Chapter 36: Arrival

"What, an aircraft carrier?"

Tang Yi woke up and realized he might not have been fully awake.

"The 27,000-ton Hornet, an eight-level gold coin ship?!"

Tang Yi opened his mouth in disbelief, and only after a long while did he believe the commander had struck it lucky.

An eight-level gold coin aircraft carrier was utterly out of reach for a shipyard still at the first level.

Even a silver coin aircraft carrier in the tech tree cost at least several million silver coins per ship, yet this one came out of a crate?

"Boss, rest for a few days after going ashore. Stay in the shipyard and don't go out."

"What's wrong?"

"I'm afraid your bad luck will rebound, and going out will bring bloodshed."

"..."

After exchanging a few jokes, Tang Yi paced back and forth, his face filled with an uncontrollable smile.

After saying "Good, good" several times in a row, Tang Yi looked up joyfully and said:

"Then we can start selecting the ship berth location. I don't know where around here would be suitable."

Tang Wen was stunned:

"Ship berth?"

"Yes, docking the Hornet requires a ship berth."

"Are you saying we have to build a port to dock an aircraft carrier?"

Tang Wen waved his hand and said:

"I'm not using it now, so why take it out?"

Tang Yi was somewhat helpless and pointed upward:

"Commander, you should check the warehouse."

Tang Wen then opened the panel in his mind, and only after entering the warehouse did he find a line of text beneath the Hornet:

【Insufficient ship berths, automatic purchase of ship berth failed (insufficient gold coins, short by 200)】

【Insufficient warehouse space, please extract the warship within 24 hours】

"Commander, the warehouse cannot store warships. You must build a port to obtain ship berths."

"The exclusive port for World of Warships is different from ports in the outside world. A port belonging to the shipyard is a special structure.

The port and the shipyard both belong to the commander's safe zone. You can perceive everything happening within the safe zone, and the port can automatically repair warships and resist external attacks.

If you wish to conceal the existence of the aircraft carrier, you can build a closed ship berth."

Tang Yi then noticed that the construction function had been added to the system at some point, including the "Port" option.

Ports are divided into Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced levels; their most obvious function is repairing ships.

By consuming only electricity, it can directly restore a ship's health bar, equivalent to repair.

A Basic port restores 0.1% of the health bar per minute, an Intermediate port 0.5%, and an Advanced port reaches 1%.

This also means that as long as the health bar isn't completely depleted, even if only 1 point remains, staying in the port for a while will restore it to full.

Truly... terrifying.

At this moment, the Y1 yacht was nearing the shore, and Tang Wen could already see his own shipyard.

He selected "Add Port" in his mind, and an overhead view similar to upgrading the shipyard immediately appeared, allowing him to choose a location on the map to build the port.

The scale of the port can be flexibly configured; a Basic port starts with a minimum of 5 ship berths, costing 1,000 silver coins.

Although it was painful, it was not beyond Tang Wen's current means.

Hmm, just a mere little under fifty thousand.

However, Tang Wen valued its ship-repair skill the most; with this thing, he would even dare to offer manufacturer warranty.

No matter where it broke, throw it into the port for a day, and when you take it out, it's a good ship again.

Just as he was pondering the port's placement, he suddenly remembered a question:

"Wait, ports require deep water, right? The Hornet's draft is at least seven or eight meters. Is there any place along the coast of Dawan Village with such conditions?"

Hearing Tang Wen's concern, Tang Yi laughed:

"Commander, that doesn't matter. We just need to consider where it's convenient to build."

Tang Wen instantly understood that GAIJIN's power would be at work again, nodded, and said no more.

While the two were discussing, the yacht had arrived at the shipyard and, following the opened lock, sailed into the dry dock.

Tang Wen jumped off the boat, and the first thing he saw were several bullet holes from 12.7mm bullets on the hull.

"Remove the engine. The rest... can be discarded."

