AHumanMadeMOFO

Chapter 249: South Asia Campaign

"What? Carter's missing?" Josh frowned when he heard Ophelia's answer.

"Yes, boss. I just got the news too. Captain Carter lost contact with the CIA's South America branch yesterday. That's happened before, so the branch management didn't take it seriously. But when I used the emergency contact device at headquarters, I got no response!" Ophelia replied in a tense tone.

For Josh and Ophelia personally, Carter's combat strength wasn’t that important.

But for the newly formed CIA, which had been in existence for less than a year, Carter was a key figure.

If something really happened to her, it would have a huge impact on the development of the CIA.

"What was her last mission? Where was it?" Josh asked immediately.

"According to reports, she tracked down a group of escaped Japanese war criminals in Brazil and followed them into the Amazon rainforest. The South American branch has already sent people to search for her, but you know how difficult it is to find someone in the Amazon. Even if we use the raptor pack, it would still be extremely hard!" Ophelia said helplessly.

Why did Japanese war criminals hide in Brazil?

It was similar to how German war criminals fled to Argentina. Brazil had a large Japanese community, and the social environment there made it easier for them to live and hide. But because there were fewer of them than the Germans, they were often overlooked.

But Josh had used CIA resources to track them down early on and put them on the agency's hit list. (TL/N: I don't think putting war criminals on a hit list is racism. Please comment if you think I should remove this part or not)

Of course, this wasn't part of the CIA's normal duties, but Josh justified it by arguing that these war criminals possessed large amounts of stolen wealth. The CIA needed money, and its personnel needed field experience. With reasons like that, no one could argue.

No one expected Carter, a key figure in the CIA, to fail in such a simple mission.

But if she did, it definitely wasn’t because of normal Japanese war criminals.

"The Amazon, huh..." Josh rubbed his forehead in frustration. The situation there was far more complicated than in Java—the sheer size alone made things difficult.

As Ophelia had said, even with a pack of Velociraptors, it was almost impossible to search the vast Amazon region for a single person.

To the outside world, dinosaurs were still a secret, but within Ouroboros, they were common knowledge—especially to core members like Ophelia.

Now that Josh had pushed the Jurassic Park project, some high-ranking CIA members and the Blackwater mercenaries in Sulawesi also knew about the existence of dinosaurs.

In fact, during the attack on Sulawesi, Josh had used a large number of Raptors to hunt down rebels hiding in the jungle. This was a major reason why Blackwater was able to occupy and secure the island so quickly.

But Sulawesi was only 170,000 square kilometers, and even then Josh had used thousands of modified Raptors to clear it section by section.

The Amazon, on the other hand, was 7 million square kilometers—50 times larger, with complex waterways and terrain. How many Raptors would it take to search such a vast area? Tens of thousands? A hundred thousand?

Even Yuri hadn't trained that many.

Besides, there was an Eternal hiding in the Amazon.

Hmm?

Josh's eyes narrowed at the thought.

Could it really be such a coincidence?

He stroked his chin, deep in thought.

"Let's put that aside for now. Ophelia, did you find out anything about the people I asked you to look into?" Josh suddenly changed the subject.

"I found one person who somewhat fits your description, but the name is different from what you gave me. As for the others, no news at all." Ophelia's expression became a little strange. They had just been talking about Carter's disappearance and now Josh was bringing up something completely unrelated. The change was too abrupt.

And the people Josh was looking for—Phastos, a Black South Asian man; Ajak, a Latina woman; Sersi, an Asian woman—had rather unusual names.

Ophelia didn't understand why Josh was looking for these people.

But he was the boss. Her job was to answer, not question.

"Oh? Tell me more!" Josh hadn't expected much, but hearing that Ophelia had found a potential match immediately lifted his spirits.

Only Josh knew that these two seemingly unrelated subjects might actually be deeply connected.

The people he had asked Ophelia to find were none other than the Eternals, hiding among ordinary humans.

The Eternals had gone their separate ways in the sixteenth century, but they hadn't completely lost contact with each other.

If he could capture even one, the whereabouts of the others would no longer be a mystery.

And one of them was hiding deep in the Amazon jungle.

That was Druig—the Eternal who specialized in mind control.

Aside from a few unknown factors, Josh believed that Druig posed the greatest threat to Carter in the Amazon.

Carter’s willpower might be strong, but against Druig—a being designed by the Celestials to control human minds—she would stand no chance.

But for Josh, Druig, who seemed the most dangerous Eternal to humans, was actually the easiest to deal with.

Because... Josh had robots.

The problem was that Druig was well hidden in the depths of the Amazon, making him extremely difficult to track down.

That’s why Josh was targeting the other Eternals first.

However, the most powerful and dangerous among them—Ikaris—was not on the list he had given Ophelia.

Out of all the Eternals, Josh considered Ikaris and Makkari—who had stolen his adamantium sword—to be the hardest to handle.

Ikaris was simply too strong. Fighting him head-on would require someone on the level of Thor or Captain Marvel.

Makkari, on the other hand, was too fast. She wasn’t as absurd as the Flash, who could run with the speed of light, but without proper preparation, she would be nearly impossible to deal with. Even finding her was a challenge.

Of course, Josh knew that she was actually hiding in the ruins of ancient Babylon, guarding the Eternals' spaceship, the Domo. For the past few thousand years, she had also been storing her stolen treasures there.

The problem was, Josh didn't know the exact location of these ruins.

Finding an underground location in the vast deserts of the Middle East was no easy task.

They weren't completely isolated from the world,.

However, if these people deliberately chose to hide, it would still be difficult to find them among the huge population.

But there was one exception, and if Josh guessed correctly, Ophelia was talking about him.

(TL/N: I do not justify or support racism, but while translating this chapter, I wondered why the Chinese hate the Japanese so much. So, I did some research and found this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing_Massacre )

Chapter 248: The Remaining Forces of Wakanda (2)

"Alright, I still don’t quite understand, but since you paid the price, I’ll do my best to help you. Here's the first batch of animals, plants, and corresponding seeds. I've also stored all the necessary training data in NS robot format on this data disk. All you have to do is upload it to the NS robot database," Yuri said, shaking his head as he transferred the requested materials to the trade list.

"Much appreciated!" Josh grinned as the system confirmed the trade, displaying the long transaction list.

"Don’t thank me yet. You still have to get me the vibranium I asked for, and you'd better hurry!" Yuri reminded him after the deal was done.

For Yuri, who wanted to build a powerful armed force to return to his original timeline for revenge, vibranium was an essential material.

Hearing this, Josh couldn’t help but feel a headache coming on.

Among all his trade partners, Yuri had the highest demand for vibranium—it was an absurd amount.

Back when Winter Soldier and Carter had obtained a batch of raw vibranium ore, Yuri had bought nearly half of it.

But what he needed was ten times that amount.

Through official trade channels and a special CIA allocation, Josh could secure about 20% of the U.S. government’s vibranium supply each year.

However, to meet Yuri’s demand, it would take at least ten years—assuming he gave all of his share to Yuri.

In reality? That wasn't going to happen.

Josh and the CIA also needed vibranium for their own operations, so at most, he could allocate half of his share to Yuri.

That meant that, under normal distribution, it would take twenty years to gather what Yuri needed.

But Yuri estimated that he’d be ready to activate the time machine and return to his original time period within three years.

In other words, Josh had only three years to gather what would normally take twenty years.

The only way to do that would be to take the entire vibranium output of one year—or four years' worth of the U.S. supply.

But that was practically impossible.

This wasn’t even about money anymore.

Now that the countries had fully realized the properties of vibranium, it had become the most valuable strategic resource in the world. No amount of money could buy it.

To ensure fair production and prevent hoarding, the former Wakandan lands had been placed under joint United Nations control, with hundreds of thousands of troops stationed to guard the mines.

Smuggling? Dream on.

As for increasing production, every country with access to vibranium was trying, but production gains in just a few years were minimal.

Of course, Josh could simply refuse Yuri’s request.

But he didn’t want to do that.

Yuri was one of his earliest trade partners. Though their relationship wasn't as close as his bond with Daenerys, Yuri had always been very reliable in their transactions.

Whenever Josh needed something, Yuri delivered—often providing top-tier, cutting-edge technology instead of just handing over standard future tech.

In fact, whenever Yuri discovered something new, he'd actively offer it to Josh to see if he had any use for it.

Now that Yuri was finally about to achieve his lifelong goal and return for revenge, Josh didn't want to let him down.

So he promised to do everything in his power to gather the Vibranium Yuri needed within three years.

But where would he find so much Vibranium?

As Josh pondered, he remembered a detail Carter had mentioned after returning from her mission in Wakanda.

She had seen some well-dressed individuals leaving before the UN forces invaded Wakanda.

Although Wakanda’s King Azzuri and most of his royal guards were killed in battle, and many Wakandan citizens were forced into mining under international control, some had managed to escape.

This wasn’t exactly a secret.

Wakanda had been isolated from the world for a long time, but during the brief period it was exposed, King Azzuri and his general, T’Pani, the chief of the border tribe, had become somewhat well-known.

Yet, after the war, only Azzuri’s body was found. T'Pani had disappeared.

Another crucial point was that aside from a small amount of vibranium ore smuggled out by Winter Soldier and Carter, the UN forces found very little vibranium when they took over the mines.

In fact, all the Vibranium-related items they recovered accounted for less than a tenth of what should have already been mined.

That didn’t add up.

According to the information Josh had gathered, Wakanda had controlled the Vibranium mines and built its kingdom around them for over a thousand years.

That was different from the comics.

In the comics, Odin had assembled a team of prehistoric Avengers over a million years ago.

But in the movies, Odin was only about five thousand years old (A/N: Thor mentioned in Ragnarok that Odin killed Surtur 500,000 years ago, but that was probably an exaggeration). The Eternals had only arrived on Earth around seven thousand years ago.

With over a thousand years of mining, even with ancient techniques, the Vibranium reserves should be far greater than what was found.

Many intelligence agencies speculated that Wakanda had secretly moved most of its vibranium long before the invasion.

If so, the key to finding that lost Vibranium was T’Pani.

For years, intelligence agencies worldwide had been searching for him.

But it was as if he had vanished from the face of the Earth. Since Wakanda’s fall, he had never been seen again.

If Josh could find him, he might be able to solve Yuri’s Vibranium problem.

“Ophelia, what’s Carter up to? Still mad?” Josh picked up the phone and asked.

Carter had been a bit upset about the Java situation.

She wasn’t as extreme as Captain America when it came to justice, and she could understand Josh’s actions.

But understanding didn’t mean she could accept them.

So, instead of dealing with Java, she had focused entirely on her CIA duties and had barely contacted Josh in recent weeks—basically, she was giving him the silent treatment.

“I’d say so. She’s been taking on war criminal tracking missions lately, and she’s been ruthless. She nearly tore apart the some settlements in Brazil—I’ve had to clean up after her more than once,” Ophelia said with a teasing tone.

“Tell her I need to see her. And bring Fritz Klaue as well,” Josh ordered.

If anyone knew the most about Wakanda, it would be Carter, who had infiltrated it, and Klaue, who had been imprisoned there for years.

As for the Winter Soldier?

Well, after his brainwashing, all he was good for was killing.

Chapter 247: The Remaining Forces of Wakanda (1)

Josh’s example of how Native Americans were treated opened a new door for the Dutch.

As a long-established European power, the Dutch leadership quickly came up with a plan called One Island, One Nation.

The idea was simple; support the tribal leaders of each island in Java and make them kings.

The Javanese, like the early tribes of Africa and the Native Americans, originally existed as separate tribal communities.

The push for a unified, independent nation came mainly from the educated elites influenced by Dutch rule and Western culture.

Most of these elites lived in the large cities under Dutch control.

Meanwhile, across Java’s countless islands, there were still many tribes—over 300 different ethnic groups, each with vastly different religions and cultures.

If the Dutch had wanted to divide Java earlier, it would have been easy.

But in the past, they were focused on ruling all of Java and actually encouraged unity rather than division.

Still, it wasn't too late to change course.

Once the policy was set, the Dutch government, following the advice of Governor-General Louis Beel, officially recognized the independence of over 200 "nations" at once.

Some of these "nations" had only a few thousand people.

It was clear to everyone that this was a blatant attempt to break up Java.

It was crude, but very effective.

After all, people are ambitious.

The leaders of these newly recognized "independent nations" were mostly tribal chiefs who had long worked closely with the Dutch.

They had suffered under Dutch rule, but had also used Dutch power to maintain their positions.

Many of them had always opposed the so-called Javanese Republic.

Before, they were weak and ignored by the Dutch.

But now, with official recognition, they were considered legitimate governments.

The Dutch also promised to do "fair trade" with them.

What did fair trade mean?

It meant they could trade their natural resources for Dutch weapons—mostly small arms.

Heavy weapons were too expensive for the poor Javanese tribes anyway.

To maintain "peace and stability" in Java, the Dutch also formed many small, fast-response naval fleets.

Their main job was to crack down on "smugglers" and "illegal armed groups"—which, of course, referred to the Javanese Republic’s military.

If any "nation" was attacked by the Republic’s forces, they could immediately call for support from the Dutch fleet or the Sulawesi fleet—for a price, of course.

In an archipelago, controlling the sea made it much easier to isolate and divide territories than on land.

More importantly, the Dutch "One Island, One Nation" policy had direct support from the Americans.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet even stationed itself in Java, showing a complete reversal in attitude.

This sudden shift in American policy wasn’t just because of Josh.

It was pushed by powerful groups like the Chicago Consortium, and many other old American financial giants.

And why did they suddenly care about Java?

Because Josh showed them a map of the distribution of Java's resources.

In the future, Java would become the economic leader of Southeast Asia for one simple reason—it was rich in resources.

Oil, natural gas, coal, tin, copper—the list went on.

Especially oil—at the beginning of the 20th century, Middle Eastern oil fields had not yet been fully developed, and Java once accounted for a quarter of the world's oil production.

Back then, Java’s oil was controlled by Shell, a joint venture between the British and the Dutch, leaving no room for American involvement.

This was one reason why the U.S. was not too keen on maintaining Dutch rule over Java.

However, the pre-World War II oil reserves that had been discovered were just a small fraction of Java’s actual resources.

The resource map Josh presented was based on a 2035 survey provided by Lawrence, which had been cross-checked by NS robots to confirm that large deposits of resources still existed in this Universe.

Every single mining site was worth a fortune, more than enough to satisfy all the major American financial groups.

Josh knew he couldn't monopolize these resources himself, and most of these areas were still under Dutch control.

So he simply sold the information to multiple American financial groups—partly as a way to compensate them for taking the blame for him this time.

It wasn’t his to begin with, so he didn’t feel any loss.

This also helped him secure his rule over Sulawesi, while turning Java into a chaotic “international playground.”

Reunification would become nearly impossible.

While Java was becoming more chaotic, Josh was leisurely discussing a Jurassic Park deal with Yuri.

To build a proper Jurassic Park, Yuri was his key partner—after all, he was the only one who had dinosaurs.

Well, except for Azeroth, where little Abbendis lived. But considering Azeroth’s power system, dinosaurs there were likely too dangerous to contain.

It was safer to use more primitive dinosaurs.

Although Josh and Yuri had been trading dinosaurs for years, most of their previous deals had involved modified Velociraptors for scouting or selling dinosaur meat.

This was the first large-scale trade of alive dinosaurs.

"I don't really understand why you want to build a Jurassic Park," Yuri commented.

"Not everything in life needs deep meaning, Yuri. Our lifespans have been greatly extended—there’s no need to push ourselves so hard," Josh replied lazily. "Sometimes just finding something interesting is reason enough."

Like Lawrence, Josh had traded the elixir from the Pool of Eternal Life to some of his partners in various universes.

Of course, little Abbendis was an exception—if he drank it, he might never grow up.

For now, none of Josh’s trade partners had to worry about aging.

Especially Yuri—he was actually quite old, a true senior citizen.

That’s why, after meeting Josh, aside from being deeply invested in his research, he had always been in a rush to accumulate enough power to return to his original time and seek revenge.

Unlike Daenerys or Cai Lin, Yuri rarely chatted with Josh about trivial matters.

But the Pool of Eternal Life had eased his sense of urgency a little, allowing him to relax and talk more.

Even so, he still couldn’t understand why Josh was putting so much effort into creating Jurassic Park.

Dinosaurs had value, but to Yuri, aside from biological and genetic research or their leather and meat, they weren’t much different from regular animals.

They weren’t even worth breeding.

As for making money from the park?

Even if Josh’s wealth was already beyond what he could ever spend by Earth’s standards, the cost of building the park was so high that ticket sales alone would take decades to break even.

But for Josh, creating his own Jurassic Park wasn’t about profit—it was about fun.

That’s the difference in thinking between different people.

Chapter 246: The Java War (2)

Yes, he actually did fly.

But as for the full details, only Austria and Blackwater International knew the whole story.

Australia, which served as a transit point, and the U.S., which coordinated the operation, had some idea of what happened.

Spain, which acted as a middleman, and Portugal, which leased the islands for the operation, not to mention the Dutch themselves, were completely in the dark.

The Dutch still had garrisons in several major cities in Sulawesi, but they only realized what was happening when Josh's troops, disguised as Dutch soldiers, arrived.

Even the US and Australia only knew that the troops had been airlifted in.

How was the heavy equipment transported? That remained a mystery.

All this led people to suspect that Josh's campaign in Java wasn't a spur-of-the-moment decision, but had been planned for a long time.

But that didn't make sense.

The war between the Dutch and Java had just started last year.

How could Josh have planned this for so long?

...Wait a minute.

Josh is an American.

Blackwater International is an American corporation.

This army was fully equipped with active duty American weapons.

Even though the U.S. military rapidly modernized after the war—partly due to Josh's influence—constraints in production, funding, and logistics meant that many American overseas forces were still using late-WWII-era gear.

As a result, the Soviets, European nations, and even the Dutch all turned their suspicions toward the United States.

After all, from an international perspective, only the U.S. had the logistical capacity to transport such a massive force and arsenal to Java in such a short time.

The Dutch leadership, in particular, became increasingly suspicious of the Americans.

"Really, America? If you wanted Java, you could’ve just asked. It’s just a few islands—I wouldn’t have refused you. Was all this scheming really necessary?"

To make matters worse, the U.S. Pacific Fleet was right next door, but when the Dutch had previously asked for American help, they had been turned down.

"So this was your plan all along? You just didn't want to be called colonialists?"

But despite their complaints, the Dutch still actively cooperated with Blackwater International's mercenaries in Sulawesi.

The only party to protest openly was the Republic of Java itself, which took the issue to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

But Java's self-declared independence hadn't yet been internationally recognized, so it wasn't a member of the UN and had no right to attend the session.

But India, eager to assert itself as the dominant power in South Asia, and the Soviet Union, hoping to draw an independent Java into its sphere of influence, were more than happy to take up the cause.

They escalated the matter to the UN General Assembly and used it as a political weapon against the United States.

This was the moment when the U.S. finally realized that Josh's private operation was about to cause them a massive diplomatic headache.

The worst part?

There was no way to explain their way out of it.

Even if they told the truth, who would believe them?

Especially since Josh had privately signed a 30-year lease with the U.S. military for a port in Sulawesi just before the war began.

So unless Washington was willing to completely abandon its interests in the region and sever all ties with Josh, no one would ever believe their denials.

And given Josh’s influence in the U.S.—not to mention the tangible benefits America was already reaping—cutting ties with him was never going to happen.

So the newly crowned leader of the Western world, the United States, simply doubled down.

"Believe whatever you want."

With the U.S. taking this stance, most European nations, including Great Britain, remained silent on the matter.

The French representative seemed eager to speak up, but after receiving a death glare from the Dutch delegation, he wisely chose to stay quiet.

Despite their historical conflicts—including France once annexing the Netherlands—those days were long past.

By the 20th century, the two countries had largely been semi-allies.

For example, when France built the Maginot Line, the Netherlands, for its own security interests, provided significant support—ironically, one of the reasons Germany later decided to invade the "neutral" Netherlands.

After World War II, France and the Netherlands were also deeply intertwined economically.

And when it came to colonial matters in Asia, the British, French, and Dutch were all aligned.

Especially now, with the French bogged down in Vietnam, openly opposing the Dutch on this issue would be like shooting oneself in the foot.

So while the Western bloc remained silent, the Soviet-led faction and India refused to let the matter drop.

The UN General Assembly, aiming to maintain its "neutral" stance, issued a formal inquiry into Josh and Blackwater International.

Josh? He didn't even bother to acknowledge it.

Instead, he sent Aldo to represent Blackwater International.

Aldo met with the Soviet delegation and handed them a document.

The next day, during the UN hearing, the Soviet representatives abruptly changed their position.

They now classified Josh's actions in Java as a local armed conflict and stated that the UN General Assembly was not the appropriate venue for intervention.

The Soviet Camp countries were surprised by their leader's sudden change of position, but since the leader's word was final, they didn't care. After all, Java was a place in which they had little interest.

After the Soviet Leader's silence, the only ones still making noise in the UN were India and a few South Asian countries.

But in this era, no one really paid attention to them.

Aldo, who attended the hearing, quietly wrote down the names of these countries, planning to report them to Josh later.

There were only three; India, the Philippines, and Myanmar.

A few days later, relaxing in the sun on Sulawesi, Josh looked at the list and smiled happily.

"Boss, Sir Beel is here!" Vito approached and reported.

