Arknights: I'm Pretty Strong With Minecraft — Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Paper CutterYou'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.

Active Originium dust is the primary catalyst for Catastrophes.

Essentially, the devastating environmental disasters are triggered when high-density Oripathy crystal micro-dust accumulates in the atmosphere. These concentrated crystals act like a magnet, drawing in even more ambient dust and exponentially increasing the localized Originium density until a Catastrophe inevitably erupts.

The sudden placement of obsidian blocks had temporarily disrupted this ambient flow, halting the immediate disaster. But it was only a band-aid solution; once the Originium density spiked to a critical threshold again, the Catastrophe would resume without mercy.

“We need to move. Fast,” Ivan muttered.

He turned around, taking a deep breath of the heavy, dust-choked air, and walked back over to Zima and Rosa. The two Ursus girls blinked, momentarily bewildered by his sudden movement, but quickly settled back down onto the rubble.

“So? How did the discussion go?” Ivan asked, keeping his tone light and even.

Zima exchanged a fleeting glance with Rosa. They seemed to have reached a silent consensus in that brief pause.

“Our answer is yes,” Zima said, her voice clipped and decisive. She had officially accepted the evacuation plan for tomorrow.

But then, Rosa lifted her head. Her azure eyes were clouded with a deep, lingering anxiety. She softly voiced the heaviest question in the room: “But what happens after we evacuate? Where do we actually… go? Rhodes Island?”

It wasn’t just about escaping the hellscape of Peterheim Middle School; it was a gamble concerning everyone’s entire future.

Ivan looked down at them, leaning casually against a fractured pillar. “That’s entirely up to you. You can try to track down your families, or you can choose to stay with Rhodes Island. Your call. But for today, just rest. Conserve your stamina. We roll out first thing tomorrow morning.”

Returning to the makeshift classroom base, Ivan laid out the preliminary extraction route to the rest of the survivors.

Surprisingly, the usual chorus of panicked objections and aristocratic whining never materialized. Perhaps handing out actual food earlier had bought him a sliver of genuine trust, or perhaps people drowning in despair were simply willing to grasp at any lifeline thrown their way. The Ursus civilians and nobles alike sat in absolute silence, occasionally exchanging exhausted glances, before finally nodding in quiet acquiescence.

With the briefing finished, Ivan turned around and reached into his seemingly bottomless pocket. With a flick of his wrist, he produced two perfectly round, unnaturally glossy red apples, unceremoniously shoving them directly into Zima and Rosa’s hands.

“You two definitely haven’t eaten a thing yet, have you?” His tone left zero room for argument. “Eat up, then get some sleep. You’re going to need your legs tomorrow.”

Next, Ivan pulled out the rest of the stacked apples and dumped them onto a relatively intact desk in the center of the room. Soon, a few more students hesitated, casting wary glances at the pile, before shuffling forward. They each took a couple of apples, whispered faint words of thanks, and retreated to their corners.

“Ugh… I can’t take another bite. Rada is completely stuffed…” a blonde girl groaned, clutching her stomach. “Even though I only had a little bit…”

Truth adjusted her glasses, her analytical mind struggling to process the anomaly. “I am experiencing the same phenomenon,” she noted, her voice laced with genuine confusion. “My caloric intake is far below the standard daily requirement, yet my hunger has been entirely eradicated.”

A rare, almost luxurious blanket of peace settled over the ruined classroom.

“Anyone else want seconds?” Ivan called out, sweeping his gaze across the room.

Heads shook in unison. Everyone was completely full.

“It’s just so weird…” a student muttered from the back. “It’s literally just an ordinary apple… why does it feel like I just ate a massive feast?”

Night eventually swallowed the ruins. The exhausted students curled up on the cold floor, their breathing evening out as they finally surrendered to a deep, dreamless sleep.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.

Ivan settled into his own corner. He was just about to close his eyes and boot his consciousness into the block world when a microscopic rustle of fabric caught his attention. He cracked an eye open. In the pale, fractured moonlight spilling through the shattered windows, a slender silhouette quietly stood up.

Moving with agonizing care, she tiptoed around the sleeping bodies, pushed the heavy door open just enough to slip through, and vanished into the hall.

Ivan rose to his feet, his footsteps completely silent, and tailed her like a shadow.

He spotted her at the very end of the desolate corridor. The girl stood with her back to him, framed by a blown-out window, the freezing moonlight washing over her trembling shoulders. In her right hand, she gripped a gleaming silver paper cutter. The sharp edge caught the lunar glow, shaking violently against her wrist.

Hearing the faint scuff of Ivan’s boot against the tile, Rosa flinched like a hunted deer. She shoved the blade into her coat pocket with frantic haste and spun around. A flawless, practiced smile instantly materialized on her face, though it looked sickly and brittle in the pale light.

“Mr. Ivan? Are you not resting yet?”

“Could ask you the same thing,” Ivan said, closing the distance at a slow, deliberate pace.

The second he was within range, Ivan’s hand blurred. It was a movement so fast it defied Terra’s physical laws. Rosa only felt a phantom breeze brush against her pocket. When she blinked, the cold metal of the paper cutter was already spinning between Ivan’s fingers.

Rosa froze. She just stared at him, her polite smile cracking like thin ice under heavy boots.

“What are you doing? Give it… please give it back to me.” Her voice trembled with a desperate, hidden plea.

Ivan let out a heavy sigh, his thumb tracing the flat side of the blade. “Dying doesn’t fix a damn thing, Miss Natalia.”

His voice was low, cutting straight through the frigid air. “Instead of bleeding out in some dark hallway for absolutely no reason, you’d be better off living. Try doing something to pull the others out of this hellhole. Who knows? Maybe joining Rhodes Island wouldn’t be such a bad gig for you.”

A microscopic spark ignited in Rosa’s dull azure eyes—a fleeting glimmer of hope. But it was quickly swallowed by the crushing weight of her own guilt and confusion.

“…I will consider it,” she murmured softly, dropping her gaze to the cracked floor tiles.

“Go get some actual sleep,” Ivan said, slipping the blade into his inventory. “I’ll be hanging onto this for the foreseeable future.”

Rosa gave a stiff nod. She turned and walked slowly back toward the classroom. Just as her hand touched the door handle, she paused, glancing back over her shoulder. She gave Ivan a long, unreadable look before disappearing inside.

Ivan leaned back against the freezing concrete wall, staring at the empty doorway.

Mental trauma was always the worst debuff to clear. He knew he couldn’t just patch up their psychological scars with a healing potion, but at the very least… he could build them a new foundation.

“I’m here this time,” he whispered to the empty, wind-swept corridor, the words carrying the weight of a solemn oath. “No matter what it takes, I hope… you all get a perfect ending this time.”

He stood there for a few more minutes, letting the biting night wind strip away the heavy tension in his chest, before finally heading back inside.

Finding an empty patch of floor against the back wall, Ivan sat down. Closing his eyes, his consciousness detached from the grim reality of Terra, plummeting straight into the infinite, pixelated expanse of the block world.

‘This time,’Ivan thought, the final coherent idea in his mind before the system fully engaged.’I really need to grind my ass off.’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.