"And this is exactly why I love magic!" Li Ke praised with a grin. He gently gripped Elsa's thighs, positioning himself to begin.
However, just a split second before he could make his move, he felt a sudden rush of air behind his head. His instinct was to dodge, but he realized that moving would leave Elsa exposed to whatever was coming. That momentary distraction cost him.
Before he could flare up his high-heat protection, his front was instantly flash-frozen by Elsa's erratic magic, while his back took a direct hit from a projectile.
The flying object didn't actually hurt—it just bounced right off—but the sensation of his "little brother" being subjected to sub-zero temperatures made Li Ke hiss in pain. He was forced to pull back, his pride and joy now coated in a thin layer of frost.
"I'm so sorry! Mr. Li Ke! I—I just got too excited!" Elsa looked at him with a mix of horror and concern. She struggled to sit up to check on him, but Li Ke, half-encased in ice, held her down. He began melting the frost off himself while whipping his head around.
"It's fine... I just got distracted. It's not your fault. Actually, I should blame—"
He turned his head and, sure enough, found Toph standing there with her arms crossed, looking thoroughly annoyed.
"Toph!! What the hell are you doing?! I almost snapped off!!" Li Ke roared.
Toph remained expressionless, casually digging a finger into her ear before pointing at herself. "What about me?"
"What?"
"I said, what about me?"
"Huh? What are you even talking about?"
"I said! Why aren't you doing me?!"
"HAAAH?!!"
Both Li Ke and Elsa stared at Toph in utter shock.
"Is there something wrong with your brain?" Li Ke asked bluntly, facepalming as he reached out to feel her forehead.
It wasn't just that his feelings for Toph were complicated; it was her personality. She was the kind of girl who felt more like a "bro" than a romantic interest.
"I don't get what you're overthinking," Toph said with a smirk, not showing even a hint of shyness. In fact, Li Ke could tell she only used the term 'one-night stand' because she thought it sounded cool—she clearly had no real concept of what it actually meant. "I don't mind. It's not like people don't have one-night stands all the time."
"You…"
Li Ke clutched his head. He felt like he was coming down with a cold—otherwise, how else could such a bizarre creature be standing in front of him?
"Tsk, what are you hesitating for? It's not like I'm used goods! Do you have a problem with virgins? Elsa was one too, wasn't she?"
Hearing that, Elsa was instantly "sunk." Her face turned a violent shade of red as she buried it in her hands, completely at a loss for how to handle Toph.
Calling her a "Social Terrorist" was an understatement. Li Ke felt more and more like Toph was a ticking time bomb—sure, the girl brought a lot of laughs, but when a comedic character develops too much initiative and willpower, it's a total disaster.
"Or maybe you prefer it when someone plays rough?"
A smug grin spread across Toph's face. She reached out, grabbed Li Ke by the collar, and stood on her tiptoes, looking him dead in the eye with a cheeky smirk.
"That actually fits my aesthetic perfectly. How about you lay down over there and tell me what to do? I'm a fast learner!"
"You…"
Li Ke didn't know what to say. If Toph would just keep her mouth shut, he might actually feel a surge of desire to pin her down and have his way with her. But the moment she opened her mouth, all he wanted to do was facepalm.
"How do I even put this? Can't you show a little... modesty?" Li Ke had lost track of how many times he'd said those exact words.
"What's the point of modesty? It just makes you miss out. And as for you, Elsa—I don't need your charity! I'm going to earn the energy points for my own trip home myself!"
Toph thumped her completely flat chest, directing her declaration at Elsa. Elsa, still covering her face, realized she was reaching her limit with Toph, too. This girl's logic was even more unhinged than her own sister's. She was the literal definition of "doing whatever she pleased."
"You... forget it." Li Ke sighed. Toph was stubborn, and there was no changing her mind, but today wasn't the day. "Maybe tomorrow. Elsa's still new to this, and I want to spend more time with her. She's not exactly as... as..."
Li Ke struggled for a long time to find the right word, but Toph helpfully offered a thumbs-up and finished the sentence for him.
"As beautiful and gentle as me?!"
She looked so proud of herself that Li Ke nearly had a heart attack from pure frustration. He couldn't help but snap back:
"As shameless as you!"
