"I really hope to cooperate with a big guy like you, Lieutenant General," Ke Lan shrugged, "but the problem is... I really couldn't get into that underwater city, and I almost lost my life."

"But you found the 776th Special Forces Team that disappeared forty-eight years ago."

"...I just now know the name of that team." Ke Lan said with a smile.

He was rescued from the sea in full view of everyone. There were so many people on the Pioneer that it was almost inevitable that the news would leak out. And through the serial code inscriptions on the equipment he brought with him, the military could easily find the production batch and factory flow of the equipment in the database. There was no doubt about that.

"No, you're lying." But Maginot didn't show any displeasure. "Otherwise Nick wouldn't have checked those sealed files. Although he erased his access records, he didn't expect that when he used his authority, all his actions on the Internet would be included in our surveillance."

Machino pointed at his eyes with his index and middle fingers. "In fact, his authority should have been revoked when he retired. The reason why he can still access the military database with his original identity is just a small backdoor we opened for him."

"Like a mouse." Ke Lan said softly.

"Um?"

"When I was a kid, I saw an ecological simulation chamber in a biological laboratory under the Ark Public Education Facility. It was an educational facility that was specifically used to restore the natural ecology of some Earth creatures, allowing students to further deepen their understanding of the knowledge in textbooks."

Ke Lan smiled self-deprecatingly and continued, "In the simulation chamber, the artificially rewilded mice finally found food hidden in the corner after going through all kinds of hardships and dangers. In the eyes of the mice, their actions were quick and stealthy. They not only overcame the numerous obstacles, but also avoided the natural enemies that were also placed in the simulation chamber and were eyeing them covetously. However, they did not know that the entire process was under surveillance by cameras... Even the hard-earned food was placed there by humans specifically for them to find."

"Haha, I like this analogy." Maginot laughed, "It is indeed very similar - but let's get back to the point. Since you said you couldn't enter the underwater city, how did you find the 776 special forces team?"

Makino's smile faded and he looked at Ke Lan seriously.

"Can I ask you a question first?" Ke Lan said.

"But you can say it."

"Hound checked all the files of the 776th Special Forces Team and Liao Xing, but there is no record of their last mission in the database... I want to know, what was the content of the last mission carried out by Liao Xing and the 776th Special Forces Team?"

"Hiss..." Makino rubbed his temple irritably, "Why do you want to know this?"

"Because I met Liao Xing." Seeing that Maginot was hesitant, Ke Lan decided to throw out a bombshell directly. Only in this way could he force the other party to reveal more information to him.

"What did you say?!" As expected, Maginot showed a shocked expression for the first time in the conversation. Although it was only for a brief moment, Ke Lan knew that he had made the right bet with this move.

"It's just a corpse. I saw the name and number on the dog tag."

"You only saw Liao Xing's body? Where and under what circumstances did you see it? Besides Liao Xing, were there anyone else there?" Maginot asked repeatedly.

"Respected Lieutenant General Maginot," Ke Lan said with a slightly stronger tone, "You asked me four questions. Since we are in a cooperative relationship, I will use the answers to these four questions in exchange for the previous one. You should not lose out, right? As long as you tell me the details of the last mission of the 776th Special Forces Team, I will tell you everything I saw under the sea."

"...Actually," Makino suddenly sighed, "It's not that I don't want to tell you, but...even I don't know the content of the last mission carried out by the 776th Special Forces Team. I only know that it should be an extermination mission."

"An eradication mission?" Ke Lan was slightly stunned. At first, he thought that the 776 Special Forces Team was carrying out an exploration mission, but the problem was that an exploration mission would not use heavy equipment like the Fearless Warriors that were useless except for firepower and defense. If they were carrying out an eradication mission, then this would make perfect sense.

"Besides that, I don't know the exact time, location, and target of the mission... Forty-eight years ago, I had just graduated from military school."

"What about now? You still don't know anything about this?" Ke Lan was a little speechless. "Since you don't know what the last mission of the 776 Special Forces Team was, why did you ask me those things?"

Even Ke Lan knew more about the mission than the lieutenant general. He knew that the black box left by the captain told him that the mission location was not in Zhonghai, but even on the "other side of Alpha Star."

"I can even tell you that no one who knows the specific content of the mission is alive now." Maginot said, "You should know that in the early days of landing on Alpha, due to the tense war situation and the fact that humans had not really experienced war for nearly a thousand years, the military command system on the Ark was once in chaos. Many troops accepted temporary missions issued verbally by their superiors. Many of these missions did not leave any records, and the mission carried out by the 776 Special Forces Team was one such mission."

"Then how did you connect the underwater city with the traces of the 776 special forces team?" Ke Lan suddenly felt that things did not seem to be as he expected. "Is it just because of the things I brought out?... The wars of that era basically broke out in the equatorial area around the landing point. You and I both know that the 776 special forces team could not have been sent to the Zhonghai, 108,000 miles away, under that situation."

"Of course not." Maginot shook his head. "There were actually some clues before you."

"Those people from the Security Bureau?"

"right."

Machino took out two exquisite glasses from the wine cabinet and placed them on the coffee table: "Would you like something to drink?"

Ke Lan: "Thank you, I'm not thirsty."

"Have you ever heard anyone mention the words 'Great True God'?" Maginot said as he poured himself a full glass of dark brown liquid.

"No." Ke Lan denied it directly. He did not intend to reveal this information before confirming the other party's true intentions.

"This is a deity believed in by a folk religious organization... Generally speaking, as long as such an organization does not endanger public safety, the Security Bureau will not come after them."

"Now that we've come to this, it seems that this organization has already caused considerable harm, right?" Ke Lan asked hypocritically, but in her heart she couldn't help but complain: It's more than just considerable harm. If they are allowed to continue to develop, all of humanity will probably be destroyed in their hands.

"In the beginning, this was just an organization born out of the religious culture left over from the old era. There were no more than a thousand believers, and gatherings were limited to worship and prayer, until they came into contact with taboos."

"Taboo?"

"As a relic hunter, you should know that the Alpha civilization also has its own religious beliefs, right?"

"I know." Ke Lan nodded.

"Among the followers of that organization, there was also a relic hunter. During a relic exploration mission, he accidentally accepted the religious heritage from the Alpha civilization... and brought this heritage back to the human world."