Chapter 248: The Remaining Forces of Wakanda (2)

"Alright, I still don't quite understand, but since you paid the price, I'll do my best to help you. Here's the first batch of animals, plants, and corresponding seeds. I've also stored all the necessary training data in NS robot format on this data disk. All you have to do is upload it to the NS robot database," Yuri said, shaking his head as he transferred the requested materials to the trade list.

"Much appreciated!" Josh grinned as the system confirmed the trade, displaying the long transaction list.

"Don't thank me yet. You still have to get me the vibranium I asked for, and you'd better hurry!" Yuri reminded him after the deal was done.

For Yuri, who wanted to build a powerful armed force to return to his original timeline for revenge, vibranium was an essential material.

Hearing this, Josh couldn't help but feel a headache coming on.

Among all his trade partners, Yuri had the highest demand for vibranium—it was an absurd amount.

Back when Winter Soldier and Carter had obtained a batch of raw vibranium ore, Yuri had bought nearly half of it.

But what he needed was ten times that amount.

Through official trade channels and a special CIA allocation, Josh could secure about 20% of the U.S. government's vibranium supply each year.

However, to meet Yuri's demand, it would take at least ten years—assuming he gave all of his share to Yuri.

In reality? That wasn't going to happen.

Josh and the CIA also needed vibranium for their own operations, so at most, he could allocate half of his share to Yuri.

That meant that, under normal distribution, it would take twenty years to gather what Yuri needed.

But Yuri estimated that he'd be ready to activate the time machine and return to his original time period within three years.

In other words, Josh had only three years to gather what would normally take twenty years.

The only way to do that would be to take the entire vibranium output of one year—or four years' worth of the U.S. supply.

But that was practically impossible.

This wasn't even about money anymore.

Now that the countries had fully realized the properties of vibranium, it had become the most valuable strategic resource in the world. No amount of money could buy it.

To ensure fair production and prevent hoarding, the former Wakandan lands had been placed under joint United Nations control, with hundreds of thousands of troops stationed to guard the mines.

Smuggling? Dream on.

As for increasing production, every country with access to vibranium was trying, but production gains in just a few years were minimal.

Of course, Josh could simply refuse Yuri's request.

But he didn't want to do that.

Yuri was one of his earliest trade partners. Though their relationship wasn't as close as his bond with Daenerys, Yuri had always been very reliable in their transactions.

Whenever Josh needed something, Yuri delivered—often providing top-tier, cutting-edge technology instead of just handing over standard future tech.

In fact, whenever Yuri discovered something new, he'd actively offer it to Josh to see if he had any use for it.

Now that Yuri was finally about to achieve his lifelong goal and return for revenge, Josh didn't want to let him down.

So he promised to do everything in his power to gather the Vibranium Yuri needed within three years.

But where would he find so much Vibranium?

As Josh pondered, he remembered a detail Carter had mentioned after returning from her mission in Wakanda.

She had seen some well-dressed individuals leaving before the UN forces invaded Wakanda.

Although Wakanda's King Azzuri and most of his royal guards were killed in battle, and many Wakandan citizens were forced into mining under international control, some had managed to escape.

This wasn't exactly a secret.

Wakanda had been isolated from the world for a long time, but during the brief period it was exposed, King Azzuri and his general, T'Pani, the chief of the border tribe, had become somewhat well-known.

Yet, after the war, only Azzuri's body was found. T'Pani had disappeared.

Another crucial point was that aside from a small amount of vibranium ore smuggled out by Winter Soldier and Carter, the UN forces found very little vibranium when they took over the mines.

In fact, all the Vibranium-related items they recovered accounted for less than a tenth of what should have already been mined.

That didn't add up.

According to the information Josh had gathered, Wakanda had controlled the Vibranium mines and built its kingdom around them for over a thousand years.

That was different from the comics.

In the comics, Odin had assembled a team of prehistoric Avengers over a million years ago.

But in the movies, Odin was only about five thousand years old (A/N: Thor mentioned in Ragnarok that Odin killed Surtur 500,000 years ago, but that was probably an exaggeration). The Eternals had only arrived on Earth around seven thousand years ago.

With over a thousand years of mining, even with ancient techniques, the Vibranium reserves should be far greater than what was found.

Many intelligence agencies speculated that Wakanda had secretly moved most of its vibranium long before the invasion.

If so, the key to finding that lost Vibranium was T'Pani.

For years, intelligence agencies worldwide had been searching for him.

But it was as if he had vanished from the face of the Earth. Since Wakanda's fall, he had never been seen again.

If Josh could find him, he might be able to solve Yuri's Vibranium problem.

"Ophelia, what's Carter up to? Still mad?" Josh picked up the phone and asked.

Carter had been a bit upset about the Java situation.

She wasn't as extreme as Captain America when it came to justice, and she could understand Josh's actions.

But understanding didn't mean she could accept them.

So, instead of dealing with Java, she had focused entirely on her CIA duties and had barely contacted Josh in recent weeks—basically, she was giving him the silent treatment.

"I'd say so. She's been taking on war criminal tracking missions lately, and she's been ruthless. She nearly tore apart the some settlements in Brazil—I've had to clean up after her more than once," Ophelia said with a teasing tone.

"Tell her I need to see her. And bring Fritz Klaue as well," Josh ordered.

If anyone knew the most about Wakanda, it would be Carter, who had infiltrated it, and Klaue, who had been imprisoned there for years.

As for the Winter Soldier?

Well, after his brainwashing, all he was good for was killing.

--

Join Patreon.com/AHumanMadeMOFO to read till Chapter 329 (81 Chapter Ahead).