Although conditions at this time wouldn't allow for any investigation, Tang Wen still preferred to be cautious.

The V8 motor was almost brand new; removing it would still be useful, while the hull could simply be recycled for steel.

From now on, this matter would become an eternal mystery. The participants left no trace at all. The Taiwan Coast Guard had no idea of the "pirates'" true identity, let alone their true purpose.

Eight thousand tons of steel would be enough to cover consumption for a long time, and as for the future, there would be ways to try reaching even more distant shipwrecks.

After the motor and other supplies were unloaded from the Y1 yacht, Tang Wen extended his hand, and under everyone's gaze, the Y1, which had sailed for less than 24 hours, melted away into the air like snowflakes.

【Recovery successful: 52 tons of steel stored in the warehouse】

After the yacht disappeared, Tang Wen felt somewhat empty inside; actually, having a ship felt quite nice.

He then thought of the Hornet in the warehouse and immediately discussed with Tang Yi where to place the port.

"Right beside us would be very good."

Tang Yi pointed to the bay on the south side of the shipyard, where there was a small hill.

Facing the sea, it formed a C-shaped inward curve, a quite excellent sheltered area.

Of course, the seawater in the bay is very shallow now, with a maximum depth of only two or three meters; under normal circumstances, transforming it into a large port would be a fool's dream, and the effort spent dredging mud would be better spent seeking another location.

But with the supreme force of the GAIJIN, these are all trivial problems.

Moreover, another benefit of the Nameless Bay is its concealed terrain, making it difficult to see the internal situation.

If some deliberate obstructions are added, unless it is close-range observation or aerial reconnaissance, it will be very difficult to see clearly what ships are inside.

However, the bay area is very small; if it is a large ship of the "Hornet" class, five berths would already divide the space completely clean.

Tang Wen and Tang Yi rode a truck to the top of the mountain at the Nameless Bay and confirmed it was uninhabited, with no one ever coming here under normal circumstances.

Tang Wen opened the port option in the panel and immediately chose to build a basic port.

His viewpoint rapidly rose, looking down at the shrinking earth as he began to select a point.

After selecting the bay, the shipyard layout began to automatically match the bay's terrain, and the five berths unfolded in a C-shaped layout.

【Build Primary Port, Silver Coins -1000】

After another dazzling flash, a layer of translucent arc-shaped light curtain immediately appeared inside the bay.

The soil and sand in the covered area seemed to be swallowed, melting away layer by layer, not even sparing the area below sea level.

With the support of the GAIJIN's great power, the terrain within nearly 200 meters from the bay to the open sea was altered; the average water depth changed from 1 to 10 meters to 18 meters, opening up a deep-water port channel that truly lived up to its name.

At the same time, layers of buildings materialized from the void, constructing upward layer by layer from the foundation.

The first to be completed were the five berths; five piers extended toward the exit, corresponding to five large berths capable of docking ships of over 100,000 tons.

While various buildings materialized, several tugboats also appeared simultaneously in the seawater, and facilities such as gantry cranes, warehouses, giant oil storage stations, and ammunition depots appeared on the port shore.

The central position of the C was a massive rest area for crew living, including hotels, restaurants, tennis halls, bars, and so on, still full of 1940s Pearl Harbor style, with many buildings decorated in white.

When the entire port was fully grounded, the staff maintaining necessary operations also began to walk around in the port, presenting a vivid scene of vitality.

Before Tang Wen could even appreciate it, the system detected the existence of the dry dock, and the Hornet was directly squeezed out and placed at berth number 1.

A carrier weighing fully over 20,000 tons suddenly appeared; the large ship, 228.6 meters long and 34.7 meters wide, almost immediately occupied the entire berth, swaying left and right in the seawater a few times before slowly rising and falling with the water surface.

On the sparkling sea surface, the deck of the Hornet was filled with carrier-based aircraft just like in the game, poised and ready toward the setting sun.