"Does the Commander have any other abilities?"
Akashi's tone was full of curiosity.
"Yes!"
Su Luo controlled his consciousness again and touched another, slightly larger orb among the countless spheres of light within the Super Gene system.
"You ask for so much. I really can't refuse you, hehe."
A mature woman's voice, carrying a hint of indulgence, sounded by Su Luo's ear. Hearing Cloud Immortal's voice, Su Luo smiled and held out a finger.
A pale blue butterfly appeared on his fingertip.
Akashi looked at the butterfly and found it somewhat familiar.
"This is... Lady Cloud Immortal's..."
Su Luo nodded, confirming that Akashi's guess was correct.
Su Luo lowered his hand, and the butterfly left his fingertip and fluttered around him. Then, at Su Luo's command, it stopped circling him and flew toward Akashi opposite him. Akashi did not dodge. Trust in her Commander was carved into her bones. When the butterfly struck Akashi, it vanished, and Akashi felt her body stiffen. However, after she tried to break free, the sensation disappeared. At the same time, Su Luo felt a little more energy leave his body, though this time, it was far less than what had been consumed by the bombs thrown by the projection earlier.
"This is Lady Cloud Immortal's seal?"
Su Luo nodded without denying it. He was not surprised that Akashi had broken free so quickly. After all, he had not put much energy into that butterfly.
"For now, there are only two abilities. One is summoning everyone's projections, and the other is using abilities possessed by everyone, such as..."
As he spoke, Su Luo waved his hand. A bolt of lightning appeared in the distance and struck the woods, its thunder echoing through the valley. Several trees caught fire from the strike. Akashi had just been about to send Manjuu over to deal with it when Su Luo waved his hand again. Enormous hailstones fell from above the burning trees, thoroughly smashing out the not-so-large fire.
The lightning bolt that had appeared out of nowhere startled the girl again, even though Akashi had nearly finished comforting her. Seeing this, Su Luo gave the girl an apologetic smile. Then he reached out again, and a new butterfly appeared. Compared to the previous one, this butterfly was a darker shade of blue.
"This is Lady Shinano's..."
Su Luo nodded and had the butterfly fly toward the girl in Akashi's arms. The butterfly struck the girl and dispersed. The trembling girl suddenly felt sleepy and fell asleep in Akashi's embrace.
"Let her have a good dream."
Su Luo smiled at the girl, then gestured for Akashi to place her on the bed inside.
Akashi did as instructed. A while later, she came back out and continued discussing the abilities with Su Luo.
"Commander, can you use Lady Shinano's ability to construct dreams for that child?"
"For now, I can only influence them in simple ways. But TB told me that if this gene is upgraded, these abilities may become increasingly powerful. Taking Shinano's ability as an example, after an upgrade, interfering with dreams, altering them, or directly entering them may all become possible."
Akashi nodded without saying anything. After all, Lady Shinano could do those things too. It was nothing particularly unusual.
"Those abilities you used just now... The first projection you summoned was Nagato, then Lady Cloud Immortal, and that lightning bolt was probably Lady Musashi. That ice should have belonged to someone from the Northern Union..."
"The Alliance's!"
As Akashi listened to Su Luo, the image of the white-haired, cool-tempered agent-like older sister from the Northern Union appeared in her mind. She nodded.
"Just now, you also used Lady Shinano's ability."
Akashi thought back on it. These ship girls were all her Commander's married ship girls!
Moreover, they all basically matched the preference she had asked about earlier! Ahem, Miss Nagato was the exception.
Still, even if Miss Nagato's figure could not compare to the others, she remained the one most doted upon by the Commander in the port.
Akashi seemed to have heard why that was.
There were rumors in the port that the Commander had once said in private that Miss Nagato was his childhood sweetheart, his wife who had endured hardship with him, and so on...
Akashi did not care about that now. What she cared about was this.
"Commander, are the only abilities you can draw upon those of your married ship girls?"
Akashi's question caught Su Luo off guard. After a moment, as though confirming something, he shook his head at her.
"No, I can use the abilities of other ship girls as well! It's just a little more troublesome."
"A little more troublesome?"
Akashi did not quite understand what Su Luo meant. Su Luo thought for a moment and decided to explain it to her with an analogy.
"Akashi, let me give you an analogy that might not be entirely accurate."
Akashi nodded. Her cat ears twitched as she prepared to listen to what Su Luo had to say next.
"Suppose my gene system is a computer, while the abilities of my married ship girls are software shortcuts all across the computer desktop. The moment I turn on the computer, I can find them at a glance, and I can easily open and use them."
"As for the abilities of other ship girls... they are like stu—cough, software hidden inside certain folders, with no idea where exactly those folders are tucked away on the computer. When I need to open that software, I first have to search for its location. Only after finding it can I run it!"
Su Luo glanced at Akashi. Seeing that she seemed not to have noticed what he had almost let slip while she was deep in thought, he relaxed slightly.
Just as Su Luo had expected, Akashi had not paid attention to it. After hearing his explanation, she nodded to show that she understood.
"So, married ship girls have a deeper connection with the Commander. Other ship girls are connected to the Commander too, but because the married ship girls' connections with the Commander are too deep, the connections between the Commander and other ship girls seem much weaker, right?"
Su Luo nodded. "More or less."
"So... is it because of the oath?"
Akashi thought about it but still did not quite understand. She decided to make a note of it and try researching it later.
"Commander, there is one more question now."
"What is it?"
"Can the projections you summon only be summoned one at a time?"
Su Luo gave it a try. Nagato's projection appeared again, accompanied by Shinano, Cloud Immortal, Frederick the Great, and two other ship girls, making six in total. Akashi took one look and saw that it was exactly one squad.
"For now, this is the limit."
"Commander, can they fight on their own?"
Akashi blinked, very interested in this question. After all, if the projections could not fight independently, the practical application of this ability would be greatly diminished.
After all, Su Luo could use all of the ship girls' abilities. Judging from Nagato's projection using her rigging to attack, it was merely a straightforward energy bombardment that only looked like a bomber dropping bombs. In other words, Su Luo was simply gathering the energy within his body into a ball, throwing it at a target, then detonating it. The effect was roughly the same as the attacks of his summoned projections. At most, it was somewhat deceptive.
Therefore, if these projections could not fight independently, there was hardly any point in summoning them.
As the Commander, Su Luo naturally understood what his ship girls were thinking. The moment Akashi asked the question, he had already guessed what she wanted to know.
"To be precise, they have combat instincts, but more detailed actions require commands. However, TB can assist in controlling them in battle!"
"If Navigator is offline, can her processing power handle it?"
"TB replied that one squad is not a problem. Any more than that, and she would need to connect to the mainframe!"
Before you continue