Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat - Chapter 790

Chapter 790: Polar Ice-Silk
Ethan settled into Shatterstar’s cockpit and brought up Victor’s coordinates. They were already beyond the US jurisdiction, far into the lawless badlands where no authority reached and chaos ruled openly. Out here, power alone decided who lived and who didn’t.

He activated Shatterstar and pushed the systems to full stealth and maximum thrust.

As the mech surged forward, Ethan became aware of something unsettling. Nothing on Earth could track him now. Not satellites, not radar, not any scanning network he knew of. Shatterstar moved like it didn’t exist at all, a ghost cutting through the sky.

It took only three minutes.

From above, he spotted them. Victor and Micah stood near Blackie, with two mechs nearby. One was Victor’s, powered down and scorched, while the other floated behind it in tow mode, its posture limp and unresponsive. Amber was still inside.

Ethan brought Shatterstar down smoothly and stepped out, his eyes going straight to Blackie. He didn’t look nearly as bad as Victor’s report had made it sound. The wound on his neck was already closed, leaving behind only a thin line of pink, newly formed flesh.

“You good?” Ethan asked.

“I’m fine,” Blackie replied with a grin that didn’t quite hide the strain. “Killing someone from the Qilin Clan takes more than a scratch like that. She could’ve taken my head clean off and I’d just be weakened for a while.”

Ethan blinked, surprised despite himself. The Qilin Clan was really that resilient? He didn’t push the question. Seeing that Blackie was stable, he gave his shoulder a firm pat and turned toward Amber’s mech.

Raising his arm, he activated Shatterstar’s control watch and interfaced directly with the disabled unit.

“Shatterstar, admin override. Open the cockpit.”

[Beep… Unit model confirmed. Emergency access granted.]

A sequence of precise mechanical clicks followed as Amber’s humanoid mech began to disassemble itself. The armor plates slid apart like flowing mercury, retracting and folding neatly back into the storage device on her wrist. Without the suit’s support, her body sagged forward. Ethan caught her immediately, lifting her into his arms and checking the wound on her chest. The bleeding had already stopped, sealed beneath a small ion shield patch that pulsed faintly as it maintained a protective barrier.

“Let’s get everyone inside,” Ethan said, his voice steady again.

They moved into Shatterstar’s vast interior. Ethan carried Amber to the secondary medical bay and laid her gently into the chamber, then initiated the automated recovery sequence. Thick, translucent gel began to rise around her, filling the pod and cocooning her body as life-support systems engaged.

Only after the chamber sealed did Ethan straighten.

The concern drained from his expression, replaced by something colder, sharper. A quiet, predatory calm settled over him, and the air itself seemed to tighten with lethal intent. He didn’t speak. Instead, he summoned a holographic display from Shatterstar’s systems.

A blue tactical map bloomed into view. At its center, a single yellow marker pulsed steadily. Rainie’s mech GPS signal.

The mech was intact. That meant Rainie was still inside it.

Ethan refused to believe there was anything on this planet capable of breaching armor forged by Shatterstar’s technology, or hacking its systems deeply enough to extract her. As long as she remained in that suit, she was alive.

“Shatterstar,” he said quietly, “force a comms link to Rainie’s unit. We’re following.”

The colossal mech lifted into motion, gliding soundlessly through the sky. As it advanced, Ethan watched the display and noted that Rainie’s signal was moving.

He wanted to hear her voice. More than that, he needed to understand how anyone could have subdued her while she was wearing that armor.

[Beep… Communication channel established.]

“Rainie, can you hear me?” Ethan asked, his voice calm and even.

“Ethan? Yes, I can hear you. Where are you?” Fear and relief tangled together in her voice, the tension unmistakable.

Hearing her speak loosened the tight knot in his chest. Shatterstar’s diagnostics streamed silently beside him, confirming that her mech’s internal systems were stable. Power levels were normal, life-support intact. Only its external mobility was compromised, restrained by some kind of foreign binding material.

“I’m right above you,” Ethan said. “Don’t worry. I’ll get you out soon. Just not yet. I want to see who we’re dealing with first, and then…” He let the sentence trail off.

Rainie understood the rest without him saying it.

The assassin Victor had described did not sit right with Ethan. A single young woman with that level of stealth and combat ability should not exist on Earth. Her movements, her timing, even her choice of tools felt closer to something out of a fantasy world than a frontier planet. It raised an uncomfortable question.

Was this the black market trying to double-cross him?

The thought was not far-fetched. He was transporting two thousand tons of gold, enough wealth to corrode loyalties and tempt even the most disciplined syndicate.

The black market…

A cold, humorless chuckle escaped Ethan’s lips.

“Heh.”

Victor and the others felt it more than heard it. A shiver ran through them, instinctive and sharp. None of them knew what conclusion Ethan had reached, only that whatever he was considering was not going to end well for someone. If this really was the black market making a move against him, then there would be no transaction at all. He would simply take what he wanted.

The image of a major black market hub flashed through his mind, vaults stacked with rare tech, forbidden materials, and secrets worth killing for. This time, the laugh that slipped out carried no amusement at all, only naked menace.

From their elevated position, they watched the convoy below.

Victor had reported a lone female attacker, but the situation had clearly changed. Three heavily modified Humvees moved in a tight formation, armored plating bolted crudely over their frames. Rainie was in the middle vehicle.

Shatterstar’s sensors cut straight through the armor as if it were glass. In the front passenger seat sat a girl.

She was young, strikingly pretty, with a face so soft and delicate it bordered on doll-like. The contrast was jarring when paired with her clothing, a deliberately provocative outfit that seemed chosen to emphasize how little it suited her appearance. Beside her was the driver, a hardened mercenary with an eyepatch and a rigid posture.

The GPS signal placed Rainie in the back seat.

There, wrapped tightly in a cocoon of white filaments, was Rainie’s mech. The material clung like a spider’s web, elastic yet unyielding. Through the translucent strands, they could see Rainie struggling weakly, every movement slow and ineffective.

“Rainie,” Ethan said quietly over the comms. “Stop fighting it. Conserve your strength.”

Her movements ceased almost instantly.

The sudden stillness caught the girl in the passenger seat’s attention. She turned her head and glanced back, a slow smirk curling her lips.

“Good girl,” she said softly. “That’s polar ice-silk. You’re not getting out of it.”

Satisfied, she faced forward again, stretching lazily before propping her feet up on the dashboard. The motion was deliberate, practiced, leaving little doubt that the exposure was intentional. Whatever she wore beneath her short skirt was clearly designed to distract, provoke, or both.

She leaned back and tilted her head toward the driver, her tone light and almost playful. “You’re behaving this time. Good. Otherwise, I’d take the other one too.”

The threat was delivered with a sweet smile, as if she were offering praise rather than a warning. Then she closed her eyes, utterly at ease.

The one-eyed driver flinched, his whole body tensing in a reflexive shudder. The last time she had struck that exact pose, a single misplaced glance had cost him his right eye. He kept his remaining eye locked firmly on the road, not daring to look anywhere else.