Chapter 4828

"It looks like supernatural phenomena are indeed going to break out on a large scale." While having breakfast, Dr. Banner said with slight concern: "I don't know how many people will die. Although some of them truly deserve it, if too many die, it might also trigger panic."

Bucky then turned to look at Steve. As Captain America, Steve's sense of justice would normally prompt him to intervene at this moment, because, as Banner said, suddenly so many people dying is not a good thing. Even if these people had done shameful things, being haunted by ghosts is what they deserve, but if too many die in strange ways in a short time, causing a regional incident, it is very likely to be exploited by ill-intentioned people.

Moreover, if it were exposed that the Avengers are here but did nothing to stop it, it would harm their reputation. Even to protect the Avengers' interests, as the leader of the Avengers, Captain America has no reason not to act.

However, this time Steve strangely chose silence and did not respond to that remark. Banner is also quite perceptive; after sensing Steve's attitude, he simply stopped bringing it up.

Actually, Stark is also somewhat curious. When Steve first arrived, he was still relatively opposed to causing too much commotion, otherwise he wouldn't have asked whether he wanted to burn this place down with fire. This proves Steve does not think killing everyone here would solve the problem. So now he should speak up, point this out, and then try his best to prevent the deaths from happening.

But now he has fallen silent again. This is indeed somewhat abnormal. Everyone is watching him. Steve seems unable to remain silent any longer, and he said: "Let's eat first. After that, we have plenty of time to talk about past stories."

Greed turned his head to glance at the outside sky. Not long after Coulson arrived at the door, it started snowing again. This snowfall is not light, and according to the weather forecast, it might last all day. So the plan to go browse the furniture city or buy some small decorations is probably ruined. They will have to stay in the manor all day roasting by the fire, which is the best time for ghost stories.

After finishing breakfast, the sky remained overcast, not like morning but more like evening. Looking out the window, the sea was shrouded in mist, adding a touch of desolation to this gloomy atmosphere.

Everyone gathered around the fireplace. Snacks were placed on the coffee table. Naturally, alcohol was also indispensable. The table was full of canned beer and convenience store mixed drinks.

"No one here likes drinking that bitter and astringent dry red." Greed whispered to Pride: "If you really want to drink, I can pour you a glass."

"When in Rome, do as the Romans do." Pride lowered his head to look at the fruit-flavored beer can and couldn't help but say: "What flavor is 'Enamored Paladin'? Can't they just come up with a proper name?"

Greed picked it up to check the ingredient list, then said: "Imitation cactus fruit wine. You don't understand—this is fashion."

That pile of colorful cans, all are some strange and unusual flavors, and none have a proper name; most are just a jumble of pleasant-sounding words strung together, leaving people baffled.

These fruit-flavored beers are more like drinks than alcohol, with low alcohol content, sweet and cloying when drunk—typical party beverages, unsuitable for formal occasions. But now there is clearly nothing important enough to warrant opening an expensive red wine shipped from overseas; these drinks are just right.

Greed helped Pride pick a less sweet one, while he himself took a bottle of original beer. Natasha went through great effort to choose, but apparently was disappointed with the alcohol content of these drinks, so she randomly picked one. Stark looked down on these cheap fruit wines and simply poured himself a cup of coffee. Others each chose their preferred flavor.

"My first job in South Fork was bussing tables at a bar." Steve also opened up: "That job was completely a scam. They weren't actually hiring for a drink-serving position. As soon as I started working here, they used all kinds of harsh demands to force me to switch positions, or else they'd introduce me to other jobs."

"Those so-called benefits didn't exist either. The agreed-upon salary and welfare were conditional on you accepting their transfer demands. The main reason I could keep doing that job back then was that I wasn't good-looking enough."

Natasha nearly spat out her drink. Steve self-mockingly chuckled and said: "Back then I was in poor health, very frail, and not tall. Although my appearance was similar to now, because I was too thin, my cheeks were sunken, and I wasn't particularly good-looking."

Steve said while pulling out an old photo from his phone. Of course, photography existed in his era, but photo studios were indeed expensive. This was only because Bucky insisted on dragging him to get it taken, and it's also the only photo of the two of them before their transformation.

Greed really hadn't seen it before. After all, the comic book image doesn't show that. He took the phone and glanced at it. Indeed, he was not good-looking, while Bucky beside him looked much better.

