2049 Extravagant Ship Purchase, Head On a Ready Platter

Ignoring Tony's subtle jab, Luke combined with Shriek, then took Selina, who combined with Gold Nugget, on a trip around the solar system.

Given how the symbiotes were stuffed into a meteorite and launched into space, there was no need to doubt their ability to survive.

Naturally, Luke, who prioritized safety, wouldn't let go of such a useful 'tool.'

Taking the symbiotes along, he and Selina roamed Venus in the solar system. They looked at Mars, which didn't have any Martians, and then at Saturn's dazzling rings. This could be considered completing a trial run of the fighter plane.

Half a year later, Tony's spaceship, considered the first in the world, was completed.

This also meant that the superheroes on Earth could now play with custom-made spaceships.

The tycoon wasn't willing to sell his designs for the time being, but Luke didn't care.

The expensive, impractical, and overly advanced designs aside, the remaining frame could be supplemented with ordinary components, and would still be a pretty good product.

This relatively low-end version of the spaceship was called a Trail Ship.

Of course, it definitely wasn't some sort of poor man's version; it was just that Tony's experimental ship was extravagant.

Natasha was the only Avenger to buy a Trail Ship, and that was with Steve and Clint helping to sponsor some points.

Rhodes wanted to buy one, but Luke refused and told him to order one from Tony.

That was how awkward Rhodes's current position was.

If he were a full member of the Avengers, he would absolutely get the same treatment.

However, Tony, Luke and Rhodes himself needed him to keep his identity as a Department of Defense officer, to act as a buffer between the three parties.

In order not to give certain American forces a chance to bully him excessively, the colonel could only resign himself to giving up on owning a spaceship of his own.

If he really wanted to, he could borrow Natasha's Trail Ship and take it out for a spin

Natasha saw the spaceship as just a tool, and wasn't as anal as Tony about lending things out.

On this end, the Bat Squad was lively.

Frank and Alice lived like a regular family when they weren't working, and didn't try their hand at manufacturing or modifying equipment, so they had the most credit points in the team.

The two of them almost immediately spent the points on buying a Trail Ship for the family. A few days later, they took their daughter, Carrie, on a trip to outer space.

Damon and Mindy were more conflicted.

The father and daughter weren't the type to haggle, and lent out a fair amount of credit points. On top of that, they also liked to tinker with things.

In the end, it was Damon who 'financed' Mindy, and she herself 'financed' other people in Ursa Minor to buy a Trail Ship.

Mindy was usually the one who kept the spaceship, and those who had chipped in could use it in moderation.

It wasn't that everyone was being stingy, but that the spaceship was similar to a luxurious manor.

The purchase fee was just the beginning; the subsequent use and maintenance costs were equally high.

Even though everyone had earned a lot of credit points after the battle at Greenwich, this ongoing expenditure was still painful.

Few people would stick to the spaceship every day. After it was purchased, the spaceship was empty most of the time.

Thus, it wasn't a bad choice for many people to chip in to cover the maintenance costs of the Trail Ship, while those who used it would bear the cost of that usage themselves.

For example, the little turtles really wanted to hang out on the ship for a few weeks, but settled down when they saw the usage fee.

Angel was the only member of the team who wasn't that obsessed with spaceships.

But Luke had also privately told her that she could take advantage of Chairman Jenny's benefits every year and take a few rides on a spaceship without needing to spend credit points.

Angel readily agreed. Even though she had some of the most points in the team, she had no intention of wasting them.

Ivan was still the most miserable.

He couldn't afford a Trail Ship himself, and had to give Mindy credit points first before he could get on the ship; it was like a primary school student going to an arcade.

That was how shameless people could be.

…

After a few months of overall peace, a strange grayish-blue substance suddenly appeared in Missouri.

It swelled and turned into a small mountain in an extremely short period of time, then swiftly expanded outward to bury half a small town.

Luke had Clarice, the female Inhuman with the codename 'Blink,' open a portal, and Big Dipper quickly evacuated the town residents.

It had to be said that death-seeking bystanders were everywhere.

When the mountain-like grayish-blue substance first started spreading outward, there were a few minutes where it had remained still.

In the end, many people seemed to have immediately forgotten about how the small town had been buried. They even dared to approach the substance with their phones and touch it.

That was when Luke confirmed the news on F2F and Messenger.

He didn't say anything when he got there. He simply activated Real Dream and had all the residents of the town get into their cars and drive away.

The grayish-blue substance spread at a terrifying rate. If the people didn't retreat dozens of kilometers, they would probably be buried in a few minutes.

Sure enough, ten minutes later, the grayish-blue substance started to spread like crazy again.

It was like the Zerg Creep in StarCraft; the only difference was in color and density.

Without any hesitation, Luke injected faith value into his longswords before stabbing them into the initial breakout point.

The grayish-blue substance, which had been spreading wildly, suddenly paused and shook for a moment before it slowly contracted.

Seeing that it was working, Luke invested more than 200,000 faith points and added more than 100,000 credit points, yet he couldn't completely eliminate this d*mn thing — there was no defeat or kill notification from the system.

He also used other weapons one after another, but in the end, they could only injure part of the substance and couldn't completely destroy it.

Luke could only use his blades to open up a path and dig into the ground where the breakout point was.

But before he could dig out anything, the strange grayish-blue substance suddenly turned grayish-black, and it abruptly stopped moving, like it was dead.

A system notification popped up: Assist in killing Celestial Ego. Mission accomplished.

Total experience: 148.7 billion. Total credit: 148.7 billion.

Contribution rate: 7%. EXP +10.4 billion. Credit +10.4 billion.

WTF! Luke was dumbfounded. What the hell was going on? Where did this scumbag Ego come from?

It had only been a short two years, and Luke had already seen Thanos, who had brought his army with him and tussled with the 2023 Avengers for almost an hour.

There was also Malekith, who had only been on Earth for less than ten minutes, but had besieged Asgard for half a day before that.

But Ego, this 'Celestial,' had just given up ten billion experience and credit points without even showing his face. How ridiculous was that?

So, how would the next head be delivered to him? Luke… wasn't looking forward to it at all.

The main point was that this third mission to save the world had been inexplicably accomplished, just like that.

Without Luke's knowing, a 'Celestial' had almost destroyed Earth. It was absolutely horrifying!

Compared with the ten billion experience and credit points that had inexplicably been sent to his door, Luke wanted to know the source and reason for this rescue mission — a Dark Knight without a backup plan wasn't a good Batman!