Chapter 3718: The Mercury Era (Part 1)

The lush greenery of Central Park, New York, flowed in the height of summer. The lawn was tender, the woods verdant. Sunlight fell into the river of wind, causing ripples of shimmering light that danced among the crowds, lifting the gentle and lightweight skirts. Light-colored picnic blankets on the lawn looked like flocks of seabirds in a green ocean, with feathers shining brightly like they were glowing, gathering in groups, basked until they seemed like melting ice cream on the ground.

They sat on a half-slope, watching with curiosity as pairs of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents walked toward the park's corner. Natasha's red hair was turned a warm, vibrant orange in such sunlight. Coulson shielded his eyes with his palm, his skin turning red, looking like a sun-dried wrinkled orange.

Natasha stepped onto the edge of the lawn, twirling the keychain in her hand while watching Stark and Peter making final adjustments to the flying car, saying, "Do you have to do something during our days off? I've had this little area sealed off. If you hit someone again, you compensate them yourself."

"Have a little faith in me, beautiful lady." Stark's head suddenly popped up from the trunk, then sank back down.

"Ah, Tony, there seems to be a problem with the brake valve here. I think it should be tightened a bit more. What do you think?"

"It was too tight before, making it oversensitive and prone to stalling. Don't touch it, I'll adjust..."

Shiller sat on the sunny grass beside them, sunbathing while watching the two of them fiddle with the vintage car. This reminded him of the days spent screwing in light bulbs in the Stark Laboratory.

But he really couldn't help with the flying car. He couldn't even tell how it was different from a regular car, so he just sat there, watching them work on it.

Seeing Natasha walking over, he looked up and asked, "Did Nick send you two over?"

"He didn't expect Tony and the others to get the prototype out so quickly, and to choose Central Park for testing. It's risky, right? If there's an accident, it'll be even harder to pass a bill through Congress in the future. We have to keep an eye on it."

"Should we disperse the crowd?" Coulson came over to ask. He turned his head to look around, noticing that some curious onlookers had already gathered near the lawn.

"Better not," Shiller said, "Tony chose here to test because he wants attention. After all, those who come to the park at this time may be potential customers of high-end flying cars."

Natasha turned to look as well. She quickly assessed that Shiller was right — those who had the leisure to walk in Central Park during a workday noon were mostly nearby residents and tourists. This group would likely be interested in the flying vintage car.

"Hope nothing goes wrong." Natasha said.

"Alright, look at this beautiful little baby." Stark patted the window and said, "Stark Industries, your most reliable partner. Let's get in and try it out."

Stark and Peter got into the driver's and passenger seats, then they both sat inside the car, staring at Shiller. Shiller was baffled by their gaze, saying, "Aren't you inviting me to get in the car?"

"Come on, why are we looking for you?"

"I thought I was supposed to sit here and watch you fly through the sky. You don't really want me to go up, do you?"

"Stop whining, get in here!"

Shiller, a bit helpless, stood up. He first circled the car but couldn't figure out anything special, so he opened the back door and got in, instinctively searching for the seatbelt.

"Stop looking, the prototype doesn't have seatbelts," Stark said while igniting, "And if you strap yourself in, it'll be hard to escape if something goes wrong. Don't treat us like ordinary people."

Before Shiller could speak, the car had already taken off. Now he didn't dare to reach for the door, so he helplessly patted the window and said, "You guys are insane, flying to hundreds of meters without safety measures. What if we fall?"

"Didn't I tell you? If it starts to fall, just run quickly. Of course, if you really want to be an ordinary person, it's not like I can't use a mecha to scoop you up..."

"Let's forget about it." Shiller decisively refused. Then he curiously looked out the window and said, "The ascent speed is quite fast. How exactly does this car fly?"

Peter turned his head, gestured with his hand, and said, "You've ridden a maglev train before, Doctor? It's a similar principle. We don't need to use a track to generate repulsion; we directly repel the Earth's magnetic field. This principle can also be applied to rockets. As long as the power is enough, we can launch directly out of the Earth..."

"Stop explaining so much to him," Stark interrupted, "he won't understand anyway. Just enjoy the scenery. Shiller, watch, Stark Group's flying cars will definitely be a big hit!"

"Repel the Earth's magnetic field? Isn't this a kind of anti-gravity technology? So what about the anti-gravity technology used in China?"

