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

As Shatterstar tore across the sky at breakneck speed, Ethan's unease grew sharper by the second.

Five minutes into the return journey, he still hadn't seen Blackie or the others.

"Damn it. Is this another illusion?"

He ordered the mech to stop, then released his Soul Sense. The invisible wave spread outward, expanding until it reached its maximum range. Yet nothing appeared unusual.

If this was an illusion, it was the most powerful he had ever encountered. But Ethan didn't believe that was the case.

"Shatterstar, run a radar sweep."

[Detecting... No anomalies found.]

Fresh data fed back into the cockpit, confirming everything was normal.

And that was precisely what troubled him. The normalcy itself was abnormal.

With no better option, Ethan locked onto his return heading and pushed Shatterstar forward again.

Ten more minutes passed. His speed was even faster now, and under ordinary circumstances he would have already reached the Central Dominion from this remote Northern Frontier.

But all that surrounded him was still an endless sea of white ice.

"Something's wrong," he muttered, halting the mech.

The scenery hadn't shifted at all. It was as if he were flying inside a loop. Had he run into a ghost wall?

After a pause, he gave a new order. "Activate melee weapon system."

Click. Click. Click.

The mech's back hummed as a massive hatch slid open. A long rod-like object, several dozen meters in length, emerged. Shatterstar raised its enormous arm and pulled it free.

[Melee weapon system activated.]

Ethan blinked at it. "What the hell? You're giving me a toothpick?"

It was his first time accessing Shatterstar's melee systems, and what the mech produced looked pitiful compared to its thousand-meter-tall body.

[Combat mode not yet activated.]

Ethan sighed. "Alright then... activate combat mode."

He braced himself, curious to see what would happen.

Buzz... click, click, click...

The so-called toothpick shifted in Shatterstar's grasp. In an instant, it began to stretch like a living thing. Within seconds it reached a full thousand meters in length.

And then it kept growing—another five, six hundred meters, until Ethan gaped in disbelief.

At the head of the rod, metal unfolded like wings. Twin crescent blades curved outward, and from their center the weapon extended another three or four hundred meters skyward.

Recognition hit him. "Damn it—it's a halberd."

As the weapon fully took shape, Ethan felt its weight as though it were cradled in his own hands. Shatterstar and pilot were one.

He tested it with a swing. The halberd moved effortlessly, lighter than air. Curious, Ethan gripped it with both hands and tried bending the shaft.

Creak.

To his shock, the massive weapon bent with barely any pressure.

Startled, Ethan glanced at the control panel. The mech's power output showed only 0.1 percent.

"Huh? Why is this thing so flimsy?" He had assumed he'd put too much force behind it, but the numbers told a different story.

Then, as he loosened his grip, the curved shaft slowly straightened itself back to its original form.

"You've got to be kidding me. Is this thing made of plastic?"

[Negative. This halberd is forged from the latest memory metal developed by the First Universe. It has not yet undergone final shaping. KH3106 was unable to finalize the structure when it was materialized, so the weapon retains the flexibility of unshaped memory metal.]

Ethan raised an eyebrow. "So it won't be this flimsy once it's finished?"

He tested the weapon again, twirling it like a spear. The massive halberd whipped and twisted as if it were made of rubber. Ethan's lips twisted into a wry smile.

[Correct,] Shatterstar replied.

That answer made Ethan pause. His expression shifted as a thought struck him.

In the next instant, he reached out with his mind.

A brilliant white light erupted, and the Twilight Warspear materialized before his eyes—or rather, before Shatterstar's brow.

Ethan froze. The weapon hadn't come from his own body but directly from the mech's forehead, summoned out of his Mindscape through their merged connection.

"It can do that?" He had never imagined that fusing with Shatterstar would link even his Mindscape to the machine.

The First Universe's craftsmanship was beyond belief.

What Ethan didn't know was that Shatterstar's original purpose wasn't just to travel between universes in search of aid. It was also designed to enhance the power of warriors from Earth. After billions of years of data gathering, the First Universe had long since learned that practitioners possessed Mindscapes and Soul Sense.

Shatterstar's true strength lay in its ability to amplify that power, scaling endlessly with its operator's own abilities. Just how far it could go, no one knew.

For Ethan, this was only the beginning.

He shifted the halberd into his left hand and stretched out his right.

"Luna... grow larger."

The command rang silently through his mind.

Whoosh.

The Twilight Warspear expanded in a flash, swelling to over two thousand meters. Unlike the halberd, its transformation was instantaneous, not drawn out.

Ethan's heart surged with relief. "Luna really is the best. If I had to wait mid-battle for my weapon to grow like that halberd, I'd already be dead."

Shatterstar's right hand closed perfectly around the giant Warspear. Ethan tested its heft. The readings spiked—just holding the weapon consumed 3.4 percent of his power.

It was far heavier, and far more reliable, than the flimsy halberd in his other hand. Ethan shot the metal noodle a look of disdain.

He was about to dismiss it when a new idea sparked.

"Shatterstar, transform this thing into a shield."

[Please select shield style.]

Instantly, the holographic display lit up with countless templates.

Ethan flicked through them but frowned. The designs were sleek, futuristic, all wrong. None of them matched the primal elegance of the Twilight Warspear.

"Can I customize the style?"

[Yes.]

The screen shifted to a drawing interface—the same one Ethan had used when crafting Blackie's weapon. His fingers moved without hesitation, muscle memory taking over.

On the screen, a rugged, imposing shield slowly took form.

He modeled it after one he remembered from a game he used to play: the Scale of the Earth Guardian. That design had left an impression on him, and now he traced it carefully into being.