Arriving at the 'Housing Hall', Alexander stopped for a moment, taking in the awe inspiring name, before walking slowly inside.
Going to a random counter, he stopped behind some people. Waiting in line for a minute, it was soon his turn.
"Hello, how may I assist you?" Asking the same question over and over again, the young woman seemed robotic.
"I'm new, I want a lodging." Bluntly giving her an order, he did not even see her flinch, as if she had not heard him.
"Please wait a moment." Moving stiffly, she reached under the counter, taking out a wooden token, before handing it over to him.
"Here, this is the key and map to your lodging, next!"
Leaving the housing hall, Alexander swiped the token using his Divine Sense. Once done, he headed toward his house, following the token's instructions.
'This lady was truly weird, maybe I should've scanned her... Now I'm wondering whether or not she was a puppet...
Actually never mind, I've seen puppets that acted more human than her.'
Not entertaining his thoughts any longer, he looked straight ahead.
A small metal gate, the entrance to his lodging was right in front of him. Pushing it, Alexander froze.
"Ah!"
Having forgotten to use his token, the gate was still closed. Unfortunately for him, Alexander thought it was normal, until the gate was torn off the short surrounding walls by his casual move, crashing onto the pavement.
'Well, that's a great start!'
Intending on entering anyway, Alexander froze one more time, hearing footsteps from his right.
"Hey! You! What the hell happened?!" A white robed young man shouting, his left shoulder adorned a metallic pauldron, shining a deep black.
"Senior! This man just destroyed this house's gate! I saw it with my own twenty eyes!"
Frowning, both Alexander and the young man looked at whoever had spoken. Both regretting their curiosity mere moments later.
"What the fuck are you?!"
"Ew! Junior, why are you so disgusting? Please be respectful of our field of vision!" While Alexander did not care about face, the young man had to, giving good compliments to this witness.
Crying, the thing left running, its heart broken, its twenty eyes blurry.
'What kind of race was that?! I might have to ask the council, or whatever they call themselves, to eliminate this abomination!'
"Brother, while this gentle witness said so, I am still not sure. Did you really break this gate? If so, depending on the situation, you might have to suffer some consequences!" Quick on his feet, the young man immediately dived into the matter at hand.
"I did, but that's my lodging, I wanted to enter... but I forgot it was locked, so as you can see, I pushed and it broke. I think this academy should give me compensation! After all, this gate could've fallen on me, and that's without even mentioning the quality of it, what kind of security does this piece of scrap metal offer?! How can people cultivate with piece of mind when anyone could just break past the gate?!"
Taking a step back, the young man was not sure how to respond.
'What do you mean security!? These gates' materials along their arrays are enough to even stop a Grand Tribulation Realm expert! How did you even break it?!'
"Brother, let's not jump to conclusion, I honestly cannot see how you could've destroyed that gate with a Star Emperor Realm cultivation base, if the gate was truly defective, then it is the academy's fault, otherwise..."
Not caring about what he himself said, Alexander took pleasure in scamming the academy.
'Heh! You think your gate is so strong, actually, I could make anyone at the True Star Realm make this gate completely useless, you people are so weird... Every time I see places like this, everything is covered in arrays and shit, but never the ground! While I did use my physical body to tear it apart, meaning it was my fault, it doesn't mean I can't make the academy take the blame!'
"Well, if I can make you, young man, bypass a gate as well, will you believe me?" A smirk visible, Alexander made the young man waver.
"This..."
'Let me expand your horizon!' Scanning the gate next door, Alexander smiled even more.
'Shock absorption arrays, this is the dumbest shit I've seen in a while... so many arrays, for nothing!'
"Friend, what do you say, if you can bypass it, will the academy take fault?"
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"...I'm very curious, let's do it then! If you can make another gate useless like this one, the academy will cover everything! You have my word!"
Glancing around, Alexander laughed internally at the number of witnesses.
"Then all you have to do is simply dig under the gate! While you can't jump because of the arrays, you don't have to worry about them underground!"
'Honestly, I'm not sure, I would not be surprised if either way.'
Following his instructions, the young man punched the ground, missing the gate. Seeing a hole forming, the young man had a bad premonition, but he still continued with a flurry of blows.
Barely a minute later, a tunnel connecting each side of the gate was present. With a look of disbelief, the young man did not know what to say, while Alexander had a disdaining expression.
'It actually worked! Best academy of the Universe? This poor, incapable academy, is so broke it cannot even afford to protect the ground... the best academy in the Universe?'
"Well, since I won this bet, I'm sure the academy won't make things difficult for me."
Gritting his teeth, the young man felt robbed.
'This bastard is playing with words! The gate itself is still fine, but I agreed on the term 'useless', and it indeed now is.'
Sigh
"Fine, I'll report this to the academy, in the meantime, you'll have to make do with a broken gate." Turning around, the youth departed the same way he came.
Walking over the gate, Alexander entered his lodging, happy with the design.
