"Cough~ cough!"
A loud boom echoed as the sturdy stone door was shattered by unimaginable brute force. For a moment, dust obscured the entire line of sight. Artoria's expression shifted from initial excitement to livid ashen gray. Good grief, she had forgotten that this place had degraded into this state; applying a bit of external force had kicked up so much dust. The sensation of foreign objects invading her eyes was incredibly uncomfortable, especially after accidentally inhaling a noseful of dust, causing Artoria to cough violently.
"What a terrible environment. Bad luck."
Having made the wrong choice, Artoria could only resign herself to her misfortune. Waiting for the dust to settle, Artoria walked inside with her long legs. She looked expectantly toward the only flat, glowing area in the room, but found it completely empty. This turn of events caused Artoria's lips to part in shock. "Where is my Cosmic Orb? Where did my big, beautiful Cosmic Orb go?"
"Too late, huh! How disappointing."
It felt just like an arranged marriage where you're told you're marrying a beautiful young lady, you happily enter the bridal chamber, and the moment you lift the veil, you discover it's actually someone hideous—the feeling is truly indescribable. Artoria looked around the pitch-black room with a sense of loss and ultimately chose to leave. Since the thing she needed wasn't here, why stay in this godforsaken place?
"Since it's not here, it's likely on Xandar, under the protection of the Nova Corps."
As she walked toward the hyperion, Artoria began to recall the plot of the 'Guardians of the Galaxy'. Good grief, this stop might be unavoidable. What to do? Forget it, she'd figure things out once she reached the destination. With this thought, Artoria boarded the hyperion. The magnificent and massive hull began to break free from the Planet's gravity, and Artoria departed from that godforsaken Planet.
"What exactly are you, to cause so many people to come looking for you?"
At this moment, Star-Lord was toying with the Cosmic Orb in his hands. Unlike the original plot, after Star-Lord obtained the Cosmic Orb, he encountered Yondu, who had come to collect the Cosmic Orb to settle a debt. Star-Lord played a little trick and temporarily escaped Yondu and his crew's pursuit. In reality, Yondu saw through it, but he went easy on him and didn't immediately fence the stolen goods. Star-Lord was very curious about what was inside it; someone was actually offering such a high price to buy it.
After getting the Cosmic Orb, it wasn't like he hadn't thought about opening it, but unfortunately, he couldn't open it. It seemed to be some kind of encryption, but he didn't know how to unlock it. For several days straight, he tried everything to open it—fire, freezing—nothing worked. This caused Star-Lord to lose his curiosity about the object.
He decided to take this thing, whose function he didn't know, and trade it for some money. It would be much better than running around with something useless and getting targeted by others. He had encountered plenty of people trying to rob him over the past few days, and he had no idea how they knew the Cosmic Orb was in his hands.
"With all that money, maybe I should upgrade my ship."
Star-Lord looked nostalgically at his old, dilapidated ship. This ship belonged to Yondu, but he had stolen it and it had been with him for many years. He really missed the days of traveling the Universe with this ship, stealing high-tech equipment. Thinking of this, Star-Lord smiled knowingly, set the course for the ship, and picked up the Walkman that had accompanied him since childhood. Listening to songs he never grew tired of, Star-Lord set off on the route to Xandar. It was a neutral Planet, and he was quite familiar with the boss of the black market there.
"Is this the guy? He looks like an idiot."
Nebula looked at the portrait in Gamora's hand and coldly mocked it. She seemed extremely angry that Gamora hadn't caught such an idiot after so long. The people looking for Star-Lord were all responding to the word Gamora had put out; the price for the Cosmic Orb in the black market had also been posted by Gamora. She had originally thought the target was just a petty thief; she hadn't expected him to have actually obtained the Cosmic Orb, the mission her 'father' had entrusted to her.
Gamora, who had been waiting on Xandar for two days, was very anxious; she had been unable to wait for Star-Lord to deliver himself to her door. So, she spread the word that Star-Lord had obtained a treasure worth over a hundred million credits. Now, some money-grubbers were starting to set out to cause trouble for Star-Lord. This included a raccoon and a tall Treant, who had also set their sights on him.
It had been several days without any news. Gamora didn't say anything in response to Nebula's mockery; she had lost her patience too.
"Father's assigned mission—time is running out, Gamora. I'm looking forward to the moment you are punished."
After saying this seemingly cold sentence and hanging up the call with Gamora, Nebula immediately flew off in her ship to capture Star-Lord. This kind of personality could probably be called a 'tsundere', right? But they both had a cruel and biased 'father'. That cold-blooded and ruthless man, the man who had made Gamora and Nebula fear him since childhood.
