Arknights: I'm Pretty Strong With Minecraft — Chapter 46

Chapter 46: It’s Not a Bug, It’s a Feature!

Ivan forced himself to breathe, deliberately slowing his racing heart. Brute force was a dead end. He watched the digital phantom of Steve closely, his eyes tracking the subtle shifts in the projection’s pixelated stance, slowly adapting to the relentless rhythm of the attacks.

However, Ivan quickly discovered a deeply frustrating truth.

No matter how creatively he angled his strikes, probing for blind spots in the phantom’s guard, the heavy Blade of the God of War always materialized at the perfect frame. Sparks flew as his every offensive was flawlessly parried.

“Why…” Ivan gasped, his muscles burning as he felt a wave of powerlessness wash over him. “How is every single hit getting blocked? It’s like… it’s like he’s reading my inputs!”

Outside the arena’s boundary, the real Steve crossed his arms. “You’ve been relying almost entirely on my downloaded combat experience,” Steve called out, his voice steady and analytical. “That won’t work here. You need to forge your own rhythm. Build your own mindset on top of my foundation.”

“Don’t just blindly spam attacks,” Steve added. “Use your inventory. Create the weaknesses you can’t find.”

“My own rhythm… use items to create weaknesses…” Ivan muttered, the gears turning in his head as he grasped the core concept.

He exhaled sharply, adjusting his grip and realigning his posture. The projection charged again, a blur of lethal intent. This time, Ivan didn’t raise his sword to block. He didn’t backpedal.

Instead, he sprinted straight into the phantom’s attack range!

Mid-sprint, Ivan flicked his wrist. An Ender Pearl soared straight up into the digital sky. A split second later, he hurled a second pearl directly forward. Simultaneously, his empty left hand materialized a tiny oak sapling.

The projection’s blade cleaved the air where Ivan’s chest had just been.

Vwoop!

The forward Ender Pearl shattered against the ground. The void tore open, yanking Ivan through space and depositing him squarely at the projection’s flank, narrowly avoiding the fatal blow.

The phantom reacted with inhuman speed, instantly swapping to a fishing rod to hook and displace him. But Ivan’s APM was higher!

“Eat this!”

Ivan slammed a dirt block at his feet. He planted the sapling and immediately smashed a handful of bone meal over it!

Poof!

Wood and leaves exploded outward in a massive, instant canopy. The dense oak blocks swallowed both Ivan and the unsuspecting projection, burying them in a suffocating prison of foliage.

And right on cue—Snap!

The first Ender Pearl, the one Ivan had lobbed high into the air, finally hit the ground outside the tree.

Vwoop!

Ivan vanished from the leafy prison, reappearing safely at his original starting position.

“Flying Thunder God, stage two,” Ivan smirked.

Meanwhile, the projection was still stuck, its pathfinding utterly broken and its movements fatally delayed by the sudden block generation.

“Now’s the time!”

Ivan’s eyes flashed. He kicked off the ground, launching himself high into the air. He gripped his Blade of the God of War with both hands. The weapon flared with a blinding, golden-yellow aura, drawing in the ambient energy of the entire arena!

“Take this, you—insert Lungmen profanity here!”

Ivan roared, bringing the glowing blue blade crashing down onto the canopy!

Rumble—!!!

The shockwave shattered the leaf blocks into floating debris, shaking the very fabric of the space. The projection, unable to dodge, took the full force of the heavy strike. It shattered into a cloud of blue data streams, fading into nothingness.

“How was that?”

Ivan landed in a smooth crouch, panting heavily as the blade in his hands hummed with residual light. He straightened up, resting the massive sword on his shoulder, and shot a smug grin at the two spectators.

“Hitless Steve Speedrun, any percent!”

Him and Steve exchanged a nod.

“Not bad,” Him noted, his glowing white eyes curving slightly. “Excellent tactical flexibility. You’ve made significant progress.”

“Congratulations,” Steve said, a rare hint of warmth in his voice. “You successfully defeated the Steve projection.”

Ivan rolled his eyes playfully. “…You know, you could have just dropped the word ‘projection’ at the end there to make me sound cooler.”

“However,” Steve warned, his tone shifting back to serious. “Don’t get cocky. That was just a phantom built on outdated combat logs. It didn’t possess even a tenth of my actual strength.”

“Got it, got it~” Ivan sang with a bright smile.

“Then, as agreed, this Blade of the God of War belongs to you.” Steve tossed an item through the air. “And this. A specialized fishing rod. Consider it an extra clear reward.”

The arena dissolved into a flash of white light. When Ivan blinked, the familiar, blocky landscape of the Overworld stretched out before him. Him materialized silently at his side.

“So, the trial is complete,” Him said. “Are you returning to your reality immediately?”

“Nah,” Ivan stretched his arms, shaking his head. “I need to stay here for a bit and set up some essential Redstone tech. Gathering materials purely by hand is way too inefficient for what I need to do.”

Him crossed his arms. “While that is technically true… you are blatantly exploiting the physics engine. Aren’t you worried Notch might take offense and patch all this out in the next update?”

“Slander! Absolute slander!” Ivan pointed an accusatory finger at the sky, his tone dripping with righteous indignation. “How is this a bug? It’s an undocumented game feature! I am simply applying the laws of physics in a highly improved manner!”

“Whatever. Not my server, not my problem,” Him muttered, too lazy to argue as his figure slowly faded into the pixelated breeze.

Left to his own devices, Ivan rolled up his sleeves and began his reign of electrical engineering terror across a peaceful corner of the Overworld.

[Zombie Pigman Farm]

[Totem of Undying Farm]

[Iron Golem Farm]

[Kelp Farm]

[Chunk Duplicator]

He transformed the pristine landscape into a hyper-efficient, industrialized nightmare for the local AI.

Villagers sprinted in circles in a panic: “Hrmm! Run! The demon is back to enslave us in trading halls!”

An Evoker clutched its robes, backing away: “Wololo… stay away from me!”

The Zombie Pigmen merely stared into the void: “… Oink.” (Existence is pain.)

Ivan cracked his knuckles, pulling out a stack of building blocks. He was just getting ready to hop into The End to construct a [Sand Duplicator] and a [Shulker Farm] when the world suddenly lurched.

“What the—! What’s happening?!”

An irresistible, invisible force hooked into his consciousness, violently yanking him backward. The sprawling Redstone machinery and the blocky horizon warped, smearing into a dizzying vortex of colors!

The sensation of the world spinning vanished as quickly as it came.

Ivan gasped, his eyes snapping open. He was staring at the familiar, sterile ceiling of his dormitory on the Rhodes Island landship, lying flat on his own soft mattress.

A frantic voice echoed right next to his ear.

“Wake up! Please, Mr. Ivan, you have to wake up!” Rosa pleaded, leaning over him with her Ursus features tight with worry.