"Is it only in Japan?" Sophia wondered in doubt after checking Germany's news and seeing that no one was reporting the same.

"Let me see mine," Olivia said while opening CNN in her hologram.

​​

The moment she increased the volume, the news anchor's tensed voice resounded in the area, "In New York, ten civilians had died during an active shooting between a gang and a Fire Elementalist who was serving as a fireman in duty!"

"While in Phoenix, two police officers had been gunned down by three masked individuals after trying to protect their colleague who was a bloodliner in lesser purity."

"In the state of California..."

The News anchor kept mentioning a piece of news before jumping into another state to report the grim news in it.

It was neverending!

There were tragic news like these everywhere and the result was either kidnapping the bloodliners successfully or gunning them down!

The more the girls heard the paler their expression got. This dreadful news gave them the feeling like the US citizen had turned against the bloodliners!

Before long, everyone noticed the girls' peculiar expressions and the news they were watching. After understanding what was going on, their reaction was more or less the same as the girls.

"Why is everyone targeting bloodliners?" Johnson asked what was on everyone's mind. Alas, no one seemed to know the answer as even the reporters were wondering the same.

Soon, everyone started looking at their countries' news with worried expressions.

Just like the US, those kinds of assaults at the bloodliners had occurred and were still occurring! The only difference was that the US clearly had more cases than other countries.

Just as they were planning on calling their families, instructors, and even Mr. Rodrigas to understand what's going on, their bracelets rang at the same time again.

"It's from Mr. Rodrigas."

Upon seeing so, Sophia displayed the message on a hologram so they could read it together.

They thought it would be addressing the grim situation outside of the island but it was just mentioning that everyone should group in the meeting room at 9:00 AM.

Johnson glanced at his bracelet while standing up from his seat. "Let's go. We only have ten minutes."

Everyone exited the arena after informing Zhang Wei and Leo about the message content. As for Felix and Sylvia who weren't grouped up with them?

They didn't bother to inform them since they received the same message.

...

2 minutes later...

Everyone had reached a spherical building that resembled a white egg.

They were riding on the black platforms, appearing like a mob of motorcycles with their numbers and uniformed outfits.

After they jumped from the platforms, they got scanned again in front of the entrance before entering the building.

This was the team's meeting room, and only a few staff members were allowed entry since the discussed matters inside were mostly classified.

They had already entered once during their exploration, so they didn't react much when they saw the building's inside that resembled a congress room.

But they were surprised by seeing Felix and Sylvia sitting next to each other in front seats while conversing softly.

While it appeared to some like they were flirting, in reality they were merely discussing the assaults against the bloodliners.

After hearing their footsteps, both stopped speaking at once and looked at their teammates finding their own seats to take.

To avoid confusion and problems, the seats were marked with numbers corresponding to their team's rank. So it wasn't really that weird for Felix and Sylvia to be seating next to each other.

After a couple of minutes, the chatter in the congress-like room died down as Mr. Rodrigas had entered with two men and one woman from the backdoor.

'Oh? George has been chosen as one of the instructors for the team?' Felix mused with a faint smile after seeing the youthful and charming George standing upright behind Mr. Rodrigas.

Just as he assumed, Mr. Rodrigas didn't waste time with needless chatter as he swiftly started introducing each of those three individuals straight after his greeting.

"George Garcia, the previous US national instructor had been elected as the main instructor of the Earthlings team due to his team's superb performance in the World's competition."

Mr. Rodrigas then extended his hand to a tall mature woman who had a mole on her left cheek and was wearing glasses. "Sasha Bocharov, the previous Russian team instructor had been elected as an instructor assistant who would mostly be training the reserve team."

After introducing those two, Mr. Rodrigas gestured with his hand for a youthful man without a single facial hair on his face or body!

No hair, no eyebrows, nothing! He appeared like a tanned egg.

Mr. Rodrigas placed his hand on the man's shoulder and said with a pleased smile, "This is the vice-captain of the Brazilian team, Ronaldinho Castro. He won the 1v1 tournament that was hosted in my UVR room. Thus, he had earned his place in the Earthling team and would be considered as the new number 100."

Clap Clap Clap!...

Only after the introduction was concluded did everyone applaud the new additions to the team.

While Mr. Rodrigas was clearly happy about Ronaldinho making it in the team since he was a Brazilian as well, Olivia and the rest of the US team were siked to see George as their team instructor.

Even Felix was glad that George was chosen.

After the applause died down, those three went to sit in their designated seats leaving the stage for Mr. Rodrigas.

His expression instantly hardened removing any signs of joy from before. Seeing that he was getting serious, everyone knew what was about to come.

"I have received your inquiries about the mess happening currently in most countries. We have known since yesterday the source or the cause of it." Mr. Rodrigas paused and spoke with a tingle of worry, "I am afraid that we have been targeted by an infamous non-native Criminal Organization that refers to itself as Gama!"

While some juniors were gasping in shock and fear, most of them had absolutely no idea what it meant to be targeted by a Criminal Organization.

Mr. Rodrigas didn't hesitate to share with them some of the information obtained about the Gama Organization.

Only after hearing that kidnapped bloodliners were having their abilities extracted to be sold did the juniors realize the situation's seriousness and dreadfulness.

Yet, the worst had to come as Mr. Rodrigas created a hologram and showed everyone the announcement that had gone viral between the dark forces' circles!

The announcement was short and simple. It had a long list of items plus the prices. Above it, there was an introduction of the Gama Organization and its previous operations so no one would doubt their claims.

To make it even more believable, the announcement had a couple of links that would transfer the clicker to the Organization's own website in both dark web and UVR dark network.

Inside the website, there were thousands of videos and recordings showing two censored parties trading between each other.

The trade happening would make anyone feel sick in his stomach as tied-up unmoving bodies were being traded for potions, weapons, bloodline bottles, and other impossible-to-get resources for commoners.

After Mr. Rodrigas showed a couple of videos ruining everyone's appetite of the day, he scrolled back to the list and pointed at Felix's name that was at the very top of it.

"By now, you should realize that the Hiltons had truly attempted to kidnap Felix but not because of some bullshit feud but it was to sell him to the Gama Organization!"

Mr. Rodrigas exhaled in relief, "Thankfully, an anonymous bloodliner saved him. However, the Organization was clearly unpleased by the Hiltons' failure so they threw them to the sharks and placed this bounty on Captain Felix's head to make his stay in the island unpleasant."

His threatening look as he said so made it pretty obvious for those juniors what he was implying.

No one should harbor any thoughts about Felix no matter how much their greed kept pushing them!

It would push them alright as the bounty reward was tier 1 legendary bloodline that could be sold in auctions for at least 100 million SC!

So Felix was a walking cash grab on the island!

Yet, Felix didn't seem bothered by it as he merely kept that natural smile affixed on his face while glancing at everyone's tensed expressions.

Feeling that the atmosphere was getting uncomfortable, Sylvia asked calmly, "Sir, what can we do to help?"

"Nothing." Mr. Rodrigas closed the announcement and said sternly, "I showed you this information since I wanted to keep you updated. You should know that anything spoken in the room should remain within it."

"But..."

"No buts!" Mr. Rodrigas knitted his eyebrows and said, "This is the Council's situation to solve not yours! You guys have your own battles to fight for, and from today onwards you will start training to win them all!"

After hearing so, no one dared to retort anymore as Mr. Rodrigas was completely right.

Their fights were in the upcoming games, as for anything that happened outside of the Island? That was the responsibility of others!

Seeing that everyone was focused again, Mr. Rodrigas clapped his hands twice and said, "We don't have time to waste, so let's begin the Signing Ceremony!"