Marvel: Hunter-Chapter 339: Scan

Recalling the conversation with Grandmaster on the viewing platform earlier, Blaine remembered asking whether Sakaar possessed a tenth-level star core—one far more powerful than a fifth-level star core. Grandmaster had answered decisively that he did not know.

Although Blaine had been poisoned at the time, his thoughts filled with those two masked beauties with pale skin and lotus-painted lips, he was still certain that Grandmaster had not been lying.

Grandmaster might not have known that the whereabouts of a tenth-level star core would invisibly bring Blaine unnecessary trouble, but Blaine himself was not worried at all. Sakaar was vast—where could a tenth-level star core possibly hide? Blaine refused to believe he couldn’t find it if he searched deliberately.

What’s more, even if a tenth-level star core were exposed in space and severely worn, the energy contained within it would still be unimaginably immense. As long as Blaine thought about it, spread out his mental power, searched piece by piece, rummaged through every garbage dump, and checked every corner, he could not believe he would detect no energy fluctuations at all.

Following this line of reasoning, the appearance of the tenth-level star core was only a matter of time.

The reason Blaine, who had just arrived on Sakaar, chose to ask Grandmaster first was simply to avoid unnecessary trouble. Instead of wasting time and mental energy this way, he figured he might as well try his luck with the Grandmaster.

However, judging from the current situation, Blaine’s luck clearly wasn’t good this time. Left with no other choice, he had to resort to the most primitive method.

Needless to say, Blaine’s mental power had already swept through the surrounding areas. He was not only meticulous—what he was doing could be described as digging three feet into the ground.

Yet after nearly two hours, Blaine’s morale began to sink. Forget the star core—he hadn’t even found a decent treasure, not even a single good piece of scrap.

Originally, Blaine thought that with such careful searching and his sharp eye, perhaps aside from the tenth-level star core, he might stumble upon treasures from other planets. After all, a garbage transfer station was the perfect place to uncover overlooked valuables.

As Sakaar handled refuse from several star fields and dozens—perhaps even more—planets, Blaine was certain there had to be unknown treasures buried within these dumps.

He even wondered whether Grandmaster had built his fortune on these trash heaps. Constructing such magnificent buildings would have cost a fortune, and the arena itself must have been worth countless star cores.

Yet even with the blessing of the god of luck, Blaine gained nothing today. After turning over half of Sakaar, all he found was garbage—nothing but garbage.

In truth, it wasn’t Blaine’s bad luck at all. These dumps had long since been thoroughly scavenged by Sakaar’s residents, who lived off trash.

No one knew how many people survived on garbage on Sakaar. Although new waste arrived every day, it couldn’t withstand being searched over and over again. Forget treasures—even anything remotely useful had already been taken. Many people relied on this for survival.

Thus, no matter how many times Blaine searched through rubbish already turned over by others, what he found in the end was still just rubbish. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Still, the thought of the tenth-level star core rekindled his motivation. For the sake of money, even if he had to turn all of Sakaar upside down, so be it.

Blaine resumed his aimless survey. Activating Shadow Stealth, his body moved freely across Sakaar. During this time, he even encountered several teams sent by Grandmaster to search and arrest fugitives.

He also witnessed an impressive spaceship chase near Grandmaster’s city.

That was Thor, Banner, and Valkyrie’s ship, rushing back to Asgard, with Grandmaster’s forces in pursuit. Blaine was a little puzzled. Hadn’t Banner been knocked out by Blaine when he transformed into Hulk? When did he board Thor’s ship? Maybe it was just a coincidence—perhaps he flew out and was picked up by Thor again.

When Blaine saw Valkyrie single-handedly destroy Grandmaster’s battleship, he realized just how fiercely she could fight. There was no doubt that Thor and the others escaped successfully.

"This is really strange," Blaine muttered.

"Thor escaped."

"Banner regained control after Hulk."

"So why can’t I find anything?"

Watching others complete their objectives and flee while he himself gained nothing, Blaine couldn’t help but feel a little depressed. He was even beginning to wonder whether President of Xandar had tricked him.

The metal key was real, but revealing one truth didn’t mean there wasn’t false information mixed in. If Blaine weren’t absolutely certain that he hadn’t been poisoned at the time, and that his mind-reading ability had worked correctly, he would truly have begun to doubt himself.

Just as Blaine was about to pull Hawkeye back from the direction Thor had flown, he instinctively and casually swept his perception across Sakaar’s crust—and then deeper, toward the planet’s core.

In an instant, Blaine’s emotions surged.

"Damn it, it finally shows itself after all this time."

"You never appear when I want you to."

"Poor me, I’ve worked so hard just to find you."

It turned out that the tenth-level star core was actually the core of Sakaar itself. Like most star cores Blaine had encountered during his interstellar wanderings, it was wrapped deep within the planet.

This unexpected discovery made Blaine so happy he nearly jumped.

If he hadn’t wandered through space for so long, grown accustomed to using Hawkeye to peer through entire planets and investigate meteorites at will, he might really have missed this tenth-level star core with its astonishing purity.

After all, Blaine had searched Sakaar dozens, hundreds, even thousands of times. Even digging ten feet down would never have revealed the star core’s location.

Blaine’s excitement lasted only a moment before he fell silent again. He didn’t doubt the authenticity of the star core—but how was he supposed to extract it? That was the real problem.

In the past, when faced with situations like this, Blaine would simply use brute force, shatter the planet or meteorite, and take the star core inside.

But that was before. Those had been dead planets and uninhabited meteorites. Sakaar was different. Not to mention Grandmaster’s city, there were tens of thousands of residents living on the planet.

Even if Blaine didn’t care about their lives, he still had to consider Grandmaster...

*************************************

You can get access to early Chapters on patr*on

If you like my work and you want to support me then you can become my patron on patre*n.

My patr*on account is Lord_Immortal_0170