Dimensional Trader in Marvel

"This is... Vibranium? Why does it smell like the sea?" Josh frowned slightly as he looked at the piece of ore Carter had brought him.

"Because it was retrieved from the sea!" Carter replied.

"Hmm? Retrieved from the sea? Was it accidentally lost in the sea, or..." Upon hearing Carter's words, a possibility flashed in Josh's mind.

"Exactly, according to my analysts, the area where this ore was found is likely to have an underwater vibranium mine!" Carter nodded, confirming the very possibility Josh had been hoping for.

"This is huge news, isn't it?" Josh's face lit up with excitement upon hearing this.

Although the destruction of Wakanda had allowed him to secretly seize large amounts of vibranium, a profit far surpassing that of the major powers involved, it still wasn't enough for Josh.

After all, vibranium, whether for personal use or as a trade product across dimensions, was a top-tier resource.

Most of the vibranium Josh had left was now being used to create alloys by combining it with other metals from different worlds.

Making another full vibranium set of armor for Carter, as he had done before, was simply not feasible anymore.

And Josh was considered lucky, as he still had some extra vibranium left to forge into alloys for equipment.

The United States, Russia, and a few other countries that had physically occupied Wakanda had even less.

One reason was that they only had access to pure mines, with production levels stagnant due to mutual interference between the countries, preventing any significant increase in yield.

The other issue was that they lacked the proper techniques for using vibranium. Initially, these nations had, like Josh, used the vibranium to make weapons and armor, but because they lacked the relatively developed technology that Wakanda possessed, they could only use it to make cold weapons or core components for various weapons.

But soon they realized this was a complete waste.

Vibranium-based equipment was indeed powerful, but using it just to create weapons didn't give them a significant advantage. It wasn't enough to equip entire armies at scale.

For instance, during the recent unification of Austria; Russia, Britain, and France had sent elite troops armed with vibranium weapons into Austria, but they were quickly subdued. Not only did they lose their men, but the vibranium equipment ended up cheapening Austria's own stockpile.

This exposed that Austria also had vibranium, and it highlighted that once everyone had it, there would be no real advantage.

Moreover, unlike Josh, who had the technology to reforge vibranium, these nations were stuck with whatever they had made. Once it was created, it couldn't be altered, leading to a huge waste as they produced many useless items.

Luckily, after years of research, these nations had started to understand vibranium's true potential.

That potential? Research and development.

Though the weaponry and equipment of the U.S. and Russia still lagged behind Austria's, they had made significant advancements over their previous timelines, thanks in large part to Josh's influence and vibranium's role in helping them.

From machine tools to particle accelerators, vibranium was essential in so many fields.

However, this had also greatly increased the consumption of vibranium.

Now, on Earth, vibranium was truly scarce.

Josh, the local landowner, was running low on reserves.

Now, Carter had told him about the possible discovery of an underwater vibranium mine, how could this not be huge news?

"Yes, that's why as soon as I got the information, I came straight to report it to you. And I made sure to handle all the personnel who knew about it!" Carter nodded.

Josh gave her a surprised glance.

Although Carter had already declared her full loyalty to him, the fact that she was ruthless enough to handle all the IMF personnel involved in this operation, even those she had worked closely with, was a bit unexpected for Josh.

But the next thing she said made him realize he had misunderstood.

"Don't look at me like that. I didn't do it all. After the team discovered the underwater vibranium mine, they were attacked and all killed. The only thing left was the original ore and a piece of information that their leader managed to leave behind at a secret location before he died!" Carter rolled her eyes at Josh's gaze.

Although Carter might have done what Josh was thinking if the group had followed the normal protocol and submitted the report, that was not what happened. And she wasn't willing to take the blame for something she hadn't done.

"Attacked and killed?" Josh asked, realizing that the situation was more complicated than he had thought.

"Yes, every site had large amounts of seawater, and some of the agents' vibranium equipment was missing!" Carter shrugged. As one of America's key intelligence agencies, IMF had received a share of vibranium every year, supported by Josh in its early days.

Especially with the early wasteful manufacturing of various equipment, most of it had been distributed to intelligence agencies, so it wasn't surprising that some of the more established IMF teams had members with one or two pieces of vibranium gear.

After all, as long as the enemy wasn't too powerful, vibranium gear could save your life in critical moments.

"The latter makes sense. Anyone who knows the value of vibranium wouldn't leave it behind. But the fact that there was seawater at every scene... that's unusual!" Josh commented.

"It's not that simple. From the bodies of the agents who had vibranium equipment, I found they all had fatal penetrating wounds, and all the locations where they were wounded were places where they should have been wearing vibranium armor!" Carter shook her head, denying Josh's theory that the attacker had simply taken the vibranium for its value.

"Your point is... the attacker didn't take the vibranium equipment because they wanted it, but to cover up the fact that they had breached the vibranium's defense?" Josh's interest was piqued even more.

According to Carter, the agents had likely intended to use the vibranium armor to protect themselves from the attacker's deadly strike, but the attacker had directly breached the vibranium defenses. And most likely, it was done with physical force.

That was remarkable!

Using extreme energy to overload vibranium and cause it to break down wasn't surprising to Josh.

But using physical attacks to breach vibranium's defenses? In the entire MCU, only Thanos had done something like that.

Could it be? Was there someone on Earth with power on the level of Thanos?

No, that possibility was very small.

If that possibility was ruled out, then there was only one conclusion left: the attacker had extremely advanced vibranium technology and knew its properties so well that their weapons could bypass the vibranium defense.

And with the sea, underwater... Could it be Atlantis?

But Atlantis had already been searched, and there was clearly nothing there!

