English
Indonesia
Chinese (Simp)
Japanese
Korean
Spanish
Portuguese
French
German
ArabicArknights: I'm Pretty Strong With Minecraft — Chapter 40
Chapter 40: Target the Brain
“Skullshatterer… Skullshatterer! This is bad!” A breathless Reunion scout sprinted into the clearing, panic written all over his face.
Skullshatterer turned around, his masked face betraying no emotion. “What happened? Calm down.”
“Quick… we need to retreat! We’ve been exposed! Rhodes Island is here! There are so many of them, and they’ve already surrounded our perimeter!”
“What?!” Skullshatterer’s voice dropped into a dangerous, gravelly growl. “Those hypocritical bastards from Rhodes Island!” He gripped his grenade launcher tightly. “Notify everyone! All personnel, assemble and prepare for battle!”
Returning to the cramped, dimly lit hut where Misha was being temporarily housed, Skullshatterer began quickly checking his equipment. He loaded his munitions, making his final, grim preparations for the inevitable clash.
Misha watched his back from the corner of the room. She hesitated, her fingers twisting the fabric of her jacket, before finally speaking up. “Alex… do you really have to fight Rhodes Island? Maybe… maybe we can resolve this by just talking to them? Mr. Ivan and Amiya, they surely aren’t unreasonable people. They…”
“Wake up, Misha!” Skullshatterer snapped, cutting her off sharply. “I’ve told you time and time again. Rhodes Island are traitors to the Infected! What is there to discuss with people who willingly choose to cooperate with our oppressors?”
“But…” Misha pleaded, still wanting to argue for peace.
“No buts!” Skullshatterer turned around, his heavy hands coming down to rest firmly on her trembling shoulders. “Even if you refuse to believe in the Reunion Movement, at least… you have to believe in me. Everything I do is to ensure the Infected have a future, and to protect you.”
He turned away, stepping toward the door.
Suddenly, Misha rushed forward and threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly from behind. “Then you must… you must come back safely! Promise me, Alex!”
Skullshatterer’s rigid posture relaxed slightly. His voice softened as he gently placed a hand over hers. “I won’t leave you alone again. After this battle ends… we’ll go home together.”
“…Alex.”
Out in the dilapidated corridor, W was leisurely leaning against a cracked windowsill. She watched the gradually tightening encirclement of Rhodes Island operators outside, a playful, dangerous smile curling on her lips.
Seeing Skullshatterer emerge from the room, she spoke with a lazy drawl. “Yo~ Need a hand?”
Skullshatterer knew he couldn’t afford to let his pride dictate his actions right now. He looked at the Sarkaz mercenary and answered honestly. “Yes. I truly need your strength.”
“Hahahaha!” W burst into laughter, her body swaying as if she had just heard the funniest joke in all of Terra. “What an honest child~”
“The enemy is much stronger than we anticipated,” Skullshatterer said, his expression grave beneath his mask. “Even Talulah is having a very hard time dealing with that Ivan.”
“So…” He stared directly at W, his tone carrying absolute resolve. “Please, no matter what happens out there, help me protect Misha. That is my only request.”
“Emmm…” W tilted her head, tapping her chin as she put on an exaggerated expression of difficulty. “Even if you ask so nicely, I can’t beat that monster called Ivan~ The last time I fought him, I didn’t gain even a single sliver of an advantage~”
Her playful demeanor vanished for a split second, her voice dropping into a darker register. “If… if you guys accidentally fail, they will definitely hound Misha relentlessly. They will never let her go…”
Skullshatterer tightened his grip on his weapon. “So, as long as we succeed, that’s enough, right? But in terms of raw combat power, with that Ivan standing in our way, we have zero chance of winning a frontal assault.”
“Then do you have a better plan?”
“The guy who is always hovering around that Little Rabbit. The one wearing the heavy hood. You know who I mean?” W hinted, her eyes gleaming with malice.
“Is that… the one they call the Doctor?”
“Exactly~” W’s smile turned razor-sharp. “He is the enemy’s commander. The absolute brain behind Rhodes Island’s tactical operations~ As long as the ‘brain’ disappears, even the largest, most disciplined organization will fall into chaos and crumble.”
At that exact moment, the Doctor, who was busy coordinating the vanguard troops on the periphery of the battlefield, suddenly let out a massive sneeze. “Achoo! Who is talking behind my back again…”
Amiya, standing faithfully by his side, looked up with immediate concern. “Doctor, are you alright? I’ve noticed you have been sneezing quite a bit lately. You aren’t catching a cold, are you?”
The Doctor rubbed his nose beneath his visor. “It’s nothing, nothing at all. Maybe I just caught a slight chill from the wind…”
Despite his dismissive words, an inexplicable wave of unease washed over him. ‘Hiss… but why do I suddenly have such a terrible feeling about this…’
W continued outlining her strategy. “So, as long as we can take him out, Rhodes Island’s entire offensive will naturally collapse. And then, Misha will be perfectly safe.”
“But Ivan stays almost entirely inseparable from that Doctor,” Skullshatterer pointed out, identifying the most glaring flaw in the plan.
“That’s right~” W snapped her fingers with a sharp crack. “Don’t worry your head about that. I will work with my Sarkaz mercenary team to ‘slightly’ hold back that monster for you~ As for what you need to do…”
Skullshatterer’s eyes narrowed behind his mask as he fully grasped W’s lethal intent. “Understood. The primary target is Rhodes Island’s commander. The Doctor.”
Meanwhile, back at the Rhodes Island temporary command post.
“Hey, Ivan, come over here for a second,” the Doctor called out to the young man who was currently entirely engrossed in tapping away at his personal terminal.
“What do you want? Can’t you see I’m right in the middle of doing something incredibly important?” Ivan didn’t even bother to lift his head, his thumbs flying rapidly across the glowing screen.
The Doctor leaned over, peering over Ivan’s shoulder to look at the screen. “…Playing Snake counts as important business?”
“That is absolutely none of your business,” Ivan waved a hand impatiently, swatting at the air near the Doctor’s face. “What do you want me for, Prison Doctor?”
“What Prison Doctor?!” The Doctor almost jumped out of his boots in indignation. “How could you say something like that about your handsome and brilliant commander?”
“Please. You wear a heavy coat and a hood all day long. For all I know, you look like a mutated slug under there. Just spit out what you need.”
“Actually, it’s nothing major…” The Doctor coughed into his fist, suddenly looking a bit sheepish. “I just wanted to have you stand next to me… I feel a lot safer when you’re around.” His voice grew softer and softer, trailing off into a pathetic mumble.
Ivan didn’t even blink. “Get lost.”
Shoving his terminal into his pocket, Ivan turned on his heel and began walking away without a second glance.
“Hey, hey, hey! Don’t go!” The Doctor panicked, quickly reaching out to grab the back of Ivan’s shirt. “Come on~ Big Brother Ivan~ Please protect your weak, fragile, and pitiful commander~”
Upon hearing that shameless whining, Ivan’s steps only quickened. He practically broke into a sprint, swiftly putting as much distance between himself and the Doctor as physically possible, leaving the hooded tactician standing alone in the dirt, reaching out in vain toward his retreating back.