Arknights: I'm Pretty Strong With Minecraft — Chapter 84

Chapter 84: Lungmen Does Not Need the Existence of Infected People

Just as the heavy atmosphere finally began to lift, Amiya suddenly snapped her head around. Her long rabbit ears twitched with sudden, acute anxiety.

“Wait…” Her voice carried a sharp edge of panic. “GreyThroat is gone!”

The Doctor immediately turned to look at Ivan.

“I know exactly where she is,” Ivan replied, his tone entirely unbothered, as if he had scripted the entire sequence of events himself. “Follow me.”

The Doctor scrambled to keep pace with the young man, lowering his voice as they handled the debris. “How do you already know her location?”

“Take a wild guess.”

Deep within the crumbling, ash-choked ruins of the sector, a small Feline girl huddled behind a slab of shattered concrete. Her tattered dress was caked in soot, and her dirty little hands maintained a death grip on a faded, one-eyed cloth doll.

“Papa… Papa…”

She whispered into the hollow silence of the destroyed street, her voice trembling like a startled kitten caught in the rain.

A soft, deliberate rustle of footsteps approached over the gravel. The little girl’s ears instantly pinned back in alarm.

GreyThroat stepped out from the shadow of a collapsed wall, keeping her movements slow and telegraphed. She kept her crossbow lowered, desperate to avoid terrifying the fragile life trembling before her.

“Who are you?” the little girl asked, shrinking further into the debris.

GreyThroat dropped to one knee, bringing herself down to the child’s eye level.

“You can relax. I am not a bad person. I am going to take you to a safe place right now.”

She extended a gloved hand.

“Come with me. Let’s go.”

The little girl shook her head stubbornly, her cat ears drooping low.

“I have to stay right here and not move. Papa told me that as long as I stay right here, he will come back to pick me up.”

GreyThroat’s golden eyes suddenly narrowed into dangerous slits. She spun on her heel, her crossbow snapping up to aim directly at the jagged shadows behind her.

“Stop hiding. I know exactly where you are.”

Five Reunion soldiers slowly stepped out from behind the surrounding wreckage, their weapons drawn.

“To use a defenseless child as bait… you people are truly beneath contempt,” GreyThroat spat.

A younger Reunion soldier gripping a rusty pipe shouted back, his voice cracking with desperate panic.

“You Rhodes Island dogs don’t understand anything! If we don’t kill those monsters in the black clothes, every single one of us is going to die!”

GreyThroat shifted her stance, completely shielding the little girl with her own body. Her finger rested lightly on the trigger.

“I am taking this child. All of you, get out of my way.”

“Rush her! Attack!”

At the squad leader’s barked command, the Reunion members surged forward as one.

GreyThroat moved with lethal grace. She ducked under a wild swing, driving the heavy stock of her crossbow directly into the first soldier’s jaw with a sickening crunch. She pivoted smoothly to evade a descending machete, using the momentum to deliver a brutal spinning kick that sent the second attacker crashing into a rusted out car frame.

Every motion was calculated and devoid of wasted energy. In mere seconds, three grown men were writhing on the ground, groaning in agony.

“Hurry, this way!”

GreyThroat reached back and grabbed the little girl’s hand. They were just about to break through the encirclement when a sharp hiss cut through the air.

A crossbow bolt tore through the dust, aimed with lethal precision squarely at the little girl’s back.

“No! Get down!”

GreyThroat violently shoved the child flat against the pavement, throwing herself over the small body. As she looked up, the final standing Reunion soldier loomed over her, raising a heavy wooden club high into the air to bring it crashing down on her skull.

“Using a child as bait makes you worse than pigs and dogs.”

A voice as cold as absolute zero drifted from the shadows directly behind the soldier.

“Scum like you have forfeited the right to breathe.”

Ivan materialized like a vengeful phantom. The blade of his weapon caught the dying light of the setting sun, gleaming with a terrifying, blood-red luster.

“GreyThroat, get her out of here.”

“Understood.”

Ivan casually flicked his wrist. The air around him distorted as several Phantom Swords materialized out of thin air, humming with lethal intent.

“No… wait, no!”

The Reunion soldier let out a shrill, desperate wail.

The Phantom Swords descended like a torrential downpour of executioners. The hollow shell of the ruined building amplified the sudden, agonizing screams that followed, turning the street into a brief, horrific slaughterhouse.