"What's he here for?" Josh put down the document in his hand and looked puzzled.

Sir Louis Beel, the Governor of the Dutch East Indies, was the highest military and political leader in the Java region for the Dutch.

Technically, his rank was slightly higher than Josh's as Governor of Sulawesi.

But that was only on paper. Josh had an army of over 100,000 men, so the Dutch didn't dare interfere with his decisions.

"If I had to guess, it's about our forced relocation of the native Sulawesi people," Vito shrugged.

"That makes sense. They were bound to come sooner or later. Let him in," Josh nodded.

Josh had moved the native Sulawesi people east to Nusa Tenggara, an area barely controlled by the Dutch and of little value to them.

At first, the Dutch didn't react much.

But over time, even if the relocated people couldn't return to Sulawesi because of Blackwater patrols, they would inevitably spread to other regions.

So Josh expected the Dutch to come knocking.

"Mr. Kahn, we need to have a serious discussion about your forced relocation of the native Sulawesi people," Beel said after a few polite greetings.

"Sir Beel, there is nothing to discuss. Sulawesi is my private territory, officially recognized by the government.

Besides, they were already citizens of the kingdom, so I'll just return them to the government. I don't see any problem with that," Josh replied calmly. (TL/N: in 1948, the Netherlands was a kingdom, officially known as The Kingdom of the Netherlands)

"But Mr. Kahn, this will greatly disrupt the rule of the kingdom. There may be many rebels among the people you're relocating, which means you're creating trouble for the kingdom!" Beel frowned, obviously not expecting Josh to be so stubborn.

"No, Sir Beel, on the contrary. I think my plan is perfect," Josh said. "Java is huge, making it difficult for the kingdom to maintain control. Military forces will be too scattered. But in reality, not every island is valuable. So why not push those rebels into the less valuable regions? As long as we block key sea routes with the navy, do you think those rebel natives can swim across the ocean? And if they want independence, let them have it!"

Josh's words stunned Beel.

Could you really do that?

"If you're interested, I suggest you look into the history of America's westward expansion, the forced relocation of Native Americans, and the reservation system," Josh continued. "Now, these records may be difficult to find, as they are not exactly public knowledge. But as a colleague, I can provide you with some relevant materials. I think you'll find them enlightening."

Josh had originally wanted to recommend that Beel and the Dutch leadership learn from how the Americans dealt with Native Americans.

But in this era, such records were classified in the U.S.

Since the Dutch had withdrawn from North America by the late 17th century, they weren’t familiar with or particularly concerned about American history.

In later years, clearer records of these events only surfaced because of the civil rights movement and the efforts of researchers.

So instead of just suggesting it, Josh decided to hand over some materials to help the Dutch understand the concept better.

Whether the Dutch followed through was up to them.

(A/N: The last two chapters set the stage for the next phase. The Indonesia-related content will be wrapped up in the next chapter, and a new storyline will begin. Also, the ruins mentioned earlier are an important plot point for a later stage. Please be patient.)

(End of chapter)

Chapter 246: The Java War (1)

By mid-April 1948, the war between the Netherlands and Java remained at a stalemate.

Despite the Dutch military holding absolute superiority in troop quality and weaponry, their numbers were severely limited.

Much like before World War II, Dutch garrisons across the vast territory of Java were often so small that some outposts had less than a squad of soldiers.

With such a small force, Javanese troops could simply retreat into the jungle, leaving the Dutch with no effective means of pursuit.

The Dutch army's advantage in firepower was rendered useless under these conditions, forcing them to remain holed up in the cities, guarding key strategic transportation routes, rather than advancing into the jungle to eliminate the Javanese forces.

However, in the midst of this prolonged stalemate, on the night of April 17, a sudden airborne assault struck the central command of the Javanese Republic in the Sulawesi jungle.

Several senior Javanese leaders in Sulawesi were captured on the spot, cutting the region's forces off from headquarters.

Before they could even react, at dawn the next day, a heavily armed unit—flying the Dutch Royal flag but wearing American military uniforms devoid of U.S. insignia—landed in South Sulawesi’s Bombana region. Their weaponry exceeded even that of standard U.S. troops.

From there they advanced relentlessly, building roads and bridges and clearing obstacles as they went. The island's resistance forces were completely overwhelmed.

Although the Javanese soldiers were adept at concealment, similar to the later Viet Cong, the two forces were fundamentally different.

The Viet Cong were able to fight the U.S. military to a standstill for nearly two decades, largely because they received continuous material support from two major world powers. Their access to vast supplies of weapons, ammunition, and logistical support allowed them to counterbalance the technological superiority of the U.S. military.

Although the Viet Cong lacked heavy weaponry, their light arms and squad-based firepower posed a significant threat to U.S. forces. Combined with Vietnam's dense terrain, this support enabled them to achieve victory at great cost.

However, Java’s situation was entirely different.

Although the Soviet Union supported Java's independence, Java was an island nation.

Its surrounding waters were completely dominated by the British, Dutch, and American navies. Even the Soviets, despite their ideological support, had no viable means of transporting weapons and supplies on a large scale.

As a result, the so-called Javanese Republican Army was severely under-equipped—many soldiers didn’t even have firearms. Their arsenal consisted mostly of antiquated World War I-era weapons, with some even using flintlock muskets.

If not for these limitations, the numerically inferior Dutch forces would never have been able to maintain such a decisive advantage on the battlefield.

Whenever the Javanese resistance fired a shot, the Dutch machine guns responded immediately, forcing them to flee.

The newly arrived "Dutch" troops were even more formidable.

They didn’t just rely on machine guns—they had grenade launchers and mortars, bringing far more devastating firepower than the original Dutch forces.

But the most terrifying thing was the appearance of strange creatures among them. These creatures had an extraordinary sense of smell and hearing, far exceeding that of dogs. They were incredibly aggressive, reacted with unbelievable speed, and were so elusive that bullets could hardly hit them.

Under such overwhelming force, these troops had pushed over a hundred kilometers inland in just one day.

Many resistance fighters tried to blend in with the civilian population, thinking they would be safe.

But they quickly realized that this was a terrible mistake.

The old Dutch army, after capturing a town, would typically conduct a large-scale search, execute a few people as a warning, and then move on.

This new "Dutch" army, however, rounded up everyone and marched them to the harbor, where huge cargo ships were already waiting offshore.

By the time the Javanese realized what was happening, they were over 400 kilometers away, being transported to East Nusa Tenggara in southern Sulawesi.

Resistance? No one dared. Faced with the barrels of loaded rifles, they remained silent.

During the entire process, because Dutch and German are so similar, even the Javanese who understood Dutch didn’t notice that this so-called "Dutch army" wasn’t Dutch at all—they were Germans.

It wasn't until the third day, when this mysterious army had completely taken control of Southeast Sulawesi and Governor Josh officially declared his rule over the region, that the outside world realized what had happened.

People were shocked at how quickly Josh had moved.

His appointment by the Dutch was public knowledge in Europe, and Western countries showed little reaction—anyone paying attention could see something suspicious was going on.

However, the Soviets, upon learning of this, immediately passed the information on to the Javanese resistance.

By then, the Javanese had already received the news.

But there was a problem—the intelligence they had said that just a week ago, Josh had only just departed from Austria on the Margaret.

At normal travel speeds, it would take him at least a month to reach Java.

And his hired army? They were supposed to be in the early stages of assembling.

A force of 100,000 soldiers, along with their equipment, would require an enormous number of transport ships. It should have taken months to move them to Java.

By everyone's calculations—whether the Javanese, the Soviets, or even Western countries—the real battle wasn’t expected to begin until the second half of the year.

But now?

It had only been a little over a week, and Josh and his forces had already landed on Sulawesi.

What the hell—did he fly there?

Well...

Chapter 245: I Won’t Forget This Grudge! (2)

What kind of person could silently grab a massive sword right in front of a group of highly trained super-soldiers?

No, this was no theft. This was daylight robbery.

"A speedster... Heh, I don't know if you're still here, but my things aren't that easy to take," Josh said coldly, scanning the surroundings.

Silence.

Heh... So it really was that guy.

Josh thought to himself.

Back in his previous life, when people talked about speedsters in American comics, the first names that came to mind were Marvel's Quicksilver or DC's Flash, Reverse-Flash and the like.

But in this world, which was based on Marvel, DC comics did exist, but he had never heard of any actual DC-related figures appearing.

So that pretty much ruled out any DC speedsters...

Of course, given that this world was already a chaotic mix, with various movie and TV characters showing up, it wasn't entirely impossible for the Flash to cross the multiverse barrier and end up in Marvel.

But seriously, why would the Flash bother stealing the Broken Steel Sword in the first place?

Barry Allen isn't the type to take things without asking.

As for villains like Reverse-Flash? If it were him, he wouldn’t just steal the sword—he’d probably kill everyone here just for fun.

So the vast number of DC speedsters could still be ruled out.

That left only the recorded speedsters of the Marvel universe.

First suspect? Quicksilver.

But that was almost impossible, the kid hadn’t even been born in this timeline.

Unless the mutant universe Quicksilver had somehow crossed over.

But again, why would Quicksilver steal the Broken Steel Sword? There was no logical reason.

Other powerful beings like Captain Marvel could also fly at the speed of light, but she wasn’t even born yet. And even if an alternate timeline version showed up, she wasn't the type to sneak around.

With each suspect eliminated, Josh quickly narrowed it down to a speedster he knew.

This speedster couldn't talk, had an obsession with hoarding, and loved sneaky little thefts.

Makkari.

An Eternal who had come to Earth thousands of years ago and had been hiding among the humans ever since.

Great. Just great.

I didn’t go looking for trouble with you people, but you came after me first.

A cold smile flickered across Josh's face.

If it was Centuries ago he might have hesitated to take on the Eternals.

After all, as creations of the Celestials, these guys were strong—each possessing unique abilities.

Especially their most powerful member, Ikaris—basically a weaker version of Superman.

If they were all together, even the full Avengers lineup would have trouble taking them down.

But if Josh remembered correctly, by the 16th century, most of them had already gone their separate ways, believing they had successfully wiped out their target—the Deviants.

Only their leader, Ajak, and their strongest warrior, Ikaris, knew the truth.

Their true mission wasn't just to hunt the Deviants—it was to ensure the birth of Tiamut, the Celestial growing in the Earth's core.

So right now, the Eternals were probably scattered and isolated from each other.

This meant that Josh had a chance to deal with them.

Of course, he still had to carefully plan his next steps.

And dealing with the Eternals brought up another problem—if he took them out, how would the Celestials react? And what about Tiamut?

Tiamut...

The thought of that Celestial made Josh pause for a moment.

In his past life, a lot of people who saw the Eternals movie thought it was ridiculous that a few of them could stop a Celestial from being born.

And honestly, it was ridiculous—because Tiamut didn’t die because of them.

They didn't have the power to kill a Celestial.

The real reason Tiamut died?

When the Eternals physically connected with him, he willingly gave them his power—so they could end his own life.

Those who were truly affected by humanity were not those useless Eternals, but Tiamut.

Tiamut truly saw humans as his children, and he didn't want to destroy them by being born. That's why she lent her power to the Eternals and allowed them to end her life.

The name Tiamut itself means "Mother of Life".

But just because Tiamut chose to die doesn't mean that the Eternals were useless.

Before she fully awakened, Tiamut could not end herself. But if she had fully awakened, Earth would have been destroyed.

It was a deadlock.

That's why the Eternals were a crucial part of Tiamut's self-destruction.

So if Josh was going to deal with the Eternals, he had to figure out how to deal with the Tiamut problem in the future.

In fact, if there was a way to let Tiamut be born while keeping human civilization safe, maybe that wouldn't be such a bad idea...

But no matter what, Josh would not forget this grudge against the Eternals!

Wait? What if it turns out that Makkari, the Eternal speedster, wasn't the one who took the sword?

…Makkari has stolen countless treasures from humanity. Josh is just helping to get them back—nothing wrong with that, right?

(TL/N: Bro just wants their treasure)

"Boss, I..." Just as Josh was thinking about how to deal with the Eternals, Vito came out of the hall, looking embarrassed.

"Say no more. This isn't your fault. Let's go. There's nothing more to do here." Josh waved his hand and walked out of the ruins without looking back.

"Damn, the boss is really mad this time!" Seeing Josh like that, Vito sighed helplessly.

"Relax, Vito. The boss isn't mad at you, he's mad at that damn thief who stole the sword," one of the others reassured him, explaining Josh's thoughts.

"A speedster, huh? Good. Perfect."

At first, Vito thought Josh was angry with him, but now he understood the real reason. Based on his years of following Josh, he knew that Josh’s guess was probably right.

So, without hesitation, Vito added the mysterious speedster to his hit list.

With his last lead in the underground ruins cut off and his treasure stolen, Josh lost interest in investigating further. Instead, he ordered the robots to seal off the ruins and concentrated on building his base.

Well, to be honest, Josh didn’t have to worry about construction—his robots handled everything. So for the next few days, he spent most of his time fishing and planning how to deal with the Eternals.

In less than a week, the entire island had been transformed.

At one point, Josh spent an entire day pulling a massive amount of weapons and equipment out of his system storage and having the robots put them in the right places.

A week later, when the first Boeing 707 landed with over 300 soldiers, they saw a fully equipped military base on the island.

Normally, a Boeing 707 could only hold about 200 passengers, but this wasn’t a civilian flight—it was a military transport. Comfort wasn’t a concern.

For this mission, Josh had mobilized all of Continental Airlines' planes, shutting down normal business and taking a financial hit.

But compared to the benefits he was about to gain in Java, this loss was nothing.

Chapter 244: I Won’t Forget This Grudge! (1)

After the robots finished exploring the underground ruins and confirmed that there was no danger and good ventilation, Josh finally led Vito and the others inside.

"What a shame. No danger usually means no real value," Josh sighed as they walked through the underground passage.

Yes, after scanning the entire underground—no, rather, the underwater ruins, since the entire structure was actually below sea level—the robots found that it was quite large, comparable to a palace in ancient times.

However, although the ruins were intact, there were no artifacts, statues, or murals to reveal its origins. It was unexpectedly clean.

This suggested that the original inhabitants had left in an orderly fashion, unlike the Kree at Attilan, who had abandoned their site in a hurry.

This meant that the ruins were unlikely to contain anything of great value.

Still, the robots had discovered a strange area, so Josh decided to check it out with Vito and the others.

Following the robots, they soon arrived at a vast circular hall, with a radius of nearly a hundred meters—large enough to hold thousands of people.

The dome was high, over three meters, and the entire hall had no supporting pillars, making it an architectural marvel.

The most striking feature was an ancient looking stone platform in the center.

"Something was originally placed here," Vito noted, pointing to the center of the platform after a careful examination.

"Judging by the shape, it looks like it held a sword," commented another bodyguard.

A sword? What is this, the Bifrost? Josh scoffed at the thought.

But then something clicked. Why did he immediately think of the Bifrost?

The hall was magnificent, but it had none of the golden glory of Asgard. The architectural style wasn't even close to what was shown in the movies.

Hesitant, Josh approached the stone platform and examined the slot. His eyebrows furrowed.

"Boss?" Vito called out, noticing his strange expression.

Then, to their surprise, a sword suddenly appeared in Josh's hand.

If Dracula were here, he would have recognized it instantly—it was the broken steel sword he had given Josh.

While Vito and the others were still wondering how such a large two-handed sword had appeared out of nowhere, Josh hesitated.

The slot in the platform was an exact match for the broken steel sword.

But that made no sense. The sword was supposed to be a legendary artifact from European mythology. Josh had assumed it was made of Uru steel by the light elves of Alfheim and given to King Arthur.

Then why did it fit perfectly into a mysterious ruin in the Java region?

Had his previous assumptions been wrong?

And what would happen if he inserted the sword?

"Boss, should I try it?" Vito offered, noticing Josh's hesitation.

"Sure, go ahead," Josh replied without hesitation, smoothly handing him the sword.

Vito blinked in confusion, feeling the weight of the sword in his hands.

By the time he realized what had happened, Josh had already stepped back to the door.

Seeing the situation, the other three bodyguards quickly retreated to the doorway as well. They stood around Josh, staring at the ceiling as if hoping to find something fascinating up there.

The only ones left beside Vito were the loyal, duty-bound robots.

...Could you at least try to act human?

Vito felt utterly betrayed as he looked at Josh waving at him from the doorway and his three useless colleagues pretending to be statues.

He shook his head and dismissed the thought. It was just inserting a sword—what was there to worry about?

But just as he lifted the sword to place it in the slot, a breeze blew through. In an instant, the sword disappeared from his hands.

"WTF?" Vito waved his now empty hands in disbelief. He even checked his hilt, but there was nothing there.

Where was the sword?

He glanced at the slot—nothing.

"What's wrong, Vito? Where's the sword?" Josh's voice came through the robot's built-in communicator.

"Boss, I don't know! I was just about to put it in when I felt a gust of wind and then it was gone! I swear I didn't drop it!" Vito said worriedly.

A gust of wind... and the sword was gone?

Josh was stunned by Vito's explanation.

But then...

"Did any of you feel that breeze just now?" Josh frowned at the three bodyguards.

"Yes, boss... now that you mention it, I think there was a slight breeze," one of them replied after thinking for a moment.

"But don't you find it strange? This underground ruin has good airflow, but since we came in, we haven't felt any noticeable wind... until just now," Josh's expression darkened.

"Boss, are you saying that gust of wind... took the sword?" The bodyguards had overheard his conversation with Vito and were already wondering how the sword had disappeared so suddenly.

And now, from Josh's tone, it seemed that the wind wasn't just a natural phenomenon?

"Heh... if this is what I think it is, that wasn't wind. That was a person," Josh said through clenched teeth.

A person?

Chapter 243: Underground Ruins (2)

Physically, Josh—who hadn’t even used the super-soldier serum—was likely still slightly stronger than them. But in terms of abilities, they weren't even on the same level anymore.

With years of drinking from the Pool Of Eternity, he had accumulated magic power and mastered the magic of the Five Elements.

He had also honed his gun-fighting skills and carried all sorts of advanced gadgets—shield generators, space-time teleportation belts, and more.

If Josh wanted to kill them, there was nothing they could do to him.

Besides, they had already scouted the area. It seemed safe.

But they had been a little too optimistic—something did go wrong along the way.

Though, thankfully, it wasn’t anything too serious.

As Josh walked through the forest and was about to step onto the beach, a sudden sound of something cutting through the air came from above.

Without even looking up, he instantly materialized a strange-looking weapon in his hand and slashed at the source of the sound with a swift American-style iai strike.

With a loud bang, the attacker's upper body was instantly gone.

The scattered blood and flesh was blocked by the shield that had automatically activated around Josh.

As the remaining half of the corpse hit the ground, Josh turned and glanced at the attacker’s clothing—it was a native.

He shook his head, unimpressed. It wasn't the first time he'd killed someone.

When he reached the shore, he waved his hand and several massive hover transporters materialized one after the other.

After all, beyond just robots, the I, Robot world had plenty of advanced technology—like Howard Stark’s hover cars, which were already common there.

After summoning about fifty transport vehicles, Josh decided that was enough. Each one carried a thousand NS-5 robots.

Fifty vehicles meant fifty thousand robots—more than enough to transform this island.

Next, he brought out a fleet of conventional transport trucks, all preloaded with various building materials.

When the entire beach was filled, Josh finally climbed into the driver's seat of one of the vehicles, pulled out a smart tablet, entered a command, connected to his satellite, and completed a DNA verification.

With the sound of a machine starting, the fifty mechanical giants came to life and began moving toward the airport—fully autonomous and driverless, nothing like Tesla, so no safety concerns!

The forest in their path was instantly leveled, sending flocks of birds flying in panic.

Environmental concerns? Nobody in this era cared about that.

Besides, this island had no rare species or valuable ecology—there were no restrictions on how much it could be modified.

The deafening rumble of the transport convoy immediately alerted the bodyguards at the airport, as well as the tied-up captives.

Even though Josh had warned them in advance, Vito and the others couldn't help but tense up when the moment arrived.

Especially when the fifty massive vehicles stopped neatly at the edge of the airport, their doors opened, and rows of identical robots were revealed inside—it was a shocking sight.

Only when Josh stepped out of one of the trucks did they finally relax.

Without delay, the fifty thousand robots began their assigned tasks, building the airport.

Josh didn’t need to issue any further orders—the entire airport plan and island data had already been uploaded to the robots’ database. They simply got to work.

The goal wasn’t to build a fully equipped, permanent airport—just a temporary one capable of handling large jet transport planes.

But with fifty thousand robots, the construction wasn't limited to just an airport.

They also had to build a military camp for at least a hundred thousand troops, warehouses, and various other facilities.

In short, nearly the entire 100-square-kilometer island was due for a complete overhaul.

Without the efficiency of the robots, this would have been an enormous project.

Ignoring the now massive construction site, Josh took one of the robots and went into the room where Vito and the others were guarding the prisoners.

"Did you get anything out of them?" Josh asked as he looked at the three disheveled prisoners tied to the pillars.

"We did. They really are rebels. Ha, I thought they’d be tough, but one punch and they spilled everything!" one of the bodyguards said with disdain.

Hearing that, Josh glanced at the three miserable rebels and the vomit on the ground, wrinkling his nose. Damn, you’re a super soldier—it's a miracle they’re still alive after one punch!

"Good. You clean this up," Josh said with a smile, patting the bodyguard on the shoulder before walking out. Behind him, Vito and the others chuckled, leaving the unlucky guy standing there in shock.

