Chapter 4994

Shiler looked at the skewers on the grill with some puzzlement; he had never grilled American-style skewers like this before, so he was now pondering a problem: how to cook the bell peppers through without overcooking the meat, which seemed very difficult to pull off.

These thin slices of beef were practically half-cooked the moment they hit the grill, while the bell peppers were still raw. Although raw bell peppers are edible, Shiler remembered that the bell peppers in the American kebabs he had eaten before were not raw; they were cooked until very soft, with edges slightly charred, clearly having been grilled.

Watching the beef about to toughen, Shiler hesitated over whether to take them off. Quicksilver's figure flashed and vanished, then he ran back, standing beside Shiler and saying, "Still not taking them off? Mr.?"

"The bell peppers don't seem done yet."

"Those aren't grilled on the stove," Quicksilver said, "you take them off and finish them with a culinary torch."

"Good." Shiler took the skewers off directly; he had wondered why the bell peppers he ate always had slightly charred edges, a regular charcoal grill shouldn't produce that effect, he just hadn't realized what specific tool was used to achieve it.

"Many chefs put the skewers back on a gas range after taking them off," Quicksilver explained, "this makes the meat's surface glisten more attractively and softens the vegetables. But I always feel that leaves a gas taste, so I generally use a culinary torch."

Finished speaking, he whooshed away, then brought back a culinary torch and handed it to Shiler, then vanished again. Shiler glanced back and found him running around the whole venue giving pointers.

Shiler flipped through his memory and then discovered that Wanda and Pietro were truly kings of part-time work; they had basically done every kind of job, restaurants were their happy home, from front-of-house to back-of-house, from grill cook to dishwasher, they had basically experienced it all.

Although Wanda and Pietro could not be counted as Americans, they were indeed a very typical kind of American teenager, mostly from small towns, but landless, the whole family in a drifting state — wherever they could find day labor, they would rent a place in an RV park or container park there and work to support the family.

It is quite remarkable that the proportion of such hardworking teenagers in America is actually much higher than in European countries like Britain; most waiters, cashiers, or kitchen helpers in restaurants started leaving home for day labor at fourteen or fifteen and kept that life up into middle age — although never wealthy, they also never loafed around idle, stirring up trouble.

Conversely, many high-welfare countries raised a large horde of terrifying delinquent teenagers who tore through city streets, destroying every building's trash cans, setting fire to every leaf pile, causing every conceivable kind of trouble.

This might be because most such American teenagers are still struggling to fill their stomachs — if you don't work, the state really won't support you. Conversely, in high-welfare areas many teenagers are spiritually empty, and only spiritually empty, with no survival worries, so naturally they wander the streets all day doing no good deeds.

While thinking, Shiler grilled the bell peppers with the culinary torch. Just as he was about to finish the last skewer, the torch suddenly stopped flaming; he shook it, and suddenly a dragon of fire whooshed out, scorching the sandy ground black. Loki beside him was laughing radiantly.

Shiler beckoned to Loki.

Loki shimmered into place behind him; Shiler turned around, Loki gave him an innocent smile, and Shiler smiled back at him.

Then he grabbed Loki's head in one hand and pressed it onto the grill grate.

"Aaaaaah!!!"

Of course, a Frost Giant would not actually be burned by the grill grate, but that did not mean they would not feel the heat; otherwise he wouldn't have nearly been scalded by the turkey just now.

Loki struggled free, shaking off Shiler's hand: "What are you doing!"

"You're actually not afraid of fire." Shiler feigned some disappointment; in his memory Loki had always been a bit afraid of fire, would absolutely not enter a kitchen, let alone come to a bonfire party.

So upon seeing this Loki for the first time, Shiler knew he was not the Loki from the Central Universe, most likely a Fusion Universe one. Even calling 616 Earth's Loki an anti-hero is a stretch; he was a villain god more often than not, and every scheme he cooked up was a major event, who knows how many times he screwed over his brother.

Yet Thor was eaten up by him completely, just because Thor once lost control and killed Loki, this time Loki ate him for a lifetime, and even later, against the opposition of the entire Avengers, insisted on bringing Kid Loki back. And the result of Loki opposing the whole world for Loki was that before long the Fire Giant Surtur showed up at his doorstep.

Loki conjured water with magic to wash his face, used a mirror to check, and shouted at Shiler: "I almost got disfigured!"

"What a pity." Shiler continued watching his own skewers.

Loki rubbed his face vigorously, looked Shiler up and down, tilted his chin up slightly and asked: "Are you a therapist?"

"I'm not." Shiler shook his head, "But I can still tell that your brother becoming the True God of the Nine Realms has you falling apart."

