Chapter 3432: Midnight Sons (42)

I believe many people have this feeling, that is, you clearly know you are right, but if everyone is singing the opposite tune to you, you will also feel suspicious of yourself. Wanda was currently in this state.

Her reason told her that this kind of rise in gas prices was very abnormal, and even for the wealthiest people, they should feel shocked by this degree of price hike.

Globally speaking, gas prices in the United States indeed aren't considered very expensive, because they themselves are an oil-producing country and have fought many oil wars, so their crude oil production and reserves are acceptable.

But in reality, gas prices in the United States aren't that cheap either, especially in high-cost-of-living states like California. Besides expensive gas prices, there are also gas taxes. That kind of extremely low gasoline price basically only exists in places like the middle-of-nowhere Alaska; big cities with good economies aren't cheap.

Although the numbers don't look that expensive, the key lies in the fact that the per capita car ownership and per capita driving mileage in the United States are almost the highest in the world. If Australia is the country on the back of sheep, then the United States is the country on the wheels of cars.

The United States has almost no other transportation methods; besides long distances where you can take a plane, no matter where you want to go, you have to drive. The vast plains also provided them with good road conditions, so the per capita gas consumption is 4-5 times that of other countries.

Under these circumstances, even if gas prices rose by a few cents, it would be fatal. This means that a car's monthly gasoline expenditure might rise by dozens of dollars, and travel costs would soar upward.

And because the United States doesn't have many other travel facilities—subways and big airports basically only exist in big cities, not to mention trains and high-speed rail—and many roads in the United States don't even have sidewalks, you can only drive to get anywhere. This means that the living costs that must be spent have also risen a lot.

And like the current situation, where it rose 40% in one year and is still continuously rising, it should have long ago triggered an uproar, with ordinary people complaining everywhere they go.

However, Wanda hadn't heard any complaints. She wasn't the type of person who liked to complain much, so she had been holding back and not saying anything. This time, she finally managed to say a few words, but no one agreed with her, and Wanda even thought it was really her own problem.

Jarvis of course knew it wasn't. Electronic life is best at statistical data; emotions can deceive people, but real data cannot. The rise in New York gas prices was indeed abnormal.

But Jarvis didn't immediately present facts and reason; he knew that Wanda in this state basically couldn't listen to any reason. So he just touched Wanda's cheek and said: "Let's not mention this. I made scrambled egg sandwiches; let's eat first."

Wanda struggled to get out of her frustrated mood and sat at the dining table, but she looked like she was eating without tasting anything, remaining vacant, not knowing what she was thinking about.

Jarvis ate while frequently checking the cameras of various facilities in New York, summarizing and aggregating the data at hand.

Just as they were halfway through the meal, the child cried. Only then did Wanda wake up and run upstairs in a hurry.

After getting the child to calm down, Wanda finally managed to struggle out of that mood. She took a deep breath and said: "Yesterday the Professor told me that Lorna has been in a bad mood recently, and they plan to give her a vacation, but they need manpower over at the Andromeda Galaxy."

Jarvis's hand holding the sandwich froze, and he said: "They want you to go?"

"No, maybe they feel I won't go, but I feel I can consider it. What do you think?"

Jarvis of course wanted to say no. Wanda hadn't ascended; her life form was still a carbon-based organism, and no matter how strong the chaos power was, it didn't affect the physical injury brought to her by childbirth.

Moreover, when the Billy brothers were young, they were particularly difficult to take care of; they were very typical high-demand babies, crying at the drop of a hat. Wanda and Jarvis combined couldn't get a full night's sleep.

Later, when their mutant abilities first appeared, it was even more disturbing. Now that it was finally a bit stable, it was exactly the time to recuperate her body, but she wanted to run to a place like the Andromeda Galaxy to open up wasteland. How could this be allowed?

But Jarvis didn't dare to say it directly, worried that it would make Wanda fall into a cycle of self-doubt again. The psychology module he loaded was almost smoking, and in the end, he could only decide to call Dr. Schiller.

Schiller was sitting behind Eddie watching him edit videos. After receiving Jarvis's call, he stood up and turned to walk out the door. In a place he couldn't see, Eddie, who had been moving slowly, immediately started working at ten times the speed.

"What's wrong? Jarvis?"

"Doctor, it's an emergency."

"Don't be anxious first, tell me what's going on..."

"Alright, Doctor, let's skip the part where you pretend to be an ordinary psychologist who needs to ask questions to understand the basic situation, and just tell me, what should I do?"

Schiller very much wanted to reply with a big question mark, but he thought about it again and felt that Jarvis's situation wasn't hard to guess.

It was impossible for Jarvis to have any psychological problems, so the one with the problem must be Wanda. Wanda's psychological problems looked complex, but they boiled down to one issue—internal friction caused by constantly wavering between the positions of ordinary people and mutants.

"Find a way to keep her on Earth," Schiller said directly. "But don't reason with her, and definitely don't directly contact Professor X and the others to have them withdraw the invitation, otherwise it will make her self-doubt even more severe."

"Then what should I do?"

"Help her find a job, preferably one that perfectly fits her conditions, one she can immediately be competent at, the faster the positive feedback, the better."

Jarvis scratched his head; this matter was easier said than done. Where could there be such a perfect job opportunity?

