Chapter 68: National Hero, The Doors Close

The video of the fight spread across the kingdom before Alvian even reached the palace.

It played on every screen, TV, and phone. Experts talked about the video nonstop.

A sixteen-year-old boy in a torn shirt caught a giant monster’s fist. He climbed a thirty-meter crystal monster with his bare acid hands. He rammed a broken sword straight into its power core.

The news headline was the same everywhere:

"IRONCLAD STUDENT SOLOS RANK 5 CALAMITY RIFT."

His name and face were famous overnight. Everyone was talking about his registered Talent, E-Rank Clearwater, because nobody believed an E-Rank could do something so crazy.

People on the internet were arguing:

"He has hidden royal blood!" "He used illegal power-ups!" "His Talent rank was wrong!" "He is a secret science experiment!"

One smart researcher posted a detailed report online. He proved that Alvian’s Clearwater Talent produced acid power four hundred percent stronger than a normal E-Rank, meaning his power was misclassified for three hundred years.

That post got forty thousand views in the first hour.

In the school hospital tent, Serah’s hands shook as she read the news on her broken tablet. She closed the screen before anyone saw her face and pretended to fix her arm bandages.

The Guild leaders were panicking.

Commander Valerius was already in trouble for his actions in the Undercity. Now, government leaders wanted to know why the Guilds left the school with no defense during a monster attack. Government officials had to explain how an E-Rank student grew stronger than elite S-Rank teams without anyone noticing.

The old world rules were breaking. The Talent system, which decided who was rich or poor for three hundred years, was ruined. An E-Rank student killed a Rank 5 boss alone, while rich A-Rank nobles hid in underground tunnels.

The high-class nobles were terrified and trying to save their reputations.

Alvian didn’t care about any of this.

All he cared about was the hallway he was walking down, and the data his high INT 142 was gathering from every wall.

The Royal Palace looked like a museum, but it was built like a giant military bunker. White stone walls were reinforced with hidden metal plates behind nice wall paintings. Secret magic sensors checked every inch for hidden weapons or unexpected magic power. The floor was made of solid polished stone that reflected the crystal lights above.

Guards stood everywhere. Level 50+ Royal Knights watched every hallway, standing twelve meters apart. Their armor was shiny, but their weapons were deadly sharp. They stared at Alvian, trying to figure out how strong he really was.

His INT 142 memorized everything.

Guard patrol schedule: perfectly timed, but with a tiny 4-minute gap in the basement hallway between 2:17 AM and 2:21 AM when guards switch turns. Barrier types: physical shields, magic scanners, and spatial locks. Redundant and hard to break. Built to stop A-Rank invaders.

The spatial locks were interesting. They locked the air and space into place, stopping standard teleportation spells from working inside the palace.

However, Void Step: Annihilation didn’t teleport through normal space. It destroyed space completely and recreated him somewhere else. The locks couldn’t stop him if the space itself ceased to exist.

’If I need to escape, I can. Their magic locks can’t stop my dissolution.’

He saved the plan in his mind, right next to the guard turns, sensor locations, and wall structures. If the King tried to trap him, Alvian already knew how to escape.

The group stopped at a massive white stone and gold door, fifteen meters tall. Two Level 65 Royal Knights guarded the entrance with drawn swords.

The Commander turned to him.

"The King will see you soon," she said. "Wait in the guest room until you are called."

Not the throne room. A guest room. The King was making him wait on purpose to show off his power, trying to make the poor boy feel small.

Alvian didn’t complain. He had 71 hours left, and every minute the King wasted was another minute Alvian’s INT 142 spent studying the palace’s defense systems.

"Fine," Alvian said.

The doors opened to reveal the guest room. It was built to look like a luxury hotel room, but it was really a fancy prison cell. It had super soft silk sheets, perfect temperature control, expensive light fixtures, and a big garden window blocked by anti-teleportation magic.

The walls had magic-dampening crystals hidden behind wood panels. His INT 142 picked up the weak magic signals coming through the walls. This room would weaken his skill power by about twenty percent if he tried to fight inside it.

It wasn’t enough to stop him, but it proved the King was being careful.

The door shut behind him with a quiet click, locking automatically. Two Level 55 Royal Knights stood guard outside. He could hear their steady breathing through the heavy door.

He was alone.

[DING!]

[Host status: Trapped in Royal Palace guest room.]

[Room security: Level 55 Royal Knights (2) outside.]

[Window magic barrier: ACTIVE.]

[Wall magic dampener: ACTIVE (-20% Skill power).]

[Space locks: ACTIVE (Can bypass with Void Step: Annihilation).]

[System Note: The King spent a lot of money to make this room hard to escape.]

[System Note: "Hard" and "Impossible" are two different things.]

[System Note: Your S-Rank Skills make it very easy.]

Alvian stood in the center of the room with his broken sword at his side. His EXP Bank held 235,000,000 EXP. His body was Level 70, with raw stats much higher than old veteran fighters. His INT 142 mind was already making escape plans.

The King would probably offer him a deal. A high noble title to buy his loyalty, or a forced marriage to control him. That was how the Royal Family usually controlled people who were too strong to kill.

Alvian would say no. He didn’t care about noble titles or rich lives. He only wanted one thing: the Tears of the Phoenix. Three bottles of golden medicine that could cure Martha’s disease, hidden deep inside the Royal Treasury below the palace.

He could steal them by force. His Domain would dissolve the Treasury walls, and Void Step would bypass all defenses. His stats made every guard in this palace weak compared to him.

But stealing them meant starting a full war against the King. With Fate Enforcers coming in 71 hours, he couldn’t waste time fighting a war. He needed the King to hand them over, or at least stand out of the way.

He would talk nicely first. Ask once. If the King refused, he would take them by force.

He sat on the edge of the silk bed. After sleeping on hard mattresses in the Undercity his whole life, the bed felt weirdly soft.

He set his broken sword on the bed next to him. He looked at the cracked metal. This cheap blade had killed giant beetles, sewer rats, mercenaries, a Duke, four thousand monsters, and a Rank 5 Boss. Now it was split down the middle, its magic blue veins dark and dead.

He needed a new weapon. The old sword was completely finished. It carried him all the way from the poor slums to the Royal Palace, but it couldn’t fight anymore.

He placed it down carefully on the silk sheet.

’Thanks,’ he thought silently.

The System screen glowed softly in the dark room.

[EXP Bank: 235,000,000 EXP available to use.]

[Time until Fate Enforcer arrival: 71 hours, 4 minutes.]

[Best time to break into Treasury: 8 hours, 17 minutes from now.]

[Advice: Rest. Plan. Prepare.]

[Tomorrow you meet the King.]

[The King is Level 72. You are Level 70.]

[On paper, the King is stronger.]

[On paper, you couldn’t stop a Rank 5 boss’s fist with your bare hand either.]

[Paper numbers don’t mean much anymore.]

Alvian lay back on the soft bed. The ceiling was painted with giant art showing the ancient Royal Family heroes covered in expensive gold paint.

He closed his eyes.

His INT 142 kept working, calculating every detail: guard routes, magic barrier frequencies, Treasury locations, and Void Step target spots.

The timer kept ticking down in his mind.

71 hours. The King. The Tears. Martha. The Fate Enforcers.

Four problems. Three days.

He would figure it out. He always did.

The room stayed quiet. The guards outside breathed softly. The magic barriers hummed silently. Somewhere in the palace, the King was preparing a trap deal for the boy who caught a titan’s fist.

Alvian went to sleep.

A/N

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