Shiler looked up at him and said: "The Nine Realms were meant to be your shared home, or rather, you always thought of it as your playground; even if he gained the upper hand for a time, you could always secure some victories. But now, he personally ended all of that. Omniscience and omnipotence mean total victory; you no longer have any room to resist."

"You don't know why this happened, why he made this choice, why he completely disregarded your feelings. What's more terrifying is, you realize this might not be a change, but merely his more straightforward actions letting you see the truth — it was always him indulging you."

"The parity you thought you had and the victories you won might just have been him humoring you. Once he gained true power, he didn't want to keep pretending, so this time you can never run away again."

"You lose emotional control because you're afraid. You don't know if he truly intends to judge you; you feel he will, because you know what you've done, you know how his friends view you, and you're not that confident he won't waver on you."

"You keep demanding he let you out; rather than saying you want to run, it's more like you want to test whether he'll still indulge you like before. The situation doesn't look optimistic now, so you ran here, wanting to find another Thor to save you."

"But the other Thor doesn't seem that interested in this matter either, and you don't know what to do. If you were slightly more polite I could offer some advice, but as it stands, you'd better stay away from this stove, or you really might get disfigured."

Loki's lips moved: "I apologize to you. I didn't mean to hurt you, just a joke."

"I know, otherwise I wouldn't have just pressed your head on the stove." Shiler took the cooked skewers off, cut a small piece with a knife, put it in his mouth and tasted — the doneness was perfect.

"So you..." Loki paused, "We can make a deal. What do you want? Wealth? Power? Or fame?"

"You can't give me any of those." Shiler looked at him and said, "Fakes conjured by magic are just fleeting; causing any commotion on Earth might only make your brother find you faster."

Loki pressed his lips tightly together.

The sports car stopped at the beach edge; Dick and Raven got out of the car, just running into Bruce and Selina who had also just parked.

"Oh, you guys came too." Dick greeted them.

Bruce glanced at their swimwear, then said: "How's the seawater? We're planning to go down for a few laps too."

"You go ahead," Selina shoved him away, "I don't like swimming. Rare chance Aisha went to the Richardses', I'm going to have a good few drinks."

Bruce shook his head somewhat helplessly; Selina had finally reluctantly adapted to high society, but the one thing she couldn't adapt to was swimming — a pool was slightly better, but swimming in the ocean was absolutely out of the question.

Reaching the seaside, the air grew somewhat humid; long sleeves and pants were uncomfortable, so Selina simply went to the changing room nearby and changed into a swimsuit, but then felt the wind was a bit strong, so she threw on a sheer cover-up over it and went to sit at the bar counter. Just as she sat down she saw a melancholy figure standing under the parasol by the bar, gazing out at the sea.

"Isn't that Loki?" Selina murmured to herself, "What's he doing here?"

Selina carried her wine glass over: "Hey."

Loki turned back, but he didn't recognize Selina; he looked her up and down and said: "Do I know you, miss?"

"You don't know me, but I know you. What are you standing here for? Why not go grill meat with your brother?"

"That's not my brother. We're not from the same universe."

"Looks like you're in a bad mood," Selina said, "Want a drink?"

Loki looked at Selina; logically such an invitation carries a hint of flirtation, but Loki didn't hear that intent in Selina's words, yet Selina seemed to have some purpose toward him.

"Are you an agent?" Loki said, "Come to gather intelligence?"

"What agent would gather intel on the Asgardian court?" Selina countered, "Get a map of the Celestial Palace route, infiltrate, and steal your crown?"

Loki couldn't help laughing, and still followed Selina to the bar side, ordering a random drink.

"If that Thor isn't your brother, then you must've quarreled with your brother." Selina guessed.

"Then you guess why we quarreled." Loki took a sip of wine and said.

"That's not important. What's important is you can still appear before me now, instead of being locked away somewhere or secretly executed." Selina spoke bluntly, "I'm also seeing for the first time brothers who aren't blood-related, whose families have a generational feud, who once opposed each other to the death — one rises to power and the other can still be this lively. It's simply a miracle."

Loki was at a loss for words; he fell silent, because he knew his grievances with Thor went far beyond what Selina saw, making it even more like a miracle.

"You think he..."

"Of course you have to worry he'll settle accounts with you." Selina set down her wine glass, and when Loki wasn't looking, revealed a wicked smile — the first step in a pitch is manufacturing anxiety. "Frankly, I really can't see any reason he'd let you off. You haven't even apologized to him, haven't yielded an inch, and right now you probably snuck out secretly, right? That's purely pouring oil on the fire, Mr."