The days of being a spiritual mentor in Meiman.

Chapter 3443: Son of Midnight (Forty-two)

I believe many people will have this feeling, that is, you know you are right, but if everyone disagrees with you, you will also doubt yourself. Wanda is in this state now.

Her reason told her that this increase in oil prices was very abnormal. Even the richest people would be shocked by such a price increase.

From a global perspective, the price of oil in the United States is indeed not very expensive, because they are an oil-producing country themselves and have fought many oil wars, so their crude oil production and reserves are acceptable.

But in fact, oil prices in the United States are not that cheap, especially in high-price states like California. In addition to the high oil prices, there are also oil taxes. The extremely low gasoline prices are basically in places like Alaska, which are remote. The big cities with good economies are not cheap.

Although the figures do not seem that expensive, the key point is that the United States has the highest per capita car ownership and per capita mileage in the world. If Australia is a country on the back of sheep, then the United States is a country on wheels.

There is almost no other means of transportation in the United States. Apart from flying for long distances, people drive wherever they go. The endless plains also provide them with good road conditions, so the per capita fuel consumption is 4 to 5 times that of other countries.

In this case, even a few cents increase in oil prices is fatal. This means that the monthly gasoline expenditure of a car may increase by dozens of dollars, and the cost of travel is rising rapidly.

Because the United States has no other transportation facilities, subways and large airports are basically only available in big cities, not to mention trains and high-speed trains. In fact, many roads in the United States do not even have sidewalks. You can only drive to go anywhere, which means that the cost of living has also increased a lot.

In a situation like the current one, with prices rising by 40% in one year and still continuing to rise, it should have caused an uproar long ago, with ordinary people complaining everywhere they go.

However, Wanda never heard any complaints. She was not the kind of person who liked to complain, so she just kept silent. This time she finally said a few words, but no one agreed with her. Wanda thought it was really her problem.

Jarvis knew it wasn't true. Electronic life was best at statistics. Emotions could deceive people, but real data couldn't. The rise in New York oil prices was abnormal.

But Jarvis didn't immediately present the facts and reason. He knew that Wanda in this state would basically not listen to any reason. So he just touched Wanda's cheek and said, "Let's not talk about this. I made a scrambled egg sandwich. Let's eat first."

Wanda tried hard to shake off her depressed mood and sat down at the dining table, but she seemed to have no appetite and her mind was blank, not knowing what she was thinking about.

While eating, Jarvis frequently checked the cameras of various facilities in New York and summarized the data at hand.

The child started crying when they were halfway through the meal. Wanda came to her senses and ran upstairs in a hurry.

After coaxing the child, Wanda finally managed to get rid of that emotion. She took a deep breath and said, "The professor told me yesterday that Lorna has been in a bad mood recently. They plan to give her a vacation, but the Andromeda Galaxy needs help."

Jarvis froze with his sandwich in his hand. He said, "They want you to go?"

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

Of course Jarvis wanted to say no. Wanda had not been upgraded, her life form was still a carbon-based creature, and no matter how strong the power of chaos was, it would not affect the physical damage caused by childbirth.

Moreover, when Billy was young, he was very difficult to take care of. He was a typical high-demand baby who cried at the slightest provocation. Wanda and Jarvis together could not get a full night's sleep.

Later, when the mutant power began to show its power, it made people even more restless. Now that things have finally stabilized a little, it is time to recuperate, but how can we go to a place like the Andromeda Galaxy to open up new land?
But Jarvis didn't dare to say it directly, for fear that Wanda would 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 the video. After receiving Jarvis' call, he stood up and walked out the door. Where 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 urgent."

"Don't worry, tell me what happened..."

"Okay, doctor, let's skip the part where you pretend to be a regular psychiatrist who needs to ask questions to understand the basic situation and just tell me directly, what should I do?"

Schiller really wanted to reply with a big question mark, but he thought about it again and felt that Jarvis's situation was not difficult to guess.

It is impossible for Jarvis to have any psychological problems, so the problem must be Wanda. Wanda's psychological problems seem complicated, but it boils down to one problem - the internal friction caused by the constant vacillation 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 don't contact Professor X and the others directly to ask them to withdraw their invitation, otherwise it will make her question herself even more."

"What should I do?"

"Help her find a job, preferably one that perfectly meets her requirements and allows her to be competent right away. The faster the positive feedback, the better."

Jarvis scratched his head. This is easier said than done. Where can you find such a perfect job opportunity?
"There happens to be a position in this world that she is fully qualified for and that can bring her a strong sense of accomplishment."

"what?"

"Super hero."

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

Jarvis pretended to be distracted while carrying the dishes, as if he was communicating with someone. After a while, he sighed again.

