In the world of Red Alert, Josh had no idea that Yuri had easily crushed the Rising Sun Empire and destroyed the entire Shiro Psychic Research Center.
At the moment, he didn't have the time or mood to care about it either.
Because right now, he was dealing with a new trading partner—someone who truly surprised him.
But along with the surprise, there was also a bit of disappointment.
Just like Abbendis from the Azeroth universe, this new partner was still a child—though Abbendis was a little older.
Fortunately, this child was even more reasonable than Abbendis, so Josh didn't have too many problems communicating with him.
This child's name was Anakin Skywalker, and he was from the planet Tatooine in the Star Wars universe.
"Can you help me and my mother get our freedom?" Anakin asked Josh after a short conversation in which he learned what a Dimensional Trader was.
"Of course, Anakin. You mentioned the Wupiupi coin—if needed, I can make an endless amount of them. I also have other things far more valuable than you can imagine. Forget buying your freedom, I could buy the entire planet of Tatooine. I could even give you a huge robot army to take over the whole planet and make you the king of Tatooine… But kid, what can you offer in return?"
Josh wasn't a big Star Wars fan. His knowledge came only from the movies, so he wasn't sure about the actual power level of the Star Wars universe.
So saying he could conquer all of Tatooine was probably bluffing.
But does bluffing cost you anything? Nope.
But buying Tatooine? That might actually be possible.
The Wupiupi coin Anakin mentioned was a special currency used only on Tatooine.
The main currency used in Star Wars was Galactic Credit or Credit Chips, whether it was the Old Republic, the Empire, or the New Republic.
This was because the currency was not issued by the government, but by a group called the Intergalactic Banking Clan.
But Tatooine was different. It wasn't part of the Republic. It was run by the Hutts in Hutt space.
And the Hutts used a metal currency called Wupiupi.
It was slightly less valuable than credits—1 Wupiupi = 0.6 credits, but you couldn't use credits on Tatooine.
That's why, in the movie, Qui-Gon Jinn and Padmé couldn't buy Anakin and his mother's freedom or pay for ship repairs with credits.
They had to rely on Anakin winning the podrace to fix the ship and earn their freedom.
How much did it cost to free Anakin's mother? Only 200 Wupiupi.
Anakin had even shown Josh what the coins looked like.
At first glance, they looked like gold coins.
And after testing them—turns out, they were just gold coins.
And gold was one of the things Josh had in endless supply.
Even if he didn't understand why such an advanced world still used gold as money, it only worked out better for Josh, didn't it?
"I… I don't know…" Anakin answered quietly.
As a slave, he didn't think he had anything of value to offer.
Without a doubt, as the Chosen One of the Force, Anakin was incredibly smart. At the age of nine, he was able to build the protocol droid C-3PO to help his mother with the household chores. In Josh's world, his practical skills were even more impressive than Tony Stark's.
But at the end of the day, Anakin was still just a nine-year-old kid.
Yes, at this point, Anakin had just turned nine and hadn't finished building C-3PO, which meant Qui-Gon Jinn and Padmé hadn't arrived on Tatooine yet.
This was the perfect time for Josh to invest in Anakin.
After all, he would become a true Jedi Knight.
A spark of excitement flashed in Josh's eyes.
But even with good timing, things that come too easily are often not appreciated—especially by children like Anakin, whose worldview wasn't fully formed yet.
Josh had the same attitude with Abbendis.
They were both amazing young talents, and he didn't want to lead them down the wrong path because of his own influence.
"Anakin, you actually have powers far beyond what you can imagine. You just haven't realized it yet... But I think you've already noticed that you're different from other children, right? Most normal people—let alone kids—can't handle the pressure of podracing, can they?" Josh said.
"Do you know why that is?" Anakin asked curiously.
"Have you ever heard of the Force?" Josh asked.
Anakin shook his head.
Unlike movie watchers who all know about the Force, in the Star Wars universe, it was a mysterious and powerful concept.
Most ordinary people didn't even know it existed, let alone how to use it. Even Jedi Knights had to reach a certain level before they really understood it.
Much less a poor slave boy from a distant desert planet.
It's like asking a child from a remote mountain village in ancient times if he knew what the Imperial Guard was.
So it made perfect sense that Anakin had no idea what the Force was.
Josh then explained a bit about the Force and what Jedi Knights were, and Anakin's eyes immediately lit up.
He still couldn't understand how powerful Jedi were, no matter how much Josh explained, but he understood that Jedi were great heroes.
And what child does not dream of becoming a hero?
"I want to be the strongest Jedi Knight in the world!" Anakin said, setting his goal even though he didn't fully understand what a Jedi really was.
I'd rather see you become the strongest Sith Lord... Josh thought silently.
After all, his own way of doing things was much closer to the Sith than to the righteous Jedi.
"But how can I become a Jedi Knight?" Anakin asked Josh again.
"Just wait, boy. The right time will come soon. As long as you give me some of your blood regularly, I'll send someone to buy your freedom and your mother's. I'll even buy Watto's shop. Then you can just wait there for your destiny to come," Josh said with a smile.
Why did Josh want Anakin's blood? Of course it was because of the midi-chlorians in his blood, the organisms that gave him strong Force powers.
Even though in the original story midi-chlorians were almost impossible to transfer, and even if they were, they couldn't give anyone Force powers unless they were born with them... Still, it was worth trying.
