Why is his holy light red?

Upon hearing that the test had passed, Nora was the first to cheer, and Rex couldn't help but pump his fist and pat Mercury on the shoulder, saying, "It's all thanks to you!"

Vincent looked at the celebrating crowd and felt like an outsider, excluded from the celebration. Even though he passed the test, he was not happy at all.

He turned around angrily and walked out of the training field.

He had only taken a few steps when Rex chased after him.

"Vincent," Rex said, grabbing his arm to comfort him, "if you run away now, you'll truly lose."

"Oh, so now you're starting to care about me?" Vincent said excitedly. "Why don't you go celebrate with your new friends?"

Rex quickly said, "Don't be like that, brother. We've known each other for so many years, don't you know me? I was going to side with you just now, but if it weren't for Mercury, we would both fail."

Vincent said emotionally, "If you had stood firmly with me back then, we could still have qualified, instead of making me look like a clown."

"Now that we've all passed the review, isn't that a good thing? Even if we're friends, do you think I should join you in shifting the blame to that newcomer?" Rex said, equally agitated.

"Of course!" Vincent roared. "Unlike you guys, you have a famous superhero father, the son of a famous reporter, and you can join the association without even taking an exam. As for me, my father is still in prison. You want to be a superhero as easy as breathing, but I think it takes a hundred times more effort to pass the screening."

"Even if he has to retake the exam, it's just going through the process again for him, but if I fail, I might not have another chance to become a hero. If you're my friend, you should stand by me."

Rex stared at the hysterical Vincent in front of him and remained silent for a long time.

After a long silence, Rex spoke. His voice trembled, as if he were speaking to Vincent, yet also to himself: "Vincent, a hero isn't like you."

Vincent was stunned.

"What did you say?"

"I said—a hero isn't like you," Rex repeated, his voice more resolute than before. But then, as if making a decision, he said to Vincent, "If you don't think you've done anything wrong, then you really don't deserve to be a hero."

"Dare you say that again?!" Vincent roared. "Do you know what I've sacrificed to become a hero?!"

Rex roared back without backing down: "You keep saying it in my ear, how could I not know? What about being discriminated against at birth, what about going to court to report your own father? Your father is a criminal against humanity, you don't even need to go to court, the evidence is enough to put him in the electric chair! You just don't want him to implicate you."

"You keep telling me you envy me, but do you even know what I've been through? You think I just want a superhero father? Do you know what my childhood was like? I started superpower training when I was six, I never went to school, I didn't have a single friend!"

"Heh, so I'm not your friend?"

"That was true before, but not anymore!"

……

The two were arguing fiercely in the hallway.

Mercury and Nora poked half their heads out of the doorway, like two passersby watching the commotion from a corner.

Nora sighed. "I knew they were going to have a huge fight sooner or later."

Mercury leaned against the doorframe and remarked, "I used to think my dad was pretty irresponsible. Now it seems... he wasn't so bad after all."

Nora couldn't help but laugh: "Don't try to outdo each other in misery. Even the worst person can find someone worse off than themselves."

Mercury paused for a moment, then smiled. He found himself growing to like this girl more and more—she really knew how to talk.

Seeing that the two were about to fight, the collision of flames and lightning was likely to blow up the Hero Association. He turned to look at the Eye of the Demon, who had been standing in the training room without showing himself.

"Aren't you going to do anything about it?"

Magic Eyes didn't even lift his eyelids: "If I forcibly pull them apart now, everyone's just holding their anger in." He paused, his tone carrying a world-weary air, "Teenagers should let their tempers run wild. Don't worry, this building is sturdy, it won't blow up."

Nora couldn't help but press, "Aren't you afraid they'll really break off their friendship? I saw them arguing quite fiercely this time."

"Their falling out is their own business," Magic Eye Man said with a hint of disdain. "It just shows their friendship isn't all that great."

He turned around, his gaze falling on Mercury and Nora, and clapped his hands: "Stop watching the kids argue. You two should be training."

He walked to the center of the field and stared at Mercury with a scrutinizing gaze: "Especially you, Mercury. You have extraordinary talent, but your foundation is too weak, not even as good as Nora's."