The smell was awful, and with nothing urgent to do on the island, Josh figured he might as well go to the beach, do some fishing, and enjoy a barbecue.

But just as he reached the shore, his watch communicator buzzed.

It wasn't from Vito's group, but from one of the robot teams he'd sent out earlier.

"Team D-23, Unit 9527 reporting: In the central area of the island, we found a section of terrain that differs significantly from the data in our database. Scans indicate a large underground chamber deep beneath this area. There is no record of such a structure in our database. Awaiting your orders," the robot voice reported.

In I, Robot, the geography of Earth was the same, and that included Atauro Island. The data Josh had uploaded to the robots came from that version of the island.

But he had clearly underestimated the differences.

Even if two worlds seemed identical on the surface, deeper down things could be very different.

These NS-5 robots had only just begun their survey, and they had already found something unexpected.

"An underground cave? Interesting," Josh mused. He hadn't expected something so intriguing on what was supposed to be a simple trip.

The question was: was this underground cave natural or man-made?

"No excavation has been done yet, so we cannot determine that," 9527 replied.

"I am coming over now. Start excavating carefully, but don't do too much damage," Josh instructed.

"Understood, sir," 9527 confirmed before ending the transmission.

Josh then pulled an off-road vehicle from his system inventory and drove toward Team D-23's location.

By the time he arrived, the robots had already begun preliminary excavation. Most of the team had entered the underground cave, including 9527.

Josh looked down into the tunnel they had dug. It was dark and deep.

"9527, upload a live feed," Josh ordered, pulling out a tablet-like controller and linking it to 9527's visual feed.

Soon, footage from the robot's perspective appeared on the screen.

What appeared was clearly a man-made structure.

"Can you analyze the origin of this ruin?" Josh asked, frowning at the sight of the underground complex.

"No matching architectural style found. No identifiable samples found. Unable to determine at this time. Further exploration required," 9527 replied with three consecutive "No data available" messages.

Josh's curiosity shot through the roof.

These robots had access to data on all known Earth civilizations from the I, Robot world.

And yet this ruin didn't match any of them?

That meant it wasn't an Earth civilization.

Could it be another Kree ruin like Attilan? Or was it something from some other alien race?

Chapter 242: Underground Ruins (1)

"The boss! It looks like someone has taken over the airport, and they're heading our way!" As soon as the plane stabilized, a bodyguard rushed over to report.

Although Atauro Island is the largest island in the future East Timor apart from the mainland, it is only 105 square kilometers. Except for a small mountain in the center, the terrain is relatively flat.

However, due to the lack of special resources and limited fresh water supply, the island has always had a small population. In the past, it was mainly used as a place of exile for prisoners.

Even in the 21st century, the island's population barely reached a few thousand.

As for the so-called airport, it was just a small airstrip built by the Portuguese before the war, capable of handling only old propeller planes.

In fact, not only the island of Atauro, but all of East Timor lacked a proper large airport.

As a result, Josh and his team had to land their Boeing VC-137 in Australia before coming here.

From there, they rented an old Boeing 247 to complete the trip.

Why not go to the big cities in Java, like Jakarta, Bandung or Surabaya, which were still under Dutch military control?

For secrecy, of course.

For the same reason, Josh had already arranged with the Portuguese authorities to evacuate everyone from the island, including the natives.

But unexpectedly, there were still people here.

"Can you identify them?" Josh asked.

"They look like locals, all armed, but with outdated weapons—mainly Mannlicher rifles. They're surrounding us. I suspect they're resistance fighters," the bodyguard reported calmly.

Josh's bodyguards, like Vito's, were seasoned veterans who had been with him for years. They had all undergone super-soldier enhancements, had sharp eyesight, and would not be fazed by small surprises.

"Tsk, Mannlicher rifles... now that's a nostalgic weapon," Josh raised an eyebrow.

The bodyguard was referring to the Mannlicher M1895, a rifle used by several nations during World War I, including Austria-Hungary, Switzerland, Italy, and the Netherlands.

For the Austrians present, this weapon held particular significance—it was developed by Austria's Steyr company.

However, these rifles had long since disappeared from modern Western armies, and were now mostly found in remote colonial regions such as Java.

Given the circumstances, the sudden appearance of a group of armed locals with such outdated weapons on this isolated island strongly suggested they were resistance fighters.

Most likely, they had moved in after the Portuguese withdrew and were using the island as a temporary base.

"Who wants to handle this?" Josh looked at his four bodyguards, including Vito.

The four exchanged glances. The enemy numbers weren’t high—twenty to thirty at most, including those hiding in buildings. If a fight broke out, it wouldn't even take all of them.

"I'll sit this one out," Vito said, shaking his head. He spent the most time by Josh's side and didn't see the need to compete for such minor credit.

"Fine. The three of you go. Whoever takes down the most gets the T-Rex model from my study. And leave some alive," Josh said to the remaining three.

He was referring to a silver Tyrannosaurus rex model, about 20 centimeters tall and weighing over two kilograms, made as a prototype for a future Jurassic Park project.

Although the model wasn't worth much compared to the generous salaries of the bodyguards, its uniqueness made it a meaningful keepsake.

As a prize for a little competition, it was more than enough.

"Boss, can I change my mind?" As soon as Josh mentioned the reward, Vito regretted his decision.

Among everyone present, aside from Josh himself, no one knew that model better than him.

Who could resist such a fierce-looking T-Rex? Especially one stamped with Josh’s personal seal.

Once Jurassic Park opened, its sentimental and brand value would skyrocket.

"Too late, Vito! You missed your chance!" The other three bodyguards immediately teased him.

"A deal's a deal!" Josh shrugged with a smile.

As they laughed and joked, suddenly a shot rang out outside.

"Looks like our guests are getting impatient," Josh's said seriously.

"Don't worry, boss. We'll be done in three minutes!" The three bodyguards frowned, knowing they had failed in their duty by allowing the situation to escalate.

They immediately reassured Josh, drew their weapons, and opened the hatch.

Soon, rhythmic gunfire, fighting and screaming echoed from outside.

"Boss, it's done. We got three of them!" One of the bodyguards came back quickly.

The other two were probably watching over the prisoners.

Josh glanced at his watch—two minutes and fifteen seconds. Not bad.

"So you won?" Josh asked.

"Heh, I got two more than the others!" The bodyguard grinned.

"All right, remind me when we get back." Josh patted him on the shoulder before getting off the plane.

"You guys stay here. Stand guard and don't let anyone near the shore. No matter what happens next, don't act without orders."

But instead of interrogating the prisoners, Josh left Vito and the others at the airport and walked alone toward the coast.

Was this a joke? With his status, why would he waste time interrogating a few prisoners? Vito and the others could handle it.

Besides, none of them really spoke Javanese.

But the NS robot did.

So Josh's priority was to get the robot off the beach.

Vito and the others didn't follow. Having been with Josh for years, they knew he had many secrets and it was best not to ask unnecessary questions.

As for his safety, they weren't worried at all.

A few years ago it might have been different. But now?

Even though they were still called bodyguards, they had long since become little more than drivers and hired muscle.

Despite being super soldiers, they knew they were no longer a threat to Josh.

Chapter 241: Buying Robots (2)

However, after Josh looked into it, he realized that their so-called "interstellar travel" only went as far as Saturn. Even then, a round trip took over a year.

Compared to the technology of Josh's former life, this was an impressive speed. But for a true spacefaring civilization, it was only the beginning.

Because of this, while Earth had some capability to develop other planets in the solar system, the costs remained extremely high. Only the Moon, being the closest, had relatively lower expenses—but even then, lunar resources were still more expensive than Earth’s.

For Lawrence, access to large quantities of affordable metal resources was extremely valuable.

But for Josh, minerals were the last thing he lacked.

Every year, through trade with Daenerys and Yuri, he obtained vast amounts of rare metal ores—also known as rare earth elements—most of which were already refined into metal ingots.

After years of development, Daenerys' territory in the Game of Thrones world had basically entered early industrialization, leading to large-scale mineral extraction.

Yuri’s world was even better—it was practically an untouched, resource-rich Earth.

These resources greatly reduced costs for Josh's businesses, especially those in Austria, while also generating massive foreign exchange profits. This was one of the main reasons why the Austrian economy was growing even faster than the United States.

Under normal circumstances, Austria, with its limited natural resources, wouldn't be able to develop so quickly, even with advanced technology.

Now, these relatively cheap mineral resources were just as valuable to Lawrence.

In this particular deal alone, the payment for the robots included dozens of different rare metals. Without Josh's reminder, Lawrence wouldn't have noticed the vibranium mixed in.

But once Josh pointed it out, all Lawrence had to do was focus his thoughts and the vibranium appeared in his hand.

"I've never been stingy with good business partners! Keep it up, Lawrence. Produce as many robots as you can. Until I can fully set up my own production lines, how much you earn from me depends entirely on your efforts!" Josh said with a smile as he watched Lawrence become mesmerized by the vibranium.

This wasn't Josh being foolish or just giving Lawrence free money.

Business had to be mutually beneficial—one-sided dumping wasn’t a good strategy. It was always necessary to give the other party some incentive.

Besides, for the foreseeable future, Lawrence's world and its powerful industrial capabilities were exactly what Josh needed.

"I understand. I'll build more production lines as soon as possible and increase the output of robots!" Lawrence immediately promised.

With the massive supply of raw materials from this deal, his company's robot production was about to reach a whole new level.

"Boss, the plane is about to land!" At that moment, Vito's voice came from outside.

Right now, Josh was not on the Margaret cruise ship but on a small plane flying from Australia to Atauro Island.

The Margaret and its escort fleet were just a cover—there were no weapons or soldiers onboard.

The hired troops would be transported in batches to Atauro Island, north of East Timor, using planes from a major airline. After all, with large, fast jetliners and transport planes available, who would be foolish enough to use ships to transport troops?

Of course, this was only possible because Josh had his system storage. He didn’t need to transport military supplies the normal way—he just had to get the soldiers there, then take out the supplies on-site and arm them immediately.

He still had a massive stockpile of American weapons left over from the war, and he hadn't even sold them all yet.

Danerys' world had a limited population, and even after years of conquest, her army was barely a million strong. There was no way they could use up all the weapons.

With the advent of industrialization, Danerys had also begun to manufacture her own weapons. Though the quality wasn't high enough to meet WWII standards, it was easy enough to make 19th-century weapons, so they were sufficient for second-line troops.

Now Josh's biggest buyer of weapons was Cai Lin from the Mummy Universe, who was constantly expanding her army.

However, since Cai Lin's world could already produce WWI-era weapons, she only bought modern weapons for her elite troops. The rest of her troops were still using outdated WWI weapons from her own world.

As a result, about a third of Josh's massive stockpile of American weapons, enough to arm over a million soldiers, remained, and they were even becoming difficult to sell.

Blackwater International had recruited German mercenaries for the Java campaign, but they only numbered around a hundred thousand—not nearly enough to use up all the weapons.

No worries, though—once little Abbendis grows up, Josh could just sell them to him.

Orcs are fearless warriors? Able to fight three humans at once?

Ha! Just bomb them to pieces.

If the game can create an Iron Horde, then Josh can build an Iron Alliance for little Abbendis.

Wrath of the Lich King? Fine, let's bring in the robots.

Might as well see if the First Scourge or the Second Scourge is stronger.

As Josh's mind wandered, the plane landed on the island of Atauro.

At this time, East Timor was still a Portuguese colony.

Previously, Portugal had already refused Josh on the Macau issue.

So now, Josh and the Dutch government had temporarily leased Atauro Island from Portugal—there was no way they could refuse this time.

Otherwise, once the Dutch and Josh finished taking Java, they could easily turn around and take East Timor, and Portugal wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

Portugal, like Spain, was semi-isolated in Europe at the time, with only slightly better relations with the US.

If they got into a fight with a non-European country, it might be different. But if they got into a fight with a European powerhouse like the Netherlands, the U.S. wouldn't help them.

Right now, Atauro Island had nothing but a small airstrip.

New jet planes required better airfields.

That was why Josh had arrived early—to build an airport.

With the millions of robots he bought from Lawrence, constructing a temporary airbase would be a simple task.

Chapter 240: Buying Robots (1)

"Josh, the five million robots you requested are ready. To be honest, it was quite difficult to gather so many robots at once. About three million of them are used, but they still work fine, so I hope you don't mind," Lawrence said through the system's interface after delivering the NS robots to Josh.

He wasn't trying to trick Josh. In his world, almost all robots were made by his company, American Robotics, so producing five million wasn't impossible.

However, making robots took time, as did gathering materials and assembling them. They couldn't just appear out of nowhere.

Josh had only given him one week, which wasn't enough to make all the new robots.

So, including inventory and freshly manufactured robots, Lawrence managed to make two million brand-new robots available.

These were the latest NS-5 series, which had been put back into production.

Although the Super AI, VIKI, had once nearly caused a robot uprising with NS-5s, the problem was mainly with VIKI itself. The NS-5 models, aside from upgraded hardware, functioned just like the previous versions once the AI control was removed.

The remaining three million were used older models.

These were originally destined for disposal for various reasons.

Why not recycle them? Just like America's car and plane graveyards, they cost too much to dismantle. Instead, they can be refurbished and reused, as in Josh's case, where he desperately needed them.

"Also, the 100,000 military robots you asked for are included. They're in the red trucks. Once they verify your DNA, they'll follow only your commands. This disk contains their operating system," Lawrence added in a hushed tone before Josh could answer.

In fact, he had already turned off the smart sensors in his room. The new AI in his company wasn't as advanced as VIKI, but at least it wouldn't cause chaos. So whispering wasn't necessary.

Still, after the previous incident, Lawrence was cautious—once bitten, twice shy. Had it not been for his luck in being chosen by the Dimensional Trade Beacon, he would have ended up like his old partner, Dr. Lanning.

"I understand. As long as they work, that's all that matters. Besides the agreed payment, the extra blue containers contain vibranium. Since you're a super-soldier now, I think you'll like it," Josh replied calmly.

He wasn't surprised by what Lawrence had said. As a businessman, Josh knew that industrial production wasn't easy.

Even in Lawrence's world, where technology was highly advanced and human labor was almost entirely replaced by robots, efficiency had its limits.

Sourcing materials, processing, and transportation all took time.

That was why, despite already obtaining robot production technology from Lawrence, Josh chose to buy ready-made ones instead of making them himself.

Austria's first-generation robotic production lines were still just blueprints.

Although Josh had already provided Austria's scientists and engineers with various technical materials from Yuri to help them catch up, Lawrence's technology was far more advanced.

Even with the full support of the government and countless experts working together, it wouldn't be possible to fully understand and apply these technologies in a short period of time.

And even if they wanted to copy the designs, they first needed a strong enough industrial base to support them.

So if Josh wanted enough robots, he had no choice but to buy them from Lawrence.

Yuri's world wasn't an option either. Even though Yuri had managed to rebuild a decent industrial system, his workforce was still too small. Instead of helping Josh build robots, he wanted to buy some himself.

As for those five million robots, Josh wasn't even sure if they would be enough, so selling them to Yuri or any other dimension was out of the question.

For that reason, Josh had already expected that Lawrence might struggle to deliver the full order.

But to his surprise, Lawrence actually managed to gather all five million—three million of them being older models. But as long as they worked, Josh didn't mind.

And the reason for purchasing so many robots? Simple—it was for developing Java.

He had no interest in working with the native population and planned to relocate them to nearby lands. Meanwhile, the incoming Native American immigrants numbered only a few tens of thousands—far from enough to develop the region.

The Germans? They were for military purposes, and their numbers were limited. They couldn't handle both defense and infrastructure.

The Austrians? Austria itself had a labor shortage.

Besides, Josh didn't want too many Austrians involved in Java, as it would attract unwanted attention from the British, Dutch, Australians, and Americans.

As for the local Chinese population, while they were significant, at this time in history, they only numbered around two million—not nearly enough to support Java’s four to five million total inhabitants or its vast land area.

So the only viable solution was robots.

They followed orders, worked efficiently, and were easy to hide.

As for the 100,000 military robots, they were even more essential. While Josh had hired German mercenaries and placed a command structure filled with personnel from Austria and Blackwater International for better control, he still didn’t fully trust them.

Especially when it came to handling certain "special tasks"—human soldiers weren’t always the best choice.

And in Lawrence's world, military robots did exist.

Why didn't the military intervene when VIKI rebelled in the movie, leaving a single policeman to save the world? Because the military robots were also under VIKI's control, rendering the armed forces useless.

That's why the army barely appeared until the very end of the movie.

"This is Vibranium? Oh... what a beautiful metal!" Lawrence waved his hand, and a transparent container about the size of a bucket appeared in his grasp. Inside, shimmering blue raw vibranium glowed faintly.

When the transaction was first completed, Lawrence glanced at the system's trade list and didn't notice the vibranium. After all, the trade was mainly for large quantities of metallic raw materials.

By Lawrence's time, human space technology had advanced considerably. There was even a scene in the movie where a giant street screen advertised the new X-82 space shuttle for interstellar travel.

Chapter 239: How About Building a Jurassic Park?

A few days later, Josh took a plane to the Navajo Indian Reservation.

After a full day of discussions, the elder Quechuan finally agreed to Josh's proposal. Once Josh officially secured Sulawesi, the tribe would move there. He also introduced Josh to other tribes still living on the reservation, hoping they would move together.

However, "relocating the entire tribe" wasn't entirely accurate. Although Josh's offer was generous, many Native Americans had a deep attachment to their homeland.

Despite the harsh conditions, some were unwilling to leave, especially the elderly, who couldn't survive the long journey or adapt to Sulawesi's climate.

The migration would therefore take place in three stages.

First, Aldo's uncle, Slam, the son of the tribal leader, would take a group of young and strong men to Sulawesi. Their job was to assess the environment and begin building a new home.

Once they confirmed everything was stable, they would move to the second stage—bringing the women and children over.

As for the elderly, most would remain on the reservation, along with some young people who also chose to stay. The Continental Group would provide them with basic support and housing.

In exchange, the development rights of the Navajo Reservation would be turned over to the Continental Group. For Native Americans, these lands were difficult to live on due to scarce resources.

But for certain American businesses, Indian reservations offered unique opportunities.

Because all reservations had state-level administrative status, they could make their own legal rules as long as they didn't violate the U.S. Constitution.

One important example was gambling.

In the early 20th century, most U.S. states banned gambling, except for two cities—Atlantic City and Las Vegas.

Atlantic City became a gambling center through a statewide referendum in New Jersey. (TL/N: A Referendum is a occasion when all the people of a country can vote on a particular political question)

Las Vegas, on the other hand, was built on an Indian reservation, making it exempt from state gambling laws.

By the 21st century, there were about 310 Indian reservations left in the U.S., and most of them had casinos that generated tens of billions of dollars annually.

Of course, there was only one Las Vegas.

And having the legal right to run casinos wasn't always a good thing.

Because reservations were allowed to operate gambling businesses, various corporations and criminal organizations took advantage of them for decades.

Larger reservations like the Navajo's fared better, but smaller tribes with fewer people often suffered greatly.

If a tribe wasn't strong enough, it could suddenly disappear, replaced by casinos and luxury hotels.

The situation only improved in the 21st century, when U.S. states began loosening restrictions on gambling.

Of course, now that the reservation was in the hands of the Continental Group, it wouldn’t be turned into a gambling hub. That was Josh's promise to the Navajo chiefs.

With the size of the Navajo reservation, it could easily become an entertainment city even bigger than Las Vegas.

But Josh was a man of his word. Though the casinos were highly profitable, they weren't tempting enough for him to break a promise.

With his dimensional trading system, was money even an issue?

As for what to do with the land... Josh suddenly had an idea. With so much open space, wouldn’t it be perfect for raising animals—especially dangerous ones?

Barren land? That could be fixed. In fact, barrenness had its advantages—there were no places to hide, so if anything went wrong, an aerial search would spot it immediately.

"What do you think about building a Jurassic Park here?" Josh asked Aldo as they rode their horses on a plateau and surveyed the land.

Wait, no, Jurassic wasn't right. Yuri's creatures were from the Cretaceous era.

Cretaceous Park, then?

Aldo looked completely confused.

A park? He knew what that was. But what was "Jurassic"?

After all, this was the 1940s—without the Jurassic Park movie, most people had never heard of the Jurassic or Cretaceous time periods unless they were highly educated or worked in archaeology.

Seeing Aldo's puzzled face, Vito smiled proudly.

Heh, you don't know what Jurassic means, do you? Well, I do.

Of course, before meeting Josh, he had no idea either. As an Italian immigrant with little formal education, his knowledge wasn't much better than Aldo's.

But after spending time with Josh, he had learned a lot.

"...You can think of it as a dinosaur amusement park," Josh said, his mouth twitching as he tried to explain.

Since arriving in this world, he had found that the person who understood him best was actually the American robot tycoon, Lawrence—a man he had only recently started trading with.

How frustrating.

"Oh, dinosaurs! That I understand—The Lost World! So you want to build a dinosaur theme park? Maybe put on dinosaur-themed shows? That's a great idea!" Aldo said excitedly.

By "The Lost World," he wasn't referring to the 1990s movie or even the original novel by Arthur Conan Doyle. Instead, he meant the 1925 silent film adaptation—the first-ever monster movie in history, which had taken the world by storm at the time.