It's not that their looks differed greatly, but Steve back then appeared very stiff, his entire facial expression frozen when taking the photo, and he didn't even look at the camera. Bucky, by contrast, was much more relaxed—not only did he have his arm around Steve, but the corners of his mouth slightly lifted, showing a touch of unrestrained roguishness, just like a typical American teenager. Confident demeanor is always more attractive.

"How did you pass the interview back then?" Bucky asked somewhat puzzled. Steve went to the interview, and Bucky wasn't there at the time, so he didn't know exactly what happened.

"They were short-staffed, and the interviewer I happened to meet just happened to have a bit of kindness." Steve said somewhat helplessly: "Back then I was desperate for money, I begged him a few sentences, he softened, and let me stay."

Bucky's hand holding the snack paused. He remembered why they had gone to South Fork to look for work. Because at the time, a fire accident occurred in the poor district of Brooklyn, although it didn't burn their house, but the house Steve lived in was downwind. After the thick smoke drifted over, he nearly choked badly. His health was already poor, and this made his cough much worse. He needed money to do nebulization.

Thinking back on the past, Bucky's face didn't look good. Steve soothingly patted his hand and then continued: "Most people can't resist the temptation of higher pay, so they either go to accompany drinks or go elsewhere to do similar work."

"And I, because I wasn't good-looking, did a decent job bussing tables, so they let me stay. Thus I kept doing this job. Until one day, a new person arrived, a girl who clearly lied about her age."

Steve didn't spell it out clearly, but everyone understood what he meant. Saying it this way usually means reporting one's age as much higher than it actually is.

"I saw her also go into drink accompanying, and I really couldn't accept it. I thought she must have been deceived. So I took advantage of a certain off-duty moment, caught up with her, and explained everything to you. Guess what she said?"

"What did she say?" Bucky asked somewhat curiously. But in fact, only a very few people here would be curious about this question, while many others already have the answer.

"She told me not to get in her way. She said she had painstakingly managed to squeeze in here just to have a chance encounter with her targeted 'sugar daddy'. That was an opportunity she and her family had analyzed and plotted for a long time, and only barely obtained. She told me to stay away from her, not to ruin her good fortune."

"I was extremely shocked at the time. Because she was actually..." Steve paused for a moment, still not continuing. But soon he said again: "Later I discovered this wasn't an isolated case. These people aren't driven by life circumstances; they aren't even from slums, but come from well-educated middle-class or even wealthy families. Whether in background or other conditions, they are all much better off than I am."

"They don't think this is a bad thing at all; on the contrary, they see it as worth actively pursuing, a great opportunity for them and even their entire family to change social class. They prepared for a long time just for this one shot. Those who try to stop them are the ones ruining their good fortune."

When Steve spoke of these things, his tone inevitably carried a sigh of absurdity: "I have to admit, at one moment I felt like this world ought to be this way. They are so utterly justified in their own minds that I felt like I was the one who was wrong."

"Can you imagine? Golf course caddies, just to seize the chance to enter the back lounge for guests, not only killed their own companions by hand, but everyone else also covered for them. Whether it's his family, the victims' families, golf course guests, or even the course manager, not to mention the police—no one took this seriously."

"Those people even treated it as a joke, talking about it loudly while drunk, with everyone else still praising it, taking it as proof that the other party was popular. And when I angrily pointed out that this was an unjust child murder case, they only saw me as a lunatic."

"I was kicked out of the bar, and even had someone come find me and beat me up. I thought it was that customer or the bar owner. But the one who threatened me, saying if I dared to speak of this I'd be killed, was precisely the victim's family."

"They got compensation from the golf course—a valuable cooperation opportunity—and continuing to publicize this would only harm their business. That boy was their sixth child, with five before him and three after. Besides me, basically no one cared about him."

"From then on I understood a principle: don't stretch justice in high society." Steve heavily put the can on the coffee table: "Not because I'm afraid of you, nor because everyone here is a perpetrator—on the contrary, in my view, everyone here is a victim. It's not them who are sick, but this society."

"In such a society, forcing any individual to act is meaningless. Because these seemingly voluntary, bottomless interest-seeking behaviors are due to them already being completely distorted. In their worldview, this poses no problem; precisely proving how this worldview was shaped is the key."

"Back then I was still young, and living in wartime. I one-sidedly blamed it on the war. I thought it must be because we were fighting then, everyone was tense, supplies were also relatively scarce, so it became like this. So after the Pearl Harbor incident broke out, I went to enlist without hesitation, feeling that as long as we could end the war quickly, everything would get better."