Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

After humans entered the interstellar era, Shiller seldom made much of a fuss because there were quite a few ordinary people in the Solar System now, and it was too easy to harm the innocent if a bunch of Demon Gods started fighting.

Shiller then focused his energy on other areas, primarily the study of gourmet food.

He had thought that with the advancement of technology, the average working hours for the human race would decrease, and indeed that was the case, at least in America, where many robots from the Stark Group were widely used, taking over many of the overly strenuous and dangerous tasks.

But Stark didn't make the robots too intelligent and instead had the people who originally did these jobs move to supervisory positions, like how Uncle Peter no longer needed to repair equipment by hand but just had to sit in his office and manage and adjust the machines.

So, in this way, people would be freed from repetitive labor and could partake in more artistic creation. Uncle Ben recently picked up fishing, even founding a fishing club within the electric company, where even the company's boss was a member, heading out to fish after work every day.

Shiller had believed that under such circumstances, the situations of widespread bland food should improve.

Initially, it was the British who invented bland food. After the Industrial Revolution, the food production process was replaced by machinery, popularizing mass-produced food, and as workers became busier, they had less time to cook and eat, naturally gravitating towards convenience foods that merely filled the stomach.

Now, with shorter working hours and more time to enjoy life, people could finally dine properly.

But he was still too naive; these people would go paint, fish, or engage in performance art, yet they refused to cook properly.

Instead, with the explosion of short video apps in North America and the huge effect of web traffic, many establishments didn't need to be particularly tasty, they just needed to invite someone to visit and advertise, which in turn caused a large group of people to pay, allowing quite a few bad apples to mix into the otherwise decent high-end restaurants.

He had never spent such a long stretch of time in America in his previous life and had already tolerated bland food for long enough; now, when he occasionally wanted to dine out well, he had to risk stepping on a landmine, so Shiller had no choice but to cook himself.

As expected, after being overseas for a long time, anyone could become a great chef.

However, after cooking for oneself for a while, one might occasionally want to go out and enjoy the atmosphere of a restaurant. Because Shiller had always been scrolling through recipes on the apps, big data had recommended many restaurants to him, which he saved to try out one by one today.

The cafe they planned to go to was near the beach, reportedly with sunset views, but it was still early, so Shiller just wanted to try the coconut iced coffee and cupcakes recommended in the short videos.

Wanda googled the cafe and found that it had surprisingly good reviews, so without much thought, they all rode a private Flying Shuttle to the cafe entrance.

The decor was very Western-style, with wooden exteriors, a white sign, and marine elements like ship's wheels and fishing nets. Shiller saw a few people taking photos as he walked in.

But as soon as they reached the entrance, they were stopped; the waitress at the door actually asked Wanda if she had a reservation.

Wanda looked doubtfully at the cafe's name, confirming that it was indeed a cafe, not some Michelin-starred fancy restaurant. Wasn't it absurd for a cafe to require reservations?

Some might think that many places in America are reservation-only and do not allow "walk-ins."

But in reality, cafes are supposed to accommodate those who want to eat out but don't want to reserve. Cafes sell not only coffee but also simple meals and desserts. Their original concept is that of a casual diner, so requiring reservations at a cafe is just as ridiculous as McDonald's or KFC requiring them.

But the waitress insisted that without a reservation, they couldn't enter.

Wanda was a bit angry, but Shiller thought about it and felt that with so many restaurants available, there was no need to hang on to just one tree. He stepped forward to pull Wanda aside, hoping to persuade her to leave.

But then the waitress caught a glimpse of him and suddenly showed a surprised expression, rushing over to shake hands with Shiller and saying, "You are Dr. Rodriguez, aren't you? Has The Avengers come to Los Angeles?"

"Uh, I'm here alone this time," Shiller said.

Only then did the waitress take a careful look at Wanda. When Wanda appeared in documentaries, she was always dressed in formal attire. But her everyday style was more casual, and without any makeup or hair done, the waitress hadn't recognized her before.

He immediately became very enthusiastic and invited them inside. Wanda felt utterly baffled and was even less inclined to go in now.

But the waitress clearly showed more enthusiasm towards Shiller, quickly ignoring Wanda and persistently inviting Shiller in.

Seeing that Wanda was unhappy, Shiller figured it was better to let it go. After all, the service attitude they had initially shown was indeed poor, and the service attitude is a critical aspect of restaurant standards. It appeared this restaurant was a bit overhyped.

Shiller briefly said a few words and prepared to leave when the waitress again asked if they could shoot a video before leaving.

Shiller was already quite resigned to his own popularity online, and his butler was an internet celebrity, constantly shooting videos with his phone. Having finally escaped him to eat out, Shiller really couldn't stand being asked to shoot a video.