You never know until you try, right? Josh wouldn't be satisfied until he tried.
"Of course! Can we start now? How do I give you my blood?" Anakin asked eagerly and agreed without a second thought. He didn't care if this deal might hurt his body, after all it was about freedom—something he had longed for since he was a child.
Many people say you only understand the value of freedom after losing it.
But for Anakin, freedom was something he had never had. It was a distant dream.
"Do not rush, child. I'll send someone to help you take the blood. Don't do it yourself!" Fortunately, Josh wasn't a heartless merchant. Even though he was desperate for power, he didn't want to hurt a child with such great potential.
Taking blood was best left to a professional.
After calming Anakin down, Josh ended the communication with the Star Wars Universe for now and turned to contact Yuri.
It was a bit inconvenient to send someone from his own world to do things in another universe, so it would be better to ask Yuri for a loyal, fully brainwashed servant to do the job.
"Ah, Josh, perfect timing—I was just about to contact you," Yuri said as soon as the call connected and his figure appeared on the screen.
"You look really happy. What's the good news?" Josh asked curiously.
"Of course I'm happy! I've just crushed and taken over the Rising Sun Empire. I've now established a solid base on Earth. Next, I can take some time to play with some old friends," Yuri said with a smile.
Aside from a small hiccup at the Shiro Psychic Research Center, the entire invasion of the Rising Sun Empire went extremely smoothly. Very soon, that nation would officially be wiped off the map.
But as for the Soviets and the Allies, Yuri didn't plan to destroy them as quickly or easily as he did the Rising Sun.
Yuri was never one to play nice. These two factions had almost caused his downfall back in the Cretaceous era. If he defeated them too easily, it wouldn't be any fun.
"That fast? Congratulations!" Josh said a little surprised.
He knew that with Yuri's current military power, defeating any faction in the Red Alert Universe was child's play, but wiping out a major power in less than a day was still impressive.
"Hahaha, it's nothing special. Honestly, if you wanted to, you could do the same thing in no time," Yuri said, waving his hand.
He wasn't just being polite. Any military technology he developed he always shared with Josh, so Josh was no weaker than him in terms of military strength.
Josh just didn't want to go that way.
But honestly? It wasn't that Josh didn't want to.
It was that the Marvel Universe was much more complicated than the world of Red Alert. Josh didn't dare to mess around like that.
He'd rather deal with the three major empires in space than start a war for supremacy on Earth.
"You know how my world is—ugh, let's not even talk about it. Just thinking about it makes me depressed," Josh waved his hand, not wanting to get into it.
"By the way, I should thank you," Yuri said suddenly after the small talk. "If you hadn't mentioned it, I would never have thought that someone like Yuriko existed in this world!"
"Oh? You found her? Is she really related to you?" Josh asked with curiosity written all over his face.
"Yes... and no," Yuri replied.
"Speak clearly," Josh rolled his eyes.
"We're not directly related by blood, but according to genetic tests, we're technically distant relatives… going back as far as the Russian Empire, you know?" Yuri explained. "But her name? That definitely has something to do with me."
Josh understood immediately.
When the Russian Empire fell, Japan had taken in many Russian refugees—some even formed their own corps. A lot of the higher-ups from the Russian Army had migrated to Japan, bringing with them traces of Russian bloodlines.
Yuri, though a Soviet high official, could trace his lineage back to Russian nobility, so in a country of hundreds of millions, finding someone with a faint, distant blood connection to Yuri wasn't impossible—just extremely rare.
As for her name? That was easy to find out.
Yuriko's powers were very similar to Yuri's.
Even though the timeline of this universe had deviated greatly from Red Alert 2, Yuri had still existed—only to disappear later for various reasons.
"What about her now?" Josh asked, probing a bit.
"She's fine. I have adopted her as my goddaughter. She's a companion to Libra now—someone to take care of her. Libra's power is too overwhelming. Ordinary people can't even get close to her. So the appearance of this girl was actually a blessing for me," Yuri said, a faint smile appearing on his face as he mentioned Libra.
Although he wasn't overly emotional, it was clear that he was proud of this daughter.
"Then congratulations. You have another daughter now." Josh nodded, not bothering to ask if all this was 'safe' or not—Yuri obviously didn't care, so why should he?
"Oh, and besides Yuriko, I also found several of her clones at the Shiro Psychic Research Center, along with an interesting project called the 'Son of Descent.' I thought you might like to know," Yuri added.
"Clones of Yuriko?" Josh blinked.
"Yes. I just need the original. Having all those clones around would only upset her, so I figured I'd let you have them instead. Interested?"
"Yes! Yes, of course I'm interested!" Josh replied immediately.
In the past, he might have hesitated to let people from other worlds into his own. But ever since he'd gained Tiamat as a support, he'd grown much bolder.
Especially after what had happened in Tiamat's realm—when the Ancient One had brought Ikaris to her personally—it had strengthened his resolve to cling to this not-yet-born Celestial (A/N: of course, he had no idea that the Ancient One had brought Ikaris not for Tiamat's sake, but for Josh's).
Now that a whole batch of psychic twin-tailed lolis—uh, ahem, superpowered individuals—were up for grabs, there was no way Josh was going to miss out.
--
Join patreon to read ahead!