"Come on, let's shake hands!" Arthur held out his hand to the Abomination.
The Abomination's massive hand immediately reached out, and Arthur shook Abomination's fingers and nodded in satisfaction.
"My grandfather used to train dogs like that." Star-Lord looked up from his work and chimed in.
Arthur's mouth twitched as he thought – seriously, can't you just stay out of this?
He had been so focused that he had forgotten about this guy. Should he shut him up?
Arthur shot a dark look at Star-Lord, who met his gaze and grinned, "So, has this big guy been controlled?"
"Mm-hm."
Arthur nodded. "I used black magic to control it."
"Impressive. Are you a Sorcerer?" Star-Lord asked. "Did the previous spell involve space magic? Teleportation? And you also use weapons, so are you a weapon wielding Sorcerer?"
Arthur suddenly found the question difficult to answer. How did a weapon-wielding sorcerer come into the picture?
Seriously, a weapon-wielding sorcerer? Why not just say I'm a weapons expert?
And this guy, seeing what just happened, wasn't he worried at all?
"Aren't you worried that I might use that trick on you?" Arthur asked, looking at Star-Lord.
"Aren't we on the same team?" Star-Lord looked at Arthur in disbelief and blinked. "Hey, I'm still making equipment for you! And you think you can use that terrible black magic on me?"
"Isn't it normal to be worried about that?" Arthur blinked. "Did you never suspect I might use it on you?"
"Before you said that, I had no doubt at all!"
Star-Lord stared wide-eyed. "Hey, you can't be serious! We're Companions!"
Companions my ass!
You're not Luffy with a straw hat or some orange-haired punk with a big sword, slashing monsters everywhere. What's with all this companion stuff?
If you can make a marbled rice ball, then maybe I will consider what you said!
Arthur mentally tsukkomi-ed, finally sighing in defeat. "You really should be thanking Yondu for keeping you alive."
"Huh?"
Star-Lord looked at Arthur in confusion.
"This is a long job. It requires extreme precision!"
Star-Lord looked at his work and said. "It will take at least three days."
Giving up on the idea of silencing him, Arthur got up to put the Abomination away and said to Star-Lord, "I'll leave you to it and wait for you to finish."
"Don't you want to stay here and chat? To be honest, I'm kind of curious about Earth now."
Star-Lord said, "It's been over twenty years since I left home. What's Earth like now? Do people use teleportation to get to work, and do they leave their luggage… um, somewhere? And is there still a survival crisis, with giant monsters like the one you unleashed? Do they roam outside human cities with big sticks, roaring and threatening our survival space?"
Arthur suddenly felt that the reason this guy could accept his control over the Abomination so calmly was because he didn't even see the Abomination as a person!
After thinking for a moment, Arthur said seriously, "It's a shame you're wasting your time here making masks. You should be writing novels…"
"Hey, have you looked at my diary? Let me tell you, 'Peter Quill's Cosmic Adventure' is my creation!"
Arthur, who was climbing out, almost fell when he heard this. With a black face and a look of resignation, he went back into Star-Lord's room and covered the entrance.
—
…
…
Over the next few days, Arthur gradually adjusted to the routine aboard the spaceship.
The ship had no real rules. When they weren't doing anything, the crew got together to drink and talk. If they drank too much, they'd want to fight, and when they got tired of fighting, they'd just find a place to crash and sleep.
As the newcomer, Arthur was the center of attention at first. Despite Yondu's high regard for him, not everyone in the crew was impressed.
At first, whenever Arthur came out, the crew eagerly tried to get him drunk.
The drink was of a peculiar taste and was extremely potent, with a horrible flavor.
However, Arthur had a special constitution, so alcohol had no real effect on him.
When they realized that alcohol wouldn't do the trick, they decided to use their fists…
It was hard to describe how pathetic it was. With his steel-like strength, Arthur caused the entire ship's crew to flee in terror.
This was also a great opportunity for Arthur. Since he had acquired so many skill books and crystal fragments in the modern society, he hadn't really fought anyone.
Since the battle with the lizard, he hadn't even fought a small-time thug. He was never quite sure of his own strength.
Beating the entire crew into submission gave Arthur a rough understanding of his own abilities.
And then he began to enjoy this new activity.
As the Raiders became less "enthusiastic," Arthur became more excited.
He would often seek out people to drink with and, after drinking, look for a fight. He would not stop until he had beaten up a few.
Eventually, the crew decided to stop drinking with Arthur, which made him even happier. He used the excuse, "You're disrespecting me by not drinking," to give them a taste of his righteous Iron Fist!
Yondu turned a blind eye to all of this; as long as no one got killed, he didn't care.
In fact, during the long voyage, drinking and fighting helped the crew release their pent-up energy. Holding it in could lead to trouble.
Of course, Arthur didn't seek out fights every day.
Late at night, he would go to the storehouse to find items to dismantle.
This place was definitely a treasure trove. Although at first glance it was filled with broken weapons and such, what was hidden inside was far more interesting.
For example, Arthur found a stone with writing he couldn't make out.
When he picked it up, the Disassembler immediately displayed a prompt:
[Disassemble mysterious item (Purple)?]
Arthur didn't disassemble it at that moment but stored it in the Disassembler space, planning to sort through it later. He wanted to make sure he hadn't missed any treasures in the warehouse before doing a full disassembly.
The reason for this was to avoid accelerating the accumulation of Disassembler experience too quickly.
If he ended up disassembling something not-so-good and missed out on valuable items, and the Disassembler leveled up… that would be quite embarrassing.
Three days later, Star-Lord, who had barely emerged from his workshop, came to find Arthur, looking exhausted with dark circles under his eyes. "Here, take this!"
He handed Arthur a small device resembling a headset.
Arthur took it and asked, puzzled, "What about my mask?"