Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat!-Chapter 365: Descent into the Sands

Ethan stared at the row of ten red buttons. He remembered the day Williams had pulled him aside, dragging him into the garage after he’d returned from the Silverwood family. Williams hadn’t said much—he’d simply lifted the tarp to show him this. The moment Ethan laid eyes on those buttons, he knew exactly what they were.

However, most acceleration systems only came with one or two buttons. Williams had gone much further. He’d modified the Predator Beast X with a full set of ten. And he’d warned Ethan not to use them lightly. When Ethan asked why, Williams had only given a mysterious smile and said, "Just add wings, and it’ll fly!"

The Predator Beast already had more than enough armor to shrug off most attacks, but its weakness was its speed—only 120 kilometers per hour at best. Williams had solved that problem perfectly. Now, Ethan glanced over his shoulder and called out, "Hold on tight!" He didn’t bother telling Uncle Jed or Nora to buckle up. Even if he had, they wouldn’t have known what a seatbelt was.

"Here we go!"

He pressed the first button. Out here in this endless desert, he wanted to see just how fast this so-called flying tank really was.

Boom...

The engine erupted in a roar that rattled every bone in Ethan’s chest. For a moment, he wondered if the thing was about to explode. Williams had insisted the internal systems were fine—that almost everything inside had been replaced. But it was Ethan’s first time using it, and he couldn’t help worrying.

Boom... boom... boom...

Whoosh...

"Holy... cow..."

The sudden acceleration slammed him back in the seat so hard he nearly blacked out. Beside the original dashboard, the secondary speedometer—which had never moved before—began to climb: 140... 180... 260... 320...

Ethan’s gaze locked on the needle. The gauge maxed out at 380. At last, the needle stopped at 340, trembling but holding steady. He felt a surge of disbelief. How had Williams managed this? That speed was outrageous. No, it wasn’t an airplane, but it was faster than most helicopters. "Add wings and it’ll fly," Williams had said—and he hadn’t been exaggerating.

The only reason they hadn’t lifted off the ground altogether was the Predator Beast’s fifteen-ton weight. That mass kept it gripping the sand instead of tumbling end over end. Any normal vehicle would have gone airborne and vanished into the dunes.

In the rearview mirror, Ethan saw the massive mole crickets shrinking in the distance. For forty seconds, they held that blistering speed. When the acceleration finally cut out, the engine growled and the vehicle lurched, slowing back to normal. Even then, Ethan could still see the creatures pursuing them. But in those forty seconds, they’d put nearly four kilometers between themselves and the monsters. The mole crickets, however, weren’t giving up.

Ethan gritted his teeth and slammed a second button. The Predator Beast surged forward again. He watched the seconds tick by, counting down in his mind. As soon as the speed began to taper, he punched the third button without hesitation.

A shrill alarm blared through the cabin, accompanied by a flat mechanical voice:

"Engine overheating... cooling system insufficient power... engine overheating... cooling system insufficient power..."

"Damn it..." Ethan muttered. This wasn’t Williams’ fault. The cooling system had never been designed to handle three accelerations in a row. On Earth, one burst of speed was usually enough to lose any pursuer. But here, they had no choice.

"Ethan... turn now!" Uncle Jed’s voice thundered from the back seat.

Ethan was so focused on the engine temperature gauge that he hadn’t looked ahead in minutes. He’d also shifted his Soul Sense, narrowing it into a backward-facing fan to watch the mole crickets. That let him sense farther behind them—but it left the ground ahead blind. The second Uncle Jed yelled, Ethan’s eyes shot up—and his heart stopped.

A colossal quicksand pit, easily a kilometer across, yawned before them.

’Damn my luck,’ he thought, panic crawling up his spine.

If the pit had appeared a few seconds earlier, he would have seen it. Now, it was too late. At 340 kilometers per hour, turning in the desert was nearly impossible. He yanked the steering wheel anyway, desperate to change direction, but the Predator Beast X plowed ahead with unstoppable force.

Its immense weight and momentum left no time to think. In the blink of an eye, the vehicle hurled itself over the edge and plunged straight down.

Just before impact, the car’s system chimed in with icy calm:

"Impact distance detected: 50 meters. Speed: 340 km/h. Safety system activated. All airbags deploying."

With a muffled roar, every airbag burst from the panels—beneath their feet, along the sides, over their laps—filling the interior until there was no room left to move. The next instant, Ethan felt himself pinned in place. Even with all that cushioning, the impact smashed into him like a battering ram. A bright flare of pain shot through his skull—and then everything went black.

Hiss...

Somewhere far away, he heard the airbags deflating.

"Oxygen deficiency detected in vehicle. Vehicle sealed. Oxygen supply system activated. Duration: 8 hours."

But none of them were awake to hear the warning.

Outside, the sands flowed around the half-buried wreck like water around a sinking ship. The Predator Beast settled deeper, inch by inch. Inside, silence took hold. If Ethan had been conscious, he would have thanked Williams for thinking of everything. Williams hadn’t only modified the acceleration. He’d installed the full airbag array and programmed it to deploy automatically if an impact was inevitable.

At 340 kilometers per hour, one second of travel meant nearly a hundred meters. The moment the sensors detected fifty meters left, there was no chance to stop. If not for that system, none of them would have survived—not even Ethan’s Bear Form could have saved him from a collision at that speed.

Time crawled by. Once every hour, the oxygen system’s voice spoke up, calm and unhurried, reminding the empty cabin how little time remained.

Not long after the seventh reminder, Ethan’s fingers twitched. He sucked in a breath, eyes cracking open. Everything was blurry and tinted red—the alarm light still flashing overhead. Groaning, he lifted his head and realized he was sprawled against the front windshield. He pushed himself upright and turned. Uncle Jed, Nora, and Dot were all slumped in their seats, motionless.

Heart hammering, he crawled back to Dot first, checking her breathing. Relief washed over him—she was alive, only unconscious. One by one, he checked the others, finding no serious injuries. He exhaled shakily.

"Mmm..." Nora let out a faint groan, eyelids fluttering open. Uncle Jed stirred at the same time, followed by Dot.

"Damn... my arm hurts like hell," Uncle Jed growled. Ethan looked closer and saw his shoulder sitting at an awkward angle. Uncle Jed glanced down, braced himself, and with a wet crunch, shoved it back into place. Ethan winced at the sound. That man was built out of iron.

"Where are we?" Nora’s voice was small and unsteady as she hugged Dot closer.

"Probably under the sand..." Ethan peered through the windows. All he could see was endless yellow grains pressing against the glass.

"Oxygen supply system: 50 minutes remaining."

The voice returned, and this time, everyone heard it.

Ethan’s expression darkened. The system was designed to last eight hours. If there were only fifty minutes left, they’d been unconscious for over seven.

"Ethan... what now?" Uncle Jed asked, his tone low but steady.

Ethan didn’t answer. He shut his eyes, gathering himself. Then he reached out with his Soul Sense, letting it expand outward.

If they didn’t find a way out of this buried tomb, they had less than an hour left to breathe. All he could do was hope his Soul Sense would find them a path to the surface—and a chance to live.

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