American Comic Dimensional Trading Device

Even he, who doesn't like drinking, enjoys having a couple of drinks now and then.

"It's good that you're confident. By the way, where are we going?" Seeing Josie's confidence, Howard Duck shrugged and didn't say anything more, but asked in return.

“It’s the place I told Loki about, a sector I temporarily chose as my base. My fleet and many subordinates are stationed there, and it hasn’t been named yet… Hmm, what do you think of calling it the Pantheon?” Josie asked as she explained.

"Pantheon? Aren't you afraid your head will get too heavy? You dare to give it such a heavy name!" Upon hearing the name Pantheon, Howard Duck couldn't help but tug at his beak.

There are many gods in the universe. Won't such a name get slapped in the face by those gods?

"...Hehe, you'll find out later!" Josie said with a mysterious smile.

If it were just Josie himself, he naturally wouldn't dare to casually use such a grand name as the Pantheon. However, he believed that the future Mother Earth, Tiamat, would definitely stand by his side. With such a powerful figure in existence, what's wrong with the Pantheon?

In the entire universe, apart from a few creator gods and those dimensional demons who cannot easily descend upon the main universe, is there anyone with a greater presence than the Celestials?

Seeing Josie acting so mysteriously, Howard the Duck couldn't help but become curious.

However, he also knew that Josie probably wouldn't tell him too much. After all, Howard Duck hadn't been with Josie for long, and letting him know about Loki-related matters already showed how much she valued him.

That's right, although they haven't known each other for long, Howard Duck has already joined Josie's team.

The conditions were simple: Howard the Duck agreed to do things for Josie, and Josie would provide him with the best treatment and help him find his way home.

Howard the Duck didn't come to this universe on its own; it was due to some accident.

It's easy to come, but hard to go back.

He has been trapped in this universe for several years.

Although he was quite strong, he could only ensure his own survival in space. As for going home... he had absolutely no clue.

They also failed to find anyone capable of helping them.

So why do you think he sold himself to the Collector? Because before meeting Josie, the Collector was the most likely person he would meet to help him get home and offer him the best living conditions.

Clearly, while the collector didn't care about having another freeloader among the exhibits, he had no interest in helping Howard the Duck go home.

Fortunately, he has now met a sucker like Josh.

Howard Duck, of course, has to cling to the coattails.

But... Pantheon, damn it, don't get hammered to death before you even get back to your own home!

Chapter 280 The Second Fleet of the Vrykul

Josie stood on the bridge, looking at the view outside the porthole of the open armor plate, her face ashen.

Outside was the location he had previously told Loki and Howard the Duck about—the base of the Ranger Fleet, which he originally wanted to name the Pantheon, a hidden planet on the edge of the galaxy with nascent life forms, designated D-01.

He had originally envisioned returning to find a bustling construction site.

For example, the starports under construction, various mines within the planet, and machinery manufacturing plants.

However, just an hour before he returned, his squadron suddenly received a distress signal from the Ranger Fleet.

An hour later, when the fleet arrived at full speed, all that remained in Josie's sight was devastation.

The starport, which was just beginning to take shape, has been turned into a pile of space debris.

The fleet's remaining twenty-odd main warships were mostly reduced to wreckage, with only one or two still intact and possessing some power, though they occasionally emitted flames.

As for the space fighters, their wreckage was scattered throughout space, with only a small number of survivors still busy searching.

Thick smoke billowed from the planet's mines, factories, and legion encampments.

Large numbers of robots, stormtroopers, centaurs dressed in fleet uniforms, and a small number of strange-looking aliens are on the move to provide relief.

"What...what exactly happened here?" Margot's voice trembled slightly, not because the scene was too gruesome, but because this was her own property, and such a huge loss pained her.

Peggy Carter, standing next to her, also frowned deeply, then glanced at Josie a few times, feeling somewhat worried.

She had just decided to acknowledge and assist Josie in becoming the future leader of humanity when this happened—the sheer size of this place must be the majority of Josie's power, right?

The fastest to react was Talonnicus, who, without Josie's orders, immediately organized the squadron's manpower to carry out the rescue operation.

Howard the Duck was the only one who remained calm – after all, he was new here and didn't know the specifics of the situation.

"Josh..." Seeing Josh's ashen face, Carter tried to go over and comfort her.

Before she could speak, Josie spoke first.

"Excuse me, I must take my leave for a moment!" As Josie spoke, she opened the portal, and on the other side of the portal was the boundless universe.

After stepping into the portal, it immediately closes.

“This…” Carter frowned even more deeply upon seeing this, then looked at Margot beside him, “Aren’t you worried?”

"Don't worry, although the losses are significant, the loss of just one fleet is nothing to us. It's far from crippling. If you're really worried, you can join me in the rescue operation!" Margot didn't show much sadness on her face; instead, she began to comfort Carter.

This left Carter both puzzled and utterly shocked.

Such a large fleet is nothing.

