Arknights: I'm Pretty Strong With Minecraft — Chapter 97

Chapter 97: Temporary Withdrawal

The heavy roar of the motorcycle engine tore through the streets of Lungmen. Ch’en gripped the handlebars with white-knuckled intensity, her long blue hair whipping wildly in the rushing wind.

Behind her, Ivan sat in stark contrast—completely idle. One hand rested casually against Ch’en’s waist to keep his balance, while the other absentmindedly twirled a stalk of foxtail grass he had plucked from who knows where.

“What do we do now?” Ch’en tilted her head slightly, her voice fighting over the howling wind.

Ivan shifted the grass stem to the corner of his mouth, his words coming out slightly muffled. “What else can we do? Get out of the city first. Then we get straight to work.”

Ch’en let out a heavy sigh, the sound lost to the engine’s rumble. “Alright. I shouldn’t have even asked you.” A pause. “I really don’t understand how you managed to analyze Wei Yenwu’s entire plan so eloquently just a moment ago, yet you act like this now.”

Ivan chuckled, pulling the grass from his lips. “Trade secret. Anyway, I need to make a pit stop at Rhodes Island first.”

Ch’en slammed the brakes. The heavy tires locked up, screeching against the asphalt and leaving thick, dark skid marks in the dust.

Ivan lurched forward, barely catching himself before he was thrown over her shoulder. “Hey, hey, watch it! I’m the only teammate you have left!”

He settled back into the leather seat, brushing off his jacket. “If I’m not mistaken, Rhodes Island is going to be dragged into this battle too. I need to drop off some equipment for them and grab a change of clothes for the two of us. We’re off the grid now, and you stick out like a sore thumb in that L.G.D. uniform.”

Ch’en considered his words for a moment, the logic obvious. She gave a curt nod. “Alright, fine. Hurry up.” She glanced around the desolate street. “Should I wait for you here?”

Ivan had already hopped off the back seat, casually dusting off his trousers. “No need. I’ll be quick.”

He took two steps forward, then suddenly spun on his heel, flashing her a two-fingered salute. “Bye-bye.”

Before Ch’en could even blink, his figure vanished into thin air, leaving behind nothing but a faint displacement of wind.

She stared at the empty space for a long moment, shaking her head with a weary groan. “This guy… does he always have to make such an exaggerated exit?”

Kicking the engine back to life, Ch’en handled the heavy motorcycle through the winding alleys of Lungmen. She bypassed the main arteries, eventually turning down a remote, forgotten path hidden behind the rusted husk of an abandoned factory. It was a blind spot in the city’s surveillance network, one of the few viable routes to slip out of Lungmen undetected.

But the exit wasn’t clear.

A towering figure stood at the mouth of the alley, waiting patiently in the shadows. Hoshiguma leaned casually against her massive, iconic triangular shield, her long green hair swaying gently in the stagnant breeze.

“Nice bike,” Hoshiguma noted, pushing herself off the shield. Her golden eyes swept admiringly over the sleek chassis. “Looks like the latest model out of Rim Billiton. I was actually thinking about picking one of those up myself.”

She hefted her shield, her casual demeanor slowly hardening into something far more serious as she closed the distance. “Ch’en. The Lungmen Guard Department just issued a warrant for your arrest. The entire force is turning the city upside down looking for you.”

Ch’en killed the engine. She planted one boot on the cracked pavement, meeting her old partner’s gaze without flinching. “Sorry, Hoshi. I have urgent business to attend to. This is the only way I can quietly leave the city.”

Her voice remained perfectly level, but her leather-clad fingers tightened imperceptibly around the grips. “Are you going to stop me?”

“Of course I’m going to stop you.” Hoshiguma let out a heavy sigh, the sound echoing in the narrow alley. “I absolutely cannot let you run off on some suicidal, heroic crusade all by yourself.”

A faint, almost imperceptible smile tugged at the corner of Ch’en’s lips. “Ivan is with me.”

“Then I’ll just have to do what I did last time and—” Hoshiguma’s automatic response died in her throat. She froze, her eyes widening a fraction. The impassioned speech she had prepared evaporated. She blinked, looking around the empty alley. “Eh? Ivan is here? Where is he?”

“He just teleported to Rhodes Island,” Ch’en explained smoothly. “Didn’t you see his wanted poster?”

Hoshiguma scratched the back of her head, her striking green hair shifting as her expression twisted into a complicated grimace. “I just assumed he committed some other outrageous crime… The bulletin only said you were suspected of desertion.”

Silence stretched between them for a long moment. Then, Hoshiguma waved her hand dismissively, the tension bleeding out of her shoulders. “Alright. You can go.”

Ch’en blinked, genuinely caught off guard. “You’re not stopping me?”

“Why would I bother?” Hoshiguma muttered, a dry, self-deprecating edge to her voice. “It’s not like I can beat him anyway. And with him around…”

The two women exchanged a long look, a shared silence settling over them. It was a deep, unspoken understanding forged through years of fighting back-to-back—a complex mixture of utter exasperation and absolute trust directed at a certain unpredictable anomaly of a man.

In perfect unison, they both let out a long, exhausted sigh.

Hoshiguma stepped aside, clearing the path. She reached out, clapping a heavy hand on Ch’en’s shoulder. “Take care of yourself out there. And tell that scoundrel Ivan to try not to turn the world upside down.”

Ch’en fired up the engine, the roar echoing off the brick walls. She offered Hoshiguma a firm nod. “Thank you. When I get back, the drinks are on me.”

With a twist of the throttle, the motorcycle tore out of Lungmen’s borders, vanishing into the distant wasteland dust.