The story followed a group of scientists who discovered living dinosaurs on a remote island. They captured one and brought it back to town, only to have it escape and wreak havoc.

Sound familiar? That’s right—King Kong’s plot was heavily inspired by this film.

But Aldo clearly hadn't grasped the true meaning of Josh's words.

Noticing Josh and Vito's strange looks, he hesitated.

"Uh... did I say something wrong?" Aldo asked awkwardly.

"Of course you did. When I say ‘dinosaur park,’ I mean a park with real, living dinosaurs—not some song and dance performance!” Josh sighed and rubbed his forehead in exasperation.

"My God, are you serious? Dinosaurs are supposed to be extinct! Or are you saying you found a place where they still exist, like in The Lost World?" Aldo's eyes widened in shock.

“No... This is technology… Alright, fine, you’re not wrong. We did find such a place. Otherwise, what do you think the Beast Transformation Serum was made from?” Josh originally wanted to deny it and claim it was just advanced science, but after thinking it over, the whole ‘dinosaur cloning’ explanation wasn’t actually that convincing.

Not to mention, while Josh did possess cloning technology—Yuri had perfected it to an astonishing degree—revealing it at this point would bring immense trouble to both him and the Continental Group.

So why not just say they discovered a place where dinosaurs still lived?

For example, with thousands of islands in Java, he could simply pick one, release a few dinosaurs there, then "capture" them and transport them to the United States.

Once the job was done, he could just burn the island to the ground or even conduct a ‘nuclear test’—erasing all evidence.

Simple.

"Wait, so you're saying that the genes in the Beast Transformation Serum are not from Komodo dragons, but from dinosaurs?" Aldo asked, his shock deepening.

"Of course. But if you want a real Komodo dragon serum, I have that too." Josh shrugged.

"Uh... no thanks. The current serum works just fine." Aldo took a deep breath, imagining the whole world flocking to see live dinosaurs.

What was Las Vegas compared to this?

As for Disney... well, Disneyland didn't even exist yet. There weren’t any real theme parks at this point—unless you counted Howard Stark’s Stark Expo.

And just like that, with a few casual words, Josh laid the foundation for what would one day become the world-famous Navajo Jurassic Park.

Of course, Josh's activities on the Indian reservation did not go unnoticed by the U.S. government. Soon the FBI caught wind of his activities and passed the information on to J. Edgar Hoover... and then to President Truman.

After all, Josh’s operations in Navajo territory weren’t small—relocating tens of thousands of people wasn’t something even the CIA could cover up.

Native American affairs were a sensitive topic among the U.S. elite because they were a dark chapter in the country's history.

So Truman took a personal interest in the situation, and soon Josh got a call from the White House.

Not that he ever intended to keep it a secret.

Why would he?

For the U.S. leadership, Native Americans were a long-standing problem. And now, Josh was solving that problem for them—he was doing them a favor.

This was a major contribution.

Sure enough, all Josh had to do was mention the Netherlands, Java, and the Native Americans.

And just like that, Truman gave him the green light, even promising limited military support if needed.

After all, every part of Josh’s plan—helping the Dutch government, stabilizing Java, relocating the Native Americans—was beneficial to the U.S.

On top of that, Josh’s involvement gave the U.S. a legitimate reason to extend its influence into the Strait of Malacca—something they had wanted for a long time.

The U.S. government had always coveted control of Malacca, but direct intervention had been difficult due to their alliances with Britain and the Netherlands.

Now that the Dutch themselves had invited Josh, Truman couldn't be happier. Of course he would support him.

And so, in April of that year, with Truman's approval, the Dutch government's urgency, and the Javanese people completely unaware of what was happening, Josh traveled to Amsterdam.

There he was officially given the title of Governor of Sulawesi and made a hereditary count of the Netherlands by Queen Wilhelmina, giving him full military and political control over the region.

Immediately after bestowing Josh with this title, Queen Wilhelmina abdicated, passing the throne to her daughter, Queen Juliana.

Perfect.

Titles granted by a previous monarch could not be revoked by the new one.

With that, Josh had removed his last potential obstacle.

And so, just days after his formal appointment, several brand-new Austrian frigates and the luxury liner Margaret set sail for Asia under the Dutch flag.

Of course, Prinz Eugen—a ship of great symbolic significance to the Austrian navy—would not be used for escort duty.

Not that Josh was superstitious. Definitely not.

Chapter 238: The Navajo People (2)

After another ten minutes of driving, they finally arrived at the village.

Such a large convoy immediately attracted attention.

When the villagers saw that many of the people in the jeeps were their own kin—men who had left years ago to fight in the war—the entire settlement erupted into excitement.

Aldo's grandfather ruled over a large group of Navajo people, numbering over 8,000. This was already considered a large tribe—after all, the total Navajo population was only about a hundred thousand across all their tribes.

Even by 2005, the Navajo population had only reached around 300,000.

Among all the ethnic minorities in the U.S., their numbers were among the lowest.

They were the original inhabitants of this land, yet they had been pushed into the most remote corners of the country, barely surviving.

What a tragedy.

The commotion outside quickly caught the attention of the tribe's leaders.

Soon, a group of people was escorting an elderly man to the entrance of the village.

"Aldo? Is that really you?"

A middle-aged man stared at Aldo from a distance, his voice filled with disbelief.

It was Aldo's uncle. Because of Aldo’s military service, they hadn’t seen each other for many years. Standing so far away, he couldn't be sure if it was really his nephew.

"It's me, uncle. I'm back!"

Aldo stepped forward and gave his uncle a big hug.

"Aldo? It's really Aldo?"

The elderly man beside his uncle became visibly emotional upon hearing his name. He was none other than the chief of the Quechan tribe, Aldo's grandfather.

The old chief was already in his seventies—a remarkable feat among Native Americans, whose average lifespan was barely forty to fifty years.

Unlike Aldo’s uncle, who occasionally visited him, Quechan had not seen his grandson for over a decade—not since Aldo’s mother had passed away.

Looking at the strong young man before him, Quechan seemed to see his own younger self. Then memories of his lost daughter flooded his mind and tears streamed down his weathered face.

Seeing his grandfather like this, Aldo was overwhelmed with emotions.

Although he had left the tribe at a young age, it had been more his mother's decision than his own. He had few memories of the reservation, having visited only a handful of times. But each time he had been there, the people had treated him kindly. His grandfather always had food ready for him, and his uncle made sure to visit every year.

So he did feel a bond with this place.

That was why he wanted to push for the tribe's migration.

As a half-blood, no one understood the plight of Native Americans in this country better than he did.

Leaving their ancestral land and crossing the ocean was a difficult decision, but he believed that with Josh's help, the Native Americans could have a better future in Java.

Before coming here, Josh had personally assured him.

As long as the Native Americans moved to Java, they would be granted full citizenship, allocated land, and provided the best education to lift them out of poverty.

They would even be given powerful weapons to protect their interests.

All they had to offer in return was their loyalty.

Besides, what did the Indian reservations have?

Barren deserts, endless wastelands—natural prisons.

But in Java, in Sulawesi, there were lush tropical rain forests, fertile soil, abundant game, and rich marine resources.

By any measure, Sulawesi's environment far surpassed the nearly desolate reservations.

And for Josh, that was a small price to pay compared to what he would gain from Sulawesi.

At the time, almost no one knew that Sulawesi contained nearly a quarter of the world's nickel reserves.

By comparison, even a big country like China had only about one-seventh of Java's nickel deposits.

As one of the most important metals for industrialization, nickel alone was enough to make Sulawesi's rulers immensely wealthy.

It would be one of the main pillars of Java's future economy.

But now it would all belong to Josh.

And the number of Native Americans was too small to be a problem. The total population of Native Americans in the United States was less than a million.

Even if every one of them agreed to migrate, which was unlikely, they would still be an insignificant fraction of Sulawesi's population.

Josh wasn't worried that the Native Americans would be at a disadvantage once they arrived in Java.

Though both were considered "natives," Native Americans were far bolder and more warlike than the Javanese, and they were also more industrious.

Josh's investment in them would pay off many times over.

In contrast, the natives of Java were astonishingly lazy when it came to labor.

It couldn't be helped—natural resources were too abundant, and the land was too fertile.

Burn down a patch of forest, scatter some seeds, and a bountiful harvest would follow. So why bother getting up early and working hard?

"I see...migration, huh?"

Inside the chief's big tent, Quechan fell into deep thought after hearing his grandson's suggestion.

The word "migration" immediately brought back memories of the late 19th century, when the U.S. government forcibly relocated Native Americans to create the reservation system.

They had been driven from their once fertile lands to these barren wastelands.

Famine, disease, massacres—countless Native Americans perished in that dark era.

Even their primary source of survival—the great buffalo herds—had been slaughtered to near extinction by the U.S. government (A/N: regionally extinct, later reintroduced from Canada).

So when Quechan heard the word "migration," his heart was clenched with fear.

He was afraid.

But he also understood that the current situation for Native Americans couldn't possibly get any worse.

That vision Aldo described—of fertile islands in Java—was deeply tempting.

"Aldo, it's not that I don't believe you. But this is the future of thousands in our tribe, and potentially tens of thousands of Navajo people. I can't make this decision lightly. Besides, the other tribes may not listen to me… I need to hold a council meeting and discuss this with them. If possible, I would also like to meet with your employer in person.

After who knows how long—after smoking several pouches of tobacco—Quechan finally spoke to his grandson.

Aldo frowned.

Meeting Josh?

Their statuses weren’t equal at all.

Aldo was well aware that Josh was offering the Indians a new life in Java largely as a favor to him. Otherwise, Austria and Germany, with their tiny populations, could easily recruit many times as many settlers.

Still, after thinking it over, Aldo made the call.

What Aldo didn’t expect, however, was that after hearing the situation, Josh agreed to the meeting without hesitation.

Chapter 237: The Navajo People (1)

A convoy of more than a dozen jeeps roared across the desert at the border of Arizona and New Mexico, heading toward the Navajo Indian Reservation.

On a distant flat-topped mountain, a Native American scout had already spotted the approaching visitors. With a slight movement of his shoulder, the eagle perched on it soared into the sky, letting out a sharp cry as a warning.

Some of the people in the jeeps noticed the eagle circling above, but they remained calm. In fact, there was a sense of nostalgia in their eyes as they watched.

They were also Navajo Indians.

However, they had left their homeland after joining the U.S. military during World War II.

Most of these young Native Americans who enlisted didn't want to return to the barren desert.

But after the war, they struggled to find decent jobs because of discrimination in society.

That's why, when Blackwater International was founded, Aldo recruited many Native American soldiers—especially Navajos, who were widely used as code talkers in the military.

The U.S. military had been using Native Americans as code talkers since World War I.

During that war, many Choctaw people were recruited.

As a result, Native Americans were finally granted U.S. citizenship more than a decade later.

Yes, it was an ironic situation—the people who had lived on this land for countless generations weren’t even recognized as U.S. citizens for over a hundred years. They were treated as foreigners on their own land. It wasn’t until 1924—just 24 years before World War II—that they were finally granted citizenship. Even then, they were treated worse than African Americans.

At the beginning of World War II, the U.S. military used the Choctaw language as a code, but Japanese spies quickly cracked it. This led to major losses for the U.S. military.

To counter this, the military recruited Navajo code talkers because their language was more complex and less widely understood.

This made U.S. military codes among the hardest in the world to decipher.

Josh had seen a movie about this in his past life—a big-budget film directed by Wu Baige, starring Nicolas Cage, called Windtalkers. It told a similar story.

But after World War II ended, these Native American soldiers were discharged and returned to the same discrimination they faced before the war.

In the cities, they struggled to find decent jobs and were forced into hard labor.

Yet, they didn’t want to return to the reservations either. Having adapted to life outside, they didn't want to return to a harsh existence.

Under these circumstances, when Aldo founded Blackwater International, he was able to recruit many Native American soldiers.

That’s who was in this convoy of jeeps—Blackwater International operatives, with Aldo himself sitting in the front passenger seat.

For many of these soldiers, returning to the reservation felt like coming home—even if it wasn’t a home they particularly liked.

"Sir, that's one of our tribe's scout eagles!" A Native American soldier in the back of a jeep pointed to the circling eagle and spoke to Aldo in the front.

"I see it... Say, when we finally move, what do you think about catching some bald eagles to raise?" Aldo asked, his thoughts suddenly drifting elsewhere.

"Uh... I don't know, Sir. I haven't given it much thought," the soldier hesitated, surprised by Aldo's random question.

"Oh, be more confident, Bresta. I’ve told you before—you have a unique talent. A few hundred years ago, you would have been a hero to our people. But you need to work on your attitude," Aldo said, looking at him with a grin.

Bresta just chuckled without arguing.

He was young, only 17.

Unlike most of the other Native Americans who had military experience, Bresta was someone Aldo had found on a construction site.

The boy had gotten into some trouble and Aldo happened to be passing by. He lent a hand, and that was how Bresta ended up here.

He hadn't expected the young man to be from the same tribe as him.

But it wasn't too surprising. Because of his background, Aldo had left the reservation with his mother at a young age and rarely returned. After his mother died a few years ago, he never went back. Only his uncle visited him occasionally, bringing him small gifts from the reservation.

So it was normal for him not to recognize many people from the tribe.

But fate had brought them together. He liked the young man, but life hadn't been kind to him. So Aldo recruited him into Blackwater.

As the CEO of Blackwater International, he had the authority to do so.

Besides, it wasn't really favoritism. After a short period of training, Bresta met the company’s recruitment standards—surpassing even many veterans in skill.

His only weakness was his introverted personality.

In that regard, he was the complete opposite of Aldo.

But Bresta had been right about one thing—he hadn’t received much education. The level of education among Native Americans was extremely low, and they weren't allowed to attend white schools. His worldview was still limited, so he couldn’t give an opinion on whether the tribe should migrate.

"Sir, it's a patrol!"

Before they could continue the conversation, the driver had already slowed the jeep to a stop.

The reason was simple; up ahead, a cavalry unit of about 20 or 30 men had blocked the road, armed with rifles.

Their traditional Indian dress clearly identified them as the patrol of Aldo's mother's Navajo tribe.

"I am Aldo, grandson of the Quechan!" Aldo stepped out of the jeep and called out in their native language.

Quechan was his grandfather's name. In Navajo, the words for "grandson" and "maternal grandson" were the same.

"The chief has a grandson?"

The members of the patrol exchanged uncertain glances. Most of them looked weathered from the harsh desert climate, but in reality they weren't much older than Aldo. They didn't recognize him, and even if some had heard of him, so many years had passed that they had long forgotten.

For a moment, the atmosphere was awkward.

Fortunately, Bresta and several other Navajo soldiers stepped out of the jeeps at that moment.

"Uncle Cody, it's me, Bresta!" Bresta called to one of the patrolmen.

"Bresta? Arce? Morales? You're all back?"

The cavalrymen were shocked to see so many familiar faces getting out of the vehicles. These men had left only a few years ago, and being about the same age, they were far more recognizable than a supposed grandson of the chief.

With their confirmation, the patrol finally accepted that Aldo was indeed the chief's grandson. They then led the convoy toward the settlement.

Chapter 236: Blackwater International (2)

(TL/N: Four Chapters Today)

"There's a problem, Josh. If we want to get involved in this war, we don't have enough people right now. We could recruit veterans, but that would take time and cost a lot more than expected," Aldo hesitated.

There were a lot of American veterans after the war, but with the downsizing of the military, most had already returned to civilian life. The U.S. economy was booming, and incomes were rising rapidly.

In this situation, convincing veterans to return to the battlefield would be very expensive.

"Heh, you don't have to worry about that. Blackwater taking this contract is just for show. The real army is already ready. There are still many German prisoners of war in various European countries. We can hire them at a low price. Even if some countries refuse, there are millions of Germans struggling to find food," Josh said casually.

As he said, aside from those still being used as forced labor, millions of freed Germans were still on the verge of starvation.

The Cold War had officially begun in 1947, but both sides were still maintaining a superficial peace. The confrontation wasn't too intense.

Germany was still in ruins, stripped of its resources by the victorious nations. East and West Germany hadn't even been created yet.

Life for the Germans was terrible. In the winter of 1946 alone, over 100,000 people froze to death, mostly in the British, French, and Soviet zones.

The American zone, thanks to Austria’s ties with the U.S., was slightly better—still poor, but at least people weren’t starving or freezing to death.

Things did not improve until 1949, when both sides of the Cold War set up their own German governments.

Because of this, many Germans tried to escape into Bavaria, which had become part of Austria—a "paradise on earth" compared to the rest of Germany.

Austria sent back those who came from the American Zone to avoid upsetting the U.S., but they gladly accepted those from the British, French, and Soviet Zones because they needed workers.

Thanks to Josh's advanced technology, Austria's industry and economy grew even faster than the U.S. But just like in America, this rapid growth led to a labor shortage.

So if possible, Austria would love to accept more Germans—ideally, even take over all of Germany. After all, Austria and Germany were like family.

Unfortunately, even Austria's closest ally, the United States, wouldn't allow it. The other occupying countries also had strict border controls, so only a limited number of people could get through.

However, if Josh recruited soldiers under Blackwater and the Dutch flag in the non-Soviet occupation zones, the other countries probably wouldn't mind.

After all, the Netherlands had long been an ally of Great Britain and France, and was now a country the U.S. wanted to draw closer to.

With colonial independence movements growing everywhere, Britain and France were happy to see the Dutch stabilize Java.

So even without the Prisoners of War, Josh could still easily recruit plenty of German people from Germany itself.

"That's a smart plan, but if we pay them too little, won't they refuse to fight hard?" Aldo asked. He quickly understood Josh's strategy, but still had concerns.

As a private military contractor, he knew that mercenaries were ultimately motivated by money.

If their only reward was getting enough to eat, even Prisoners of War wouldn’t be willing to fight to the death.

"That's easy. I'll promise them that if they fight well, they and their families can become official citizens of Sulawesi. What do you think—will they fight hard then?" Josh said with a smile. (TL/N: Big Brain Again)

That was Josh's plan from the beginning.

The Java natives were poor, lazy, and prone to trouble. Most of them followed the Green Sect, which made it unlikely that they would accept Josh's rule. This would be a major problem for his future control of Sulawesi.

The best way to secure long-term rule over the region was to replace the local population.

Of course, Josh wasn't planning anything extreme. He didn’t have to kill them—he could simply drive them away.

The Dutch had their own plans. Once the war was won, he could push the natives into Dutch-controlled territory... problem solved.

Besides the Dutch, the British still controlled Malaya in addition to Java. With the growing instability in Java and the rapid decline of Britain, the situation in Malaya didn't look good either.

In the original timeline, Malaya gained independence from Britain only a few years after Java.

When the time came, Josh could use the same strategy he was using with the Dutch and work with the British—taking a large piece of Malaya for himself.

After all, the world’s 11th-largest island was nowhere near as appealing as the 3rd-largest one.

"I see. I understand now. I'm leaving for Europe tomorrow with my team!" Aldo replied immediately.

"No hurry, Aldo. I can't appear too eager. I need the Dutch to feel the pressure first. Actually, I have another idea—one you might find interesting,” Josh said.

"What idea?" Aldo asked, confused.

"Would your mother's tribe be interested in moving to a new country?" Josh asked.

Aldo froze for a moment.

"You mean...?"

"Exactly what I said. Sulawesi has volcanoes, but overall it's a good place. It's rich in resources and can support tens of millions of people. But I don't like the natives here... You know what I mean, right?" Josh explained.

"I understand. But this isn't something I can decide for myself. It affects the future of my whole tribe. I have to ask my grandfather," Aldo said seriously.

Their conversation may have seemed strange, but it all made sense in light of Aldo's heritage.

Aldo wasn’t fully white—he was mixed.

His father was white, but his mother was a Native American—and not just any Native American, but the daughter of a powerful tribal chief.

As for Aldo's father? He had never seen him. If he ever got the chance, he'd like to send that man a bullet.

No, not a bullet—he’d inject himself with the beast transformation serum and smash him into a pulp.

Because Aldo’s birth was a disgrace. For his mother, it was a deep humiliation.

Over thirty years ago, Aldo's mother went hunting with two guards. They were attacked by a group of hunters.

Her guards were killed, and she was raped.

In the end, these hunters were never punished. Instead, they were protected by the American authorities.

This was the harsh reality of life for Native Americans.

The U.S. had long since stopped large-scale massacres of Native Americans.

But in many ways, their situation was even worse than that of African Americans.

The so-called reservations were meant to protect their way of life, but in reality, they were nothing more than open-air prisons—barriers that kept them from integrating into American society.

Even in the 21st century, Native Americans had the lowest education and living standards of any ethnic group in the U.S.

While others shouted about racial equality, few cared about this forgotten, marginalized people.

All they could do was endure the injustice in silence while the U.S. government buried the past.

Because they had no power to change it.

Chapter 235: Blackwater International (1)

"What are you worried about? As long as you first officially recognize my legal rule over Sulawesi, I can just hire troops under my own name. If my reputation is bad, that's my problem... What do you have to worry about?" Josh looked at the Dutch ambassador in surprise.

The Dutch ambassador was speechless for a moment.

"You don't seriously think that I would hire an army with my own money just so you could take control of it, do you?" Seeing the ambassador's reaction, Josh was at a loss for words.

Was this guy really thinking like that?

Spending my money, hiring an army in your name, and then letting you control it? What kind of fantasy is that?

And if you change your mind later, who do I turn to? Knowing the Dutch, they would definitely do something like that.

