"Then let’s see if you actually have what it takes to protect this place! Boys, move out! Smash the shop and take everything!"

  Iron Wolf snapped, his voice a guttural roar of desperation and fury.

  "I dare you to try!" Tiger Hunt growled. He whipped the massive greataxe from his back, holding it across his chest with eyes wide and glaring.

  The atmosphere in the shop turned electric, balanced on a knife's edge.

  The commotion caused by the Iron Wolf Gang had naturally drawn the attention of the neighboring shopkeepers. They were currently huddled outside the glass walls, craning their necks to catch a glimpse of the fallout.

  "Isn't that the leader of the Iron Wolf Gang himself?"

  "That’s him alright. Since his thugs failed last night, he’s come to handle the 'renovation' personally."

  "What a shame for this new shop. It hasn't even been open for a week, and it's already finished."

  "Indeed. No shop marked by the Iron Wolf Gang has ever survived intact."

  The onlookers whispered fervently, but not a single soul bet on Kael’s survival. Even with the two frozen statues still standing as grim warnings on the sidewalk, they assumed the sheer numbers of the gang would prevail.

  "It seems..." Kael began, his hands resting calmly on the counter as he broke the suffocating silence. "...that you all truly do not take me seriously as the Manager of this establishment."

  "You?"

  Iron Wolf shot a dismissive glance at Kael. He sensed zero threat from the youth.

  "You? A frail brat like you thinks he can do what? If Tiger Hunt wasn't standing here today, you’d already be on your knees begging for mercy," Iron Wolf sneered.

  The lackeys behind him erupted into raucous laughter. To them, Kael’s words were as absurd as a sheep telling a wolf it intended to bite back.

  SHING!

  Iron Wolf unsheathed the heavy two-handed blade from his back, pointing it straight at Tiger Hunt. "Boys, move! I’ll pin down Tiger Hunt myself."

  "Whoever grabs those three Skill Crystals first gets three nights of glory at the Yellow Flower Pavilion—on the house!"

  The Yellow Flower Pavilion was the most famous brothel in Cloud Mist City. Mercenaries, who lived their lives on a razor's edge, lived for such carnal rewards. At the mention of the bounty, the gang members let out hungry roars, raising their weapons to hack at the display shelves.

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  [System: Rioters detected within the shop. Defense System activated.] [System: Within the shop's domain, the Manager's dignity is inviolable!]

  In that heartbeat, Kael felt the surge of majestic, boundless power once more. It was even more potent than the night before.

  CLANG!

  Tiger Hunt swung his axe, meeting Iron Wolf’s blade in a shower of sparks and the screech of grinding steel. But mid-swing, he felt a bone-chilling aura erupt from behind him.

  "Frost Congealment."

  Kael’s voice was flat, carrying the cold indifference of a judge delivering a sentence.

  The moment the words left his lips, a terrifying wave of mana rippled through the shop. Yet, miraculously, not a single piece of furniture or merchandise was disturbed.

  In an instant, every person reaching for a shelf—save for Tiger Hunt and Iron Wolf—was flash-frozen into a lifelike ice sculpture, identical to the ones on the street.

  "What... what happened?!"

  Tiger Hunt and Iron Wolf froze mid-action, their bodies locked in shock. Outside, the gathering crowd of shopkeepers stood in stunned silence, their minds going blank at the sheer impossibility of the scene.

  "I appreciate the gesture," Kael said expressionlessly, slowly shifting his gaze to Iron Wolf. "But I think I’ll handle this myself."

  The moment those eyes locked onto him, Iron Wolf felt a piercing, primal chill. It was as if his very power had been sealed away, leaving him naked in a blizzard. The cold was so absolute it felt as though his blood was crystallizing in his veins.

  "Impossible... A Mage of your caliber... why? Why would you open a shop in a place like Cloud Mist City?!" Iron Wolf stammered. His body was stiff, his fingers numb.

  "That is my business," Kael said coldly. "If you ever dare cause trouble here again, the Iron Wolf Gang will be erased from the map of this city."

  "N-no... I wouldn't dare. Never again! Spare me, My Lord... please, have mercy!" Iron Wolf’s teeth chattered. He forced his rigid fingers to open, letting his heavy blade clatter to the floor—a desperate gesture of surrender.

  Against a Mage of this level, resistance was a joke. Iron Wolf knew that if that spell had been directed at him, he would be a block of ice right now. The sheer pressure of that mana meant this young man could crush him like an ant with a single thought.

  Kael’s eyes remained icy. "I welcome every customer who enters my shop. But if you come to stir up trouble, you’d better weigh your own soul first and see if you’re heavy enough to survive it."

  "Now, take your men and get out."

  "Yes! Yes, right away!"

  Relieved as if granted a divine pardon, Iron Wolf didn't dare waste another second. He moved with frantic speed, hauling the frozen statues of his men out of the shop as fast as he could.

  The onlookers outside felt as though they were trapped in a dream. Is that really the Iron Wolf Gang? Are we seeing things?

  But the aura of terror still radiating from the shop told them this was no hallucination. This "Manager" was a monster in human skin. After this humiliation, the Iron Wolf Gang was crippled; it would take a long time to recover their former strength.

  The other shopkeepers swallowed hard and scurried back to their own businesses. One collective thought was etched into their minds: Never, ever cross Kael.

  "B-Boss... I had no idea you were this powerful," Tiger Hunt said with a sheepish grin, rubbing the back of his neck as he sheathed his axe. He felt a bit embarrassed, as if his earlier intervention had been entirely redundant.

  "No, thank you for stepping up," Kael said, his face still a mask of indifference.

  In reality, he was hiding the sudden wave of exhaustion as the System retracted the power. While the defense system could imbue him with godlike strength, the limit was tied to his own physical capacity. If the System pushed too much power into his low-level body, he would literally burst.

  Ultimately, he realized, he needed to increase his own base level.

  "I just can't get over the fact that you actually have Skill Crystals for sale," Tiger Hunt mused. "Most people would hoard those like their lives depended on it."