"We're using electromagnetic wave anti-gravity technology, but what's used on starships is actually antimatter technology," Peter continued. "The latter is indeed more advanced, but extracting and storing antimatter is too difficult. It requires setting up large-scale experimental bases and unimaginable investment, and miniaturization thereafter is even more challenging. Honestly, I can't figure out how they managed it..."

"Advantage of political system," it wasn't Shiller who said this, but Stark. When he spoke of this, Stark seemed like a scholarly talent who never met his match, muttering a lot. In short, America can never learn to concentrate its efforts on big issues. Even in the interstellar colonial era, it still resembles a makeshift troupe. Without him, Americans would have been scrambled beyond recognition by the wheels of history.

Shiller neither refuted nor agreed. He was clearly aware that Stark was a patriot but also a somewhat unrealistic idealist. He weaved a Utopian America in his imagination and compared it with the current America, where naturally nothing could match up, leading to much complaint and a prolonged, unresolvable concern.

However, those like Captain America, who had truly witnessed America's golden era, or Natasha, a long-life who emerged from the Cold War, or Peter, who once lived at the American grassroots level, and Shiller, who traversed through two worlds and experienced both Eastern and Western lives, all saw the present-day America with optimism. It can be said that at this time in history, America had reached its most glorious period.

No doubt, Washington was still embroiled in endless debates, Congress constantly bickering, with the Federal Government, State Governments, City Governments, and even County Governments at odds and sometimes obstructing each other. Among the rushing waves of blood and tears on Wall Street, not a single conscience could float to the surface.

Yet, in reality, the air transportation system, which completely changed the mode of transportation, was implemented in just a few years, and the unemployment and employment issues it brought were largely resolved in the subsequent two years. The cost of transportation and travel virtually disappeared, as did the time cost of going out.

The nearly infinite energy brought about by the Solar System development plan was not exploited by the capitalists either. Electricity prices were suppressed to the lowest level, and ordinary households no longer had to worry about monthly utility bills amounting to hundreds of dollars. The development of each planet in the Solar System, along with the construction of star ports and starships, provided countless job opportunities. Currently, one in three suitable American laborers is involved in space-related work. Clean and affordable energy also reduced the production cost of essential food and water for human survival, thereby reducing the cost of living. Even without a wage increase, disposable income greatly increased.

In Shiller's view, Stark's complaints seemed a bit of much ado about nothing. America had already been quite fortunate. Looking at America's development history, it hardly suffered: it remained unaffected by World War I, reaped benefits from World War II, became the world beacon during the Cold War era, and then garnered rewards globally for decades. Before the adverse effects of capitalism materialized, because of substantial progress in productivity, the living standard floor greatly rose, and things just kept getting better.

Looking at other countries, they either suffered devastating warfare, collapsed right before dawn, or were on the brink of poverty. Compared to them, America seemed like that student in class who never studied but always managed to guess everything correctly in exams with just a bit of revision.

Especially the generation of Stark's father, opportunity abounded in their youth, and doing anything casually could lead to prosperity. By middle age, it was a golden era where one person's job could support a whole family. By old age, the interstellar era arrived, with the cost of essential living requirements minimized, allowing them to live even more freely.

What's more infuriating is that Howard and his fellow capitalists, along with the pigs on the windfall of their era, not only didn't fall to disgrace but were revitalized by a breath of spring in their old age, becoming leaders of the interstellar era and pioneers of the human race.

Accompanied by the popularization of air transportation technology and some space exploration technologies from the Solar System development plan, now some private companies on Earth also have the ability to explore the cosmos. Just around Saturn and Jupiter alone, there are over a thousand private exploration stations, most of which are American and Chinese.

Moreover, the general populace in America is no longer content with just making rockets. After the official completion of the human race's first starship, "Central Court", many companies have started researching spacecraft, eager to own their fleet of transportation vessels within the Solar System and seize the first slice of the interstellar era pie.

NASA and the Russian Space Agency (Former Soviet Union Space Agency), which once represented the pinnacle achievement in human space exploration, have set their sights beyond the Solar System to begin exploring star systems. It's said that the remaining former Soviet scientists are currently conducting dimensional research, and perhaps it won't take long before the human race takes another leap in the depth and breadth of cosmic exploration.

So whenever Stark and the people around him complained about America this, Congress that, most others would just humor him with a few words. What else could they say? Say Stark utterly lacked appreciation for his fortunes, just like a privileged individual?

In this world, there are always some people or things that may not seem remarkable in every respect but succeed in riding every wave of the era. To some extent, having such luck is also a form of strength. The fortune of a nation is an integral part of its historical development worthy of reflection.