Azur Lane: Isekai'd with Maxed-Out Port

The party lasted late into the night. When it finally ended, Lin Lan naturally received invitations from many shipgirls.

However, taking everything into consideration, he decided it would be best to stay proper on his first day after waking up.

There would be plenty of time in the future—no need to rush things.

Besides, the proposal from the shipgirl Vestal helped him out. The cute repair ship nurse suggested he get a full-body checkup the next morning.

Although Lin Lan felt that there shouldn't be anything wrong with his body—after all, a Hero came with natural resistance to physical debuffs—he had been in Siren custody for several days. What if they had done something... unspeakable to him?

So he accepted Vestal's suggestion and promised to go for a checkup first thing in the morning.

In the meantime, his living arrangements were temporarily assigned by Little Enterprise to a spot in the mountains on the artificial island.

Even though the party was over, Lin Lan was successfully added to the group chat created by his Eagle Union shipgirls. From now on, he could contact any shipgirl at any time.

The messaging app itself was originally developed by the Orland United States, but it was obvious that his Eagle Union shipgirls had modified it into a custom version just for the Union.

As he saw the flurry of welcome messages flooding in after he was added to the group, Lin Lan couldn't help but smile.

Maybe when he returned to the old port, he could promote this app among the various factions in the port.

After exchanging a few typical newbie greetings in the group chat, he took a ride back up the mountain with Anchorage and Eldridge, with New Jersey driving.

While chatting with New Jersey in the car, he discovered that his phone could connect to the East Continent's network.

Then again, on second thought, it made perfect sense.

After all, this artificial island had once been the headquarters of the Goilia Conglomerate. 

And both Saratoga and New Jersey, along with the Manjus, handled the daily affairs of the conglomerate.

If there were no signal here, that would be strange.

As the cool night air washed over his face in the car, Lin Lan logged into his East Continent social media account for the first time in a long while.

Since the networks between the East and West Continents of Orland were not interconnected, Lin Lan hadn't been able to contact anyone except his classmates on the West Continent—like Luo Tao from Yalang City.

But most of his classmates were actually still on the East Continent.

To his surprise, Lin Lan found that his Orland account on the East Continent still held a fortune, just like on the West Continent.

Sure enough, the transaction records showed that two months ago, the Tianou Group had transferred a large sum into his account, along with a series of ZhuHai Business Association privilege verifications and so on.

That sly old man Jian Qian'ou—he was as meticulous as ever.

Most likely, now that Lin Lan had logged in, the Tianou Group's headquarters would quickly learn that he had returned to the East Continent.

But Lin Lan no longer cared much about the assets given to him by the Tianou Group. To him, those assets were merely icing on the cake.

Come on—New Jersey, the big sister laughing beside him as she drove, was now one of the top bosses of the Goilia Conglomerate, one of the five major conglomerates in Orland!

Little Enterprise was too, of course.

If he asked, anything the Tianou Group could give him, both Little Enterprise and New Jersey could provide as well—perhaps even more.

After logging in to his Orland social media account, Lin Lan saw that many of his classmates from the academy were online.

Soon, two classmates he had been especially close with—both of whom had once suffered under the Tianxing Conglomerate—were surprised to see him online and sent him messages.

Lin Lan told them that the West Continent Navy Department had sent him on a business trip to the East Continent, and that it wasn't convenient to talk too much.

After asking where they were currently working as intern commanders, he got a good idea of their situation and felt reassured.

The Tianxing Conglomerate had stopped persecuting them after they reported to the Navy Department.

However, the conglomerate continued to target students who hadn't yet graduated from Red Maple Naval Academy—and their methods were growing more extreme.

"Tianxing Conglomerate…"

Lin Lan turned off his phone and stared at the night scenery whizzing past, muttering the name in a deep voice.

"Honey, the way you said 'Tianxing Conglomerate' just now sounded pretty unpleasant. Do you have a grudge against them or something?"

New Jersey, driving beside him, had keen ears and asked curiously after hearing him murmur.

So Lin Lan gave her a brief summary of the grudge between him and the Tianxing Conglomerate since his arrival in Orland.