When the final shriek was abruptly cut short, fresh blood had painted the mottled concrete walls like spilled ink, already beginning to congeal into dark, gruesome patterns under the fading daylight.

GreyThroat quickly covered the little girl’s eyes and rushed her out of the alleyway.

Ivan stood in absolute silence at the epicenter of the carnage. A dark red pool slowly expanded around his boots, soaking into the dust and rubble to form a macabre mix of violence.

He stared down at the butchered remains, his voice dropping into a quiet soliloquy.

“Some people truly are beyond forgiveness.”

Heavy, rapid footsteps broke the silence as Blaze sprinted into the clearing from the opposite end of the ruins.

When her eyes landed on the grotesque scene, her boots skidded to a brief halt, but she quickly forced herself to keep walking forward.

“What, scared?” Ivan looked up, a tired, self-deprecating curve pulling at the corner of his mouth. “Is this the first time you have seen me paint a room red?”

Blaze shook her head, a complicated mixture of emotions swirling in her fiery eyes.

“No. I heard your voice from a few blocks away.”

She surveyed the mangled bodies, her fists clenching tight enough to make the leather of her gloves creak.

“I just never expected these bastards would sink low enough to use kids as bait. They really threw away their humanity.”

“Mr. Ivan! Blaze! Are you two alright?”

Amiya’s frantic voice echoed down the street. She and the Doctor had finally managed to catch up, handling the treacherous terrain to reach the clearing.

“Hey now, Amiya, Doctor. You two are moving way too slow,” Ivan said, spreading his hands in an exaggerated, helpless shrug.

The Doctor braced his hands on his knees, gasping for air. Even through his heavy tactical mask, his absolute exhaustion was obvious.

“Do you think everyone is a freak of nature like you?” the Doctor wheezed. “Do you even possess a concept of fatigue? How is your stamina this ridiculous?”

Before Ivan could fire back a retort, the little Feline girl peeked out from behind GreyThroat’s legs. She hesitated, her tiny hands wringing her dress, before finally mustering the courage to step up to Ivan. Her large golden eyes were still brimming with unshed tears.

“Thank you, Big Brother. You didn’t get hurt just now, did you?”

Ivan blinked, genuinely taken aback. He slowly crouched down to her level, completely ignoring the fact that the blood splattered across his cheek had not yet dried.

A remarkably gentle, warm smile broke across his face as he reached out to carefully pat the little girl’s messy hair.

“I am perfectly fine. You were incredibly brave today. You did amazing.”

A squad of Rhodes Island medical operators rushed onto the scene. One of the female medics knelt down and offered her hand to the child.

Ivan kept his voice soft. “Alright, go with this nice big sister. She is going to help you find your papa. Bye-bye.”

“Bye-bye,” the little girl echoed softly. She looked back over her shoulder at Ivan one last time before taking the medic’s hand and walking away.

Ivan remained crouched, watching her retreating figure. He watched as she began to skip lightly alongside the medic, her curiosity getting the better of her as she reached up to poke the Rhodes Island badge pinned to the operator’s coat.

Ivan let out a long, heavy sigh, the sound carrying a weight that felt far too old for him.

“When… when will these kids ever just get to live in peace?”

Across the city, Ch’en stood amidst a desolate landscape of shattered brick and twisted rebar. Chi Xiao remained unsheathed in her grip, the blade humming faintly.

She surveyed the perimeter with cold, professional detachment, bringing her communicator to her lips.

“All hostile elements in the immediate vicinity have been neutralized.”

An L.G.D. officer jogged up to her, saluting hastily before dropping his voice to a grim whisper.

“Madam Ch’en, we located a survivor buried under the pile of bodies deep in the back alley.”

Ch’en’s brows instantly snapped together. She sheathed her sword and followed her subordinate through the maze of collapsed walls. At the very end of a claustrophobic, lightless alleyway, she was met with a scene that made her stomach twist.

A young Feline woman was backed into the furthest corner, her clothes and skin painted in layers of dried, flaking blood.

She had her arms wrapped tightly around her head, her entire body locked in violent tremors as she babbled endlessly to the empty air.

“Don’t come closer… please don’t come closer… just stop…”

Her eyes were blown wide and completely unfocused, her mind clearly still trapped in the horrific slaughter she had just witnessed. Whenever a boot scraped against the pavement, she let out a pathetic, high-pitched whimper like a cornered animal waiting for the killing blow.

Ch’en took a slow, measured breath to steady herself and issued her orders with absolute authority.

