Why is his holy light red?

After waiting patiently in that smoky classroom until the afternoon, the agreed time was fast approaching.

Mercury packed his things, got up, and left the classroom.

At the slightest commotion, the surrounding students instinctively held their breath, only breathing a sigh of relief after confirming that the leader hadn't been provoked by anyone.

Mercury, familiar with the area, reached the wall and easily leaped over it.

A two-and-a-half-meter wall was like a step to Mercury.

The moment he landed, a red holy light appeared, and then Mercury's figure faded into the sunlight.

Above, the angel of light watched all of this unfold; Mercury's invisibility was meaningless to him.

He had been thinking about how to communicate with Mercury as the Angel of Light and persuade him to stop doing illegal things.

But after observing carefully for a morning, Al realized that he had been thinking too simply.

When did my community turn into a living hell?

This isn't a school; it's clearly a gladiatorial arena enclosed by walls.

The walls of the corridor were no longer recognizable as their original color; layers upon layers of graffiti, like a territorial dispute, were covered with gang codes and vulgar insults.

The students here are either gambling, trading those colorful pills, or pinning girls against the wall in a corner and groping them—no one is reading.

In just a few hours, Al witnessed three violent incidents.

The most recent one happened at the corner of the stairs.

Four tall men in leather jackets dragged a skinny boy into the bathroom like a dead dog, amidst a chorus of whistles and shouts. Soon after, dull thuds and pleas for mercy echoed from inside, but passing students didn't even glance up, as if it were just background noise.

What terrified El even more was the teachers' reaction.

A teacher carrying lesson plans clearly saw this scene. But he only paused for a moment, then, like a frightened ostrich, quickly lowered his head and "escaped" past the violent bathroom door.

Even the teachers didn't dare to interfere, as if as long as no one died, everything would be fine.

Al tried pretending to be someone from the school to call the nearby police station, but after waiting all morning, not a single police car came to the school.

Upon careful reflection, it seems that the surrounding environment has been deteriorating in recent years, but I have spent most of my time around the world and therefore have not noticed it.

Al felt an overwhelming nausea, not only because of the chaos before him, but also because the thought that Mercury had to live in this sewer-like environment every day tormented his heart with intense guilt.

How can a father be so incompetent? What right does he have to lecture his son?

Therefore, when he saw Mercury climb over the wall, Al did not stop him, but silently followed, wanting to see clearly how his son spent his day.

Mercury ran faster than a car and arrived at an exceptionally clean street in no time.

Compared to areas where garbage piles up along the roadside, it can be described as clean, without as much excrement and the stench of corpses. You can even see that the grass on both sides of the street has been trimmed.

Continue forward, and you'll see a bustling commercial district.

Compared to the wooden shacks next to it, this reinforced concrete commercial district looks like a Tyrannosaurus Rex in a chicken coop, mouth agape, waiting for customers to come to it.

This is the most "safe" Freedom Moon Plaza in the Tree Root District, a commercial center jointly developed by multiple group companies in the Asia Pomegranate Tree City.

With capitalists backing it up, local police protecting it, and gangs handling all sorts of troubles, this place is arguably the most orderly part of the chaotic Tree Root District.

As a result, everything in this square is more than twice the market price.

Don't complain, maintaining order requires a lot of cost. This business center is like a water pump, constantly extracting profits from the community and sending them to the rich.

The "Next Life Bar" that Mercury is going to is located in this square.

As soon as you enter this area, you can see those signs everywhere.

"Monitored Area"

"Invisibility-type superpowers are prohibited."

"Shape-changing abilities are prohibited."

……

This is exactly what's giving Mercury a headache. His ability only allows him to achieve optical invisibility, and it's not even perfect invisibility. He can still be detected by those ubiquitous special cameras, making it almost impossible for him to sneak into the bar unnoticed.

The real trouble comes from the bar itself—minors are not allowed in.

It's clearly a hell, yet some of its rules are ridiculously strict.

"I thought that information broker knew everything about me, but now it seems I overestimated him."

After working together for some time, Mercury became increasingly suspicious that his partner possessed prophetic abilities or superpowers like clairvoyance or X-ray vision, and that his own identity had probably already been exposed.

But looking at the location he invited him to, Mercury had some doubts. Did the other party not know his real age?

After passing through those clean and tidy streets, we arrived at the southwest corner of the commercial district, where it became much dirtier and noisier.

Although there wasn't much litter on the ground, the air was filled with a strange smell of cheap perfume and vomit.

Even though it was still afternoon, there were still quite a few people who had drunk too much vomiting on the roadside.

Moreover, the closer Mercury got to the bar, the more superpowered people he saw.

A two-and-a-half-meter-tall orc walked towards us, his bushy indigo mane making him look as majestic as a lion. His studded leather jacket was stretched taut by his bulging muscles, and a thick tail pierced through seven or eight rusty heavy steel rings, which sparked and crackled on the pavement.

This kind of visual pollution is everywhere.

On the street corner stood a drug addict, as thin as a bamboo pole. His skin flickered like an unstable holographic projection, constantly flashing at an extremely high frequency, dazzling to the eye. With each step he took, his body would teleport several meters like a noisy signal before reforming.

Not to mention those Logia-type Devil Fruit users who practically wear the word "danger" on their faces.

Some people had burning phosphorescent flames wrapped around their fingertips, and their bodies were filled with the smell of burning; others walked on small vortexes, floating half a foot off the ground.

In this era where superpowered individuals are emerging in droves, everyone wants to be different and can't wait to show off their individuality.

Being flamboyant can bring various benefits, but it can also bring various troubles.

Mercury is the type of person who only wants practical benefits, so he discreetly put on a baseball cap and walked forward with his head down.

After weaving through the bizarre crowd, we finally arrived at the "Next Life" bar.

Standing at the door was a thin-looking young man. He appeared to be in his early twenties, with neatly styled blond hair, wearing a well-tailored black suit and sunglasses, standing guard with a blank expression.

He looks like an extra playing a security guard who overacted.

As soon as Mercury approached, the man said, "Minors are not accepted."

Mercury pulled down his hood, revealing his face, and said to the man, "John, it is I."

The two were clearly acquainted; upon seeing Mercury's face, John looked surprised and asked, "Mercury, what are you doing here?"

Mercury confessed, "I'm going inside to find someone."

John quickly shook his head and said, "Impossible, minors aren't allowed in."

"Given our friendship, please make an exception and let me in for half an hour."

"No way, I finally got this job. If the boss finds out, he'll slap me to death."

John shook his head as if he were on drugs.

Seeing that trying to build a relationship was useless, Mercury had no choice but to take a paper bag out of his pocket and stuff it into John's hand.

Seeing this scene from above, El felt extremely heartbroken. Even bribery had been learned; what had his son gone through?

What was in that paper bag? Cash? Or contraband?

John squeezed the paper bag in his hand, feeling several hard objects inside, and asked, "What's this?"

Mercury said mysteriously, "The photo of your idol, the Angel of Light, is guaranteed to be exclusive and never published."

A thunderclap suddenly echoed through the clear blue sky.