Ignoring the clowns on the side, Gamora turned to Darian and asked seriously: "Is the Cosmic Orb with you?"
"Sort of."
Darian nodded.
Since the Cosmic Orb couldn't be put into the game inventory, he placed it in a very hidden spot.
Gamora breathed a sigh of relief: "In that case, why don't we make a deal? I know a buyer who is willing to pay 4 billion Universe coins for the Cosmic Orb in your hands."
4 billion Universe coins!?
Darian was shocked: "Are you saying that Cosmic Orb is worth 100,000 Quills?"
Quill: "..."
"When did I become a unit of measurement?"
Gamora nodded: "That's right. Before, I wanted the Cosmic Orb specifically to hand it over to that buyer. If you are willing to give the Cosmic Orb to me, we can split the money."
Quill hurriedly interrupted: "Wait! You must count me in! It was me and my fellow Fellow countryman who found the Cosmic Orb together."
"And me, don't forget who helped you break out of prison."
Rocket Raccoon chimed in, casually revealing that they were a bunch of prison escapees.
Quill glared at him, but Rocket Raccoon was unfazed.
"What? I didn't say anything wrong."
Drax clenched his fists and said in a deep voice: "I don't want money. I only want Ronan. He killed my wife and daughter. I want to kill him!"
Quill chuckled: "That's great. We can split the money with one less person. Four people is fine."
"I am Groot."
"Fine, plus a tree."
A bunch of clowns!
Gamora rolled her eyes. As a normal person mingling among these clowns, she always felt out of place.
If not for the circumstances, she would have stayed far away from these guys, especially Quill, the clown of all clowns, to avoid being infected by their clownish aura.
She asked Darian: "What do you think of this deal?"
Darian was amused: "Why should I agree to you? Wouldn't it be better for me to enjoy the 4 billion Universe coins all by myself?"
Gamora replied calmly: "Because only I know who the buyer is. You need my introduction."
If it were her old style, she would have just grabbed it. Even if she couldn't find the Cosmic Orb, she had plenty of ways to force it out.
But now she was determined to turn over a new leaf and was no longer the ruthless assassin under Thanos. Doing things now required persuasion, and she preferred not to resort to violence if possible.
Having said so much, it was definitely not because she couldn't beat Darian!
[NPC Gamora · Zen · Hoberly · Ben · Titan has issued a new quest for you]
[Quest: Big Business]
[Goal: Assist Gamora in safely delivering the Cosmic Orb to the buyer]
[Quest Reward: EXP +1000, Guardians of the Galaxy Favorability +10, Random Item *1, Random Equipment *1]
Guardians of the Galaxy?
It seems that must be the name of this group of clowns.
Darian was not surprised. This group of people radiated a clownish aura; it was a match made in heaven. It would be hard to believe they weren't a team.
"Deal."
Darian thought about it and agreed.
Seeing this, everyone except Groot and Drax breathed a sigh of relief.
They had witnessed Darian's abilities firsthand, and Quill had already told them about his fellow Fellow countryman's feats with added embellishments.
For example, Darian led 300 Asgard warriors to plunder dozens of ravager ships, making the Raiders the laughingstock of the entire Universe.
Or that Darian was a mage from Earth who smashed a stone man with one axe and knocked down Ronan's men with one punch.
The members of the Guardians of the Galaxy were amazed.
Although they didn't know what a mage was, judging from this description, it must be a profession with extremely high combat power. The image of a muscular man holding an axe instantly appeared in their minds.
This group was usually fearless, but no one wanted to go against a ruthless person like Darian. In the end, they would only be the ones to suffer.
Quill was overjoyed when he saw Darian agree: "Great! Where is the Cosmic Orb?"
"Wait for me."
As soon as he finished speaking, Darian disappeared into thin air, leaving everyone present dumbfounded.
After a few minutes, he reappeared in the same spot, holding an exquisite metal ball—the Cosmic Orb.
"Fellow Fellow countryman, how did you do that?" Quill asked in shock.
"I already told you I'm a mage. It's normal for a mage to teleport."
