Chapter 264: Threat

"Duelist of Rose! Ms. Rousseau! I didn't think you'd come!"

"Why wouldn't I?" Sylvie glanced at the woman who greeted her. "I was asked to."

Someone approached Sylvie the moment she entered the building, but she didn't return the enthusiasm and merely looked around the lobby with quiet curiosity.

"This place is… unrecognizable," she whispered.

"Oh, you've been to the U-IBAA before?" the woman asked, lightly gasping as she carefully gestured for Sylvie to follow beside her.

"Once," Sylvie answered. "It wasn't the United IBAA building back then."

America had always possessed the largest and most sophisticated IBAA in the world. Years ago, however, it still carried hesitation. The organization was important, certainly—but not yet the country's highest priority.

That changed sometime within the last thirty years.

Now, almost the entire national budget flowed toward the IBAA. Naturally, countless industries suffered because of it. But the fact that people could still complain at all was, in a way, also because of the IBAA.

The country had withdrawn most of its embassies, armies, and foreign facilities, redirecting their focus inward and replacing many overseas operations with allied Leaks instead. To outsiders, it almost looked humanitarian—they were helping people survive and making relations with aliens.

It wasn't humanitarian.

America had simply found its oil elsewhere.

Gold. Water. Alien minerals. Metals no one had names for decades ago. Lithium. And yes… literal oil from other worlds.

The IBAA consumed most of the country's funds, but it also generated much of them in return.

And right now, Sylvie was walking through the reflection of that reality.

The windows were reinforced glass several feet thick. The temperature throughout the building remained perfectly controlled, untouched by the weather outside. The lobby itself looked more like a five-star hotel.

An empty five-star hotel.

"We asked most of the staff to take the day off," the woman escorting her said after noticing Sylvie's expression. "We also restricted visitors to avoid information leaking out. Even I don't know why everyone's being gathered today, Ms. Rousseau."

"I see."

Sylvie nodded and stopped looking around, quietly following beside the woman instead. The attendant noticed the shift in her demeanor and wisely chose silence for the rest of the journey.

She led Sylvie deeper into the facility, and soon they entered an elevator. The ride lasted nearly an entire minute, the descent quiet enough that only the faint hum of machinery accompanied them.

When the doors finally opened, the woman stepped aside.

"Ms. Rousseau, you are expected in the conference room at the end of the hall."

Sylvie stepped out, though the woman made no move to follow.

"I'm no longer authorized beyond this point," she said, bowing her head before the elevator doors slid shut between them.

Sylvie stared at the cold metal doors for a brief moment before shrugging and heading toward the conference room.

Unlike the lavish lobby above, the underground hallway was stark and lifeless. Thin strips of light along the ceiling provided the only illumination, casting pale reflections against smooth metal walls. And from the way the vibrations echoed beneath each step, Sylvie was certain they were inside a completely sealed structure—one whose walls were likely thicker than the reinforced windows upstairs.

"Hm…"

Stopping in front of the conference room, Sylvie let her senses seep beyond the door before opening it.

Immediately, she felt three people inside.

"Oh…?" Her brows slightly rose. She had intentionally arrived as early as possible to avoid walking into a crowd.

And yet… there were already people waiting? Could it just be staff? But… there was a familiar scent.

Sylvie tapped on the door, and it slid open automatically, revealing an intimate auditorium.

No… not quite.

It looked more like a miniature senate hearing hall. There were perhaps thirty seats arranged in descending rows, all facing a small stage with a large screen mounted behind it.

Names were displayed at the backs of the seats, and Sylvie quietly made her way toward the one assigned to her—at the front row.

She sat down and quickly noticed that every seat had its own monitor built into the elongated desks. Adjusting herself, she settled into the chair before glancing toward the back where several people had already gathered.

And immediately, her eyes lit up. There it was, the familiar scent… Adam.

And Adam was already subtly waving at her from his seat.

Sylvie smiled and waved back, the expression settling naturally on a face untouched by wrinkles or blemishes. Just like Adam, she had long ceased physically aging.

The nature of her ability ensured that her flesh and blood remained perpetually… fresh.

She waited for the people surrounding Adam to disperse. And the moment they finally stepped away, she stood to approach him.

Adam did the same, and the two almost laughed when they realized they had moved at exactly the same time. But before either of them could even take three proper steps toward each other, more people began arriving.

Adam quietly returned to his seat. Sylvie did the same, sighing as she lightly shook her head.

The newcomers settled somewhere in the middle rows, and their whispers quickly spread through the enclosed hall.

"That's… the Duelist of Rose. Do you think we can get an autograph?"

"Ssh. Act cool. We're all S-tier Heroes here."

They tried to whisper, but with the room being this small and enclosed, they might as well have been shouting. Their eyes wandered around until they landed on Adam sitting near the back.

"Who's… that?"

"He's way at the back. Probably nobody famous."

"I just told you they probably invited S-tier Heroes."

"Yeah. Not all S-tiers are equal."

Sylvie could only shake her head at the exchange. She glanced toward Adam, expecting at least some reaction—but he didn't seem bothered in the slightest. If anything, he looked dangerously close to falling asleep.

Unfortunately for him, rest wasn't an option.

More and more people continued arriving. And the earlier whispers turned out to be correct. Every new arrival was an S-tier Hero.

At a glance, they looked ordinary enough—just people gathered inside a conference room, speaking in low voices and waiting for a meeting to begin. But the reality could not have been further from that.

Most of them were chatting casually like regular colleagues…

…yet every single person in that room possessed enough power to level entire cities on their own.

Several more minutes passed before the last seats were finally occupied. As the room settled, the lights slowly dimmed and three figures stepped onto the stage.

One of them was Beatrice. She briefly nodded toward Adam before making her way to the podium.

"I will not waste any of your time," she began. The tone of her voice alone was enough to silence the room, and any conversations left died almost immediately.

Beatrice tapped on her tablet, and the massive screen behind her lit up with an image of… space. Outer space.

Before anyone could voice their confusion, she immediately switched to another image—one marked by a red circle. Although it wasn't really clear what it was trying to point to. But none of them had to guess, as Beatrice truly wasn't giving them the time to.

"We are under the threat of an extraterrestrial attack," she said before anyone could interrupt. "And we are now one hundred percent certain that it is the bellethers."

"W-what?!" One of the S-tier Heroes abruptly stood. "They're attacking our planet?! Is that even allowed by the Administrators?!"

"How can we be sure it's them?!" another questioned.

"Because we have a firsthand witness," Beatrice answered, stepping aside. "Someone who has already survived a bellether invasion."

She gestured toward the figure beside her. And as the person approached the podium, the room immediately grew still.

Green skin. Fur lining the sides of her face.

"That…" The gathered Heroes realized almost at once that she wasn't a person at all.

At least… not their person.

She was a human from one of the Leaks.