Chapter 4761

"Nick's already a pretty good boss." Steve sighed. "When Carter was giving birth, he gave her six months of paid maternity leave, and even a substantial childbirth subsidy. But my discharge pay and veterans' benefits still haven't come through—probably because they truly can't approve them."

"Of course they can't," Stark said. "The U. S. military hasn't had discharge pay for ages. Veterans' benefits require you to be a normal discharge and meet a whole bunch of conditions. Someone like you, already reported killed in action, absolutely can't get them."

"And as you said, Nick's a decent boss. Because of your situation, you not only can't get discharge pay, you might even get sued for fraudulently claiming death compensation."

"But I never received any death compensation!"

"Just because it didn't end up in your hands doesn't mean they didn't pay it out. As for where it went, you'll probably never find out. I'm sure they already thought of using this to blackmail you, only Nick stopped them."

Steve also slumped hopelessly in his chair: "You mean they're not only withholding my benefits, but also planning to sue me for faking my death to fraudulently claim death compensation?"

"This is already the best-case scenario. In fact, I've heard rumors the military considered branding you a deserter, using fake death to escape the war, shirking your military duty..."

"But when I died, they loudly proclaimed me a hero."

"Times change." Stark shook his head. "When they need you, you're naturally a hero. Or rather, you're a hero only if you listen to them. Otherwise, you're naturally a deserter."

Steve laughed bitterly: "I still say the same thing—America died in the Cold War long ago. What's alive now is just a corpse."

"There are good and bad people everywhere, and plenty speaking up for you." Stark comforted him. "These past few years you've lived peacefully without trouble—someone must have been quietly solving your problems behind the scenes. Whether it's Nick, Howard, or Bucky, they've all been helping you silently."

"I know that." Steve wiped his face. "Because of me, Bucky gave up his astronaut work and stayed on Earth to stand guard. I tried to persuade him, but he wouldn't listen."

"If today's America is a corpse, then at least our universe is a decent-looking corpse. This universe, though, looks like it's started to rot." Shiler sighed. "Even the alien armies haven't been fully wiped out, and they've already begun sanctioning the hometowns of mutant heroes on Earth."

"Who can possibly rein them in!" Steve exploded when mentioning this. "Are we just supposed to let them run wild like this? I can't accept it!"

"If it were the mutant leader of this universe, maybe we'd just have to endure, slowly bide our time until an opening appears. But you don't still not know about those two in our universe, do you? Revenge never waits overnight. The Three Great Empires have openly and covertly stirred up the Andromeda Galaxy how many times, with methods far more disgusting than this. Mutants aren't suffering—rather, the Three Great Empires are about to collapse."

"Good thing those two came." Steve said. "Otherwise, being called Captain America by mutants would make me feel ashamed."

"Hey, can I come in?" The voice of the main universe Spider-Man suddenly sounded outside the door. "If not, that's fine too. Mutants just sent someone saying they want us to go near the volcano, hoping we can help consult on the hot spring bath construction. You guys going?"

"Construction already started?" Shiler walked over in surprise to open the door for him, then said, "Don't they need to rest a bit?"

"Just finished fighting, the young mutants are all excited. They want to get the bathhouse built quickly so they can go soak in the hot springs. But some aspects are undecided, and they want our input."

"Alright, I got it—come in and sit a while, Peter."

He walked in, saw Stark, and said: "You look much better, Mr. Stark. Anywhere else feeling uncomfortable?"

Stark waved his hand, indicating he was fine. But soon he seemed to recall something and asked: "Peter, do you get colds?"

"Colds? Oh, sure. But after getting spider powers, I hardly ever catch colds anymore, though I have been infected with the flu before. Viral colds don't respond to spider abilities—it's just that my constitution is good, so I recover faster."

"Ah, that's it. I was worried about you." Stark said. "Coincidentally, our two doctors went to Hong Kong and grabbed some Chinese medicine that can prevent colds. Want a bowl?"

Steve and Shiler simultaneously shrugged helplessly. The main universe Spider-Man, oblivious, said: "Chinese medicine? I've heard of it. Every day on my way home from school, the boss at the Chinese supermarket would brew herbs at the doorway, looking quite miraculous. Can I really drink it?"

Shiler sighed: "Of course, I'll go brew some for you right now."

Stark's ill-intentioned smile was already blatantly obvious. Steve wanted to warn him, but Stark stopped him. So ten minutes later, another tearful cat head appeared on the sofa.

"How can it be this bitter?" Spider-Man was genuinely about to cry, chewing on preserved fruit while saying, "And it's not just bitter—it's also sour and astringent. My goodness, I'd rather catch a cold!"

Stark laughed uproariously, his whole face looking flushed and rosy, whether from the medicine's effect or psychological reasons. He rubbed his palms together, saying: "I feel much better now—let's go to the volcano right away."

But soon Spider-Man bounced up from the sofa: "Seems to have some effect—I feel like I'm sweating."

He wasn't talking nonsense—his forehead really was glistening with fine sweat, which wasn't there when he arrived. Spider-Man tugged at his collar, saying: "I feel this really works. Where'd you buy the medicine? I want to buy some to bring back for my aunt to prevent colds."

