Chapter 173: MD-Chapter 172 Arrival!
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Arthur casually pulled out a green-labeled submachine gun he had taken from Yondu's warehouse and chose to disassemble it.
''[Would you like to disassemble this submachine gun (Green)?]''
Blinking, Arthur chose to proceed, then quietly waited for the disassembly result.
''[Decomposing equipment succeeded!]''
''[Beginner Rifle Shooting Experience'51]''
''[Beginner Rifle Close-Combat Experience'47]''
''[Beginner Submachine Gun Shooting Experience'49]''
''[Beginner Submachine Gun Close-Combat Experience'45]''
''[Transparent Battle Soul Fragments'2]''
''[Colorless Crystal Shards'32]''
''[Disassembler Experience +4]''
''[Disassembly complete, would you like to extract at once?]''
Arthur thought it over and realized that adding items this way yielded results similar to normal disassembly.
He then tested how many weapons he could disassemble at once. Previously, he could disassemble up to 10 regular weapons in one go. However, since these were green-labeled items from Yondu's warehouse, he could only disassemble three weapons at a time, and they had to be of the same type.
However, there were no such limitations when adding items to the ongoing disassembler process.
So Arthur decided to go all out, stuffing as many weapons as he could into the Disassembler. However, he didn't have many weapons from Yondu's stash— barely about twenty.
After disassembling them all and fusing the results, he ended up with two Advanced-level books for both ''Rifle Shooting Experience'' and ''Close-Combat Experience.''
For handguns, he gained five Advanced-level ''Shooting Experience'' books and 55 Intermediate-level ''Close-Combat Experience'' books.
As for submachine guns, he gained 30 Intermediate ''Shooting Experience'' books and 20 Intermediate ''Close-Combat Experience'' books.
Lastly, he ended up with a staggering 368 ''Colorless Crystal Shards!''
...
The car continued speeding along, and according to the feedback from the Eye of Horus, it would still be a while before they reached their destination.
Bored, Arthur stayed curled up in the trunk, flipping through books. After absorbing all nine Advanced books, he moved on to the Intermediate ''Close-Combat'' handgun skills.
Before he even finished halfway through the 55 books, his handgun ''Close-Combat'' skill leveled up to Advanced. It had been on the verge of leveling up anyway, so Arthur wasn't surprised. Then he noticed something called ''Energy Melee Combat''!
Suppressing the urge to curse, Arthur realized that the remaining books weren't enough to fuse into another Advanced-level skill, so he moved on to the submachine gun skills.
In the end, none of the submachine gun skills reached Advanced level.
Finally, Arthur stared at the pile of ''Colorless Crystal Shards'' in the Disassembler Space, feeling dazed. There were so many of them! From disassembling just those two bracelets, he had already received 386 shards, and now there were 368 more!
He had a feeling that if he finished absorbing all these shards, his hands would swell up. He could probably go around claiming he had practiced the Buddha's Palm technique, and people might actually believe him.
Eventually, Arthur decided to stop absorbing the shards manually and simply squeezed them.
There was no rule stating that he had to slap them like before— it was just a habit he had developed. Now, with a shard in each hand, he found that squeezing them worked just as well.
Before he even finished absorbing all the crystal shards, the car came to a stop.
Using the Eye of Horus, Arthur saw that Thor and Selvig had gone into a bar to grab a drink.
"This has nothing to do with me..." Arthur thought as he controlled the Eye of Horus to delve deeper into the bar, just to make sure that no one would kill Thor.
When there's a lot to say, time flies but when there's nothing, it drags on forever. After the two of them left the bar, they even got into a small fight outside.
Of course, Selvig was no match for Thor. In fact, Selvig landed one punch before collapsing on the ground. If Arthur had been watching, he might've thought Selvig was faking it for sympathy.
Thor, meanwhile, simply picked Selvig up, slinging him over his shoulder and following his directions toward a destination.
At the same time, the car started up again as the two agents quietly continued their surveillance, not letting their guard down.
Arthur, still tired from endlessly squeezing the small crystal shards, finally gave up before finishing and decided to exit the car. He slipped into an alley nearby, deciding that he needed to eat.
Given how a certain mischievous young woman constantly talked to him about food, Arthur felt like his stomach could now handle an entire pig.
Besides, with the two agents around, nothing strange was likely to happen.
But it wasn't just hunger driving him— Arthur had other things to take care of.
After stuffing himself at a random fast-food joint, Arthur found a small hotel nearby and rented a room. The room wasn't big, but it was clean, with a carpet covering the floor.
After thoroughly checking to ensure there were no hidden cameras, Arthur pulled back the carpet and glanced at his hand. "I realize I'm getting braver," he muttered.
Taking out a two-handed sword, Arthur ran his palm along the blade, instantly opening a wound that bled profusely.
Using the blood, he drew a teleportation circle on the floor, then infused it with a certain amount of colorless energy.
Arthur had grown quite familiar with this process, having practiced it several times on Star-Lord's ship.
The teleportation circle worked on the first try. Arthur looked down at his palm, noticing the wound was slowly healing.
Though he couldn't regenerate as quickly as the Lizard, he was confident that by the next morning, the injury would be fully healed.
After casually wrapping his hand, Arthur went to the bathroom to take a shower.
As he looked in the mirror, he felt an odd sense of aging.
Touching his face, Arthur murmured, "My appearance hasn't changed... Hmm, maybe it's something in my eyes."
...
The next morning, the blood on the floor had dried. Arthur discovered that, due to the colorless energy involved, no amount of scrubbing could clean it off.
"I bet the owner's going to curse me out when they find this," He muttered with a chuckle.
He put the carpet back in place, ready to head out and meet Thor, but then he suddenly frowned. His gaze shifted toward a direction outside the window. Although he couldn't see anything, Arthur could clearly sense energy waves coming from that area.
"Is that the Bifrost?"
Arthur pondered for a moment, then furrowed his brow, pressing a hand to his chest. In an instant, casual clothes appeared on his body.
After settling the bill, he returned to the street. He hadn't walked far when he saw three men and a woman, all dressed in strange attire, wandering down the street.
"Thor's companions," He sighed, realizing that the pivotal moment had arrived.
Last night, Loki had come by and lied to Thor.
He told Thor that because of his actions, Odin had died, causing Thor to accept his exile.
But with these four companions now arriving, the truth— that Odin wasn't dead— would soon be revealed to Thor.
And that meant Loki's footing would no longer be secure.
Arthur gazed at the distant sky. "So, the legendary Destroyer will definitely arrive on time, won't it?"
(End of the chapter)