Why is his holy light red?

On his way out of the association building, Mercury was holding his phone, looking very carefully at the bounty poster from the Pomegranate City branch.

This is internal information and will not be released to the public. Mercury was busy training and didn't study it seriously.

When Mercury opened it now, he was dazzled.

Wanted posters for various superpowered criminals, and brief introductions to various superpowered crime cases.

You can earn association points by providing relevant clues. These points cannot be directly exchanged for prize money, but they are an important evaluation of your hero level.

Nora's base salary is several times higher than Mercury's because her rating is higher than many official heroes.

"No wonder he can get his fans to act as informants, he's amazing."

Mercury increasingly felt that Nora seemed ordinary but was unfathomable. How did she manage to do that?

However, this issue was not important. Mercury scanned the bounty posters to see if there was anything familiar. He had previously been on good terms with the gangs in the Root District.

The bounty posters are all related to crimes involving superpowers, since superpowers are beyond the scope of normal criminal investigation methods. How can you find the murder weapon and fingerprints of someone who can kill with their mind? Only professionals can do that.

After paddling for a while, Mercury actually saw a familiar name—the Brotherhood of Raging Waves.

"An investigation revealed that the Raging Waves Brotherhood was involved in the trafficking of illegal drugs and multiple human trafficking and murder cases. On [date], they were attacked, and their leader, Willie Jensen (nicknamed Waves), was shot and killed. According to the scene..."

Offering a bounty for information on the murderer yields a considerable number of points.

But Mercury just sighed; he couldn't very well hand himself over.

As he continued scrolling down, he saw many familiar names, but Mercury didn't feel like he was gaining any points from them. Instead, his bounty seemed to be accumulating.

Fortunately, Mercury had done his research before when he was double-crossing gangsters, and he only chose gang members who were not worth dying for, such as murderers and drug dealers.

My conscience isn't bothered at all; I only feel regret for losing the reward points.

Mercury looked through many more bounties and discovered an interesting coincidence.

In the past six months, the number of missing persons and kidnappings in the Tree Roots District has surged, and most of these cases do not involve ransom demands. The implication is clear: the people behind this are not short of money; what they lack is the raw material of "people."

Around the same time, a particular type of illegal drug began circulating on the streets.

Mercury knew without even checking that it was an experiment by the Immortal Technology, like the potion in the Brotherhood of Tides' safe.

Six months prior, Emily's father had been laid off by Eternal Life Technology. Also on the half-year anniversary, the Federation partnered with Eternal Life Technology to expand the Beast Gang's influence using special superpower enhancement drugs, doing dirty work for the Federation government.

With just a little thought, it becomes clear that six months ago was a crucial time point.

"Did anything unusual happen here six months ago?"

Mercury tried to find information about that time period in the bounty data, but couldn't find any commonalities.

But he felt he must have forgotten something crucial, and there seemed to be another piece of information that also occurred at this crucial point in time, about six months ago.

"Robert seems to have mentioned that about six months ago, he encountered an unexpected incident: the Black Moon Circus appeared, and the heroes suffered heavy casualties..." Mercury frowned. The timing was too coincidental.

Could there be a single mastermind behind all of this?

Just as he was preparing to delve deeper into the relevant information, a dilapidated pickup truck screeched to a halt in front of the association building. The window rolled down, and his younger sister, Sylvia, waved her little hand enthusiastically, like a cheerful little bird: "Brother! Get in!"

Mercury's gloom vanished instantly, replaced by a bright smile. He opened the car door and sat down next to his sister. The little girl proudly pulled out a stack of crayon drawings, excitedly displaying her "masterpiece."

Mercury stared intently at the childish lines, nodding seriously in his comments, and even suggesting that his sister draw him even more handsome next time. As for those messy schemes and plots, well, let's talk about that later. No matter how important the matter is, we'll deal with it after we've spent time with our family.

After leaving the city, the pickup truck took a long detour before finally returning to its new home in the Roots District.

Since the apartment was a second-hand house with renovations and furniture, a week was enough time to move in.

Although it was just a change of neighborhood, the environment here was worlds apart from the slum-like old neighborhood. At first, Al absolutely refused to move, in his eyes, the house would bring Mercury immense pressure.

But Mercury wasn't going to listen to him this time. He skipped the discussion and went straight to paying, signing the contract, and getting the keys, adopting a tough stance of "if you don't like it, go ahead and apply for a refund if you're a minor."

Since the money had already been spent, El could only shut up and move.

After walking just two blocks, the visual impact of the surrounding environment was extremely strong.

Just a few years ago, the two communities were about the same in terms of facilities and greening, but in just a few years, one has become homeless, while the other has at least maintained the dignity of a civilized society.

Mother began preparing dinner, while my younger sister happily went back to her room to draw.

Only Mercury and his son Al remained in the hall, creating a slightly awkward atmosphere.

Looking out at the clean streets, El sighed absently, "When we bought this house, the area was quite nice. How did it deteriorate so much in the blink of an eye?"

"Have you forgotten? A few years ago, our old neighbor went completely bankrupt because he was denied medical insurance. He even defaulted on his mortgage and was eventually forcibly evicted by the bank and its staff." Mercury sat on the sofa and casually reminded him.

"He seems to have died at home?" Al frowned. He was too busy with his two jobs to remember clearly.

"It wasn't just dying at home," Mercury sighed. "The old man was desperate, so he made a miniature bomb and killed the people who came to repossess him. From that day on, the safety rating of our neighborhood plummeted, and house prices crashed like a stock market crash. Then, those respectable neighbors started selling their properties at rock-bottom prices and fleeing, and more and more thugs moved in, making the security situation even worse..."

Mercury couldn't understand this principle before, but after watching a lot of news, he came to the conclusion of this social rule himself.

In this world, a single accident can push an ordinary person off a cliff, and an outburst of despair can bring down an entire community. Once a community's reputation is completely ruined, the gravity of falling social classes will pull everyone down with it, and even daily patrols by superheroes won't be able to hold them back.

Dignity is a very important thing; when you lose your dignity, you're not far from falling into a lower social class.

Like Emily's father, who was originally a senior executive at a listed company, even if he was laid off, he could have found a new job. However, he started drinking heavily because of depression, and because of his drinking, no one trusted him, and then it became a vicious cycle.

Respectability is really important. A person with a good credit reputation can get a loan amount that's two zeros higher; a community with a good social image can attract high-net-worth individuals.

Conversely, once a region is labeled as "chaotic" or "barren," it will inevitably decline, much like the broken windows theory.

"Sigh, it seems my decision was right." Al gently tapped the windowsill, as if talking to himself.

Mercury asked, puzzled, "What decision?"

Al said with a sigh, "I felt I needed to go back to my family, so I quit my job. I'm no longer a reporter for the Heroes Daily."