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"If I lose… then I will willingly become your collection now, and I promise I will never try to escape."
Karl shook the wine glass in his hand, glanced at Taneleer Tivan opposite him, and said confidently:
"But if You lose, then You must transfer the ownership of the Creation Ember in Your hand, and the Celestial head where Knowhere is located, to me."
…
prestige points +10086
…
"What?"
The burning look in Taneleer Tivan's eyes immediately receded, replaced by a hint of wariness. He stared at Karl's face, observing him carefully for a moment, and then, finding nothing, he spoke again:
"May I ask… Mr. Karl, I am very curious, how exactly do You know that the last remaining Creation Ember in this Universe is in my hands?"
He slowly raised two fingers. "Looking at the entire Universe, besides myself, there are definitely no more than two people who know this secret!"
Karl smiled mysteriously, actually wanting to say: Of course, that's because that's how it was shown in the Marvel series!
However, the tone of the other party's voice just now, no matter how he listened, did not sound like an interrogation; rather, it sounded a bit like he was showing off to him.
And, apparently, compared to the Creation Ember, Taneleer Tivan didn't seem to care much about this Celestial head.
It's also understandable, after all, this place has been continuously mined for hundreds or thousands of years, and apart from a group of desperate miners who commit all sorts of evil, there are very few truly valuable 'mineral resources' left inside.
If Karl had directly proposed to use only the Celestial head as a stake, Taneleer Tivan would probably have agreed without even questioning it.
"What, are You afraid?"
Karl seemed to have already figured out Taneleer Tivan's personality. He did not answer his question, but instead retorted with a half-smile.
"No, no, no, not afraid…"
Even though he knew the other party was deliberately provoking him, this sentence still stimulated Taneleer Tivan's sensitive nerves.
Because in the past few thousand years, he had never failed to obtain any 'collection' he desired.
And besides his identity as The Collector, he was actually a thorough and seasoned gambler, just like his brother, Grandmaster!
Taneleer Tivan shook his index finger from side to side, his face already restored to its previous composure and calmness. "I just think our stakes are very unequal…"
Before he could finish speaking, Karl stood up with a look of disappointment. "In that case, forget it."
With that, Karl lightly snapped his fingers, opening a Deep blue teleportation portal in front of him, and made a gesture as if to step through and leave.
"Wait a moment, Mr. Karl, please stay."
Taneleer Tivan looked greedily at the portal, then quickly stepped forward with a smile to stop him: "I was just joking. It's my honor to make a bet with an Earth Guardian like You!"
"Alright, then let us swear by the sacred First Firmament and formally establish this wager!"
"First Firmament?"
A hint of doubt appeared in Karl's eyes, but he did not delve deeper, immediately nodding in agreement.
For him, who knew the plot and possessed 'precognition' abilities, even the biggest gamble was nothing.
After all, this is a sure-win situation!
"Mr. Karl, I'm really sorry, but You are doomed to lose this time."
Taneleer Tivan, who thought he had gained an advantage, grinned slyly after the 'wager' was successfully established:
"Just a few minutes before You arrived here, the bounty hunters I commissioned contacted me. They will arrive here soon and sell me the Cosmic Orb… For that, I will pay them a sky-high bounty of 4 billion!"
"So, You are doomed to lose this time!"
With that, he eagerly turned to the red-skinned alien maid bowing behind him and said:
"Carina, go and wipe the glass of the display case near the door again. I absolutely will not tolerate even a speck of dust on it… because that would be the greatest blasphemy to Mr. Karl's noble status!"
Clearly, this guy had already considered Karl his 'collection'.
And Taneleer Tivan was not at all worried that Karl, this so-called Earth Guardian, would deliberately renege on the agreement after losing.
Because in this Universe, as long as You can afford the corresponding chips, then even if You want to kill a God, there will be plenty of desperate people to do it for You!
What's more, as a member of the Elders of the Universe, Taneleer Tivan's own strength was not weak.
And since the two of them made a 'vow' to the First Firmament, there was even less to worry about!
Karl was not bothered by Taneleer Tivan's recent remarks.
Because as proud as this guy was acting now, that's how frustrated he would be later!
…
A few hours later.
Star-Lord, Gamora, Rocket Raccoon, Treant Groot, and Destroyer Drax, the five-member 'Guardians of the Galaxy' team, arrived at Knowhere as in the original story.
Then they immediately went to Taneleer Tivan's exhibition hall.
"Oh, my dear Gamora, it is truly an honor to meet You in person!"
Taneleer Tivan said in a slightly strange accent, then walked up to Gamora, took her green hand, and lightly kissed the back of it.
"Damn it, she never let me kiss the back of her hand." Star-Lord muttered enviously from behind. "Before, I just wanted to kiss her, and she immediately put a knife to my neck…"
"Isn't that because You're not rich enough?" Rocket Raccoon teased with a mischievous grin. "I've said it before, poor people aren't entitled to mating rights; that's an eternal law in the Universe!"
"What?"
Star-Lord looked at him with an exaggerated expression, "Are You kidding me? I'm not poor… Have You already forgotten whose spaceship we took to get here?"
"That broken spaceship of Yours isn't worth much money, alright?" Rocket immediately exposed him.
And Destroyer Drax silently added a fatal blow from the side, "Give up, Quill, that old guy can offer 4 billion in compensation. You can't compare to him at all!"
"Who… who said that?"
