This is not systematic.

In the end, everyone except Black Widow and Hawkeye followed Joss out for a joyride.

Anyway, since Joss possessed teleportation abilities, bringing someone back and forth was a breeze. As long as they exercised a little caution, absolutely nothing could go wrong.

Steve followed Thor to Sakaar. He was quite interested in his future comrade-in-arms, though Joss deeply despised his decision to enter the arena with a shield.

If you go up there and just stalemate everyone at a fifty-fifty draw, what am I supposed to play with if you actually break the Hulk?

However, Steve was clearly off his game today. Although he successfully matched the Hulk's power level, his rich combat experience failed to help him defeat his opponent, and he ultimately returned in dejection.

Stark was the third to teleport back to Sakaar with Joss, eager to test his new equipment.

He had redesigned the bright gold left hand he crafted earlier, turning it into a powerful, randomly attached plug-in gear. This not only solved the previous issue of excessive energy consumption but also guaranteed his combat capability.

Events proved that a heavy-spenders' advantage was truly formidable. After attaching the external components, he even managed to temporarily beat the Hulk to the point where the giant could not fight back at all.

Yet this situation lasted for only a minute or so before Stark's armor began to overheat, prompting him to quickly follow Joss scurrying back to Stark Tower.

As for Nick Fury, he didn't go over to test his physical strength, but merely to prepare the groundwork there and persuade the Hulk once the green goliath regained his sanity.

As for the Grandmaster, nobody knew where he had wandered off to. The observation room where he usually stayed had been smashed to pieces by the Hulk, along with half the arena. More than half of his subordinates had suffered casualties, and the gladiators had long since vanished without a trace.

Still, the Grandmaster himself had most likely escaped to seek refuge. Blessed with that kind of ageless and immortal trait, practically no one except Joss could possibly trap him.

Naturally, Joss himself didn't have any particular designs on him. Unlike Apocalypse, who was so utterly wicked that he had to be eliminated, the Grandmaster was merely a comical jerk who loved gambling and cheating.

Yet given the other party's connections and hidden cards as a Grandmaster of the Universe, driving him into a corner would undoubtedly cause him to bite back—and likely bite someone to death at that!

As for killing him, the Grandmaster wasn't like the Collector; he had pretty much gambled away whatever valuables he possessed. Even if the system could provide some compensation...

Heh, Joss would rather starve to death and perish out on the streets than ever look at something given by the system and say it's wonderful!

Summing it all up, whether considering the price paid versus the benefits reaped, or other miscellaneous thoughts, it hardly seemed worth the trouble to pursue him deep into the cosmos.

Dismantling his arena was essentially equivalent to destroying his rule over Sakaar, which was more than enough payback for sending people to assassinate him.

Now that the other Avengers had been sent back to Earth to reflect on the recent battle, Joss and Nick Fury were hiding in the distance, watching the Hulk rage.

His anger came as quickly as it went. Originally, Joss had simply taken a tiny spark of the giant's irritation and magnified it infinitely—perhaps because he hadn't had a satisfying bowel movement this morning, or perhaps because yesterday's dinner simply didn't suit his taste.

Anyway, as long as there was even the slightest trace of displeasure, it could be magnified. Combined with the Hulk's explosive temper, which resembled a hot-headed local troublemaker, it was bound to detonate instantly.

Yet after a long while, the Hulk would realize himself that such trivial matters weren't worth getting angry over, and naturally, his mindset and body would return to normal.

Four hours, twenty-one minutes, and thirty-three seconds later (who would have thought? Time Lord magic works just as well even here!), the Hulk finally grew weary. Not only did his movements become increasingly sluggish, but his destructive power also began to wane.

Seeing his chance, Edogawa Nick rushed forward and delivered a barrage of anesthetic needles directly into the neck of Hulk Komogoro.

The Hulk swayed unsteadily for a few steps, then finally pitched forward onto the ground, his massive frame gradually shrinking until he transformed back into the appearance of Bruce Banner.

"Whew... As expected of the person you strongly recommended. With such a powerhouse joining the Avengers, keeping the safety of New York City secure in the future will be much easier, right?"

In just a short span of time, Nick Fury had witnessed the Hulk's might firsthand, and the gaze he cast toward the sleeping scientist carried an undisguised fiery intensity.

Joss was remarkably swift and efficient as well, seizing the opportunity to send both Bruce Banner and Nick back to Earth. He had already wrapped up affairs on Sakaar earlier, so there was nothing left to worry about.

As for the safety of the staff members who chose to stay behind on Sakaar for their own reasons rather than follow him to Earth, there was no need to fret.

With the collapse of the Grandmaster's rule, there was no need to worry about any subsequent retaliation from him either. Standing at this juncture in time, who knows, perhaps some of them might even carve out a magnificent legacy for themselves on Sakaar.

"Phew... Finally finished everything that needed to be done on this trip..."

As the Hulk was hauled away to Stark Tower and Nick Fury—the recruitment NPC—chatted with him for a bit after he woke up, the system prompt signaling the completion of the quest finally rang out.

[Oh? I didn't expect you to actually complete this mission. As expected, if you put your mind to it, even a good-for-nothing like you can still accomplish something after all.]

As Joss's consciousness entered the system space, the haughty and sharp-tongued Kugimiya-voiced system sounded immediately.

[Hmph, since the mission is done, I'll reluctantly give you some rewards!]

[Catch! This is your one-time guaranteed SR-tier draw opportunity. Th-th-this is definitely not something I prepared specially for you! Don't get any funny ideas, you idiot!]

[What? You want to use it right now? Then let's begin!]

"Well, though it feels quite exhilarating, listening to it is so exhausting... Forget it, let's switch it back..."

Previously, because it hadn't spoken much, Joss hadn't noticed any difference in the system voice, but now he found that this thing had not only turned into a total chatterbox, but every sentence also made things harder to understand.

With a sigh, Joss reluctantly swapped to a new voice announcer.

[Glmrlmlmr! Grm! Lml! Lgmrmm!]

[Mlgmrmlgr! Mglrgrgrlm!]

[Grglrgl! Lrgl... grgrmrmlgr!]

"So why on earth does the voice system even offer Murloc language?! Who on earth can understand this stuff?!" Joss cursed the system in annoyance, completely ignoring why he had been so bored as to spend currency on purchasing a Murloc voice announcer in the first place.

By the time Joss hurriedly switched the language back to a normal voice, the draw had long since concluded. Rummaging through the system inventory, Joss's expression shifted from annoyance to surprise, and then from surprise to sheer terror!

Lying inside the backpack, at first glance, was nothing particularly special—merely a card.

A magic card originating from Yu-Gi-Oh!

[Polymerization]!