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

She fixed her gaze on the distant command post, her eyes steady and unblinking. A fortress completely stripped of its defenders, that had to be his work, right?

"Boss… twenty minutes left," the male Rogue beside her said, his voice tight, the strain impossible to hide.

"Relax," Xandria replied calmly, without looking away. "I know exactly what you're worried about. Twenty minutes is more than enough." Her eyes narrowed slightly as a faint, confident smile appeared. "He would have factored it in."

The moment the words left her mouth, she took off, sprinting straight toward the command post.

Her second in command froze for a split second, baffled by her certainty, but the image of a single man immediately surfaced in his mind. He was close enough to Xandria to recognize the signs, this situation carried that man's unmistakable fingerprints. Clenching his jaw, he turned sharply and barked orders, rallying the guild to follow her lead.

They tore through the deserted streets at full speed, boots pounding against stone that had seen no life for far too long. Just as the looming silhouette of the command post came fully into view, a lithe figure suddenly burst back out from its entrance, sprinting toward them.

"Everyone," the voice shouted, sharp and urgent, "kamikaze rush. Get that thing down in ten minutes or less."

It was Xandria. She had arrived first and scouted ahead.

For a brief moment, stunned silence swept through the group, until their eyes followed her gesture and locked onto what was emerging behind her. The fortress Commander stepped into view, its massive form radiating menace, its health bar now clearly visible to everyone.

It sat at 0.1%.

"Holly shit, free real estate," one Rogue yelled, his instincts overriding any remaining caution as he lunged forward.

He unleashed his entire opener in a desperate burst, Ambush into Backstab, followed by a Kidney Shot, everything he had stacked into a single moment. The numbers that popped up were laughably small, only a few hundred damage per hit.

Xandria had not touched the Commander at all, she had merely dragged it out into the open.

That tiny burst of damage was enough.

The Commander's glowing eyes snapped toward the Rogue, locking on with instant, murderous intent. The Rogue did not even have time to react, let alone Vanish, before a massive blade swept through him, cleaving his body in two as if it were nothing more than paper.

"Damn it, kill it, get it," the shout erupted from all sides at once.

Dozens of Rogues activated Sprint and charged simultaneously, throwing themselves forward without hesitation. What followed was a brutal, merciless relay, attack, die, next one in line. Over eight thousand Rogues fell in succession, their deaths piling up one after another. Xandria felt each loss like a physical blow to her chest, a dull ache that threatened to overwhelm her.

And yet, the thought that an Advanced Fortress was about to belong to them forced the pain down.

She felt giddy, almost lightheaded.

But the question gnawed at her relentlessly. Who had cleared this place? The mysterious fourth person Ethan had mentioned? She had been watching the stream closely, every member of Ethan's inner circle had been accounted for. A small force could not have accomplished this, and a large one would have drawn the attention of every major power in Blackridge.

Who?

It had to be one person, or perhaps just a handful at most.

The realization sent a chill crawling up her spine. 'Does he have even more cards he has not shown yet?' The ones he was already playing with were absurdly powerful. If he had reserves beyond that, then who was he really preparing to fight?

She knew about his hostility with the Steele Consortium. She had fully expected a massive war to erupt in the Northern Frontier between him and Zachary. But now, it seemed the strength he was displaying was already enough to crush the Consortium outright. He might not possess their wealth, but he understood this world on a fundamental level, exploiting every opening and resource with terrifying precision.

That was the impression Ethan left on her.

She was snapped back to reality by the Commander's dying roar, followed immediately by the system's global announcement. Her hands moved on instinct, transferring the guild hall permissions without hesitation. The whole experience felt unreal, like reaching down and picking up a winning lottery ticket from the gutter.

The surviving Rogues of the Nocturne Order erupted into cheers. Moments earlier, their boss's refusal to act had felt like a death sentence. As the clock ticked down, hope had drained away bit by bit. This sudden, impossible reversal left many of them laughing, shouting, even wiping tears from their eyes in pure relief.

The celebration did not last.