"Hey! Groot, we need to find this man and get the Cosmic Orb. Although I don't know what this thing does, it's worth quite a lot right now."
The raccoon, who was barely 1.5 meters tall... oh no! Rocket, said happily to the several-meter-tall Treant. It seemed to smell the scent of money. Seeing Rocket so happy, the Treant named Groot also revealed a doting smile. This scene looked exactly like a spoiled child acting cute for its parents.
"I am Groot."
Star-Lord, unaware that danger was closing in on him, was listening to music while flying toward Xandar. He had no idea what kind of vortex he was about to be dragged into. Meanwhile, Artoria was also about to reach Xandar. The hyperion, which integrated Kree technology, was very fast. After passing through a spatial node, Artoria had already arrived in the vicinity of Xandar. But she wasn't in a hurry to land, because she had realized a very important problem.
"What do I do if I can't understand the language?"
This was something Artoria had forgotten. In the movie world, the entire Universe spoke English, but this was the real world! The problem of a language barrier was seriously staring her in the face. So many races in the Universe possessed their own civilizations and scripts, and of course, special languages. Even in China, there are various local dialects; it's normal for people in the North not to understand Southern dialects. Star-Lord, that guy, was only able to get by so well because he had a good thing like a translator. But the problem now was that Artoria didn't have this good thing.
"In that case, wouldn't communicating with others just be staring at each other blankly? I actually didn't think of this step. What a mistake!"
Usually sharp, she had actually made such a mistake, and Artoria was quite unhappy. But the current issue was solving this problem. While Artoria was distressed, Saturday, which had integrated Kree technology, indicated that it could translate multiple languages. As long as she didn't encounter any obscure minority languages, it would be fine. Giving Saturday a huge thumbs up, Artoria ordered Saturday to start heading toward Xandar.
"There is an incoming communication. Do you want to answer, master?"
"Translate it, and accept."
"Yes, master."
"Warning, this is the Nova Corps of Xandar. The heavy-duty spaceship over there, please enter the spaceport to obtain a transit permit. Failure to do so will be considered an invasion, and we will launch an attack on you."
After the translation came through, Artoria thought for a moment and told Saturday to reply that she would cooperate. After all, she was here to find something, not to fight. If the Cosmic Orb was confirmed to be here, that would require a different attitude.
"Hello, miss, here is your transit permit."
Silently swallowing the words 'Your whole family are misses', Artoria cast an extremely displeased look. The man in front of her, this Xandarian, actually looked quite similar to a white Earthling. At this moment, this guy was being very attentive, introducing the sights of Xandar and the fun places to go. He invited Artoria to have a drink with him after he got off work. This made the two subordinates behind him quite dissatisfied; they hadn't seen such a beautiful young lady in so long, so why did he get to go first?
"Sorry, you are a nice guy, but we are not a good match. That's all."
From childhood to adulthood, the number of people who had confessed to Artoria was no less than ten thousand, both men and women. Her brother had blocked most of them, but there were still so many clueless little brats, or perhaps middle-aged men who wanted to eat tender grass. Artoria expressionlessly rejected the other party's invitation to 'date', and incidentally handed him a 'nice guy' card.
Receiving Artoria's nice guy card, the guy froze right there. Artoria didn't care what kind of blow this guy's heart had received. Artoria took the map provided by this guy and left the port. Fortunately, with Saturday's two-way translation, Artoria didn't face any language barriers. Truly congratulatory. The subordinates couldn't help but laugh out loud. Artoria's move made them feel deep sympathy for their superior. You say you're ugly! Yet you think so highly of yourself. Got rejected, didn't you! Serves you right.
"What a peaceful Planet. Why would Ronan hate this Planet so much? It seems the Kree have problems with their brains."
Along the way, watching aliens of all skin colors and bizarre appearances walk past her, Artoria unobtrusively observed the diverse aliens around her. Some even very politely greeted Artoria, the 'beauty'. They seemed quite polite, most were in a hurry, and it looked very peaceful. Artoria had a good impression of this place. It seemed the Nova Corps ruled this small Planet quite orderly. Free to a certain extent, but they showed no mercy to those who caused trouble here.
"Forget it, let's first exchange for some universal credits so I can buy some things."
Thinking of this, Artoria followed the map and found a place that looked like a jewelry store. She walked in and, to the bewildered gaze of the clerk, took out a box of gems. The jewelry store owner actually had a good eye and gave a decent price: 80 million credits. That was pretty good. These gems were Craft Essences that Artoria had drawn, created using Gem Magecraft. They looked more lustrous and vibrant than ordinary gems, and most importantly, they would explode. You didn't misread that; they would explode. Artoria didn't mention it, and no fool would take a gem and throw it forcefully, so it should be fine, right!
