When the goddess asked me what I wanted to reincarnate as, my choice was obvious. As one of the best defense class based MMO players in the world, there was only one real answer to what my cheat skill could be. I chose to be an overpowered tank. So why, now, when I open my eyes, do I have a third independent thermal viewer, capable of penetrating even nights like tonight- the darkest night I’ve ever seen.

Absent was the light pollution of cities, and visible to the naked eye- or scope, I guess, in the sky were alien constellations, stars and stellar dust glittering in a menagerie of color. I slowly swiveled my turret around, inspecting my tread and composite armor. I looked inwards, to my cramped crew room. Then I looked outwards, to the dark forest under thick canopy. “This is no place for a tank!”

Well that's good. It looked like I could speak… somehow. I don’t know, isekai magic or something. “Plus one for universal translation skills!”

“This is no place for a talking tank!” I shouted in the empty forest. Suddenly, I remembered a dim and fleeting recollection of my conversation with the goddess, and a quest prompt appeared in front of me!

Quest Received!

The goddess needs you to save the Elf Princess Marasuo! 

Along with the quest prompt was a tracking indicator on the compass that sat above my vision. I spun my turret in circles, seeing where North, South, East, and West were. “Alright! Just like in Skyrim! Marasuo! I’m coming!” 

At approximately forty five miles an hour(it took some practice to focus my perspective onto my internal speedometer) I plowed through dense foliage and underbrush. I was an unstoppable killing machine, tearing apart ferns and small trees alike. My M1 Abrams T156 track shoes left behind tracks as I plowed over mud and compacted dirt. It didn’t take long before I burst out of the foliage into a clearing, locating Marasuo! Wow. My first fantasy girl! 

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I took a sec to inspect her. Her long, pointed ears were proudly displayed over tied back hair. Her skin was fair, and she looked small, lithe, and delicate. Also, she was screaming. Like, I mean, she was screaming before I burst into the clearing at full speed, smashing over half of the pack of wolves that surrounded her, but man, now she was really screaming. Could not get louder than that. 

Also, all of the wolves around her were now growling at me. They had completely stopped paying attention to her. I’m sure that if I still had the function to shake, I would be shaking right now. I felt the cold shiver of fear down my composite armor as I swiveled my turret to absorb the view. The elf princess knocked and released an arrow at me instead of at the wolves and all of them charged at me at once. I made to back up, but it was too late. The alpha of the pack latched onto my composite armor with huge, striking fangs. That's when I remembered one crucial factor- I was an M1 Abrams tank, their teeth not so much as scratching my fine light sand colored paint job. The screaming of the princess had stopped somewhat as she saw the wolves turn on me. 

Without waiting, I swiveled my main turret, releasing 120mm of death. In the cloud of smoke, fire, ash, and dust that followed, the rest of the wolves scattered, their leader long since turned to an eviscerated paste on the forest floor. Remember when I said that the elf princess could not possibly scream louder than when I burst through the clearing? Yeah, I totally lied. That REALLY made the screaming start. Okay, I’ll deal with that in a second. First, I swiveled around, looking through my thermal scope. “No you don’t, you damn flea ridden mutts!” I really hated wild dogs. 

More shells were fired. More explosions were had. It was a good time. I mean, not for the wolves. With my effective firing range of 3500 meters, there wasn’t a chance that a single wolf would be escaping tonight. By the time my shooting barrage ended and the forest stopped rocking with the sound of explosions, the elf princess was staring wide eyed at me. Now I just have to convince her to join my party!

“Hello there!” I watched as her terrified eyes stared into the main barrel of my… oh, yeah, that’s probably not very comforting. How do you comfort an anime girl? Its headpats, right? They love that? I gently raised the main barrel of my gun before lowering it to tap her head as she shivered uncontrollably.