Arknights: How Did I Actually Become the Doctor? — Chapter 62

Chapter 62: Provocation Maxed Out!

At the end of their clandestine meeting, after the terms of cooperation had been finalized, the Doctor pressed the issue one last time. “Muelsyse, are you absolutely certain you can’t remember where you acquired this USB drive?”

The Rhine Lab Director frowned, her delicate features twisting as she strained to dig into her own mind. “…I can’t. Whenever I try to focus on it, a splitting headache kicks in, followed by this awful sense of cognitive dissonance.”

The Doctor nodded slowly, his expression unreadable. “I see. It’s a form of encryption.”

A sudden surge of hope lit up Muelsyse’s eyes. “Encryption? Doctor, can you crack it?”

Taking a polite, apologetic half-step back, he offered her an awkward but perfectly measured smile. “It’s not a secret waiting to be cracked, Muelsyse. It’s a reminder.”

She blinked, the ambient temperature in the room seeming to drop as her intuition flared. “…What do you mean, a reminder?”

“Kyubey, go.”

A sinister, cat-like white creature materialized out of thin air, looking utterly helpless as it cast a casual, blank stare across the room. Muelsyse froze in place, her breath catching in her throat. “Are you so certain that I can perform this kind of ability too?”

“Headaches, memory loss—these are such obvious, heavy-handed demonic methods. Whoever set this up is just reminding me how to properly encrypt information,” the Doctor stated with absolute conviction. Inwardly, however, he felt entirely too guilty to meet Muelsyse’s gaze. After all, she was currently undergoing her second memory wipe right in front of him.

Beside him, Helsingzollern choked on a sudden breath. “Why… must you… always use this barbaric method… to transmit information?”

‘You’re asking me?!’the Doctor screamed in his mind.’Who the hell came up with this dirty trick of fooling an elf like she’s some kind of idiot! If I ever find out who set this precedent, they’re definitely going to pay for it!’

The perspective shifted back to the neon-lit grit of Kazimierz. Inside the lavish VIP room, the Commerce Union spokesperson sat stiffly on the velvet sofa, entirely alone and hopelessly outnumbered.

Behind the seated Doctor stood two neat rows of imposing figures. This was no longer a business negotiation; it was an execution of pure, unadulterated bullying.

The spokesperson was a Liberi. The Doctor watched with mild amusement as the poor man’s ear feathers puffed up bit by bit, standing on end from sheer terror until they exploded on top of his head like two fluffy buns.

The Doctor offered a perfectly pleasant, closed-eye smile.

The spokesperson stared back, his eyes wide and trembling, looking as though his soul was actively trying to escape his body.

The Doctor’s smile only grew warmer.

The spokesperson looked ready to weep blood. “W-What are you doing?!” he finally shrieked, his voice cracking under the crushing pressure of the room. “I’m warning you, this is the Commerce Union’s territory!”

Regrettably, right up until the very end, the Doctor didn’t actually do anything out of line. He merely stood up, leading his terrifying entourage to look down on the trembling Liberi before turning toward the door.

“You’ve got backbone,” the Doctor said, his voice dripping with cold, calculated disappointment. “Daring to reject my cooperation. Rejecting me. I will remember this disgrace.”

‘Hey, hey, hey, who’s insulting whom here?!’ the Doctor thought, sweating internally.

The poor Liberi spokesperson, completely surrounded by a wall of towering Kuranta and Lupo operators, was already subconsciously trembling, his mind entirely blank. Outside the VIP room, the Doctor had controlled the absolute pace of the conversation from the very first syllable. The spokesperson had been so thoroughly terrified that he hadn’t even realized his physical proposal document was missing.

After all, the Doctor hadn’t needed to reference it a single time.

Meanwhile, Sona, who had successfully stolen said proposal outside and was currently waiting in the shadows for the inevitable security alarms to blare, tilted her head in confusion.

‘Did I steal the wrong thing?’ the Flametail knight wondered, clutching the folder.

Caught in a moment of hesitation, Sona made up her mind and slipped quietly back toward the core area of the banquet hall. Just as she arrived, the heavy mahogany doors swung open, and a familiar voice drifted out into the corridor.

“…This disgrace, I will remember it.”

Then, the familiar young man walked out first, his posture rigid, followed closely by a group of fiercely intimidating individuals who flanked him as if they were escorting a high-profile prisoner to the gallows.

‘As expected, life isn’t easy for him either,’ Sona thought, her heart clenching.

She became even more convinced of her tragic assumptions about him. Her hand instinctively drifted to the hilt of her sword, a desperate urge to draw her blade and save him washing over her, but ultimately, she forced herself to stay hidden.

Even though the young man had clearly suffered immense grievances in that room, his face remained perfectly calm. To Sona, it was obvious: he was used to enduring such disgrace. Just like her, he had been forced to find a way to survive in the crushing cracks of this city. If she drew her sword now, it would be satisfying for a fleeting moment, but what about his future? Would she condemn him to live a life on the run, hunted like the Infected?

Wait. Sona’s eyes widened as she suddenly recognized two of the figures walking behind him.

The Radiant Knight and the Black Knight! She found it incredibly hard to believe. Had those legendary figures… also fallen from grace?

‘This clearly weak young man actually needs these two to escort him? Isn’t the Commerce Union just purely bullying him?!’The “bullied” Doctor, meanwhile, was busy running calculations in his head.’Hiss… according to the standard script, I should be about to get assassinated right now. Is there any better excuse to move in with someone than a threat on my life?’

And so, later that evening, beneath the crushing weight of a torrential Kazimierz downpour, the Commander—the elusive, idealized phantom from Młynar’s youth as a wandering ranger—knocked on a very specific door.

As the door creaked open, the Doctor pulled back his heavy, rain-soaked cloak, revealing a sheepish yet incredibly gentle smile to the golden-haired Kuranta standing in the entryway.

“Sorry,” the Doctor murmured, his voice soft against the roaring rain. “There was a bit of an accident tonight. It seems I can only trust you now.”

Młynar Nearl stood frozen in the doorway, the ambient light casting long shadows across his stunned face.

Młynar:…

‘Bloody hell,’the tired corporate slave thought, his mind short-circuiting.’Did I finally drink too much after working overtime?’