Understood

This doesn't make any sense at all!

As soon as he thought of this, Thanos' face became conflicted.

But in the end, he didn't dare to question the Collector and the Grandmaster further. 

He still had his own goals to achieve and didn't want to die yet.

At some point, the restless Grandmaster had already opened his eyes.

Watching Thanos' ever-changing expressions, he suddenly burst out laughing with a snort.

"Purple, are you wondering why we didn't go to war with that kid Zane?"

The Grandmaster teased Thanos.

Instantly, Thanos jerked his head up, first glancing at the still meditative Collector, and then silently nodded at the Grandmaster.

"It's actually pretty simple. At our level, we don't act so easily."

"If we had fought Zane back then, Asgard, being the closest, would have been destroyed."

"In fact, the entire galaxy might have turned into a wasteland!"

"As for you, Purple, you might have turned into ashes in the blink of an eye during our fight..."

"That's a responsibility neither of us could bear. We'd rather leave that headache for the Judge to deal with."

"Besides, neither of us are even combat specialists in the Celestials."

"Our goal this time was just to see if the kid had any Infinity Stones."

"Now that our goal has been achieved, why would we stick around?"

"Though, honestly, Zane is the most talented being I've seen in all my years."

"To think that in less than a century, he's ascended to a six-dimensional life form, and on the hardest path—gaining divinity through faith."

"The Collector and I were even considering recruiting Zane into the Celestials."

The Grandmaster pointed at the Collector, who sat like a statue nearby.

Then, with a mock sigh, he added:

"Too bad, Zane's got quite the personality. He pissed us off before we could even extend the invitation."

Upon hearing this, Thanos suddenly understood.

Ah, so that's how it was!

Seeing Thanos' expression, the Grandmaster smirked mischievously and said, "Now you get it, right?"

"Got it."

Thanos quickly forced a friendly smile and nodded respectfully.

But just then, the Collector, who had been acting like part of the scenery, suddenly opened his eyes.

Glancing at the almost completely fooled Thanos, he said irritably:

"You get nothing!"

"The real reason is that even if the two of us teamed up, we wouldn't have been able to beat Zane."

"If we had fought him back then, we likely wouldn't have made it out alive."

"If we didn't run, were we supposed to stay and get beaten up?"

Thanos' face froze, his expression stiff as he looked at the equally stiff-faced Grandmaster in disbelief.

At that moment, Thanos had only one thought:

Damn it, what happened to the basic trust between people?

Give it back to me!

The big purple Thanos looked at the awkwardly smiling Grandmaster.

It was hard to reconcile the cold, indifferent figure from earlier with the goofy old man standing before him now.

Then, the Collector rubbed his gloved hands together, his eyes flickering as he lowered his head and said:

"But this idiot got part of it right."

"People at our level really can't go all out easily. Otherwise, we'd have destroyed the universe already."

"This universe is too fragile for beings like us."

"We're only responsible for collecting items and intelligence within the Celestials. We're not good at fighting."

"Even though we're on the same level of existence as Zane, not even the two of us together could take him down."

After finishing, the Collector closed his eyes again, resuming his role as background decoration.

The Grandmaster shot the Collector a furious glance.

As brothers, he couldn't leave him any face at all.

All he ever did was collect junk, with zero sense of humor.

Who knows why he and this jerk were even related—he was clearly the better-looking one.

But seeing that the Collector wasn't going to respond, the Grandmaster shrugged it off.

He picked up a device and started watching the video of Zane fighting Odin with great interest.

Every now and then, he clapped his hands flamboyantly, as if cheering for Zane and Odin on the screen.

Thanos didn't dare disturb them. He just sat there, lost in thought.

After a while, he suddenly raised his head and said to the Collector and the Grandmaster:

"This ship will take you both back to where you came from. I have some things to attend to, so I'll leave first."

With that, he stood up and slightly bowed to them in apology.

The Grandmaster, still glued to the screen, casually waved him off without a glance, saying, "Go ahead."

The Collector didn't even move, completely ignoring Thanos.

Thanos cautiously glanced at the Collector before boarding a small ship and leaving.

Out in space, once he saw the ship carrying the Collector and Grandmaster disappear through the space jump point, Thanos let out a long sigh of relief, finally relaxing.

Who knows how much pressure he had been under, being around two beings powerful enough to erase him at any moment, and with such bizarre personalities to boot.

As the relief washed over him, an overwhelming rage also surged within Thanos. In a moment of frustration, he crushed the armrest of his chair with his bare hand.

Even now, with his eyes closed, he could still vividly recall the cold, dismissive looks the Collector and Grandmaster had given him—like they were staring at a weed.

And yet, he had to serve them carefully.

Thanos, a ruler of the universe, when had he ever been treated like this?

But lacking strength—who else could he blame?

That's how the world works—survival of the fittest.

Thanos let out a long sigh, collapsing powerlessly into his chair, but his eyes now held a gleam of desire.

A desire for power and to fulfill his dreams.

After a moment of silence, Thanos activated his communicator and coldly ordered:

"Gather the army. Once the Dwarf King returns to his kingdom, surround it."

"But remember, don't kill them."

"I need the dwarves to forge something for me."

"As you command, Great Titan."

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