Arknights: I'm Pretty Strong With Minecraft — Chapter 17

Chapter 17: MeetingYou're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.

“Anna, here are the apples. You handle the distribution.”

Ivan tossed the instruction over his shoulder. Without waiting for a response, he turned on his heel, gesturing for Zima and Rosa to follow him down the shadowed corridor toward an empty classroom.

The remaining students stared at his retreating back, a heavy, incredulous silence falling over the group. He had just casually handed over a stockpile of fresh food—resources valuable enough to trigger a bloodbath in this ruined city—to someone else to manage, as if it were nothing more than pocket lint.

The classroom door clicked shut, sealing out the murmurs of the starving students.

“Alright,” Ivan said, leaning back against a dusty desk. “Let’s discuss how we’ll retreat tomorrow.”

His casual tone dropped like a boulder into a stagnant pond.

“Tomorrow?” Zima and Rosa blurted out, their heads snapping up. Disbelief painted both their faces. This timeline was drastically shorter than anything they had anticipated.

Rosa’s brow furrowed. She quickly composed her features, slipping into her refined, rational cadence. “Mr. Ivan, isn’t launching an operation tomorrow entirely too rushed? We still require time to inventory our essential supplies and draft a detailed, secure route…”

Her diction was flawless, but the slight tremor in her voice betrayed the quiet panic bubbling beneath her aristocratic facade.

“Calamities don’t give you time to prepare.”

Ivan’s reply was concise and cold. It struck with the pragmatic edge of an icy dagger, cleanly slicing through all her polite excuses for delay.

The sheer weight of that truth settled over the room, suffocating the air.

Zima’s sharp, predatory gaze locked onto Ivan. She stepped forward, voicing the crucial question that had been gnawing at her mind since he arrived. “Why… why the hell are you helping us?”

In this scarred land, unprovoked charity was a death trap. It was infinitely more suspicious than outright malice.

Ivan didn’t flinch. He simply spread his hands, a dry smile touching his lips. “I am Ivan, an Operator from Rhodes Island. You should know Rhodes Island, right? We’re a rather unconventional pharmaceutical company.”

He paused, letting the name sink in. “Anyway, you don’t exactly have a buffet of other options right now, so how about coming back to Rhodes Island with me? At the very least, you can find relative safety and stable supplies there.”

Rosa and Zima exchanged a fleeting look. In that single, silent heartbeat, a complete conversation passed between them. Suspicion warred with desperate hope, but ultimately, the crushing reality of their predicament overshadowed everything else.

They gave a synchronized, reluctant nod.

“Very well. We understand,” Rosa responded on behalf of them both, her tone soft but carrying a newfound resolve.

“That’s settled then.” Ivan slapped his thighs and pushed off the desk, treating the grim survival pact as if they had just agreed on a casual outing rather than a life-or-death evacuation. “So now I’m your leader. I’m telling you upfront: you two need to go rest and get enough sleep. We prepare to depart the second it gets light tomorrow.”and support the real translator.Read at elysianreads.com This is a stolen translation. You're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.

Zima’s jaw tightened. She clearly had something else she wanted to say, but she swallowed the words, turning her head away.

As the two Ursus girls stood there, still mentally chewing on the sudden, terrifying reality of retreating tomorrow and trying to digest its implications, Ivan suddenly went entirely still. His posture stiffened. The light in his eyes glazed over, his focus plunging inward.

The next moment, his consciousness bypassed the physical laws of Terra, sinking deep into the blocky, infinite expanse of Minecraft.

‘Are you there? Him?’ Ivan called out into the digital void.

A thought responded in his mind, carrying a low hum of impatience yet also an unmistakable, ancient familiarity. ‘Why are you bothering me again, kid?”Hehe, nothing major,’ Ivan projected back, his mental tone dripping with casual curiosity.’I was just curious and wanted to ask you something. After you finished fighting Talulah, why haven’t any subsequent Calamities occurred? It’s a bit too abnormal.’Him fell silent. The pause stretched, heavy and deep.’Go look out the window,’ the entity finally commanded.

The abrupt instruction caught Ivan off guard, but a sharp spike of adrenaline instantly put him on high alert.

His consciousness snapped back to reality.

Under the slightly unnerved gazes of Zima and Rosa, who had clearly noticed his catatonic state, Ivan suddenly snapped to attention without offering a single word of explanation. Instead, he spun around and marched straight to the makeshift classroom’s window.

The glass was caked in thick layers of industrial grime and dried, acidic rain streaks, making it almost impossible to see outside. He didn’t hesitate, raising his sleeve and scrubbing violently at the pane until a small, clear circle appeared.

He pressed his face to the glass, his eyes eagerly sweeping the distant horizon. He expected to see the apocalyptic skyline he remembered—the earth torn apart and covered by massive, grotesque Originium crystals.

In an instant, the breath died in his throat.

Ivan’s pupils shrank to pinpricks, as if he had just witnessed something far more terrifying than the Calamity itself.

The jagged, protruding Originium crystals that had glowed with an ominous light in his memory… were gone. All of them. It was as if an invisible, all-powerful hand had simply wiped them from thin air, leaving not a single trace of the infection behind.

In their place stood pillars.

Countless, perfectly straight, towering columns pierced the grey, hazy sky. They were pitch-black, so dark they seemed to violently absorb whatever meager light existed in the dim ruins. They lacked any natural curvature, arranged without any discernible pattern, yet they radiated a chilling, absolute geometric order.

They densely blanketed the distant fields, stretching endlessly as far as the eye could see.

Ivan’s hand pressed flat against the cold glass.

“Is that…” he whispered, his voice cracking. “Obsidian…?”

He stared at the impossible, world-breaking landscape, a nervous laugh escaping his lips. “No, come on. This is just way too exaggerated, isn’t it?”You're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.