The room stayed silent as Veyron spoke.
He stood near the table, hands tight at his sides, eyes moving from face to face as if making sure they were still listening. When no one interrupted him, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.
"This is what I found," he said. "The forums—"
The screen lit up.
An image of a massive house appeared. White stone, sharp modern lines, sitting alone at the edge of Neoterra. Water wrapped around it like a moat, a vast artificial lake stretching nearly a kilometer in every direction.
The moment the image appeared—
The air slammed downward.
Gravity crushed the room.
Veyron's phone ripped itself from his hand and smashed into the floor, exploding into fragments as if struck by an invisible hammer. The screen shattered. The casing folded in on itself.
Everyone flinched.
Goro stood, his eyes sharp. The gravity vanished just as suddenly.
"They can track devices," he said calmly. "That's why we don't have them."
Veyron stared at the broken remains of his phone, heart racing.
Before he could say anything, Reina quietly reached into her pocket. She took out her own phone.
Then Akari's.
She walked to Goro and placed both in his hands.
Goro didn't hesitate.
He crushed them with his bare hands. Plastic cracked. Glass crumbled.
"Continue," Goro said.
Veyron swallowed hard.
"The Mayor of Neoterra lives at the edge of the city," he said, voice steadier now. "His house is surrounded by a massive man-made lake. No large fish. No boats. No access unless you're invited—or military."
Axel whistled quietly.
"People used to talk about that place," Veyron continued. "Rich people. Influencers. Singers. Actors. They'd post videos bragging about being invited. But all of them mentioned the same thing."
He looked up.
"Security. A lot of it. All army. All wearing red bandages on their right arms."
The room darkened.
"But that's not the worst part," Veyron said.
He took a breath.
"One singer—his video was deleted, but some people on the forums saved it—said the Mayor showed him the house personally. At one point, he used the bathroom. Huge bathroom. Huge wardrobe inside it."
Nyra frowned. "A wardrobe in a bathroom?"
"Everyone laughed at that too," Veyron said. "Until he kept talking." He closed his eyes briefly, recalling every word he'd read.
"The wardrobe wasn't fully closed. Behind it, there was a door."
No one spoke.
"He said the door led to a room. Full of files. Research papers. Equipment. And right at the entrance of the room… carved into the floor…"
Veyron opened his eyes.
"Sealbreaker Research."
A cold silence followed.
"He didn't go inside," Veyron continued. "But he noticed something else. At the bottom of a large shelf on the right—around ten external hard drives." Veyron said. Shin leaned forward slightly.
"The singer closed the door," Veyron said. "But when he left the bathroom, everyone in the house was staring at him. No one said anything."
Akari hugged herself.
"He pretended to be sick. Left as fast as he could. That night, he made a video and uploaded it to dark-internet forums. It spread like wildfire there."
Veyron's voice dropped.
"Then the video vanished. Every trace of it."
He paused.
"And not long after… so did he."
Reina covered her mouth.
"They found him drowned," Veyron said quietly. "In the man-made lake."
The same lake.
The one surrounding the Mayor's house.