Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat - Chapter 216

Chapter 216: Bonds That Hold
“Brothers, stay!”

The voice rang out from behind Celia, and Ethan turned to see that, unbeknownst to him, over a thousand members of Renegade Alliance had gathered.

“Yeah, brothers, stay!” More voices joined in, echoing the sentiment.

The group standing opposite them could feel the deep camaraderie radiating from Renegade Alliance members. But they had made their choice, and there was no turning back now.

Many of them were already shedding tears of regret.

Silence hung heavy in the air.

After what felt like an eternity, one man stepped forward from the crowd. He approached Ethan, removed his Renegade Alliance emblem, with his head slightly lowered.

“Boss, I’m sorry,” he said, placing the emblem at Ethan’s feet. “I, Pete Sanders, swear that even if I leave Renegade Alliance, I will never join Blade Syndicate. My mistake is mine alone to bear.”

Without waiting for Ethan’s response, he turned to the crowd behind Ethan and shouted, “Brothers, I’m sorry!”

Ding…

[Pete Sanders has been forcibly removed from the guild!]

His actions stirred something in the hearts of the thousand-plus members behind Ethan. Many of the female players had tears in their eyes.

Inspired by Pete Sanders’s example, a second person stepped forward. Then a third, and a fourth…

Six hundred and eighty-nine people lined up before Ethan, each placing their emblems at his feet and choosing to leave the guild forcibly.

Though Ethan had given them the option to stay, not a single one chose to remain. They knew that even if they stayed, the members of Renegade Alliance would never treat them the same. They had no face left to show.

For a moment, greed had clouded their judgment. They had listened to sweet lies, trusted the wrong people, and been sold out like fools. A bounty of three thousand dollars per head had turned them into cattle, led to the slaughter.

If Ethan hadn’t revealed that damning video, they would still be happily counting their money, thanking their so-called benefactor. Before this, they had believed ReaperX was their savior, paving the way to greater heights. But now they realized…

It had been a one-way road to ruin.

Of course, among these people, there would still be some who chose to follow ReaperX’s path. After all, not everyone valued their dignity. Gold turns even saints into sinners, as the saying went.

When the last person left, Ethan suppressed the sorrow in his heart and turned to Celia. He sent her a private message.

Celia’s eyes lit up as she read it, and she gave Ethan a subtle nod.

Ethan looked back and saw that a large crowd had already gathered. The fallout from this mass exodus was clearly significant. So many had dropped what they were doing to return.

Ethan addressed them, his voice steady. “If they want to leave, we can’t stop them. I just wanted them to see the truth, to not be deceived any longer. Don’t be disheartened. Renegade Alliance still has all of you! As long as we stand together, more people will join us.

“One day, the entire Northern Frontier Region will be under our rule. Those who left today will fight alongside us again, against other regions. To bring them back, we must first unite Harmony City. Then we’ll march north, take Springhaven, and crush Blackridge.

“I believe there’s not a single coward in Renegade Alliance. In the future, we’ll fight together!”

Ethan’s words reignited the spirits of the players, who had been feeling downcast. Their boss’s ambitions were far greater than they had imagined—he aimed to unify the entire Northern Frontier Region?

Little did they know, Ethan’s vision extended even further.

Ethan kept his grander ambitions to himself for now. Drawing too big a picture too soon could backfire.

“Boss is right! Why should we be sad about losing a few members? We still have fifty thousand brothers and sisters standing strong!” someone shouted.

“Exactly! As long as we stand united, what’s the Northern Frontier Region to us? Renegade Alliance will unify Dragonspire!” another voice chimed in.

“Unify the Northern Frontier Region!”

“Unify Dragonspire!”

Thousands of voices rose in unison, their morale reaching new heights.

Ethan smiled. This chapter of turmoil was finally coming to a close.

He owed a debt of gratitude to Xandria, who was currently in Blackridge. The video that had turned the tide had been provided by her. On his way to the guild headquarters, Ethan had reached out to her on a whim, not expecting much. But the woman with the child-like voice and mature demeanor had delivered.

Xandria had even boasted that within Blackridge, she had every guild leader under surveillance. She claimed to know everything—how many women they dated, how many times they checked into hotels, even how many times they used the bathroom.

Ethan didn’t fully believe her, of course. In the world of Ethereal, players didn’t even need to use the bathroom. ‘You’ve got to at least make your lies believable,’ he thought.

Still, Xandria had gone all out to keep tabs on Zachary, the heir to the Steele Consortium. Since his arrival in Blackridge, she had deployed two thousand rogues to monitor his every move. The video Ethan had used was footage captured by one of those rogues, who had been tailing Overlord.

Regardless of her methods, Xandria had indeed helped him this time. Without that video, the mass exodus from the guild might not have been resolved so cleanly.

As the crowd at the guild headquarters began to disperse, Celia approached Ethan. “Boss, what’s the deal with the Steele Consortium? They don’t seem like the type to back down easily.”

Ethan nodded and gave them a brief rundown of Zachary Steele and the Steele Consortium’s influence. The mood grew heavy as they realized the extent of the Consortium’s power in Blackridge. Now, they were setting their sights on Harmony City, and Springhaven’s situation was still unclear.

“The threat is right in front of us. We need to be ready,” Celia said gravely.

Slashblade, nodded in agreement. “We don’t even know how many people in Renegade Alliance have already been in contact with them. ReaperX might not be the first, and he certainly won’t be the last. We can expect more incidents like this in the future. We…”

“We need to strike first,” Ethan interjected.

“Oh?” The group’s eyes widened. Was Ethan already formulating a plan?

Ethan chuckled, sensing their thoughts. “I don’t have a concrete plan yet. Even if I did, it’s not something we can execute right now. Remember the Fortress Wars we talked about?”

Slashblade and Skyblade nodded.

Ethan continued, “Only a handful of people know about this—just you guys and Xandria in Blackridge. I trust she’s not foolish enough to spread it around. For now, our focus should be on accumulating resources and preparing for the Fortress Wars expansion. That’s when we’ll make our move. Anything we do now would be pointless.

“So, Celia, your priority is to train engineers. We’ll need a lot of them. I’ll secure blueprints for large-scale siege equipment. We’ll fight a mechanized war. While others are still throwing bodies at the problem, we’ll hit them with tanks and cannons.

“Most importantly, guilds without a fortress won’t be able to relocate their headquarters from the main city. When the time limit expires, those guilds will be disbanded by the system. That’s when we’ll recruit their members. Unifying the Northern Frontier Region isn’t just empty talk.”

As Ethan spoke, a glint of determination shone in his eyes. Even the usually composed Slashblade was breathing heavily, his excitement palpable. The idea of conquering territories and dominating the battlefield was every soldier’s dream.

Celia, though a woman, was equally fired up. And as for the rest of the guild? They were ready to follow Ethan to the ends of the earth.