Why is his holy light red?

Chapter 82 should be numbered.

"I hate this weird mechanism the most."

Mercury exhaled irritably, causing the dense strips of white paper on his cheek to flutter wildly.

The fully enclosed isolation dormitory is softly lit, with a pleasant temperature, making for an extremely comfortable environment.

But Mercury sat cross-legged on the sofa, his brow furrowed. He held a few playing cards in his hand, his face covered in strips of paper, while across from him, Rex's face was spotless, without a single scrap of paper on it.

Mercury played cards all day and lost all day.

Rex's superpowers aren't that great, but his card-playing skills are extremely high. He completely dominated Mercury, as if he were possessed by the God of Gamblers.

Winning or losing was secondary; what truly made Mercury feel unbearably uncomfortable, like he had lice all over his body, was this state of confinement. Branch President Richard had given a strict order: until the source of the infection was identified, the three of them were not allowed to step out of this door even once. Not only were they required to wear physiological monitoring bracelets, but they were also subject to 24-hour video surveillance without any blind spots, except when going to the toilet.

"Four twos, I won!" Rex excitedly threw his last few cards on the coffee table, reached for the double-sided tape next to him, and prepared to continue "torturing" Mercury.

"Stop." Mercury ripped the note off his face, then leaned back on the sofa in a fit of rage. "I'm done playing."

"You're giving up already?" Rex rubbed his hands together regretfully.

"You've been losing all day, is that fun? Don't you get tired of winning all the time?"

"Who would complain about winning too much?" Rex shuffled the cards skillfully, a wild grin spreading across his face. "If I could, I'd win every day, and keep winning forever."

Mercury rolled his eyes. This kid's mental state was practically the same as the current federal president's.

Just then, the doorknob of the second bedroom clicked softly. Nora rubbed her sleepy eyes and came out in her slippers.

Hearing the noise, Mercury sprang up from the sofa like a spring, staring intently at her: "How are you? Had a nightmare?"

Nora yawned and casually replied, "No, I slept until I woke up naturally."

Mercury immediately turned and shouted at the security camera flashing red in the corner, "Did you hear that? All clear! None of the three of us were affected!"

To prevent the cannibalistic nightmares from spreading through the subconscious, Richard forced the three of them to take turns sleeping at different times.

Relying on the invincible golden holy light within him, Mercury volunteered to be the first to sleep, and ended up sleeping for eight hours straight without any problems.

Next up was Rex, who also slept for eight hours straight without any problems. The worst off was Nora, who endured a full sixteen hours before being allowed to close her eyes.

All three have now completed a full deep sleep test and none of them showed symptoms of nightmare infection, so the quarantine should be over.

However, the speaker on the wall still emitted a cold, synthesized voice: "Application rejected. Continue observation for a few more days, or—wait until the next infected person appears."

Mercury scratched his head in frustration. According to information leaked from Loki's side, the mutated old man had nightmares for seven whole days before he was actually attacked.

Even if there is another infected person, are they going to keep them locked up in this iron cage for another week?

It's hard to say whether the association is actually implementing isolation measures or is indirectly locking them up.

Fortunately, the police didn't confiscate their electronic devices. Mercury swiped his phone screen and went to the news website. He had expected the top headline today to be a sensational story of "Trainee Hero Makes a Comeback Against the Black Moon Circus."

The top trending topic, now dominated by red banners, was: "[Holy Light Angels publicly accuse Eternal Life Technology of illegal human experimentation and multiple serious cases involving superpowers, demanding immediate cooperation with the investigation!]"

Mercury stared wide-eyed, swiping through the lengthy report for ages before finally finding a sentence relevant to him in the margins: "————Relevant clues were provided by the trainee hero of the Pomegranate Tree City branch."

Undeterred, he scrolled down the trending topics list again. The top ten were all dominated by the heavyweight terms "Holy Light Angel," "Mother of Life," and "Immortal Life Technology."

After flipping through two pages, Mercury finally let out a scream: "This is outrageous! 'Iron Titan Robert's late-night rendezvous with a Victoria's Secret supermodel'—this kind of tabloid news is trending even before our heroic deeds?!"

Nora walked to the refrigerator, grabbed a bottle of mineral water, unscrewed it, took a sip, and laughed gleefully: "Standard procedure. Robert's dating list is almost over 100, and online betting sites are going crazy with betting on who will be the 100th lucky one. Everyone loves this kind of thing."

"Damn rich people!" Mercury cursed under his breath.

Rex, who was sitting to the side, turned his head slowly and looked at him with a complicated expression.

Mercury coughed and quickly added, "I wasn't talking about you. You're not exactly rich compared to the Iron Titans."

Rex opened his mouth, only to find himself speechless.

Mercury, bored, switched to the financial sector, hoping to see Eternal Life Technology make a fool of itself. But looking at the data on the candlestick chart, he couldn't help but frown: "How strange. After being publicly criticized by a hero of the Holy Light Angel's caliber, Eternal Life Technology's stock has only fallen by less than three percent? It seems unaffected."

This touches on Rex's area of ​​expertise. He leaned closer to glance at the screen and shook his head: "The impact is already significant. For the past three months, Eternal Life's stock price has been skyrocketing. Recently, through behind-the-scenes manipulation by federal officials, they just secured a massive order—the full acquisition of the Queen's Health Fund in Britain." Now, nearly one-fifth of the entire British health insurance market is in Eternal Life's hands.

