Chapter 304 |
"You want to hire a Naga troop? And permanently at that?" Upon hearing Josh's request, Little Abbendis looked utterly shocked.
"That's right. Didn't you establish contact with a Naga tribe?" Josh nodded and replied.
"It's not that... Boss, it's true I established a trade relationship with a Naga group, but it's only trade—nothing more. And the one holding the upper hand is them. Your request to permanently hire a Naga troop... that's beyond my ability!" Faced with Josh's request, Little Abbendis immediately showed a troubled expression.
Over the years, under Josh's "education," Abbendis had continually expanded his influence—especially in maritime trade, which frequently involved conflict. He had become a competent merchant and leader, often haggling over deals with Josh.
But this time, he really wasn’t faking it because this matter was genuinely difficult.
Unlike other races in Azeroth that mostly dominated only parts of the land, the Nagas had, over the past ten thousand years, truly ruled the oceans. Their power was terrifyingly immense.
And due to their frequent incursions into coastal regions, they were almost universally hated by every kingdom or race.
Only pirates and a few other groups who needed to operate long-term at sea had any dealings with the Nagas—and even those relationships were usually kept secret.
Abbendis' privateer fleet had paid a steep price during their operations before secretly establishing contact with a Naga group. This prevented his fleet from being attacked by those fearsome sea creatures.
And now, Josh actually wanted him to provide a whole troop of Nagas? Was this a joke?
And calling it “permanent employment” sounded nice, but wasn’t it essentially buying them outright?
How could the Nagas possibly sell their own people like merchandise?
Honestly, if Josh only needed one or two, Abbendis could probably get them. Naga slaves—while rare—could still be found on the black market.
But clearly, Josh wasn’t after just one or two; he wanted an entire group.
Whether or not Abbendis could actually do it, if even the slightest bit of information leaked, his privateer fleet could forget about ever sailing again.
"I know it's a troublesome matter. But you don’t necessarily have to do it yourself, do you? You could post a bounty! The Naga are powerful, yes—but they also have many enemies: sea giants, tuskarr, lobster people, water elementals, and most of the land-based creatures too. I believe it won’t take long to gather a batch of Nagas... Oh, and you can also offer bounties to the Nagas for the other sea races I mentioned. I’ll take them all," Josh said with a smile, using the same tricks European colonists used in Africa and the Americas.
In fact, this very method would later be employed many times by the Alliance in future Azeroth history—like the harsh centaur policy in the Desolace region during the 1960s.
Despite his extensive experience over the years, Abbendis was still stunned by Josh’s cunning scheme.
This plan was so damn ruthless, and so damn clever!
Why hadn’t he thought of it before?
And not just for the Nagas—he could use this trick on any rival force he didn’t get along with!
Of course, this would earn a lot of hatred, so he couldn't act personally.
"That's a great plan, but I’ll need a lot of manpower, and the financial pressure will be huge!" Abbendis said.
"Don’t worry about that. I’ll provide you with a team of absolutely reliable personnel to act as intermediaries—it won’t be traced back to you. As for the money, that’s even less of a problem. I’ll give you all the gold you need!" Josh said generously.
Although gold still held high value in interstellar trade, Josh, having access to multiple universes, had more gold than he could possibly use.
And he wasn’t worried about Abbendis taking advantage of him.
The guy was smart enough. Even if he made a big profit from Josh, he would know not to overdo it.
Otherwise, not only would future deals be squeezed by Josh, but flooding the market with too much gold could also crash the gold price in Azeroth.
After all, Azeroth’s population was limited, and not every race used gold as currency.
If gold flowed in excessively, a price collapse would happen in no time.
Abbendis, having learned modern finance from Josh, knew that such a scenario would only hurt himself.
So in previous trades, he had been careful about how much precious metal he accepted from Josh—opting more for things like food and meat.
Due to years of warfare among Azeroth’s races, food production had always been low, and animal husbandry even worse. Sure, there were plenty of wild animals, but they were ferocious and even hard for professionals to handle—let alone civilians.
Because of this, Abbendis had already consumed nearly all of Josh’s previously stockpiled dinosaur meat. His privateer fleet had an enormous demand for meat.
Fruits, vegetables, and alcohol were even more sought after.
Every year, Josh helped Abbendis purchase massive quantities of such goods from other worlds. While he could’ve sourced them from his own world, it would have caused severe inflation. After all, the war had only ended recently, and most places—except the U.S.—were still suffering from material shortages.
And it was precisely because Abbendis could provide his privateer fleet with ample supplies that the captains under him remained extremely loyal.
In a medieval-like world such as Azeroth, what more did people want than to ensure a good life for themselves and their families?
"Then it’s settled. But this may take a long time!" Abbendis nodded.
"That’s fine, I can wait!" Josh said.
Although he needed vibranium badly, it wasn’t so urgent that he had to get it immediately.
Talokan and the undersea vibranium mine in the Bermuda region weren’t going anywhere!
After his talk with Abbendis, Josh contacted Yuri to buy a large number of dolphins and giant squids.
But due to Earth's environmental problems, Yuri didn’t have much stock. The massive Allied navy of the past had already been dismantled. Now that Yuri had begun interstellar colonization, there was no point in maintaining a large Earth-based navy. Maintaining it would waste manpower and resources—and it’s not like you could use ships on other planets.
Dolphins and squids were even more impractical. As biological entities, their health, lifespan, and care were all issues.
So Yuri didn’t waste time—he directly gifted Josh the tech for both species and let him handle breeding himself.
