Why is his holy light red?

Chapter 70 Rex's Request

Mercury left Mother of Life's spaceship with the exquisite little hourglass and successfully obtained the superhero's authorization.

He fiddled with the metal hourglass in his hand, examining it repeatedly in the cold wind of the tarmac, and finally noticed its strangeness.

The pink sand inside the hourglass, glowing with fluorescence, fell at an incredibly slow speed.

Mercury couldn't tell if it was because the pink sand had an extremely low density, or if the glass tubes containing them were filled with some transparent substance more viscous than air. In any case, with each turning, the fine sand seemed to sink into some kind of slow-motion swamp, taking at least a full ten minutes to completely drain away.

But this discovery seems meaningless and cannot help him achieve the sand reversal.

The red holy light within him was powerful, but his special training over the years had all revolved around "physical enhancement." If he wanted, he could crush this hourglass along with its metal frame into dust with a single pinch, but controlling the flow of sand inside without damaging the outer glass tube? That was something he was somewhat at a loss about.

No one knows what that old lady is really up to. She keeps saying she's conducting an experiment, but is the real guinea pig in this experiment this pink hourglass, or Mercury himself?

However, Mercury had no leverage to refuse, as the offer was far too substantial.

When the authorization document bearing the name "Nova Savina" was entered into the Hero Association's backend system, the intern account interface on Mercury's phone instantly changed. A whole host of previously locked permissions and advanced functions suddenly became available.

Even more outrageous, in just over ten minutes, his inbox was flooded with private messages, with the red dot in the upper right corner clearly showing "999+".

"This damn association's internal network is leaking like a sieve," Mercury cursed inwardly as he looked at his frantically vibrating phone.

A figure at the very top of the pyramid like the Mother of Life—even a sneeze from her can be interpreted by the outside world as dozens of political signals. Moreover, this living saint has long remained outside the core power circle of the association, holding only a nominal position. For decades, there has never been any record of her vouching for any trainee hero.

The moment the permission instruction flashed through the association's data center, the staff in the monitoring room thought the system had been hacked. They frantically pulled up Mercury's file and checked it repeatedly, almost sounding the highest-level network alarm, fearing either that the system had crashed or that some lazy cyber hacker was messing with the association's internal network.

After several rounds of almost neurotic system security checks, the news seemed to sprout wings and flew directly to the desks of the association's top management. Mercury's previously unremarkable file was instantly upgraded several levels of security.

Everyone was curious: what exactly did Mercury have that made him so deserving of the favor of that important figure?

Of course, Mercury was completely unaware of these behind-the-scenes maneuvers. He was toying with the strange pink hourglass as he walked out of the building.

The hourglass issue isn't urgent; we should deal with the cannibal gang first and see if we can extract anything from them.

Strike while the iron is hot.

Mercury planned to wipe out the ogre gang in one fell swoop before they could react.

But just as he reached the glass revolving doors of the association building, a blinding blue-purple bolt of lightning streaked towards him.

To speed things up, Rex even used his lightning powers. He was like a walking, talking electric grid, his body crackling with ear-piercing arcs of electricity, heading straight for Mercury.

Mercury's eyelids twitched violently, and he subconsciously took half a step back, almost summoning red holy light to deliver a charged punch.

Rex's rubber-soled sneakers left two long scorch marks on the marble floor. He stopped steadily five meters away from Mercury, the raging arcs of electricity around him instantly receding into his body. It was clear that the Eye of the Storm's few "sizzle—"

The hellish training that Tianfeiren endured was not in vain; his precision in manipulating his own superpowers did indeed make a qualitative leap.

"Mercury!" Rex, still breathless, strode forward, his eyes wide as light bulbs. "Is it true?! You actually obtained the authorization for the 'Mother of Life'?!"

"Was this crappy internal network security system made of a sieve?" Mercury pinched his brow, his face full of helplessness.

Less than half an hour has passed, and it's already being broadcast globally?

