"Exactly."
Lynn nodded.
"In fact, it's more than that. To be precise, as a ship spirit, Xiao Ai's body is the ship itself. And just like a human can control their limbs, she can treat all the ship's attached functions as extensions of herself."
"For example, the underwater propellers. Xiao Ai can't make the ship move out of thin air, but she can bypass the engine and transmission system, directly controlling the propellers to generate thrust. That's why we don't hear any noise."
"Of course, anything that isn't part of the ship itself doesn't count."
"Take that ballista, for instance. Since it's mounted on the ship, it counts as part of her body. But the ammunition doesn't—unless we modify the ship further to include an automatic loading system. Even then, someone would still need to replenish the ammo."
"However…"
At this point, Lynn's expression turned a little strange.
"It seems she felt that having 'useless organs' on her body wasn't acceptable, so she… evolved a bit on her own. In short, that ballista no longer requires physical ammunition—it can now generate energy projectiles and fire them."
"Unfortunately, only she can control that function. If a person tries to operate it directly, it's still just a normal ballista."
"And then there's the energy issue. She can absorb elemental energy from the environment to sustain herself, and even store some to power the ship. The speed isn't very fast, but she's not picky—she can even absorb elemental crystals. I just gave her two small pieces of solid phlogiston, and she handled them just fine."
"All in all… she's pretty easy to maintain."
After finishing his explanation in one go, Lynn took a sip of water and resumed eating.
He had barely eaten earlier—just enough to get his appetite going. Now he was properly hungry.
As for how this ship spirit came into being…
Even Lynn himself hadn't fully figured it out.
There had been a fair bit of coincidence involved.
His original goal wasn't this at all—he had actually wanted to try creating a ship girl.
In another world, he would never have attempted something like that casually.
Because when he became "Heaven's Will," an instinct made him understand just how dangerous "rule conflicts" could be.
In other words, while he could mess around using his world projection, once he withdrew it and returned control to the original world's rules, anything left behind had to conform to those rules.
Otherwise?
The rejection he experienced before would be the least of his worries.
In severe cases, the world's governing laws could directly erase the anomaly—and worse, trace it back to him.
But here, it didn't matter as much.
First, he had Teyvat's planetary will covering for him. Though it had fallen into slumber, its concealment mechanisms were still functioning, and Lynn had a rough idea of where the red lines were—as long as he didn't push his luck, he'd be fine.
Second…
This world's inherent "diversity" was absurdly high.
That was the polite way to put it.
The less polite version?
This world was a chaotic mess.
Everything—from fantasy to mysticism to all sorts of bizarre elements—was thrown together, then loosely wrapped in a layer of sci-fi explanation.
Its rules were ridiculously accommodating.
And ship girls? That counted as sci-fi, right?
Not to mention, he had planned to adapt the concept using local elements. After all, he didn't have things like cognitive cubes, and his newly born world didn't have enough origin energy to create something entirely from nothing.
So in the end…
Not surprisingly—but also quite reasonably—
He failed.
But not completely.
Realizing things weren't working out, Lynn decisively pulled back, preserved what he could, and settled for a downgraded version.
Thus, this "extreme budget ship girl" was born.
Fortunately, it was enough.
Lynn wasn't disappointed.
After all, everything else had just been a bonus—the real goal was getting a self-operating vehicle.
Originally, he had planned to call it a "ship spirit," but it didn't sound quite right, so he added an extra word.
Now it was "ship spirit."
Looking at it now, while it hadn't exceeded his expectations, it had produced some unexpected effects.
Lynn felt somewhat satisfied.
'Right… this thing's intelligence might actually be able to evolve? It doesn't seem fully locked.'
'Worth keeping an eye on. If it develops well, it might even serve as a bodyguard for Aveline.'
'No rush, though. As a Fontaine native, her issue with Primordial Seawater has already been casually resolved by me.'
'With her strength, and given that she prefers focusing on cooking rather than getting into trouble, people like Vacher won't go out of their way to target her like they did with the Traveler and Navia.'
'So for now, she doesn't really need protection in Fontaine.'
'Once I deal with Vacher and build up my own foundation, things will stabilize even more…'
'It'd be ideal if I could also track down that Monika and deal with her too. Just not sure where she is right now.'
While eating, Lynn quietly sorted through his next steps.
What?
You're wondering how he solved Fontaine people's fear of Primordial Seawater?
Without the Hydro Dragon's authority, World Modulation works just as well.
It's just not scalable.
After all, this kind of thing was something that was "technically possible."
The Hydro Dragon's authority absolving sins was the proper method—no matter how much was done, it followed the rules.
What Lynn did, however, was essentially exploiting a loophole.
Do it too many times, and just like the planetary will feared, it would exceed the concealment threshold and draw attention again.