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

Outside Ember City, in a luxurious villa, Henry Joe sat on a velvet couch, scrolling through Ethereal's official homepage with a faint smile tugging at his lips.

"Maintenance again? Could it be because of him?" he murmured, tilting his head. "So, Zachary's plan fell apart... what a useless man."

His voice carried an oddly smooth, almost alluring quality, the kind that would send shivers down the spine of anyone listening. And if Ethan had been there to witness that perpetual smile, he would have recognized it instantly. It was the same smile worn by IronSeraph, the feared guild master of Judgment Guild in the Carnage faction.

Henry was a man of contradictions. He surrounded himself with women, yet showed no real interest in them, and every one of them eventually disappeared without a trace. His master—the very culprit behind Jade Taylor's death—was a Soul-Wielder, or rather, a Curse Caster. That enigmatic figure never revealed a face, never initiated contact except on their own terms, leaving Henry powerless to reach out first.

Even his recent meeting with Zachary Steele had been arranged at his master's suggestion. After Henry and Ivy were tossed out of the room, Zachary stayed behind with the old man. Henry didn't know what had been discussed, but his gut told him it had everything to do with the so-called Druid God.

"Druid God... Ethan... the Silverwood family... Lyla... and those three," Henry muttered, brows furrowing. On the surface, Ethan looked like someone riding pure luck, a freeloader who had stumbled from obscurity into prominence. But if he was truly nothing more than a hanger-on, why would Henry's master suddenly show so much interest in him?

He slipped off his shoes and stared at his bare feet. The smile twisting his lips grew strained, almost hysterical. All ten toes had been severed at the root. The wounds were long healed, but the ragged gnaw marks remained, grotesque reminders of some cruel punishment.

"Old man," Henry whispered, voice trembling with malice, "what you did to me... you'll pay back in full."

He exhaled slowly, then walked to the desk and flipped over a photograph lying face down.

"The fourth girl you want me to approach, isn't it?" he said softly, pulling open a drawer and laying out three more photos.

"The first—" he touched Ivy's picture, his smile thinning, "—someone got there first. Failure.

The second... Lyla Silverwood. Untouchable. Failure.

The third..." He lifted Jade Taylor's photo, eyes narrowing. "Half the plan fell into place, and she walked straight into my hands. Success."

He set the picture down and picked up the fourth: Rainie Chen.

"This one... another girl tied to Ethan." A low chuckle slipped out of him. "All because of a silly high school love letter, two women ruined. I wonder what this Druid God will think when he realizes? Will he regret it? No... he won't even see it coming. Druid God... you're nothing more than an invisible executioner."

The giggle that followed was high-pitched and girlish, out of place coming from a grown man. His laughter faded, and his eyes returned to the photographs. The longer he stared, the deeper his brow furrowed.

"What is that old man really after?"

At last, his gaze lingered on Rainie's photograph. Slowly, his brow eased, and the corner of his mouth curled into a knowing smile, though whatever thought crossed his mind remained a mystery.

---

Meanwhile, in another mansion across Ember City, chaos reigned.

The room was a wreck, splintered furniture and shattered ornaments scattered across the floor. At the center stood Zachary, shirtless and seething, a katana gripped in one trembling hand.

"Useless! All of you are useless!" he roared, punctuating the words with another slash, splintering the remains of a cabinet.

Liam's plan had collapsed, taking with it Zachary's ten-million deposit. But the lost money wasn't what shook him most—it was the meeting with Henry's master earlier that day.

He had gone there eager, expecting to gain a powerful ally. Instead, the old man had peeled back every layer of his identity with unsettling ease: the Steele Consortium's hidden dealings, the secret roles passed down through his family for generations. Zachary had nearly drawn his blade then and there, but before he could even think of silencing the man, something else happened.

