Why is his holy light red?

Chapter 127 Goodbye to the Camera

On the night the moon derailed, Black Olive Prison's defenses collapsed completely, and a large number of super-powered criminals escaped in the chaos. Among these thugs was none other than Vincent's scumbag father.

Upon hearing this news, Mercury was instantly stunned.

This makes absolutely no sense!

Vincent's father was a die-hard fan of Volcanic Rock. But now, the very Volcanic Rock is left to "move bricks" in the ruins.

They clearly scoffed at the idea of ​​a prison break.

As a loyal dog, what gave him the right to disobey his master's wishes and run away on his own? What absolute reason did he have that made him absolutely determined to escape? Was it merely because he couldn't stand it and longed for that vague and elusive freedom?

These questions can probably only be answered definitively by personally bringing that bastard to justice.

"That's perfect." Mercury made a quick decision, sending Vincent the photo of the lava site he had just taken. "Nora and I just got a few leads, which are most likely the hideout of these fugitives. Don't act rashly, let's meet at the association. Reporting this directly and investigating through official channels will be more efficient."

This is a matter of great importance.

Recalling the destructive traces he had just seen at the breach, comparable to those left by mythical beasts, Mercury knew very well that there was definitely an extremely dangerous supervillain hidden among these escaped prisoners.

Mercury, though confident, was by no means arrogant, nor would he recklessly risk his life to play the hero. Relying on the Hero Association, and legally and compliantly utilizing the official intelligence network and armed authorization, was the correct tactic for these trainee heroes.

On the other end of the phone, Vincent's voice trembled with uncontrollable sobs: "Thank you—Mercury, thank you."

I—I'll be right back.

"Don't panic, it's precisely in times like these that you can't afford to lose your composure," Mercury calmly reassured her. "Your priority right now is to settle Auntie down. Since we can't transfer her to another hospital for the time being, we'll have to use money. Give the doctors and caregivers at the nursing home plenty of red envelopes, and make sure they take good care of her and don't get bogged down in rigid rules like handwriting. If you don't have enough cash on hand, just ask Rex for some! When it comes to a life-or-death situation, don't be shy about asking."

Mercury understood Vincent's twisted sense of pride all too well.

Vincent is extremely sensitive and insecure because of the mess at home. He is afraid of being looked down upon by his rich friend Rex, so he would rather be so poor that he can hardly afford to eat than ask Rex for a single penny.

But Mercury didn't see it that way. When it comes to the safety of loved ones, what's a little money? As long as they remember to pay it back, they'll still be brothers who'd risk their lives for each other.

From Mercury's pragmatic perspective, so-called human relationships and bonds are essentially about you owing me something and me asking you for a favor. It is in this back-and-forth of mutual debt and tug-of-war that friendships deepen and bonds grow stronger.

Those who are always polite and never owe each other anything are just strangers.

Mercury and Nora didn't linger at Black Olive. Seeing that they had clocked in long enough, they quickly took a taxi back to the Hero Association building.

Pushing open the door to the lounge, Rex and Vincent were already there. However, both of them looked extremely grim, and the air was thick with the tension of an imminent fight.

"Why are you two arguing again?" Mercury raised an eyebrow.

Vincent clenched his fists tightly, head down, and remained silent.

Rex, standing to the side, was like a firecracker that had been lit, pointing his finger at Vincent and firing: "Ask him! That bastard never considered me a brother! I saw how tight things were for him before, and I tried to give him money, both openly and secretly, but he absolutely refused, clinging to his pathetic pride. And what happened? You, Mercury, just said a few words, and he obediently bowed his head!"

Rex grew increasingly aggrieved, his eyes welling up with tears: "Vincent Holden! I'm asking you, didn't we know each other before?! Did you ever consider me a friend at all?!"

Nora, standing at the door, rolled her eyes dramatically and sighed, rubbing her forehead. "Ugh, this damn competitive spirit of boys—"

To be fair, Vincent's handling of the situation was rather unethical. He and Rex were clearly closer, yet when faced with difficulties, he stubbornly refused to ask his old friend for help, while Mercury, the "newcomer," readily listened to his advice. It's no wonder Rex felt resentful, experiencing a sense of frustration akin to "feeding a dog with his sincere heart."

Teenagers of this age are always exceptionally sensitive to such extremely subtle details. However, these two people's sensitivities are completely on different wavelengths.

Mercury knew he had started the fire, so he could only helplessly step in to mediate: "Alright, alright, it's all over."

