Reflecting on the pitfalls he encountered during his student days on Blue Star, Lin Lan couldn't help but marvel at how simple the methods of money-grabbing by the corporations in this other world still were.
He had already decided that, at this upcoming trade fair, he would give the navy people a little shock from Blue Star.
"By the way, Akashi, do you still have any vow rings for sale?"
After discussing the details of the lottery system with the little sly merchant and assigning Akashi to be fully responsible for its creation, Lin Lan asked.
"Well, we do have some, Commander, are you eyeing another girl... could it be?"
Akashi shook her little cat ears, and halfway through her sentence, she immediately realized who the Commander had his eyes on, looking at Lin Lan's face in surprise.
"Ahem, you don't need to say it, just knowing is enough."
Under Akashi's all-seeing gaze, Lin Lan's face turned red, lowering his voice.
After carrying Akashi back to the store from the beach, Lin Lan noticed that his training partner, Prinz Eugen, had already arrived and was chatting and laughing with Bismarck and Deutschland.
After changing into the enchanted armor from the teaching nation, he spent the afternoon sparring with Prinz Eugen.
Over the three days of sparring, he had become fairly proficient in using the skills and powers of the Hero.
Previously, he had a vast array of complex skills but couldn't properly coordinate them.
Now, he was able to skillfully combine the various skills and use the right one at the right time.
In addition to the Elemental Sword, he had also tried other weapons he could manifest, such as spears, daggers, battle axes, and scythes.
With the Hero's passive skill in weapon mastery, these weapons in his hands functioned as if they were wielded by a Weapon Master.
With various elemental enhancements and active elemental attack techniques, Lin Lan felt that he was several times stronger than when he first started sparring.
However, despite this, he still couldn't break through Prinz Eugen's absolute defense without summoning her ship parts.
"Let's call it a day, thanks for the effort, Eugen."
After removing his helmet, Lin Lan wiped the sweat from his forehead and smiled.
"Hehehe, Commander, you've improved a lot since the last few days," Prinz Eugen smiled gently, contrasting with Lin Lan's sweat-drenched appearance.
After stowing away her dual shields in her ship parts space, she slowly walked over.
"However, if you truly want to get stronger, you're still missing one important step."
Upon hearing the silver-haired, red-highlighted heavy cruiser girl's words, Lin Lan looked at Prinz Eugen with curiosity.
"What's the missing step?"
"The real combat filled with iron and blood... But if it comes to the point where the Commander has to fight for his life, then that's our failure, hmhmhm~"
Seeing the spoiled smile on Prinz Eugen's face, Lin Lan couldn't help but chuckle.
"That's true, but I can't always be as helpless as a chicken."
He was well aware that true strength comes from being forged in life-or-death battles.
The people who created the Hero system in the Ancient Liao Continent set the skill points as a threshold to encourage Heroes to hone their combat mentality through continuous battles with the Demon King's army.
Skills in the system were just supplementary rewards for the Hero's growth.
The ability to exchange skill points for skills showed that the Hero had undoubtedly undergone countless battles.
With the help of these skills, the Hero would steadily grow, becoming the strongest leader capable of defeating the Demon King.
And those creators of the Ancient Liao Continent probably never imagined that the second Hero would be someone like Lin Lan, who could simply unlock all the skills right from the start with his cheat-like crossover abilities.
However, for Lin Lan, being a Hero was just his side job.
His main job was still as the commander of the port area, and most of the time, battles didn't require his personal involvement.
Though Prinz Eugen had pointed out that Lin Lan indeed needed real combat to improve himself, it didn't mean he was going to abandon his daily sparring practice.
Right now, he just needed to hone his basics, as there would always be a time when his Heroic power would come in handy.
After all, this was an alternate world where normal logic didn't apply.
Previously, there had been strange Demon King army leaders who could possess spiritual realms, and just last time, he had encountered a powerful Natlan Extremist Assassin in the Mirror Sea Domain.
It would never hurt to improve his abilities.
With the help of Akashi and Sui Qiong, Lin Lan quickly removed his enchanted armor.
Looking at the silver armor being stowed away by Akashi, he had originally thought that the enchantment on the armor would require him to use a wisdom cube every day to activate it.
But to his surprise, since the first time he used the mental cube to activate it, the magic had continued to function until today.
Bismarck, who had been watching the sparring, approached at that moment and said seriously to Lin Lan:
"Commander, the weather is getting colder, and you're sweating a lot, it's easy to catch a cold. You should go back to the office tower and change your clothes."
Hearing Bismarck's caring words, Lin Lan looked up at the sky.
It was only 5:30 PM, but the sky was already bathed in an orange hue, and the temperature, no longer warmed by direct sunlight, had indeed dropped compared to the afternoon.
The sunset was beautiful, but it was close to dusk, and the sky would soon be dark.
"Lowly creatures' bodies are so fragile, sigh~"
Deutschland also came out of the shop. Upon hearing Bismarck's words, she smiled disdainfully, patted Lin Lan's back, and teased him with a grin.
While Lin Lan was sparring with Prinz Eugen, she had already repaired the workshop and shop with the help of the summoned Manjuu and Muscle Cat.
Lin Lan glanced at the shop, which was basically as good as new, and couldn't help but be impressed by the efficiency of Manjuu and Muscle Cat.
Perhaps only with the strong logistics support from Manjuu could his port area withstand the chaos caused by some mischievous children.
"Indeed, I should go back and take a shower and change clothes. Bismarck, why don't you take Sui Qiong and go to the cafeteria with them first?"
Considering that it would take a while before he could return, Lin Lan looked at Bismarck and Sui Qiong.
"I'm not hungry yet."
"Neither am I."
Receiving the responses he expected, Lin Lan shrugged and smiled.
"Well then, let's head back together."
After bidding farewell to Prinz Eugen, Deutschland, and Akashi, the three of them made their way to the office tower.
Along the way, Lin Lan encountered many of the Ironblood ship girls.
But no matter which Ironblood ship girl he encountered, after greeting him, they would look at him with meaningful gazes.
If it were just one or two, it wouldn't matter, but soon Lin Lan realized that almost every Ironblood ship girl he met, whether it was the little Z23 or the light cruiser girl Mainz, would look at him like that.
It wasn't until he met Ulrich and Count Zeppelin, who greeted him and gave him the same meaningful look, that Lin Lan became almost certain that his Ironblood ship girls were hiding something from him.
So, after entering the yard of the office tower, Lin Lan immediately turned to Bismarck, who had a calm expression, and asked seriously:
"Bismarck, I've noticed something."
"Yes, Commander, please speak."
Bismarck, seeing Lin Lan's expression, already had an idea of what he might ask, organizing her thoughts.
"Do I smell bad from all the sweat?"
"Yes, they already know that the Commander is going to... huh?"
Bismarck stopped mid-sentence, and Lin Lan stared at her in confusion.
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50 advanced chapters on p@t re on (.) com/SenatusTheta
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