Zachary glanced down at his chest. A tiny red dot marked the skin directly above his heart. From that dot, a pea-sized parasitic worm had burrowed inside, anchoring itself to the very organ that kept him alive. He could feel it there, coiled and waiting. With a single thought, the old man could rupture his heart from within.

That was why Zachary had swallowed his pride and obeyed. The parasite left him no choice. His first task: dismantle every foundation he had built in Ethereal.

At first Henry had promised that his master could secure him control of Renegade Alliance, and that was why Zachary had come running. But instead of gaining power, he had been shackled like a slave. The meeting had stripped him of money, allies, and even his freedom.

His rage boiled over, and his grip tightened on the katana. "Ethan... I swear you'll die with no grave to hold you."

---

Deep within the Whitmore family's hidden territory, the night air was broken by urgent knocking.

Lyla, Victor Grant, Williams, and Celia stood outside Ethan's Star Chamber. Lyla pounded on the door again, but silence answered.

"What are you all doing here in the middle of the night?" a voice called. Blackie and Micah stepped out of a nearby tent, squinting.

"Oh right," Blackie muttered as he remembered. "You went into Ethereal tonight. Why are you all out here already?"

"Emergency maintenance booted us out," Lyla explained, her voice laced with worry. "But Ethan... he didn't log out. He's still inside somehow."

Blackie shrugged. "If he's still in, then he's still in. What's the big deal?"

Lyla's face tightened. "Last time, he got trapped inside the capsule and nearly..." She hesitated, then pressed on. "Another time, he disappeared completely, only to reappear at your place. Doesn't that strike you as strange?"

Micah blinked. "Wait, are you saying... he went in without us?"

Before anyone could stop him, Blackie marched forward and kicked.

Bang!

The Star Chamber door slammed open, crashing straight into Ethan's sleek VR capsule, a piece of tech worth over twelve million. Everyone gawked in stunned silence.

Victor froze for a beat, then found himself giving Blackie a reluctant thumbs-up. Blackie smirked, lifted his chin, and strode into the chamber first. The others trailed behind cautiously.

"Thank god," Lyla exhaled as she saw the capsule intact. For reasons she couldn't explain, she had feared Ethan might have vanished again, off somewhere only to return with more chaos trailing behind him.

"Ya-ya-hey..."

They all turned. Blackie had his fingers jammed into the capsule's edge, face flushed with effort as he tried to pry it open.

"Stop!" Lyla shouted.

Victor reacted instantly, yanking Celia back just as sparks exploded.

Zzzzzzt!

A blinding surge of purplish-blue electricity erupted from the capsule.

"Argh!" Blackie screamed.

Thud!

He flew backward, rolling through the doorway and into the hall. Everyone stared, terrified, at the crackling VR capsule, none daring to get closer. Then they rushed out after him.

"Celia, get Evelyn!" Victor ordered.

"Okay!" Celia darted off, but before she had gone more than a few steps, a voice rang out behind them.

"Holy crap... that felt amazing!"

Everyone turned in disbelief. Blackie was sitting up, hair standing on end like he'd just rubbed a balloon on his head, smoke curling from his lips. Yet instead of agony, his eyes sparkled with exhilaration.

Williams muttered under his breath, "Did he get his brain fried?"

Before anyone could answer, Blackie shot to his feet and bolted back inside.

Zzzzzzt!

Thud!

He was blasted out again, then bounced off the floor and sprinted back in. Once. Twice. Three times. By the fourth, the others finally snapped out of their daze.

"Grab him!" Victor shouted.

Together, he, Williams, and Micah tackled Blackie to the ground. He thrashed wildly, face twisted between excitement and frustration.

"Are you insane?" Lyla demanded.

Blackie froze for a moment, then lowered his gaze. "Boss lady... tell them to let me go. Please. I've swallowed dozens of Energy Cores and still couldn't break this bottleneck, but now... I can feel it. I'm about to break through!"

His eyes burned with desperate joy, and this time no one could mistake the raw conviction in his voice.