Metal iridium?
Of course Josh knew what metal iridium was.
He had to thank the first Avengers movie for that.
There was an important scene where Loki went to Germany and gouged out an old scientist's eye, then Hawkeye scanned the retina on the other side and stole a big chunk of iridium from a vault.
That piece of iridium was then used as a stabilizing device for the Chitauri's portal.
After watching the movie, Josh specifically looked up what this stuff was.
He learned it's a relatively expensive platinum-group metal with extremely stable chemical properties, the most corrosion-resistant metal, and insoluble in acids. In its dense state, even boiling aqua regia can't dissolve it. Its reserves on Earth are extremely scarce.
It's mainly used to make all kinds of advanced scientific instruments and is very suitable as an alloy additive.
It is also an important raw material for smartphones and new energy vehicle batteries.
The price reached as high as $5000–6000 per ounce. In RMB, that's 1000–1500 per gram.
Sounds high-end and valuable, right?
But there's a harsh reality: this stuff actually isn't that easy to sell.
Even in the 21st century, when electronics are everywhere, global demand in the best years only reached a little over ten tons, and just a few tons in low years.
And that's in the electronics-saturated 21st century.
In 1944, Josh's time...know what this stuff was used for? Fountain pen nibs...
To put it bluntly, the consumption is extremely low. Sell a little, and it's not worth the trouble. Sell a lot, and it won't sell at all. It's pure chicken ribs—tasteless but a pity to discard!
However, when Josh explained this, Yuri started cursing.
"Stupid! Utterly stupid! Who the hell told you to sell it? Since you've come in contact with people from my timeline, do you know about the War Factory? About Apocalypse Tanks? About Tesla Troopers? About Tesla Coils? About the Magnetic Reactor? Not just the Soviets, even the Allies' various military technologies use massive amounts of iridium in their core components! In our world, iridium has become the most hotly contested strategic resource between the Allies and Soviets, and you're telling me it won't sell???"
If they weren't in different universes, from the way Yuri looked, Josh would probably have been strangled to death on the spot.
And faced with Yuri's outburst, Josh opened his mouth—but had nothing to say...
What could he say? That his world didn't have that kind of technology? Yeah, never mind 1944 America—even in the 21st century of his past life, most of Red Alert's tech only existed in dreams.
But Yuri's attitude was clear: Josh didn't have it, but he did.
Even in the Cretaceous, as one of the most overpowered tech geniuses in the Red Alert world, Josh believed Yuri, like a future Tony Stark, could build a battle suit with the right tools—what? Tesla Trooper armor isn't a battle suit? The man doesn't even fear getting run over by tanks!
"Hehe, Lord Yuri, don't be angry! I'm just young and ignorant, I didn't recognize something valuable!" Just thinking about all those insane Red Alert technologies made Josh drool. He quickly tried to butter up Yuri. "Whatever you need, just say the word. If I can get it, I will."
"Hmph, at least you know your place. Hmm, don't rush other things—first, get me some food and drink, especially vegetables and alcohol. The Damn Cretaceous era only has dinosaurs and ferns, I can barely see any decent-sized mammals (though the Cretaceous did have small mammals). Also, get me a computer…never mind, it's 1944, no computers yet. Get me a typewriter and some paper. I'll give you a list of the equipment I need, sorted by priority, and you can procure it gradually. Oh, and if possible…send a few people over for me…you know what I mean!" Yuri added with a wink.
In the Cretaceous, thanks to his psychic control abilities, Yuri didn't need to worry about survival. Unlike his clones, the original Yuri could control over a hundred normal people at once, let alone dinosaurs with brains the size of walnuts
…Okay, that was a joke. Of course, large dinosaurs didn't literally have walnut-sized brains. But they definitely weren't as smart as humans, so they weren't hard for Yuri to control.
The reason Yuri survived this long was because he had taken control of several T-Rexes and an entire raptor pack so food, water, and safety weren't issues but long-term isolation made loneliness inevitable.
As a would-be conqueror, Yuri hadn't yet stooped so low as to be like certain people from the subcontinent who'd do things with lizards.
Now that he had a dimensional trading device, if he didn't enjoy himself, wouldn't that be letting himself down?
When Josh heard Yuri's request, he immediately understood. People, huh? No problem!
He didn't buy people through the trading system because he lacked means of control and feared the device's secret would be exposed. But selling people to Yuri? That was another story.
Of course, as a man of conscience, Josh deeply abhorred human trafficking but if the people sold were Japs, that was different.
Japs were chickens, not people. Nothing wrong with that.
And where would he get Japs from? Easy.
After Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt, citing wartime needs, ordered the forced relocation of huge numbers of Japs from the West Coast to ten "relocation camps" in the interior—up to 120,000 of them.
In addition, hundreds of thousands already living inland or on the East Coast were ostracized. There were quite a few in Chicago too.
Give Dix a heads-up later, and it should be easy to acquire a batch.
And thinking about it, these Japs were suffering discrimination and marginalization in America. By sending them to the resource-rich Cretaceous, under the care of a super-powerful Yuri, Josh would actually be saving them. Compared to that, what is freedom worth? Didn't they worship the strong anyway?
The more Josh thought about it, the more right it felt.
"Japs, huh~ not unacceptable, but I still prefer white ones!" When Josh said he could only send Japs, Yuri was clearly not thrilled. But as long as they weren't black, it was fine.
Of course, Yuri didn't mind if Josh sent blacks too—they could always mine.
"Whites are fine too, but you'll have to wait until the war ends next year. I'll go to Europe and get some for you then." Josh stroked his chin and promised. In the immediate post-war period, nearly all of Europe was famine-stricken. The victors were slightly better off with U.S. aid, but the defeated countries were in dire straits. Back then, rounding up people under the guise of "confession" wouldn't draw much attention. Besides, it'd count as saving them…better to pioneer in the Cretaceous than starve to death, right?
Yep, this was also a good deed. No problem.
Josh felt he was such a kind person.
"Right, Mr. Yuri, for the early trades—aside from iridium—prepare some dinosaur eggs for me too!" Josh suddenly thought of it.