Why is his holy light red?

Take off your clothes?

Mercury had never before taken off his clothes in front of a crowd.

But every prisoner has to go through this check.

Completely exposed to the public eye, every inch of their privacy scrutinized—this is a universal obedience test in all prisons. Shattering the self-esteem of new recruits, breaking their thorns—this is the first lesson at Black Olive Resettlement Center.

Unfortunately, they made a mistake: Mercury never considered himself a criminal.

The correctional officer, Morgan, toyed with a short black stick in his hand, the thick rubber casing making a dull "thwack" sound as it struck his palm. His muscles were tense, as if he were ready to fight back, just waiting for a legitimate excuse to swing the stick.

Mercury stood there, muttering, "Does it really have to follow this stereotypical B-movie formula?"

"Enough nonsense." Morgan scoffed. "Strip security check. It's a security procedure that every prisoner entering Black Olive must complete. Who knows what contraband you freaks are carrying? Don't worry, our procedures are absolutely legal and compliant, monitored and recorded throughout. If you have any complaints, you can find a lawyer to appeal."

Mercury tilted his head slightly.

The monitor in the upper right corner of the ceiling is glowing red, clearly indicating that it is operating normally.

In other words, the subsequent strip search will be recorded in its entirety, and any physical resistance he makes will also be recorded and used as evidence of violence.

Morgan increased the frequency of the tapping of his baton against his palm, urging, "Take off your clothes, face the wall, spread your legs. If you don't cooperate, I don't mind using some necessary force to teach you a lesson."

Mercury smirked. "So, all I have to do is take my clothes off and let you examine me, right?"

"Do it right now! Don't make me do it!"

Mercury didn't punch the disgusting prison guard. He calmly raised his hand and unbuttoned his uniform one button at a time. The fabric slid down his shoulders.

The instant his clothes were removed from his skin, a high density of red light burst forth from his body.

The light, like a viscous, solid flame, instantly covered every inch of his body.

His shirt was carelessly tossed on the dirty ground, but under the blinding red light, Mercury's body seemed to be forcibly blurred, leaving only a blurry silhouette.

"What are you doing?!" Morgan's face instantly darkened, and he shouted sharply, "Retract your abilities immediately!"

He had intended to trample on the other person's dignity by being naked, but now that the red light covered him up, he was actually more secure than if he were wearing a bulletproof vest.

"I'm sorry," Mercury said apologetically, standing in the halo of light. "My superpower has just awakened, and I don't know how to turn it off yet. But don't worry, you can look into it as much as you want; I promise I won't resist."

These words struck a nerve with Morgan, instantly enraging him.

He roared, his thick arm swinging the short baton in a wide arc, slamming it down hard on Mercury's shoulder. The heavy baton, filled with lead, whistled through the air, and with Morgan's added strength, it was enough to easily break several bones.

"boom--"

A dull, grating thud resounded.

The baton struck the red-glowing surface with tremendous force, but it felt as if it had hit a solid titanium alloy plate. The terrifying recoil instantly traveled back along the baton, causing Morgan a sharp, tearing pain in his hand and numbness in his fingers. The baton nearly flew out of his grasp.

Mercury maintained his stance as before, completely unaffected.

"Very good." Morgan shook his right hand, which was numb from the shock, and laughed angrily.

As a veteran who had spent many years in the Black Olive Containment Center, he had seen plenty of these stubborn individuals who relied on their talents. The red cocoon in front of him looked intimidating, but in a place specifically for detaining superpowered criminals, defensive enhancements were nothing special.

He reached down and took the walkie-talkie off his shoulder strap, then pressed the call button: "Security checkpoint, special situation 004. Requesting temporary access to the gravity platform."

After a brief period of static, a flat, electronic voice came through the walkie-talkie: "Access verified. Request approved."

As soon as he finished speaking, the load-bearing steel plate beneath Mercury's feet suddenly emitted a deep, mechanical grinding sound.

The solid ground rose up like an elevator, and the industrial ceiling above him cracked open to the sides. Four thick, hydraulically driven metal folding arms swooped down, and the steel restraint rings at their ends, like four giant mechanical claws, snapped shut on the edge of the circular platform where he was, completely sealing him in the center of the platform.

