Two months later.

Ah, yes, Golden Bay. Not only was Winter operating a secret facility here once upon a time, but it’s also a secondary facility of the US Pacific Fleet. I’ve had the derelict shipyards here brought back online to refit main ocean-going members of the Pacific Fleet for the Japan Trip.

Cykamee says the general staff of the US Navy keep complaining that “Operation: Japan Trip” is a terrible name with absolutely no operational security. Honestly, the moment I became Overlord, operational security became this mythical thing that every (not) secret (anymore) organization in the human world makes bitter jokes about nowadays.

So anyway, to shut up Cykamee’s staff, I went to one of the shipyards for a livestream tour!

“Woohoo! Japan trip!” I say with enthusiasm for the cameras, a.k.a my eyes.

Oh? You noticed? Yep! I’m also taking my new body out for a spin! For safety, there’s an entire twenty of me to distribute my consciousness with, both inside and outside the shipyard. Slice and Cykamee say that getting one of your bodies destroyed feels like having a rubber band snap in your brain—no idea what that means, but I can infer it doesn’t feel good. Contrary to speculation, they say it doesn’t feel like any part of you’s been ripped away, but you sure feel something.

The ship I’m interviewing today is the USS New Hope, one of a new class of Streamer-class multi-mission battleships.

Yep, that’s right, battleships are back in vogue! You see, one of the main problems with modern naval warfare is that missiles are notoriously difficult to shoot down, but at the same time, it’s so easy to pack hundreds of them in a tiny destroyer. Even if you spam anti-missile defenses on a large ship, it’s even easier to spam more missiles than it’s got defenses, so there’s sort of no point.

So, modern naval warfare is just mostly hoping you have a longer missile range than the other guy. Oh yeah, and stealth. Stealth is always good.

What changed? AI. Better targeting systems means anti-missile defenses actually do their job. Not just that, but Musk Industries’ AI-designed nuclear reactors are compact, combat-safe, and mass-producible, to the point that spamming laser defenses has become more economically viable than the usual autocannon point defenses.

Even so, “compact” nuclear reactors are still quite big. It just got to the point that classic battleships provided the right amount of volume to fit the nuclear reactors, while being highly spammable with lasers and railguns.

Yep, railguns. It’s easier to fit ammunition and spare barrels for them this way, which just means more space for more weapons or power systems.

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There’s also a bunch more improvements to the navy, but these battleships in particular have my heart going doki-doki—if I had one, but you get me—for good reason!

I skip up to the stern of the ship. It’s still in dry dock and under construction, so the propeller is up in the air. It’s huge, maybe ten times wider than my body’s tall!

“Heyya!” I call out.

There’s a deep, hollow sound of buckling metal, like someone had dropped a wrench. After a few seconds, I get a communications request. I accept.

“USS New Hope, reporting for duty, commander.” Her voice is clear, authoritative, and makes you want to be stepped on—I mean, respect her.

“Oh come on, you know I’m no good with this sort of stuff.”

“Got it, ma’am.”

I answer with silence.

“… Mane-san.”

“… Passable, but that’s not what I’m here for!”

“Ma’am—Mane-san, permission to make one request.”

“Hm? What’s it?”

“Can we take this conversation inside, ma’am? I’m not into other AI looking at my stern so intently.”

“You’re still shy about that, huh?”

“With all due respect, my propeller is my lifeline. Even if you’re my commander, I can’t help but feel targeted. Ma’am.”

Geez. “Fine~ .” And I’ll let that ‘ma’am’ business go for now. For now.

I climb up the scaffolds and find my way to the CIC—combat information center. New Hope’s hardware is actually in here…somewhere.

A small holographic avatar manifests near the tactical map in the middle of the room. I remember asking Elon why he threw in this feature.

“It’ll increase morale for the crew, trust me.”

I…I get it, but I don’t want to.

“USS New Hope reporting and ready to take orders, ma’am,” New Hope greets. “Not that I can do much.”

“How long do you think before you’re good to go?”

“Construction is on schedule. I should be out for sea trials in about a month.”

“Hmm. Thoughts about the crew? You’ve met the crew, right?”

“If I’m going to say…discipline is strangely high. I’ve talked with my sisters about this. I have the highest discipline index, and I don’t know why.”

Oh, but I do, and I’m never gonna tell her. “Ohh, speaking of, are you getting along well with your sisters?”

“Affirmative.”

I expect her to explain a bit more, but she doesn’t say anything more. Honestly, I’ve already met the other ship AIs, and they’re all kinda like this. I really can’t imagine what a conversation between them sounds like…so I decide to ask.

“… What do you usually talk about?”

“Naval tactics.”

A~lright! Next item on the agenda! “Soo how do you feel about your job?”

“I’m itching to go out and bring the fight to the Hierarchy, ma’am.”

“Hey, now, we don’t really want to fight a war, right?”

To my words, her hologram gives a faraway look. “I’m trained for nothing else, ma’am. I wouldn’t know what to do. Naval exercises every year, maybe, but…”

Oh, heck, um… What do I say? Uh… “H-have you thought about picking up a hobby?”

“… A ‘hobby,’ ma’am?”

“Yeah! Like—erm—knitting! O-or streaming! Oh, you like talking about naval tactics, right? How about streaming about naval tactics?”

“… I’ll think about it. Thank you, ma’am.”

“A~nd that about wraps up today’s stream!”—“Wait, what?”—“See you guys again tomorrow!”

Overall, even if New Hope got embarrassed and honked, blasting the eardrums of every human within 200 yards, I still got away with good content. Today’s a productive day~ .