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

Ethan still couldn't believe how fast Shatterstar moved—and the fact that it gave him precise travel times only made it feel more like a miracle of advanced engineering. A machine born of a high-tech universe, and now his to command.

His quiet exchange with Shatterstar was completely inaudible to Julian and the others, which made him grin. This was going to be quite the surprise for Julian later.

[Destination is five minutes away. Would you like to halt and forge the weapon before continuing?]

"Yes. Stop."

Shatterstar's intelligence was evolving by the day; now it even knew when to remind him of important steps. KH3106 had once told him that Shatterstar wasn't the most advanced artificial intelligence ever built, but what it lacked in raw power, it made up for with the ability to learn and adapt.

That thought brought a pang of sorrow. KH3106. Ethan had seen the man's story locked within Shatterstar's memory banks.

KH3106 had enlisted in the First Universe's Third Legion at the absurdly young age of twelve. By sixteen, he was already leading squads in combat. He won merit after merit, risking life and limb against countless pirate fleets. At twenty, he commanded an entire battalion. At twenty-five, he was the supreme commander of the Third Legion, waging endless war against the scourge of the outer void.

From the age of twelve to thirty, his life had been nothing but battles and the long, cold journeys between them. And then, at thirty, the First Universe faced an invasion they couldn't withstand—not even with all their combined forces. So KH3106 threw himself into the desperate project that became Shatterstar.

The mech's construction took five long years, filled with endless failures. Each test left him battered, often near death. In the end, the man who emerged could hardly be called human anymore. His body was entirely machine; only his brain remained intact. For a soldier who had given his youth, his health, his very body to the cause, the price was beyond tragic. He had no family, no lover, no children—only sacrifice.

[Weapon manufacturing complete. Would you like to extract it from the terminal hangar and move it to internal storage?]

Shatterstar's calm voice broke Ethan's thoughts.

"Extract it, then send it to the cockpit."

A moment later, under Julian's watchful gaze, a passage opened in the mech's chest. A conveyor belt extended, carrying a weapon rack. Resting on it was a gleaming golden longsword that seemed to radiate sharpness itself.

"Take it and test the balance," Ethan's voice echoed from the mech's speaker.

Julian needed no urging. He stepped forward, lifted the sword, and his eyes immediately lit with approval. "The weight and length are perfect." He ran a hand down the blade, his expression bordering on reverence.

Blackie, never one to stay quiet, leaned in as well, circling the gleaming weapon like a hawk. "You just forged this, didn't you? Boss, you're too damn clever." His grin widened, but then he pouted. "I don't care, you've gotta make me one too. Same style as Snow's!"

"Why?" Ethan blinked, genuinely caught off guard.

"Why? Don't play dumb, Boss!" Blackie rolled his eyes theatrically. "You're being unfair."

Ethan frowned, baffled. Unfair? He hadn't refused anything. He only wanted to know why Blackie insisted on a sword exactly like Red Snow's Blazing Rainbow Sword.

Julian looked just as confused. Was Blackie really jealous of his weapon?

"Why're you staring at me like that?" Blackie said, folding his arms with mock indignation. "The dimensions you asked for—don't tell me this isn't a couple's sword."

Julian almost dropped the weapon. "What?"

But Ethan froze in place, his mind suddenly whirring.

"You mean…" he murmured.

Blackie nodded vigorously. "Yeah. Back during the Golden Falcon battle—didn't you see what Bongo pulled out of the void? Same damn sword."

Ethan's chest tightened. He remembered now, faintly. At the time, the fight had been too intense for him to dwell on the details, but Blackie was right. Bongo had drawn a sword that looked exactly like this.

Which meant… her sword wasn't just some conjured weapon. It had to be the activation key for that corrupted gestation vessel. That would explain why Bongo and the Central City Guards had all been tainted. The blade itself carried the essence of the Blood Kin.

But then what about Bongo? How had she come by the sword in the first place? Why was she able to wield it without being consumed like the others? Everyone around her had been twisted into something monstrous, yet she remained merely exhausted, her body untouched.

None of it made sense.

"Boss, if you don't even remember, then why did you forge the exact same sword?" Blackie pressed.

Julian stayed quiet, clearly as unsettled as Ethan was.

Ethan steadied himself. He couldn't tell them everything, not yet. But Julian deserved to know the basics. So he explained that the Blood King himself had given him the design for the weapon. It wasn't exactly a lie—the quest had indeed come from the Blood King—but he left out the darker implications.

As he spoke, Julian's expression shifted from confusion to dread, then to grim thoughtfulness. Ethan stopped there, letting him draw his own conclusions.

Blackie, however, was relentless. With his insistent whining and exaggerated puppy-dog eyes, Ethan had no choice but to restart Shatterstar's manufacturing system.

"Boss, I want mine blue. Blue, got it? Gold's too damn flashy!" Blackie jabbed a finger at Julian's gleaming sword, as if it personally offended him.

Ethan sighed. Using what he remembered of the Blazing Rainbow Sword's design, he submitted the blueprint to Shatterstar. The rare ores they had just excavated were nearly depleted forging both weapons, but since they doubled as compatible mech-grade armaments, it wasn't a total waste.

Still, he hadn't planned to include Blackie in his mech-forging ambitions.

[Suggestion: Integrate multiple elemental ores to create a four-attribute weapon.]

Shatterstar's voice cut in again.

Blackie's eyes lit up like a child on holiday. "That's it! Shatterstar, give me one with wind, fire, water, and lightning. Make it just as durable as his—and don't forget the attribute bonuses!"

Before Ethan could say a word, Blackie was already pointing dramatically at Julian's golden blade, bouncing with excitement.