Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat - Chapter 718

Chapter 718: The Real Boss of All-You-Need
GetOutOfMyWay felt the blood drain from his face. The number from the system prompt echoed in his skull, a death knell.

Two million, seventy-three thousand, eight hundred and twenty gold.

The sheer size of the number was incomprehensible. He did the mental math, converting it at the current exchange rate.

Two and a half billion dollars.

The words were a silent scream in his head. Two and a half billion. And if they couldn’t pull that together in ten hours, the system would tack on another fifty percent.

He thought of the other guy’s first offer—thirty thousand gold, a paltry three hundred thousand in penalties. The gap between that and this was a chasm he’d just willingly jumped into. His hand trembled with a violent, self-loathing urge to slap himself across the face.

There was no undo button. No take-backs.

He was finished. He had just blown a crater the size of a small moon into Reynolds Trading Company’s finances. He was definitely finished. And the suits behind him, the ones who gave the orders? They were all finished, too. Hell, it was more than likely they’d throw him to the wolves, deny everything, and cut him loose to save their own skins.

Ethan couldn’t have cared less about the man’s internal implosion.

He was thrilled. ‘Reynolds Trading Company… you’re done.’

A part of him was sincerely hoping they couldn’t scrape the two million-plus together in time. The moment that clock hit zero, the extra fifty percent penalty—over a million more gold—would kick in.

Now that’s a return on investment, he thought. This one move wouldn’t just sting; it would likely wipe out every Reynolds branch in the entire Northern Frontier. He knew Reynolds wasn’t some small-time operation; it was a massive consortium with deep pockets, their stores popping up all over Ethereal.

But even Ethan was underestimating the sheer weight of two million gold, and overestimating how much liquid cash Reynolds actually had on hand. This single blow wasn’t just breaking the bank; it was tearing through the foundation.

Unseen by him, the moment the system prompt flashed, the investors behind Reynolds began to turn on each other. Silent partners, in it only for the dividends, were already screaming to pull their capital, forfeiting future profits just to escape the sinking ship.

Ethan didn’t know the details, and he wouldn’t have cared if he did. He was the one holding the winning hand.

“Alright, Fido,” Ethan said, his voice dripping with cheerful malice. “I’d stop standing there with your jaw on the floor and start making some calls. The clock’s ticking! See them out.”

He grinned, not waiting for a reply before giving his men the signal. GetOutOfMyWay and the rest of the Reynolds non-combatants were grabbed, manhandled, and unceremoniously tossed out through the guild hall’s main gates.

A stunned silence fell over the several hundred Renegade Alliance elites left in the courtyard. They just stared at Ethan, nobody quite knowing what to say. They were shell-shocked.

Then, their collective gaze dropped to the pile of gold still sitting on the cobblestones.

None of them had ever seen two hundred thousand gold coins in a physical heap. Gold was a number in an interface, not something you dumped on the ground. It formed a small, glimmering mountain.

“Holy hell… Boss just hit the jackpot!” someone finally blurted out, breaking the elite corps’ usual discipline.

“If Boss hit the jackpot, doesn’t that mean we hit the jackpot?”

“Damn right! When has he ever scored big and not spread the love? With this much, and the expansion so close, you know he’s gonna deck us out in the best gear.”

“Are you guys blind? Two hundred thousand is nothing! Those Reynolds idiots owe us over two million!”

“Yeah… over two million gold. That’s like… two and a half billion dollars. My brain can’t even process that.”

“Alright, pipe down,” a senior officer cut in, though he was fighting a grin. “Boss has never let us down. The Druid God… our one and only!”

Ethan let the excited buzz wash over him. He could see Victor, Leo, and the others looking just as stunned, listening to the chatter with incredulous, grinning faces.

Ethan, however, was the one frowning.

“Ethan, you don’t exactly look happy,” Celia said, her sharp eyes catching his expression immediately.

“Damn it,” he muttered, keeping his voice low for his inner circle alone. “We just scammed them for over two million, and the system didn’t even force them to dissolve. I’m a little pissed! And it looks like even if they have to pay the extra fifty percent, they’ll probably still be breathing. Should’ve gone for more…”

His words left the group speechless.

He was disappointed with an astronomical sum like that? He thought it was too little?

No, wait—it sounded like he’d wanted to wipe Reynolds off the map completely.

“Boss, do you have some kind of history with these guys?” Leo asked, voicing the question on everyone’s mind.

Ethan just shook his head, his expression still sour. He genuinely had no prior beef with them.

“Then why do I get the feeling you wanted to burn their entire operation to the ground in one shot?” Celia’s intuition was razor-sharp, as always.

Ethan had wanted to salt the earth.

“Heh, that’s because…” The Mad Engineer, who was still clutching the schematic like a lifeline, suddenly spoke up.

He paused, glanced at Ethan for a go-ahead, and continued when he saw no objection.

“The real owner of the All-You-Need chain… isn’t me. It’s him.”

He whispered it, but the effect was that of a tactical nuke detonating in their midst.

Sure, everyone knew the Renegade Alliance had a sweetheart deal with All-You-Need, getting all sorts of discounts. They’d all assumed Ethan and the Mad Engineer were just old friends.

But it had never, ever crossed anyone’s mind that the hidden mastermind behind the entire, wildly profitable enterprise was Ethan himself…

Their eyes unconsciously drifted back to the pile of gold.

Was the shop really that profitable?

This guy had just casually tossed out over two hundred thousand gold like it was pocket change. How long had the game even been live?

Which meant… this money was Ethan’s to begin with. He’d just moved it from one pocket to another.

Looking at it that way, Reynolds Trading Company never stood a chance. This was a trap, meticulously laid by Ethan from the very start.

“Celia, can you collect that and get it into the guild vault?” Ethan said, wanting to move on. This whole Reynolds sideshow had burned nearly an hour. They only had about seventeen hours left until the expansion dropped.

“On it! This gives us one hell of a war chest!” Celia was practically buzzing. For a guild to have ten thousand gold at this stage was considered rich. Before their massive cannon materials shopping spree, the Renegade Alliance’s balance was barely scraping that.

As Celia started collecting the coins—now system-tagged as the Mad Engineer’s payment and thus untouchable by Ethan directly to avoid fraud flags—Ethan’s expression turned all business.

“Leo, Victor, Williams, round everyone up. We’ve got work to do.”

“Sure thing. How many do you need? Isn’t this enough?” Victor gestured to the several hundred elites already assembled.

“Let’s make it an even thousand,” Ethan said after a quick scan of the crowd.

“Alright, I’ll get Meatball and the others,” Leo said, already pulling up his messaging interface.

“Good.” Ethan also opened his friend list and shot a quick message to Lyla. ‘Guild hall. Now.’

Soon, flashes of white light began to pop sporadically throughout the hall as members teleported in, their hearthstones set to home. Others began to stream in through the main gates, answering the call to arms.