Not seeking conflict isn't a guarantee of safety. Sometimes, trouble comes knocking.
That was the situation Charlie faced now. He had just been about to push the large Guild door when a voice full of hostility called him from behind with a high tone.
"Hey, you! Are you Solo Leveling?!"
"Haaah..."
Charlie sighed deeply. He turned calmly, his gaze directed at three men standing several meters behind him. They stared at him with deep hatred, as if he had just killed their parents.
"Yes. Solo Leveling is my new alias. What do you want?"
"So you're the newly announced Level 5? Tsk, you don't look strong at all. Look at that thin body with no muscles!"
With a condescending tone, the man in the middle who was a werewolf spoke provocatively. His voice was deliberately raised, drawing the attention of people around them.
As expected, a crowd began to stop and direct their gazes toward Charlie.
"This is it! There's a quarrel!"
"Yahooo~ don't miss the interesting entertainment!"
"Come on, fight! Give me a bloody show!"
Among that crowd, the most delighted party was the gods. For them, conflict was the best spectacle they could get in the lower world.
Charlie frowned. "Who are you? I don't want any grudge between us. Why are you doing this?"
He deliberately stepped slightly forward, blocking Kei from the direct view of the three men—especially from the lecherous gazes they directed at the girl.
"Hmph! I am Jack from Kuebiko Familia! I'm Level 3!"
The werewolf man raised his chin high, announcing his identity with full pride.
"Wow, he's a Second-Class Adventurer! So enviable..."
"No wonder he's arrogant, turns out he has the power to back it up."
"I know him! His alias is Berserk Crazy!"
Hearing the admiring whispers from around, Jack appeared increasingly arrogant. However, Charlie's response was beyond his expectations.
"Never heard of it."
It was clear the other party started the conflict, so Charlie felt no need to be polite anymore.
"You!!! How dare a fraud like you act cocky! Today, I'll expose your rottenness!"
Jack glared angrily, his face reddening from feeling insulted, his right hand already gripping the hilt of the short sword at his waist.
"What exactly are you talking about? I don't understand a single thing you're saying. If there's nothing important, I have to go." Charlie turned around, about to enter the Guild.
"Hah! Look, everyone! He wants to run because he's afraid of being exposed!" Jack shouted again, exploiting Charlie's indifference to strengthen his slander. "Just as I suspected, he's a fake Level 5! It's impossible for an adventurer to level up from Level 1 to Level 5 in less than three months! That must be a dirty trick!"
Hearing Jack's argument, the atmosphere in front of the Guild began to change. His words immediately triggered rumors; adventurers around began whispering to each other with suspicious tones.
"That makes sense too... It's impossible for an High Class Adventurer to appear suddenly without any prior signs."
"Leveling up must be gradual. If he's indeed a genius with the potential to become Level 5, his name would have been heard since he was Level 2 or 3. But this person? He appeared from nowhere!"
"Clearly, this 'Solo Leveling' is very suspicious. We must ask the Guild to reverify his level publicly!"
Those voices began to emerge, creating an atmosphere full of doubt and suspicion toward Charlie.
Charlie himself wasn't bothered at all by all that gossip and slander. For him, their words were just passing wind, but that didn't mean people who cared about him could accept it just like that.
"Charlie-san, these people are despicable!"
Kei was clearly very angry hearing all the baseless accusations thrown at the man she loved. Her hands clenched tightly at her sides.
"Don't just stand there, Charlie-san! Those foolish people think your indifferent attitude is cowardice! Teach them a lesson that the weak should know their place and respect the strong!"
Kei spoke with a firm voice, her eyes blazing. Her anger was clearly visible—she couldn't stand seeing the person she respected and loved being belittled like that.
"... You're right, Kei. It's no longer possible to keep a low profile."
Because of Kei's anger for him, Charlie could no longer ignore Jack. He turned and began walking toward Jack and his two companions.
"What? Angry because I exposed the facts?" Jack sneered, not taking it seriously.
