Chapter 311 |
Chapter 311
"Good kid, haven’t seen you in two years, and you’ve grown a lot taller!" In the manor, Josh chuckled as he ruffled the hair of Thaddeus, who had come to visit with his parents.
After attending the council meeting, Josh quietly returned to his estate in Chicago.
Soon after, the Ross and Osborn families—his neighbors—came over together upon receiving the news.
It was now 1958. Thaddeus Ross, born in 1945 and less than a year younger than Michael and Carol, was now nearly 14 years old. He had developed well physically and, like Michael, had already grown into a tall young man over 1.6 meters in height.
Don’t be fooled by how small Ross appears in the movies—by then, he was already over seventy.
In his youth, the kid had clearly been a strong and handsome young man.
He had just started ninth grade this year, which is the first year of American high school. In the U.S., high school spans four years, covering grades 9 to 12.
Primary and middle schools vary by state—some have five years of elementary school and three years of middle school, others have six years of elementary and two years of middle school.
Perhaps because his family’s situation had changed due to Josh’s influence, Norman Osborn was no longer the cold-blooded child depicted in official Marvel lore. Instead, he appeared very cheerful.
"Oh of course, Norman is a little man now too!" Josh laughed as he patted the boy on the head.
"So, over the past two years, you haven’t run into any trouble because of me, have you?" Josh asked, although he knew any major trouble would surely have been reported to him—minor issues, however, might not.
Of course, the question was more of a casual greeting.
"Trouble? Us? Although opinions vary in the U.S. about Austria, one thing is for sure—they don’t want to mess with it. Hahahaha!" William Ross and Amberson Osborn exchanged glances and laughed.
Indeed, Austria’s rise was a major challenge to the U.S.’s global standing.
But what did that have to do with the Rosses or Osborns? Has it hindered their ability to make money?
Not at all.
On the contrary, because of Austria’s rise and their close relationship with Josh, even fewer people dared offend them.
Especially since the U.S. needed to maintain close commercial ties with Austria to acquire its advanced weapons and technologies.
As long as relations didn’t completely fall apart, people like William and Amberson—closely tied to Josh—would be able to make massive profits in the process and live very comfortably.
"That’s good. After all, I’ll be stepping into the background from now on and will be coming to the U.S. less often and for shorter periods. If anything happens, be sure to notify me right away!" Josh nodded.
"Of course, we will!" the two replied, their expressions becoming serious.
"By the way, I also brought something for the two kids this time!" Josh waved his hand, and Bursta walked over with a box and placed it on the table.
Since Vito was now one of Josh’s key officials, he didn’t follow Josh around unless it was particularly important.
Therefore, Josh had recently appointed a new personal assistant—not that he needed a bodyguard, given his own strength.
This assistant was Bursta, the only one among all of Josh’s divine warriors to possess four divine powers.
Bursta opened the box to reveal two vials of pale golden serum.
"What’s this?" William and Amberson exchanged puzzled looks.
"This is the latest gene serum from the Supreme Research Institute. It has minimal restrictions on who can use it—basically, anyone over the age of six with a mature immune system can take it. And the younger the user, the better. As children develop, the serum will gradually improve their physique. At first, the effects won’t be obvious, but as they grow older, the final result will be at least twice as effective as a standard super-soldier serum. There’s even a chance of special abilities emerging. This is my gift to the two kids!" Josh explained.
Hearing this, their eyes lit up.
Having joined Ouroboros long ago and risen to positions of some influence, both William and Amberson—and their wives—had already benefited from the widespread distribution of the generic super-soldier serum within the organization. They understood its value well.
However, the early versions of the serum had significant limitations—those without fully mature immune systems couldn’t handle it. Human immune systems begin to mature at age six, but full development isn’t typically complete until around age sixteen.
That’s why children under six are much more prone to illness and infection.
After age six, the frequency of illness generally decreases, and by sixteen, the risk of infection drops to a minimum—barring any accidents.
So, under normal circumstances, Norman and Thaddeus would’ve had to wait until they were sixteen and fully developed before using the older gene serums.
But this new version—they could use it now.
The effects might be subtle at first, but once they reached adulthood, they’d essentially become “supermen.”
At that point, Captain America himself would be nothing in comparison!
In the original timeline, both Thaddeus and Norman spent their lives obsessed with human physical enhancement. That obsession eventually made them infamous villains.
But now, before the two boys had even grown up, Josh had already helped them achieve their dreams.
He truly earned the title of “Godfather.”
Of course, Josh’s own children didn’t need this kind of thing.
No matter how powerful gene serums were, they were still of the mortal realm.
Magic and divine power were the paths his children would pursue.
"Josh, about this serum..." Hearing Josh’s explanation, both William and Amberson were deeply tempted.
Sure, Thaddeus and Norman were their sons—but they weren’t their only children. Thanks to the butterfly effect brought about by Josh, both Thaddeus and Norman’s mothers were now in excellent health, and their fathers strong and full of energy.
As a result, these kids were no longer only children as in the original timeline.
Thaddeus now had a younger brother and sister, and Norman had a younger sister.
However, unlike Thaddeus and Norman, Josh had not taken these other children as godsons or goddaughters.
