Demon Squad

Akashi immediately materialized her ship equipment after Su Luo pulled her over.

Looking at the ugly monster not far away, eyeing her and her Commander menacingly, and the vaguely visible health bar above its head, Akashi had a rough idea of what this thing was.

"Commander, stand behind me... This thing is probably a game monster generated by the Game Maker, nya!"

Akashi's tone was somewhat serious. She wasn't worried for herself, but mostly for her Commander's safety since he was right beside her.

As a repair ship, she didn't have a main cannon. The only offensive capability of her ship equipment was her anti-air guns, so she had to be cautious.

It wasn't impossible to consider laying her anti-air guns flat to attack ground targets, but the problem was... this monster was too close! With the anti-air guns... at this distance... the Commander would definitely be caught in the crossfire!

"Beep~ Beep~"

As Akashi was contemplating how to kill the monster in front of her while protecting her Commander, the Game Maker she was holding in her hand beeped.

"Armament system activated!"

Several words appeared on the Game Maker's screen. The next moment, Su Luo and Akashi's bodies were enveloped in a beam of light. Then the light vanished, revealing Su Luo and Akashi who looked exactly the same as before.

"What is this?"

Su Luo stood behind Akashi, sensing the changes in himself.

"Akashi... I feel... like I've gotten a bit stronger! And I feel really comfortable all over! My back doesn't ache as much anymore... How do you feel?"

"I feel something, nya! It seems I've gained some other abilities, nya! But that's not important right now, the important thing is to take down this monster first, nya!"

Akashi pondered for a long time before finally making a decision. While repairing Lala's Game Maker, she had taken the opportunity to study it. The Game Maker itself operated on a dynamic balance mechanism: the stronger the player, the stronger the monster. However, the monsters would not be overwhelmingly stronger than the players; they would always be within the players' capabilities to defeat. After all, this was an instrument Lala intended for playing with her friends, not a Game Maker for killing people.

"Commander, please be ready. I'm going to attack that monster. Commander, please be careful not to be ambushed!"

After receiving a positive reply from Su Luo, Akashi handed the Game Maker to him, then crouched down, clenched her fist, and struck at the monster not far away.

Perhaps because the Game Maker deemed it to be the early stage of the game, still in the phase of players getting accustomed to their abilities, the monster didn't dodge. Instead, it stood frozen in place, only to be knocked down by Akashi's powerful jump punch. Empowered by her ship equipment, Akashi's punch directly pierced the monster's chest, causing the ground to shake violently a few times. The illusory health bar above the monster's head was instantly depleted.

The already-killed monster phased out and disappeared, along with the blood that had splashed out from its chest when Akashi pierced it. All that remained in its place was a large crater created by Akashi's punch and an energy stone emitting a strange glow.

Akashi picked up the energy stone and quickly walked over to Su Luo, handing it to him. Then, she took the Game Maker back from Su Luo and rapidly tapped on its screen. After a moment, Akashi let out a sigh of relief.

"Alright, Commander, I've paused the game, nya!"

She casually put the Game Maker into her ship equipment's cargo hold, then took the energy stone from Su Luo and put it back into her cargo hold as well, alongside the Game Maker.

Akashi looked at Su Luo, who was waiting for an explanation, and slowly began to speak.

"Commander, I'll give you the conclusion first."

"Because the Game Maker has already been repaired by me, it's not the unfinished semi-product Miss Lala used. Therefore, even though we've been brought to another world, we can actually control, pause, and even stop this game using the Super Game Maker, nya!"

"When you say stop, you mean we can leave this world and return to the port at any time?"

Su Luo caught the key point in Akashi's words.

"No, the remaining energy in the Game Maker isn't enough for us to return directly to the port, nya! It needs to be replenished! Which means..."

Akashi shook her head and took out the energy stone that had just dropped.

"We need to collect these energy stones dropped by monsters to replenish the Super Game Maker's energy, nya."

Su Luo nodded, looking at the energy stone in Akashi's hand, then at the large crater Akashi had just punched. He spoke, "So... we have to play this game?"

Akashi shook her head again.

"No, Commander, I haven't finished speaking, nya!"

Akashi casually took out a Mind Cube from her cargo hold, causing Su Luo's eyebrows to twitch.

Seeing Su Luo's expression, Akashi took a small step back.

"Commander, this Mind Cube belongs to Akashi, nya! If Commander wants it, he'll have to exchange it with Red Gems!"

Su Luo let out a breath and shook his head at Akashi, indicating he wasn't buying anything right now.

"Don't get sidetracked, and don't use this as a sales pitch, Akashi. Continue with what you were saying!"

"Understood, nya!"

Akashi walked back and continued to explain her idea to Su Luo.

"The Mind Cube is not only the core of a ship girl, but also the source of a ship girl's energy supply!"

"So, you want to use a Mind Cube to recharge the Super Game Maker?"

Akashi nodded, her expression showing agreement with Su Luo.

"That's right, nya! Although the energy form within the cube and the energy form within the crystal are different, Akashi can create corresponding equipment to convert the cube's energy into crystal energy, nya!"

"Once the Super Game Maker's energy is replenished, we can directly stop the game and return to the port, nya!"

"For Commander's safety, Akashi suggests we find a place to live first and gather some resources to build the energy conversion machine, nya. Once Akashi has finished building the equipment, we can return to the port, nya!"

Su Luo listened to Akashi's words and didn't object.

He knew his own physical condition. Although this game had made his back stop hurting and his legs stop aching, and this game clearly required close-quarters combat, he didn't have the strength to punch craters into the ground like Akashi did. Furthermore, the fact that he had no combat experience was also undeniable!

There was no need to relax his safety considerations for the sake of temporary excitement. After all, Su Luo believed that his ship girls were all waiting for him to return!

"Then let's find a place to live first!"

Seeing Akashi waiting for his decision, Su Luo made his choice.

"First, we need to confirm where we are, after all, we know nothing about this world! Also, that game production machine just now seemed to have granted me some special abilities. Once we find a place to live, we'll research it. If it's interesting, when we return to the port, Akashi, you can consider developing it too!"

Secretly revealing his little thoughts, Su Luo then turned his body towards the direction he saw when he first woke up, where smoke was drifting.

"I remember that direction..."

Su Luo stared at the scene in the distance, which could no longer be called smoke but thick black smoke, and was stunned.

"Akashi, is that... on fire over there?"

Upon hearing this, Akashi looked in the direction Su Luo pointed. Billowing black smoke met her eyes. As a ship girl, Akashi's eyesight was better than Su Luo's. Behind the thick smoke, she vaguely saw an ugly, humanoid monster, completely black and flapping its wings...

That thing... resembled the image of a demon recorded in the texts Akashi had previously flipped through when she wanted to promote her goods to Iron Blood and maintain relations with the church's ship girls... the image of a demon!

However, compared to the image recorded in the books, it was much more ferocious and uglier than that thing flying in the sky with what looked like bat wings!

Akashi narrowed her eyes. She didn't see a health bar above the monster's head like the one that had suddenly appeared earlier, and she had already stopped the game. So...

"Is it a monster that exists in this world, nya?"