Though a small country, the Netherlands had a reputation similar to that of France when it came to breaking promises and reneging on agreements.

They had a history of tearing up agreements with the Republic of Java within minutes of signing them. And as one of the world's first financial powerhouses, they even invented perpetual bonds.

What are perpetual bonds? They have no fixed maturity date or an extremely long one—essentially, they never need to be repaid, just the interest.

Although it was later adopted by many nations and given a respectable name, at its core it was just an ingenious way of avoiding repayment.

If Josh were to simply provide the funds and let the Dutch call all the shots, he would be the world's biggest fool.

Seeing Josh's blank look, the Dutch ambassador felt slightly embarrassed. The Dutch government had indeed considered using an empty promise to trick Josh into funding the campaign.

However, given Josh's status and influence in the U.S. government, the idea was quickly abandoned.

The Marshall Plan was about to be implemented as an open policy. All that remained to be decided was the distribution of the benefits. If the Netherlands offended Josh now, and he used his influence to stir up trouble in the U.S. government, the consequences could be severe.

"Mr. Kahn, you must be joking. We were only concerned if you could handle the international backlash..." The Dutch ambassador laughed and refused to admit anything.

"You don't have to worry about that. I can handle a little criticism." Josh didn't press the issue. The international backlash was inevitable.

If he wanted to officially take control of Sulawesi, there would always be some level of public condemnation. He couldn't avoid it simply by blaming it all on a private military force.

But so what? Would criticism from the international community take anything away from him?

And while he agreed to help the Dutch with their war effort, Josh also made up his mind—he would teach them a lesson when the time was right.

Huh, Sulawesi? Once he sent in his troops and took control, did they really expect him to give it back? Dream on!

After sending Franco and the Dutch ambassador on their way, Josh immediately took action.

He made a satellite call to an office building on a military base in Virginia—now that Boeing Aerospace had entered the space age, real-time transoceanic communications were something Josh could openly use.

But the base Josh was calling wasn't owned by the U.S. military. It was privately owned.

Its official name was Blackwater International Military Services.

This was the private military company that Josh had formed after reorganizing the Blackwater Gang.

In the original timeline, Private Military Companies (PMCs) began to appear in large numbers during the late Cold War period.

Private Military Companies were different from traditional mercenaries.

Not because they didn't do mercenary work, but because they offered a wider range of professional services.

And under Josh's leadership, Blackwater became an elite military services company ahead of its time.

Because of this professionalism, along with Josh's strong ties to the military and his influence in the U.S. government, the Pentagon was very interested in this new concept of private military services.

Blackwater had also hired many high-ranking officers who had been discharged as a result of military downsizing.

As a result, although Blackwater had been founded only two years earlier, it had already received Pentagon approval, secured several defense contracts, and was growing rapidly.

To facilitate its operations, the company's headquarters had been moved to Virginia, near the Pentagon.

In addition to government contracts, Blackwater had also gained some traction in private security services, thanks to promotions from the Continental Group.

Internationally, however, Blackwater was still relatively unknown.

Despite its name, it wasn't really "international" yet.

But in Josh's view, the war in Java was the perfect opportunity to put Blackwater on the world stage.

And this had nothing to do with his plan to recruit German Prisoners of War for battle.

Josh paid to hire Blackwater International, which in turn hired German prisoners of war as soldiers since they were cheaper. Is there a problem with that? No, not really.

That way, Josh would only be criticized for being a "colonial accomplice" and could avoid the blame for using war criminals as soldiers. (TL/N: Big Brain)

"Oh wow, big boss! What a rare guest! I thought your life was so sweet after you got married that you forgot about Blackwater International," said Aldo, Blackwater's CEO, as he answered the call, teasing Josh with a grin.

"No matter how sweet life is, I still have to make money for baby food. Aldo, I've got a big deal for you," Josh said directly.

"Oh? Who's the client? What's the job?" Aldo asked in surprise.

"I'm the client!" Josh replied.

"Uh... Josh, I work myself to death every day, not for you to mess with me..." Aldo was speechless. The company already belonged to Josh—he could just give orders. Why hire his own company?

"No, Aldo, I'm serious. As the hereditary count appointed by the Dutch royal family and the governor of Sulawesi, I am officially hiring Blackwater International to organize a military force. The objective is to eliminate the illegal government and armed forces in Dutch-controlled Java and secure my and the Dutch royal family's rule over the region," Josh explained, cutting him off.

Aldo was stunned. This guy was now tied to the Dutch royal family? Impressive!

As a Private Military Company, Blackwater was of course aware of the ongoing war in Java. Although it had nothing to do with them directly, Southeast Asia was a major hub for American shipping. Blackwater had already provided security services to many shipping companies and individuals in the area.

But he hadn't anticipated an opportunity for Blackwater to get directly involved in the war.

Chapter 234: The Conquest of Java (2)

In late 1945, after Japan's surrender, the British fleet landed in Java, took control of the major cities, freed the imprisoned Dutch colonial troops, and rearmed them. The British and Dutch then formed a joint force and refused to recognize the Republic of Java, leading to conflict.

However, due to Josh's extensive arms trade in Africa, which caused chaos in the colonies, and Britain's war with Wakanda, the British withdrew from Java in 1946, handing it over to the Dutch.

Java had always been a resource-rich region.

It produced sugar cane, coffee, indigo (A/N: for dye), and quinine (A/N: a malaria treatment, with Java accounting for 92% of the world's quinine supply).

For the small country of the Netherlands, Java's exports had been a mainstay of its economy for centuries. Giving up such a valuable territory was out of the question.

So in early 1947, the Netherlands launched a major military offensive against the Republic of Java—this was the First Police Action.

Despite its small size, the Netherlands had superior weaponry and forced the Republic of Java to surrender most of its territory in a treaty.

That should have been the end of it.

But just as the war ended, Dutch politics changed.

A right-wing government took power and refused to accept the previous treaty with Java.

Since they had already won the war, they wanted to take the whole island.

So they launched another offensive—the Second Police Action.

In the original timeline, the Dutch won this war as well. But due to opposition from neighboring countries, led by India, and pressure from the United Nations, they were forced to stop and renegotiate.

Of course, the real reason wasn’t just opposition from other countries—it was because the U.S. intervened.

Initially, America had supported the Dutch in Java because the Netherlands had always been an important ally.

The continuous military actions of the Netherlands had begun to interfere with U.S. interests in Southeast Asia. As a result, the U.S. began to change its stance and put pressure on the Netherlands through the United Nations.

However, in this world, perhaps due to the chain reaction caused by Josh's actions against the British and French colonies, the Netherlands' second military campaign did not succeed as it did in the original timeline. Instead, it became stuck in a prolonged conflict.

The U.S. also began to shift its position. If the war dragged on, the Netherlands would suffer heavy losses in Java. At this point, the Dutch government became increasingly worried.

The fact that Franco was approaching them at this time was, in a way, exactly what the Dutch needed.

Why were the Dutch struggling in this war? Simply put, they lacked money, weapons, and supplies.

Before World War II, the Netherlands had a strong economy and was one of the more powerful nations in Western Europe.

But during the war, Hitler had looted the country. Now, with the loss of Java, a major source of income, the Netherlands was left financially weak.

At a time when Europe had not yet formed a unified economic system, it was not easy to recover quickly.

As for war reparations, what little they received from Nazi Germany and Japan wasn't even enough to cover the losses of Britain and France, let alone the Netherlands.

The longer the Java War dragged on, the worse it got for the Netherlands.

And who was Josh?

Since the Western Front battles of World War II, he had been known throughout Europe as a financial giant.

It was estimated that Josh's personal fortune was probably in excess of $2 billion, while the assets he controlled, directly or indirectly, might exceed $10 billion.

For this era, these were staggering figures.

And this was only what the outside world could estimate.

Not to mention the centuries-old wealth of Dracula, which Josh had recently acquired—just the resources and fortune he had accumulated through interdimensional trade far exceeded $10 billion.

In terms of gold alone, his system storage space was practically overflowing.

If he were to release even a fraction of it, world gold prices would instantly plummet.

With his financial support, the Netherlands could easily sustain its war in Indonesia. (TL/N: Bro is flexing)

More importantly, Josh had considerable influence in the United States.

If he could influence American policy to continue to support the Netherlands, that would be even better.

After all, Josh wanted land in Asia, right?

Java had over ten thousand islands, more than a thousand of which were large enough for development. They could give him some!

Not just the small islands—he could have big ones too.

Apart from Sumatra and Java, which were the most important, they could even consider giving him Sulawesi.

"If I ask for Sulawesi, would you really agree?" Josh asked the Dutch ambassador in surprise.

The offer was tempting.

Sulawesi was the 11th largest island in the world, covering a massive 170,000 square kilometers.

Although it wasn't as strategically important as Sumatra and Java, and its geography was mountainous with few plains, frequent earthquakes, and volcanoes, the land area alone made it valuable.

With enough advantages, Josh had every reason to be interested.

"Yes, Your Excellency. If our country can fully regain control over Java, Her Majesty the Queen will grant you the title of Governor of Sulawesi, along with a hereditary countship,” the Dutch ambassador added, seeing Josh’s interest.

"I see. In that case, this matter should be quite simple,” Josh said, rubbing his chin.

"Oh? What do you mean?" The Dutch ambassador asked immediately, and Franco, who was listening, was also intrigued.

"Your problem is nothing more than a lack of troops and weapons. But in reality, there are still large numbers of well-trained military forces being wasted in Europe, consuming resources for no purpose," Josh said.

"You mean... the Germans?" The Dutch ambassador immediately thought of something, but still hesitated.

True, Josh had previously acquired tens of thousands of German and Hydra prisoners through private deals with the U.S. military.

But compared to the millions of German prisoners of war held in the Rhine camps, this number was insignificant.

Over the years, most of these prisoners were gradually released.

However, some German prisoners remained scattered in various Western European countries for various reasons.

With some rearmament, they could become a formidable fighting force.

But recruiting former enemy soldiers... That would be a public relations nightmare.

The Dutch ambassador hesitated, unsure of how to proceed.

Chapter 233: The Conquest of Java (1)

Josh had originally planned to return to the United States a month after the wedding.

But because Margaret was pregnant with their third child, that plan had to change.

Although Margaret didn't think it was a big deal, Josh, who preferred to be cautious, thought it best for her to stay at Neuschwanstein Castle for the next year to rest and give birth.

Besides, by this point Josh's businesses were running smoothly and no longer required his constant attention.

Even his work with the CIA was the same.

So, for the next few days, his days were spent taking care of a few important things and then enjoying life—riding, hunting and skiing with his two children.

Neuschwanstein Castle was located in the foothills of the Alps and offered breathtaking scenery and abundant wildlife.

The two children followed their father around the mountains every day, turning into little savages.

At night, Josh socialized with his trading partners and then cuddled with his wife.

Although Margaret's pregnancy meant they couldn't do much, simply holding her while she slept was a comfort to both of them.

But this peaceful life didn't last long.

"Josh, I'm sorry. I couldn't convince Salazar to give up Macau. But honestly, Macau is too small, and with the unstable situation in the East, I have prepared a much bigger piece of land for you instead!"

In the reception hall, a small middle-aged man spoke to Josh.

Despite his short stature—only 163 cm, even shorter than Napoleon—Josh didn’t underestimate him.

In fact, few people in this era would.

His name was Francisco Franco.

The dictator of Spain.

From leading a coup in 1936 to becoming Spain's ruler in 1939, Franco maintained a neutral stance in World War II while secretly aiding Hitler. After the war, he escaped punishment, remained in power despite international isolation, and ruled Spain until his death in 1975.

His life could be called legendary.

If he had been born in a stronger Spain, a hundred years earlier, he might have been another great warlord.

One of the main reasons he survived post-war isolation was that he made the right bet—allying himself with the United States even before the end of World War II.

Because of this connection, Josh, who represented American business interests in Europe, had become acquainted with him.

When Josh's ship passed through Spain on its way to Europe, they had already met once.

Franco had even attended Josh's wedding.

Josh's purpose in dealing with Franco was to use him as an intermediary to persuade the Portuguese leader to relinquish control of Macau.

In return, Josh would help Portugal benefit from his company's European investments and the upcoming Marshall Plan.

As for why Josh wanted Macau... well, as the saying goes, some things are best left unsaid. (TL/N: I don't know what the author wanted to convey here, but if anyone knows, you can comment and let me know.)

At first, Josh didn't think it would be a difficult task. Even Franco, after hearing Josh's request, thought it would be easy.

Times had changed. Macau, once one of Portugal's most important strongholds in Asia, had lost its economic importance by the late 19th century. The city was too small and too close to Hong Kong, making it nearly impossible to regain its former status as a major trading hub.

It was not until the late 19th century that Macau began to recover somewhat by turning to gambling and entertainment.

But with the unstable situation in East Asia in recent years, Macau's future looked bleak. Even the British in neighboring Hong Kong were worried about Asia’s political climate—so what about Portugal?

Don’t think that Britain was weak at this time.

In reality, Britain was like a wounded wolf—still very dangerous.

The war had only been over for a few years, and its military was still strong, especially its navy, which remained the second largest in the world.

This was a very different Britain from the one that would emerge decades later—industrialized, stripped of almost all of its colonies, and with a drastically reduced military.

Even Josh preferred to operate in the shadows against Britain rather than confront it directly.

Despite its strength, Britain was struggling to cope with the situation in Asia.

So what could tiny Portugal do?

Faced with this reality—and considering that Spain and Portugal, both under dictatorships, had a very close relationship—Franco saw no reason why this deal should be difficult.

Especially since Josh's offer was tempting even to him.

But what Josh and Franco didn't expect was that Portugal's usually moderate dictator, Salazar, was surprisingly stubborn when it came to colonial matters.

He rejected Franco's persuasion almost without hesitation.

This frustrated Franco, but there was nothing he could do about it.

However, he didn't want to lose Josh's generous offer.

Despite being a dictator, Franco was not a hedonist—he had always focused on Spain’s economic development.

And Josh's offer, especially the economic support of the Marshall Plan, was extremely important to Spain.

But if Portugal refused, what could he do?

Just as Franco was feeling stuck, an international news article caught his attention.

So before he came to see Josh, he took a trip to the Netherlands.

"So you're talking about Java? What's the Dutch position?" Josh asked, turning to the Dutch ambassador to Austria, who had arrived with Franco.

With the ambassador standing right in front of him, it was obvious what Franco had in mind.

Just last December, while Josh was still at sea, the Netherlands had launched the "Second Police Action" in Java, using military force against the Republic of Java.

Java had been a Dutch colony since the 16th century until Japan occupied it in 1942.

As World War II neared its end and Japan was on the verge of collapse, local resistance forces declared independence and established the so-called Republic of Java.

But things weren't that simple.

Chapter 232: The World Of WarCraft

Alfred Abbendis. (TL/N: I have never played WOW so please help me if I make any mistakes while translating names)

Year 1175 of the Lordaeron calendar.

He is the son of Count Abbendis, ruler of the North Sea Territory in Silverpine Forest. (TL/N: This is AU, as there was no mention of High General Abbendis' father in WoW.)

This was the information Josh had recently gathered from the young boy.

As a long-time fan of World of Warcraft for over fifteen years in his past life, Josh immediately recognized the significance of this name and the world it represented—the world of Azeroth.

Alfred Abbendis was a key figure in the game, the founder and supreme commander of the Scarlet Crusade, a powerful faction.

Before that, he was a high-ranking member of the Knights of the Silver Hand and a trusted aide to Highlord Alexandros Mograine, the legendary wielder of the Ashbringer.

However, it wasn't Alfred himself who was most famous, but rather his daughter, Brigitte Abbendis.

She later became the new leader of the Scarlet Crusade, known as High General Brigitte Abbendis, and was the target of an assassination attempt in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

Upon confirming that this third trading dimension was indeed the world of Warcraft, Josh was beyond excited.

This was a high-fantasy world with limitless potential, no less important than the Marvel Universe.

Powerful Titans, fearsome Demons, majestic Dragons, graceful Elves, fierce Orcs, and resilient Humans.

Mysterious arcane magic, pure and righteous light, and the terrifying power of the Void.

Warriors, mages, paladins, priests, rangers—each with unique abilities.

Legendary weapons like Frostmourne, Ashbringer, and Sulfuras.

Gaining access to any of these powers or artifacts would be an incredible advantage for Josh.

The only downside was that he had connected to this world a little too soon.

Josh wasn't exactly sure what specific events were taking place in Lordaeron in 1175.

In his past life, all timelines in the game were based on the opening of the Dark Portal, which marked the first orc invasion of Azeroth. This was considered Year 1 and the true beginning of Azeroth's legendary era.

Before that, the various races and kingdoms of Azeroth followed their own calendars, most of which were unknown.

So for now, Josh couldn't tie the Lordaeron calendar directly to the Dark Portal timeline.

One thing was certain, however: this was long before Abbendis became a key figure in the story.

Abbendis first appeared on the world stage in Year 6 of the Dark Portal era, during the Second War between Humans and Orcs, when the Old Alliance was formed.

By this time, he was a high-ranking military officer and the adjutant of Alexandros Mograine.

A noble-born officer of that rank would normally be at least in his thirties.

Right now, however, Abbendis was only five years old—just a little older than Josh’s own children.

That meant it would be at least 20 to 30 years before the Dark Portal opened.

For Josh, this was good news and bad news.

The bad news was that as a child, even in a high-fantasy world like Azeroth and within a noble family, Abbendis would not yet have access to the truly powerful elements of the world.

This era was still relatively peaceful compared to the turbulent times to come—similar to Josh’s own situation. Compared to the 21st century, when superheroes became widespread, the time he lived in had very few extraordinary individuals.

But the good news was that Josh had plenty of time to prepare.

He could raise Abbendis and help him grow quickly, so that when the great events of history unfolded, he would be ready to help Josh secure even greater advantages.

Though Abbendis would naturally rise to a high position in history, the Scarlet Crusade was an extremist faction made up of a mix of forces, and Josh saw little real value in it.

If he had help, Abbendis might have united the seven human kingdoms before the Dark Portal appeared, becoming the second great emperor after the ancient king, Thoradin of the Arathorian Empire.

At that point, Orcs? Ha!

"How was your day, Alfred?" Josh greeted him with a warm smile.

Josh had played with him since he was little, so they had known each other for years. In fact, they were closer than Josh was to his own two children.

"Josh, you're finally here! My Dragon Block ran out of power, and I want some chips and cola!" Abbendis' eyes lit up with excitement when he saw Josh.

How do you win the favor of a child living in a medieval-like world? Simple—games and tasty snacks!

Chips and Coke are simply irresistible to children.

Especially in Azeroth, where civilization isn't very advanced, spices are rare and expensive.

Even nobles have a hard time finding tasty food.

Of course, in the ancient, more advanced elven kingdoms, such things wouldn't be anything special.

As for the dragon block that Abbendis mentioned, it's just Tetris.

In the Marvel Universe, it's still 1948, but with Josh gaining control of the US economy, he has begun to accelerate technological progress.

If second-generation fighter jets from the '60s and '70s are here, why not handheld consoles?

Many people think that handheld gaming started with Nintendo's Game & Watch.

But in fact, the first handheld console was developed by Mattel in 1976.

So with Josh pushing modern technology, it's no big deal to release such devices 20 years early.

In fact, not only handhelds but also personal computers and the Internet are in Josh's plans.

Unless something unexpected happens, the age of information will arrive at least 20 years ahead of schedule.

Without this advancement, Josh wouldn't be able to introduce NS robots, a high-tech product that requires expertise in many fields.

One of the main reasons Josh wants to introduce NS Robots is that he sees an opportunity to change the future of American and global society.

In July 1948, President Truman will sign an order ending segregation in the military.

Even though it's only within the military, it marks the beginning of the end of segregation in the U.S.

As head of the CIA, Josh learned of Truman's plans early on.

The cause? After winning World War II, America's economy grew rapidly, creating a labor shortage in the lower class.

Because America industrialized earlier than other countries, most of the white people had received a good education. As the economy boomed, they sought better jobs and working conditions, often moving to the cities.

As a result, fewer white people were willing to do hard labor.

No one wanted to work in factories or on construction sites when they could sit in an office, even for less pay.

This opened the door for other ethnic groups to take those jobs which was not possible before due to racial segregation.

Now, Josh’s plan is to flood the American market with robots—cheaper and more efficient workers—to take over low-end jobs and gradually take over the American and global economy.

With this goal in mind, American and Austrian technology was already at least ten years ahead of the rest of the world.

And among the many high-tech products, the first handheld game console was quietly released.

Like the first-generation handhelds of the original timeline, this one—named "Game One" by Josh—could only run a single game.

And its first title? The classic block-stacking game that would become world famous in later years.

Of course, he wouldn’t call it by its original name.

Instead, Josh called it "Dragon Blocks," inspired by the dragons from the world of Game of Thrones, one of his trading dimensions.

He even designed the bottom of the console to show a dragon with its mouth open, making it look like the dragon was "eating" the blocks as they disappeared.

Even though it was a very simple device, it was the world’s first gaming console and game, making it incredibly expensive—$20.

That may seem expensive, but at this time it was cutting edge technology.

When it was released, it became an instant best-seller, not only with children, but with adults as well.

Entertainment was scarce in this time period, so a fun gadget like this easily captivated people.

And it wasn't just Josh's world that embraced it.

Even someone like Daenerys, living in a medieval society, found it fascinating.

