Chapter 314 |
At the city gate stood soldiers guarding it, composed of three different races. One was humans who looked no different from Earth humans, another was a race slightly taller than humans with green skin and ears somewhat like Shrek’s, and the third was a humanoid race resembling sheep.
They carried rifles on their backs, long knives on their waists, and wore standard armor.
This setup made Josh feel like he had returned to the 16th century.
Using magic to conceal his figure, Josh approached to observe a bit and found that the rifles on them were not gunpowder weapons but some kind of energy weapon, whose energy core was a red crystal shard!
Feeling the energy fluctuations from the red crystal shard, Josh strangely sensed something familiar.
Right, although the color and intensity differed, the frequency of the energy fluctuations was very close to the crystal Josh had previously taken from the ruins as the energy core for the teleportation array.
In other words, this crystal is the same energy source as the teleportation array.
It seemed this kind of crystal was a specialty of this planet, and the underground spaceship Josh had seen earlier probably used this energy as well.
After observing, Josh entered the city.
The number of intelligent species inside was also considerable. Josh saw at least ten different races along the way, but the three races of the soldiers at the city gate were still the majority, clearly holding dominant status here.
After wandering a bit inside the city, Josh quickly found the city’s administrative office and located the mayor.
The mayor was an older human.
Using a bit of magic, Josh easily engaged in a friendly conversation and obtained detailed information about this planet.
This planet had three countries, named the Zodanga Empire, the Helium Kingdom, and the Thern Federation.
Zodanga was a centralized monarchy; Helium Kingdom was somewhat like a constitutional monarchy, and the Thern Federation was a parliamentary federation.
The city Josh was currently in was called Sack City, belonging to the Thern Federation. The ship they saw in the desert earlier was a flagship warship of the Federation.
The contradictions and conflicts among these three countries formed the mainstream of this world.
Their main point of conflict was the planet’s primary energy source—the crystal Josh had seen before.
This crystal is called the Thern Crystal, containing huge energy. The seemingly strange technology on this planet was all based on this crystal.
However, as Josh saw earlier, although this planet’s civilization was advanced to some extent, it had not developed into an interstellar era.
But when Josh asked about the interstellar teleportation array, the mayor said he knew nothing.
Josh also asked about Barbarian King Conan, and the mayor said he had never heard of it.
However, it was not surprising. According to Tiamut’s earlier words, Barbarian King Conan was from over a hundred thousand years ago, while according to the mayor, the current tripartite situation on this world had formed only a few thousand years ago.
With more than a hundred thousand years in between, civilizations may have changed several times.
Yet in later exchanges, Josh heard a very familiar name from the mayor!
Steve Rogers!
A war hero who suddenly rose during the war between the Helium Kingdom and the Zodanga Empire years ago, helping the Helium Kingdom win several key battles and forcing the Zodanga Empire to retract forces and slow its invasion against the other two countries.
Wow, so Captain America was also transported to this planet?
Josh wondered whether this was coincidence or caused by some special reason.
But when Josh continued asking about Steve Rogers, the mayor told him that Steve and the princess of the Helium Kingdom had been missing for over two years, and the kingdom had even issued a bounty for their search.
“Tsk, looks like we’re late. If the portal had been opened two years earlier, maybe we could have brought Captain America home. I wonder what Carter would think hearing this!” Josh muttered secretly.
Regarding Captain America’s disappearance, Josh had a guess—that maybe he had also found a similar teleportation portal—no one said there could only be one, right?
Perhaps the other portals didn’t lead to Earth but to other planets.
If it led to Earth, Josh would have heard news of Captain America returning long ago.
After finishing the questions, Josh left.
Only the mayor remained dazed in his office, his memory briefly blank.
With the portal opened, Josh quickly returned to where the others were, only to find that besides having knocked down and struck two Transformers, an extra beast of burden and a human had also appeared.
At the same time, a group had lit a fire in the scorching desert heat and were having a barbecue.
They were grilling a fierce creature somewhat like Azeroth’s flying snake but covered entirely in sandy yellow like the desert. Its sharp claws and teeth showed it was a ferocious predator.
Looking closely at the lethal injury, it was an arrow shot straight through the eye into the brain.
Undoubtedly, the only one capable of this among them was Yondu, who had received the true teachings of Vereesa.
“…I’ve been gone less than half an hour, and you guys are already BBQing? That’s a bit much. Also, what is this thing? Aren’t you afraid of poisoning? And who is he?” Josh raised his eyebrows and asked.
The stranger was a young man, looking only a little older than Mike.
“This guy’s name is Kalai, a member of a nearby desert tribe. He was on his way to Sack City to buy supplies but had bad luck meeting this sand eel in the desert, then bumped into us. He told us that although the sand eel is dangerous, it’s the most prized delicacy here. We tried it and it’s really delicious! You should try some. Don’t worry, Bursta already tested it with instruments. It’s not poisonous!” Howard Duck shook the skewer and ice beer in his hand, saying, “Don’t you think barbecue and ice beer are perfect for this kind of weather?”
Geez… You guys aren’t here to explore, you’re basically camping.