Why fuss over these things with brothers who've been through thick and thin together? Rex, Vincent is just worried that money will ruin your friendship and doesn't want to cause you trouble. That's a normal person's thought. As a rich kid, don't you have enough gold-digging women and shady friends around you who're always eyeing your wallet?

Mercury patted Rex on the shoulder and stroked his hair, saying, "He may be obsessed with saving face, but he's still better than those con artists who treat you like an ATM, right? If you really can't swallow this, just beat him up now! I'll keep an eye on things here and make sure he doesn't fight back."

Rex glared angrily at Vincent. Vincent, still clenching his fists like a silent man, was flushed red with suppressed rage.

This big guy is a complete social idiot. The more guilty he feels inside, the colder and harder he appears on the surface. It's no wonder he's easily misunderstood.

Rex gritted his teeth, his fist raised for a long time, but in the end, he couldn't bring himself to smash it. He pulled a black gold credit card from his pocket, slammed it into Vincent's arms in a fit of rage, and said viciously, "Take this! This is what you owe me, and you have to pay it back!"

Vincent hurriedly caught the card and mumbled a promise, "I swear, I'll pay you back later."

"I don't need your paltry money!" Rex interrupted him irritably. "I want you to pay me back in another way!"

"Then—how do you want me to pay you back?" Vincent was stunned.

Rex took a deep breath, his true intentions revealed: "Bran has an older sister, you've met her, the really beautiful one with a super hot body! Every time I go to see Bran, she uses her sister as a shield. Vincent, your mission is to go and seduce that older sister! Keep her occupied and create opportunities for Bran and me to be alone!"

Vincent froze on the spot, his brain completely shutting down.

Mercury, who was standing nearby, gasped in shock and waved his hands frantically, "Holy crap! No, no, no! This is absolutely not going to happen!"

'

This is a complete mess! Outsiders may not know, but he knows all too well: Bran looks like a legal 14-year-old girl, but she is actually a 26-year-old woman; and her "mature older sister" Julie, who looks like she is in her twenties with a curvy figure, is actually a 14-year-old underage girl!

If Vincent actually listens to Rex's nonsense and goes after the underage Julie, Bran will definitely grill this big guy into a medium-well steak on the spot!

Vincent also plays with fire, but he only has high resistance to fire, not complete immunity.

Rex turned around, bewildered, and stared at Mercury warily. "Why such a big reaction? You wouldn't happen to have your eye on Bran's sister too, would you?"

"Shut up! Don't talk nonsense!" Mercury shook his head vigorously. "If Bran heard this, she'd fight me to the death!"

"Are you crazy? We're all single, what's wrong with dating freely?" Rex ignored him and turned to Vincent, issuing a firm order: "I don't care! Whether you can get her or not is up to you, but you have to be my wingman and help me get Bran out!"

"That's enough!"

Finally, Nora, unable to bear it any longer, slammed her hand on the table, speechlessly interrupting the increasingly absurd conversation: "Boys, can you please put away your ridiculous hormones and show a little respect for women? Don't treat girls like NPCs or rewards in a game, thinking you can get them just by 'picking them up'!"

She pointed to the documents on the table, then tapped the blackboard with a serious expression: "And everyone, please get the situation straight. We're talking about the serious matter of the escaped convict!"

After being scolded by Nora, the three boys, including Mercury, looked at each other and obediently shut their mouths.

This topic has really gone way off track, it's all Rex's fault for being hopelessly love-struck!

Mercury entered the three addresses provided by the volcanic rock into the system. Sure enough, the coordinates all fell in the chaotic root area.

However, even Mercury, who grew up in the slums, found these areas completely unfamiliar and could only rely on the Hero Association's intelligence network to fill in the gaps.

"A laundry, a fried chicken shop, and an abandoned car junkyard. These are the clues Volcanic Rock provided." Mercury synchronized the information on the holographic screen to everyone's phones. "I just cross-referenced it with the association's low-level database. Apart from the abandoned car junkyard having a few records of gang fights, the backgrounds of the laundry and fried chicken shops are so clean it's almost deliberate."

Thanks to the high points he's accumulated recently, Mercury now has significantly higher access privileges than his friends, allowing him to easily access these archives.

Rex stroked his chin, unusually thoughtful, and analyzed, "If the fugitive really intends to band together in these three places, I think the junkyard is the least suspicious. It's already on the police's watch list, and it's a regular territory for local gangs. Unless the fugitive is stupid, he won't hide in a place that's easy to be found."

Nora, however, poured cold water on the idea without hesitation: "Young Master, you need to understand the situation. It's not just three or five who escaped, but nearly half of Black Olive's superpowered criminals! With so many people, it's impossible for them to be hiding in just these three strongholds. There are probably many clever guys who have already escaped from Auriga City overnight."