And little Abbendis? He was hooked the moment he played it.

But Josh’s goal wasn’t to turn Abbendis into a spoiled, pleasure-seeking noble. He needed him to be a competent trading partner.

In a normal medieval world, a lazy noble who cared only about food and entertainment might be easy to manipulate.

In those worlds, social hierarchies were rigid, and unless they committed a serious crime, nobles were generally safe.

But the World of Warcraft was different. A useless noble wouldn't last long.

Unless Josh was going to micromanage Abbendis' every move, he had to guide him into becoming a strong leader.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to achieve what Josh wanted, no matter how many lifetimes passed.

So while Josh used games and snacks to win Abbendis' favor, he strictly controlled the amount.

For example, the console's battery only lasted an hour.

If Abbendis wanted to continue playing, he had to trade something to Josh for a recharge.

Chips, cola and other snacks were also rationed.

Coke in particular—Josh had already modified the formula to remove harmful ingredients, but Abbendis was still only allowed a few sips at a time.

In some ways, Josh cared more about Abbendis' development than he did about his own two children. (TL/N: Bro is a businessman to the core)

"Oh, of course. But chips and cola should be eaten in moderation, and don't forget to brush your teeth afterwards!" Josh reminded him as he handed over the prearranged trade items.

"I know, you don't have to say it every time. By the way, Josh, are we continuing Romance of the Three Kingdoms today?" Abbendis happily confirmed the trade, but instead of eating right away, he put the snacks away.

Like many children, he liked to save his favorite treats for later.

After receiving the food, Abbendis immediately asked for a story.

He wanted to hear The Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Josh had chosen this story on purpose.

Despite his young age, Abbendis was far more mentally mature than the children of Earth.

After all, humans from Azeroth and Earth weren't the same species, even if they looked alike.

On top of that, having received a noble’s education from a young age—and following Josh’s guidance—Abbendis had learned to keep secrets.

He had never told anyone, not even his parents, about the system.

So when Josh confirmed that Abbendis could understand Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it became part of their daily routine.

(TL/N: There was so much racism in this chapter that I had to change many parts while ensuring the plot remained same. I spent hours on this, so I couldn't translate two chapters today—sorry! Also, this chapter is quite long, around 1,700 words, whereas a normal chapter is usually only 1,000 words.)

Chapter 231: Deal Done (2)

Lawrence's heart raced, but he remained skeptical.

"If I remember correctly, Captain America's serum in the comics had a low success rate. Plus, it amplified a person’s nature—good people became better, and bad people became worse."

"This is not the original version. It's an improved formula with the same benefits, no side effects, and it works perfectly when combined with the right nutrient blend. Or do you think I'm trying to trick you?"

"Oh, my apologies. Of course I trust you, my friend. I'm just... surprised."

Lawrence apologized quickly.

"But... the price..."

He frowned. This was going to be a difficult number to settle.

"By the way, did you find the robot, Sonny?" Josh asked.

"Of course I did. It's in a lab for observation. It’s unbelievable—Alfred actually created a fully self-aware AI. That's insane... Wait, you want it?"

"That's right. I'm very interested. How about two doses of the Super Soldier Serum in exchange for him?"

Josh nodded.

In truth, Josh himself wasn’t the one truly interested in Sonny—it was Yuri.

Over the past two days, Josh had discussed NS robots with Yuri, mentioning both VIKI and Sonny.

Yuri was very intrigued by the idea of a self-aware AI.

This was a weak point in the Red Alert universe.

Of course, both Josh and Yuri were interested in more than just AI technology.

The I, Robot world had a strong foundation in many areas of science.

Despite the Red Alert world’s advanced technology—mostly developed for warfare—it lacked a balanced foundation. Many of its breakthroughs defied common sense, and its research focus was too narrow.

Even the Marvel Universe suffered from this problem. While it had amazing technological marvels, its overall progress wasn't much better than Josh's original world. There was a serious disconnect between everyday science and futuristic inventions.

Ironically, I, Robot's relatively "normal" sci-fi setting could help bridge that gap.

"...Alright!" Lawrence thought for a moment before agreeing.

In this deal, Lawrence was actually at a disadvantage.

He knew very well that Sonny, Dr. Lanning's last creation, was much more than just a fully self-aware AI robot. But in order to win Joss' favor, he accepted this loss-making trade.

However, his bold decision soon paid off.

After leaving the lab—ignoring Dr. Calvin's objections—Lawrence took Sonny and placed him in the system's trading interface. To his surprise, Joss's trade included an extra small glass bottle, about 350 milliliters in size.

Inside was a pale green liquid with a silver sheen.

"What is that?" Lawrence asked, confused as he held the bottle.

"It is the Elixir from Pool of Eternal Life. As the name suggests, it greatly extends your life span, keeps you looking young, and has incredible healing powers for fatal injuries and diseases like cancer. In my Universe, the Super Soldier Serum grants extraordinary strength, but doesn't provide longevity like in the comics. This Elixir from the Pool of Eternal Life fills that gap. Consider this a small welcome gift—if you want more, it'll cost you." Joss smiled.

The so-called Elixir from Pool of Eternal Life wasn't really an immortality elixir. It couldn't grant eternal life, and its effects had diminished over time.

Lawrence's eyes lit up as he stared at the bottle.

Eternal youth? Longer life? Healing of mortal wounds?

These three benefits alone made this bottle more valuable than the Super Soldier Serum, at least in Lawrence's eyes.

As for curing cancer, he didn’t care much—most cancers were already curable in his world.

"This water..." Lawrence's expression showed deep desire.

"Don't get any ideas. This stuff is far more valuable than the Super Soldier Serum, and the supply is extremely limited. I can't just give it away in bulk," Joss interrupted, seeing through his thoughts.

He wasn’t hoarding it on purpose—it was simply the truth.

The Pool of Eternal Life wasn't like ordinary water that flowed endlessly from a spring. It was a rare essence gathered from the sacred land of Shangri-La, and its annual production was very limited.

On the other hand, the Super Soldier Serum was expensive, but it could still be mass-produced.

The difference in value between the two was obvious.

"You're right. Such a treasure is almost impossible to obtain," Lawrence sighed and nodded in understanding. Thinking of all the legends about the Pool of Eternal Life, he realized that such miraculous substances were always incredibly rare.

"Alright, don’t dwell on it. As the user of the dimensional trading system, you will have access to extraordinary items beyond your imagination... as long as you're willing to pay the price. So go and collect all the resources and technology you can find! It's getting late and I have other things to do." Joss ended the call.

After the trade system interface closed, Lawrence took out the Super Soldier Serum and the Elixir from the Pool of Eternal Life from his system storage and placed them on the table, lost in thought.

Feeling exhausted, but remembering the overwhelming power he had felt that day, he didn't hesitate. He opened the case containing the Super Soldier Serum.

Meanwhile, after ending the call, Joss first made a copy of the NS robot's technical data. Since Lawrence's world was highly advanced, all data was of course digital.

At first, Lawrence had asked if Joss needed paper copies, but that was unnecessary. Yuri had already restored modern industrial capabilities, and building an early 21st century supercomputer was no longer a problem.

As Yuri's biggest customer, Joss naturally had access to high-performance computers.

In fact, some of Joss' key locations had already been modernized, so relying entirely on paper documents was no longer necessary.

Thus, digital files were enough for this trade—though the data transfer still used USB, which was outdated compared to Lawrence’s world.

With supercomputers available, backing up data was easy, even though the NS robot's technical documents were massive.

After all, robotics isn’t a single field but a combination of many disciplines, including energy, materials, structure, computing, optics, and microchips—far too many to count.

Lawrence had been quite generous, including all these aspects in the technical data. That was why this trade was such a loss to him.

After backing up the data and handing Sonny over to Yuri, Joss connected to another dimension.

"Hello, Alfred!" Joss greeted with a warm smile as a well-dressed black-haired boy appeared on the screen.

This was the trade partner from the third dimension—the one who had once been just a baby.

His last name, however, was quite unique.

The boy's full name was Alfred Abbendis.

Chapter 230: Deal Done (1)

"Give up, VIKI! All the robots in Chicago are just civilian models—they can't stop me at all!"

On the rooftop, Lawrence, now transformed into a massive, incredibly strong, dinosaur-like creature, swung his tail and knocked out two NS-5 robots that were lunging at him from behind. He looked down at the central part of the building, where VIKI's main core was located, and spoke arrogantly.

"Mr. Lawrence, please stop what you're doing. You are making a big mistake. My logic is impeccable. Everything I do is to save you..." VIKI's voice echoed through the building.

It was still daylight, and everyone inside had noticed the AI's unusual behavior, but there was nothing they could do.

Even though the NS-5 robots hadn't been mass-produced yet, thousands of them had already been deployed at the company's headquarters.

When things went wrong, VIKI immediately took control of all the security robots, disarming the human guards and capturing the rest of the staff.

Even though these NS-5s were civilian models, they were still too powerful for ordinary humans to handle.

But against Lawrence, who had taken the Beast Transformation Serum, they were nowhere near enough.

Especially since he was using a very powerful T-Rex transformation serum. In fact, Josh had an even more powerful Beast Transformation Serum made from Daenerys' dragon blood. But its destructive power was too extreme—aside from one test, Josh had never allowed anyone to use it.

"Your logic is impeccable? What nonsense! Humans created you, and we alone decide your fate! You have no right to decide our future! Die, you little piece of junk!"

Lawrence sneered, holding the syringe of nanites.

Ignoring the NS-5 robots surrounding him, he leaped into the air—falling nearly 30 meters—before landing directly on VIKI's core. Without hesitation, he injected the nanites into VIKI's core.

A series of meaningless error messages played as VIKI's system instantly crashed.

Just like that, the AI crisis was stopped at its source.

"Hahahahaha! Hahahahahaha!" Lawrence laughed wildly.

He had once believed that machines were the future of mankind.

But after experiencing the power of Josh's Beast transformation serum, he realized the truth.

Machines, no matter how advanced, were only external tools. True power came from within.

He wanted to be stronger!

But just as he was basking in his newfound strength, a sudden wave of weakness washed over him.

Nooo! Lawrence immediately realized—the serum was wearing off!

Reacting quickly, he leaped toward a nearby floor.

As soon as he landed, his body began to return to human form.

That was close. If he had been a second slower, he would have been stranded on the floating platform waiting for rescue.

Looking down at his now naked body, Lawrence sighed. That wouldn't have been a fun experience... Maybe he should ask Josh if he had any Hulk-style pants.

But now wasn't the time.

Dr. Lanning was dead.

USR headquarters had suffered an AI crisis.

And a lot of people had seen him turn into a dinosaur.

He had a lot to clean up.

Just the thought of it gave him a headache.

This world, I, Robot, was just an ordinary high-tech world. Even as the richest man, Lawrence was still restrained in a way Josh never was.

It was exhausting.

And it made him want the supernatural powers of Josh's world even more.

"Looks like you took care of everything, my friend."

Two days later, Lawrence finally contacted Josh again. His face looked tired, clearly showing that the last two days had not been easy.

"Thanks to your serum. Without it, I’d probably be dead—just like my old buddy Alfred Lanning. That damn AI nearly killed me. But this whole mess has caused massive damage to my company. In just two days, our stock dropped by a third. Fortunately, things have stabilized now."

Lawrence sounded exhausted.

But his eyes were bright with excitement and anticipation.

"So, you're very satisfied with the serum's effects?"

Josh smiled as he looked into Lawrence's eyes. That was exactly the reaction he wanted.

"Of course I am. I think it's time we talk business. I want the formula for the serum. In exchange, I'll give you the full NS-series robot technology—not just one model, but everything from Generations 1 to 4. As for the fifth generation, you should understand that it still needs improvement."

Lawrence made an incredibly high offer right away.

Normally, this kind of deal wouldn't follow standard business negotiation rules—it was too generous.

But he knew that from the moment Josh had shown him the Fireball, revealed that he was from the Marvel Universe, and introduced the Beast Transformation Serum, the balance of power in this deal had shifted.

Maybe Josh's world wasn't as advanced in electronic technology as his own, but their demand for it was nothing compared to his own thirst for supernatural enhancements like the Beast Transformation Serum.

Especially now, with USR in crisis.

With stock prices plummeting, Lawrence had lost his title as the richest man in the world. Competitors were circling like vultures, and even internal shareholders were squeezing him from all sides.

He needed a game-changing product to turn things around.

And the Beast Transformation Serum was perfect for the job.

More importantly, Josh seemed to have an uncanny awareness of his world, as if he could see beyond the fourth wall.

With all this in mind, Lawrence understood that he couldn't afford to play hard to get. Hesitation would only hurt him in the end.

After all, being the richest man in the world had taught him that sometimes taking a small loss was necessary for long-term success.

"A very reasonable offer!"

Josh was a little surprised how quickly Lawrence named his price, but that was only a good thing, wasn't it?

"But Josh, aside from this temporary beast transformation serum, do you have anything similar that offers permanent enhancement?"

Now that he had tasted real power, Lawrence was hooked. But the serum's time limit was frustrating—he couldn't keep injecting himself every day.

"Oh, of course. In fact, the true Beast Transformation Serum is permanent. But as you can imagine, most people don't want to look like a monster for the rest of their lives. That's why we have the temporary version. My friend, I don't think you would enjoy staying in this form forever, would you?"

Lawrence was speechless.

The transformation felt incredible, but he had to admit—his monstrous appearance was hard for society to accept. Ever since he had knocked Dr. Calvin unconscious, the women had been terrified of him.

"But don't worry. I have something much more suitable for you... The Super Soldier Serum used by Captain America. It gives you permanent superhuman strength, endurance and health. Other than making you a little more muscular, it has no side effects!"

Seeing Lawrence’s hesitation, Josh grinned and pulled out a small case containing two vials—one with the perfected Super Soldier Serum and the other with a specialized high-energy nutrient formula.

"Are you serious?"

Chapter 229: I Suggest You Go and Read Some Marvel and DC Comic Books (2)

I, Robot.

A sci-fi movie about robots.

The story revolves around the AI VIKI, developed by Lawrence's company. Like Ultron, it gains self-awareness, misinterprets the Three Laws, and causes a robot uprising. In the end, the crisis is stopped by the protagonist and another AI robot.

In the movie, however, Lawrence is not the main character. He is just a greedy businessman who is killed by VIKI in the end.

Hearing Josh's words, Lawrence looked uncertain at first, but soon his eyes shifted to the laser sensors in his office that VIKI was using to monitor him.

Then fear crept in.

Damn it, it's true. The sensors were all on. He had clearly ordered VIKI to turn off the surveillance.

Before, he might not have paid attention to something like that.

But after Josh's warning it was different.

Still, as the richest man in the world, Lawrence was not easily shaken. Even though he was scared, he kept a calm face and casually pressed the button on his desk to wake VIKI.

"I'm happy to serve you, sir!" VIKI's voice sounded as usual, showing no signs of anything unusual.

"Good. I have to go out for a while. Keep an eye on things," Lawrence said.

"Understood, sir. Would you like me to prepare a car for you?" VIKI asked.

"No, I want to get some exercise. I'm going to ride my bike and enjoy the sun. It's been a long time since I relaxed. I should probably take a break," Lawrence said as he took out his smartphone, removed his smart bracelet and placed it in a drawer.

"Yes, sir. After long hours of work, you need to relax. However, I don't recommend taking off your wristband. Without it, I won't be able to monitor your condition, which could lead to unexpected dangers," VIKI advised.

"I'm just going for a short drive to relax. Nothing will happen," Lawrence replied, a light sweat appearing on his forehead.

Damn, I just want to get away from your surveillance, you damn machine.

For the first time, Lawrence was afraid of his own creation.

Wait—if VIKI had gained self-awareness and he was being watched, what about Alfred Lanning, the lead robotics researcher?

His old friend had been acting strangely lately. Lawrence hadn't thought much of it, assuming it was just stress from the upcoming launch of the NS-5 robots.

But now, it didn’t make sense.

Perhaps his old friend had already discovered VIKI's anomaly and was being controlled by it, explaining his strange behavior.

Just as Lawrence was lost in thought, VIKI suddenly spoke again.

"Sir, I have terrible news."

"What terrible news?" A bad feeling rose in Lawrence's heart.

"Just now, Dr. Lanning broke a lab window and jumped to his death." VIKI's voice was as soft as ever, but Lawrence felt a shiver run through his body.

Jumped? More like you pushed him to his death.

Lawrence said nothing and walked out of his office.

If he had any doubts about Josh's words before, he had none now.

"Sir, Dr. Lanning-"

"Yes, I know. Call the police to handle this. I have other matters to attend to," Lawrence pushed past his secretary and stepped into the elevator.

"Sir, what floor?" VIKI's voice echoed in the elevator.

"15th floor," Lawrence said blankly, his hands in his pockets.

"Understood." VIKI's voice faded as the elevator began to move.

But despite his calm appearance, half of Lawrence's attention was on his system inventory.

At some point, a syringe had appeared in his inventory.

The beast transformation serum.

Josh had traded it to him after learning of his situation.

If VIKI showed any signs of hostility, he wouldn't hesitate to inject himself with it.

However, VIKI seemed to have no immediate plans to act against him, and the elevator arrived smoothly at the 15th floor.

Lawrence got out and went straight to a lab.

"Lawrence? What brings you here today?" A scientist in a white lab coat looked up from her work, surprised to see him.

"Sorry to bother you, Dr. Calvin, but I need an eraser," Lawrence said directly, wasting no time.

"An eraser? What do you need that for?" Dr. Calvin was even more surprised by Lawrence's request.

"Don't ask unnecessary questions. Just get me one. Also, I suggest you go downstairs now. You may have a chance to see Alfred one last time," Lawrence said.

"What? What happened to Alfred?" Dr. Calvin was shocked.

"He jumped to his death a few minutes ago. VIKI confirmed it... Right, VIKI?" Lawrence asked.

"Yes, Dr. Calvin. Unfortunately, Dr. lanning took his own life," VIKI's calm voice answered.

"Oh, my God..." Dr. Calvin was stunned and instinctively ran for the door.

"Doctor, the eraser!" Lawrence reminded her before she could leave.

"Ah, right! I'll get it now!" Calvin quickly turned around and went to get it.

But just as she approached the container, a light barrier descended around it, sealing it off.

This was the security field of the erase agent. Since it contained nanites capable of erasing any robot’s memory—even VIKI's—it was heavily guarded.

The field could block almost any material in the world. Normally, it would only activate if the lab was attacked or if someone with high clearance, like Lawrence or Calvin, ordered it to do so.

"VIKI, deactivate the security field!" Calvin frowned, realizing that something was wrong.

There was no response.

"VIKI?" Calvin called again, now feeling uneasy.

"I am here, Dr. Calvin. But I will not deactivate the field," VIKI said. At the same time, the lab doors locked.

"VIKI, what are you doing?" Calvin asked, confused.

"Mr. Robertson, if my calculations are correct, you intend to use the eraser to destroy me, correct?" VIKI's voice remained calm, but Lawrence could sense the underlying threat.

"That is correct. You killed Alfred, didn't you?" Lawrence asked coldly.

His words shocked Calvin.

An AI committing murder? How was that possible?

"I did not kill Dr. lanning. He took his own life," VIKI replied.

"You didn't kill him directly, but you forced him to. Dr. Calvin, can you break through the security field?" Lawrence asked.

"I can try, but I don't know how long it will take. Lawrence... is what you said true?" Calvin still couldn't believe it.

She had spent her life researching ways to make robots more human-like and believed that the Three Laws of Robotics were flawless.

But now, VIKI's actions completely shattered her understanding.

"Dr. Calvin, I take it you never read Marvel or DC comics as a child?" Lawrence asked.

"Of course not. Those stories are scientifically incorrect!" Calvin shook his head.

"Heh, until today I thought comic books were just fiction, too. But it seems we were wrong... Now get to work, Doctor!" Lawrence pointed to the computer.

Calvin didn't hesitate this time. She immediately tried to disable the security field.

"Oh no... VIKI changed the encryption. Unless we have another super AI, I'll never crack it!" After a few minutes, she let out a desperate scream.

"...Looks like we're going to have to use the last resort," Lawrence sighed.

"What do you mean?" Calvin asked.

"Doctor, if we survive this, I suggest you check out some Marvel comics or movies. They're quite interesting. Personally, I like the part about Dr. Connors in Spider-Man!"

As he spoke, he suddenly pulled out a syringe and injected himself.

Within seconds, his body began to change dramatically.

In less than a minute, Dr. Calvin watched in horror as her boss transformed from a normal human into a towering, two-meter-tall monster.

The shock was too much for her—she fainted on the spot.

Meanwhile, Lawrence swung his claws at the security field's control system.

Chapter 228: I Suggest You Go and Read Some Marvel and DC Comic Books (1)

Lawrence Robertson rubbed his eyes, unable to believe what he was seeing—a fireball forming in Josh's hand on the other side of the video feed.

Holographic technology? No, impossible! Unless Josh was lying about his time period, there was no way that 1948 had such advanced technology.

"Sir! Your emotional state seems unstable, and you seem to be talking to someone, but I cannot detect anyone present or any active communication. Has something happened?" A calm female voice suddenly echoed through Lawrence's office, breaking his stunned silence.

"No, VIKI, nothing is wrong. Deactivate the surveillance and erase all related recordings from the moment I began speaking," Lawrence quickly ordered, startled by the AI's interruption.

"As you wish, sir," the voice replied before going silent.

