Why is his holy light red?

A father who suddenly realizes he is estranged from his son, feeling guilty and trying to make conversation, is in an awkward hell.

From "How's the food at your training camp?" to "Is the dormitory the association arranged for you a single or double room?", El's questions always oscillated between making conversation out of nothing and forced concern.

Mercury had lost count of how many times he had given perfunctory answers, but finally gave up, pulled out noise-canceling headphones from his pocket, put them on, and the world instantly became quiet.

Al watched his son put on the headphones and could only awkwardly shut his mouth.

He gripped the steering wheel, his eyes fixed on the road ahead, but his heart was filled with regret.

Over the years, I have indeed paid too little attention to my child. I finally mustered up the courage to try to get closer to him, but I couldn't even find topics to talk about, and the effect was completely counterproductive.

He carefully considered his options and decided that he should buy a few books like "How to Communicate with Teenage Children" to brush up on his knowledge when he got back.

The car navigated through congested city streets, merged onto the elevated expressway via ramps, switched between underpasses and spiral interchanges three or four times, passed two hidden checkpoints, and circled around for nearly four hours before finally arriving at the Hero Association building.

It wasn't that El deliberately took a detour; that's how the transportation between the Root Zone and the Canopy Zone was planned.

Although the straight-line distance is not far, driving there requires going around almost half of the city, which is almost equivalent to leaving the city first and then entering the canopy area by taking another road.

It is more convenient for people from outside the city to go to the canopy area than for people from the root area to go to the canopy area.

Mercury got out of the car as quickly as possible, turned around and waved to El, who was still watching him through the car window, before walking towards the glass door without looking back.

Starting today, he will spend a long week of closed training here.

Mercury was quite curious about the daily training of heroes. His development of his superpowers was very primitive, relying entirely on numerical values ​​without any skill. The last time Magic Eye Man used the impact of a bullet to make him lose his balance was a vivid memory for him. If he encountered a skillful opponent again, he was afraid he would only get beaten up.

Therefore, training is essential; Mercury is currently lacking in technique.

As he walked through the lobby paved with polished marble and passed the reception desk, Mercury paused, took out a small velvet box the size of his palm from the inside pocket of his coat, and approached the receptionist, Rosalia.

"Rosa, thanks for reminding me about what happened last time," he smiled, his tone casual and natural. "I saw it while passing by and thought it suited you very well."

It was a silver brooch studded with small diamonds, worth two thousand federal dollars. For Mercury himself, it was a painfully high price, but for the residents of this upper town, it was probably just a slightly respectable little accessory.

However, networking is a long-term investment that happens gradually and subtly. Although Rosalia is not a combatant, her workstation is located at the information hub of the association's main hall, giving her a level of information access that surpasses many official heroes.

Rosalia opened the box and glanced at it, her eyes immediately lighting up. Without any hesitation, she smiled and held the brooch up to her collar, then tilted her head, looking at Mercury with a slightly teasing expression: "Oh my, it's so pretty! Why don't you put it on for me?"

Her tone was light and cheerful, and she naturally leaned towards the counter.

Mercury's smile remained unchanged, but his brain had begun to throb slightly.

He has been in this world for several years now, but he still hasn't been able to fully adapt to the social distancing of the locals.

The girls in this world are so proactive in expressing their affections that he's almost overwhelmed.

Ultimately, his views are still quite traditional: either have a serious relationship, or avoid those ambiguous, flirtatious interactions. Besides, Rosalia works at the Hero Association, so they see each other every day. If anything goes wrong, the situation will only become awkwardly difficult to resolve.

He was frantically searching his mind for a polite excuse when a familiar figure caught his eye out of the corner of his eye.

Wearing a cowboy hat and a white suit, the middle-aged man walked out from the direction of the elevator lobby, holding a steaming cup of black coffee in his hand, looking like an old gentleman from an era behind the world.

Mercury immediately changed direction and rushed towards him as if he had seen a savior.

"Eye of the Storm!" His voice was a half-tone higher than usual, and his smile was genuinely sincere. "You've finally arrived! I've been waiting for you for ages!"

The man with the magical eye paused slightly, holding his coffee cup, and frowned as he looked at the young man in front of him.

When did we become so close?

Their last meeting was far from pleasant. According to the usual script, young people like Mercury, often arrogant due to their superpowers, would likely hold a grudge if humiliated in public.