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

"Do I bother you?" Wanda asked.

"None of your business, honey. I just called Tony and things aren't looking good for him..."

"what happened again?"

"Did you hear the news about the fire at the Roxxon Energy Industries building?"

Wanda looked up at Jarvis and shook her head.

"He and the new Spider-Man went to deal with it, but they had some conflicts and ended up parting on bad terms. Tony suspected that someone might be instigating this, but he had no evidence. I'm investigating."

Jarvis pretended to be sad and said, "I still have to do technical maintenance on Stark Tower tonight. Tony and Pepper are really annoying. They want to split me into two people."

"Tony and Spider-Man went to deal with it, but a conflict occurred?" Wanda asked doubtfully, "No way? Peter doesn't look like he would quarrel with others, so it's impossible even if someone instigated discord."

"Not Peter, but the new Spider-Man..."

After listening to Jarvis' explanation, Wanda thought for a moment and said, "I don't understand the technology of Stark Tower, but it's still very simple to help you solve this problem. I'll go check on Miles first. If he really has contact with some shady people, I promise to bring that guy to justice!"

"No, no, that's dangerous." Jarvis deliberately refused, "Your body hasn't recovered yet, you can't fight with others, I don't agree."

Wanda rolled her eyes, and suddenly as if she had just remembered something, she pushed Jarvis away, glared at him and said, "What's wrong with our car?!"

"What car?" Jarvis pretended to be dumb. "The car was parked in the garage fine. What happened?"

"You control all the cameras in New York. How could you not know that Schiller used our car to race against the police?!"

"Ah, about this." Jarvis had no intention of explaining. He grabbed Wanda who was about to leave, put his arms around her waist, and rubbed her neck stealthily.

Wanda turned around in his arms and pushed him again, then said, "Don't try to fool me like this. If the police take a picture of my license plate, I'll be in trouble!"

"Do you know that the cell phones of all the police officers in New York are also under my control?" Jarvis said in her ear.

Wanda shuddered, sighed, and said, "Don't say such horrible things in that tone."

Seeing that the confusion was over, Jarvis laughed again, reached out to help her put her red hair back, and then said, "Well, then you can go see Miles, and the car issue is written off."

Wanda hesitated for a moment, then nodded. She really needed to find something to do, and being a superhero part-time was not a bad idea.

Schiller hung up Jarvis and returned to Eddie, remembering the conversation he had heard on the platform. He asked casually, "What do you think of Roxxon?"

"What?" Eddie was so focused on his work that he didn't hear it at first. But Venom's head popped up on his shoulder. Venom bared his teeth and cursed, "They are a piece of shit! The gas price increase is enough to buy me a room full of chocolates!"

Eddie nodded and said, "Indeed, I don't know what they were thinking. They made the oil price so high, so everyone would buy electric cars. Now they are not allowed to increase tariffs at will, which makes me want to buy an electric car."

Schiller also realized the problem. After the space station crash, the cooperation between human countries became closer, the Earth Federation took shape, and the United Nations became more powerful.

The countries have preliminarily drafted a joint bill, which generally aims to avoid vicious competition and prohibit isolationism. It has made very strict requirements on the extent and frequency of tariff increases, and has also formulated new regulations on product dumping and product monopoly. The earth has once again entered the post-globalization era.

This has led to an increase in global foreign trade volume, especially for imported products such as electronic products and household appliances, which were previously more expensive due to tariffs, but are now showing a trend of price reductions, and the same is true for automobiles.

The development of Mercury has given mankind almost unlimited clean energy. Now the main use of oil is in the chemical industry rather than the energy industry, and the price of oil energy is falling everywhere.

But the United States is the only one that is different. Oil prices are rising instead of falling. And it’s not just rising a little bit, it’s rising like crazy.

Schiller didn't react at first because this is actually a normal phenomenon. Previously, due to problems such as battery life, the electric car market in the United States was not very large, and most Americans used gasoline cars.

We can't say that just because humans have entered a new energy era, we should immediately phase out all gasoline cars. This is simply unrealistic. If people's cars are running well and are not broken or old, why should they be replaced?
Therefore, for a long time, the United States will still be a major consumer of oil energy, and will also be affected by certain new energy sources, which will lead to narrowing channels for crude oil processing and an increase in various costs, which may cause a small increase in oil prices.

But this increase is not normal now. If it continues to increase like this, in less than half a year, the extra fuel money can buy a brand new electric car. Is Roxon really not afraid of ruining himself?
This is obviously totally inconsistent with the laws of the market economy. If they dare to be so fearless, they must have something else to rely on.

Today I used Sergal's ultimate to jump off a cliff and kill five people. Please be informed.