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

The sound of violent coughing echoed through the video call, so intense it sounded like Little Horn was about to cough up a lung. Ethan felt a pang of guilt. He'd forgotten to tell the guy to bring an engineering-grade gas mask.

"Cough… uh… just hang in there a bit longer. As long as you don't come out, that Divine-tier scroll is yours," Ethan said, coughing awkwardly himself as he tried to reassure Little Horn.

Little Horn's voice crackled through the call, desperate. "Dude… there's still six hours left…"

"Uh… I've got something to take care of…" Ethan made up an excuse and quickly ended the call.

After hanging up, Ethan regrouped with the Chase siblings and headed back to the city. He paid for a group teleport, and they arrived in Springhaven. From there, they made a beeline for the Life Greenhouse.

At level 45, Ethan didn't even need to use Arcane inscriptions in this grinding zone. He'd pull a group of mobs, then unleash a combo of Cleaving Tempest and Primal Fury. Wave after wave of monsters fell, and the experience points for Ethan's rogue alt and the Chase siblings shot up like a rocket.

Four hours later, Evelyn turned to Ethan. "We need to log off. We've got to get ready for our trip."

Ethan checked the time—it was already past 6 a.m. Ethereal World hadn't entered its rest period yet. Little Horn still had about 2-3 hours before the Divine-tier scroll's ownership would be confirmed. That meant Ethereal World would continue running for another 24 hours without a rest period.

Ethan had originally planned to wait until the rest period to head to Ironvale Mountains. That way, he could use the downtime to prepare more for the Silverwood family situation. But the Chase siblings had already bought their train tickets, so there was no helping it.

"Alright, wait for me. I'll be there soon!" Ethan replied.

"Got it," Evelyn said before logging off.

Ethan quickly briefed Leo and the others, then logged out of Ethereal himself.

The moment he stepped out of the VR capsule, a wave of hunger hit him like a truck. The system that monitored his body's satiety levels had been buzzing for days, but Ethan had ignored it, surviving on a single cup of instant noodles. Now, he felt dizzy and weak, his legs barely able to support him.

He grabbed a nutrient pack from the side, bit it open, and chugged the contents. He hated these things. They were supposed to replenish your body's needs quickly, but they tasted like toothpaste and did nothing to curb hunger. Still, he had no choice—his legs were too weak to walk, so he had to make do.

Once he'd recovered a bit, Ethan rushed downstairs, raided the fridge, and shoveled whatever he could find into his mouth. After wolfing down the food, he grabbed his pre-packed hiking gear and headed out the door. He hailed a taxi and made his way to the Chase family's mansion.

---

By 8 a.m., Ethan and the Chase siblings were finally boarding the train to Ashwick. To his dismay, the three of them had opted for the slowest, cheapest option—a third-rate cross-city rail. Ethan had no choice but to buy a last-minute ticket to join them.

The upside of the train, if there was one, was that it was slow… painfully slow. Once on board, Ethan squeezed into a window seat next to Leeroy. Across from them sat Evelyn, with Ryan on the aisle.

As soon as they settled in, Ethan pulled his Ethereal VR headset out of his backpack. Before boarding, he'd checked the schedule—this train would take a grueling nine and a half hours to get from Ember City to Ashwick. And knowing these old trains, it would probably be delayed at every stop.

With nothing to do on the train, Ethan figured he might as well log back into Ethereal. He wasn't the only one with that idea—many passengers had already donned their VR headsets.

"You guys should log in too! Let's keep leveling up!" Ethan said, eager to boost their levels. The top players had already broken through level 30, and the level 35 team dungeons were about to open. If they wanted to tackle the Expert-level dungeons, they'd need the Chase siblings to be ready.

Leeroy hesitated, glancing around. "Is it safe? Maybe… you guys go ahead. I'll stay back and keep watch."

Ethan couldn't help but laugh. Leeroy was either overly cautious or just plain paranoid. Just then, the train conductor came by to check tickets.

Ethan stopped him and asked, "Do you have any sleeper cabins available? One with four beds?"

"Yes, we do," the conductor replied.

"We'll upgrade to a sleeper cabin," Ethan said, paying for four tickets. He then dragged the bewildered siblings to the sleeper car.

Once inside, Ethan locked the door behind them and turned to Leeroy. "There. Safe enough for you now?"

Ethan couldn't understand why the three of them, who were clearly not short on money, insisted on living like this. What he didn't know was that after Dr. Aldric disappeared, the siblings had nearly resorted to scavenging through garbage for food. Their lives had been even harder than Ethan's past struggles. At least he'd managed to scrape by with enough to eat. But the Chase siblings, having grown up with Dr. Aldric, had no survival skills beyond their innate abilities.

They'd been poor and hungry for so long that even after Ethan gave them five hundred thousand dollars, they couldn't shake their old habits.

Once they logged into the game, Ethan wasted no time. He was no longer satisfied with the level 45 grinding zone and moved straight to level 50 mobs. With the higher-level enemies, the Chase siblings and Ethan's rogue alt leveled up even faster.

Nine hours later, the Chase siblings had all reached level 29, while Ethan's rogue alt had soared to level 31. Ethan sighed inwardly. Before Ethereal introduced its catch-up mechanics, leveling was painfully slow. Even though he'd been grinding level 45-50 mobs with them—mobs that gave massive experience for their level—they'd only gained ten levels.

Ethan forgot that he was splitting experience three ways, so it wasn't as fast as when he soloed. Still, it was impressive. In just 14-15 hours of grinding at the Life Greenhouse, they'd gained ten levels. Even guild leaders like Marcus Skeiner didn't get that kind of treatment. Back when Marcus was leveling from 19 to 29, it took him a full month. Ethan had done it in half a day.

Now, Marcus was only level 34, and Ethan's rogue alt was almost catching up. If Ethan dared to complain about the leveling speed in public, the entire server would probably drown him in curses, regardless of his reputation as the Druid God.

After a bit more grinding, Ethan felt it was time to log off and wait for the train to arrive at the station.

Once they got off the train, Ethan asked, "So, where to now?"

"We head to West Mountain. After climbing up, we'll hike south into the Ironvale Mountains," Leeroy explained.

By the time they reached West Mountain, it was already past 9 p.m. The tourist area was closed, but Leeroy led them around the perimeter, finding a gentler slope to ascend. Ethan followed without question.

Once they reached the top, Leeroy glanced around and said, "We're going to pick up the pace now."

"Huh?" Ethan blinked in confusion.

Before he could react, Leeroy transformed, dropping onto all fours. With a burst of speed, he shot forward like a bolt of lightning.

Ryan shrugged, pulled out two runic parchments, and slapped them onto his legs. A swirling vortex of air enveloped his feet.

"Try to keep up!" Evelyn said with a grin as she jumped onto Ryan's back.

Ryan took off, his legs moving like spinning wheels, and in the blink of an eye, they disappeared from Ethan's sight.