The sky above the fortress darkened abruptly. A colossal, blood red greatsword, hundreds of meters long, materialized high in the air. It descended in a straight, merciless plunge toward the battlements.

An Advanced Fortress was massive, yet the tip of the blade came down terrifyingly close to the command post, missing it by only a few dozen meters.

KRA-KOOOM!

The sword struck, and the earth seemed to vomit fire in response. Where the blade hit, the ground ruptured, and a towering geyser of magma erupted skyward, the shockwave tearing through stone and sending chunks of the fortress walls flying outward in all directions.

The only reason they survived was timing.

Xandria had already relocated the guild hall, triggering its separate health bar just moments earlier. Most of the guild had been inside the fortress walls, tied to the hall's protection, and as a result, the hall's HP did not drop at all. It was a near miss so close it left her heart pounding violently in her chest.

"RapidFortune…" Xandria whispered, stunned for a heartbeat before fury flared hot and sharp. She ground the name out between her teeth.

A private message popped up almost immediately.

RapidFortune: Don't hate the player. Just the errand boy. Boss's orders.

Xandria: ?????

RapidFortune: Stop questioning it and chase me, you idiots!

Markham was already retreating, his figure shrinking into the distance, clearly confused that no one had pursued him yet.

Xandria had seen this exact display of destruction before, used against the Blade Syndicate's fortress. The moment the blood red greatsword appeared, she had known it was Markham's signature move. A dozen theories had raced through her mind at once, the strongest being that this was a staged attack ordered by Ethan himself. A show of force, perhaps, or a calculated move for some deeper plan. Because of that uncertainty, she had hesitated, holding back the kill order.

But Markham's mocking message erased any doubt.

This was not part of the act. He was just being a prick.

"After him," Xandria snarled, her voice raw with rage. "I want him dead."

The emotional whiplash hit her hard, elation crashing straight into terror. The fortress still stood, but the massive breach torn into the wall was unmistakable. Just looking at it made her guild's already meager funds scream in agony. The repair costs alone would be devastating, and she had absolutely zero faith that he would pay for any of it.

---

The moment the system announced the Nocturne Order's successful capture, shockwaves rippled across all of Blackridge.

Countless smaller guilds erupted into panic. Those Zachary had rejected for not being Level 6, those without siege rights, those who had gambled and lost, all of them suddenly realized the truth. The initial Fortress Wars window was closing in ten minutes. Any guild without a stronghold or an alliance tied to one would be forcibly dissolved.

Desperation followed instantly.

Xandria's private chat exploded under a flood of incoming requests, pleas, bargains, and outright begging. The sheer volume caused the interface to lag, then freeze. She hesitated, fingers hovering uselessly, paralyzed by the scale of it all and unsure how to respond.

Then a familiar name flickered into view.

Ethan.

She clicked it without hesitation, her movements frantic.

His reply contained only two words.

"Take them all."

That was all she needed.

Xandria began accepting every request without discrimination, forging alliance after alliance at breakneck speed. Guilds were absorbed as subordinate branches under the Nocturne Order's banner, their permissions rerouted toward the newly claimed fortress. Across Blackridge, a collective sigh of relief spread as guild leaders rushed to secure their survival before the countdown expired.

---

Ethan watched the final pieces of his board slide neatly into place, a deep sense of satisfaction settling in his chest. He was just about to say something to Lyla when a new alert abruptly flashed across his vision.

[Ding… System Alert: Incoming real world communication request. Caller: Victor.]

"Accept," Ethan said immediately.

"Victor, what's—" he began, a grin already forming as he assumed this was about the auction proceeds.

Victor cut him off, his voice tight and shaking with panic. "Ethan, it's bad. Rainie's been taken. Amber is badly hurt, unconscious. And Blackie…"

Something in Victor's tone made Ethan's smile vanish. His mind went blank.

"Blackie?" Ethan said hoarsely. "What about Blackie?"

There was a pause on the line, heavy and suffocating.

"Blackie…" Victor's voice dropped, going cold and flat. "Someone slit his throat. Cut a third of the way through his neck."