"Wait, where am I?"
Star-Lord was clearly confused as well. He looked around blankly and said, "I remember... I should be chatting with a lady?"
"Hmm? This guy..."
After the initial surprise, Rocket Raccoon also reacted, "Is this that stupid human? Hey buddy, this is my prey."
"What? Your target is also this guy?"
Fang Mo pretended to be surprised, "Were you also hired by Yondu?"
"You too?"
Rocket Raccoon also frowned, then he took out his smart computer and started to fiddle with it, "Wait, let me check... No, the bounty on the platform was indeed only taken by me, no one else interfered... So what's the deal with you?"
"Oh, I forgot to tell you."
Fang Mo spread his hands, "I am a dark bounty hunter. The Yondu job was actually one I got through the Ravagers."
"What the heck is a dark bounty hunter?"
Rocket Raccoon looked at Fang Mo with some suspicion, "You're not playing me, are you?"
"Bro, why would I play you?" Fang Mo helplessly spread his hands, "I mainly got into trouble before, offended a lot of people, so I was canceled by various platforms as a bounty hunter..."
"Huh?"
Rocket Raccoon was stunned, "What did you do wrong?"
"It was a long time ago. I took a big job once. The mission was to go to a chaotic planet," Fang Mo sighed and said. "When I got there, I found two groups of people confronting each other, and then my employer also called me for an interstellar chat."
"He asked me if I saw a blond man in the crowd."
Fang Mo said this with a deliberately sad expression on his face, "I had just woken up at that time and thought the job was a damn assassination mission, so I fired a gravity ray, directly blasting that stupid man into pieces."
"Uh..."
Rocket Raccoon was also a bit curious when he heard this and asked, "Then what?"
"Then?"
Fang Mo sadly wiped his face and said, "There's no 'then'. My employer said the blond man was his son and asked me to protect him in the upcoming battle..."
"Damn."
After hearing Fang Mo's explanation, Rocket Raccoon was astonished and said: "How unlucky must the employer be to have met you?"
"There's nothing I can do. I just woke up and my mind is a bit muddled," Fang Mo replied with a wave of his hand. "Anyway, it's all in the past. Now that I'm a dark bounty hunter, it's quite good. Let me just chop off his head first."
As he spoke, Fang Mo drew a Manyullyn Cleaver from behind.
"Hey! Hey! Wait a minute!"
Seeing the large knife flashing with purple ghostly light, Star-Lord was visibly panicked: "What I mean is, dark bounty hunter, is there a possibility... that Yondu wanted to capture him alive?"
"Nonsense. Do I not know what kind of person Yondu is?"
Fang Mo retorted, "He's the leader of the Ravagers, merciless in killing. He usually likes to eat intelligent species from other planets. I remember... oh, sorry, I just woke up and my mind isn't working well. Right, I remember he wanted to take your head back to drink with."
After saying this, Fang Mo deliberately raised the Manyullyn Cleaver in his hand.
"Big brother! Can I call you big brother, please?"
Star-Lord was genuinely scared upon hearing this. He was just having a dispute with Yondu. Such things had happened before, and it usually ended up with him being captured by mercenaries and sent back. But this time, he encountered a madman: "Please, I beg you, okay? Look, there's a fountain next to us. Why don't you wash your face and sober up a bit..."
"I think you're just trying to buy time."
Fang Mo didn't care about that. While raising the sword, he smiled at Rocket Raccoon: "Don't worry, little brother. I'll share half the bounty with you. I'm a man of honor. We'll make money together..."
"Let's put the money aside for now."
Rocket Raccoon glanced at his smart computer and couldn't help but say: "It seems like Yondu indeed wanted him alive. It's written right here. Did you get muddled again after waking up?"
"Ah?"
Fang Mo feigned surprise: "Really?"
Saying that, Fang Mo leaned over to take a look, and indeed, the bounty of forty thousand was clearly marked as a live capture, provided by Yondu Udonta.
"Emmm..."
Fang Mo deliberately fell into deep thought.
"Thank God." Seeing Fang Mo stop his beheading action, Star-Lord finally breathed a sigh of relief and couldn't help but say to Rocket Raccoon on the ground: "Thanks, little raccoon."
"Thanks for nothing, I'm called Rocket."
Rocket Raccoon didn't have a friendly expression towards Star-Lord, showing his teeth and saying: "Did you think I came to save you? Kid, you're just our bounty... By the way, Fang Mo, do you have something like a sack?"
"Catching him alive is such a hassle."
Fang Mo took out a bundle of sacks from his pocket and couldn't help complaining: "I always feel like this guy will run away..."
"I am Groot. (Maybe I can wrap him up.)"
Just then, the tree-man next to Rocket Raccoon suddenly spoke up, pointing to a ray gun on Star-Lord's leg: "(This way he won't be able to use his weapon, and we'll be safer.)"
