Journey to Planar World

Chapter 467: Small Fish and Big Fish

Charlie was not the kind of man who lingered in indecision. The promise he had made to Karen and Huey Claes, to bring their daughter Anna home, was a sworn obligation that demanded immediate action.

The moment he stepped out through the doorway of the Hostess of Fertility, the warmth of the pub was replaced at once by the cold composure that settled over his face.

Among the arsenal of abilities at his disposal, there was one perfectly suited to locating a person in a matter of seconds. Senrigan.

Senrigan, one of the most absolute Shinjutsu, or divine techniques, ever to exist. Originally belonging to Otsutsuki Shibai, this ability had come to Charlie as a reward from a Quest, and it had since become one of his most closely held weapons.

It was among the most powerful ocular techniques introduced in the Boruto: Naruto Next Generations series, a divine ability that had originally belonged to Otsutsuki Shibai before passing to Eida. Charlie had come to possess it through the same means.

Unlike the Rinnegan or Sharingan, which carried offensive and defensive applications, Senrigan allowed its user to observe and hear any event occurring anywhere in the world in real time, functioning something like a global surveillance system.

For Charlie, finding Anna was not a matter of searching for a needle in a haystack. He simply focused his intent, activated Senrigan, and her situation became immediately clear in his mind.

"Good. Anna is still alright. There's still time."

Standing amid the flow of Orario's evening foot traffic, none of whom had any idea a predator was moving among them, Charlie allowed himself a quiet breath of relief.

His mental projection confirmed that Anna had not yet been mistreated. But that relief was immediately followed by a colder thought.

"Before I deal with the big fish, let's take care of the small ones first. After all, the small fish are the ones doing the actual work, netting unfortunate girls like Anna and delivering them to whoever's pulling the strings."

He had no intention of being charitable enough to let those accomplices walk free to find their next victim.

Charlie slipped into the dimness of a narrow alley, moving away from public view to change his appearance.

As he did, a fragment of memory surfaced without warning. It was his mentor's voice, from the days when he had still been a police cadet in his previous life.

"Listen, Charlie. I'm teaching you reason and integrity, but that doesn't mean we let others walk all over us. If you're hit, hit back. If you're hurt, you have every right to hit harder."

Those words had been pressed into the soul of the idealistic young man one at a time.

"Losing your humanity might cost you many beautiful things. But losing your ferocity, your fangs and claws, and you will lose everything."

Though the image of his mentor's face had grown hazy with time, the philosophy remained Charlie's moral compass. He shook his head, dismissing the nostalgia as misplaced.

*BUZZ!*

From the Space-Time Cache, the dimensional storage contained within the bracelet on his right wrist, he drew out a set of dark clothing and a long hooded robe.

When Charlie stepped back out of the alley and rejoined the crowd, he was a different person.

His identity was buried beneath the hood. Not a single soul on the streets of Orario noticed that the figure who had just passed them was Solo Leveling, the rising Level 6 Adventurer.

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That night, the sky above Orario deepened slowly into a dense, dark blue. Above it all, the moon hung like a silent witness watching from beyond the great walls that encircled the city.

Charlie walked at an unhurried pace, passing rows of dwarves and Demi-Humans who had drunk themselves into loud, snoring heaps along the roadside. Most of the shops had already drawn their shutters, but in the Shopping District and the Entertainment District, a different kind of life was only just getting started.

Orario was a city that refused to sleep, no matter how late the hour grew. Even in the grimy back alleys, the glow from magic stone lamps still bled through the cracks of bar doors, lighting the cobblestones as those establishments continued serving rough laborers and low-ranking adventurers looking for somewhere to lose themselves in a cheap drink.

With the hood of his robe drawn forward over his face, Charlie stopped in front of a secluded bar.

It was tucked deep inside a back alley, well beyond the reach of the main street's noise, as though it had deliberately pulled itself away from the city's rule of law.

He descended a damp flight of steps and pushed open a wooden door whose surface had long since begun to rot and splinter.

The scene that greeted him was the particular kind of disorder that only existed in places like this. Under dim lighting, a cluster of dwarves roared with laughter until their faces went red, while several Amazoness women in provocative clothing deflected crude advances with cold and dangerous smiles. Various Demi-Human races crowded around stain-covered wooden tables, their heavy voices combining into a wall of noise. The sharp smell of smoke and something burnt hung motionless in the air, thickening the atmosphere until it felt oppressive.

In another corner, a group of men in iron-plated clothing, evidently both regulars and minor enforcers of whatever order existed here, were drinking recklessly. They made no effort to restrain themselves from harassing any woman who walked past. Whether they were adventurers or common street thugs made little difference. What was clear was that they were troublemakers in search of trouble.

(This place is nothing short of a den of criminals.) Charlie thought, his eyes beneath the hood continuing to sweep the room.

His unfamiliar presence landed like a pebble dropped into a grimy still pool. The surrounding noise dropped, replaced by low whispers and hard, suspicious stares pressing in from the shadows. Without acknowledging the hostile atmosphere, Charlie walked steadily toward the center of the room.

He stopped directly in front of a round table that had been the center of the noise. Scattered across its stained wooden surface were heaps of gold coins and a mess of dealt cards, the remnants of a game that had halted the moment he walked in.

"You're a new face around here. What does a kid like you want in a place like this?"

The voice came from a large human man with a sword hanging at his hip. Around him, a number of Demi-Human adventurers stood in postures designed to intimidate. With subordinates flanking him on every side, it was clear enough that this man held authority in the den.

"Have you heard the name Anna Claes?" Charlie asked, his tone carrying all the warmth of winter stone.

At the name, the big man's grin spread wide, baring a crooked row of teeth, as though he had just found an interesting new toy to break.

Without a verbal signal, his subordinates began shifting with practiced ease toward the exits, sealing off the only way out and penning Charlie inside the narrow trap of the room.

"What, are you her friend or something?" the man asked, his voice thick with mockery.

He laughed coarsely, and his companions laughed with him. "That girl is a gem, you know. You'd never believe she was just an ordinary city girl just by looking at her. Stunning, really. I even thought about sampling the goods myself before handing her over. Ha ha ha—!"

His laughter rang through the stuffy room, while Charlie remained motionless where he stood, a quiet, steady anger beginning to burn behind the eyes hidden beneath his hood.

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