Chapter 334 |
Although curious whether Thor would become the Red Thunder God in the future, Josh did not continue observing for long; after all, he wasn’t some idle person with nothing to do all day.
He only came over to see how unlucky this guy was.
Since the other party had already been rescued, there was naturally no more excitement to watch.
As for whether he might miss any interesting events coming up, there was no need to worry too much anyway. After all, the mages from Quel’Thalas were tracking and filming everything. If anything important (or fun) happened, the mages would definitely report it.
So Josh naturally prioritized his own matters.
Especially since it was about time for the annual dimensional beacon to activate again. He wondered what kind of world it would be this time.
Back at Neuschwanstein Castle, Josh, as usual, first took a shower, then prepared to “unbox!”
……
In a parallel universe, on the planet Pandora, the battle between human commercial colonizers and the native Na’vi was nearing its end.
He knew very well that he was about to die but he was unwilling.
Having been a soldier all his life, he refused to be defeated by a human traitor and a group of backward natives but now it was too late to say anything. He was about to die.
Although before this battle, he had backed up his consciousness; the Federation might use his consciousness later to “replicate” him.
But the replicated version would never truly be him. He would never be as naive as that traitor.
So tired...maybe dying like this under the sunlight wasn’t so bad.
At the final moment, looking at the blue sky and white clouds, Quaritch couldn’t help but think of Earth’s sky, now completely darkened, and of his daughter who had started her own family, and his 8-year-old granddaughter.
His pension should be enough to support them for the rest of their lives, right?
“Beep…Dimensional Beacon loaded. Welcome to the Dimensional Trader. You may begin trading with the terminal owner!” At that moment, a mechanical voice sounded in his mind, simultaneously filling it with unfamiliar information.
What’s this? Dimensional Trader? Is this a hallucination before I die?
Just as Quaritch’s consciousness was about to slip into darkness, a gentle and magnetic male voice spoke.
“Tsk, unlucky. The beacon landed on someone about to die. Hmm, this scene… Avatar? That human officer? Tsk, consider yourself lucky. Quickly accept the trade, or you really will die!”
Accept the trade? Trade what?
My soul?
So I really am going to hell?
Well…then I’ll accept it…
At the last moment before losing consciousness, Colonel Quaritch chose to accept.
At that instant, hundreds of robots completely different from the Pandora colonization group’s technology suddenly appeared out of thin air around Quaritch’s mech.
Some were military, some civilian, but the most important were medical robots.
Fortunately, the battle was basically over by then. The Na’vi, led by human traitor Jake Sully, had launched a full-scale counterattack. No one noticed what was happening here.
The robots quickly used their built-in tools to transfer the dying Quaritch from the mech and began emergency treatment.
Once his vital signs were stabilized, the robot soldiers immediately moved him away.
Along the way, they encountered some wild beasts and a few Na’vi, but the robots were unaffected and caused no trouble.
Soon the robots found a cave a few kilometers from the battlefield. After covering their tracks, they made it Quaritch’s temporary recovery place.
As for the cave’s original owner, a thunder beast, it could only be apologized to.
When Colonel Quaritch woke up, it was already more than ten hours later.
“What’s going on? Didn’t I die? Or is high technology popular even in hell?” Upon waking and seeing the unfamiliar robots guarding him, Quaritch muttered to himself.
“Congratulations on waking up, sir. According to the scan, your physical condition has fully recovered and you have fully adapted to the enhanced serum. You may try to move!” As Quaritch was puzzled, a medical robot immediately approached and said.
“Yes, I feel full of strength. The arrow wounds on my chest are completely healed, and there’s no sign of poisoning…So can you tell me what happened? How long was I unconscious? Who are you working for?” Quaritch asked, astonished as he examined his body. The Federation’s medical tech was advanced but not that advanced — the Na’vi’s arrows were coated with neurotoxic venom, and without treatment within a minute, victims usually died.
Even if saved, they often suffered lasting side effects but now he was not only saved, he bore no scars or signs of side effects, and his body was full of strength.
This felt unreal to him.
“We are assistants and guards sent by Mr. Josh Kane. We treated you immediately upon arrival and transferred you here. You were unconscious for about thirteen hours, but most of that time was your body adapting to the gene-enhancing serum. Otherwise, you would have woken up sooner!” Another intelligent robot explained to Colonel Quaritch.
“Josh Kane? Who’s that?” A trace of confusion flickered on Quaritch’s face.
“According to Mr. Josh Kane’s explanation, you will understand if you recall your memories!” The robot’s program contained no information about the Plane Trading System, so it could only prompt Quaritch based on Josh’s preset instructions.
“Recall?… Hmm, Dimensional Trader? I see! Amazing! Interesting, really interesting!” Hearing the robot’s response, Quaritch was first puzzled, but then the Dimensional Trader’s prompt appeared in his mind, and he instantly recalled everything about the trader… Although he had been unconscious at the time, all relevant information was perfectly imprinted into his mind.
At the same time, he saw the only transaction record displayed on the trader:
[Obtained one dose of super soldier gene-enhancement serum.
Fifty all-terrain military robots, forty all-terrain engineering robots, five medical robots, five all-purpose life care robots.]
After reviewing the system’s description of the super soldier gene-enhancement serum, Quaritch got up and warmed up his body a bit, then punched a nearby rock wall.
Although his fist instantly hurt, the faint crack appearing on the rock wall excited him greatly.
This kind of physical transcendence was completely incomparable to wearing a mech.
He then threw a series of punches until he made a decent shallow pit in the rock wall before stopping.
Aside from some pain and faint white marks on his fist, he didn’t even break the skin.
What a powerful body.