"Boom~~!"
Sighing 'idiot' to herself, Artoria quickly left the area. There were more and more people, and if she didn't leave, it would be troublesome. While walking, she accidentally bumped into someone, almost knocking her over.
"Sorry, are you okay!"
Artoria looked at the person's green skin and grape-purple hair. Wasn't this Gamora? It couldn't be that coincidental, right! How could such a coincidence happen in this world? Artoria really didn't want to believe that such strange luck would happen, but now it seemed she really did get lucky, even if she didn't step in any dog poop.
"The chick has a fiery temper!"
Who knew that Gamora wouldn't even acknowledge Artoria's apology? She just glanced at Artoria and left, completely ignoring the apology. Watching Gamora's retreating back, Artoria sighed. Gamora, having just left the side of Thanos, really did have a bad temper and didn't know how to treat people politely. Actually, this was considered the most polite Gamora could be. If Thanos were nearby and someone bumped into her, the insecure Gamora would have immediately finished the person off with a blade. Artoria could consider herself lucky to have caught Gamora when she was in a good mood.
"Forget it, time to slip away."
Looking at the increasing number of people around her and the flying vehicles of the Nova Corps of Xandar flying over, Artoria slowly left the place. This was no joke. She had just arrived on their Planet and blew up one of their shops. If she got caught, being sent directly to prison would be the best-case scenario.
"Are you kidding me? Who is this bold person, actually carrying out a terrorist attack here."
Star-Lord, who had quietly arrived on Xandar, looked at the fire in the distance with an exaggerated expression. It had been a long time since he'd seen such an attack. This made Star-Lord admire the person's courage. Good heavens, to actually dare to conduct terrorist activities under the nose of the Nova Corps—wasn't this just asking for death? The reason the Nova Corps could protect the peace and Order of Xandar was not just because of some theory; their level of technology could compete with the Kree. Their main strength was their energy transmission, known as the strongest protective shield, which had blocked all the Kree's invasions. In the end, the Kree had no choice but to give up their attack on Xandar.
"This has nothing to do with me anymore. I need to sell this thing quickly and go have a good time."
Throwing the empty drink bag he had been drinking from directly onto the ground, Star-Lord turned and left. After he left, a cleaning robot came forward to sweep up the trash. A pair of animal claws and a pair of feet made of wood appeared in front of the cleaning robot.
"Yo~! Boss, long time no see. I've got good stuff again this time."
Star-Lord walked with a flashy dance step into a weapons shop. He greeted the alien, who was just over 1.5 meters tall and looked like a deformed blue fish, very happily. It seemed they had known each other for a long time. Compared to Star-Lord's enthusiasm, the boss gave Star-Lord a cold look, seemingly not very welcoming to this guy's arrival.
"You're a big shot now; a lot of people want your head. Don't drag me into this. Also, Yondu has already warned me that if he finds out I'm helping you fence stolen goods, he's going to put a hole in my head. I don't know what you did."
The boss complained to Star-Lord with a headache. He really didn't want to receive this kid; he brought big trouble every time. Especially this time, he didn't expect someone to put a bounty of over a million for this guy's head. This made people wonder if this kid had done something wicked and pissed someone off.
"Really? Someone actually put a bounty on me? Oh my god! There's actually a five-million bounty? It makes me want to take my own life to exchange for that money to spend. But who exactly wants my life?"
Hearing the boss's words, Star-Lord checked the black market bounty list on the computer on his hand. He didn't look for long before he saw his own name and image. It seemed the boss was telling the truth and hadn't lied to him.
"Never mind that for now. Boss, this time I've brought you a good item: the Cosmic Orb, worth over a hundred million. Give me a price!"
He didn't mind the bounty; in this line of work, who wasn't risking their neck? If you were worried, you shouldn't be doing it. Star-Lord walked up, quietly looked around, bent down, picked up a package, and took out the Cosmic Orb inside, speaking to the boss. He didn't really want to sell this thing in the black market. With his abilities, he really didn't dare to walk around the black market holding something worth that much, fearing that someone would pull a double-cross, which would be troublesome. He could only use a compromise: sell it directly to the boss and accept a compromise price of 50 million. This was the best way—it was safe for his life and a safe escape, which was great.
Who knew that when Star-Lord took out the Cosmic Orb, the boss's eyes became terrifyingly wide, flashing with fear and surprise, as if the Cosmic Orb wasn't an object at all, but a ferocious beast.
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