"There is exactly one position in this world that she is completely competent for, and one that can bring a very strong sense of achievement."

"What?"

"Superhero."

After hanging up the phone, Jarvis deliberately sighed, successfully attracting Wanda's attention.

Jarvis pretended to be distracted while holding the plate, as if he were communicating with someone else. After a while, he sighed again.

He counted down three, two, one in his heart, and sure enough, a pair of hands hugged him from behind. Jarvis put down the plate and turned around, Wanda burying her head in his chest.

"Do I make you feel troubled?" Wanda asked.

"It's not about you, darling. I just had a call with Tony, and the situation on his end isn't very optimistic..."

"What's wrong again?"

"Have you heard the news about the fire at the Roxxon Energy Industrial Building?"

Wanda looked up at Jarvis and shook her head.

"He and the new Spider-Man went to handle this matter, but the two had some conflict and ended up parting on bad terms. Tony suspects someone might be instigating it from behind, but there's no evidence. I'm investigating it now."

Jarvis said with feigned worry: "I still have to do technical maintenance for Stark Tower tonight; Tony and Pepper are really something, they wish they could split me into two people to use."

"Tony and Spider-Man went to handle it, but had a conflict?" Wanda said with some confusion. "No way? Peter doesn't look like the type to argue with people, even if someone is instigating discord, it's impossible."

"It's not Peter, but the new Spider-Man..."

After listening to Jarvis's explanation, Wanda thought for a moment and said: "I don't understand the technology of Stark Tower, but helping you solve this matter is still very simple. I'll go see Miles's situation first; if he really contacted some unsavory people, I guarantee I'll bring that guy to justice!"

"No, no, that's very dangerous." Jarvis deliberately refused, "Your body hasn't recovered well, you can't fight people, I don't agree."

Wanda's eyeballs rolled, and suddenly, as if she had just remembered something, she pushed Jarvis away and glared at him: "What's going on with our car?!"

"What car?" Jarvis played dumb, "The car is parked well in the garage, what's wrong?"

"All the cameras in New York are under your control; Schiller took our car to race with the police, and you wouldn't know?!"

"Ah, that matter." Jarvis didn't intend to explain at all; he grabbed Wanda, who was about to leave, reached out to hug her waist, and doggishly rubbed against her neck.

Wanda turned around in his arms and pushed him again, then said: "Don't think you can fool me like this, what if the license plate is captured by the police, I'll be miserable!"

"Then do you know that the mobile phones of all the police in New York are also under my control?" Jarvis whispered against her ear.

Wanda shivered and sighed, saying: "Don't use this tone to say such terrifying things."

Seeing that he had fooled her, Jarvis laughed again, reached out to help her tuck her red hair behind her head, and said: "Alright, then you can go see Miles, the car matter is written off."

Wanda hesitated slightly and nodded. She indeed needed to find something to do for herself now; moonlighting as a superhero wasn't impossible.

Schiller hung up the communication with Jarvis and returned to Eddie's side, remembering the chat content he had heard on the platform before. He asked casually: "What do you think of Roxxon?"

"What?" Eddie was focused on work and didn't hear it at first. But Venom's head popped out on his shoulder. Venom bared his fangs and cursed: "They are a pile of dog shit! The increased gas fees are enough to buy me a room full of chocolate!"

Eddie nodded and said: "Indeed, I don't know what they are thinking, making gas prices so expensive, doesn't everyone go to buy electric cars? Now they don't allow casual tariffs, making me want to buy an electric car too."

Schiller also realized where the problem lay. After the space station crash incident, cooperation between human countries became closer, the Earth Federation began to take shape, and the United Nations became more powerful.

Countries initially drafted joint bills, generally avoiding vicious competition, not allowing isolationism, making very strict requirements for the magnitude and frequency of tariffs, and also formulating new regulations for product dumping and product monopoly, with Earth stepping into the post-globalization era once again.

This resulted in global foreign trade volume rising, especially for imported products like electronic products and household appliances that used to be expensive due to tariffs, all showing a downward trend in price, and cars were the same.

The development of Mercury allowed humanity to have almost unlimited clean energy; now the main use of petroleum is the chemical industry, not the energy industry, and the prices of petroleum energy everywhere are falling.

But it just so happens that the United States is unique; gas prices aren't falling but rising, and not just rising a little, but rising like crazy.

At first, Schiller didn't react, because this was actually a normal phenomenon. Previously, due to issues like range, the market for electric cars in the United States wasn't very large, and the vast majority of Americans used gas cars.

You can't say that just because humanity has entered a new energy era, all gas cars should be eliminated immediately; that's simply unrealistic. People's cars are driving well, not broken or old, why would they change them?

So for a long time, the United States will still be a major consumer of petroleum energy, and will also be impacted by certain new energy sources, leading to narrower channels for crude oil processing and increased costs of various types, which might lead to small increases in gas prices.

But the current magnitude of this rise is abnormal. If it keeps rising like this, in less than half a year, the extra gas money could buy a brand-new electric car. Is Roxxon really not afraid of playing itself to collapse?

This clearly doesn't conform to the laws of market economy at all; if they dare to be so fearless, there must be something else they are relying on.

?? Today I used the shark dog's ultimate move to jump off a cliff and get a pentakill, hope everyone knows.

? (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 3433 =====