Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat - Chapter 272

Chapter 272: Inner Thoughts
Ethan finished his internal tirade.

A few seconds later, Morzan’s voice came through, just as expected.

“Uh… I’ve been chatting with people these past few days, so I’m used to it!”

Hearing that, Ethan thought, Great. I haven’t logged in for days, and this old guy’s probably been using my alt the whole time.

“You’ve been chatting with other people? Fine… carry on, then.”

Shaking his head, Ethan gave up trying to deal with him.

He made his way to the city center and arrived at the All-You-Need stores to check the accounts.

After deducting operating expenses, the books showed over 13,000 gold coins in revenue—across shops in all three main cities.

At that moment, the All-You-Need Potion and Engineering shops in Harmony City were packed with customers.

Lines of players were forming just to buy potions.

All-You-Need Potions had already become a household name in the Northern Frontier Region. Their prices were low, built around mass production. When it came to price wars, they were untouchable.

Naturally, players went wherever the prices were cheapest.

Competitors had teamed up multiple times to try and undermine All-You-Need Potions. They banded together, lowered their prices, and tried to force a price war. But the Mad Engineer wasn’t interested. “You can lower your prices all you want. I’m not budging.”

Meanwhile, Celia mobilized all members of Renegade Alliance to sweep through those shops and buy out their entire stock.

In one fell swoop, the competition was wiped out—out of inventory and forced to restock.

With no other option, the competitors halted their price cuts and closed shop temporarily.

Later, they tried another tactic: hoarding herbs to drive up prices and raise production costs for All-You-Need Potions. They figured they could make a killing reselling the herbs they’d bought cheap.

But even as herb prices rose, All-You-Need’s potion prices stayed the same.

They didn’t realize that only 20% of All-You-Need’s daily herb use came from market purchases.

The remaining 80% was supplied by crafting players trained by the Renegade Alliance.

And so, things had turned out as they were now. The engineering shop was just as packed.

‘All-You-Need’ was fast becoming the gold standard of the industry.

Ethan knew none of this. He was playing the part of an absentee owner perfectly.

He arrived at the engineering shop, planning to head upstairs to find ‘NoPaperOnTheBigOne.’

Surely the guy hadn’t been holed up in the workshop this entire time?

Just as he reached the second floor, he ran into Mad Engineer ‘NoPaperOnTheBigOne’ coming down.

The moment he saw Ethan, the guy froze.

“Boss… you’ve been gone forever! Actually, I’ve got something urgent to talk to you about.”

Ethan thought to himself, What could possibly be urgent for you besides needing more money?

Out loud, he said, “Don’t we have more than enough gold in inventory? Didn’t I give you full authority? What exactly is so urgent?”

“The City Lord has come by several times these past few days. He said to find him when you return,” Mad Engineer quickly explained.

“The City Lord? Gregor Darnell from Harmony City?” Ethan was confused. Why would the City Lord want to see him?

If it was something important, couldn’t he just issue a system quest?

Why bother visiting the shop?

Then it hit him—Mad Engineer had said the City Lord came by several times.

“You mean the City Lord came here in person?” Ethan’s expression shifted.

Mad Engineer nodded. “Yeah. He looked a lot like you do now, which is why I froze for a second—I thought he had returned.”

A chill ran down Ethan’s spine. An NPC showing up in disguise?

He thought back to their first meeting and how human the City Lord had seemed. Later encounters had felt more scripted, like the usual system-generated dialogues.

Could it be that…

“Boss, I’m heading out now… Oh, and the City Lord said if you want to find him, go between 2 AM and 5 AM on Wednesdays. Don’t try to see him at any other time.”

With that added detail, Ethan’s suspicions deepened.

He checked the time—just after 8 PM—and followed Mad Engineer downstairs. When they reached the ground floor, the guy headed straight for the door.

“Where are you going?” Ethan asked, suddenly noticing something strange about his appearance.

Normally, he was covered in oil stains, his clothes smudged with soot from various explosions. But today, he looked spotless. Even his hair was combed.

“Ah… um… I’ve got something to take care of!” he replied, clearly flustered at being caught.

Ethan put on a stern face. “Something to take care of? On work hours? I’m docking half your pay.”

“What?! Boss, come on!” Mad Engineer looked like he was in pain, glancing nervously back toward the door.

He gritted his teeth and sighed. “Fine, I won’t go then.”

“Oh? Getting an attitude now? Tell me—have you been skipping work while I was gone?”

Ethan’s sharp tone made him shrink a little.

“Well… Boss… I’m sorry! I swear it won’t happen again!”

“Haha…” Ethan finally laughed, seeing the guy’s panicked expression.

“I’m messing with you! Did I ever set working hours for you?”

“But hey, you’re not just some random player anymore. Be careful. Don’t let anyone take advantage of you.”

Ethan could tell he was seeing someone.

Judging by his awkward behavior, this probably wasn’t the first time—but he was still new to the whole thing.

So Ethan threw in a quick word of advice.

“Uh… I guess I don’t have set working hours! I’m off then!” And just like that, he dashed past Ethan.

Ethan couldn’t believe how fast a crafting player could move. Apparently, he hadn’t heard the warning at all.

Just as he was about to call him back, Mad Engineer stopped at the entrance and turned around.

“Don’t worry, Boss—Celia introduced her to me! I told her I was busy running the shops for you and didn’t have time, but she said she’d take responsibility!”

Now Ethan was intrigued.

Who was this woman Celia was so confident about?

And why Mad Engineer?

Leo was still single—why not set him up instead?

They didn’t even know each other in real life. Weird.

Anyway, he was heading to guild HQ soon, so he could ask Celia about it there.

After saying goodbye to Mad Engineer, Ethan asked Morzan when he could get control of his alt again.

No response.

He sent a private message instead.

Sure enough, the reply came back—he’d have to wait a bit longer; they’d just wiped on a boss.

From that exchange, Ethan realized something important: Morzan couldn’t always hear his thoughts.

Only during direct communication did they share a mental link.

Since he still couldn’t get his alt back, Ethan decided to catch up with Celia about guild matters.

But first, he stopped by the auction house.

He checked the account—over 9,000 gold coins had come in over the past few days across all three auction houses.

The transaction volume was massive.

He left enough to pay the NPC salaries and withdrew the rest.

Mad Engineer didn’t have management rights for the auction houses—not because Ethan didn’t trust him, but because the system simply didn’t allow setting permissions for them.

When he finally reached headquarters, he headed straight to the management hall.