"I can't say if the whole world knows, but anyone with even a little bit of inside information is probably digging through your file right now!" Rex's voice cracked with utter disbelief. "No, my good brother, tell me the truth, how did you do that?! The Mother of Life hasn't even bothered to attend the Association's annual closed-door seminar on the 'Hero Act' for the past few years, why would she make an exception and authorize you? Are you her long-lost grandson?!"

"Well----"

Mercury's face stiffened; how could this guy have guessed in this direction?

"Ahem—" Mercury guiltily looked away, offering a dry, perfunctory reply, "Perhaps this is what they call a wondrous instant connection."

"Why should I?!" Rex was so agitated he almost exploded with electricity again. "In terms of 'old friends,' I'm the one who's an old friend! She even held me in her arms when I was a child!"

Mercury, unsure how to continue, decisively changed the subject: "Why are you so agitated? Your own father is the Storm King; if you just asked, would you lack an internship authorization permit?"

"How can that be the same! My old man—" Rex's words abruptly stopped. He irritably ran his fingers through his hair, seemingly unwilling to delve into the topic of his aloof and strict father, and abruptly changed the subject, "Let's not talk about this. Good brother, just tell me quickly, what kind of rules did the Mother of Life give you?"

She—she directly took you on as her personal apprentice?!

Looking into Rex's eyes, which were gleaming with extreme gossip and envy, Mercury sighed and could only recount the events that had just occurred to him, picking and choosing what to say.

After hearing Mercury's plan, Rex quickly said, "Hey bro, count me in, okay?"

"You?" Mercury raised an eyebrow, scrutinizing him as if he were an alien. "I'm here to cause trouble for Immortal Technology. Why are you provoking them?"

Storm King is the absolute ruler of Atlantic City. Although geographically separated from Auriga City by a vast distance, in the world of capital, the networks of interests among giants are deeply intertwined. Who can guarantee that Atlantic City doesn't have a deep cooperative project with Eternal Life Technology?

For a privileged second-generation heir like Rex, born with a silver spoon in his mouth, to go and fight against super-capital is nothing short of betraying his own class.

This is also why it's difficult for so-called superheroes to change the world. When you become part of capital, how many people can betray their class? After all, there is only one Holy Angel. Other superheroes all want privileges and enjoyment, but everyone's moral bottom line is different.

"Because we're friends!" Rex patted his chest forcefully, his expression more serious than ever before. "A friend's trouble is my trouble, a friend's mortal enemy is my mortal enemy! I've read those reports you wrote; the dirty tricks Eternal Life Technology pulled didn't treat people like human beings at all. Since you can't swallow this and want revenge, how can I, as your good brother, just stand by and watch—"

"Alright, enough with the nonsense." Mercury interrupted his eloquent speech, mercilessly exposing his lies, "You're really after the Mother of Life, aren't you?"

Rex was taken aback. But this time, instead of trying to save face as usual, he said excitedly, "That's right, brother. I really do want to ask Mother of Life for a favor."

Rex's voice trembled slightly: "You have no idea, my brother's superpowers underwent that qualitative leap because he underwent her gene modification surgery. I want to have that surgery too! But I've never understood why, ever since my mother and brother passed away in an accident, the old man has completely shut up about the modification, not even allowing us to mention it."

"But I refuse to accept my fate!" Rex gritted his teeth, his knuckles white, crackling with electricity. "I don't want to be just a giant stun gun that can set off sparks for the rest of my life. I want to be a real superhero who can stand on his own!"

"Please, Mercury, take me with you! I want to use this opportunity to prove myself to Mother Life, and I want to beg her to perform a remodeling surgery on me too!"

Mercury watched Rex pleading in silence, feeling a pang of sympathy for his friend whom he had only recently met.

Rex's abilities are indeed insufficient to inherit the glory of the Storm King; this is the tragedy of the power gap.

But Mercury was no different. The angels of light were high above him, and compared to them, Mercury was merely a little thicker-skinned.

"Do you have authorization?" Mercury asked.

The thing in Mercury's hand is for one person only, and there's no way to exclude Rex from it.

Rex gritted his teeth and said, "I'll go back and beg my dad. I'll kneel before him and make him issue me the authorization!"

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