Rexton paused, his tone becoming serious: "Given their original momentum, they should have surged today. The fact that it's plummeted by nearly four percent shows that this incident has actually dealt them a very severe blow."

Mercury didn't really understand these colorful charts; he only cared about one question: "How can we make their stocks plummet to the point of being worthless?" He was still eagerly waiting to make a fortune by shorting the stocks.

"Fall to worthless?" Rex seemed to have heard a naive joke. "That's absolutely impossible. The pharmaceutical factories, core patents, and market share that Eternal Life Technologies holds are all real assets. Even if the evidence of the crime is eventually proven, the board of directors will at most send a few executives to take the blame and go to jail."

He leaned back on the sofa and analyzed objectively, "A large portion of the everyday medicines we use rely on the patents of Yong Sheng Technology. This golden goose won't just disappear into thin air. People can't just stop taking medicine when they're sick, can they? Want to bankrupt this giant? The federal government will be the first to object."

"If a company of this size were to collapse suddenly, it would be equivalent to detonating a nuclear bomb on the national economy. Banks would have to empty their coffers to keep the company afloat. Other capital would only take the opportunity to gradually erode and dismantle the company, and would never let it go out of business."

After listening to this explanation of economics, Mercury sighed. It seems that this kind of "too big to fail" situation is the same in any world.

"What if we just want it to plummet by 30% in the short term?" Mercury thought to himself, calculating the data from John's side. As long as the drop was deep enough, he could make a fortune by shorting it.

Rex stroked his chin: "That's promising. But it'll require a major scandal that can trigger market panic."

"For example, sending their executives directly to jail?"

"Forget it," Rex shook his head. "Big companies' legal teams can drag out a case for three to five years. Constant wrangling can affect the stock price, but it's too slow. Besides, I can't really explain the specifics of how it works; my family's financial advisor usually handles it for me."

Mercury's eye twitched: "You actually dabble in stocks?"

"What else can we do? We need to find a place to invest our pocket money," Rex said matter-of-factly.

Mercury pointed at him: "You wicked rich man, this time I'm talking about you."

As the two were arguing, Nora suddenly moved between them. She held up her phone, the camera shoved directly into their faces.

"Family, your Bubble is back in top form! Just finished a tough battle and is currently getting a medical check-up with her teammates at the association building." Nora instantly switched to her business-like voice, waving energetically at the camera.

Mercury glanced at the screen; the number of online viewers in the upper right corner was skyrocketing, and the barrage of comments was flooded with: "Oh, Bubble, my Bubble!"

Rex reacted extremely quickly, instinctively turning his face to find the light source and making a practiced, cool gesture towards the camera.

It's obvious that he's used to dealing with these kinds of shots a lot.

Mercury was much stiffer.

Although he knew that being a hero was equivalent to being an internet celebrity, the close-up shot still made him extremely uncomfortable. He awkwardly raised his hand and waved it twice, like a primary school student being punished.

Nora then shifted the camera closer to him: "Did you all see that, family? The real Mercury is actually just a shy big boy, not at all like Rex, that playboy. All those brainwashing narratives online are nonsense. He's definitely not some inhuman violent freak."

Mercury looked at Nora in astonishment. This woman was actually publicly defending him on a live stream?

Rex, standing to the side, protested, "Hey, why am I the King of the Sea?"

"You're only sixteen. Count how many dates you've had!" Nora added without turning her head.

"How can you lump these together?" Rex retorted seriously. "Having a lot of dates just means I'm unlucky and haven't met my true love yet!"

Nora rolled her eyes, then smiled brightly at the screen again: "Alright everyone, this is just a live stream to let you know I'm safe. Don't worry, my bubble isn't a real soap bubble that pops easily. Okay, time to start daily training! After I finish editing the video, I'll give you all a detailed explanation of how we took down the Black Moon Circus! Bye~"

The moment the live stream ended, Nora's professional smile vanished. She put away her phone and said to Mercury, "Thanks, I rode on your coattails."

"Using me for publicity?" Mercury was taken aback. "Isn't it me who's using you for publicity? You're using your own base to help me clear my name."

He is very self-aware.

Thanks to the deliberate smear campaign by the federal media, his reputation is now a mixed bag, with many genuinely viewing him as a deranged serial killer on the verge of a rampage. Nora, with far more fans than him, is taking a huge risk by stepping forward to endorse him at this time.

Nora walked to the refrigerator, grabbed a bottle of water, gulped down several mouthfuls, and then said to Mercury, "The battle on Elm Street has been all over the internet. In the public eye, the three of us are now a team. There's so much controversy surrounding you, and as your teammate, I'll have to take sides sooner or later. Am I supposed to just finish playing with you and then turn around and join the haters in attacking you?"

That would cause her image to crumble even faster. Rather than that, it's better to just stand by your side directly.

Leaning against the refrigerator door, she said earnestly to Mercury, "We're right on the cusp of a surge in online traffic, Mercury. Seize this opportunity; it's time for you to officially launch your account!"

Mercury gave a thumbs-up, completely convinced.

Nora is so clear-headed, no wonder she can accumulate so many fans by blowing soap bubbles.

"Okay, I'll listen to you. So what should I post as my first step?" Mercury humbly asked for advice.

"I already planned it out for you before I went to sleep." Nora snapped her fingers, her eyes gleaming with confidence. "Aren't we locked up in an isolation room right now because of the cannibalistic nightmares? This is perfect material! A revived urban legend, a shocking conspiracy involving big capital, plus a head-on confrontation with the Black Moon Circus—ha, get ready to be overwhelmed with orders!"