Twenty minutes later.

"Wow, we're finally out." The Hound was the first to get out of the mine - before that, they had already used a drone to scout the situation at the entrance: there were no monsters, but there was no one alive either.

"It seems that there are quite a lot of monsters attacking this camp." Ke Lan glanced at the siege tanks not far away, and saw that these war machines that originally had thick armor were now only a tattered skeleton. He could even imagine the desperate expressions of the crew members in the tanks when facing the acid raining down.

The only way to counter the acid attacks of these monsters, besides fighting them in close combat, is energy shields... Perhaps the situation at the base is not that bad...

"We've tried all the communication lines," Layton crawled out from under a collapsed tent in the camp and shook his head at Ke Lan, "They're all broken. None of them can get in touch with the base."

"Ke Lan, you decide what to do now." The Hound took a look at the corpses scattered all over the camp and handed the decision directly to Ke Lan.

"First, we have to analyze the current situation." Ke Lan walked to a blood-stained table, placed the tablet on it, and then opened the bird's-eye view map of the mining area.

"This is Mine No. 7, and next to it are Mine No. 8 and Mine No. 11." He marked three red dots on the map, and then drew a circle based on these three red dots. "These two mines are closest to Mine No. 7. If there are other exits, then these two mines are most likely to be the exits."

"Also, it took less than an hour from the time the No. 7 mine was blocked by a landslide to the time these monsters emerged from the ground and launched the attack. Do you think this could be a coincidence?"

"I don't think so." Ivan shook his head.

"I think so too... if those monsters wanted to launch an attack, they would have rushed out long ago. The few troops outside could not stop them at all. There was no need to take action after the No. 7 mine was blocked. This would only reduce one exit." The Hound said, "You mean... the noise of the siege tanks firing attracted these monsters?"

"We can't rule out this possibility." Ke Lan began to speak faster, "But what is certain is that the monster's attack and the tank's firing are inevitably linked... Judging from the monster's mobility in the mine, and calculating the time difference between the attack on the camp outside the No. 7 mine, it can be basically determined that the monster appeared within this red circle... Now, all the human settlements within this red circle have been slaughtered by the monster. Although we can't gather more people here, at least this area is safe for the time being."

Ke Lan drew another straight line on the map, connecting the Soma Consortium's mining base with the red circle just now: "These monsters have no concept of stationing in occupied areas. They are like locust plagues on Earth. After killing all the humans in an area, they immediately rush to the next area. As the last human stronghold in this mining area, these monsters must be concentrated at the base now."

"But over there at the base... there seems to be no movement. Could they have been killed too?" Layton said.

"Not so fast." Ke Lan said, "On the way here, I checked the architectural design of this base. Although it may not take long for the monsters to break through the outer defenses, the various bunkers, secret passages, and permanent fortifications inside the base are definitely enough to support more than twelve hours, not to mention the heavy firepower installed in the core area..."

At this point, Ke Lan's expression suddenly changed, and his finger stopped above the screen: "But..."

"But what?" the hound asked hurriedly when he saw this.

"But this assumption assumes that the base's command system is still functioning normally. If Mr. Manstein loses command for some reason, the base's defense system will not be able to function effectively... A leaderless army will be completely vulnerable..."

"Why do you think Manstein will lose command? If he loses command, those siege tanks can still fire and bury us in the mine?" said the Hound.

"Let's not talk about whether the order to fire was given by Manstein. If, as you think, Manstein ordered his men to blow up the mine tunnel and bury us alive in it in order to retaliate against us, what should he do next? Should he continue to stay in the base and wait for the investigation team sent by the consortium headquarters?"

"If I were Manstein," Ivan took over Ke Lan's words and said, "I would choose to go to other financial groups with the secret of super-purity crystals, and find a way to fake my own death and change my identity... Judging from the value of this information, other financial groups would most likely protect this person at the risk of making enemies with the Soma Financial Group."

"If this guy really ran away, wouldn't the base be ownerless?" Layton said suddenly, "No wonder the sound of the exchange of fire has disappeared... It seems that the base has most likely been captured."

"That old bastard!" The Hound slammed his fist on the table. "What should we do now? Should we just wait here for rescue?"

"It's not necessarily safe to stay here. I think we still have to move closer to the base. If we can get a plane or a car, we can leave Leviathan directly. If we can't find a vehicle... we can also hide in the safe house under the base. The supplies there are enough for us to survive for two or three months."

"Safe house? There's a safe house in this base? How come I didn't know about it?"

"It's the small vault used to store refined crystals. The ceiling, floor and walls of this vault are all made of pure Nino alloy, so it is not afraid of corrosion from the monsters' acid. There are also sixty units of emergency reserve materials, including food, fresh water and oxygen generators." Ke Lan said. The existence of the vault is not a secret, but only the top person in charge of the base has the authority to open it... If Ke Lan's "death message" has not been transmitted back to the Ark Consortium headquarters, then he is still the top person in charge of the base, and even Manstein cannot open this small vault.

"This is a good idea, but the base must be full of those monsters now... I'm afraid we can't get in." The Hound said with difficulty.

"Don't worry about that. Just look here and you'll see. Those monsters have no interest in the human base. They have only been doing one thing since they came out of the mine - killing. As long as all the humans in the base are killed, they will definitely leave... Either go back to the mine, or set the mining base built by other consortiums on Leviathan as their new target."