Indeed, as a traveler, Josh couldn't have forgotten about Atlantis. In fact, he had even discovered records of Atlantis in the memories of the Eternals and in the documents of Kamar-Taj and Attilan.

Atlantis had indeed been a highly prosperous civilization in ancient times.

However, unlike many elements in the MCU, such as the Eternals or Asgard, this Atlantis was merely a prosperous ancient island civilization, and its rulers did possess some extraordinary powers. Beyond that, there was nothing particularly special about it. Thousands of years ago, it had been completely destroyed due to earthquakes and floods.

The remains of its underwater ruins were all that was left in the area, and even the civilization's greatest treasure, The Tablet of Life, had been collected by Odin and now resided in Loki's hands.

This led Josh to believe that Atlantis no longer existed in this world.

But now, the signs Carter mentioned left by the attacker made it hard for Josh to ignore the possibility of Atlantis.

Had he missed something important during his search for Atlantis?

"The place where this ore was found, wasn't it the North Atlantic?" Josh asked.

"Huh? How did you know?" Carter was surprised by his question.

"...Could it really be Atlantis?" Josh rubbed his forehead, feeling a bit of a headache. It seemed he had made a big mistake.

"Atlantis? Does it actually exist?" Carter was initially surprised, but then it dawned on her.

The universe had been visited, and just yesterday, she had seen the gods of Asgard. Now, the idea of Atlantis showing up didn't seem so strange.

"Of course it does. I even sent someone to investigate it before, in the waters surrounding the Strait of Gibraltar! But at the time, after investigating, we only found an underwater ruin, so we didn't think much of it. Looking back now, I realize that I, and the person who was in charge of the investigation, made a huge mistake!" Josh explained with a nod. (TL/N: The Strait of Gibraltar is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Europe from Africa.)

He still had a strong impression of Atlantis's location because it was not far from the Canary Islands, where Tiamat resided.

But then, thinking about Tiamat, Josh felt something was off. If a submerged kingdom was so close, Tiamat would have surely known about it!

At that moment, Peggy Carter raised a concern.

"The waters surrounding Gibraltar? But that doesn't fit. According to the information left by the team leader, the ore was found in the Bermuda Triangle area!" Carter said.

"Bermuda?" Josh froze at her words and immediately called out, "Pangu, open the world map!"

Pangu was a powerful new AI terminal created by Yuri, combining technologies from his own world, the I, Robot world, and the Star Wars universe. It was highly reliable and robust.

Of course, Josh had named it "Pangu." He originally considered naming it Cortana, but after the betrayal in Halo 5, he thought it was bad luck, so he casually named it after an primordial being and creation figure in Chinese mythology.

After confirming the coordinates Carter mentioned, and comparing them with the location of the Atlantis ruins he knew, Josh was shocked.

The two coordinates were both in the North Atlantic, but one was to the east and the other to the west. The distance between them was over four thousand kilometers!

This clearly did not match the location of Atlantis.

Although in Josh's previous life, many marketing accounts and certain street literature tried to link the Bermuda Triangle with Atlantis, in reality, it was just another example of historical fabrication, much like how Western histories are often manipulated to inflate their own importance.

Yes, there are underwater ruins in the area around Bermuda, but those are left by the Maya civilization, and they have absolutely no connection to your European Atlantis!

From both the geographical location and architectural style, there was no connection whatsoever.

"Here?" Looking at the marked location on the holographic map, Josh fell into thought, then ordered Pangu, "Pangu, search the database for any related legends about this area!"

"Searching... Relevant information found!" Pangu's deep electronic voice boomed as a few pieces of information were displayed.

One immediately caught both Josh and Carter's attention.

Talokan, the underwater world described in the Aztec Classics, ruled by the rain god, a kingdom under the sea, a resting place for souls lost to storms or drowned!

"Looks like I didn't make a mistake, but rather, this isn't the same place!" After reading the information, Josh and Carter exchanged a glance and spoke.

"What do you plan to do? Based on the information we have, if this civilization really exists, it may be far from simple!" Carter asked.

"What's there to fear? No matter how complicated, I don't believe they can withstand an endless robot army!" Josh snorted.

Indeed, compared to land or space, Josh's forces, including the robots, weren't as effective underwater. But judging by how hard the enemy tried to conceal themselves, it was clear that Talokan, much like Wakanda, was a sparsely populated civilization.

A civilization with a large population wouldn't remain isolated, after all. While vibranium was valuable, it couldn't be eaten.

Of course, Josh didn't want to be too absolute. The ocean's resources were far more abundant than land-based ones.

But even if he had misjudged the situation, with his current power, he wasn't afraid.

"You don't need to get involved with this. After all, you wouldn't be able to exert much strength underwater!" Josh told Carter.

Not just Carter, but most of Josh's subordinates would have little impact when dealing with this Talokan civilization.

Underwater combat was a nightmare for most land-based creatures.

Not to mention breathing problems, the immense water pressure alone was enough to crush most people.

Additionally, if their weapons could penetrate vibranium defenses, it meant that even wearing powered armor would only serve to provide a metal coffin.

So, if the two sides did engage in battle, Josh's well-armed, breathless robots would be the main force.

The divine warriors, while affected, would have a smaller impact and could serve as support.

While robots would also face resistance underwater, they wouldn't be as agile as on land, but at least they could still deliver normal firepower.

Additionally, Josh would need to borrow a fleet from Yuri!

Hmm? Actually, maybe he could borrow a special navy from Abbendis!

"I understand!" Carter didn't reject Josh's plan. She couldn't imagine herself fighting underwater—it sounded like a nightmare.

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