"Ten million!"
Star-Lord, who had just woken up, opened his phone, ready to find a small task to earn some pocket money to maintain his beloved spaceship.
Suddenly, he saw a bounty on himself, and the reward was a full ten million. He was so startled that he jumped out of bed.
"Darling, what's wrong?"
His action also woke up his bedmate from their wild night together.
It was a beautiful centaur maiden.
"Oh, Jelly, you should go home.
It's your first night away, your parents must be worried sick!"
Star-Lord quickly got dressed and said to the centaur maiden.
The centaur maiden looked bewildered:
"But didn't you say last night that since I'm already an adult, I should have my own ideas and be brave enough to try new things?
Also, my name isn't Jelly, it's Amy."
"Right, Amy, I misspoke.
Indeed, one should try new things, but don't make your parents worry.
I suddenly remembered I have an important mission to do. You know, as the famous Star-Lord of the Universe, many people are waiting for me to save them."
Star-Lord helped Amy put on her armor, then casually took a few liberties before sending her out of the spaceship.
The centaur maiden looked at the waving Star-Lord and said naively:
"Okay, you go then. Be sure to come back and see me when you have time."
"I'm in trouble!"
Star-Lord was about to nod when he suddenly saw a large group of centaurs in the distance, armed with weapons, galloping towards them. He was so scared he immediately pulled his head back and started the spaceship.
The spaceship slowly floated up, and before it could accelerate, countless sharp javelins, accompanied by sonic booms, shot towards it.
Star-Lord, scared, immediately pulled the accelerator lever all the way down, barely avoiding being shot full of holes like a porcupine.
"These centaurs are too fierce. It seems I can't come here again to seduce their princess next time."
As soon as the spaceship flew out of the Planet, Star-Lord hadn't even had time to breathe a sigh of relief when his video call rang.
"Yondu?"
Seeing the caller's name, Star-Lord hung up without a word.
"If he knew about my bounty, he'd sell me out in a heartbeat!"
After hanging up, Star-Lord began to recall who he had offended recently to warrant a ten million bounty on him.
But no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't come up with anything.
He knew that all the big missions were team operations with Yondu, so even if he offended someone, they wouldn't specifically retaliate against him.
The small tasks he took on himself were always for the poor on various Planets, not much profit, and it was even less likely for someone to throw ten million at him, especially with the note to capture him alive.
"Ten million, it's better for me to get it than for someone else. I want to see who wants to catch me."
His eyes darted, and he immediately had an idea.
He knew that ten million would surely attract many people to catch him. Instead of hiding, he might as well deliver himself and get that ten million first.
As for later, with his skills and methods, he could always just escape then.
"I'm such a genius!"
After setting the coordinates for Xandar, Star-Lord piloted his beloved milano and plunged into the nearest jump point.
Two days later, Adam, who was training inside the "Orion" magic spaceship, received a video call from Old Broker.
"Mr. Adam, a bounty hunter who wishes to remain anonymous has contacted me, saying he has captured Peter Quill. He's arranged for a handover today at 3 PM, money for man."
"Can you confirm its authenticity? I don't want to waste time."
Adam reminded him.
A bounty hunter who wishes to remain anonymous didn't sound very reliable.
Old Broker quickly patted his chest and guaranteed:
"Mr. Adam, rest assured, we in this line of work are not so reckless. The other party opened a video call for me to verify the goods, and it is indeed a living Peter Quill."
"Okay, I understand."
Adam nodded and hung up the phone.
Indeed, money makes the world go round, and that applies everywhere.
If he had gone to search himself, in the vast Universe, even if he eventually found him, it would have wasted a lot of time.
And in that time, he could have increased his combat power by several thousand.
Now, he had perfectly solved the problem by spending a mere ten million.
Ten million, in Adam's eyes, was simply pocket change.
For him, who could already create all things, money had no meaning, because he could create as much as he wanted.
Even if the Universe primarily used virtual currency transactions, it didn't matter. He could use the Deformation Curse to create some rare resources common in the Universe, and casually selling them would bring in a huge sum of money.
Anyway, his magic was inexhaustible, and the magic consumed to create those rare resources was less than the rate at which his body automatically recovered.
He also happened to have the identity of a Universe merchant. Previously, while touring other Planets, for convenience, he had already exchanged a lot of money in advance.
Of course, it was precisely because he showed off too much wealth that he inevitably encountered some greedy individuals along the way.
The result was naturally self-evident; they were all turned into air by him.
Because of this, he had actually gained a small reputation in the Universe. Those who had witnessed his methods even gave him a nickname: "Merchant of Extinction."
It meant that anyone or any force that had offended him had been utterly wiped out.
Therefore, his Universe bank account currently held a massive deposit of ten billion.
2 PM, Xandar spaceship temporary docking point.
After Star-Lord parked the milano, he immediately booked a hotel closest to the docking point online, then messaged Old Broker:
"Bring the client to room 8 on the twentieth floor of this hotel in an hour. We'll exchange money for man."
His plan was simple: once he arrived at the hotel room, he would use a doctored electronic handcuff to shackle himself to the bed in the room.
When the client and Old Broker arrived, he would secretly use a smart virtual program to impersonate the bounty hunter, conducting the transaction remotely.
Once the money was in his account and he had clarified the client's identity, he would break free from the handcuffs, jump from the twentieth floor, use the flight equipment on his feet to quickly return to the milano, and then make his escape.
This way, he could trick them out of money, find out who was trying to catch him, and finally retreat safely.
It was truly killing three birds with one stone; he even admired his own intelligence just thinking about it.
However, an accident occurred on the way to the hotel.
At that moment, a Treant over two meters tall carrying a sack and a raccoon holding a communicator blocked his path.
"Groot, today must be our lucky day! We just escaped from prison and we've already run into ten million. We're going to be rich!"
"A raccoon and a tree actually want to catch me? This is truly a joke."
Star-Lord calmly pulled out two elemental guns.
Ten minutes later.
"89P13, Treant Groot, Peter Quill, please immediately put down your weapons. We declare you arrested in the name of the Nova Corps.
You are accused of endangering public safety, destruction of public property, theft, and robbery."