"Okay, okay."
Probably out of fear of Blaine's strength, the Collector immediately gave in and nodded rapidly.
"That day, I was piloting Crestar's most advanced warship, as usual, searching for treasures,"
"I probably flew for several months,"
"When suddenly a dark cloud that blotted out the sky and sun swept over,"
"I was young and timid back then. I thought I'd run into a group of pirates again,"
"So I hurriedly hid. It was the kind of warship that turns invisible—physically invisible,"
"Then the next scene I witnessed is still vivid in my memory,"
"That black cloud was actually a fleet of space fortresses, dozens of times larger than Kree's star,"
"Especially the leading one—it was as big as the planet beneath our feet,"
"However, that Battlestar was incredibly fast,"
"Not just fast in a normal sense, but accelerating wildly in panic,"
"You could even see many sections tearing apart because they couldn't withstand the spatial barrier,"
"Just after they flew past,"
"I thought it was over,"
"But who would have thought that another dark cloud followed,"
"That black was purer than the darkness that blocked out the light before,"
"It looked like a specially tuned color—one that even light could be absorbed into,"
"The terrifying energy stirred up by its passing could be felt even when hiding hundreds of thousands of kilometers away,"
"Then, in front of that 'black cloud,' a powerful white light suddenly erupted,"
"That level of brightness was simply unbelievable,"
"I'm afraid it was stronger than the combined energy inside ten Fixed Stars,"
"So I passed out under that white light."
"So everything you just said was nonsense."
After listening for so long, that was the conclusion Blaine reached. His aura flared violently, and with a casual lift of his hand, the building in the distance was blasted apart by a flaming meteor.
Although what the Collector had said mostly matched Blaine's earlier guesses, there was still some useful information overall—such as the kind of enemies he might face in the future.
But trading two third-level Star Cores for just this bit of information felt like a terrible deal.
"Oh—oh—and, and—"
The Collector was startled by Blaine's reaction, thinking he was about to be crushed until he revealed something worthwhile.
"Actually, when I woke up, I discovered something useful."
"At the time, I didn't know how long I'd been unconscious,"
"When I woke up, the two Battlestars were gone,"
"No—more precisely, one had been shot down onto the current planet, Morag,"
"The other simply vanished, leaving no trace at all,"
"I was fearless back then, like a newborn calf unafraid of tigers, so I flew over in my warship,"
"But because of the residual energy released after the battle, I couldn't get close at all and could only explore carefully from the outside,"
"Even the leftover energy was immense—enough to easily destroy a Fixed Star billions of years old,"
"That energy was incredibly pure, the purest I'd ever seen,"
"I think that's what the universe was like before the Big Bang."
"Then I found a large number of Star Cores."
It was precisely because of those Star Cores that he had risen from nothing and reached where he was today, step by step.
"Hundreds or even thousands of years passed,"
"The energy residue there gradually dissipated,"
"And it eventually turned into a treasure-hunting ground for pirates,"
"People often found some tempting treasures there,"
"That's why Kree and those of us in this line of work call it Morag,"
"However, there's been nothing there in recent years,"
"It's been turned upside down completely."
After hearing the Collector's account, Blaine fell into deep thought.
Since he was connected to that fallen civilization, the piece of dark matter that destroyed it was also Blaine's enemy.
He didn't know whether it was because of the Hunter System that they were blocked, or if they had simply forgotten about him. Blaine preferred to believe it was the latter.
The most urgent task now was to improve his own strength. According to the Collector's description, the heights those civilizations could reach would definitely not be inferior to the Five Creator Gods of the Marvel universe.
If they discovered something related to Blaine, they would likely kill him without hesitation.
"Oh, right,"
"What did you mean earlier when you said the Star Core was a name from long ago?"
Ever since Blaine stepped into that dark space, more and more doubts had piled up, as if a dense web of mysteries clouded his vision.
Yet without anyone noticing, the ring of white light above Blaine's head flickered again at an extremely rapid speed.
Not only just now—back in the ruins a few days earlier, when Blaine had picked up the mysterious metal blood to accelerate, that white light had also flickered, even brighter than before.
"Oh, Star Core—"
"It really is a name passed down from ancient times,"
"Probably older than Kree and Xandar,"
"I just don't know why no one calls it that anymore,"
"This thing, when you get right down to it, is basically like pearls, gemstones, emeralds, or agates on your Earth!"
"You know Earth too?"
"How do you know I'm from Earth?"
The Collector casually revealed Blaine's background, surprising him yet again.
"Heh, keep it low-key, low-key,"
"Who do you think I am? I'm the famous Collector,"
"I know astronomy above and geography below—there's nothing I don't know, nothing I don't understand…"
"I am Groot…"
"Uh."
This time, Blaine could understand Groot without the universal language converter.
Still, the Collector truly lived up to his reputation as an immortal who had survived for countless years—he did know things others did not.
After some careful consideration, Blaine decided to ask him one more question, one related to his origins and perhaps even his life.
"Do you recognize this?"
To unravel this mystery, Blaine decided to take out the mysterious metal stored in the Hunter Space.
The reason he hadn't asked earlier was that Blaine didn't trust the Collector—more precisely, he didn't trust the people present. If anyone recognized it and spread the word, Blaine might genuinely face a life-threatening danger.
However, thinking about it carefully, what powerful figure hadn't grown through life-and-death struggles? As someone who had crossed worlds, Blaine understood this better than anyone. Besides, if things truly went wrong, he still had a life-saving trump card—Hunter Space.
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