Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat!

Ethan guided the mech upward, the machine's frame groaning faintly as it climbed. This time, he didn't rush. When Shatterstar reached the Diamond Layer, he paused, eyes narrowing. Blackie and the others, watching through the comm link, had no idea what he was planning until a thin, precise beam lanced out from the mech's arm. The laser cut cleanly into the glittering wall of stone, shaving out neat one-meter blocks of raw adamant.

Each block slid into the mech's bay with a dull thud. Ethan's grin stretched so wide it hurt.

"I'm rich," he muttered, almost breathless. "Rich beyond measure. The Star of Africa, the Cullinan—they're pocket change compared to this."

Any single chunk of what he pulled out would eclipse the greatest diamonds on Earth. This trip to Umbral Star wasn't just a mission anymore; it was fortune incarnate. With this much wealth, the Steele Consortium would kneel before him.

The adamant was harder than anything he'd worked with before. Even Shatterstar's laser couldn't run at full power—an uncontrolled sweep would cause the whole layer to destabilize and potentially explode. Diamonds only became diamonds once cut from adamant, and here, the entire stratum was nothing but the raw, unbroken stuff.

Ethan spent the better part of a day cutting steadily, filling the bay with nearly ten cubic meters of adamant. Then he forced himself to stop. Wealth was useless if he couldn't move it. Better to climb higher and strike where the real profit lay.

The Gold Vein layer shimmered before him, veins of luminous ore stretching like rivers beneath the rock. Unlike the diamonds, this was liquid wealth: easy to melt down, easy to move, easy to sell. The latest scans showed the ore was pure—999 fine gold, ready to use.

"Shatterstar," Ethan said, almost salivating, "dig hard. Strip every vein you can."

The mech obeyed, its claws pulling in slab after slab of gleaming gold. Ethan lost track of time, lost in the hypnotic rhythm of accumulation, until the third day broke.

That was when the comms crackled.

"Enough. Leave now."

The voice was low, commanding—the Blood King, still lurking below.

Ethan swore under his breath. "Really? You're going to tell me what to do with my gold?"

"How much do we have?" he asked aloud.

[1,821 tons!] Shatterstar reported.

Ethan's eyes went wide. "Holy… Keep digging until we hit two thousand. Then we leave."

If the Blood King thought he'd scare him off, he had another thing coming. Rounding up the haul felt like a moral obligation.

Half a day later, the bay was brimming. Shatterstar began its slow ascent, thrusters pushing against the gravity well.

Then the mech chimed.

[Rare metals detected. This vein contains alloys suitable for mech exteriors and precision components.]

Ethan blinked. "What?" For a heartbeat he hesitated, tempted. Then he shook his head. "Forget it. I can't build mechs anyway."

But Shatterstar's console lit up again.

[Correction: the terminal control system's hangar stores mech manufacturing data and contains an Ark System. With sufficient ore, it can automatically manufacture mechs.]

Ethan froze. His wristwatch—the innocuous controller KH3106 had left him—suddenly felt heavier. He'd thought it was nothing more than a glorified remote, a way to manage the mech and mobile hangar. But this… this was different. This was a factory. A forge. A way to mass-produce an army.

"Shatterstar," he whispered, heart pounding, "scan this vein. How many mechs can we build?"

[Please specify a model.]

"Models? You have models? What model are you?"

[Shatterstar is an ultimate, battleship-class mech. The construction required resources from an entire universe.]

Ethan swallowed. "And the others?"

[There are four categories. The others are human-sized combat mechs, designed for single-soldier deployment. This vein is exceptionally rich. If we harvest everything within a hundred-kilometer radius, we can build six advanced human-sized mechs. However, that is nowhere near enough for an ultimate-class model.]

Ethan sat back in stunned silence. "Not even one?"

[No. The materials for a single ultimate human-sized mech equal the total required for one hundred advanced units.]

The scale was staggering. Ethan suddenly grasped the terrifying appetite of First Universe technology. If every civilization mined this way, the stars themselves wouldn't be enough.

"Dig," he ordered at last, jaw tight. Six soldier-mechs were exactly what he needed. Shatterstar was overwhelming, yes—able to obliterate planets—but it was too conspicuous, too dangerous to unleash casually. On Earth, a single misfire would punch through the planet's crust. He needed something smaller, more manageable, but still lethal.

[Collection system activated.]

This time, instead of crude cutting, Shatterstar deployed swarms of truck-sized mining drones. They scuttled across the rocks, chewing and refining ore, funneling it back to the mech's hold.

The comms lit again. The Blood King's voice growled through the static.

"Are you finished yet, boy? I need those minerals to repair my battleship. You can dig after I leave."

Ethan scowled. "When are you leaving, then? How much are you planning to take?"

For once, he didn't hide his irritation. The Blood King might have been a monster—Divine-tier, level three hundred—but Ethan had his own trump card. If the King pushed him too far, he could unleash Shatterstar's cannons. That thought alone gave his words an edge.

In truth, he doubted the Blood King would risk it. Their first clash had proven it: when Shatterstar fired back, it had shattered the King's own hull. Ethan suspected the only reason the Blood King hadn't attacked again was simple—fear.

The more he thought on it, the more unsettling it became. How had they even gotten here? He had used Ethereal's mission system to teleport, but the Blood King and his crew had followed somehow. Could it be a flaw in the system? A loophole? If no one had triggered the trial, would they have been trapped forever, locked away by Morzan's strange laws?

Or worse—had Morzan planned this all along, nudging pieces into place, manipulating him into standing here right now?

Ethan clenched his fists. Maybe he was being played. Maybe his rebirth had been part of someone else's war. But even so… this life was better than the one he left behind. Better than being that broken, helpless dog.

The Blood King's voice returned after a long silence, this time carrying a weary, almost human weight.

"After calculating… our capabilities are insufficient to repair the mech. And even if repaired, I doubt we could start it."