Josh couldn’t help but roll his eyes.
But at least now he knew this fierce creature was called a sand eel—desert eel, quite fitting.
As for how the group could communicate with the rescued boy named Kalai, that was Howard Duck’s innate ability. Not only could he speak English, but he could also communicate with almost all intelligent beings and judge whether they had hostile intentions.
This was one of the important reasons Howard Duck could live safely throughout the universe.
Compared to that, Josh’s ability to communicate with the mayor was purely magical.
After understanding the situation, Josh didn’t hold back, quickly eating a skewer of sand eel meat while narrating the information he had gathered.
“What a fascinating world, and that Thern Crystal, looks like you’ve found the value of this world!” Howard sighed after hearing Josh. He didn’t know Steve Rogers personally, so he had no particular feelings, but hearing about the Thern Crystal, he immediately realized the huge potential value of this material.
As for the obstacles from the three countries? Come on, although the planet’s technology was unique, it hadn’t left the planet. How could it fight against Josh, who had a cosmic fleet?
By comparison, Mike and Ben were more interested in Steve Rogers, Captain America but the points they were interested in were a bit strange.
“Captain America? I really want to fight him!” The battle maniac son, Ben, said.
“Captain America actually came to this world? I really want to see if his butt is really as firm and perky as in the magazines!” That was Mike’s comment.
As soon as he said this, everyone, especially Josh, looked at him strangely.
Damn, could it be that Josh cared too little about this kid and his orientation was messed up?
“Hey, don’t get the wrong idea. I just want to know how he trains his butt, and maybe learn a thing or two! Those noble girls at our school all like that type!” Seeing everyone’s dirty thoughts, Mike quickly tried to save face.
Good. Josh said nothing but secretly decided he needed to have a good talk with Margot when he got back. If the kid really had issues with his orientation, then no blame if Josh got harsh and decided to destroy and rebuild him.
But on second thought, it was unlikely, because Josh had heard before that although Mike wasn’t very old, he was already a playboy at school, frequently changing girlfriends.
During the barbecue in the desert, Josh also noticed that the native named Kalai was slightly injured, and that his blood was not red, but blue.
“I noticed that too, and I already tested it. The genetics of this planet’s humans differ from yours on Earth, though whether there is reproductive isolation, I don’t know!” Howard the Duck whispered to Josh.
“…That doesn’t really matter. As long as the appearance is the same, there will be less trouble acting among them,” Josh said indifferently.
“So what do you plan to do? Just send troops to occupy this planet directly?” Howard the Duck asked.
“What’s the rush? We just arrived. Let’s play for a while and learn more before making decisions. Besides, this planet has three countries. If conditions are right, we might take one without bloodshed and make it our vanguard!” Josh said as he ate a grilled sand eel skewer.
“Where will you start then?” Howard the Duck asked again.
“First, we’ll visit the Kingdom of Helium. Steve Rogers has become a hero there, so maybe we can gain something special!” Josh said.
From information gained earlier from the mayor, they were currently in Sack City, which was right on the border of the Thern Federation. On the other side of the desert lay the Kingdom of Helium.
“When do we leave?” Howard the Duck nodded and asked.
“Tomorrow. Tonight, we’ll stay in Sack City to experience local customs first!” Josh thought for a moment and decided.
After finishing the barbecue, the group got back into Knockout and Smokescreen to prepare to set off, but before that, Josh pulled out two vehicles for the Transformers to rescan.
These two vehicles were local transportation Josh had acquired in Sack City.
Previously, the two Transformers’ vehicle forms were Earth luxury off-roaders, with a delicate appearance that looked very out of place compared to the planet’s vehicles — too flashy.
Of course, during this process, Josh also had to slightly alter the memories of the native boy Kalai.
About half an hour later, riding in two drastically different vehicles, the group successfully returned to Sack City.
Since Josh had already figured out the situation here and easily forged a complete set of Thern Federation IDs for everyone—perhaps due to the ongoing war, the anti-counterfeit level of IDs here was poor compared to advanced weapons and machinery, roughly at Earth’s pre-WWII level, just a booklet with a photo pasted on, easily faked!
Plus, except for Howard the Duck, who looked a bit odd, everyone else looked human and similar to the natives.
So the guards at the city gate only briefly checked the IDs and let them in without suspicion.
Of course, even if they had been suspicious, Josh could have concealed it with magic.
Though Josh’s magic wasn’t as strong as his combat power, so far he hadn’t sensed any strong presence in this city capable of resisting his magic.
Eventually, they stayed at the most luxurious hotel in town… The currency here was also quite primitive. Although the Thern Federation issued paper money, Josh’s group observed that the public clearly preferred physical currency.
And the physical currency wasn’t anything else but common gold and silver coins plus the planet’s specialty, Thern crystals.
The native boy Kalai they met before used this currency for purchases. His desert tribe obtained some Thern crystals from the desert.
But Josh saw that the crystals Kalai held were just some small, low-quality fragments.
According to Kalai, their tribe’s mine was a small poor mine, while the big mines were controlled by major powers of the Thern Federation, inaccessible to ordinary people.