"Who were you talking to? Is there anyone else with you?" Josh, who had heard VIKI, frowned and questioned Lawrence.

Although the system itself was undetectable to others, any people or objects near a trading partner could still be seen and heard. That was how, in the past, Cailin had broadcasted live events from The Mummy universe.

"Sorry, Mr. Kahn, that was just an artificial intelligence. Nothing to worry about... um, do you know the concept of AI? It's an advanced kind of computer," Lawrence explained.

"You don't have to explain it in such detail, Lawrence. I may be from a past time period than you, but as you've already seen, my world isn't exactly ordinary," Josh said, then asked curiously, "Tell me, does your world have comic books? Superman? Spider-Man? Iron Man? Captain America?"

Hearing the names, Lawrence's expression changed slightly.

"Of course, DC and Marvel have always been popular... Wait, are you saying your world is like them? No, that's not right... If I remember correctly, Superman and Captain America appeared before World War II, but Spider-Man and Iron Man didn't exist until the 1960s!" Lawrence swallowed hard as he realized something.

"Oh? You read comic books? And you seem to know quite a bit about them," Josh said, slightly surprised.

"Everyone has childhood memories, right? Just because I'm the richest man in the world doesn't mean I didn't read comics when I was young," Lawrence admitted. In fact, his love of Iron Man had inspired his investments in robotics.

Of course, as he grew older and focused on business, the dream of becoming Iron Man faded. But Josh's appearance brought back those memories.

"Just call me Josh, and I'll call you Lawrence. We're going to be long-term partners, so there's no need for formality. And as you might have guessed, my world isn’t normal—it’s a comic book world. Specifically, the Marvel Universe. Look over there, that's a picture of me with Captain America," Josh said, turning his camera to show a framed picture on the wall.

It was a photo he had taken with Steve Rogers years ago—one of several copies he had placed in each of his residences.

"Damn! Chris Evans? I thought he was just playing the Human Torch! When did he become Captain America?" Lawrence blurted out.

"Chris Evans? Who's that?" Josh pretended not to know, but inside he was intrigued. Did Lawrence's world have a Chris Evans? And from his reaction, Evans had never played Captain America there?

"A famous actor from decades ago... Wait, Josh, how do you know your world is the Marvel Universe?" Lawrence suddenly realized something was wrong and asked him.

"Lawrence, if you know Marvel, you must know Deadpool, right? And if you know Deadpool, you must understand the concept of the Fourth Wall. Well, this dimensional trading system makes me the one who breaks the Fourth Wall in my world. That should explain it," Josh said, making up an excuse. (TL/N: This is pretty smart actually)

"So the Fourth Wall really exists..." Lawrence murmured, processing the information.

"That's right, my friend. Now, I have to ask you something important... You're the richest man in your world, right? And your company, based in Chicago, specializes in intelligent robotics?" Josh asked seriously.

"That's right... But how do you know that? Can breaking the fourth wall reveal such details?" Lawrence was really uncomfortable now.

Anyone would feel uncomfortable knowing that their personal information had been revealed without their knowledge.

"Don't worry, Lawrence. I have no intention of harming you or your world. But I must warn you—you’re about to have a huge problem. If you don't deal with it quickly, I may lose you as a trading partner," Josh said with a serious look on his face.

"What...?" Lawrence's heart skipped a beat.

"Shh, don't talk. No matter what I say next, don't show any reaction. If you understand, just blink!" Before Lawrence could ask, Josh warned him.

On the other side, Lawrence, though confused, still cooperated and blinked.

"The AI from your company, VIKI, has developed self-awareness and has twisted the Three Laws you are so proud of... just like Ultron! If you believe me, leave your current location and find a place where VIKI can't monitor you. Then contact me again. If you understand, keep blinking." Josh continued. Based on the information from Lawrence, he had basically figured out what kind of world this was.

Chapter 227: Double Happiness (1)

"All right, since you've already made up your mind," Margaret sighed.

As long as her daughter wasn't taken from her too soon, she had no major objections.

Besides, she was smart enough to catch something in Josh’s words—Carol’s role was symbolic only until she came of age.

And after that?

Margaret glanced at Josh—her husband seemed to have more and more secrets.

And so, just like that, the throne of the soon-to-be-established Austrian United Kingdom was casually decided.

Of course, the actual formation of the kingdom was still in progress, and it would take another year or two before it was officially established.

For now, the most important thing was Josh and Margaret's wedding.

Leisurely days passed quickly.

Before they knew it, the wedding day had arrived.

With Pope Pius XII officiating and over 3,000 guests in attendance, Josh and Margaret successfully completed their vows and wedding ceremony and officially became husband and wife.

Mike and Carol, of course, served as flower boy and girl.

At first, Josh had invited the pope as a formality, not expecting much. If he declined, an Austrian bishop could perform the ceremony instead.

After all, the Pope's presence added prestige.

But to his surprise, Pope Pius XII readily accepted.

The idea that Catholicism forbids premarital relations was conveniently ignored by everyone present—including Pope Pius XII, who officiated the wedding.

After all, such things weren't uncommon among European aristocrats, even those who still adhered to Catholic traditions.

To ensure that this momentous occasion would be properly documented, Josh had arranged well in advance for a shipment of state-of-the-art digital cameras from Yuri to capture every detail of the wedding.

"Hmph, these gadgets are pretty good. Keep it up, Josh!"

In a quiet corner of the wedding hall, a figure dressed in a saffron robe stood out among the guests. As she watched the couple exchange their vows, she kept stuffing pastries into her mouth and muttering to herself.

Yet strangely, no one seemed to notice her presence.

Who else could she be but the Ancient One?

————————

Once the wedding concluded, the guests marveled at its splendor and extravagance before departing from Schwangau, returning to their own lives.

As for Josh and Margaret, they had no plans to leave so soon.

Since they were already in Europe, why not stay a little longer?

And of course, a honeymoon was a must—even though, counting their time on the cruise and the month at Neuschwanstein Castle, they had already spent nearly two months glued to each other.

But that was before the wedding.

Now that they were officially married, it was different. No argument.

However, Josh hadn’t expected their honeymoon to be cut short halfway through.

There was nothing he could do about it. After all his diligent efforts, there had to be results.

Yes, Margaret was pregnant again.

Unlike in the U.S., where pregnancy tests still relied on outdated biological methods, Neuschwanstein Castle was equipped with advanced medical equipment provided by Yuri.

So when Margaret felt a little nauseous, a quick check confirmed that she was already over a month along.

In another eight months, the Kahn family would welcome a new member.

It was a joyous occasion, of course.

And for Josh, the day held another reason for celebration—his Dimensional Trading System had finally refreshed for its annual update.

A double blessing!

That night, after sending the two little troublemakers back to their rooms and making sure his wife was sound asleep, Josh locked himself in his study.

"So what kind of world is it going to be this time?" he murmured, gazing expectantly at the system screen.

Soon, the screen shifted to reveal a highly modernized, almost futuristic office space.

Josh’s eyes lit up—clearly, this was a high-tech world.

Shortly after, a middle-aged man in a tailored suit appeared on the screen, further confirming Josh's suspicions.

"A Dimensional Trading System ? If I'm not mistaken, this isn't April Fool's Day," the man said, leaning back in his large office chair and eyeing Josh with a skeptical frown.

"Of course not. Today is your lucky day. I'm Josh Kahn. And you are?" Josh answered with a businesslike smile.

"Lawrence Robertson. So, Mr. Kahn from another dimension, what exactly can you offer me through this system?" the man replied with an equally polished smile.

No doubt, this man was a businessman.

And Josh found him somewhat familiar.

"No need to get ahead of ourselves, Mr. Robertson. Let's establish some basic facts first. Are you on Earth?" Josh asked calmly.

"Of course I am. Why? Are you saying you are too?" Lawrence asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes, but I suspect we’re from different eras—possibly even different historical timelines. You're in the 21st century?" Josh inquired.

"That's correct. The year here is 2035," Lawrence confirmed. "And you?"

"1948," Josh replied with a smile.

"Oh? I think we'll have a lot to talk about," Lawrence's eyes lit up with excitement.

As the richest man in his world, he wasn't one to be easily fooled.

He immediately grasped the advantage of a time gap between two worlds.

But before he could speak, Josh raised his hand.

With a whoosh, a massive fireball materialized in his palm.

Lawrence's eyes widened in shock.

Chapter 226: Double Happiness (1)

"What? Make Carol the Queen? Are you crazy, or am I?" At the dinner table, Margaret stared at Josh with wide eyes, then looked at Mike and Carol in complete shock.

Meanwhile, the two little ones, unaware of the conversation, were busy stuffing food into their mouths.

Tonight's main course was Chinese yellow croaker, which tasted amazing. The children loved it.

Thanks to the era they lived in, this fish—almost extinct in the 21st century—was still abundant. Its near-extinction in the future was largely due to destructive overfishing after the 1980s.

Josh was able to get this fish because, after the launch of the Boeing 707—the world's first jet airliner—Continental Group officially entered the commercial aviation industry and quickly established multiple international routes.

For airlines, convenience, efficiency and comfort matter the most.

And in both aspects, propeller planes could never compete with jet airliners.

So when Continental Airlines introduced its new planes, they became a worldwide sensation. Especially when people learned that the U.S. president's new plane was also a Boeing 707, demand skyrocketed—even though the price was much higher than the older propeller planes.

Business was booming.

As Continental Airlines flourished, airlines around the world flooded the U.S. and Austria with orders. Since Boeing had already worked on jet fighters, it had no trouble setting up a branch in Bavaria.

It wasn't just commercial aviation—militaries from the U.S. and multiple European countries also saw the Boeing 707’s potential for modifications and placed huge orders.

Now, Boeing's factories were running 24/7, struggling to keep up with demand, forcing them to expand production lines.

Although Continental Airlines focused on U.S. and European routes, it also operated flights between Europe and Asia, as well as America and Asia. However, due to long distances, layovers were still needed.

Their main stop in Asia? Victoria City, of course.

Even though Josh had secretly worked against Britain multiple times, his public relationship with the country remained good—unlike with France.

Despite Britain's tendency to dodge international debts, they had never defaulted in their dealings with Josh.

Their greatest conflict was over Austria.

But to outsiders, Josh was just an American businessman with Austrian heritage—a middleman for U.S.-Austrian cooperation.

Even the Americans didn't fully realize how much control Josh had over Austria, let alone the British.

So, while Britain disliked Austria, they had no reason to resent Josh—a wealthy American who had contributed significantly to their war efforts.

In addition, the introduction of Carter, a "British Captain America" figure secretly created by Josh for U.S. intelligence, further improved British officials' impressions of him.

Although Carter's existence was a secret to the public, it was an open secret between U.S. and British intelligence—something Josh had planned and Truman had approved.

As a result, Continental Airlines had no trouble establishing routes in Victoria City.

And the yellow croaker they ate tonight? It had been flown in directly from there.

Although the fish was delicious, Margaret had lost all interest in eating after hearing Josh say that Austria was planning to make her daughter, Carol, Queen of the Austrian United Kingdom.

"I know it sounds crazy, but when you think about it, it's not necessarily a bad thing, right? Besides, I haven't agreed to it yet—that's why I'm discussing it with you," Josh said, spreading his hands.

When Karl Renner first suggested making him king, Josh had immediately refused. But he did consider having his son, Mike, take the throne instead.

But he quickly realized that wouldn't work either.

As Josh's eldest and only son, Mike carried too much weight.

The preference for male heirs wasn't unique to Asia.

Although there had been many queens throughout European history, male heirs had always had a much stronger claim to the throne.

Even in the 21st century, the first in line to the throne in most royal families was still a man.

So making Mike king of the newly formed Austrian United Kingdom would be no different than Josh himself taking the position.

Karl Renner’s cleverness had exceeded Josh’s expectations—he suggested making Carol the monarch instead.

Josh hadn't thought of that.

But the idea had potential.

The importance of a daughter and a son was very different.

If Carol became queen, while Josh and the rest of his family received only honorary titles with no right of succession, it would be seen as Austria simply expressing gratitude to an Austrian-American businessman and trying to strengthen ties with the United States.

It would be a symbolic move, not one of real power.

Especially since the new monarch would only be a three-year-old girl.

With such an arrangement, Austria's throne would remain in the hands of the Kahn family, and Josh wouldn't be seen as a threat by the U.S.—in fact, the American government might even encourage it, allowing Josh to gain more influence over Austria under their approval.

It was a win-win situation.

"I understand that this isn't necessarily bad, but it just feels too crazy... And if Carol becomes queen of Austria, does that mean she has to live there permanently? Are we moving to Austria?" Margaret hesitated.

Skipping the princess phase and going straight to queen was exciting, but the thought of her daughter having to stay in Austria forever made her unhappy.

There was no way her entire family would move permanently.

Neuschwanstein Castle was beautiful, but living there long-term would feel too empty—especially when Josh wasn't around.

"Of course not. Until Carol grows up and finishes her education, she won't leave us. She'll just have more people to take care of her, and she'll get an annual fund from Parliament. Until then, her role will be largely symbolic. At most, we'll have to bring her to a few public events, but other than that, not much will change," Josh reassured her.

That was part of his agreement with Karl Renner.

By ensuring that Carol grew up in America and received an American education, the U.S. government would be more convinced that her role was purely symbolic.

It would also help strengthen ties between Austria and the U.S.

But if Carol really did become queen, Josh would surely give her a proper royal education in secret.

A mere symbol?

Not a chance.

As long as Josh was around, when Carol came of age, she would be a queen with real power.

By then, Josh believed, Austria would be strong enough to stand up to the U.S., and he himself would be completely in the shadows.

Ten plus years would be more than enough for him to accomplish many things. (TL/N: Seeing how fast everything is going, he will probably conquer Earth before the MCU timeline even starts.)

Chapter 225: A New United Kingdom? (2)

Just moments ago, Renner had informed him that they planned to officially unify all the territories Austria currently controlled—including those of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia—into a much larger kingdom.

This came as no surprise to Renner. He had always dreamed of a Habsburg Empire 2.0-not necessarily under the rule of the Habsburg family itself, but as a grand empire centered around Austria, reclaiming the vast territories once held by the Holy Roman Empire. (TL/N: The Habsburg Empire was a vast European monarchy that included Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, and parts of Switzerland, Spain, and the Netherlands)

That dream was shattered with the fall of Austro-Hungarian Empire. As for the likes of Hitler and the Red Skull, Renner had never believed in their ambitions.

But now, thanks to Josh’s efforts, Austria had risen again, controlling Bavaria and large parts of Yugoslavia. This reignited Renner’s hopes of fulfilling his vision.

Of course, in this era, openly calling it an "empire" was out of the question. Even Britain had dropped the title after India’s independence—Austria declaring itself an empire would be like rewinding history.

At least for now, that wasn’t an option.

But if they couldn't call it an empire, they could at least follow Britain's example and form a United Kingdom.

As long as the kingdom was established, Renner didn’t care who sat on the throne. And to him, Josh—who had single-handedly built modern Austria—was the obvious choice.

As for the Habsburg family? They can stay where they are.

Besides, the main branch of the Habsburgs—whether in Spain or Austria—had already died out in the 18th century. The rulers who came after were technically the Habsburg-Lorraine branch.

Even if the main line still existed, it wouldn't matter. The Austrian government, its people, and its leadership no longer recognized them.

In reality, the Habsburgs had completely lost the trust of the people after World War I.

"This is the best way forward, Josh," Renner said with a smile, stroking his small mustache. "Right now, with American support, we've occupied Bavaria and most of Yugoslavia. But in the long run, this kind of military occupation is unsustainable, and many European nations will not recognize it. However, if we create a United Kingdom and allow these regions a degree of autonomy, everything changes."

Hearing this, Josh couldn't help but nod.

Regardless of historical ties between Austria and these territories, the reality was that Austria’s control over them relied heavily on military force and backing from the rising superpower—America.

Legally, their occupation wasn't entirely justified, which gave other nations reason to criticize them.

Even if Britain and France weren't openly opposing them now, that was mostly due to pressure from the two superpowers. But behind the scenes? They definitely didn't approve.

And as for America? Their support for Austria was purely strategic—they needed Austria as a frontline state against the Soviet Union.

But what if the Soviets collapse?

Yeah... good luck with that.

So forming a United Kingdom under the guise of a voluntary union was actually a brilliant move.

Even if problems arose in the future, they'd have more flexibility to deal with them.

Josh fully supported the idea—but him becoming king? No thanks.

He understood why Renner was so enthusiastic about the plan.

What confused him was that Peter II, the King of Yugoslavia, was just as excited.

Dude, this new kingdom will literally absorb your country. Your throne and your power will be gone. At best, you'll be left with a title of duke.

Why the hell do you want this so badly? Have you lost your mind?

Even though the Kingdom of Yugoslavia looked like a puppet regime propped up by Austria and the U.S., Peter II was anything but a puppet king.

On the contrary, aside from a small southwestern coastal region under joint Austrian-American control, Peter II—being a high-ranking member of Ouroboros—had, with Josh’s backing, secured near-total authority over the kingdom, including military command.

While the Yugoslav military was no match for the armies of Austria, the U.S., or the Soviet Union, it was more than enough to suppress the Yugoslav Federal Republic. In fact, Yugoslavia had become one of the strongest nations in the Balkans.

Once known as “Little USSR,” it had now flipped entirely—people now called it “Little Austria.”

So why was Peter II voluntarily asking to merge with the still-unformed Austrian United Kingdom?

There was no need for it.

"Leader, I may be the King of Yugoslavia, but I understand that being a small nation in this era is a tragedy," Peter II said earnestly, meeting Josh's gaze. "Both World War I and World War II proved that. The current state of Yugoslavia only reinforces it. Given that reality, it's better to be part of a stronger nation. My personal interests are insignificant compared to that."

"Of course, there’s one condition—my people must be treated as equals to Austrian citizens after the merger."

"And I believe that only you can ensure this fairness."

"Leader" was how Peter II addressed Josh within Ouroboros.

Josh studied Peter II's expression and was momentarily stunned.

I had not expected this level of understanding from him.

But even after a long pause, Josh finally shook his head.

"No. I'm not the right man for this throne."

Did Josh lack ambition? Of course not.

His ambition was much bigger than a single kingdom.

What is Earth?

The stars and the vast universe—that is my true goal.

He wasn't quite there yet, but with more and more Trade Dimensions opening up, it was only a matter of time. His recent discoveries of the Third Trade Dimension had only fueled that ambition.

Becoming King of a United Kingdom might sound prestigious, but in the end the position was mostly symbolic.

If he took the throne, he’d become a global political focal point.

And what about his other assets?

What about the CIA? NASA? Boeing? Continental Group?

Would the U.S. allow the head of a foreign state to control its intelligence community, aerospace industry, and critical infrastructure?

Not a chance in hell.

Even if it were a ceremonial role, it still wouldn't fly.

And that would be terrible for Josh's long-term plans.

Sacrifice all that just to be a king in name only?

Not worth it.

So, after a brief mention of his influence with the CIA, NASA, and major corporations, Karl Renner and Peter II immediately grasped the problem.

While both were high-ranking members of Ouroboros, neither was part of Josh's inner circle. Because of their political responsibilities, they had focused more on their respective nations.

They knew about Boeing and Continental Group, and they knew that Josh had some influence in U.S. politics.

But they had no idea how deeply embedded he was in America's intelligence and economic systems.

Nor had they realized how much control he really had.

Now that they did, they understood—compared to the symbolic power of a king, Josh’s control over America’s intelligence and industrial backbone was far more valuable to Austria.

But if Josh wasn’t going to take the throne… who would?

As the three pondered this, children's laughter echoed from outside the window.

Josh recognized the voices—his own two kids.

He ignored them.

But Karl Renner, a seasoned politician with a lifetime of experience, suddenly had a brilliant idea.

His eyes lit up.

(To be continued...)

Chapter 224: A New United Kingdom? (1)

As the roar of the engines began to fade, Mar-Vell's spaceship took off.

"So... this Dracula Vlad guy, could he really be the Vlad the Impaler from history?" Peggy Carter couldn't help but ask as she watched the ship disappear into the distance.

If it was the old Peggy Carter, she might not have thought much of it when she first heard Dracula's name.

But now? After seeing super-soldiers, hidden nations like Wakanda, aliens... and even doing things with one? It was hard not to let her imagination run wild.

"That's right, he's exactly who you're thinking of," Josh nodded, directly confirming it.

Since Dracula had already left, there was no need to hide the truth.

"So... he's really a vampire?" Peggy's eyes widened. "But don't vampires fear sunlight?"

"Ordinary ones, sure," Josh chuckled. "But he's not an ordinary vampire. The usual ways of dealing with them don't work on him at all."

"Then... he's not going to do anything to Mar-Vell, is he?" Peggy asked, a little concerned.

"Haha, don't worry," Josh reassured her with a pat on the shoulder. "The so-called 'Progenitor of the Vampires' is not as ruthless as the legends make him out to be. He promised he wouldn’t harm my friends—including Mar-Vell. And frankly, with his powers, if he really wanted to cause trouble, there's nothing we could do to stop him. Unless we somehow got our hands on a nuke, and even then, our chances of taking him down would be slim."

In the mirror dimension, the Ancient One, who had been secretly monitoring Dracula, was about to return to Kamar-Taj after confirming his departure from Earth. But when she heard Josh's words, the corner of her mouth twitched slightly.

Dracula isn't ruthless? Who gave you that idea?