He had deliberately left out all the unpleasant stuff during the party—after all, when faced with worried shipgirls, of course he had to keep things positive.

"Tianxing Conglomerate—too much! Bully teacher! Bad people!"

Anchorage, sitting in the backseat, puffed up angrily on his behalf after hearing his story.

Eldridge didn't speak, but a hint of shadow crept into her red eyes.

"I can't believe that happened… Don't worry, Commander. We'll protect you. We'll make the Tianxing Conglomerate pay for what they did!"

Under the glow of the streetlights, Lin Lan noticed that New Jersey was gripping the steering wheel much tighter.

This usually cheerful bunny girl showed no mercy when it came to her enemies.

"Speaking of which, when I was in Ironblood, I heard that the Tianxing Conglomerate was selling counterfeit Wisdom Cubes. New Jersey, do you know anything about that?"

Seeking revenge on the Tianxing Conglomerate was something Lin Lan had to do before returning to the old port. 

He remembered hearing from Tian Ming, back at the East Continent Science Institute, that both Battleaxe Arms and the Tianou Group had been able to get large quantities of counterfeit Wisdom Cubes from Tianxing.

"Commander, both Sara and I know about that. We've long suspected that the Tianxing Conglomerate may have a shady partnership with the Sirens."

New Jersey's response came with unexpected weight, sending Lin Lan into deep thought.

"Tianxing Conglomerate… connected to the Sirens… It's actually very possible."

Until now, Lin Lan had assumed that the fake cubes came from intimidation or theft from East Continent naval ports.

But now, most port commanders on the East Continent were closely aligned with the Eagle Union and relied on their equipment.

How could they possibly hand over such crucial resources for building shipgirl pawns to Tianou?

As the wind from the mountain highway whipped across his face in the convertible, Lin Lan reached two possible conclusions.

Either someone high up in the East Continent's Navy Department had betrayed them and given Tianou the source of the counterfeit Wisdom Cubes.

Or the Tianxing Conglomerate was in direct collusion with the Sirens, who had given them the cubes.

And even if the first theory was true, the East Continent Navy Department's cube sources would still be tied to the Sirens.

Whether Wisdom Cubes or counterfeit ones, there's no way they're naturally occurring.

In the game's major battle archives, it's recorded that the scientists of the original world extracted energy cubes from meteors that fell from space.

After years of cube-energy revolutions, humans of the original world widely applied cube technology—eventually weaponizing it.

Wisdom Cubes were born under that background.

Which is why Lin Lan was so certain: every counterfeit Wisdom Cube in Orland came from the Sirens. 

No doubt about it.

"In the end… it's the Sirens behind all this… Just what are they trying to do?"

Lin Lan sighed. 

Back at Red Maple Naval Academy, Zhao Hesheng, the heir to the Tianxing Conglomerate, had launched multiple attacks on him and other students.

At first, Lin Lan had assumed it was because the ZhuHai Business Association wanted to compete with the Navy Department and suppress its future commanders.

But now, that explanation didn't hold water.

After all, there was no fundamental conflict between the Navy Department and the ZhuHai Association.

In Yunhai City, he had personally seen Li Hongjun, the spiritual leader of the West Continent Navy Department, attend a trade event hosted by the Tianou Group.

And just this morning, Bismarck had told him that the West Continent Navy Department had agreed to a future of co-development with the Tianou Group.

That was under the condition that Battleaxe Arms was gone and that the Tianou Group had fully submitted to Lin Lan.

Still, it showed there was no irreconcilable conflict between Orland's Navy Department and the ZhuHai Association.

Thinking it over, Lin Lan realized that—apart from the Tianxing Conglomerate—none of the other four major conglomerates had actively participated in persecuting the students of Red Maple Naval Academy.

Even Battleaxe Arms, which wanted total war across the West Continent, had done so only because Ye Zhanke believed he could conquer everything, even wipe out the Tianou Group.

So why was it that only the Tianxing Conglomerate was so actively targeting the Navy Department?

(*) I'm really really sorry for this one, but I have been mistranslating Tianou group and Tianxing Conglomerate thinking that it was the same…

The conglomerate is supposed to be Tianxing, instead of Tianou. Tianou is a group.

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

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