Chapter 162: Jedi Knight

"Lord Josh, is your world really not an option?" After a detailed discussion, Partridge asked in confusion.

When Partridge suggested relocating the Grammaton Clerics led by John Preston, Josh did not hesitate to recommend two worlds; Daenerys' world and Yuri's world.

However, after hearing Josh's description, Partridge showed little interest in either.

Although one was in the process of becoming a semi-industrialized society, and the other had developed rapidly under Yuri's leadership, building an almost semi-modern city on a Cretaceous Period Earth, they still fell short of expectations.

The former was essentially a feudal society, and the latter had an even smaller population than the fragmented post-apocalyptic world from which Partridge came.

In contrast, Partridge believed that Josh's near-modern world would be better suited to their needs.

This left Josh feeling conflicted.

Did the Grammaton Clerics tempt him? Absolutely.

But after much internal struggle, Josh decided to let go of the idea.

He was still young, and with the Prozium Potion and the Gun Kata training manuals, creating his own Cleric Order was only a matter of time.

Bringing people from other dimensions into his world, however, would possibly risk exposing the existence of his Dimensional Trading System—a loss that outweighed the gain.

"My personal suggestion would be Yuri's world. Don't be so quick to dismiss it. Yuri has a time machine. It was previously stranded in the Cretaceous Period Earth due to an energy shortage, but with energy restoration underway, returning to its original timeline is only a matter of time. So the problem of low population and inconvenience won't even exist," Josh finally convinced Partridge.

"A time machine? Does that really exist?" Partridge's eyes widened in disbelief at Josh's words.

"It does, but I advise you not to mess with it. That thing isn't something we can handle!" Josh warned as he noticed Partridge's expression.

A time machine was indeed a powerful tool, but unless absolutely necessary, Josh wanted nothing to do with it. He was equally determined to prevent anyone from his world from using it.

Its potential to destabilize timelines had already been vividly shown in both the world of Red Alert and the Marvel Universe.

Josh lived comfortably and had no regrets to justify tampering with time. He would have to be crazy to get involved in such a mess.

"All right, I agree!" Seeing Josh's firm stance, Partridge finally relented and agreed to send John Preston and the others to Yuri's world.

Upon learning the details, Yuri expressed great interest in these powerful warriors from another dimension.

According to Josh's description, with a little training, these Clerics could become even more powerful than Natasha and Tanya—true super-soldiers in the real world. (TL/N: The Natasha and Tanya here are from RD2)

In the game, you could create countless versions of Natasha from the Soviet faction or Tanya from the Allied faction.

But in the real world, they were unique.

As far as clones go, a fake is a fake, no matter what.

In addition, part of the Black Panther suit and the vibranium spear that Vito risked his life to retrieve from Wakanda were given to Yuri for research.

While vibranium can be dampened by ultrasonic waves, it depends on the intensity of the waves and the vibranium itself.

For example, in the Black Panther movie, Klaue's mining tool-based sonic weapon was able to destroy loosely structured vibranium vehicles, but could only disable a small portion of T'Challa's nano-suit.

Determining the exact frequency and reshaping process required long-term research, given the current lack of access to Wakandan technology. Unlike pure adamantium, vibranium could be reshaped, as demonstrated in the Avengers movies. High energy could melt vibranium, allowing it to be reshaped.

For example, in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ultron's vibranium body, which later became Vision's, was created using the remaining vibranium to construct a protective shell. Otherwise, a normal metal body would have failed against the combined attacks of Thor, Vision, and Stark.

For confidentiality, entrusting this research to Yuri was the best choice.

Furthermore, if a large supply of vibranium could be secured in the future, it would provide Josh with a valuable new trade item with Yuri.

"Boss, Mr. Schneider has arrived!" As Josh finished his conversation with Partridge and Yuri and stepped out, Vito reported to him. It was none other than Lyndon, who hadn't shown up in a long time.

"Boss, I've done your job. I've selected over 20,000 promising candidates from all over Europe," Lyndon reported.

The candidates he was referring to were children selected from each European country to be trained in the Gun Kata.

While Josh was a Hydra agent, he did not resort to unethical methods such as kidnapping children from around the world, as seen in the Red Room.

In peacetime, many orphans are created each year for a variety of reasons, but after World War II, the number of orphans was huge.

For example, Poland alone had over one million war orphans after the war. On a global scale, this number was even more staggering.

Of these orphans, at least one-third would not survive to adulthood.

For these children, simply having food to eat and shelter from the elements was a luxury.

Since connecting with the Equilibrium Universe earlier this year, Josh had tasked Lyndon with establishing orphanages in European countries to care for local war orphans. Those who met Partridge's criteria for Gun Kata training were sent to Austria, while the rest continued to live in the orphanages.

While these orphanages were not luxurious, they provided enough food—tins of dinosaur meat were more than enough! They were designed to last forever.

On the one hand, they provided fresh blood for Hydra/Ouroboros. On the other hand, it could be seen as a form of charity.

"Good. Vito, the training of these children will be under your direction from now on. My expectations aren't too high; results within ten years will be good enough," Josh said.

The oldest of the 20,000 children were no older than eight or nine, the perfect age to shape their future. A decade was enough to produce the first batch of warriors.

Of course, it wouldn't be appropriate to call them clerics in this world.

"From now on, this unit will be called Jedi Knights," Josh declared after a brief moment of thought, giving his elite force an appropriately powerful name.

Since this wasn't the Star Wars universe, Josh could call them whatever he wanted.

Even if the Force didn't exist, if Yuri managed to replicate the Empire of the Rising Sun's Beam Katanas from Red Alert 3, the name would be perfect!