"That's probably far off." Shiler said. "And although this isn't a very potent herb, it still shouldn't be taken regularly. For conditioning the body, you'd likely need to get a different prescription. Go find your universe's Doctor Strange—he should know something."

"Alright, I'll ask him, though he seems still to be arguing with our universe's Iron Man, so he probably won't welcome me either." Spider-Man said helplessly.

"They're arguing?" Stark asked interestedly. "About what?"

"I don't know that." The main universe Spider-Man shook his head. "But whatever you guys usually argue about, they probably argue about the same."

"Oh, again it's that tech-and-magic thing." Stark said. "Then he shouldn't take it out on you—you can go ask him."

The main universe Spider-Man nodded, then said: "By the way, can I take a few of these preserved fruits with me? Thor loves sweets—I want to bring some back for him to try."

"No problem—Stephen bought several packs." Shiler somehow produced another pack from somewhere, handed it to Spider-Man, then said, "Originally I was also planning to bring some back for our universe's Thor."

After taking the preserved fruit, the main universe Spider-Man left. Steve said doubtfully: "Thor likes sweets? I've never heard that. When he eats in Asgard, he doesn't touch honeydew melon."

"It's Loki who likes sweets." Shiler let out a light hum. "Thor says he likes sweets so that if there's something good to eat, he can bring it back to give to Loki."

"So this is also for Loki?" Stark looked at the pack of preserved fruit, then said, "Just the preserved fruit?"

"What else would it be? You still want to let them try the Chinese medicine?" Shiler said. "Earlier I misspoke—there really is someone in the Avengers who doesn't get colds: Thor and Loki."

"I get Thor—he's an Aesir god, that bunch of gods have superb physiques, basically never get sick. But isn't Loki said to be frail and sickly?"

"Loki is a frost giant." Steve was equally helpless. "Have you ever heard of a frost giant catching a cold???"

Stark slapped his forehead—he'd forgotten that, but still shook his head regretfully: "You say golden apples aren't just one kind of Chinese medicine? Then everyone would have a demand for them."

Soon they put on their coats and went out. Shiler and Steve wore ordinary clothes, while Stark donned his armor—not just for warmth, but because he still lacked strength and needed the armor to carry him in flight.

Clark Asia Island is actually quite large—otherwise it wouldn't be both a basin and a volcano. The central royal court lies to the south, and the settlements are also in the south, so heading north to the volcano is still quite a distance. Stark flew straight there, while Shiler and Steve grew impatient halfway and hitched a ride with a mutant's tailwind, carried by a telekinetic mutant.

Said to be breaking ground, but they hadn't even settled on a location yet. Because when they truly reached the cave beneath the volcano, they discovered this place was truly too complex—building an underground city would be more than sufficient.

Stark's armor is bright blue, very easy to recognize. He wasn't with the mutants or the main universe Avengers on that side, but instead parked alone at another cave entrance. When Shiler and Steve got off, they also came to his side.

"You're not thinking of going down, are you?" Shiler questioned. Because he saw this cave was a surface opening, vertically descending over thirty meters, and the bottom might not even be visible—maybe it's just too dark to see what's below.

"I can feel underground hot springs here—the humidity and temperature are clearly rising." Stark said. "The cave where the others are might not be as close as ours. I also don't want to argue with them—better to just go down and see for myself."

"If mutants wanted to film a disaster movie, this place would absolutely be a filming location." Steve sighed. Because this cave isn't just deep—it's also huge, looking like a heavenly pit. From above it looks magnificent, but if you had to go down, it wouldn't differ much from a disaster movie scene.

"Still, it's only you who can't fly here." Stark wasn't mocking—he was just concerned. But Steve obviously wasn't the type to hesitate and look back and forth. Just as Stark was still speaking while looking down, Steve had already brought over a huge rock.

Because it's huge—Captain America himself needs both hands to lift it. Steve hoisted the rock in front of his chest, then directly threw it down into the pit. After a while, he heard a "pop."

"You trying to test how deep it is?" Stark thought for a moment, then said, "Judging by the speed the rock hit the ground, I feel it's at least fifty meters..."

He hadn't finished speaking when Steve grabbed his shield and jumped down. Stark's outstretched hand hadn't even had time to retract when Shiler also turned into a mist and descended. Stark had no choice but to hurry and fly down after them.

"You didn't forget my shield is vibranium, did you?" Steve stood up after landing, retrieved his shield, then said, "Don't say fifty meters—five hundred meters would be just as harmless landing."

"Then why did you just throw that rock?"

"Although I don't want to say this, Tony, but your illness absolutely hasn't healed—your brain isn't working all that well." Steve sighed. "I need to know whether the bottom is land or water. If it's underground hot springs over a hundred degrees, I'd get scalded too."

Stark slapped his forehead again—how had he forgotten this? But he said curiously: "But you can even work in a space environment."

"That's because it has a shield and a life-support collar. And these devices usually work by changing one's posture, which means altering the surrounding magnetic field to achieve life support. But changing something tangible like water is difficult. So if it's water, I can only find a rope and slowly climb down."

"Looks like working in space really taught you a lot," Shiler said. "Let's go check out what's ahead."