Obviously, Josh wasn’t going to handle it personally. He turned right around and gave the biological weapon tech to the Austrian military along with his requirements.
Naturally, the Austrian military was overjoyed.
The navy had always been Austria’s weakness—even with earlier American support giving them a few large warships and even a few stealth strategic nuclear subs.
They still lacked a truly powerful blue-water navy.
Dolphins and giant squids clearly offered a shortcut to naval strength.
With preparations for dealing with Talokan sorted, Josh returned to Earth after a year of "busy work" and finally had time to relax again.
At this point, a new dimensional beacon was due to appear.
Unfortunately, Josh wasn’t so lucky this year—the dimension that appeared was another unhelpful one.
Godzilla... and not even the classic version, but the 1998 American remake with the mutated giant lizard—the one starring Jean Reno.
And the beacon holder was none other than Jean Reno—or rather, the French soldier Philippe Roaché he played!
So it wasn’t even France from another universe—otherwise, Josh might’ve considered swapping out the beacon holder.
But then again... having a giant mutant lizard as a pet might be kind of cool?
…………………………
One year later!
"Toot!!!" Accompanied by the roar of a ship’s whistle, a giant vessel flying the Spanish flag sailed across the waters of the Bermuda region.
This was actually a very common sight in the Bermuda Sea.
Although in many legends, Bermuda holds all kinds of mysterious tales, giving off a vibe that outsiders should keep away—But a legend is, after all, just a legend.
Indeed, there have been quite a few missing ships and aircraft accidents in this region, but that’s only because this area happens to be one of the busiest flight and shipping routes in the world.
With so many ships and planes coming and going,
Naturally, accidents would be more frequent.
But in reality, when looking at the overall rate of ship and aircraft losses worldwide, Bermuda’s ratio isn’t particularly high at all.
And most of the accidents and mysterious rumors occurred in the early 17th to 19th centuries.
This time period was also when colonial wars in the Americas were at their most intense, and privateer fleets from various countries roamed unchecked.
Under such circumstances, wasn’t it perfectly normal for large numbers of ships to go missing?
By contrast, from the mid to late 20th century onwards, with the arrival of a more peaceful era, disappearance incidents in this area have become fewer and fewer.
Many of the supposedly mysterious events—such as Flight 914’s time-travel story—were ultimately proven to be mere rumors. These lies are easy to debunk with a simple investigation into the alleged missing flights.
It’s just that before the 21st century, global communications weren’t very developed, so it was easy for various rumors to be fabricated and taken as truth.
For example, in Josh’s past life, he had been fooled for over a decade by the story that Einstein scored only one point in math and then was inspired to work hard.
But in reality? Under the German education system, one point represents “excellent” and is the highest score...
However, in the Marvel world where Josh currently resides, after ordering a detailed investigation into the Bermuda disappearance incidents, it was indeed discovered that a small portion of them were quite unusual.
But it was only a small portion.
And now, he was going to uncover the truth once and for all.
That’s right—this giant ship flying the Spanish flag actually belonged to Josh.
After a year of preparation, Josh had now basically completed all arrangements for exploring Talokan and seizing the undersea vibranium mine.
It was just that, since this operation was bound to cause a stir, Josh did not proceed under the Austrian flag.
Although the powerful rise of Austria had forced all countries around the world to accept the reality, many still remained quite wary of Austria in various areas.
To the extent that both NATO and the Warsaw Pact—despite having only been established a few years ago—tacitly reached certain agreements and began restricting Austria in many material aspects.
If not for having Josh as backing, Austria today would likely be facing the same kind of restrictions as the future Eastern great power, possibly even more severe.
Because Austria’s geographic location is still quite awkward overall—sandwiched right between two major blocs.
If not for the ongoing standoff between the two camps in northern Germany and the Arctic region, Austria’s situation would be even worse.
And it’s precisely because of this that, despite Josh having massive industrial assets in the United States, the U.S. government did not suppress or restrict his businesses.
In fact, in many aspects of military equipment, the U.S. and Austria were still engaging in trade cooperation.
But Josh and his household hadn’t returned to the United States at all over the past year.
Of course, it wasn’t because Josh feared anything.
After all, with his current strength, there was basically nothing on Earth that could pose a threat to him—not even if the entire U.S. military mobilized.
The reason for not returning in the short term was simply to avoid awkwardness.
“Sir, we have reached the designated area. No potentially interfering forces detected in the surroundings.” A gentle middle-aged male voice sounded inside the cabin—it was the AI Pangu informing Josh that they had arrived at the destination.
Hearing this, Josh put down the scroll in his hand, exited the cabin, and made his way to the deck amid the greetings of the crew.
On the deck, several of the key personnel for this operation had already gathered, waiting for Josh to issue his orders.
And the composition of the leaders for this operation was extremely diverse.
There were humans—represented by none other than Josh’s trusted aide, Vito.
There were Naga—represented by a tidecaller named Lady Narassus, the strongest among the Nagas that Abbendis had acquired over the past year for this operation.
In addition, there were lobster-men, sea giants, and walrus-men.
These were all war captives that Abbendis had “purchased” in accordance with Josh’s instructions.
Inside the ten-thousand-ton giant ship beneath his feet, there were also vast numbers of soldiers from these marine races.
All of these soldiers had undergone both Yuri’s brainwashing and the magical control of elven mages.
Their loyalty was off the charts!
There was even a Godzilla in Josh’s system space!