"Use tree roots to wrap him up?"
Fang Mo subconsciously touched his chin, his eyes scanning Star-Lord's body in search of the Orb: "That's indeed a good idea... But rather than just tying him up, I think it's safer to take everything off his body."
"Right, let's start by taking his gun and electromagnetic generator."
Rocket Raccoon agreed.
But soon, Rocket looked at Fang Mo in disbelief: "Wait a minute! You can understand what Groot is saying?"
"Oh, that's one of my abilities, witty banter."
Fang Mo shrugged: "Although it's hard to explain the principle to you, I can chat with any thinking being... Not just the Flora Colossi, but even if Maokai, Aion, or Jera show up, I can still talk to them."
This is actually a characteristic of Groot's species, the Flora Colossi. Due to their tree-like nature, their vocal cords aren't flexible, allowing them to only say 'I, am, Groot'. So, aside from their own species, very few can understand them.
Rocket Raccoon could understand Groot's language and liked his personality, which is why they became partners. As for Fang Mo... he obviously used the ability of a localization mod.
"So when you caught this guy back in just one second, was that also your ability?" Rocket couldn't help but ask.
"Correct, that's another of my skills, running faster than anyone."
Fang Mo explained happily: "Actually, I have many other abilities I haven't shown, like critiquing, emitting light, live-streaming, shopping for blackheads and oil-removal tools... But actually, my best skill is medical treatment. I can help patients pass away immediately, with no chance of revival, ensuring they go from the operating table to the crematorium in less than an hour, providing a joyful, all-in-one funeral service."
"Oh right, I also have another ability, sword dealing. And I have a rule for it: it must be done in a subspace, so everyone calls me the 'Subspace Vendor'."
"..."
After listening to Fang Mo, both Rocket Raccoon and Star-Lord fell silent.
Even the usually honest Groot was a bit confused. Soon, the three of them exchanged glances, seemingly reaching a consensus that Fang Mo was crazy.
"Why aren't you guys talking?"
Seeing everyone's expressions, Fang Mo asked in confusion: "Weren't we going to take everything off him first?"
"Ah yes, right, I almost forgot."
Rocket Raccoon patted his head and said, "Great, you help me check if this guy has any prosthetics... and weapons, show me his weapons. They seem quite unusual."
"Oh, okay."
Fang Mo, having seen the movie, knew about Rocket Raccoon's strange hobby of collecting others' prosthetics, but he didn't care about others' quirks. Right now, he just wanted the Power Stone, so he simply grabbed one of Star-Lord's feet and shook it hard, as if he was dumping trash.
And with that shake, Star-Lord was like the little mouse Tuffy in 'Tom and Jerry'.
His little paper diaper was filled with firecrackers.
And Star-Lord's pockets were filled with various high-end equipment from the Ravagers.
It must be said, Yondu really spoiled his foster son, with illegally modified high-power ray guns, electromagnetic attractors, high-energy bombs, personal space life support devices, rocket backpacks, and a mess of other items scattered all around.
Of course, there was also a Walkman, which was said to be a relic his mother left him on Earth.
"Hey! Hey! You can't take this!"
Seeing the Walkman fall to the ground, Star-Lord quickly shouted, "This thing is not a weapon, it's a little gadget from Earth, it's my songs... 'Hooked on a Feeling' by Blue Swede from 1973, you won't need it."
However, no matter how much Star-Lord struggled, Fang Mo paid him no mind.
He frowned at the pile of junk on the ground, then looked at Star-Lord, "Where's your Orb?"
"What? The Orb?"
Star-Lord was also stunned for a moment: "How do you know about the Orb? Did Yondu tell you?"
"This has nothing to do with Yondu. I want the Orb because I have its mate... the Tesseract," Fang Mo bluffed, "The Tesseract in my hand has been hungry for a long time, it must find its kind to form a CP, look at the Orb, the Tesseract, what a good couple they make."
"But Yondu is also after this thing."
Star-Lord reacted quickly and said, "There's a big bounty on the Orb, Yondu ordered me to find it, and it's because of this damn thing that I broke with Yondu... Now you want the Orb, isn't that like stealing from your employer?"
"So, should we tear up the ticket?"
Fang Mo was ready to draw his sword.
"No, no, big brother, don't rush, we can talk this over."
Star-Lord immediately said, "I've thought it through. Instead of being caught and tortured by Yondu, I might as well sell the Orb to you... then use the money from the sale to buy back my freedom from you at double the price. That way, you won't have to bother with Yondu, and I'll be free. How about it?"
Fang Mo laughed after hearing Star-Lord's proposal.
"I think you..."
But before Fang Mo could finish, suddenly a golden light descended from the sky, and unbeknownst to them, a Xandar security ship had already flown over, hovering above their heads.