Shiller turned and walked away, not expecting that before he'd even left the doorway, he heard an argument break out behind him.

The noise at the door had attracted the manager, who after learning about the situation from the server at the entrance, began to scold the server.

It was originally a happy and welcome occasion, but the manager wasn't scolding the server for poor service—it was because letting Shiller go without intervening could lead to him posting a negative review, which would certainly damage the reputation of the restaurant. The server was instructed to chase him back.

By then, Shiller had already left, so the server had no choice but to hassle Wanda. Not only had the service been poor, but they were prohibited from leaving negative feedback, and now they were even being hassled at the doorway. Wanda wasn't someone who had just learned self-defense—how could she put up with this?

As she was walking away, her eyes emitting a red glow, she suddenly turned back and glared at the server. The power of Scarlet that shot from her eyes stopped just two centimeters in front of the server's face.

The server let out a scream of terror.

"Mutant killing! The mutant is killing someone!!"

The server's desperate scream attracted the attention of the customers inside the restaurant and those waiting in line outside. They gathered around, only to see the server collapsed on the ground and Wanda with red light in her eyes.

Shiller noticed something was wrong and hurried back, only to find that many people had already raised their phones to take pictures. The manager standing at the door didn't seem to have any intention of stopping them; Shiller knew at a glance that he wanted to capitalize on the incident to generate some buzz.

Shiller turned to Jarvis and said, "You got all that on camera, right?"

Jarvis nodded. Actually, he didn't even need to film anything—his eyes were cameras, and just by seeing, he could record an image. So he had recorded the entire event.

Shiller took out his phone and sent a message to Ultron, then asked Jarvis to send the recent footage to Ultron.

Shortly thereafter, Ultron updated with a new video.

"My mechanical butler friend's encounter at the entrance of the 1946 Atlantic cafe. Racial discrimination really needs to stop."

When it came to editing, Ultron was also professional. Originally, it was a clash between Shiller, Wanda, and the server, with Jarvis standing in the background not saying anything. But after Ultron's editing, it appeared as if the cafe was denying entry to robots, which led to Wanda arguing with the server, and eventually, the server even tried to harass Wanda, prompting her to retaliate.

With the inclusion of a racial discrimination label, the video quickly went viral and sparked a new round of discussion. The main topic naturally returned to electronic life and artificial intelligence and whether they should have human rights.

But the topic quickly shifted.

Everyone knew that Wanda had children, so how could they be conceived if Jarvis was a robot?

Serious political discussions couldn't compete with gossip for appeal. The entire internet erupted with discussions about the specifics of their child-making process, some of which weren't merely excessive but crossed into sexual harassment territory.

Since Ultron had posted the video, a lot of people messaged him privately, asking about how robots managed that kind of thing.

To be fair, Ultron didn't know either. He didn't know how Jarvis could have children with Wanda, he didn't even know how Jarvis and Wanda got together.

Robots didn't reproduce like humans; they didn't have organs for procreation. If one really wanted to consider a USB port as such, then fine, but by that measure, Ultron could be considered hermaphroditic.

After observing so many couples up close, Ultron began to think about whether he should find a partner for himself.

However, the resolution of the incident was satisfying. To defend Wanda, Jarvis created countless fake accounts to artificially increase the popularity of the video, causing it to spread like a virus. The cafe's rating dropped two points in one day, plummeting from 4.8 to 2.8.

A review of the new comments quickly revealed that the high rating of the restaurant was obviously artificial. Many people had dined there before and were dissatisfied, their low ratings quickly suppressed and neutralized by a multitude of fake high scores.

But as the saying goes, "When the wall falls, everyone pushes." After watching the video and remembering their unpleasant experiences, people started to post videos or leave ratings online. The restaurant struggled to manage the onslaught as Google tags labeled it things like "tourist trap."

From this incident, Shiller realized that online traffic was there for the taking— if you didn't use it, someone else would.

The eagerness of that server inviting him in was just a ploy to film him dining and exploit his online influence for their promotion. This would only result in more people falling victim to the shady dealings of the restaurant, who might eventually confront him about it.

The situation was resolved satisfactorily because his butler, Ultron, had an online presence and used the power of public opinion to fend off the troublesome server and manager.

It was imaginable that if Ultron's video hadn't existed, the restaurant would have turned things around by posting a video of Wanda attacking the server online, which would have made the already precarious public opinion of mutants even worse.

Wanda's reluctance to appear on camera wasn't unfounded; being a mutant was her original sin. Her every move was magnified and subject to endless public scrutiny.

Thinking this through, Shiller considered maybe he should start an account. Even if he didn't discuss psychology, sharing his cooking process might be nice.

Shiller took out his phone.