"If the other families knew about the existence of the Holy Grail, the situation would get completely out of control."

On the way, Youyi had already told Ke Lan that "Holy Grail" was a code name given to the super-pure crystal within the Soma Group to maintain confidentiality, just like Ke Lan and others had used "container" to refer to humans parasitized by eroded seeds or flesh-eating worms.

"I know. Miss Soma sent me here to handle this matter." Ke Lan nodded and said, "Please rest assured, Mr. Manstein. My teammates and I are professional relic hunters and have rich experience in this kind of mission."

"Of course I believe in the capabilities of Mr. Ke Lan and your team. I'm just a little curious... I heard that you just joined the consortium not long ago?"

The meaning of Manstein's words couldn't be clearer. He questioned not Ke Lan's ability, but their identity. To him, Ke Lan and his group were just a group of outsiders, and letting outsiders interfere in matters related to the core secrets of the consortium was something that could never make him feel completely at ease.

"Since Miss Soma chose me, it means that I am trustworthy. Mr. Manstein, what do you think?" Ke Lan did not change the subject, but chose to confront her directly.

Manstein was stunned and said quickly: "You are right, I worry too much..."

"None of this is important. The most important thing now is the 'Holy Grail', don't you think?" Ke Lan deliberately lowered her voice and spoke in Manstein's ear.

"But..." Manstein hesitated. "How about this? There is still some time before lunch. I will take you and your team to the reception hall to rest for a while. I will send you detailed information about the Holy Grail after lunch."

"No need to go to the reception hall, let's go directly to the infirmary." Ke Lan suddenly said, "The survivors of the previous exploration operations should still be recovering in the base, right?"

"The first and second batches of survivors have all returned to the Ark headquarters. Among the third batch of survivors, only two seriously injured people in critical condition were sent back by transport planes. The rest are still here... As for the fourth batch, only one person escaped alive and was not injured, but... there was something wrong with his brain." Manstein replied.

"Crazy?"

Manstein nodded.

Generally speaking, hunters' willpower is much stronger than that of ordinary people. Even if they are a group of rookies who have just started, they cannot get a license if they fail the will test... In order to make a hunter's willpower completely collapse and fall into madness, only extremely strange things or illusions that can completely subvert human cognition and even cannot be described in words can do it...

So what did this survivor see in the mine?

"Mr. Manstein, I think I need to see this person. Please take us to the infirmary immediately."

"Uh, this...the survivor, he is not in the infirmary." Manstein said.

"Where is that?"

"Because his symptoms are very strange, once he sees people or is in the dark, he will have a very strong stress response. In order to calm him down, we can only lock him in the confinement room and not allow anyone to have direct contact with him."

Seeing people or being in the dark will cause a stress response...

Ke Lan repeated this sentence in his head. The darkness was understandable, after all, the mine was pitch black. But why... would he have a stress reaction when seeing people?

After being attacked by monsters and finally escaping from the mine, shouldn’t you relax when you see your own kind?

"Then please take us to the detention room. This person is very important to us."

…

Through the observation window made of one-way glass, Ke Lan and the others saw a young man in hospital gown curled up on the bed with his back against the wall. His face was very pale, his eyes were wide open and bloodshot, his hands were clenched into fists in front of his chest, and his lips were trembling constantly, as if he was talking to himself.

"He would only fall asleep after being sedated, otherwise he would stay like that," Manstein said. "Anyone entering the room would drive him crazy. We could only use a robotic arm to deliver food to him and inject various drugs."

"Won't he have a stress reaction to the robotic arm?" Ke Lan asked.

"No, but to prevent him from committing suicide, we took away everything in the room except the bedding. Even the tableware was made of paper."

There were more than a dozen dirty lunch boxes piled up next to the man's bed. The food in the boxes had already gone bad. Judging from the amount of food left, his appetite was obviously very poor. If it weren't for the regular injections of nutritional supplements, he would have collapsed long ago.

The white bed sheet was crumpled into a ball and thrown into the corner. It was covered with the man's excrement. As for the pillow, it was torn into pieces by him, and the stuffing inside was scattered everywhere.

"We have asked doctors from the consortium to see him, but they are helpless in treating his symptoms."

"Open the one-way glass." Ke Lan looked for a while and said.

Manstein nodded, and the guard beside him clicked a few times on the operating panel, and the color of the observation window changed slightly - now, the scene outside can be seen from inside.

The man was stunned at first, and then a look of fear appeared on his face. He immediately jumped up from the bed, shrank into the corner, and shouted incoherently: "Don't come over! Please... Don't come over! Don't! Ah - save me - don't come over! Save me! Help!"

The madness in his eyes became more and more intense, and the next second, he actually strangled his own neck hard!

Manstein's face changed and he said hurriedly: "Quick, inject the sedative!"

Just as the man's face began to turn blue, several robotic arms descended from the ceiling, pinned him to the ground, and inserted the needle into his buttocks.

As the medicine was injected, his struggle gradually weakened, but he still stared at Ke Lan and others behind the observation window, gasping for breath.

"Restore the one-way shield." Manstein said to the guard, then turned to Ke Lan: "Mr. Ke Lan, you can see that he is in this state and it is impossible to communicate..."

"I have a way." At this time, Ivan, who was standing behind Ke Lan, suddenly stepped forward, "But I need something."

Ivan handed over a list he had just written. Ke Lan only took a glance at it and understood what he was thinking.

"You're going to hypnotize him?"

"Yes, although it will be more troublesome to operate because I cannot have direct contact with the patient, I am more than 50% confident," Ivan said.

"You can give it a try. There's nothing to lose if you fail." Ke Lan handed the list to Manstein. "The base should be able to stock all these things, right?"