Chapter 725 Cosmic Junkyard

“Nebula, how much longer until we reach the Land of Chaos?” Mike asked in the small spaceship, sipping juice and enjoying a thoughtful head massage from Wanda.

He looked utterly content.

More than a month had passed since the three of them departed Asgard for their interstellar journey.

From the initial excitement, to the unchanging view of asteroids, frost, space dust, and vast emptiness outside the ship, Mike’s initial enthusiasm had long faded.

All that remained was boredom.

If Wanda hadn’t been there to keep him company, Mike felt he would have rusted.

Yet, even with her, a month of interstellar travel was more than enough for him.

His gaze involuntarily turned to Nebula, who was sitting in the cockpit, acting as their grunt.

“Because this spaceship doesn’t have wormhole jump technology, we still need about half a month to reach Sakaar…” Nebula looked back at her boss, who was ‘sprawled’ ungracefully in the recliner, and slightly pursed her lips, saying, “Of course, if boss you’re in a hurry and don’t care about comfort, I can speed up, cutting the travel time in half, or even shorter.”

After more than a month of interaction, Nebula had pretty much figured out the temperament of her new ‘boss’.

Besides being powerful, he was very gentle.

As long as one didn’t intentionally provoke him, he was a very easy person to get along with.

Emotionally stable, hates trouble, a strong contender for a hands-off manager… Combining all these traits, Nebula’s evaluation of Mike was that he was a ‘boss’ worth following.

Such an evaluation, coming from an old interstellar hand like Nebula, was by no means low.

Of course, Mike’s approachable, even ‘lazy’ demeanor also had a downside: Nebula, having gradually grown familiar with him, no longer held the initial reverence.

Occasionally, she even showed expressions of ‘disdain’.

It was truly a case of the ‘tool person’ turning the tables.

Fortunately, Mike was magnanimous.

“In a hurry? No, we’re not short on time. Let’s maintain this speed.” As soon as he heard that speeding up would sacrifice comfort, Mike immediately rejected Nebula’s suggestion.

After all, if more than a month had passed, waiting another half month was nothing.

He believed that with Thor’s resilience, even if he ended up in a chaotic place like Sakaar, he wouldn’t be unable to hold out until Mike came to rescue him.

At most, he would just have to wait a bit longer and endure a little more hardship.

“Wanda, my shoulders feel a bit sore. Could you give me a shoulder rub?” No longer thinking about Thor, Mike shifted his attention to Wanda in front of him.

“Like this?” Wanda, who was massaging Mike’s temples, leaned slightly forward at his words, placed her hands on his shoulders, and began gently pressing again.

“Yes, just like that,” Mike smiled and gave his approval, gazing at the two full moons above his head.

At the same time, he slurped the juice through the straw, feeling a milky aroma filling his mouth.

‘Yes, just like that…’

In the cockpit, Nebula rolled her eyes speechlessly, mimicking Mike’s recent playboy-like manner with her mouth opening and closing.

As for what else she grumbled about, only she herself probably knew.

This is what you call, in a group of three, one is always the third wheel… At the same time, Thor, who was on an interstellar ‘trip’ through space turbulence, suddenly appeared above a garbage recycling station on Sakaar.

Then, without surprise, he fell into a pile of garbage.

“Ptooey, ptooey!” Thor, who had eaten a mouthful of garbage, quickly brushed it off himself and climbed out of the pile.

Still dizzy, he didn’t forget that a group of Asgardians on Earth were waiting for him to manage.

“So? Where exactly is this? How do I get back…?” Although Thor was thick-headed, he could tell from the surrounding environment that this was not Asgard or any part of Earth.

The magnificent, technologically advanced buildings in the distance, and the various punk-style flying vehicles hovering in the air.

All indicated that the technological level here was decades, even a century, ahead of Earth.

As for a planet like Asgard, which pursued primitive power, there was no comparison.

The two were completely on different tracks.

“Buddy, do you still want that fusion power stick in your hand?” Just as Thor was contemplating life, a scavenger walked up to him.

“Lizard Head???” Thor was startled to realize that although the scavenger in front of him walked upright on four limbs, he had a strange green head.

His slightly reddish eyes held a hint of greed.

Looking around, there were scavengers as thin as paper dolls with mechanical prosthetics, and ‘obese’ scavengers like fleshy balls covered in tumors.

There were even humanoid scavengers with various animal heads.

This further confirmed Thor’s guess: this was not any of the Nine Realms he was familiar with.

“Lizard Head? I am indeed a Lizardian, so do you still want the fusion power stick in your hand?” The Lizardian didn’t mind Thor’s offense, his eyes still fixed on the long device in the other’s hand.

Sakaar, also known as the Land of Chaos, was also a large cosmic garbage recycling hub.

The Grandmaster, who presided over it, got his start from the cosmic garbage here, and then, with his superb business acumen, further became its ruler.

The Grandmaster, with his strong possessiveness, then regarded everything on Sakaar as his private property.

This naturally included the residents living there, and even the ‘lucky ones’ who accidentally ended up there.

All were objectified as property.

And to live on this planet, without being treated as garbage, one needed to pay tribute to the Grandmaster.

Even scavengers, like ants, still needed to pay protection fees.

Although the fusion energy device in Thor’s hand was severely damaged, it was still a high-tech product. Selling it could earn dozens or hundreds of interstellar coins.

Enough for a scavenger to live on Sakaar for one or two months.

Lizard Head was eyeing this, which is why he boldly demanded it from Thor.

After all, the other party looked like a big simpleton.

“Fusion energy device?” Thor glanced at the long, stick-like piece of garbage he had grabbed, then realized Lizard Head thought he was a junk collector.

As the new king of Asgard, how could Thor have ever endured such an insult?

“Tell me where this is, and how do I leave here?” After Ragnarök, Thor had clearly matured.

Even if he was unwilling, he had learned to rationally use his leverage to obtain the information he needed.

“Leave?” Lizard Head sneered, saying, “This is Sakaar. Everything here belongs to the Grandmaster, including you and all that is yours…”

“Never mind, it’s no use telling you this. I hope you can make it through the first month.” Seemingly having a change of heart, Lizard Head wasn’t going to continue ‘bullying’ Thor.

With that, he shook his head and prepared to leave.

As for the fusion energy garbage, he’d leave it to the newcomer as their first month’s protection fee.

“Grandmaster? What the hell is that! No one can stop me from going home…” Thor spat. That Grandmaster person sounded like a bad guy.

But that wasn’t the point. Thor’s most urgent need now was to return to his people’s side.

“Hey, as a return for the info, this is yours.” Thor, whose mind was set on returning to his people, called out to Lizard Head, threw the fusion energy device to him, and then strode out of the garbage station.

As for being a scavenger, whoever wants to be one can be one.

“Newcomer, one last piece of advice for you…” Lizard Head hugged the fusion energy device, kindly warning, “It’s not safer out there than it is here. You need to learn to be discreet.”

With that, Lizard Head hurried deeper into the garbage station.

Although this Lizardian had a grotesque Lizard Head, he wasn’t very bulky; at least he was much thinner than Thor.

What Thor could keep, he might not be able to hold onto.

Even if it was a piece of high-tech garbage.

So the immediate priority was to quickly sell the fusion energy device in his hand…