Nora looked at Magic Eye Man speechlessly; those words were a bit too hurtful to her pride.

But Magic Eye Man clearly didn't receive the signal, or rather, he didn't care at all. He tapped a few times on the tablet, and the training ground floor emitted a low, mechanical rumble.

Rows of weapon racks slowly rose from the ground.

The guns were neatly hung on the rack, including dozens of different types of firearms—pistols, submachine guns, sniper rifles, shotguns, and even some oddly shaped modified weapons whose purpose was unclear.

"Guns are the best individual weapons in modern society." The Magic Eye Man's tone was calm and confident. "Most superpowered individuals are not as good as an ordinary revolver."

He told Nora, "Go pick one. I'll teach you to be a proper shooter."

Nora's eyes lit up. She strode towards the weapons rack, her gaze sweeping over the rows of firearms. To receive personal instruction from the world's best marksman was a priceless opportunity.

Magic Eyes turned to look at Mercury, his expression still indifferent: "As for you, train on your own."

He began operating the tablet again. On the flat training room floor, the gray pillars rose once more, accompanied by the sounds of mechanisms from all directions. Metal supports popped out of the walls, ropes and hooks descended from the ceiling, and obstacles of various shapes emerged from the floor.

The entire training room was completely transformed in just a few dozen seconds.

As Mercury looked at the scene before him, the word "Ninja Challenge" popped into his mind.

It's one of those extreme physical challenge shows that's really popular online. Various high-difficulty obstacle courses require you to rely on agility, core strength, and precise judgment to get through. There's a high-altitude zipline area where you have to swing across platforms using ropes, and another one with just a few protruding metal blocks on a horizontal beam. You have to swing yourself out like on a swing, precisely hooking the next protrusion with a hook in your hand, and then swing to the next position.

There are also almost vertical climbing walls, winding log bridges that are so intricate they're dizzying, net walls that you have to climb over, and low tunnels that you have to crawl through...

The only difference is that in TV shows, people fall into water and at most swallow a couple of mouthfuls. But the training ground floor here is a hard floor. An ordinary person falling from this height would definitely suffer broken bones and tendons.

Magic Eye pointed to the edge of the arena, where another robot rose from beneath the floor. Its structure was sleek, with long limbs, making it look like a mechanical cheetah born for speed.

"Your task for the next few days," said Magic Eye, "is to find a way to reach the finish line, and to outrun this robot."

He pressed a button, and the robot moved.

Its movements were incredibly fluid—it glided effortlessly across the twisted balance beam, leaped onto a vertical wall with a single push, and clung to the surface like a gecko, reaching the top in no time. Navigating nets, swinging across bridges, and scaling high walls, every movement was so precise it seemed meticulously calculated.

When the robot crossed the finish line, the timer stopped at 1 minute and 03 seconds.

Mercury swallowed.

But he didn't hesitate for long. He took a deep breath and, imitating the robot's movements, sprinted towards the first checkpoint.

It was a twisted balance beam, which didn't seem too difficult. Mercury slowed his pace, trying to walk across it steadily.

Then, as soon as he put his foot on it, the entire balance beam tilted sharply to one side.

He then realized that the balance beam was fitted with springs, and if his foot wasn't on the center balance point, the entire beam would tilt instantly. Before he could even adjust his center of gravity, he was already suspended in mid-air.

Snapped.

Mercury fell from a height of two meters, his back slamming solidly onto the floor. Although protected by holy light, the fall didn't hurt much, but the posture was certainly quite pathetic.

He lay on the floor, staring at the ceiling, and took a breath.

Holy Light enhances his defense and strength, but provides almost no benefit to his agility and balance. In recent years, Mercury has spent the vast majority of his training time just on improving his defense.

However, because he mainly focuses on defense, Mercury also has an advantage. He is not afraid of falling at all, so he can start over again and again, unlike ordinary people who have to lie down for three days after falling once.

Mercury got up from the ground, dusted himself off, and fixed his gaze back on the twisted balance beam.

He rushed forward again.