Arknightcraft Modpack

Steven sprinted at full speed toward his wooden cabin, eyes constantly scanning his minimap for any sign of the familiar white-haired girl.

By all logic, Alina shouldn’t be this unlucky.

The corpses of the beasts attacked by the Collapsal weren’t anywhere near his home, so at worst, she might have just been delayed by the snowstorm.

But for some reason, Steven had a bad feeling about this.

And from past experience, the more unlikely something seemed, the more likely it was to actually happen.

He’d never considered himself a lucky person, and he wasn’t about to bet on this.

Alina was the kind of girl who could be kind to anyone—people like her didn’t deserve tragic endings.

Steven wouldn’t allow it.

He refused to let something happen to her.

Luckily, the minimap had a huge detection radius, and within minutes, he spotted her familiar icon.

However, right next to her, two ominous red dots were rapidly closing in.

“—Of course. My intuition is only ever accurate when predicting bad things.”

Steven let out a deep sigh—finding her was the easy part.

But getting to her in time?

That was another issue entirely.

Based on the distance, no matter how fast he was, there was no way he’d reach her before those red dots did.

Steven narrowed his eyes.

He won’t allow himself to be a protagonist who shows up too late and end up dramatically cradling a lifeless body in his arms.

That wasn’t happening.

So, there was only one option left.

Without hesitation, Steven opened his chat bar and typed in a command.

[/tp Alina]

[Ding! Forcibly using a command will deepen the world’s rejection of you!]

A red warning popped up.

He ignored it completely.

If this shitty world wanted to kick him out, it’d have to try harder than that.

Right now, he was too busy saving someone to care about the system’s rules.

As for the world’s rejection?

Who cares?

Worst case scenario, he’d just pay off his debts later.

It wasn’t like the system’s point system wasn’t meant for situations like this.

Sure, maybe he was “spending first, paying later,” but who cared?

The moment that thought crossed his mind, the invisible resistance trying to stop him from using the command suddenly vanished.

It was as if the world’s will had reluctantly given in, begrudgingly accepting his forceful demand.

A new notification popped up, looking almost pitiful:

[/tp command used. -100,000 WAP (World Acknowledgement Point) deducted.]

The red text barely had time to register before Steven’s entire body vanished from where he stood.

It was beyond instant teleportation—it was as if Steven had been cut out of one location and pasted into another.

One moment, he was nowhere to be seen.

The next, he was suddenly there, appearing right beside Alina, who was still crouching down, seemingly searching for something on the ground.

Startled by his sudden appearance, Alina almost let out a scream, but as soon as she realized who it was, she quickly covered her mouth, swallowing her surprise.

She had already gotten used to how Steven would show up out of nowhere, but she hadn’t expected that after failing to find him at his home, she’d run into him on the way back.

“Steve, you—”

“You, shut up for a second.”

Steven raised a hand, cutting her off before she could even finish her sentence.

There was a look on his face that Alina had never seen before—a look of pure irritation.

Lowering his head, he stared down at the ground beneath them, his expression dark and unreadable.

Alina didn’t know why he was acting like this, but because she trusted him, she obediently remained crouched, tilting her head in confusion as she looked up at him.

She had never seen Steven with this kind of serious, almost angry expression before.

Ever since she had met him, he had always carried a playful, carefree attitude, never looking this grim.

Did something bad happen?

Did his mining trip go wrong?

Her mind swirled with questions, but before she could voice them, Steven’s next actions shocked her even more.

With an emotionless look, Steven stomped down on the frozen ground beneath them.

The earth cracked instantly under his terrifying strength.

Then, without hesitation, he plunged both arms deep into the rock-hard, ice-covered soil as if it were nothing but sand.

Alina watched, completely bewildered, as he pushed his arms deeper and deeper, his face still devoid of emotion.

And then—

The ground trembled.

A powerful vibration shook the earth beneath her, nearly making her lose balance.

Alina gasped, just barely managing to stay on her feet.

Then, she heard it—

A horrifying, inhuman screech echoing from beneath the ground.

As Steven slowly pulled his arms back out, two grotesque creatures emerged from the cracks of the earth, struggling violently in his grip.

Alina’s eyes widened in horror.

The things Steven held looked like a twisted fusion of a giant rat and an octopus.

Their heads—still vaguely resembling a rodent—were covered in writhing eyeballs, while their lower bodies had transformed into writhing, tentacle-like appendages.

Just looking at them made Alina’s stomach churn with disgust.

But Steven?

His expression only became colder.

The creatures’ tentacles flailed wildly, desperately trying to strike back, but even as they whipped against his body, Steven didn’t react at all.

If anything, his already dark mood only worsened.

Then, without saying a word, he simply tightened his grip.

CRACK!

The two abominations let out a final, gut-wrenching scream before they were crushed into pulp, their bodies exploding into nothing but bloody mush in his hands.

Only then did Steven’s expression finally relax.

Reaching into his backpack, he pulled out a bucket of water, casually washing off the blood before tossing the bucket aside.

Then, he set the remains on fire, watching as the disgusting flesh and bone burned to ashes.

Throughout the entire process, Alina just sat there, frozen, staring at him in stunned silence.

She had no idea what to say.

How was she even supposed to react to what she just witnessed?

Finally, after everything was done, Steven brushed off his hands, let out a small cough, and spoke as if nothing had happened.

“Alright. All good now.”

Completely ignoring the freezing temperature of minus ten degrees, Steven casually rinsed himself off with cold water.

He even splashed some on his face, then shook off the excess before turning back to Alina with his usual relaxed smile.

“…Were you just angry?”

Alina asked hesitantly, her voice uncertain.

She still wasn’t sure what exactly had set Steven off, but judging by his actions, he was definitely not in a good mood earlier.

“A little, yeah,” Steven admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I just lost something, but don’t worry, it’s not that big of a deal.”

It was only 100,000 WAP (World Acknowledgement Point), after all.

He could earn that back eventually.

But still, just thinking about how close he had been to being too late made his heart clench a little.

Those disgusting creatures… he had ignored them before, thinking they were too insignificant to bother with.

And yet, they had dared to get involved with someone he cared about.

Steven had no intention of denying it—Alina was someone important to him.

She was a good friend, someone he genuinely liked having around.

Losing a few WAP (World Acknowledgement Point) wasn’t the problem.

The real problem was—what if he had been late?

That thought alone had been enough to piss him off earlier.

But now that the crisis was over, he had already adjusted his emotions.

At the end of the day—he had saved her.

That was all that mattered.

Seeing Alina’s gentle, worried gaze, Steven felt his earlier frustration fade a little more.

Yeah.

This was good enough.

At least, he could rest easy knowing she was safe.

As for completely clearing his mind?

Well…

That would have to wait until he had a proper chat with this so-called Collapsal.