Charlie stopped a few meters from him. In his mind, he remembered Bete Loga from Loki Familia—another werewolf who had also tried to cause trouble with him.
(My affinity with werewolves is indeed very bad. They always start conflicts with me.)
With that thought, he finally spoke. His voice was soft, but carried by the wind and heard clearly by everyone around.
"Is it really that hard to believe about my leveling speed?"
He didn't wait for an answer.
"You think it's impossible because it exceeds your vision and understanding. So, you instinctively reject it. Accepting new things means acknowledging that your old beliefs might be wrong. And people often have a flaw: it's difficult to sincerely admit their own mistakes."
*BUZZ!*
The next second, the magical essence in Charlie's body gathered around him like an invisible mist that began to pressurize.
Feeling Charlie's presence suddenly surge so strongly, Jack unconsciously stepped back. His face began to turn ugly.
Charlie's oppressive aura didn't stop—it continued to grow stronger every second, even people who were just watching began to feel intimidated, except for the gods who only observed with full interest. The effect was similar to Haoshoku Haki that separated the strong from the weak.
However, that wasn't all. Jack and the people around him began to have difficulty breathing. Their backs were wet with cold sweat. As if pressed by suddenly increased gravity, some of them were forced to kneel, even fell to the ground.
Under the suffocating fear, Charlie's indifferent voice echoed in all their ears.
"It must be acknowledged, fools know no fear. Although the Guild legally announced my level increase, some people in this world will always be reckless enough to take the risk of offending me."
"Some people are too confident, assuming that if others can do something, they surely can too. Some people who feel important dismiss my achievements as rumors and consider all those stories just mere theatrics."
He paused, then asked in an almost rhetorical tone: "At this moment, do you still believe I deceived the Guild?"
Along with that question, Charlie without hesitation released all his killing intent.
This wasn't just ordinary aura pressure—this was killing intent accumulated from the slaughter of more than three billion monsters in the Kaguya-sama Planar World. A pure horror born from an ocean of blood and countless despair.
How could adventurers who only usually played in the safe zones of the Dungeon withstand it?
*THUD!* *THUD!* *THUD!* *THUD!* *THUD!*
Many adventurers around immediately fainted, including Jack the Level 3. Their eyes rolled back, their mouths foaming, their bodies helplessly limp.
However, thanks to the precision control of Six Eyes, Charlie's killing intent was only directed at adventurers around him. Kei and people inside the Guild didn't feel anything at all.
"Hisss... Such terrifying killing intent! How many living beings has he killed?!"
"Is he an Evilus? No, that's a demeaning statement. Even Evilus doesn't have killing intent of this caliber!"
"Solo Leveling is from Hera Familia. It's impossible for Hera to accept Evilus into her Familia. But it must be admitted, each member of Hera Familia is a monster."
"You're right. Hera Familia and Zeus Familia are truly filled with talented people. Alfia who was 16 years old already reached Level 7, while Ais only reached Level 6 at the same age. They might have started at almost the same age, but Alfia might have been slightly slower at the beginning, yet remained consistent and surpassed Ais in growth speed after reaching Level 5."
"Looking at the current generation of Adventurers, they're somewhat disappointing. I can't blame them entirely, blame the Guild! They tell Adventurers not to venture too far, when that has become the status quo. I'm not saying adventurers should recklessly commit suicide to become stronger. But I'm trying to say they should fight something stronger than them occasionally to measure their strength."
Meanwhile, the gods were completely unaffected by Charlie's killing intent. They instead assessed it with amazement and discussed with each other, as if judging an interesting performance.
"You're amazing, Charlie-san! You defeated them just with intimidation!" Kei whispered admiringly, her eyes sparkling with admiration.
"Alright. Our business was delayed because of these people." Charlie said while pulling back all his killing intent.
The surrounding atmosphere instantly felt lighter, though still filled with unconscious bodies.
"Let's go in and register yourself."
Calmly, he took Kei's hand and brought her into the Guild building, leaving chaos and amazed gasps from the gods behind them.