'It's like a miniature manor, the lodgings aren't bad, I'll give them that!'
Not following the usual routine of students here, Alexander simply stayed holed up inside, waiting for something interesting to happen.
During this time, his gate had already been fixed by the academy.
On the third week, Alexander caught on a hushed discussion near his house. Curious, he perked his ears, listening to the young man and woman.
"Senior brother, is it true that Gregory is going to fight against Shao Yang? Wasn't senior Gregory a World Founder Realm expert? Why bother with senior Shao?"
"What do you know? I heard that senior Shao has broken through the World Founder Realm a while ago! I'm sure it's because of that reward he got during the monthly tournament! People say that even senior Gong was jealous!" Explaining to his junior sister, the young man could not hide his greed any longer.
'If I could get my hands on it, I wouldn't be stuck at the peak of the Star Emperor Realm!'
Having collected enough information, Alexander stopped listening.
'I guess this is the best I'll get... Let's see then, what is so great about them.' Waving his hand, Alexander's Dao of Space fluctuated greatly, ignoring any attempt of the arrays within the academy desperately trying to stop him.
Since the academy was so vast, Alexander had to use his Divine Sense, as locating the fight would be nigh-impossible without it.
His figure slowly forming high into the sky, he overlooked an arena below. This arena was a flat square of slabs, each side a few hundred kilometers wide.
On each extremity, two young men in white robes could be seen, sparks of enmity almost tangible in between.
As the young man on the right, his black ponytail fluttering under his aura, was staring directly at the other man, he roared in anger, kicking the ground as his figure vanished, leaving behind a spiderweb crack onto the arena.
Facing him, the other young man with white hair seemed ignorant of his opponent's movement, not reacting to the leg flying at his head from behind.
Ducking, his face calm, the white haired youth simply waited for a moment before standing back up. In the meantime, the other young man, his kick missing, was trying to adjust his position mid-air.
However, his target did not stay still for long, waving his left arm widely behind, striking the black haired man on his waist, slapping his body far away.
"You!" Finished tumbling like a ragdoll, the young man was truly angered.
Wondering who was who between the two, Alexander luckily heard someone talk about the fight from the seats around the arena.
"Senior brother Gregory is truly the strongest of the younger generation! I don't know why senior brother Shao would try and fight this monster, if he can survive this fight with only broken bones, then he must thank his good fortune!"
'So the white haired one is Gregory, I see... Not bad, peak stage World Founder Realm... As for the other one... is this guy blind? He barely entered the same major realm as that guy and he tries to fight him head on... I don't understand people sometimes.' Shaking his head, Alexander already knew the outcome of the fight, and indeed a few minutes later, Gregory was already fed up with his opponent.
"Junior brother Shao, I think it's time to stop, please forgive my impertinence!" Blurring, Gregory's figure disappeared, before quickly reappearing right behind Shao Yang, punching him violently on the spine.
"Argh!" His face a testimony of the pain he went through, Shao Yang's ragdoll of a body was sent flying, crashing onto a wall of light protecting the spectators.
The barrier of light rippling for a single breath before stabilizing, the black haired youth's body was not so lucky.
Gregory scoffing from the opposite edge of the arena was ready to leave, but just as he took a step outside, he turned back around.
"Who are you?" Keeping his composure, Gregory did not act rashly, probing the young man who intruded first.
"Me?" Pointing at himself, Alexander looked around prior to glaring back at Gregory.
"Do names matter? I just felt like playing with you, so I don't think it's important to introduce ourselves."
Noticing Alexander's purple robes, Gregory was irritated to no end.
"Of course it does! But since you want to court death, then let this young master give it to you!" Accelerating, Gregory soon attained Alexander's position, sending a punch brimming with power at him.
Seeing the white light coming from the fist barely a meter away from him, Alexander had only one thing in mind.
'Why is he so rude to me?! Even with that idiot before, he acted politely... somewhat. But here he just gets mad all of a sudden, I must teach this kid a lesson!'
Standing still, Alexander let the blinding punch hit him on the sternum.
"Guh!" Groaning with pain, Gregory frowned deeply, swiftly retreating a few hundred meters.
'Is this guy made out of metal?! Even my Phantasm-Tier low grade martial art couldn't make him flinch!'
While Gregory used a martial art beyond his capabilities, he could still multiply his raw attack power with it. He was truly shocked when he first made contact with Alexander, feeling as if he was an ant trying to shake a mountain. His punch that could threaten even Grand Tribulation Realm experts was just as effective as air!
Before Gregory could replenish his Star Qi, he saw Alexander's fist closing in on him.
Not having enough time to dodge the lightning fast blow, he could only curse, as the punch devoid of Star Qi hit his face, crushing his skull piece by piece. Blood oozing out of his orifices, brain matter seeped out of the back, before falling like goo onto the arena.
Shaking his hand, Alexander tried his best at removing all of Gregory's insides. But some of it kept clinging to him, forcing his hand to use Star Qi to remove everything.