CHAPTER 42: THE BROKEN SCHOOL
The wind on Earth felt different.... calm but heavy.
Kelvin stepped out of the glowing gate and looked at his reflection in a puddle. His body was covered in faint traces of cosmic energy, his hoodie still glowing softly with starlight. He exhaled slowly and lifted his hand, commanding the hoodie to change. The radiant cosmic fabric began to fade, shrinking its glow until it became nothing more than a simple white cloth.
In seconds, he looked like an ordinary young man again.... no energy waves, no magical light, no sign that he had just fought five Titanic Beasts in a dungeon. He pulled the hood over his head and covered most of his face.
"I need to stay low for now," he muttered quietly.
The streets looked quieter than usual. It had only been two months since he entered the dungeon, yet everything already felt different. He made his way back to his hostel, walking through familiar paths that once echoed with laughter and arguments from students. But as he approached the gates, his steps slowed down.
The entire school area was distroyed.
Where there used to be tall buildings and green fields, now stood a field of ruins.... walls broken, glass scattered, and smoke still rising faintly from the ground. Yellow barricade tape covered most of the entrance, and a line of black vans stood in front of what was left of the school. Armed agents in black armor patrolled the area. Some were scanning debris, others were writing notes on glowing tablets.
Kelvin froze.
His chest tightened.
He could feel something twisting inside his stomach.
"What happened here..." he whispered.
He wanted to rush in, to demand answers, but he forced himself to stop. He hid behind a broken fence and watched. The place looked like a war zone. He could even sense leftover traces of mana in the air.... strong mana.... powerful enough to belong to an S-ranker.
Kelvin clenched his fists.
He had only been gone for two months. Two short months. How could something this big happen in such a short time?
He walked around the side quietly until he found a man standing beside a broken car, watching the scene. The man looked like a local worker or maybe someone curious like him. Kelvin adjusted his hood and walked up slowly.
"Excuse me," Kelvin said calmly. "I have not been around for two months.... what happened here? Why is the whole school destroyed and filled with agents?"
The man looked at him, a bit surprised. "You mean you really don't know?"
Kelvin shook his head.
The man sighed and scratched his head. "Well.... they say there was an S-rank battle here. The kind you see on the news sometimes. The whole place went down like paper."
Kelvin blinked. "An S-rank battle.... here?"
He could feel confusion flooding his mind. He had lived through two lifetimes. He knew every major S-rank battle that ever took place in the early stages of humanity's awakening. There was never one in this school. Not in any of his lives.
The man continued, clearly excited to have someone to tell the story to.
"They say the government invited an Asian S-ranker to track down someone.... someone who was leaking dungeon information to people online. Anonymous dungeon tips. You know, stuff like hidden routes, boss weaknesses, dungeon rewards. That sort of thing."
Kelvin's heart skipped.
He said nothing.
The man shrugged. "But things went bad. According to rumors, one of the students here was acting strange. He got into a fight.... they say he bullied his classmate or something. But that classmate turned out to be dangerous. The student attacked first, but then that foreign S-ranker arrived and destroyed half the place trying to stop him. The government said the student was fused with a dangerous beast.... but it doesn't make sense to me."
Kelvin's lips parted slightly.
"Who was the student?" he asked quietly.
The man tried to remember. "Uh.... I can't recall his name. Wait.... it started with M I think. Maybe Mark or Mike or...." He frowned and looked around. "Hey, you!" he called to another guy standing nearby. "What was the name of that student who fought the S-ranker?"
The other man replied while checking his phone. "Oh, you mean that boy they caught? His name was Max. Yeah, that's it. Max."
Kelvin's mind went blank.
He didn't even hear the rest of what they were saying. The name alone froze his thoughts. Max.
The boy he had left behind. The one he told the cosmic beast to protect. The one he thought would awaken slowly without drawing attention.
The man was still talking. "They say he transformed or something before getting captured.... crazy stuff. But the S-ranker beat him badly. Now he's in some kind of government facility. You should have seen the fight videos online.... it was...."
By the time the man looked up, Kelvin was gone.
He didn't even see when he moved.
Kelvin's body had vanished from the spot completely, leaving behind a faint distortion in the air. The man blinked, confused. "Huh.... where did he go?"
Meanwhile, Kelvin was already running through the city streets. His steps were heavy and fast, his heart pounding like thunder. His mind was a storm of thoughts.
"Oh no.... what have I done.... What have I done....I shouldn't have left the cosmic beast to protect Max.... I thought it would be enough.... I thought it would be safer...."
He kept running, turning through alleyways, his breath ragged but his speed never slowing down.
"I thought if Max awakened naturally without leveling up too fast, he would go unnoticed.... I didn't know it would bring this kind of attention...."
His voice shook. His vision blurred slightly as anger and regret mixed inside him. The idea that Max was captured.... defeated.... possibly hurt.... burned inside his chest like acid.
He stopped running and slammed his fist against a wall. The concrete cracked under his strength. He leaned forward, panting heavily.
"Think kelvin.... think of something...." he said to himself. "Maybe a way to save Max without causing too much attention.... maybe I could hack the system records or..."
He paused mid-sentence. His hand fell to his side.
He already knew the answer.
There was no way to save Max quietly. Not this time. The moment an S-ranker got involved, everything had gone beyond human control. Even sneaking into a government facility would trigger alarms from their advance magic technology.
He stood there silently for a while, then lifted his head slowly. His eyes glowed faintly.
A calm, cold voice came out of his mouth.
"If.... anyone becomes an obstacle to my plan.... I will break them.... I will destroy them."
As he spoke, A plain white hoodie began to shift.
[Ark Angel's Hoodie purchased -50,000đź’Ž]
The threads rippled like liquid light, reforming into his Cosmic Hoodie. Silver and Golden-like patterns spread across the surface.
[Luck+5,000] [Charisma+500] [Divinity+80]
The air around him started to vibrate with power.
[Player can now use the Ark Angel's Hoodie]
[Becoming a guardian and protector]
[Offers a boost in luck,charisma,charm,]
[Respect and Divine holy powers]
His face was calm, but inside him burned an unstoppable fury.
You can't tell his expression but can't feel how dangerous and terrifying he is.
"If they want a war.... they will have one," he said quietly.
Then he vanished. The space around him twisted, and in the next instant, he was gone.... leaving behind only a faint echo of golden energy that slowly faded into the night wind.