American comics: From Hogwarts to God on Earth

Chapter 610 Saving Private Steve

Happy times are always short-lived. Before leaving the DC Universe, Rune treated the mages of Azeroth to one last meal. The buffet, costing around $100, successfully showed these mages the luxuries of modern industrial society.

"More upscale restaurants require reservations," Rune said, shrugging halfway through the meal. "Otherwise, I could take you to even better places—"

Gianna, with a steak still dangling from her mouth, widened her eyes. "Can I eat even better?"

"Of course!" Tony, sitting next to Rune and wearing sunglasses, looked disgusted. "If you ask me, we should just eat at my place. The food here is definitely not as good as what you get at a private chef's."

Rune sighed helplessly. That damned capitalist—

"I brought them here not only so they could taste more kinds of food, but also so that these mages from other universes could use this restaurant and the food to infer the abundance of matter and the profound cultural connotations of our universe!"

After saying that, Rune added with a disdainful look, "Your private chef is not representative at all! If it's just about delicious food, why don't I cook for myself?"

Tony rolled his eyes. "It's just a meal out. Your level of thinking is way too high."

On the other side, Jaina, the Dalaran graduate student and future queen of the human empire, stared wide-eyed. Was the meaning behind this meal really that rich?

She turned to look at the other monks who were near her and found them all nodding, their faces showing approval. Then she looked at the plate in front of her and began to reflect.

Jaina, Jaina, you should know shame! Hasn't studying under Antonidas improved you in the slightest?

However, the other mages were also extremely embarrassed. They hadn't thought of it that way and assumed that Rune had brought them to dinner simply so they could enjoy themselves.

Azeroth is in such chaos right now that being able to eat a meal in peace and tranquility is already a luxury, let alone the incredibly exquisite food they are eating now.

It was precisely because Rune mentioned that there was a great deal of hidden information in a dinner that the mages' originally intelligent minds, which had been temporarily clouded by overwork, started working again.

Combining this with everything they had seen during the day, the group of clever mages quickly came up with a rough estimate of the United States' national strength and expressed their sincere envy.

In their eyes, the people of Azeroth were barely surviving under the ravages of the Scourge, and some were even forced to leave their homeland in order to survive. But now they were about to return to the Eastern Kingdoms to fight to the death.

Ordinary people in the DC Universe seem to live in a dream world. They have amusement parks, plenty of food, and countless technological creations that can improve the quality of life for mortals. They are not even in danger of losing their lives.

What kind of utopian world is this?

Jaina couldn't help but sigh.

It goes without saying that Americans live better than Azerothians. One is a capitalist country that leeches off the world, while the other is a collection of scattered countries under feudal rule, currently being ravaged by the Scourge. The two are completely incomparable.

But this also gave Jaina a goal to strive for—one day, she also wanted to ensure that her people could have enough to eat every day.

"Why are you sighing?" Tony took a bite of his beef burger. Although he disliked the restaurant's lack of class, he still held the food in high regard. "Is it because the food isn't good?"

Jaina shook her head and poured out her thoughts and desires.

Tony glanced at Jaina with surprise. "That's a great goal. Good luck. In fact, even our country hasn't managed to ensure that everyone has enough to eat."

"Yes, there are probably 3100 million people in the United States who are starving or cannot regularly buy enough food," Rune agreed with Tony.

But after hearing this, Tony looked at Rune with a puzzled expression. "So little?"

"This universe is still in the early 20th century!" Rune rolled his eyes, then turned to Jaina. "Your goal is noble, but don't copy American history and development model; that will only bring disaster to your country."

Capitalism has actually developed significantly on the continent of Azeroth, and the main driving force behind this is actually a group of goblins. These small green creatures have amassed enormous wealth from the war between orcs and humans.

However, after witnessing the actions of this race for the first time, the astral mage Medivh believed that goblins might bring disaster to all of Azeroth. And as it turned out, Medivh was right.

Financial groups have emerged within the goblin community, and goblin financial groups and industries around the world are ruled by several trade princes, each of whom controls a number of business areas including trade, mining, logging, slave trade, and poaching.

In pursuit of maximum profits, trade princes often exploit their own people to achieve the goal of maximizing profits, much like in the United States today.

However, the United States was still doing well in the early 21st century. The various subsidies provided to resist the Soviet Union had not yet been canceled, and the lower classes had not been exploited so severely. The number of people suffering from hunger in the future would only increase.

"—He's right." Tony thought for a long time but couldn't come up with a rebuttal, so he could only shrug. "Whenever I want to give some food to the homeless in New York, my company gets protested, mostly by those churches and charities."

Although Tony is the boss of a big company, and Rune labels him a capitalist, he is essentially a scientist rather than a capitalist. Otherwise, his uncle would have been kicked out when Tony was just an adult, and Pepper wouldn't be overwhelmed by the company's documents.

"The church? A charity?" Tony's words left Gianna completely bewildered. "Shouldn't they be working with you?"

"Because there's profit involved," Rune began to explain to Jaina. "The government allocates funds to churches and charities. Do you think a significant portion of those funds actually reaches the hands of those homeless people?"

However, Rune quickly added, "But this isn't a big problem for you. Our gods can't control the behavior of believers, but your holy light can."

"Wait, you mean, the gods over there can regulate the behavior of their followers?" Tony started to question himself. "Isn't that mind control?"

Rune rolled his eyes. It was good enough that he was alive; who would care if he was mind-controlled? But he still said, "The Holy Light only passively influences believers, making their hearts more benevolent."

At this point, Rune suddenly slapped his forehead, "I forgot to tell you, Steve has already been blessed by the Holy Light."

.

"Damn it! What are we waiting for?" Tony yelled. "Let's go! Let's get Steve out of that thing called Holy Light!"