The Hungry Fortress Wants to Build a Battleship in Another World – World of Sandbox-Chapter 29Vol 3. : Ringo Recommends Researching the Destroyer Tree

“Let us develop a high-speed combat vessel.”

“What’s with the sudden suggestion?”

As Commander Eve was casually browsing the tech tree as usual, <Ringo> suddenly made the proposal.

“The current naval mainstay, the Alpha-Class Mark I, is designed for fuel efficiency and cruising stability. Although we’re currently finalizing the outfitting of the prototype cruiser for combat readiness, to be honest, the new cruiser design achieves far superior speeds.”

“...I see. So the destroyers, which are supposed to clear the path, are actually slower.”

“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. Resource availability has greatly improved, so I believe it is time to advance the tree decisively. Also, with direct microwave power transmission from the cruiser, we can increase thruster output. We should begin fleet operation trials centered around power-supply ships.”

The Alpha-Class destroyer series currently handles cargo ship escort and coastal patrol operations.

Originally powered by turbine engines running on jet fuel, all units had now been upgraded to hydrogen gas turbines.

However, compared to jet fuel or diesel, output remained a weakness.

As a result, the Alpha-Class’s cruising speed hovered around 40 km/h—frankly, slow.

“Given their role escorting cargo ships, the low speed hadn’t been an issue.”

“True. Cargo ships are slow no matter what. But modifying the Alpha-Class would reduce the number of escort ships... New builds?”

“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. Ultimately, yes. But to start with, we’ll designate one Alpha-Class as a testbed. We need to verify several elements: revised propulsion, microwave reception units, and so forth.”

“Okay. Then let’s go ahead with it. Once it’s ready, maybe I’ll dispatch it to that peninsula. I’d like a more efficient iron mine... They seem to be building a lot of ships there—maybe they have good mining operations.”

The peninsula in question was home to the nation that had annihilated the northern islands roughly a month after their dimensional transfer.

Its name: the Kingdom of Lepuitari.

They had once traded with Telek Port City, but with a drop in burnstone output, that trade had naturally died out.

The United Kingdom of Aphrasia, all things considered, was a country with neither resources nor industry.

“We’ll conduct a forced reconnaissance of the southern region of the northern continent in one week. The recon data should give us a fair idea of their national strength. Repeated passes should allow highly accurate information gathering, depending on their reactions.”

“With the LRF-1 Vulture, right? What about the Forest Kingdom of Levresta?”

“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. We will skip them this time. We do not want to provoke them unnecessarily and risk them discovering our oil field.”

Ideally, they would infiltrate insect-shaped bots for espionage.

But being the Forest Kingdom of Levresta, its people lived among the trees, making it difficult to deploy mother units.

Even if they attempted to infiltrate via the Aphrasia border, the area was outside power transmission range, and the bots would run out of battery before reaching the target.

Sending power drones too close to the border could tie <Paraiso> to the infamous airspace violation incident, so a cautious approach was mandatory.

From the sea side, access was blocked by desert, making approach impossible.

Deploying submarines through rivers was also impractical, as the water was too shallow—they’d be easily spotted.

And small subs couldn't be sent due to battery limitations.

All in all, diplomatic contact with the ambassador remained their sole avenue for intelligence gathering on Levresta.

“I wonder if other countries have anti-air capabilities too... I just can’t shake the image of elves being master archers.”

“Unknown, Commander Ma’am. That is why forced recon using the Vultures is essential. With surplus resources available, we can now afford bold tactics. We are capable of launching missions with acceptable loss tolerance.”

“Right... If there’s a nation with a developed steel industry, we might be able to negotiate imports...”

“Shall we occupy a promising iron mine?”

“We’re not doing that! I’m already biting my nails over the oil in the desert—taking a country’s core industrial resource? I’d need ten hearts just to survive the stress!”

“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. I was merely suggesting it. A playful joke.”

“It’s not playful, and it’s not funny! ...Well, sea-floor deposit mapping is progressing, and we’ve got plenty of methane hydrate. That’ll be enough for the next five years of shipbuilding, right?”

“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. We estimate triple the required resource volume. Ample for research and development as well.”

Now that they could produce resin from petroleum, seafloor platform construction had accelerated rapidly.

Steel alone posed rust issues, but plastics mitigated that to a certain extent.

While plastic wasn’t as strong as steel frames, components that didn’t require high strength could now be substituted with resin, conserving the limited steel supply.

For methane hydrate recovery—spread out across seafloors several hundred meters deep—the plan was to install lightweight resin-based modular structures at each target site, dismantle them after local mining was complete, and move them elsewhere.

If they were made of steel, weight would make relocation difficult. freeωebnovēl.c૦m

Using lightweight resin structures significantly cut down transfer costs.

“Getting cellulose was becoming a pain too, so the timing worked out perfectly.”

<Cellulose> had been mass-produced by <The Tree> using seaweed that grew in the surrounding waters.

Currently, the local seaweed population had been nearly exhausted.

They had initiated a number of resource regeneration efforts, but it would likely take years for recovery.

Just as they were scouting for a new harvest zone, they stumbled upon the oil field—a perfectly timed windfall.

“Cellulose has properties different from resin, so I’d like to continue production. I’m thinking of selecting fast-growing seaweeds or plants and setting up a mass production system.”

“Agreed. Cellulose seems to have better UV resistance than resin, so it’s worth considering.”

Well, UV degradation could be mitigated in many ways, and resin still had its uses.

That said, cellulose also suffered from UV degradation.

Ultimately, relying on a single resource type was risky, so while they still had breathing room, they needed to secure multiple production sources.

“Let’s build a large-scale marine plant for seaweed cultivation. A float-based structure will allow some resistance to storms. Since large-scale production will likely cause dramatic local environmental changes, we should opt for a completely closed system.”

“Huh, it’s better to keep it closed?”

“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. If the local ecosystem is altered, unforeseen issues may arise. Especially in this world, we must be vigilant for monster incursions.”

“...I see? Like, if this area becomes nutrient-rich and the food web grows, it could attract large predator species that feed on it... Makes sense.”

“We believe <The Tree>’s appearance on this reef has already had ripple effects on surrounding areas. With the seaweed beds harvested, the local biological distribution has changed significantly. Further environmental shifts are best avoided.”

“I see. Now that we’ve got resource breathing room, we can allocate some toward environmental maintenance. And this new tree that just got added is...”

The newly unlocked tech tree was Environmental Technology Development.

Advancing this tree would allow them to build closed-environment cultivation facilities, or even install a biotope within <The Tree>.

“A biotope, huh...”

Now that she thought about it, there wasn’t a single potted plant inside <The Tree>.

When was the last time she even touched a plant?

“...I can’t remember.”

Even thinking back to her life before arriving in this world, she couldn’t recall ever touching plants or animals.

She hadn’t questioned it at the time, but...

“I guess that’s... kind of unhealthy, maybe. Mentally, I mean.”

“...Commander Ma’am?”

“Ah—no, just thinking. I realized I have no memory of ever interacting with any plants or animals.”

Building a biotope, and playing there with her five android daughters...

She figured that didn’t sound too bad.

And so, she began issuing a new string of orders to <Ringo>.