AHumanMadeMOFO
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Chapter 241: Buying Robots (2)
🕑 Added 2025-02-22 13:11:10 +0000 UTCHowever, after Josh looked into it, he realized that their so-called "interstellar travel" only went as far as Saturn. Even then, a round trip took over a year.
Compared to the technology of Josh's former life, this was an impressive speed. But for a true spacefaring civilization, it was only the beginning.
Because of this, while Earth had some capability to develop other planets in the solar system, the costs remained extremely high. Only the Moon, being the closest, had relatively lower expenses—but even then, lunar resources were still more expensive than Earth’s.
For Lawrence, access to large quantities of affordable metal resources was extremely valuable.
But for Josh, minerals were the last thing he lacked.
Every year, through trade with Daenerys and Yuri, he obtained vast amounts of rare metal ores—also known as rare earth elements—most of which were already refined into metal ingots.
After years of development, Daenerys' territory in the Game of Thrones world had basically entered early industrialization, leading to large-scale mineral extraction.
Yuri’s world was even better—it was practically an untouched, resource-rich Earth.
These resources greatly reduced costs for Josh's businesses, especially those in Austria, while also generating massive foreign exchange profits. This was one of the main reasons why the Austrian economy was growing even faster than the United States.
Under normal circumstances, Austria, with its limited natural resources, wouldn't be able to develop so quickly, even with advanced technology.
Now, these relatively cheap mineral resources were just as valuable to Lawrence.
In this particular deal alone, the payment for the robots included dozens of different rare metals. Without Josh's reminder, Lawrence wouldn't have noticed the vibranium mixed in.
But once Josh pointed it out, all Lawrence had to do was focus his thoughts and the vibranium appeared in his hand.
"I've never been stingy with good business partners! Keep it up, Lawrence. Produce as many robots as you can. Until I can fully set up my own production lines, how much you earn from me depends entirely on your efforts!" Josh said with a smile as he watched Lawrence become mesmerized by the vibranium.
This wasn't Josh being foolish or just giving Lawrence free money.
Business had to be mutually beneficial—one-sided dumping wasn’t a good strategy. It was always necessary to give the other party some incentive.
Besides, for the foreseeable future, Lawrence's world and its powerful industrial capabilities were exactly what Josh needed.
"I understand. I'll build more production lines as soon as possible and increase the output of robots!" Lawrence immediately promised.
With the massive supply of raw materials from this deal, his company's robot production was about to reach a whole new level.
"Boss, the plane is about to land!" At that moment, Vito's voice came from outside.
Right now, Josh was not on the Margaret cruise ship but on a small plane flying from Australia to Atauro Island.
The Margaret and its escort fleet were just a cover—there were no weapons or soldiers onboard.
The hired troops would be transported in batches to Atauro Island, north of East Timor, using planes from a major airline. After all, with large, fast jetliners and transport planes available, who would be foolish enough to use ships to transport troops?
Of course, this was only possible because Josh had his system storage. He didn’t need to transport military supplies the normal way—he just had to get the soldiers there, then take out the supplies on-site and arm them immediately.
He still had a massive stockpile of American weapons left over from the war, and he hadn't even sold them all yet.
Danerys' world had a limited population, and even after years of conquest, her army was barely a million strong. There was no way they could use up all the weapons.
With the advent of industrialization, Danerys had also begun to manufacture her own weapons. Though the quality wasn't high enough to meet WWII standards, it was easy enough to make 19th-century weapons, so they were sufficient for second-line troops.
Now Josh's biggest buyer of weapons was Cai Lin from the Mummy Universe, who was constantly expanding her army.
However, since Cai Lin's world could already produce WWI-era weapons, she only bought modern weapons for her elite troops. The rest of her troops were still using outdated WWI weapons from her own world.
As a result, about a third of Josh's massive stockpile of American weapons, enough to arm over a million soldiers, remained, and they were even becoming difficult to sell.
Blackwater International had recruited German mercenaries for the Java campaign, but they only numbered around a hundred thousand—not nearly enough to use up all the weapons.
No worries, though—once little Abbendis grows up, Josh could just sell them to him.
Orcs are fearless warriors? Able to fight three humans at once?
Ha! Just bomb them to pieces.
If the game can create an Iron Horde, then Josh can build an Iron Alliance for little Abbendis.
Wrath of the Lich King? Fine, let's bring in the robots.
Might as well see if the First Scourge or the Second Scourge is stronger.
As Josh's mind wandered, the plane landed on the island of Atauro.
At this time, East Timor was still a Portuguese colony.
Previously, Portugal had already refused Josh on the Macau issue.
So now, Josh and the Dutch government had temporarily leased Atauro Island from Portugal—there was no way they could refuse this time.
Otherwise, once the Dutch and Josh finished taking Java, they could easily turn around and take East Timor, and Portugal wouldn't be able to do anything about it.
Portugal, like Spain, was semi-isolated in Europe at the time, with only slightly better relations with the US.
If they got into a fight with a non-European country, it might be different. But if they got into a fight with a European powerhouse like the Netherlands, the U.S. wouldn't help them.
Right now, Atauro Island had nothing but a small airstrip.
New jet planes required better airfields.
That was why Josh had arrived early—to build an airport.
With the millions of robots he bought from Lawrence, constructing a temporary airbase would be a simple task.
