The good news was that, thanks to Leon's Ghostly Stride, he had delivered all the Fear-Repelling Powder to his companions at once, curing everyone's abnormal conditions.
The bad news was—
Because their condition after returning from the underground city had been extremely abnormal, many people saw through their excuse that they would not be entering Sain Underground City for the time being. Their secret competition had been exposed.
The Strategy Group's reputation became somewhat awkward for a time.
This matter was neither particularly major nor particularly minor.
At most, it shattered everyone's deification of the Strategy Group. So even the mighty Strategy Group could fail in an underground city. Hehe, turns out I'm not much different from them. We're all unlucky bastards who died in there.
Some people who had blindly worshipped them also had their illusions shattered, and the way they looked at Leon became strange.
While heading home to get money, he ran into some people as he passed the Adventurer's Guild. He understood everything from the looks in their eyes.
Good news took a long time to spread, but bad news could sweep through the whole city in less than an hour.
Secretly competing was nothing, but putting on airs in front of everyone and packaging yourself as some god who cleared the dungeon in one life was a little damaging to one's public image.
It was far from a matter of poor character, but to Leon, it was undoubtedly a devastating blow.
He had three great hobbies in life: showing off, acting cool, and displaying his greatness before others.
(Aren't those all the same thing!?)
Because of childhood trauma and various other factors, he had become someone who craved attention. He wanted people to cheer for him everywhere he went, like he was a star.
So