In an instant, the S-Class Heroes present reacted in vastly different ways.
"What a joke..."
S-Class Rank 14, Tanktop Master, was the first to break the silence, his arms instantly bulging with veins.
"Old Woman Shibabawa... died? The prophecy is that the Earth is going to be... doomed?" His voice was filled with disbelief.
"Hey, hey, is this for real?" S-Class Rank 15, Metal Bat, irritably scratched his pompadour.
"That old woman's prophecies, sometimes they're wrong, right?"
However, even he sounded unconvincing as he said this.
"The accuracy rate is one hundred percent."
S-Class Rank 6, Metal Knight's representative robot, emitted emotionless electronic sounds.
"The error rate is theoretically infinitely close to zero. The level of this prophecy is, without a doubt, Dragon-level or higher, even a disaster level that has never appeared before—'God'."
As the word "God" was uttered, the temperature in the conference room seemed to drop by several more degrees.
A Dragon-level disaster alone was enough to put several cities on the brink of destruction, and slightly weaker S-Class Heroes needed to team up just to barely cope.
As for "God"-level, in the Hero Association's definition, it was a "crisis that could lead to the extinction of humanity."
Saitama's expression was as simple as ever. He picked up the apple from earlier and began to eat it, a rare thoughtful expression on his face, seemingly digesting the information.
"Hmph, it's just a prophecy."
S-Class Rank 2, Terrible Tornado, floated in her seat, arms crossed, a hint of disdain flashing in her emerald eyes.
"No matter what comes, I'll just take care of it. Making a fuss over nothing."
Her words were as full of absolute confidence as ever, but the heroes present did not feel the slightest bit relieved.
They knew too well the weight of Old Woman Shibabawa's prophecies.
Sitch's face was equally grim; he wiped the cold sweat continuously seeping from his forehead with a handkerchief, his gaze uncontrollably darting towards the man who had remained as steady as a mountain throughout—Mr. KING.
After a moment of thought, Sitch decided to speak.
"This prophecy..." he began, his voice a little dry, "to be honest, for the Hero Association's upper echelons, it's actually... not the first time we've heard it."
"Huh? What do you mean by that?" S-Class Rank 10, Pig God, asked indistinctly, stuffing snacks into his mouth.
Sitch glanced at Mr. KING again, seeing that he remained expressionless, neither affirming nor stopping him, so he continued, "About two months ago, Mr. KING had already issued a clear warning to us."
He then immediately brought up an event that everyone remembered vividly as corroboration: "And, the last time that giant meteorite in Z City, Mr. KING also... predicted its appearance."
"What?!"
At these words, everyone was astonished!
Atomic Samurai suddenly looked up, his gaze towards Mr. KING filled with shock.
Flashy Flash also opened his eyes, no longer looking indifferent.
Even Terrible Tornado, who had always seemed arrogant, showed an expression of surprise.
"Mr. KING explicitly stated at the time—in the near future, a powerful force from deep space would descend upon Earth, its leader's power far exceeding any enemy we have encountered so far, its purpose being to seek a worthy opponent, and this battle would be unavoidable and would cause devastating damage to the Earth."
Sitch paused, allowing the heroes present time to digest this explosive information, then continued:
"Mr. KING even accurately predicted the landing location of the enemy spaceship—A City."
The conference room erupted in an uproar!
"He knew... a month in advance?"
"He even mentioned aliens and the landing location?"
"How is this possible? Does Mr. KING also have precognitive abilities?"
The heroes' murmurs rose like a tide, their gazes towards Mr. KING filled with astonishment.
Genos's golden mechanical eyes were even more shocked; he suddenly remembered the situation after he and Saitama Sensei finished registering with the Hero Association.
At that time, Mr. KING did say he wanted to talk to Sitch Sensei alone, could it be... that one time?!
"After the Z City meteorite prophecy came true, the Association's high-ranking officials immediately elevated Mr. KING's prophecies to the highest alert level!"
Sitch's voice rose by an octave as he said, "We immediately carried out unprecedented enhancements to A City's defense system! A massive amount of resources were poured into it!"
He took a breath, then, in an incredible tone, uttered the words that utterly shocked everyone:
"Mr. KING... he not only foresaw this disaster, he even foresaw the death of Old Woman Shibabawa!"
These words, like a real bomb, detonated with a roar in the conference room!
"Impossible!"
"This is absolutely a lie!"
Sitch ignored the exclamations and doubts of the crowd, his face filled with deep remorse, and continued to speak:
"Before leaving, Mr. KING specifically added a sentence—'Please tell Old Woman Shibabawa, the weather has been dry recently, and if her throat feels uncomfortable, she must not eat throat lozenges, otherwise there will be a danger to her life'."
"We relayed it to Old Woman Shibabawa and forcibly took away all the throat lozenges around her. We thought that would make it foolproof, who knew... who could have known... she still secretly hid some..."
Boom!!!
The entire conference room seemed to explode.
If predicting an alien invasion could be reluctantly explained by reasons like intelligence and analysis.
Then precisely predicting that a great prophet would die for such an absurdly laughable reason as "eating throat lozenges"... what kind of incredible ability was this?!
This was completely beyond their comprehension!
Atomic Samurai's hand gripping his sword hilt trembled slightly.
Only now did he understand why Bang had stopped him earlier.
Terrible Tornado's face showed an expression of horror for the first time; she looked at Mr. KING, who remained silent.
But the roaring Emperor Engine sound, at this moment, sounded exceptionally loud in her ears!
"Old Woman Shibabawa's prophecy further made us completely believe that the crisis Mr. KING spoke of was truly coming."
Sitch's voice was filled with weariness and powerlessness as he looked at everyone and continued.
"Based on the information she left behind and our interpretation of Mr. KING's prophecy, this disaster is very likely to occur on any day within the next six months. Everyone..."
His gaze swept over every S-Class Hero present, his voice as heavy as iron.
"We have no time left!"