"Nora is right." Mercury tapped the table, steer the conversation back on track. "With just the four of us, wiping out this gang of thugs is pure fantasy. So I suggest we package this intelligence up and report it to the association's heroes to handle. Our only goal now is to narrow down the search and pinpoint Vincent's father's whereabouts. Once we find him and force him to sign, our mission will be complete."

Mercury turned to Vincent: "Think carefully, what kind of quirks did your bastard father have? Or rather, what do you think was his motive for risking his life to escape from prison?"

This is the most perplexing knot in the whole incident. As a fanatical believer who blindly obeyed the volcanic rock, why did he dare to escape on his own when his master explicitly refused to allow him to break out of prison? Understanding this motive will allow us to catch him red-handed.

Vincent gritted his teeth, a deep disgust and hatred flashing in his eyes: "He's an incurable alcoholic. No matter what grand plan he had for escaping, once his craving hits, he absolutely cannot control himself from buying alcohol."

"Let's start with the places where we can get high-concentration alcohol." Mercury immediately locked onto his target, pointing to a spot on the screen. "Of these three addresses, this fried chicken shop is located on the edge of the Tree Root District's commercial street, a densely populated area with crisscrossing alleys, it's..."

The place where it's easiest to buy black market liquor.

Vincent shook his head and said, "You don't necessarily need to go to these places to buy alcohol. It's not difficult to get alcohol. You can buy it near a fried chicken shop, or even set up a bootlegging brewery at a laundry or a junkyard."

Federal law has always carried an absurd hypocrisy. On the surface, the government's control over alcohol and illicit drugs is extremely strict; even buying a bottle of spirits in a legitimate store requires cumbersome identity verification. But behind the scenes, alcoholism and drug abuse are deeply ingrained problems in this country.

If you find the right connections, the black market has an abundance of substandard alcohol, even more so than purified water.

That makes it impossible to determine. Moreover, Vincent's father has been out of prison for two weeks, and it's uncertain whether he's still in Aru Tree City.

Mercury stared at the screen, racking his brains for a long time, but still had no clue. He couldn't help but sigh in frustration: "If only the 'camera' were online right now, what top-secret information couldn't that guy buy?"

He was increasingly missing his elusive best partner.

However, "The Camera" is always a mysterious figure. Except for the last time when dealing with "Immortal Technology", when he sent Bran to help Mercury accurately locate Lucas Monroe's secret laboratory.

Then, this guy vanished again.

With this person's help, finding Vincent's bastard father in the vast sea of ​​people shouldn't be a problem.

After a moment's thought, Mercury opened his contacts and called Black Egg, instructing him to post an encrypted video with the special code for "camera" online, as usual.

Last time, he used this trick of "calling for help" to successfully elicit a reply from the other party.

However, just as Mercury hung up the phone with Black Egg, his phone screen suddenly lit up, accompanied by a vibration.

A heavily encrypted message came from an unknown number: "You've already 'made it' and become an official hero, so can you stop bothering me with such trivial matters? Is your huge Hero Association intelligence network just eating shit?"

Seeing that familiar webcam profile picture, Mercury could no longer suppress his smile. His fingers flew across the screen as he replied, "Black Egg's video hasn't even been sent yet. Your internet speed is pretty fast! Confess, have you been secretly spying on me all this time?"

"Don't flatter yourself. If you hadn't bothered me, I wouldn't have wasted even a second of my attention on your messy affairs."

I've had enough of cleaning up your messes. Just tell me what you're up to this time!

Mercury had already typed out a long request for "a paid investigation into clues about Vincent's father's prison break," but just as he was about to press send, his finger suddenly paused.

He stared at the screen, countless thoughts flashing through his mind, before quickly deleting that line and, almost involuntarily, replacing it with a short, direct statement: "I want to see you."

After sending it, Mercury himself felt a bit absurd. After all, they had been working together for so long, and the other party was so cautious that they even used a voice changer when sending voice messages, let alone showing their face offline. He had thought that the camera would definitely block him without hesitation, or mock his wishful thinking.

However, after a long, suffocating silence, the phone screen lit up again: "Tonight at midnight, in the next life" bar.

Mercury stared intently at the screen, completely stunned.

This guy—he actually agreed?!

Mercury, in a fit of rage, quickly typed, "Wait! You're not playing the nested doll game again, sending someone else to fool me, are you?!"

This time, the camera only responded with four extremely aloof words: "Come if you want, don't come if you don't."