CHAPTER 263: THIS CAN’T BE STANDARD REWARDS

The glow faded. Just like that.

The plaza was empty now—no NPCs, no other players. Just Kieran and the squad, standing in silence at the ruins of what used to be the Fallen Star Demon’s altar. The system must’ve cleared the area automatically after the fight. Reset protocols. Clean-up phase. Whatever. It didn’t matter.

It was quiet.

Arianna broke the silence first. She walked slowly over to one of the fractured pillars and sat down, stretching her arms overhead.

"Gods," she muttered, "my hands are still shaking."

Jack was crouched near the wrecked ground where the demon had exploded. His hand hovered above the faint shimmer of loot drops suspended mid-air—waiting to be claimed. "This can’t be standard rewards," he muttered.

"No way," said Erren, dropping to one knee beside him. "There’s core fragments here. Two... maybe three legendary-tier items. That crystal’s unstable. I can feel it from here."

Elamenor stood near the edge of the cracked arena, sword sheathed, eyes distant. Not watching them. Just thinking.

Kieran didn’t move.

He was still gripping Void Breaker loosely, the blade humming faintly like it was asleep. His breathing was steady now, but his muscles were tight—like he was bracing for something that hadn’t ended.

The sword had stopped glowing, but it didn’t feel normal. It still floated slightly in his grip, weightless. Alive.

Arianna looked over at him. "You alright?"

He nodded once. "Just... processing."

Elamenor turned. "The way you moved. That technique... wasn’t from this game."

Kieran looked up. "It just came to me. I didn’t plan it."

"No one plans something like that," Elamenor replied. "That sword—it wasn’t coded to you. It changed with you."

Kieran opened his mouth to reply—but stopped.

A new system window blinked.

⟨CLASS AWAKENING UNLOCKED: Sovereign Path⟩ ⟨Location: NovaCorp Network Terminal Required⟩

He frowned. Not a game prompt. Not a typical UI.

"What’s wrong?" Arianna asked, walking up beside him.

He turned the screen to her. She stared.

"Is that... real-world access?"

"I think so."

Jack walked over too. "Never seen that interface. That’s not Eclipse coding."

Elamenor raised an eyebrow. "You’re triggering off-script content."

Kieran dismissed the message. "It mentioned a terminal. At NovaCorp."

Erren whistled. "You gonna go?"

Kieran stood up. "I think I have to."

---

Adams stared at the footage again, now isolated to a small screen on his desk. Everyone had gone. Only shadows filled the edges of the observation lab.

He ran the combat logs from the Fallen Star fight. Again.

Code fragments had appeared in the data feed. Null strings. Recursive loops that weren’t supposed to exist in a controlled simulation. But they weren’t glitches—they were reactions. Caused by him.

Void Breaker wasn’t a weapon anymore. It had become a node. A trigger.

A link.

"Chrono-Spatial Anchor detected," the system noted in small red letters.

He turned to the security footage from the real-world pod chamber.

Kieran’s vitals had spiked mid-fight. Brainwave patterns shifted. His body had synced with the neural field in a way they hadn’t seen since the original prototypes. As if his thoughts were writing the code directly.

It wasn’t possible.

And yet—

Another tab blinked. External ping. Admin-only channel.

He opened it.

A simple message:

Subject 03 has awakened. Recommend observation only. Do not interfere with Terminal Route 1.

Adams read it three times.

Subject 03?

There were no Subjects anymore. The project had been shut down.

He opened the old files from the archive. Black folders, top clearance.

There it was.

03 – Designation: Void Sovereign Archetype

He closed his eyes.

"Shit."

---

The dorm room was dark now. Kieran hadn’t turned on the lights. Just sat on the edge of the bed, visor still warm from the session.

He tapped his phone once.

No new messages. The squad had gone quiet.

He stared out the window. NovaCity’s skyline buzzed faintly in the distance. Hoverboards zipped by now and then. A Nova Glide passed low, casting a slow shadow across his ceiling.

His mind was still inside the arena. Still stuck in that moment when the blade had moved without his command. When space itself had bent around his swing.

He held out his hand.

The air shimmered. Just barely. Like heat distortion.

He lowered it.

Then reached over and slid open his drawer.

Inside was a black keycard.

NOVA CORP – INTERNAL ACCESS – RESTRICTED USE ONLY

He stared at it for a long time.

Then stood.

---

The NovaCorp tower loomed like a monolith. No fanfare. No traffic. Just the quiet hum of tech and the glow of internal lights.

Kieran stepped into the private terminal wing, swiping the keycard against the side panel.

The door opened with a soft hiss.

Inside: a small room. One chair. One interface.

No windows.

He stepped in and sat.

The screen in front of him flickered to life.

⟨Confirm Identity: Kieran Vale⟩

"Confirmed."

⟨Begin Awakening Sequence?⟩

"...Yes."

The room dimmed. The chair sank slightly. Neural connectors slid into place.

⟨Initiating Sovereign Path Integration...⟩

Darkness.

Then—

A voice.

But not AI.

Something older. Deeper.

⟨You walk the edge of time and void.⟩

Symbols formed across his mind. Not words—meanings. Pure, heavy, impossible.

⟨Pathless. Anchorless. Free.⟩

⟨Void Sovereign – Integration Commencing⟩

⟨Stage One: Chrono-Spatial Memory Unlock⟩

His breath hitched. He wasn’t dreaming.

He was remembering.

Another place. Another fight.

And him.

The same blade.

The same step through folded time.

He had done this before.

A hundred times.

A thousand.

And now—he was doing it again.

But this time, something was different.

This time, he remembered.

—

Kieran’s visor clicked open with a hiss. The pod hissed again, releasing him from its upright lock.

He stepped out into the low-lit room, rubbing the back of his neck. Muscles he forgot he had were sore.

A moment later, the rest of them emerged from their pods. Jack stretched like a cat. Arianna cracked her knuckles. Elamenor popped his shoulders without saying a word. Jameson had already lit a cigarette. Erren grumbled something about coffee.

They stood in the white-tiled hallway of NovaCorp’s VR tower.

"Damn," Jack muttered. "Still feels like my body’s there."

Kieran nodded slowly. "That fight... felt way too real."

Erren tied her hair up. "That’s cause it was. NovaCorp’s tech isn’t normal anymore. Something about this game is evolving."

Jameson took a drag, eyes distant. "Void Breaker... I’ve only ever heard of skills like that in dev leaks. Forbidden tier. The kind of stuff you only unlock if you glitch the system or..." He glanced at Kieran. "Or if you were meant to."

Arianna raised an eyebrow. "You think he was chosen?"

Kieran shook his head. "No one chooses me. I was just trying to stay alive."

But even as he said it—he wasn’t sure he believed it.

Back in the shadows of NovaCorp’s highest floor, Adams stood behind a tinted window, watching them through layered security screens.

A voice buzzed in his ear.

"Sir. The Frostveil servers are stabilizing. Player migration is accelerating."

"Good," Adams said. "Keep monitoring the Void signature. If it spikes again, alert me immediately."

He turned back to the glass.

His eyes weren’t on the city.

They were on Kieran.

And his smile was gone.