Hoshiguma stood alone in the alley, watching the dust settle. “With that troublemaker around,” she murmured to the empty air, “it’s probably impossible not to turn the world upside down.”

Meanwhile, aboard the Rhodes Island landship.

A familiar figure leaned lazily against the corridor wall, arms crossed loosely over his chest.

“Yo, Doctor. You guys are moving way too slow.”

Ivan wore his signature, infuriatingly confident smirk, looking for all the world as if he had been standing there waiting for hours.

The Doctor jumped at the sudden voice, then immediately marched over and threw an arm around Ivan’s neck in a mock chokehold. “You have the nerve to say that! We don’t all have the ability to just teleport wherever we want, you know!” He vigorously ruffled Ivan’s hair, messing it up completely. “By the way, is the situation in Lungmen sorted out?”

“It’s handled,” Ivan replied effortlessly, easily ducking out from under the Doctor’s grip.

“Good, then come on, hurry up and help!” The Doctor immediately pivoted, planting his hands on Ivan’s back and trying to shove him down the hall. “We still need to process the Operator registration files for FrostNova and the others. There’s a mountain of paperwork waiting on my desk.”

“Eh? I just got back from a warzone and you’re making me do office work?” Ivan let out a highly exaggerated, theatrical wail of despair, drawing a chorus of lighthearted laughter from the Operators passing through the corridor.

Blaze, along with several members of the Ursus Student Self-Government Group, watched the warm exchange with fond smiles.

But the ever-observant Rosa noticed something amiss. Ivan’s standard Rhodes Island uniform was gone, replaced by a simple, rugged set of casual streetwear.

“Mr. Ivan,” Rosa stepped forward, her voice soft and polite. “Where is your uniform?”

“Ah, that.” Ivan waved a hand dismissively. “It got torn up during the fighting, so I tossed it into storage.”

Before anyone could question him further, the playful demeanor vanished from Ivan’s face, replaced by a chilling seriousness. He swept his gaze over every Operator present in the corridor.

“Listen up, everyone. Chernobog is currently on a direct collision course with Lungmen. We need to prepare for full-scale combat immediately.”

“What?!” The Doctor and Blaze exclaimed in unison, the relaxed atmosphere shattering in an instant.

“Dr. Kal’tsit will brief you on the specifics shortly,” Ivan said, cutting off their panic. He closed his eyes, his breathing steadying as he concentrated.

A few seconds later, his eyes snapped open, and two massive, heavy wooden chests materialized in his hands out of thin air.

Without a word of warning, Ivan popped the lids and upended them. Hundreds of small, exquisitely carved golden figurines and a mountain of shimmering, enchanted golden apples spilled out, clattering and rolling across the polished floor of the corridor in a blinding display of wealth.

“Doctor, distribute these to every single Operator on the landship,” Ivan ordered, his tone brokering no argument.

The Doctor stared down at the glowing pile of artifacts, utterly dumbfounded. “What… are these?”

“The Totems of Undying will completely block a fatal blow,” Ivan explained, pointing to the golden figurines. “And the golden apples will instantaneously heal severe injuries. Make sure everyone carries them. Not a single person goes without one.”

Blaze crouched down, picking up one of the golden totems. She turned it over in her hands, looking at it with deep skepticism. “This little thing can actually save a life?”

“Yes. Just keep it in your pockets or on your person,” Ivan nodded firmly. “It will activate automatically upon lethal impact.”

Rosa’s sharp intuition flared. She looked from the mountain of life-saving gear back to Ivan’s casual clothes. “Mr. Ivan… are you not deploying with us?”

“Me? I’ve got my own mission to handle, you see.” Ivan offered a faint smile, deliberately avoiding her piercing gaze.

Zima immediately bristled, stepping forward with a scowl. “Eh? You’re going off to fight on your own again? And you’re not taking us with you?”

Behind her, Pravda, Gummy, and the rest of the Ursus girls cast him worried, expectant looks. Gummy bravely reached out, her small fingers tugging anxiously at Ivan’s sleeve. “Um, Ivan… please take us with you…”

FrostNova stepped out from the crowd, her icy blue eyes burning with an unshakeable resolve. “You saved me. You helped us all. Now, it is our turn to help you.”

“Let us go together,” Rosa urged, her usual aristocratic restraint giving way to genuine concern. “We swear we won’t hold you back.”

Ivan looked at the circle of fierce, loyal companions surrounding him. A deep warmth swelled in his chest, a stark contrast to the cold reality of Terra.

He stepped closer to Rosa. Raising his hand, he gently poked two fingers against the center of her forehead.

“Forgive me. Next time, for sure.”

Before anyone could react to the gesture, the Doctor’s terminal suddenly blared to life. Amiya’s frantic, anxious voice crackled through the speaker.

“Doctor! Mr. Ivan… he’s just formally withdrawn his registration from Rhodes Island!”

“What?!” The Doctor gasped, his eyes widening in shock.

Amiya’s voice trembled slightly over the comms. “I don’t know why Mr. Ivan insists on doing this alone. But if you see him right now, please tell him… Rhodes Island will always be his home. We are his companions, and everyone here is willing to fight for him. He doesn’t have to shoulder the weight of the world by himself.”

The transmission clicked off, leaving a suffocating silence in the corridor.

Panic rippled through the gathered Operators. They all spun around, Rosa stepping forward with desperate urgency. “Ivan, why did you—”

Her words died in the air.

The spot where Ivan had just been standing was completely empty. There was no sound, no flash of light—just the lingering chill of the air rushing in to fill the space he had occupied.

On the floor, the mountain of Totems of Undying and golden apples pulsed with a faint, reassuring glow, the only proof that he had ever been there at all.