Just how powerful has Josie's strength become?

Peggy Carter said this was beyond anything she could have imagined.

However, her doubts did not last long, as countless bright spots suddenly appeared not far from planet D-01.

"What is that?" Peggy Carter, who was on a transport ship and working with Margot on a search and rescue mission, noticed the anomaly in the sky and asked alertly.

"Rest assured, Ms. Carter, we just received a fleet-wide communication that the leader is leading the Vrykul Second Fleet to provide support!" The pilot in front answered before Margot could reply.

"The Vrykul Second Fleet?" Carter's eyes widened in surprise. No wonder Margot said that a single fleet was nothing; it turned out there was a second fleet.

If that's the case, then is there a Third or Fourth Fleet?

And there is...

"Why is the Second Fleet called Viku? That name sounds a bit strange!" Carter muttered to himself.

"Because the Second Fleet is not mainly composed of humans, but an alien race called the Vrykul. They are much taller than humans and extremely fierce, so Josie recruited some of them for his own use!" Margot replied after hearing Carter's mutterings.

“Ah, I remember now. When we were with the Collector, one of the species Josie sold to them was a mummy called a Vrykul. But Josie said that this race was extinct, wasn’t it?” Carter immediately recalled upon hearing Margot’s answer.

“How can we sell it for a high price if we don’t say it that way?” Margot replied without any surprise.

This answer left Carter speechless.

...Just as the spaceship pilot and Margot had said, the scattered stars that suddenly appeared in space were the Vrykul Second Fleet led by Josie.

The main fighting force in the fleet, besides the regular robot troops, consists of the flesh-and-blood Vrykul, the ancestors of humans in the world of Azeroth.

The first Vrykul, like the ancestors of the dwarves, were created by the Titans as tools to aid them when they first arrived in Azeroth.

These creations, cursed by the flesh and blood of the Old Gods, evolved into the flesh-and-blood Vrykul and dwarves.

As for the Iron Vrykul and Iron Dwarves, they were created by the Titans when they arrived in Azeroth for the second time and discovered that the first generation of creations were cursed. They were the second generation of creations, which were relatively more difficult to be cursed.

The dwarves are the guardians created by the Titans, and the next generation of creations created by Mimiron.

Because of the Curse of Flesh, the original Vrykul were wiped out by the Titans without becoming excessively corrupted, but they were constantly weakened by the curse, gradually becoming weaker and less like humans from their original tall and strong form.

The Vrykul King Ymiron issued a cruel order: all weakened Vrykul infants must be eliminated to ensure the purity of the Vrykul people.

As a result, a large number of Vrykul fled to the south and became the later humans.

The remaining Vrykul, due to the dwindling number of cursed individuals, were forced to use magic to put most of them into a deep sleep to prevent their extinction.

In the original timeline, after Arthas became the Lich King, he discovered these sleeping Vrykul, awakened and subdued them, making them a powerful fighting force under his command, which caused a lot of trouble for the later Alliance and Horde armies.

If the Vrykul population hadn't been reduced to a very low level due to the curse, the Northrend campaign would likely have been far more difficult than it actually was.

However, thanks to Josie's influence, Abidis's expedition fleet, or rather, privateer fleet, arrived in Northrend more than a decade earlier than the Lich King Ner'zhul and Arthas in the original storyline, and, guided by Josie, found these sleeping Vrykul.

The rest is quite simple.

All the sleeping Vrykul, including King Ymiron and Queen Angboda, were traded to Josie by Abidis the Younger.

After being traded to Josie, these Vrykul were awakened.

However, the Vrykul are essentially a group of barbarians, just like the ancient Vikings on Earth. They are savage and brutal by nature and are not so easy to subdue.

However, this wasn't a big problem for Josh.

Because while the Vrykul are savage and brutal, they also admire strength.

But Josie was far stronger than them.

With tens of thousands of Vrykul watching, Joshi easily killed King Ymiron and Queen Angboda of the Vrykul. Apart from a small number of die-hard loyalists, most of the remaining Vrykul chose to pledge allegiance.

From then on, Josie had this formidable Vrykul army under her command.

In order to ensure the stability of this Vrykul army, Josie did not assign them human commanders.

Given the size of a human, there's no way to expect these incredibly unruly Vrykul to obey—unless the human is stronger than them.

A very harsh reality is that most ordinary human soldiers, even those injected with the Super Soldier Serum, would find it difficult to fight a Vrykul. Only a small number of powerful human soldiers can match the Vrykul with their agility.

Therefore, to gain the complete obedience of these Vrykul, a more powerful group of commanders is needed.

However, Josie also happens to have a race that is equally powerful and savage, but is more intelligent and orderly than the Vrykul.

This race is the Transformers.

In the past few years, Josie has kept his word in his dealings with Starscream, helping him obtain a series of Cybertronian treasures, including the AllSpark, the Leader Module, and the Scepter of Life—after all, these things are on Earth, and it's not difficult to get them.