Arknights: I'm Pretty Strong With Minecraft — Chapter 83

Chapter 83: Mercy

Back under the familiar, ash-choked skies of Terra, Ivan stood amidst the rubble. His gaze drifted toward the distant horizon, where the tattered banner of the Reunion Movement still fluttered weakly in the cold wind.

“The Reunion Movement is no longer the same entity it once was.”

Faust stood nearby, his head bowed. His fingers silently traced the smooth scabbard of the pure white katana resting heavily in his arms.

“Faust, you should go,” Ivan said, turning his back to the ruined cityscape. “Find your own path. A path that can actually change this rotting land.” He paused, letting the silence stretch between them. “Not for atonement. Do it to find a way for everyone—Infected and non-Infected alike—to live in peace.”

Faust nodded slowly. He carefully secured the white katana to his waist, treating the weapon with a quiet reverence. “Understood. Thank you, Ivan.”

The hollow weakness that had plagued his voice was gone, replaced by a hardened, quiet resolve.

“I will remember your words. About good and evil, about choices, and the truth hidden beneath this land.” He turned away, his boots crunching over the broken concrete. His steps were still a bit unsteady, but the lost posture of a broken soldier had vanished. The dying light of the setting sun stretched his shadow long across the ruins until he disappeared from sight.

Just as the sniper vanished into the distance, a low, echoing voice drifted through Ivan’s mind.

‘You kid… you’re still so merciful.’

Ivan didn’t bother turning around. His hand rested casually on the hilt of another unsheathed blade at his hip, his thumb brushing the cold metal.

“Merciful?” A soft, dry chuckle escaped his lips. “I sealed his soul inside that blade forever.”

He let the reality of the curse hang in the air for a second.

“Which means Mephisto will never see an afterlife.” A faint smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, an expression completely detached from conventional morality.

‘Trading eternal confinement for temporary salvation… that does sound exactly like something you would do,’ the voice replied, fading into the recesses of his consciousness.

Ivan offered no further response. He cast one final glance toward the path Faust had taken, murmuring to the empty wind. “I hope this time, you find a different answer.”

When Ivan materialized inside the Rhodes Island temporary command post, the shift in the room’s energy was immediate. Operators paused mid-task. Amiya and the Doctor looked up from their holographic battle maps. Ch’en and Hoshiguma, fresh from a perimeter patrol, stopped in their tracks. Even the Ursus Student Self-Governing Group members turned their attention entirely to him.

“Mister Ivan!” Amiya broke the silence first. She hurried across the room, her long ears perking up as the heavy worry in her eyes melted into deep relief.

From the edge of the crowd, Rosa stepped forward. Her pristine white hair was slightly disheveled, her chest rising and falling as if she had sprinted across the entire camp just to catch him. “I finally caught up to you, Mister Ivan,” she breathed out, offering a polite but exhausted smile.

Ivan offered a lazy shrug. “I’m just a guy who likes to wander around. Can’t really help it.”

Ch’en crossed her arms, her tail flicking with mild irritation as she frowned at his casual attitude. “So what now, Ivan? Do you have any actual ideas? The Reunion remnants holed up in Sector D2 are still putting up a stubborn resistance.”

Ivan leaned back against a nearby control panel, entirely unbothered by the severe Lungmen Guard Department officer. He reached over, picked up a physical battle report, and flipped through the pages without really reading them.

“I already told you. For brain-draining tasks like this…” He shifted his gaze toward the heavily cloaked figure standing by the monitors. “Please leave it to the Doctor.”

The Doctor’s head snapped up from the tactical map. Even behind the opaque visor, the sheer panic was obvious. “Ivan, you can’t do this to me! I’m still analyzing the residual Originium signals from the ruined city!”

Ch’en sighed, shaking her head at the display. She turned to Lin Yuxia, exchanging a brief, knowing look with the Rat King’s daughter. “Then we’ll do it this way. Lin Yuxia and I will take the Lungmen Guard Department forces and continue driving the Reunion stragglers out of the D2 slums.”

She glanced back at Ivan, her expression softening just a fraction. “You can stay here and coordinate with the Doctor and Rhodes Island. After all…”

She let the sentence trail off, but the unspoken truth hung heavily in the room. With Ivan’s overwhelming, logic-defying strength, the entirety of Rhodes Island combined couldn’t produce a second asset quite like him.

Ivan nodded lazily. “Alright.”

As Ch’en turned on her heel to begin deploying the L.G.D. operatives, the Doctor slinked off to the side, his shoulders shaking with silent laughter.

‘Yes! Ivan is back. I finally don’t have to use my brain anymore, hahahahaha!’

Ivan caught the movement out of the corner of his eye. A glint of absolute cunning flashed across his face. He knew exactly what the masked tactician was plotting. Closing the distance in a heartbeat, Ivan threw an arm around the Doctor’s neck, locking him in a secure, inescapable headlock.

“You,” Ivan demanded, his voice dripping with dry amusement, “use your brain!”

The Doctor froze instantly, his grand plans of slacking off shattered. Watching the legendary tactician go completely rigid, the surrounding Operators finally broke their professional composure, the command post erupting into a chorus of much-needed laughter.