"Let me start with a warm-up of ten times gravity." Morgan took a half step back, revealing a cruel sneer across the safety line. "Don't yell, it's nothing more than an ordinary fighter pilot doing extreme overload."

The moment the control panel lever was pushed down, the light around Mercury was distorted due to the high-density energy field.

Without any buffer, a terrifying vertical downward force was generated out of nowhere.

Mercury felt as if he were being run over by a fully loaded heavy truck—no, that's a far cry from the ideal.

The intrusion of gravity is indiscriminate; not only did his back and shoulders bear hundreds of kilograms of weight, but the organs inside his body cavity were also instantly filled with lead.

My stomach and intestines felt like they were being squeezed out of my belly, and my internal organs were being squeezed together by a terrifying feeling of downward pressure.

Because gravity acts on the cellular level without any blind spots, every heartbeat in the chest cavity becomes an overload of pulling, as if every drop of blood is frantically flowing down the lower limbs, attempting to forcibly rupture the blood vessels.

This force pierced straight through the red holy light that shielded his body from external forces, intending to crush his internal organs into blood and gore from within.

However, Mercury merely frowned, and the holy light emanating from his body dimmed slightly.

"Still able to stand up straight? You're putting on quite a show." Morgan saw the holy light around Mercury dimming and felt confident of victory. "Then I'll add some more stats to you."

The red numbers on the console screen began to jump at a steady pace: 12G, 15G, 18G...

Morgan stared at the gravity readings, his knuckles tapping casually on the console, his mocking voice carrying through the loudspeaker, "I bet your spine is several times stiffer. Gravity is the fairest lie detector; it'll pull your insides into your pelvis bit by bit."

However, as the gravitational force continued to increase, Mercury's knees did not bend as expected.

On the contrary, Mercury frowned at first, but as the gravity increased, his expression did not change, and he even yawned.

The digital data surpassed 25G and surged all the way to 30G.

By this point, a warning message had appeared on the machine's display screen: the 30x gravity had reached a certain critical value, and Morgan was no longer allowed to increase it further.

Morgan's mocking expression froze, and his brows furrowed.

This kid is so illogical.

Having worked at Black Olive for so many years, he has seen countless powerful defensive mutants.

There was once a hardened criminal who could transform his entire skin into a high-strength alloy, but even he could only withstand up to 20 times the force of gravity while standing on this machine. No matter how indestructible the outer shell is, the brain and soft internal organs cannot resist the penetrating and damaging force of gravity.

The metal man eventually knelt down, blood gushing from his eyes and nostrils, nearly dying from internal organ rupture.

But the Mercury before him was not bleeding from any of his seven orifices, and his breathing was perfectly regular.

Morgan thought the red light was just an external energy armor, but little did he know that it was not a "shell" attached to his body at all.

This red holy light is born from every cell within Mercury's body.

Living in this age of superpowers, Mercury's father, Al, is a famous reporter who specializes in covering superpower events. From a young age, Mercury has a good understanding of all kinds of superpowers and is also very clear about the dangers he will face.

Therefore, during his training, Mercury maximized his defensive capabilities.

Not just physical damage, but also high temperatures, radiation, electric current... basically any kind of damage that Mercury could imagine and come into contact with, he trained specifically for it.

Touching electric switches, striking lucky, jumping into fire, and even swallowing radiation sources were all things Mercury trained for from a young age, making his body indestructible both inside and out.

However, the result of this overemphasis on one skill is that Mercury's only means of attack is punches and kicks, relying entirely on his strength to throw bricks.

If we only consider defensive capabilities, then he is truly second only to one person.

The red holy light was like countless microscopic jacks, precisely supporting every organ of Mercury, locking the blood vessel walls that were under extreme pressure, and even the most fragile strands of hair were completely enveloped by this endogenous power, preventing them from being crushed by gravity.

For a carbon-based body, 30 times the force of gravity is already a lethal force.

But for Mercury, this was merely taking things a little too seriously, far from reaching his limit.

Morgan stared at the unharmed Mercury, his teeth clenched in hatred. He picked up the walkie-talkie again: "Special Circumstances 007, requesting 100x gravity access."

He simply couldn't believe that anything in this world could withstand a hundred times the force of gravity, not even a solid steel ball could be crushed into a pancake!

But a moment later, a roar came from the walkie-talkie: "Idiot, do you want to blow up the security checkpoint?! Let him in!"