Captain America's Silver Tongue

Jack hadn't run into any senior agents out for a stroll on his way. After leaving S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, he headed straight for Daredevil's law office.

Although Jack was quite happy about Daredevil's rebirth from the ashes—another superhero had gotten back on his feet.

But... he had personally tried to persuade Daredevil and hadn't earned a single Evil Point. So why had Captain America shown up, taken him out for drinks that night, and immediately sent Daredevil soaring back from the ashes?

Was this Captain America's charm?

A top-tier, game-breaking bug among buffs?

Most importantly... there hadn't been any news all day. Matt Murdock, don't tell me you've already surrendered beneath Captain America's perky ass?!

Had he defected on the spot and told Captain America everything Jack had said?

Half an hour later, at Daredevil's law office, after hearing Jack out, Daredevil asked a soul-searching question. "How exactly do you expect a blind man to make a highly confidential secure call to you agents?"

Jack said, "Sorry, I forgot it's only 2011..."

Seeing the landline, Jack finally realized he had overlooked an absolutely crucial issue.

It was fucking 2011 right now!!!

Although the Marvel Universe's broader timeline did not differ much from that of normal Earth, and everything that was supposed to happen had happened.

Because the Stark family's research capabilities were absurdly overpowered, along with the existence of all those freakishly powerful Marvel corporations...

Steve Jobs of the Marvel Universe had only released the iPhone 3 last year. The iPhone 4, that legendary phone from the original world, was still a long way off...

Well, even if it had been released already, nobody would have hyped up the iPhone 4.

To people living in the Marvel Universe, Tony's armor was what counted as high tech. What nerve did you have, flaunting a high-resolution color screen and bragging about how amazing your technology was?

Tony Stark had already been using a full suite of holographic technology, plus an artificial intelligence called JARVIS, in 2011, okay?!

Stark! Fucking awesome!

Apple! Trash!

But Jack's point was that practically nobody on the market was selling smartphones yet. Everyone was still using Nokia and the like, which was not exactly user-friendly for blind people like Daredevil.

So Daredevil could only use a landline.

But due to an agent's professional instincts, Jack wanted Daredevil to make a secure call.

Which had ultimately turned into...

"Matt? Why didn't you tell me about your latest progress with Captain America? Have you defected?"

"You fucking told me to make a secure call! How the hell is a blind man supposed to do that!!!"

After the two discussed blind people using mobile phones and landlines, they unanimously decided that since Tony intended to shut down the weapons development division, they should launch a public petition and have him develop phones instead!

A Stark System, plus a Stark Phone—the future king of phones would be you!

After finishing that nonsense, the two finally returned to the main subject. Daredevil began with what had happened after Jack had gone to accompany Jenny in trying on wedding dresses.

The first half of it had been almost entirely unremarkable.

Captain America still cared quite a lot about Agent Carter.

Since Carter was still alive, he had to go see her no matter what. And when former lovers met, how could he show up in tattered clothes or S.H.I.E.L.D.'s standard black suit?

So Captain America naturally wanted his pension and salary.

The two of them therefore decided to make a trip to Washington next week. S.H.I.E.L.D. would also send a senior agent to accompany them, and all three parties would jointly verify Captain America's true identity.

Then they would issue Captain America's personal earned wages, his special World War II veteran pension, hazardous-duty compensation for pounding Hydra into the ground, and hush money to keep him from going around telling people he was Captain America.

The White House had been pretty worried these past few days as well.

Captain America had sunk beneath the glacier, and he should have been dead. Whenever people talked about the American spirit, they naturally dragged out Captain America's heroic deeds to boast about them.

After so many years of constant reinforcement, endless mythmaking campaigns, and boosts from all kinds of American TV shows and movies.

Captain America was now like Jesus walking the earth in the United States.

Then, last month—holy shit!

S.H.I.E.L.D. had quietly dug up Captain America's grave without saying a word!

Not only had they dug him up, they had also discovered that Captain America had never died at all!

That gave the White House politicians and the big shots on Capitol Hill quite the headache...

It was like Han Wudi constantly talking about Zhang Liang and Xiao He, especially whenever his subordinates failed at their jobs. He would go on and on about how, if those two were by his side, why would he need a bunch of useless fools like them?

Then those two actually rose from the dead...

What a fucking ride that would be...

The crucial point was that this was not the Han Dynasty, and Captain America was not Zhang Liang or Xiao He. He was basically Jesus now—nobody could kill him!

As long as Captain America died anywhere on United States soil, those conspiracy-loving people with overactive imaginations would immediately slap the White House with a whole pile of labels.

First Kennedy's mysterious assassination, then Captain America's corpse in the street!

To hell with it!

Start another civil war!

So after Washington discussed it for a while, they unanimously decided that since he had risen from the dead and they could not do much about him, he should just honestly live as an ordinary person...

If he needed money, he only had to say so...

They would lower the purchase price of the coffee machine from 9,000 dollars to 8,999 dollars and squeeze out some money for him.

Just do not perform miracles in public!

So Captain America's money issue was actually easy to resolve.

But when the two had drinks that night, Daredevil followed Jack's method and probed Captain America a little. Instead, Captain America hit him with a set of psychological encouragement techniques, and Daredevil instantly rose from the ashes on the spot.

If he had a status panel too.

Then Daredevil would now be Daredevil Reborn from the Ashes.

Simply put, Daredevil's mentality was now stronger than before. He could withstand more blows and the like.

But that was exactly where the problem lay...

How long had Captain America been thawed out of the ice?

His eloquence was already this good?

Jack knew he was not among S.H.I.E.L.D.'s more eloquent agents, but what he had told Daredevil that day had come straight from his heart.

He truly felt guilty for destroying Daredevil, so every sentence and every word he had spoken had been genuine and grounded in reality.

Before Captain America became an old popsicle, his only opportunity for speech training had been selling war bonds...

And he had used marketing tactics from decades ago—hot girls and long white legs—on people today, and it had actually worked...

If there was nothing wrong with this, Jack felt he could seriously consider changing careers!

"So you think the flaw in this whole matter is that Rogers was too eloquent?"

Jack nodded. He truly found it strange. Eloquence was not something you could gain by taking a training course and learning a few tricks.

Eloquence was everything within a person's inner world!

For instance, the accent he used when speaking revealed where he came from, or where he had stayed before. It could even be a fake accent he had deliberately put on!

For another example, when speaking to one person, he might frequently use examples, while when speaking to someone else, he might prefer talking down to them.

Or perhaps he liked to say "fuck" once every few sentences, or perhaps he never said "fuck" at all.

Jack's expression gradually turned grave. He murmured, "Looks like this is even worse than I imagined..."