“Leave one officer here. Monitor her vitals closely and escort her out of this sector immediately.”

“Understood, Madam.”

“And get these bodies out of here,” Ch’en added, her strict tone softening just a fraction. “Move carefully. Do not let her see them again.”

Leaving her officers to handle the cleanup, Ch’en turned and walked into an adjacent, relatively intact street. She leaned her back against a wall of peeling brick and pulled out her terminal, dialing Ivan’s encrypted frequency.

The moment the line clicked open, the heavy suppression in her voice was obvious.

“Ivan. I saw the aftermath. The innocent Infected are indeed physically unharmed.” She paused, her thumb unconsciously tracing the ornate guard of Chi Xiao. “No. I should say they are only physically unharmed.”

The distant, broken sobbing of the Feline survivor drifted out of the alley, brushing against Ch’en’s ears. She closed her eyes tightly.

“But… but…”

Her eyes snapped open, blazing with a fierce, uncompromising resolve.

“Ivan, listen to me. No matter what it takes, I am going to do everything in my power to stop your Black Cloaks.”

“We cannot allow them to wage war in a way that treats the sanity of civilians as acceptable collateral damage. These extreme, bloody methods… Lungmen cannot afford to process any more mentally shattered victims.”

The terminal remained completely silent for a long moment. When Ivan finally spoke, his voice was low and heavy.

“I understand.”

Those two simple words carried a massive amount of weight—shock, deep introspection, and a grim acceptance.

“In the heat of the moment… I completely failed to factor in whether the ordinary civilians could withstand the psychological trauma of seeing that,” Ivan admitted, his tone carrying a very rare, bitter edge of self-reproach.

Ch’en exhaled slowly, the tension bleeding out of her shoulders. “Once you finish securing your current sector, we will rendezvous at the underground drainage system Lin Yuxia mentioned.”

“Alright. See you there.”

The line clicked dead, but Ch’en remained frozen against the wall, staring at the blank screen.

Before she could even lower her hand, the terminal erupted into a frantic, high-priority ringing.

Ch’en drew in a sharp breath and hit the receiver.

“We have a massive new development.”

The voice on the other end was tense. “A fresh Reunion unit has just breached the surface from the lower slum levels. It is the exact same squad that was hunting Rhodes Island through the sub-city ruins.”

“The commander leading them is… Frostnova.”

That single name seemed to drop the ambient temperature of the alleyway to freezing. Ch’en closed her eyes, processing the tactical nightmare.

“Understood. Nine, maintain your position and continue monitoring the movements of that black-clad unit.”

The voice on the other end—Nine—did not acknowledge the order. Instead, she just kept talking, her voice distant and hollow.

“I have been thinking about a lot of things lately.”

She sounded as if she were murmuring to herself, perhaps tracing the L.G.D. badge on her own uniform.

“Where exactly do I belong in all of this?”

“I might not have the perfect answer yet, but I have realized one absolute truth—this city is not my place.”

“Ch’en, I have made my decision. I am taking every Infected willing to follow me, and we are leaving Lungmen. If we stay in this city… there is simply no way to ever truly protect them.”

“That black-clad unit you just ordered me to monitor… I watched them work too. It seems I placed far too much faith in Lungmen’s ability to handle its own rot.”

“Nine, return to base immediately.” Ch’en’s voice cracked like a whip, falling back on her absolute authority. “That is a direct order.”

“Do you even know what is actually happening down in the drainage system right now?” Nine fired back, a bitter, suppressed fury finally bleeding into her tone. “If you do not, then just forget it.”

Ch’en’s brow knotted in deep confusion and rising panic.

“What situation? Lin Yuxia, Ivan, and now you… what exactly are all of you hiding from me?”

Nine ignored the question entirely, her voice dropping into a cold, condemning whisper.

“Lungmen does not need the Infected to exist. In fact, this city wants to strip them of their very right to live. Isn’t that right?”

“Wait, Nine, listen to me!” Ch’en felt a cold spike of dread pierce her chest, her professional composure fracturing.

“Goodbye, Ch’en.”

The connection severed with a sharp click. The monotonous, rhythmic drone of the busy signal was the only sound left to echo in the damp alleyway.

Ch’en stood completely paralyzed, watching the harsh light of her terminal screen slowly fade to black, much like the fragile hope that had just been snuffed out in her chest.

Far in the distance, the vibrant neon skyline of Lungmen continued to flash and glitter, completely blind to the suffocating shadows swallowing the streets below.