Star-Lord's face immediately turned a bit ugly, but he still stubbornly insisted, "At least I'm much younger than him, and I have Xandarian blood flowing in my veins, which is quite rare in the Universe."
"Huh?"
Just then, Star-Lord seemed to have discovered something unusual, suddenly pointing at the figure sitting alone at a table, drinking, not far from them, and said:
"I think I've seen that person on Xandar before…"
"Tsk, come on."
Rocket Raccoon gave Star-Lord a contemptuous middle finger, "Your topic-changing skills are a bit too clumsy, aren't they?"
"No, I really have seen that man."
Star-Lord said with a wronged expression, "And at that time, he was right outside the middleman's shop, and I even complimented his attire!"
The man Star-Lord referred to was naturally Karl.
"He's right, we did meet there before."
Facing their wary gazes, Karl politely smiled, and at the same time, raised the wine glass in his hand and shook it, as a greeting to the members of the 'Guardians of the Galaxy' opposite him.
"See, I told You I wasn't lying, didn't I?" Star-Lord nodded gratefully to Karl.
Gamora ignored the whispers of the idiots behind her. As she withdrew her hand, she turned her head to look at Karl opposite her and asked The Collector:
"Is that Your person?"
"No, no, no."
Taneleer Tivan shook his head, and introduced with feigned mystery: "Mr. Karl is my esteemed guest; he is an Earth Guardian…"
As if noticing the wary look on Gamora's face, he quickly reassured her softly: "Don't worry, Gamora, Mr. Karl will absolutely not disturb our transaction. We are currently just engaged in a very interesting wager!"
In fact, Taneleer Tivan had really wanted to say just now that this Earth Guardian would soon become his collection.
Because in his opinion, he already had victory in his grasp!
"Tivan, I think we should just skip these useless steps, shall we?"
Gamora averted her gaze from Karl. Although The Collector had a peculiar personality, his reputation in the industry was absolutely impeccable. Otherwise, Gamora would never have risked being hunted by both Thanos and Ronan to bring the Cosmic Orb here.
So she no longer concealed it and said directly: "As we discussed in our previous call, we have what You want in our hands!"
"Please wait a moment?"
Taneleer Tivan seemed to have discovered something and suddenly interrupted Gamora, then stared intently at Groot behind her and said:
"What is that thing?"
"I am Groot!" Treant Groot introduced himself, clearly annoyed.
"Wow, is today my lucky day? I've successively encountered two exciting collections in one day…"
Taneleer Tivan greedily bypassed Gamora and began to incessantly scrutinize Groot, "I never imagined I would one day encounter a humanoid plant like this."
"Sir, please be sure to sell me your corpse. If you agree, I can pay you now."
"What, are You going to use Groot as a chair?" Rocket Raccoon scoffed, annoyed.
Taneleer Tivan merely glanced at the other party out of the corner of his eye, then continued to Groot, "Is that low-level life form, which has undergone illegal genetic modification and mechanical experimentation, Your pet?"
Clearly, Taneleer Tivan instantly recognized Rocket Raccoon's identity, and in his exhibition hall, there were similar special biological specimens.
However, Taneleer Tivan clearly did not value such collections that had obvious personality flaws and were extremely prone to entering a state of rage.
He wouldn't even include them in his collection unless it was to fill a gap in categories.
"Bastard, what did You just say I was to him?"
The thing Rocket Raccoon couldn't stand the most was being looked down upon. He immediately prepared to pull out the blaster from his back and blast the white-haired bastard in front of him. Seeing this, Gamora quickly stepped forward to stop him:
"Tivan, stop wasting our time… We traveled across half the Milky Way Galaxy to complete Your mission and found the Cosmic Orb; we didn't come here to argue with You!"
"Very good."
Taneleer Tivan smiled slightly, not taking the recent conflict to heart, and turned to Gamora, saying, "Then, let me see if what You've brought is what I want!"
Gamora then nodded to Star-Lord opposite her, who took out a silver-gray metallic sphere from his satchel and handed it over.
"Wow, my new friends, the moment to witness a miracle is about to appear!"
Taneleer Tivan took the Cosmic Orb and placed it on a pre-prepared disassembly machine.
While waiting for the sphere to be disassembled, he did not forget to use 3D projection technology to show off and explain the legend of the Power Stone, which was stored inside the Cosmic Orb, to the people in front of him.
"Long before the Universe was formed, there existed six Singularities with infinite power… Then, with the Big Bang, everything we now see was created."
"And the essence of those six Singularities was refined into six gems containing infinite energy in this Big Bang… They are collectively known as the infinity stones!!"
"But these infinity stones are not something just anyone can possess; only those who possess extraordinary power themselves can barely wield their power."
"In the distant past, some people used the power of these gems to easily destroy entire civilizations. Destroying life and Planets was as easy as harvesting wheat for the owners of these gems…"
As he spoke, a massive illusion suddenly appeared before Star-Lord and the others: a colossal being nearly a thousand meters tall, its entire body, including its head, covered in an unknown metallic armor.
It was indeed a member of the Celestial Race.
However, apart from Taneleer Tivan and Karl, who was sitting not far away and had not yet been discovered by Star-Lord and the others, no one else at the scene knew of the existence of these top-tier 'life forms'.
And in the hand of that Celestial Race member, there was a gigantic metallic scepter almost as tall as his body.
At the very top of that enormous scepter, a captivating purple light was constantly flashing.
When the image zoomed in, Star-Lord and the others finally saw that the light was actually emanating from a purple crystalline gem embedded in the scepter.