed bothered by the things you said. Looks like it really was all just a misunderstanding."

Hearing Maury's words, Essex's blush—which had only just faded before they left—immediately returned.

She just tightly clung to Lin Lan's arm without saying a word.

Lin Lan sighed and gently patted her head.

He hadn't expected that something he did casually during the game could stick in Essex's heart for so long.

But really, it wasn't her fault. How could he ever truly be angry at his own shipgirls?

Click!

Just as Lin Lan's hand was still on Essex's head, a sharp shutter sound came from the bushes nearby.

"Guhaha~ This one's a real keeper! I gotta upload it to the group album later~"

Following the sound, Lin Lan looked over and, sure enough, saw Gridley's small head poking out of the bushes, cheerfully waving her camera.

He didn't mind—it was a touching moment worth capturing.

But Essex, who had just let go of his arm, now buried her face and stared coldly at Gridley. A chilling killing intent radiated from her body.

"Wa—wait, Essex, calm down!"

Lin Lan immediately realized what was about to happen and shouted in panic.

The next second, Essex's black carrier rig appeared beside her. She held a massive black crossbow and pointed it at Gridley.

"Gridley, delete the photo! Don't make me use firepower restriction release!"

Essex's voice trembled as she yelled, her face completely red.

Lin Lan froze—wasn't that thing only supposed to be used during drills?

"With the Commander and Enterprise-senpai here, I don't believe you'd really dare! Bleh~ heehee!"

But Gridley's smug and cheeky response made Lin Lan burst out laughing.

It turned out Gridley was absolutely right—when you've got backing, you can do anything, even as a reporter.

Especially with Essex's two nemeses—Enterprise and Lin Lan—right there beside her, Gridley had nothing to fear.

In the end, Essex gave up her resistance. She stowed away her rig, covered her face with both hands, and squatted on the ground in despair.

"Guhhh… Why does this always happen… I've completely lost face as an Essex-class…"

Lin Lan and Enterprise exchanged a knowing smile. Clearly, this wasn't the first or second time this had happened—they were all used to it by now.

And Gridley's arrival meant they were getting close to the Eagle Union destroyer dorm.

Sure enough, a group of Eagle Union destroyer chibis could already be seen up ahead, walking toward them.

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50 advanced chapters on p@t re on (.) com/SenatusTheta

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