Darian didn't bother to explain further and instead asked: "By the way, how did you find me?"
He could see that these people had a clear goal; they were clearly coming for him.
Quill laughed: "I was worried your spaceship would be stolen, so I secretly installed a tracking device on it. We followed the coordinates all the way here."
"After arriving here, we heard that someone was fishing for law enforcement, robbing many people, and selling over a dozen unlucky guys to the slave market. As soon as I heard this style of operation, I knew it must be you, so I brought everyone here."
What worry about the spaceship being stolen? It was clearly to track his movements and find those dozens of hidden ravager ships.
How could Darian not know Quill's thoughts?
Don't look at this guy acting like an idiot all day; in fact, he... well, he is an idiot, but he definitely has plenty of schemes, otherwise he wouldn't be doing so well in the cutthroat interstellar world.
Sure enough, that beating earlier was not unfair at all.
The buyer Gamora mentioned was right here in the Knowhere.
On the way to find the buyer with Gamora, Darian curiously asked how this group of weirdos came together.
Rocket Raccoon spoke without reservation and told them everything.
It turned out that shortly after they were thrown into prison, Gamora took the initiative to reveal that the Cosmic Orb was worth 4 billion. As soon as Quill and the nature combo heard that this thing was so valuable, they immediately planned a prison break. A few seconds later, they executed the plan and escaped in less than a minute.
Darian was speechless.
The security level of this interstellar prison was comparable to the talent-filled Arkham Asylum; they could run out so easily.
As for Drax, he jumped on the bandwagon halfway. He listened to Quill's sweet talk, saying Ronan was hunting Gamora, so he followed Gamora every day, only wanting to find Ronan and kill him, or be killed by him.
However, they didn't have the Cosmic Orb in their hands, and because they were wanted by the Nova Corps, they didn't dare to return to Xandar to find Darian, so they had to form a temporary team, while scamming... ahem, taking some odd jobs to earn some hard-earned money to avoid starving to death on the street, while waiting for news of Darian.
Although they were just a temporarily formed team, it had to be admitted that their relationship had grown better and better during this time, and they had become increasingly clownish.
Although Gamora considered herself the only normal person in this team, it was not hard to see that some clownish aura had already appeared on her. After all, she spent the most time with Quill every day, and the distance was infinitely close to zero; it was hard not to be infected.
Until a few days ago, Quill's tracking device finally received a mobile signal, and they rushed over without stopping.
Thus, the scene just now happened.
Darian really didn't expect that a part of the reason this group of clowns formed a team was because of him.
Of course, the main reason was that clowns attract each other; this is the law of the Great Universe.
Wait, if they were attracted by me, does that mean I am also a clown?
Darian's face stiffened, and he immediately denied this thought.
How could someone as serious and upright as him be a clown!
They chatted as they walked, passing through streets built of huge bones, and finally stopped in front of a tall, strange building.
Standing in front of the door was a pink-skinned alien woman. When she saw Gamora, she bowed slightly.
"Ms. Gamora, my Master has been waiting for a long time."
"Lead the way." Gamora replied calmly.
Following this alien maid, everyone walked into the depths of the building.
Inside the wide space, square transparent display cabinets were densely arranged in all directions, like a huge biological museum.
Different alien species were imprisoned in each cabinet. One could even see a duck that looked like a cartoon character. In the next cabinet, there was a yellow dog common in the Eastern countries of Earth. All these creatures were imprisoned in transparent containers like exhibits.
The alien maid introduced with a smile: "We have the largest collection of rare items in the entire galaxy, with all kinds of rare species."
Darian's eyes lit up: "Do you have any white-haired, red-eyed cat girls here?"
Alien maid: "... This seems to be missing."
"My friend, the species you just mentioned makes me very interested. If you find it, I am willing to buy it at a high price."
A strange-looking, robed white-haired man walked out from among the cabinets.
[NPC: Taneleer Tivan]
[Codename: The Collector]
[Favorability: 0]
[Evaluation: Brother of the Grandmaster, collector of living figures, Noah's Ark of the Universe, one of the top rich guys in the entire Universe.]