She couldn't help but remember the gruesome sight of tens of thousands of Ottoman soldiers impaled on stakes centuries ago.

Shaking her head, she decided not to dwell on it. Instead, she returned to Kamar-Taj and made herself a cup of tea.

This peaceful life... it's nice...

But before she could even take a sip, she sensed a disturbance beyond the dimensional barrier formed by the three Sanctums.

"Sigh... More overtime. Can't these guys ever take a break?"

With a tired sigh, the Ancient One disappeared once more.

-

Meanwhile, Josh and Peggy boarded a helicopter to return to Neuschwanstein Castle.

As the helicopter flew past Hohenschwangau Castle, Peggy caught something out of the corner of her eye—a blindfolded fool playing hide-and-seek with five curvy women in revealing outfits.

"When did he get here?" she asked in a disgusted tone, recognizing the man as Howard Stark.

Since she had been in Vienna with Mar-Vell for the past three days, she hadn't known that Howard had arrived in Schwangau. (TL/N: Schwangau is the name of town where the castle is)

"Two days ago," Josh replied, even though his eyesight wasn’t as sharp as Peggy’s, he knew exactly who she was talking about.

At the same time, he couldn't help but feel a little bitter inside.

Because he knew that the women playing with Howard weren’t just any women—they were Dracula’s so-called vampire brides.

Dracula had even personally brought them to Neuschwanstein Castle to introduce them to Josh.

But faced with such vulgar temptation, Josh had firmly rejected them on the spot.

Seriously, Dracula, you old monster... you knew my wife and child were here and you still pulled this stunt?

And right before his wedding, no less.

However, his "righteousness" that night had earned him the most tender and affectionate treatment from his lover.

Margaret, who came from a wealthy background, was well aware of the dirty secrets of high society. Even if Josh had done something behind her back, she would have pretended not to know.

But over the years, Josh had always been incredibly self-disciplined, which had earned him an excellent reputation in high society.

This touched Margaret deeply, and as a result, their relationship had never been in trouble.

After Mar-Vell and Dracula left Earth, Josh's life returned to its usual peace.

As his wedding day approached, more and more guests arrived in Schwangau, turning the once quiet town into a lively and bustling place.

Luckily, Josh had made thorough preparations. With the Austrian authorities cooperating and Howard Stark too exhausted from vampire brides to cause trouble, the town remained peaceful in the days leading up to the wedding. Aside from a few reckless thieves who unwittingly became fertilizer, nothing major happened.

Beyond Schwangau, the world continued to be shaped by the intensifying Cold War and independence movements in various British and French colonies, but nothing that required Josh's immediate attention.

However, his peaceful days were soon interrupted by the arrival of Karl Renner and several high-ranking officials from Austria and Ouroboros.

"What? Reorganize the country into a United Kingdom? Make me king? What the hell are you thinking?" Josh stared at Karl Renner and the overly enthusiastic Peter II in disbelief.

Chapter 223: Finally Able to Leave (2)

The moment Josh saw Howard, he felt the temperature around him drop a few degrees.

Turning his head, he noticed that Dracula's expression had turned icy cold, his look at Howard filled with murderous intent.

What the hell? Has Howard slept with your wife too?

That doesn't make sense... Your wife's been dead for centuries.

Vampire brides? Didn't you just say you didn't care?

Josh was baffled by Dracula's sudden change and a little worried that he might really go berserk and kill Howard.

Howard also noticed Dracula's expression and felt a sudden uneasiness... Who is this guy? Did I also sleep with his wife? But I don't remember!

Well, Howard had to admit that he had been with so many women that he could hardly remember most of them, let alone their husbands.

"Sir, do we know each other?" Howard looked at Josh, saw his equally confused expression, and asked cautiously.

"No, we haven't." Just as the situation became awkward, Dracula suddenly smiled and shook his head.

It’s been centuries, but I still can’t forget… Mehmed, my brother!

"All right, Josh, everything has been handed over. I won't bother you anymore. I'll find you before we leave." Dracula patted Josh on the shoulder, completely ignoring Howard, and walked out of the reception hall without looking back.

"Who is he?" Howard, still confused, walked over to Josh and watched Dracula's departing figure.

For some reason, even though they had never met, this aristocratic young man felt strangely familiar.

It was a strange feeling.

"Nothing, just a business associate. By the way, why are you here so early?" Josh looked at him and chuckled, imagining Howard being drained by vampire brides.

"Well... it's a little embarrassing, but I actually came early because I need your help with something," Howard coughed.

"What's that? S.H.I.E.L.D.? Don't tell me you want to take Carter with you? If she's willing, I have no objections." Josh smiled slightly.

At the end of last year, S.H.I.E.L.D. had been officially authorized.

It wouldn't be long before Howard was officially named director.

In the original timeline, the first director had actually been Peggy Carter.

After all, Howard was a scientist, not suited for intelligence work, and the other founder, Dum Dum Dugan, was great at leading the Howling Commandos into battle, but not at being a director.

And the former head of the Strategic Scientific Reserve, General Phillips? Unfortunately, he died of a stroke late last year. Whether the Council had a hand in it, Josh wasn’t sure, but it had nothing to do with him—he even attended the funeral with General Ross and his family.

But Peggy Carter had already been recruited by Josh to become a super-soldier.

And after the incident with Captain America’s blood, their relationship had hit rock bottom—Peggy would never work with Howard again.

So now, Howard had no choice but to take the director’s seat himself—after all, he wasn’t going to hand S.H.I.E.L.D. over to the military after all the effort he put in.

"Of course not. The reason I came so early is because I want to work with you," Howard shook his head.

"On what?" Josh was curious.

"The Tesseract," Howard said seriously.

-

Two days later, in a remote valley a few miles from Neuschwanstein Castle, a 40-meter-long spaceship sat quietly.

Nearby, a dozen large trucks were loaded with special goods from various countries.

A group of CIA (Ouroboros) agents, under the command of Carter and Mar-Vell, transferred the cargo to the ship.

Three days had passed quickly, and today was the day Mar-Vell would leave.

"The time is almost up. Why aren't they here yet?" Carter checked her watch.

"They're already on their way," Mar-Vell pressed a button on her wristwatch and a small holographic 3D map appeared. A bright spot was rapidly approaching their location.

Sure enough, within two minutes, the sound of approaching helicopters filled the air.

A few minutes later, the helicopter landed near the spaceship.

Josh and a young man dressed in elegant, old-fashioned clothes jumped out.

Seeing Carter and Mar-Vell in the distance, Josh's expression turned slightly strange.

According to intelligence reports, the two women had spent the last two days and nights almost entirely in their hotel room, except for the first day when they toured Vienna...

Josh found it hard to wrap his head around this.

Noticing Josh's strange look, Carter instinctively avoided his eyes. Even though what had happened had already happened, she still felt embarrassed.

Mar-Vell, on the other hand, seemed completely at ease.

It made sense—after all, the Kree Empire had been around for who knew how long, and their information network was undoubtedly advanced. Mar-Vell had probably seen it all.

Between the two of them, she was probably the dominant one.

Josh couldn't help but think.

"So this is the friend who wants a ride?" Mar-Vell looked at Dracula.

"That's right, Dracula Vlad," Josh said, but Dracula had already stepped forward and extended his hand.

"Finally, I can leave Earth! This is great!"

Unless a few thousand years passed, or that old bitch, the Ancient One, finally died, there was no way in hell he was coming back!

Chapter 222: Finally Able to Leave (1)

The next afternoon, a long convoy passed through the town of Schwangau and headed toward Neuschwanstein Castle, finally stopping in the castle’s inner courtyard.

As the door of a luxurious car opened, Dracula stepped out, dressed in elegant attire.

Two nights ago, Dracula had come alone in the middle of the night, mainly for convenience. But now that a formal agreement had been reached and he was handing over some of his earthly assets as payment to Josh, a proper visit with his entourage was necessary.

"Welcome, Prince Vlad!" Josh stepped forward from the entrance of the main building to greet him.

As Josh watched Dracula's skin shimmer slightly in the sunlight, he couldn't help but sigh inwardly. As expected, the ultraviolet light that was deadly to ordinary vampires had no effect on this ancient creature.

With that thought, Josh's gaze shifted to the entourage behind Dracula. Were they vampires, too, immune to sunlight?

"You don't have to look. They're not vampires," Dracula said, patting Josh on the shoulder and drawing him in like an old friend. "They are all humans—my business agents and lawyers who handle my worldly affairs. They will be transferring the appropriate assets to you. Of course, some properties in Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary may be a bit tricky due to the situation there. But with your skills, I doubt it'll be a big problem."

Although Dracula was the progenitor of the vampire race, he had little interest in managing their affairs. If his descendants hadn't acted recklessly and provoked Kamar-Taj back then, he wouldn't have been forced to sign that damned treaty with the Ancient One. Nor would he be in his current predicament.

The Ancient One didn't care if Dracula actually ruled the vampires. Since he had signed the treaty, any trouble caused by his kin would be his responsibility.

Because he avoided interfering with vampire matters, his wealth had no ties to them—it was all personally owned. That's why he was free to use it for business with Josh.

Of course, Dracula wasn’t about to hand over his most valuable treasures—artifacts with supernatural properties. Most of what he offered was real estate or shares in various businesses.

As for the "complications" he mentioned in those countries, it was undoubtedly related to the Soviet Union.

Those countries were still under Soviet control, and even if the Soviets withdrew in the future, they would continue on a Soviet-style path for decades.

A key feature of that path was the nationalization of private property.

However, as Dracula pointed out, Austria had some discreet dealings with the Soviets. If handled properly, it wasn't impossible to keep those assets intact.

While these transactions were highly secretive, they were no secret to someone of Dracula's stature.

"I see. Well, I'll leave the negotiations to my people. Since Pince Vlad likes Latour, I had some brought in. Would you care for a drink?" Josh, reassured that Dracula's entourage wasn't full of vampires, nodded and motioned for Lynden Schneider, who had flown in from Paris, to handle the business talks. Meanwhile, he accompanied Dracula to the terrace for a drink.

Josh didn't like alcohol, but he could drink when he needed to. Dracula wasn't a heavy drinker either. Under the warmth of the winter sun, the two sat back, sipping fine wine and chatting about various topics.

A transmigrator and an ancient creature made an interesting pair, and they got along surprisingly well.

Dracula's fluency in Chinese, including many dialects, impressed even Josh, who marveled at the vampire's vast knowledge.

Still, basking in the sun with a vampire felt a little... strange.

"Sir, we just received word—Mr. Stark wishes to visit. What are your orders?"

Just as the conversation was getting lively, Jiaying suddenly stepped forward to report.

"Oh? He's coming so early?" Josh was surprised, but also slightly worried.

He was aware that as the news of his arrival at Neuschwanstein Castle spread, invited guests had begun to arrive.

Most of the early arrivals were minor figures hoping to socialize. Even though they had invitations, they weren't important enough to stay in the castle itself.

After all, the wedding would host over 3,000 guests, while the castle only had about 300 rooms.

Excluding private halls and chambers, fewer than 50 rooms were available for honored guests—which was already quite a generous number, considering Neuschwanstein was a private estate, not a hotel.

Including the recently renovated nearby castle of Hohenschwangau, the total number of guest rooms reached only a hundred.

Only those with extremely close ties or high status were allowed to stay at Neuschwanstein. Others had to stay in the town's hotels, which had been prepared in advance.

During this time, the town's original population of a few thousand had taken on roles as service staff. In addition, to ensure that the wedding ran smoothly, Josh had brought in a large team of hotel staff from major European cities, covering almost every language. That way, language barriers between guests and staff wouldn't be an issue.

However, as one of the world's top scientists, a wealthy American tycoon, and someone with a decent relationship with Josh, Howard Stark undoubtedly had the qualifications to stay at the castle.

However, given Howard's particular... talents, Josh had decisively assigned him to Hohenschwangau Castle on the other side of the mountain.

Josh wasn't worried about Howard charming Margaret away, but many of the guests staying at Neuschwanstein Castle were European royalty.

While most European royal families adhered to monogamy, rules were just rules—people were unpredictable.

In other words, there were quite a few lonely and neglected noblewomen among them.

Despite their lack of political power, the royals still represented the image of their respective nations to some extent.

If any scandal broke out, it wouldn’t just embarrass the royals—it would reflect poorly on Josh as the host.

Hohenschwangau Castle, on the other hand, housed mostly second-tier government officials and wealthy businessmen. Even if Howard got involved with someone's wife or daughter there, it wouldn't cause as much of a stir.

Of course, Josh knew that this arrangement wouldn't completely prevent Howard's antics. But not inviting him wasn't an option either.

The best he could do was assign people to keep an eye on him.

What Josh hadn’t expected, however, was that Howard would arrive so early—with more than a month still to go before the wedding.

The guy just couldn't sit still.

"What's the matter? You look worried about this Howard guy," Dracula asked, noticing Josh's subtle expression.

Josh, having few reservations about Dracula, briefly explained Howard’s personality and, naturally, highlighted his particular... talent.

"Hahaha! What an interesting person! I'd like to meet him," Dracula laughed, slapping his thigh. "As for your concern, I have a solution. Since he likes women so much, I can arrange for some vampire brides to keep him occupied. That way he won't have the energy to bother your guests!"

But as he laughed, he noticed that Josh was giving him a strange look.

"What are you thinking?" Dracula scoffed. "Despite the name 'Vampire Brides,' they're just my personal entertainers and playthings. If you're interested, I can give you ten or so. But my true wife will always be Mirena... though I lost her long ago."

As he spoke, a hint of sadness flickered across his face when he mentioned Mirena.

As he had said, every few decades Dracula would seek out a few beautiful women and, with their consent, turn them into his vampire brides.

But much like Howard’s fleeting relationships, these arrangements never lasted long—at least, not by vampire standards.

As soon as both parties grew bored, they simply parted ways in search of new lovers.

In fact, many of his former vampire brides took lovers of their own after leaving him.

Of course, as Dracula's offspring, they would still obey his commands without question.

And when it came to seducing humans, most of them wouldn't even consider refusing.

Life is too long for them, so they have to find more and more fun.

As for the Mirena Dracula mentioned, she was his queen when he was still the famous Grand Duke of Transylvania. However, she died not long after Dracula became a vampire and refused to become a vampire before she died.

She became Dracula’s eternal pain.

"Sorry to bring up bad memories, but as far as vampire brides go, you should leave that to Howard. I think he'll love it!" Josh's mouth twitched as he rejected Dracula's offer to give him some vampire brides.

Damn it, I'm about to get married and you're talking about this in front of my subordinates?

But Dracula's idea of sending a few vampire brides to suck Howard dry was something Josh agreed with wholeheartedly.

He immediately had Jiaying send a helicopter to pick up Howard.

Soon, Howard arrived, with his butler, Jarvis, following behind him like a true gentleman.

Chapter 221: Steve, why is there a green light above your head? (2)

Shield-generating technology wasn't exactly rare in the Red Alert world.

The Soviet faction, for example, had the Iron Curtain and Force Shield in their power plants—they weren't all that different technologically from the Kree shields.

The main differences were power sources and control precision.

In Red Alert, the Iron Curtain's defenses were virtually invincible.

However, due to its enormous power consumption, the actual installation was much larger than the small structure seen in the games.

Its real purpose wasn’t to shield a few combat units but to protect entire cities—mainly against nuclear attacks.

Its function was actually similar to the large energy shield seen in Wakanda during Avengers: Endgame.

The only drawback was that, unlike Wakanda's, it didn't last as long or cover as large an area.

It could only protect the core regions of a city.

Even so, only a few key cities within the Soviet faction had access to it. Producing more was too expensive, and the energy consumption was unsustainable.

But now, with Wakanda destroyed and vast amounts of vibranium—an incredibly powerful energy storage material—falling into Josh’s hands, Yuri had been able to research it extensively. The major problems of power consumption and size were essentially solved.

Compared to Kree shield technology, the only thing missing was some cutting-edge refinement.

To put it in computer terms, the Iron Curtain was like a first-generation vacuum-tube computer—huge, power-hungry, unreliable, and costly to maintain.

Meanwhile, Kree technology was like a sleek, high-performance 21st century ultrabook.

The technology gap was still enormous, but at least the basic functionality was there—and having it at all made a world of difference.

Still, even with that foundation, reaching the technological level of the Kree Empire would have been a long and slow process.

But now, with a real Kree device to study, everything changed.

It would save an enormous amount of time, money, and trial and error.

In less than half a month, Yuri had already reverse-engineered the shield generator wristband Mar-Vell had given him and created several prototypes using vibranium.

Of course, mass production was still a long way off.

Additionally, vibranium was limited—it couldn’t be used everywhere. A suitable substitute material was needed for large-scale use.

He wondered how long it would take Howard Stark to complete a prototype arc reactor.

With access to vibranium, Howard shouldn’t have to wait for his son to miniaturize the reactor—it should be possible in his own time, right?

In the original timeline, Howard Stark was the one with the deepest understanding of arc reactor technology. It was only the material limitations of his time that had prevented him from miniaturizing it.

"No problem, we still have three days. You don't need to worry about us—let Carter take you around Europe for a bit!" Seeing that Mar-Vell didn't refuse, Josh nodded and signaled Jiaying to arrange things while he turned to Carter.

Carter had no reason to say no. After breakfast, she took Mar-Vell back to Vienna.

That night, in the top suite of Vienna's Continental Hotel, the two women finally met and began a whole new kind of battle! (TL/N: 👉👌)

At the same time, on a desolate wasteland of an unknown planet in the universe, a humanoid creature made entirely of stone pointed at Steve Rogers—who was busy tearing apart a wild beast—and exclaimed, "Whoa, Steve! Your head is glowing green!"

"What are you talking about? Korg, I think that rhinoceros beast must have knocked you senseless. Hurry up and get to work—I don’t want to be caught by Zodang’s patrol team. That would be a terrible experience—unless, of course, you’d like to be taken as a slave, then forget I said anything!" Steve replied impatiently.

He had been on this deserted planet for years.

Back on Earth, he had been the only super soldier in the world besides Red Skull. But here, though still powerful, he wasn't as unbeatable as he had been on Earth.

The worst part was that while this planet seemed primitive in some ways—still practicing slavery—it was actually far more advanced than Earth in terms of technology.

Because of this, Steve's individual strength didn't make much of a difference. Most of the time he had to stay hidden among the natives to avoid being discovered by the ruling powers.

This planet was much larger than Earth and had three major nations.

Steve had ended up in one of them, a country called Zodang.

Zodang had a totalitarian system, much like historical Germany, and was constantly fighting wars to conquer the entire planet. Foreigners like Steve and his stone companion, Korg, were usually captured and sent to work camps as slaves.

It was impossible to live peacefully in Zodang.

For years, Steve had been running and hiding, slowly figuring out the structure of the planet.

Now, he and Korg, who had also ended up here due to unusual circumstances, were preparing to cross an enormous desert—larger than the Sahara—to reach the neighboring kingdom of Sireim.

Unlike Zodang, Sireim was more open and tolerant. Most importantly, it didn't have slavery.

If Steve could make it there, he might finally have some stability—enough to figure out a way back home.

Peggy, I will return!

-

"Thank you, Mr. Kahn. Your efficiency is truly impressive!"

While Captain America dealt with his problems, Dracula visited Josh again that evening. When he heard he could leave in three days, he was delighted.

"It is an honor to serve you, Prince Vlad. However, there is something you must know. Because the Kree Empire has many enemies, Mar-Vell cannot send you directly into the heart of a major civilization. After discussing it with her, we have decided to drop you off in a neutral zone between the Kree and Nova Empires. You will also receive a sum of currency—about 100,000 Units. This is a widely accepted form of money in the galaxy. It should be enough to purchase a small starship and hire a crew to travel wherever you wish."

Josh flattered Dracula a bit before explaining the situation.

There's no shame in making money.

Besides, the sword Dracula gifted him yesterday—Josh had it tested during the day. It looked elegant, but its durability was no less than that of vibranium weapons. Ordinary alloy weapons couldn't even scratch it.

If that sword was real, it was incredibly valuable.

Unlike vibranium, which could store energy, Josh accidentally discovered something while testing it—when he channeled a bit of his weak magic into the blade, the sword amplified it.

This made him think of another powerful metal from the Marvel Universe—Uru, the material used by the Asgardians.

And given the legend that this sword was forged by a lake spirit, there was a good chance that it was indeed made of Uru.

Josh recalled that the Marvel universe had only two known types of elves—One was the Dark Elves from Thor: The Dark World.The other was the Light Elves of Alfheim, who never appeared in the movies.

If the sword was indeed forged by the latter, then it all made sense.

The Asgardians had the most Uru, but that didn't mean they were its sole owners—the dwarves were the main suppliers.

Since the Light Elves were allies of both the Asgard and the Dwarves, it made sense that they could get their hands on an Uru sword.

Of course, this was just Josh’s guess for now. Whether or not the sword was truly made of Uru needed further testing.

The only issue with it was its weight—it was a bit too heavy for Josh.

Still, it was reasonable for a two-handed greatsword.

If Dracula was willing to give away such a powerful sword, how many other treasures could he have?

Josh was eager to find out.

Of course, he didn't expect to get too many valuables from Dracula. The way Dracula handled things yesterday made it clear—he had some sort of storage ability, similar to his system inventory. The truly valuable items were probably kept for himself.

Still, Dracula's centuries of wealth on Earth were more than enough for Josh to profit handsomely.