It seemed that York sensed the Commander's presence, as her body twisted, leaning closer into Wang Yu's embrace.
Wang Yu tightened his hold on York, trying to adjust her position to make her more comfortable.
He regretted not coming to see York's training sooner.
"Commander, York's hull damage is less than 5%, and her current state is determined to be exhausted. She will wake up soon, so you don't need to worry too much, Master," Gascogne said, her face stern, seeing Wang Yu's expression.
Wang Yu shook his head. He knew Gascogne was trying to comfort him and tell him not to worry.
He had indeed wanted York to grow faster before, as York was too curious and not the type to stay at home.
So, if he wanted to improve York's strength, equipment was easy. He still had a lot of equipment and tech boxes in his warehouse, and he could directly give York a full set of the best gear.
But there was nothing he could do about leveling up; it could only be improved through training and combat. However, he absolutely did not want her to grow quickly at the cost of harming York like this.
Glorious looked steadily at Wang Yu, feeling that the Commander had indeed changed a lot.
Although he was still the same person as before, neither his demeanor, appearance, nor temperament had changed.
But in some unintentional details, the change was astonishingly great.
The previous Commander would not have felt sorry for the Ship Girls' injuries sustained in battle.
He would only force those exhausted Ship Girls to sortie repeatedly until everyone reached their limit before stopping and replacing them.
It was like this for everyone, without exception.
Even Gascogne, who was widely considered his favorite, did not escape this treatment.
The Commander valued the strength of every Ship girl highly. When powerful companions joined the port, the Commander would eagerly equip them with the best gear and provide the best resting places.
All sorts of enhancements were readily available.
In short, everything was arranged in the best possible way.
They were even eagerly assigned by the Commander to various combat missions shortly after arriving at the port, and were even directly dispatched to very dangerous sea areas for tempering.
Those were battlefields considered very dangerous even for the established core Ship Girls of the port!
Every sortie was fraught with peril, and everyone returned to port with battle-scarred bodies.
But when they returned to port, the Commander would not have any other reaction, nor would he feel sorry for everyone's injuries. He would simply arrange their next sortie immediately after repairing their injuries.
This approach caused some resentment among everyone in the port. The number of sorties was so excessive that even some good-tempered Ship Girls rarely lost their temper with the Commander.
He often took weaker companions on sorties to gain experience, and for a period, he had lost his temper with the Commander because the Ship Girls he took out for battle were constantly severely injured.
Everyone understood the Commander's desire to quickly strengthen the port, but being directly sent to the most dangerous battlefields for practical training was simply too much.
Fortunately, none of the companions in the port suffered any fatal injuries in battle, otherwise everyone in the port would not have forgiven the Commander so easily.
"Commander, compared to training directly on the battlefield, the intensity of these daily trainings is nothing. York's minor injuries are not even worth mentioning."
"Compared to before, the Commander, in order to unleash Neptune's potential, directly had Neptune participate in operations in high-risk sea areas. Compared to Neptune, what is York's current situation? The Commander used to be so fond of Neptune and still endured it, so why can't he endure it now?"
Neptune... A distant memory, accompanied by Glorious's words, resurfaced in Wang Yu's mind.
It wasn't even too distant a memory, but he had almost forgotten it.
Neptune was a blueprint Ship in the first phase of research.
She was a top-tier blueprint Ship of the same class as Gascogne, but her ship type was a light cruiser, belonging to the Vanguard Fleet.
When the first phase of research first came out, the ship's stats were not as inflated, and every research Ship was like a god-like existence to the Commander, undeniably powerful, representing the ceiling of strength for each ship type.
Because of Neptune's 'Sea Goddess' skill effect, she could directly restore a certain percentage of her maximum HP when low on health, and the skill would trigger in every battle. Therefore, Wang Yu had always used Neptune as a damage-absorbing Ship.
Even when the blueprints were not fully collected and the blueprint Ship's full power could not be unleashed, Neptune's tankiness in the middle of the battle was visibly strong.
Therefore, after he obtained Neptune, he equipped her and immediately threw her into Chapter 9 for training. Because she took less damage when placed in the center of the team, she was actually able to level up directly in Chapter 9. A Level 1 Ship being able to directly clear Chapter 9 seemed absurd to Wang Yu at the time.
But now that he thought about it, making a Ship level up across maps with almost 100 levels difference, he was simply a devil.
So, although he was worried that York's strength was insufficient and her curiosity too great, and she was like him – weak but addicted – he chose to give her more training to accelerate her growth.
Although he had proposed this suggestion, the training process being so cruel was something he had never expected. If he hadn't noticed York's absence from playing these past few days, and suddenly had the impulse to check on York's training, he wouldn't have discovered what was happening.
"It's all my fault. I didn't consider it carefully before. I've changed my mind now. Let's revert to the original training plan. This kind of training can wait for later."
It's fine if her strength improves a little slower. He'll just put in a little more effort and keep her by his side when York isn't strong enough, to prevent her from encountering danger.
It would only take a little more effort from him.
To make things easier for himself, and to make York suffer like this, Wang Yu felt his conscience couldn't bear it.
"Determination: The Commander has no need to change the training plan!"
"Gascogne, do you also think this kind of training is reasonable?"
"We are ships, we are weapons. If we can't even perform the most basic combat, then any other definition beyond that will be meaningless," Gascogne responded as a matter of course.
"But Gascogne, it's not the same."
"In my eyes, you are not just ships, nor just weapons. You hold a more important, supreme meaning to me, far more important than being weapons for combat."
"You are all my most precious treasures."