He now felt confident he could fight those Na’vi natives without any equipment.
Only after finishing did he realize he wasn’t wearing a mask, yet he could breathe in this environment without poisoning — Pandora’s atmosphere contained excessive carbon dioxide and other toxic components for humans. Without a filtered mask, a human couldn’t survive more than four minutes.
“Can this gene serum really change my oxygen requirements?” Quaritch asked the robot assistant nearby with curiosity.
“Yes. After several generations of improvement, the super soldier gene serum now makes micro-adjustments based on the user’s environment. Also, your enhanced lungs can completely filter out excess carbon dioxide and harmful components in the air!” the robot quickly answered.
Hearing the explanation, Quaritch was instantly inspired. If this were equipped for the entire Federation army, wouldn’t Pandora truly become a new home for humanity?
As the highest military commander of the RDA group stationed on Pandora, Quaritch knew some inside information.
The reason RDA could monopolize resource extraction and transportation for all known planets besides Earth was not only due to its strong technology and economy, but also because it carried a very important mission.
That is to find a new home for Earth.
This world’s Earth is on the verge of death.
According to scientists’ estimates, in at most one century, Earth’s environment will become completely unsuitable for human life.
Therefore, humanity must find a new home.
Pandora is one of the candidate options—because although this planet is full of vitality, its environment is ultimately not suitable for human life. To truly colonize here, the cost is still very high.
So the Earth Federation’s leadership has been hesitant until now.
But Quaritch knows this hesitation will not last long, after all, humanity doesn’t have much time left.
One hundred years may seem long, but the migration of an entire civilization is a super large project, and the candidate planets like Pandora are all too far from Earth, a round trip would take ten years.
Perhaps the Federation has already made a decision without him knowing.
If they can really obtain the formula for this genetic medicine, then Pandora, with the best environment, will undoubtedly become the first choice for humanity’s civilization migration.
Thinking of this, Quaritch involuntarily summoned the trading system, looked at Josh’s communication icon on it, and chose to request communication.
It was deep night on Pandora, and he didn’t know the time in Josh’s world, so originally he did not plan to contact Josh proactively.
But the powerful performance of the genetic medicine made him completely unable to stay calm.
Unexpectedly, the communication connected quickly, and Josh appeared on the screen in pajamas.
“Thank you very much for saving my life, Mr. Josh Kane!” As soon as Josh appeared, Colonel Quaritch immediately became serious and respectfully thanked him.
“No need to be so formal, we are partners, not superior and subordinate! By the way, I don’t know how to address you?” Although Josh still remembered most of the Avatar plot, he really didn’t recall the name of this highest human military commander on Pandora’s planet in front of him, but he had a deep impression of the traitor named Jake Sully, after all he was the protagonist.
“Miles Quaritch! Formerly served in the Federation Marine Corps with the rank of colonel, now the security chief sent by the Earth RDA Development Group stationed on Pandora!” Quaritch gave a fairly complete self-introduction. “But if it weren’t for your help, I’d probably have already become a meal for the beasts of this wild planet!”
“No big deal. With the dimensional trade beacon, from now on we’re partners. If you die, it might even give me quite a headache!” Josh waved casually. “By the way, I guess you haven’t eaten yet? Although the robots should have injected you with a nutrient solution, that stuff can’t really be considered food!”
After saying this, Josh took out a large amount of food, alcohol, and other daily supplies from the system warehouse and traded them over.
According to the current plot, the personnel of the RDA group on Pandora, except for traitors like Jake Sully, should have all been driven back to the spaceship by the Na’vi after their defeat, preparing to return to Earth.
This also means that before Earth responds to this war, Quaritch has to stay alone on Pandora—and according to the spaceship speed in the movie, that is at least ten years.
Without sufficient supplies, even though he has been enhanced, he would still live very poorly.
But this is not because Josh is particularly kind; these things are just early-stage investments.
The superconducting minerals on Pandora are not only needed by Earth in the Avatar world, Josh himself also would never disdain them.
The diversity of resource reserves is very necessary for a cosmic civilization.
“Thank you for your generosity!” Quaritch did not know that the entire mining area had already been occupied by the Na’vi, but he also understood that being alone now, he indeed needed sufficient supplies.
“No need to thank me. You must understand these supplies are not free!” Josh said straightforwardly.
“Of course, but you should understand my current situation—I’m afraid I won’t be able to repay you in the short term!” Quaritch nodded decisively in reply.
“I understand perfectly, but that’s not a big problem...look at these!” Josh said, then showed his usual cargo list to Quaritch.
“These…!” Looking at the cargo list Josh provided, Quaritch immediately widened his eyes.
He was not too surprised by the energy weapons and nuclear weapons. Although Josh’s list was more advanced, the Earth Federation also had these things, just the RDA group was not allowed to possess them.
But faster-than-light ships…that was a completely different matter.
Although Josh’s cargo list only included “junk” at three to five times the speed of light, for humans in the Avatar world who still rely on sublight flight, it was truly remarkable.
Besides that, there were new-type modification systems and such, as well as various genetic and robotic technologies. In Quaritch’s eyes, each item was priceless.
“I am very interested in the superconducting minerals and the diverse life forms of Pandora. As long as you can provide enough goods, even if you are the only human on Pandora, I can guarantee you can easily crush those natives…and if you can provide me with more and better resources unique to your universe, helping you rule the entire galaxy would not be a big problem!” Josh said with a smile.
Since Pandora has superconducting minerals, it’s not impossible for this universe to have even more valuable minerals. Josh did not mind investing more for that.
Even if later Quaritch only provides him with conventional resources, Josh can slowly recover his investment.
After all, this is an entire universe.