Chapter 58: The Scheming Merchant

"Don't worry, meow, purin is specifically for helping Super Rare Shipgirls break through, and once the breakthrough is complete, the shipgirls' attributes will grow a bit and they'll also gain various enhancements, meow." Mingshi explained to Qin Ge.

Qin Ge nodded; the shipgirl details earlier had indeed mentioned it. However, seeing a breakthrough for the first time still felt somewhat peculiar.

"Purin, so you're next?" purin said to Banrenma.

"Yes!" Banrenma immediately became nervous, not because of the breakthrough process itself, but because she was nervous about what abilities she would gain after breaking through.

Qin Ge also noticed this, so he patted Banrenma's shoulder and said, "It's fine, relax a bit, believe in yourself."

"Yes, Commander!" Banrenma nodded at Qin Ge, relaxed her body, and walked up to purin.

Just as with Nengdai's breakthrough earlier, when purin pulled out her two large drills from the blue vortex, Banrenma also successfully completed her breakthrough.

After completing her breakthrough, Banrenma closed her eyes to feel her growth, then happily told Qin Ge, "Commander, just like Nengdai senior, I feel my overall qualities have improved a bit, and now I can launch two torpedo planes at once, and my control over them has also increased a bit."

Qin Ge smiled and nodded, "Not bad, that means you can now launch four aircraft at once, right?"

Banrenma nodded, "Yes, two fighters and two torpedo planes."

"Not bad, that's a significant improvement." Qin Ge smiled and nodded, then turned to Mingshi and the Buri sisters and said, "Thank you all very much."

"No need to thank me, meow, after all you've already paid, meow." Mingshi said very directly.

"Just remember that purin-sama is the strongest!" purin exclaimed, shaking her two drills excitedly.

"Buli is the same!" Buli showed no weakness, shaking her large wrench.

"Then let's head out first; later we'll see what you need, meow." Mingshi led Qin Ge out of the room while saying that to him.

At that moment, Li Chenming, who was looking at the items on the shelf, saw Qin Ge come out and greeted him, "Qin Ge, how's it going? Have the shipgirls all broken through?"

Qin Ge nodded at him, "They've all broken through, gaining a considerable improvement."

"That's great, I don't know when my Z1 will be able to break through." Li Chenming said with some anticipation.

"Commander, believe that Z1-sama will be able to break through soon!" Z1 said full of ambition.

Qin Ge chuckled and said to Li Chenming, "Aren't you here to exchange supplies? Mingshi is right here; go tell her quickly."

"Yes!" Li Chenming nodded and said to Mingshi standing nearby, "Mingshi, I want to exchange 100 units of oil for supplies."

"Sure, meow, you can directly use your oil card at Unknown Fire to exchange, meow." Mingshi nodded and told Li Chenming.

"Okay." Li Chenming smiled and nodded, turned to Qin Ge and said, "Then you take a look first, Qin Ge, I'm going to exchange supplies."

"Hmm." Qin Ge responded.

Watching Li Chenming leave, Qin Ge tilted his head and asked Mingshi, "Mingshi, do you sell ship equipment here?"

"Ship equipment? I don't know what grade of ship equipment you want, Commander Qin Ge, meow?" Mingshi asked.

Qin Ge thought for a moment, "Preferably gold-colored ship equipment."

"Gold-colored ship equipment, meow?" Mingshi's eyes flashed with excitement.

Seeing Mingshi's gaze, Qin Ge couldn't help but shiver; he felt that Mingshi was no longer a cat-eared shipgirl but had suddenly turned into a hungry wolf.

"We have plenty of gold-colored ship equipment here, meow, ranging from small destroyer guns and torpedoes to large aircraft carrier planes and big guns, meow." Mingshi told Qin Ge.

"Um... we don't have use for destroyer guns yet, and we don't even have battleships, so I wanted to ask about light cruiser guns, as well as fighters or torpedo planes." Qin Ge said to Mingshi.

"Like that, meow." Mingshi blinked and led Qin Ge to the other side of the shelf.

"Here we have Sakura Empire's 155mm triple-mounted gun T3, Northern Union's B-38 triple-mounted 152mm main gun mk-5T3, and Sardinian Empire's triple-mounted 152mm main gun Model1934T3. Commander Qin Ge, which main gun would you like, meow?" Mingshi generally pointed at the main guns on the shelf while speaking to Qin Ge.

"Hmm, what's the price?" Qin Ge nodded at those ship cannons and asked Mingshi about his main concern.

"The Sakura Empire one costs 7000 units of supplies, the Northern Union one needs 10000 units of supplies, and the Sardinian Empire one needs 9000 units of supplies, meow." Mingshi said.

"Um... that's too expensive, right?" Qin Ge was somewhat startled by the price.

After all, this is just the price of the cannon; if you also count the materials and supplies needed for enhancement, it's basically a gold-devouring beast.

"This price isn't expensive at all; in fact, it's quite cheap, meow." Mingshi explained, "Because these equipment are all obtained from opening tech boxes, meow; one tech box costs 5000 units of supplies, and a tech box can yield many things, not necessarily the specific ship equipment you need, meow."

"Moreover, similar to these light cruiser main guns from the Northern Union and Sardinian Empire, I purchased them from their research units, meow; only their factions have them, other factions don't, so they're sold at a higher price, meow."

"But I don't have that many supplies right now." Qin Ge said somewhat embarrassedly.

The light in Mingshi's eyes suddenly dimmed, "Then there's nothing we can do, meow; otherwise you could buy some purple or blue ship equipment as a temporary measure, meow."

To be honest, if Qin Ge wanted to buy purple or blue ship equipment as a stopgap, he wouldn't be asking about gold, but he indeed wants to equip his shipgirl with a gold-colored ship equipment.

Suddenly he had an idea and said to Mingshi, "I wonder if you guys buy Wisdom Cubes here?"

"We do buy them, meow; the purchase price for one Wisdom Cube is 1000 units of supplies. I don't know how many Wisdom Cubes you want to sell, Commander Qin Ge, meow?" Mingshi's eyes lit up again as she spoke to Qin Ge.

At that moment, a voice suddenly came from the side, "Don't sell, she's buying it way too cheap!"

Qin Ge and Mingshi turned their heads toward the source of the sound, but their expressions differed—one was puzzled, the other somewhat annoyed.

At that moment, Li Chenming was standing beside the shelf with Z1, and if I'm not mistaken, the words just spoken were definitely his.