Toph just spat disdainfully on the ground and turned to head back into the house.
"Tch. You commoners always put princesses and noble ladies on a pedestal. Call me when you take a halftime break to eat; I'm going to go take a nap."
Li Ke: "..."
He was utterly defeated. Wordlessly, he turned back to the bashful Elsa and approached his Princess once more.
"Alright... let's try this again."
"Mm." Elsa nodded softly. Li Ke leaned in instinctively, closing the gap to kiss her.
But just as their lips were about to meet, a powerful sensation surged from the sky. In the next heartbeat, a violent tremor instantly broke their embrace, and Li Ke's eyes snapped open.
"World Power!"
The violent tremors instantly killed the mood. Elsa wasn't the kind of girl who felt she had to do this to survive, so Li Ke didn't hesitate—he threw on his clothes and bolted outside, desperate to see if a newcomer had arrived.
And someone—or rather, something—had indeed arrived. But "human" wasn't exactly the right word for what he saw.
Amidst a shimmering, prismatic radiance, two silhouettes slowly materialized. The moment Li Ke caught sight of the first one, his very first instinct was to burn it to ash.
With its sleek, feminine curves, elongated crest, protruding inner jaw, and massive tail, Li Ke recognized the nightmare instantly.
An Alien Queen.
His hand instinctively reached for his sword, only for him to realize he'd left it back in the room. Turning his back now would be a death sentence, so without a second thought, Li Ke summoned his flames to create a searing wall of fire, masking his presence.
He didn't even stop to see what the second creature was. He grabbed Elsa, sprinted back into the house to snatch his sword and spear, and charged back out.
No matter what, he couldn't let a thing like that loose in this world.
While Elsa and Toph couldn't "mine" blocks like a player, they could still break things—which meant this monster could, too. An Alien Queen was a master of stealth and ambushes; Elsa lacked combat experience, and while Toph's senses were sharp, she was still blind. At the moment, Li Ke was the only reliable combatant they had.
However, as he burst back outside, he finally saw the other entity that had arrived...
"ROAAAR!!!"
A massive Red Dragon had its talons buried deep into the Alien Queen, pinning it to the ground. A haze of heat distorted the air around the dragon's maw, its eyes burning with a localized, vengeful fury.
The Queen screeched, lashing out with her acidic blood, claws, and tail. She even fired her inner jaw toward the dragon's eyes in a desperate strike, but it was useless.
This "Lady Dragon" was colossal; her wingspan seemed to swallow the sky. As Li Ke looked up, he realized that the nearby hundred-meter hill only reached a third of her height.
Ignoring the Alien Queen's defiant shrieks, the Red Dragon unhinged her jaw.
Standing at least three hundred meters tall (not even counting the wings), the dragon unleashed a plume of fire that looked tiny compared to her massive frame. But the moment those flames touched the earth, Li Ke instantly abandoned any thought of running away.
Laughable, he thought. There's literally nowhere to run.
Countless Minecraft blocks were simply annihilated by the sheer intensity of the fire. Just as Li Ke started thinking he might as well head back inside for one last "final session" with Elsa before the end, the flames ceased their destruction. With surgical precision, the fire had incinerated the Alien Queen and her inner jaw into nothing but drifting ash, leaving every other living thing and block nearby completely untouched.
Immediately, the Red Dragon turned her gaze toward Li Ke. From his perspective, her expression looked incredibly fierce.
He looked at the sword in his hand, then at his machine gun. After exactly point-one seconds of deep deliberation, he promptly unequipped them both.
A one-meter sword against a three-hundred-meter monster? A monster whose scales an Alien Queen couldn't even scratch?
Laughable. Why even bother?
However, just as Li Ke was debating whether to flip her the bird or run back inside for a "final session" with Elsa, the titan began to shrink. In less than a second, the sky-swallowing monster was gone.
Standing before him was a red-haired woman in "refreshing" attire—a garment so skimpy it crossed the line from armor into pure fanservice. Only the jagged horns protruding from her head betrayed her true, monstrous nature.
Li Ke's grip on his sword loosened. If this was the dragon... his instinct told him, his "workload" was about to get a lot heavier.