Tony in the Main Dimension had only endured a few frustrating minutes, while nearly a month had already passed for Deathstroke and the others in the Negative Zone.
By then, they had finished visiting Lion King and obtained a more complete star map—complete enough, at least, for Doom to calculate the location of the Great Black Hole.
The Balurrians, or rather the Orcs, all retained more or less some primitive habits. They were extremely warlike, and their attitude toward outsiders was nowhere near as welcoming as expected.
Fortunately, Deathstroke had prepared a backup plan of making friends through combat. After knocking out every kind of Orc along an entire street with his bare hands, he entered the palace to meet Lion King, and the other party's attitude improved considerably.
Thus, they struck a deal. Su Ming traded several crates of Spicy Strips for the military-grade star map in Lion King's possession, then left under the other man's eager gaze as he rushed off to set off firecrackers.
"Doom thinks that every force we've encountered in the Negative Zone so far has been quite interesting."
The group returned to the Floating Island among the True Faeries Ruins and flew toward their next destination. Standing beside the lounge table, Doom held a bottle of Da Li Soda, its straw tucked into the gap in his iron mask.
The seemingly civilized Eternals, who called themselves gods, had entered the Warp yet still maintained the primitive communal system of who knew how many millions of years ago. In other words, barter—farmers trading grain for artisans' works of art, and so on.
The Orcs, on the other hand, looked barbaric, yet they had cars to ride when they went out, restaurants to eat at, and even used electronic currency. Their entire nation had already moved