He was indeed a rich guy, actually able to pull out 4 billion Universe coins.
This was definitely a huge amount.
You know, Quill's bounty was only 40,000 Universe coins, which was enough to make Rocket Raccoon excited and call himself a rich man. It shows how huge the purchasing power of this 100,000 times amount was.
"If I really find it, I'd rather keep it for myself."
Darian changed the subject and looked at the surrounding cabinets: "By the way, are you selling these collections?"
The Collector was clearly stunned.
For so many years, he had always been the one asking others this question. This was the first time someone had asked to buy his collection.
"Why, do you also like to collect different rare species?"
"No, I like to barbecue them to eat."
The Collector: "..."
So the other party was not a collector, but a gourmet.
His mouth twitched: "Sorry, these are all not for sale, no matter how much money you offer."
"Is that so? That's a pity."
Darian shook his head regretfully. He still wanted to see what the effect of barbecuing special species would be.
"Yeah, what a pity!"
Quill nodded vigorously, unable to help wiping his drool.
He still couldn't forget the taste of the barbecue Darian made earlier; just the aftertaste was enough to eat several bowls of rice, so much so that his abdominal muscles had melted into one piece.
Gamora looked at Quill with some disgust.
She must have been blind these days to almost have zero-distance contact with this guy.
"Tivan, we have brought the Cosmic Orb."
Gamora spoke, interrupting The Collector who was staring at Groot.
When The Collector heard this, his attention was immediately drawn: "Let me see!"
Darian took the Cosmic Orb from his arms.
The Collector's eyes lit up instantly. He carefully reached out his hands and took the Cosmic Orb from Darian, his movements as gentle as if he were treating a fragile, peerless treasure.
He held the Cosmic Orb, brought it to his eyes to examine it carefully, and kept muttering to himself: "Perfect..."
That posture was just like an otaku treating his limited-edition figure wife.
However, before The Collector could admire it for long, it was rudely snatched back by Darian.
"Big brother, stop touching it. Pay the money first."
"Okay, okay, I'll pay. Be gentle with it."
The Collector was anxious and hurriedly signaled the pink maid to bring an exquisite metal box.
While opening the safety lock, he urged: "This is an Infinity Stone, not an ordinary toy. Be careful not to drop it..."
Darian raised an eyebrow: "You know about the Infinity Stones?"
"Of course."
The Collector was energized, as if showing off his profound knowledge: "Before the creation of the Universe, there were six singularities. Then the Big Bang created all things. The remnants of these six singularities were collected and condensed into gems, called Infinity Stones."
Darian narrowed his eyes slightly. This sentence contained a lot of information.
He was very curious about who was so awesome that they could collect the remnants of the singularities at the beginning of the creation of the Universe and refine them into these powerful Infinity Stones.
At this time, the maid presented an exquisite metal box to everyone.
Inside the box were neatly arranged forty crystal-clear energy crystals, each emitting a faint blue light. These were the highest denomination currency circulating in the Universe; one piece was worth 100 million Universe coins.
Quill and the others were wide-eyed; they had never seen so much cash in their lives.
After Darian counted and confirmed it was correct, he handed the Cosmic Orb back to The Collector.
[Quest "Big Business" settlement complete]
[Rewards obtained: 1000 EXP, Guardians of the Galaxy Favorability +10, Item "Ten Thousand Ghost Coins", Equipment "Pharaoh's scepter"]
[Item: Ten Thousand Ghost Coins (Money can make ghosts push the mill)]
[Item: Pharaoh's scepter (Historical relic, very collectible, weighs 300KG)]
The rewards were still somewhat related to the quest goal.
One was money, one was a collection fetish.
However, Darian hadn't seen a ghost yet. He had seen many black ghosts and Vampires, and he didn't know if the Ghost Coins had any effect on them.
But what made Darian unable to hold back was this Pharaoh's scepter, which actually weighed 300KG.
You call this a scepter!?
Does this Pharaoh have a dog's head on his neck?