Vincent and Rex, those two troublemakers, are the best examples; their eyes are filled with undisguised hostility and resentment.

Although Mercury managed to pass the test by finding a loophole, the solid fall he took was undeniable. A newly appointed trainee hero, being humiliated in front of others, should at least harbor some resentment.

Mercury's enthusiasm was astonishing.

He's never been good at dealing with people. After so many years in this circle, he has very few friends, but a very long list of enemies. Most young people, when facing him, either feel awe, fear, or outward respect but inward dissatisfaction.

These Eye of the Storm characters are already used to it.

It was this kind of enthusiasm that he found rather difficult to adapt to.

"Trying to get close to me won't improve my rating," Magic Eyes replied coldly.

Mercury replied, "I'm not doing this for the rating; I'm just eager to participate in training. I wonder what today's training program is?"

Magic Eye Man finally breathed a sigh of relief and told Mercury, "I don't like beating around the bush. Real combat is always the simplest and most effective training. So, today's training exercise is disaster simulation. Wait for me on the nineteenth floor."

After saying that, he didn't even give her a second glance and walked straight to the elevator.

Mercury gave Rosalia an apologetic smile, then quickly followed after her.

Rosalia was slightly disappointed, but she didn't take it to heart.

Just as she tried so hard to get close to Mercury, so too did Mercury try so hard to get close to his mentor in order to climb the ranks quickly.

This world is just that cruel and direct.

Mercury quickly caught up with Magic Eye Man, and the two entered the elevator together.

The old cowboy didn't say a word, and Mercury got away smoothly without shamelessly trying to get close to Magic Eye Man again.

The two waited in silence for the elevator to reach the nineteenth floor.

But this silence made the Magic Eye Man feel even more embarrassed.

Mercury was so enthusiastic just now, but now he's not saying a word... Maybe I was too harsh with my tone.

Thinking about it, it doesn't seem quite right. After all, Mercury didn't do anything wrong; he was just asking about the training program. As a mentor, it's really not appropriate to treat a student like that.

However, when he asked the Magic Eye Man to speak, he didn't know what to say, so he decided to just pretend nothing had happened.

With that thought in mind, we arrived at the nineteenth floor.

The two remained silent, leaving the elevator one after the other, and soon arrived at a spacious training ground.

The training ground was much larger than Mercury had imagined, so spacious that it felt like half a floor's partition walls had been knocked down, with a ceiling height of at least seven or eight meters. The silver-gray metal floor gleamed with a cold, matte light under the overhead lights.

In the very center of the arena, Vincent, Rex, and Nora were already waiting.

Mercury strode over to the three of them and joked, "Looks like I'm the last one again."

Nora laughed and replied, "It's okay, it's only the first day, it's normal to get lost."

The girl had a bright smile, but her appearance was rather ordinary, just like her superpower, which seemed to have nothing outstanding about it.

Vincent and Rex didn't even look at him; their gazes were fixed on Magic Eye Man like nails, as if they wanted to burn two holes in him with their eyes.

The Eye of the Demon seemed completely unconcerned by the two hostile gazes. He walked straight to the open space in the center of the training field and announced loudly, "Today, your mission is simple. A small-scale disaster will occur in a moment. Your mission is to defeat the bad guys and save the civilians. I will score you based on your performance."

After speaking, he lowered his head and lightly tapped a few icons on the control panel in his hand.

The floor beneath their feet began to emit a low, mechanical rumble. Silver-gray columns slowly rose from beneath the metal floor, like some giant jigsaw puzzle being assembled in mid-air—shelves, checkout counters, display areas, refrigerated aisles… In less than twenty seconds, a gray-toned supermarket interior, with only shape and no color or detail, was fully revealed to everyone.

Immediately afterwards, the hidden compartment beneath the floor opened again, and rows of humanoid robots rose up simultaneously.

They are about 1.7 meters tall, with a streamlined silver shell covering their entire body. Their joints have a sophisticated hydraulic transmission structure, allowing them to move quietly and smoothly.

Mercury could tell at a glance that this was the technology of the Iron Titan Robert; the style and design were exactly the same.

The robots dispersed throughout the supermarket and took their positions. Almost simultaneously, different colored light strips lit up from the gaps in their armor.

Seventeen of them lit up with blue light, and three lit up with red light.

"Red represents armed criminals, blue represents civilians, and the scene is a supermarket." The Magic Eye looked at the crowd with his crosshair-like eyes, "Show your skills, future heroes."