"Don’t even think about it. The materials for this new gene serum are extremely rare. So far, excluding those used for early human testing, only five vials have been produced..." Josh said solemnly.
"Understood!" William immediately gave up any further thought as soon as Josh made his stance clear.
Both he and Amberson knew that, while they held decent standing in Ouroboros thanks to Josh, they were far from being true top-tier leaders.
With only five vials in existence, there was no way they’d normally get their hands on one.
Thaddeus and Norman were only receiving them because they were Josh’s godsons.
And Josh wasn’t lying about the scarcity of the serum. The reason this new formula was safe for children was due to the inclusion of an extremely rare magical ingredient—Black Lotus from Azeroth.
Anyone who played World of Warcraft in the 2000s knows how rare Black Lotus was.
In the game, it was expensive but still purchasable.
In the real world, however, Black Lotus was unimaginably precious. It didn’t “respawn” on maps but only grew in remote, high-magic areas, and even then, only rarely.
Across the entire continent of Azeroth, no more than twenty mature Black Lotuses would be discovered by humans in a year. Most circulated only among high-ranking mages.
The places where Black Lotus grew were so dangerous that only powerful mages or adventurers could reach them—ordinary people stood no chance.
Only a tiny handful ever reached the market.
And even then, they were monopolized by the aristocracy of human kingdoms.
The Black Lotuses used in this new child-friendly gene serum had been gathered through immense effort by Abbendis’ privateer teams, which had scoured nearly all of Azeroth.
To date, only eight have been acquired.
Four were kept by Abbendis to curry favor with high-ranking mages and alchemists.
The remaining four were traded to Josh.
Of these four flowers, one was given by Josh to the Ancient One, one was given to Yuri as compensation, one—through Yuri’s efforts and some help from the Ancient One—was turned into five doses of potion... actually, it was originally seven, but two were used for experiments. The remaining one is still in Josh’s system warehouse.
So for such a precious potion, if it weren’t for the fact that these two kids were Josh’s godsons, they wouldn’t be qualified to use it at all!
However, William and Amberson had no complaints about this, after all, even though they couldn’t obtain this new type of gene potion, once their children grew up, with their status in Ouroboros, obtaining a few standard general-purpose gene potions would be quite easy.
Seeing that the two had no further comments, Josh asked Bursta to take the two kids to use the potion.
Using this kind of potion was also very simple—just inject it, then sleep for a while, and after waking up, eat a big meal, and that was it. There was no concern about instantly turning into a superhuman.
“Speaking of which, you’re probably still planning to have Ross join the military later, right?” Josh looked at William and asked.
“Under normal circumstances, yes. But if you have other plans, of course your arrangement takes priority!” William Ross answered decisively.
After all, Thaddeus was his eldest son, and he naturally hoped the child would inherit his mantle. Therefore, he had always been very strict in educating Ross. But if Josh, the top leader, said something, then of course Josh’s word was final.
“I have no objection, the key is what Ross himself wants.” Josh said.
“This kid has complained before, but I can tell, he still longs for a military career, and is very interested in my and his grandfather’s experiences!” Speaking of this, William Ross spoke with satisfaction.
“That’s good. In that case, once he graduates high school, send him to West Point!” Seeing that William agreed, Josh nodded. “The White House and the Pentagon have recently been taking certain actions regarding Vietnam. I think you should know as well. A large-scale regional war is already inevitable. This war is expected to last a long time. When the time comes, we can arrange for Ross to gain some credentials!”
“I’m certainly aware of the situation in Vietnam. I’ve heard many old friends mention it, and the Department of Defense has also placed quite a few orders with our Blackwater because of it. But a long-term, large-scale regional war—wouldn’t that be going too far?” Upon hearing Josh’s words, William couldn’t help but feel puzzled.
He naturally hoped his son could perform more in war—after all, there’s no faster way to rise in the military than going to war.
But if the U.S. really were to fight a small country like Vietnam, in his view, it would only take a few months at most.
After all, Vietnam didn’t even have much of a proper army. Even with support from the Bear, how could they possibly compare to the powerful U.S. military?
And currently, the Bear’s focus was on Europe. Almost no one in the world believed the Bear would provide much support to Vietnam at this time!
Thaddeus had just started high school—there was no way he could make it in time!
And William Ross’s thinking basically reflected the general sentiment in the U.S., and even across the Western bloc, before the outbreak of the Vietnam War.
Even the Hydra Council couldn’t imagine this war might last more than a decade.
“Heh, don’t worry. Although Vietnam is just a small country, once it becomes the focal point of the East-West confrontation, it’s destined not to be a simple armed conflict!” Josh said with a smile.
“You mean, the Bear might directly intervene?” Josh’s words immediately made William realize something.
“Why not? Vietnam is far from the Bear, and it’s the perfect live-fire training ground for a real fight with the U.S.!” Josh shrugged.
Although in the historical records of his previous life, there was no concrete evidence of the Bear directly entering the war.
But in fact? Aside from all kinds of material support, the Bear’s special forces and air force had all appeared on the Vietnam battlefield.
Even from the very beginning, the Bear sent a large number of military advisory groups to Vietnam, helping to train troops, and even directly participating in military command.
Is there really that much of a difference between that and direct involvement?