If you're looking to read 'Solo Leveling' for free with ads, I’ve poked around the major official platforms so you don’t have to—and here’s what actually tends to work. The original Korean platform, KakaoPage, is where the series ran, and their app (or web portal) sometimes gives out free episodes via daily coupons or timed unlocks; it’s mostly region-focused and in Korean, but international versions or sister services occasionally run ad-supported promos. In Japan, Piccoma uses a very reader-friendly “wait” + ad model: many series let you unlock chapters by waiting a set amount of time or by watching an ad/using a free coin, so Piccoma is one of the more reliable places to find legal free access to individual episodes.
Tappytoon and Tapas are the English-facing services to watch. They often sell chapters, but both have run promotions where a handful of chapters are free or can be opened after watching ads, and Tapas in particular has historically supported an ad-supported reading model for many indie and licensed comics. For the prose side,
webnovel sometimes offers free or ad-supported chapters of the 'Solo Leveling' novel (which is distinct from the manhwa), so if you’re flexible about format, that’s another legit route. A big heads-up: full, current-volume releases in English are usually behind paywalls on these services, so most apps offer samples, rotating freebies, or ad/timer-based unlocking rather than the entire run for free.
I try to stick to these official channels—it’s a bit of a scavenger hunt, but when an app drops a free chapter via ads, the payoff is sweet. Happy hunting, and I hope you catch a streak of free unlocks soon—those cliffhangers hit harder when they don’t cost a dime.