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

"Boss, look at this…" he said, pulling up the gold deposit records.

[NoPaperOnTheBigOne deposited 1,000 gold.]

The deposit was made five days ago. There were only three entries in the gold deposit log.

One was Ethan's deposit of 30 gold, another was Mad Engineer's deposit of 500 gold, and then this one.

"After depositing the 500 gold, there wasn't much improvement. I thought, since you entrusted the shop to me, I had to make it work. So…"

"So you went and borrowed from loan sharks?" Ethan asked, surprised. He realized the income numbers he'd calculated earlier didn't add up.

At the same time, he remembered what NoPaperOnTheBigOne had said when they first connected the video call: "I'm going to get beaten to death."

"Yeah…" The man's eyes reddened as he realized Ethan had figured it out. "I thought you'd log in within three or four days. I borrowed 3 million and used it all to buy gold.

The agreement was to repay it in five days, but on the third day, my old classmate showed up with his crew to collect. Tomorrow's the final repayment day. If you hadn't logged in, I'd either be on the run or worse beaten to death."

Ethan listened, piecing together that the guy had probably borrowed from multiple sources and ended up getting scammed by someone he knew.

But he was curious—how did a nobody like this guy manage to secure a loan of 3 million?

"Send me your account number. I'll transfer the money now."

While listening to the story, Ethan had walked over to the All-You-Need Potions shop and checked the records. There, he found a deposit of 2,000 gold.

Combined with the earlier deposits, that made a total of 3,000 gold. It seemed the gold price had dropped to $1,000 per gold coin.

"Uh… Boss, you'll need to transfer a bit more," the man said cautiously after sending his account number.

"How much? Give me a number." Ethan still had more than three million in his account. Even with the high interest, he could cover it.

"Three and a half million," Mad Engineer whispered.

Ethan couldn't help but laugh. Looking at the man's pitiful expression, he said with a mix of amusement and exasperation, "You really went all out, huh? Three million principal, and half a million in interest over five days… Tsk tsk, weren't you worried I'd just disappear?"

When Ethan had appointed him as the shop manager, he hadn't given him permission to withdraw funds from the shop.

"Uh…" Mad Engineer hesitated, then said slowly, "I… I just wanted to make the shop successful… Boss, you wouldn't really abandon me, would you?"

Seeing Ethan turn to leave, the man nearly broke down, chasing after him and pleading, "You're not really leaving, are you?"

"The money's been transferred. Go pay off your debt," Ethan said, having only been teasing him.

"Okay… Thank you, Boss!"

[Your friend 'NoPaperOnTheBigOne' has gone offline!]

Ethan stood there, staring at the now-offline Mad Engineer, feeling a surge of gratitude. "No, thank you," he thought.

He never expected the guy to be so fiercely loyal, going as far as borrowing from loan sharks without a second thought, just to make the shop successful.

Shaking his head, Ethan turned and walked toward the All-You-Need Auction House. There should be some income there by now—the seven-day free trial period he'd set up had ended.

However, the auction house wasn't under Mad Engineer's management, so even if there was gold in the inventory, he couldn't withdraw it.

Checking the ledger, Ethan saw that after eight days of paid operation, after deducting system taxes and NPC management fees, the daily average income was around eighty gold coins.
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The income was quite good, especially since there was no need to hire labor—everything was automated by the system. It was essentially a self-sustaining money-making machine.

Ethan also knew that in the early stages, the value of items being auctioned was relatively low, so the fees collected were also modest. But as players leveled up and the value of auctioned items increased, so would the fees.

Moreover, the auction house was a monopoly. The plot of land in Harmony City where the auction house stood was the only one available for such a business.

Withdrawing five hundred gold coins, Ethan now had over 4,500 gold in his inventory.

Doing the math, he realized that even with this amount, the operating funds for both shops wouldn't last a full day.

According to NoPaperOnTheBigOne, Celia had been sending over a steady stream of blueprints these past few days.

Ethan was curious. These blueprints were supposed to drop in level 45 zones, and the drop rate was extremely low. How had she managed to get her hands on so many?

The shop's funds and production speed were only enough for half a day's operations, and even then, they had to limit sales.

Right now, his shops were in a monopoly phase, but once other shops got their hands on similar blueprints, his business would face competition.

'Where can I get more money?'

As he pondered this, his eyes landed on the mailbox near the auction house entrance.

There was a new message. He quickly walked over and opened it.

Sender: Trusty007

Ethan's eyes lit up. Could it be that the strategy guide he'd sent out had sold?

Sure enough, the message contained a sales report and a transfer of 23,795 gold coins. In the accompanying note, Trusty007 explained that this was the income from all regions across the country. Their studio had enough gold stockpiled in the Northern Frontier Region to cover Ethan's share, so they hadn't converted the gold from other regions into cash this time.

Seeing the five-figure gold amount, Ethan couldn't help but grin. This was a lifesaver. With this influx of funds, he'd have enough to keep his shops running smoothly.

Crunching the numbers, he estimated that the engineering shop, running at full capacity, would net a daily profit of around 300 gold after expenses. The potion shop would bring in about 500 gold, give or take. The auction house added another 80 gold daily.

All in all, he was looking at a daily income of roughly 880 gold, which translated to over $880,000. At this rate, it was like printing money.

Of course, this calculation only applied during the monopoly phase.

Feeling a surge of excitement, Ethan returned to the engineering shop. Checking the system, he was shocked to see that the 3,400 gold he'd left earlier had dwindled to less than 1,000 gold.

It turned out that a wave of crafters had come to sell materials, and more were still arriving. The shop's gold reserves were depleting rapidly.

In the time it took Ethan to process this, another 50 gold disappeared.

Without hesitation, he deposited 10,000 gold into the shop's account. Then he headed to the potion shop and dumped another 15,000 gold into its coffers.

Upstairs, he checked the workshop. All the alchemists capable of crafting intermediate potions were already hard at work.

The Level 2 shop's workshop boosted production speed by 20%, making them even more efficient. But Ethan quickly realized they were still understaffed. The shop's storage had several blueprints that no one had learned yet.

He left a message for NoPaperOnTheBigOne, instructing him to have the blueprints learned and production ramped up as soon as he logged back in. They needed to maximize profits while the monopoly lasted.

With everything arranged, Ethan decided it was time to focus on leveling up. Checking the Northern Frontier Region's leaderboard, he was still in first place, but his lead wasn't as commanding as before.

Two players had already reached Level 30, and a sense of urgency washed over him.

Those two players…

They were his enemies.

How could it be them? Ethan's heart skipped a beat.

"Hmph… So you're finally worried, huh?" The voice of Morzan echoed in his mind.