"This joke is not funny at all..." Ivan's facial muscles twitched slightly. "Even if this thing grew out of Leviathan's spine...it could be some kind of parasite..."

"If it is a parasite attached to the spine of Leviathan, then why has it never been discovered in the past few decades... If I remember correctly, every mining base is built on the spine... If there is a parasite on the spine of Leviathan, the construction of the base would have been stopped long ago..."

"but……"

Ivan wanted to say something, but was interrupted by Ke Lan: "Whether this thing belongs to Leviathan or is it some kind of parasite, we will know if we dig down along the root system."

"You want to dig the stuff out? Are you crazy?" The Hound grabbed Ke Lan and said, "I think we should find Liao Zilang first, and then leave this place as soon as possible... To be honest, although those monsters have disappeared, I always feel that there will be more terrifying things coming out..."

The hound's eyes also stayed on the giant bract outside: "No matter what this thing is, I don't want to stay here for even a second longer."

"Mr. Manstein, is the communication equipment in the base still usable? I'm afraid this matter cannot be solved by just a few of us. We must report it to Ark immediately... As for the super-pure crystals found deep in the mine... I think this will soon no longer be a secret to the other consortiums. Moreover, compared with the current trouble, the matter of super-pure crystals is no longer that important."

If this giant beast is really still alive, then the bud-like structure growing out of its spine may be a sign of its imminent awakening... If Leviathan wakes up, not only will the bases built on its back be destroyed in an instant, but even the safety of the Ark may be threatened.

A prehistoric creature of this size would be hard to shake even if all the human fleets were gathered together...

"It's all destroyed... Those intruders did it. All the equipment in the control room has been destroyed. I can't even send out a distress signal..."

"Where's the vehicle?"

"Except for the one plane they took away, all the others were blown up..."

"What about short-distance communications? There must be some portable equipment that can be used in the base, right?"

"There is only one base within short-range communication distance... It belongs to the Mitsui Group." Manstein said somewhat weakly, "If we send them a distress signal, wouldn't that be the same as telling them that there are still people alive here?"

"Yeah, if that bitch is from the Mitsui Group, asking them for help would be like inviting a wolf into the house." This time, the Hound stood on the same side as Manstein.

"No, this is not about inviting a wolf into the house, but about driving the wolf away from the tiger—" Ke Lan pointed at the giant cocoon and said, "If anything happens to Leviathan, they will also suffer huge losses. From this perspective, they are on the same front as us."

Ke Lan turned her head to Layton and said, "Layton, please go to the ruins of the base and collect all the communication equipment that can be used. Old Dog, you and Zhuo Ligetu will immediately set up a temporary defense line with the main control building as the center and use all the explosives and mines. Ivan will go with Layton to search and rescue the survivors hiding in the ruins. Asano Akira, you will stay here to protect the safety of Mr. Manstein and his secretary. If Ivan finds any survivors, send them here."

"What about you?" The Hound looked at Ke Lan. He suddenly had a bad feeling. "Are you planning to..."

"Well, I plan to explore the blood pool and confirm the roots of this big guy..."

Before Ke Lan could finish his words, the Hound had already grabbed his shoulders angrily and yelled at him, "Are you really crazy? Do you think you can come out alive after going in there? You don't want to die at such a young age?"

"No, no, no..." Ke Lan waved her hands repeatedly, "Of course I know how dangerous it is under the blood pool, and I don't plan to go down there myself."

"So how do you explore?"

"First find a pump and see if you can drain the blood pool."

Ke Lan knew in his heart that any normal person... even his old self, would never be able to accept the fact that Leviathan was still alive, but he couldn't tell them what was on the black stele... If he wanted to prove this, if he wanted Hound and the others... even the people from the Mitsui Group to believe that Leviathan was still alive, he had to come up with more direct evidence.

"...Alas, I know I can't persuade you." The Hound suddenly sighed, "Then you should be careful. Who knows if the monsters that got into this thing are still alive and will crawl out again...If anything really happens, send a signal immediately and we will rush over as soon as possible."

"Okay." Ke Lan patted the hound's arm hard, and a muffled sound came from between the armor.

…

In the equipment warehouse of the mining base which had half collapsed, Ke Lan found two almost new pumps. These two pumps were incomparable to the old antique that was about to be scrapped in the mine. Not to mention the small blood pool in the center of the square, even if the entire square sank into the ground and turned into a lake, it would not take more than a few hours to drain it.

After connecting the drainage pipes and cables, Ke Lan pushed the two pumps to the square. He took a look at the giant cocoon that was ten stories high, raised his head, and swallowed a dozen anti-radiation pills in one gulp.

The price of taking so many anti-radiation drugs at one time is that he will have diarrhea to the point of doubting his life in the next week, but compared to suffering from acute radiation sickness, this side effect is almost negligible.

Despite the dual protection of protective clothing and drugs, when Ke Lan approached the giant cocoon, he still felt extremely nauseous and uncomfortable. He glanced at the screen of the Geiger counter. The radiation dose here has reached more than 7,000 millisieverts per hour. If you don't wear protective equipment, as long as you walk around here, your life will immediately enter a countdown... Within 72 hours, the skin, blood vessels, muscles, organs and even bones will rot and melt. The body tissues of patients with acute radiation sickness are like wax roasted in fire, and will gradually become a pool of pus with the same high dose of radiation...

There was once an extremely serious nuclear power plant explosion on Earth. Many documentaries were shot about this accident later. One of the scenes showed a firefighter lying on a hospital bed. His skin was cracked and peeling like dried orange peel, and pieces of melted flesh and blood fell from his bones... He was not dead at that time, and even his mind was still clear. In the last moments of his life, he could only watch himself turn into a skeleton.

That kind of pain and despair was enough to shock the hearts of every viewer. Ke Lan remembered that when she saw this scene, she accidentally touched a stainless steel water cup on the table.

Even with complete protective measures, he could not stay near the giant cocoon for too long. After setting up the pump, he immediately distanced himself from the giant cocoon.

[PS Regarding radiation amount and radiation dose, the previous chapters may have been written vaguely, but in fact these two are different concepts. I will briefly explain them here.

The former is measured in roentgens, which refers to the amount of radiation in the environment. For example, the highest radiation level on the roof of the Chernobyl reactor was said to be 20,000 roentgens. The radiation dose is the amount of radiation absorbed by an organism, which is used to measure the degree of harm of radiation to an organism. The unit is sievert/millisievert/microsievert. The measurement unit of a Geiger counter is generally millisievert/microsievert per hour, which means that in the current environment, so many doses of radiation will be absorbed per hour. For comparison, here is a reference data: a full-body CT scan in a hospital is about 10-20 millisieverts, which is equivalent to the amount of natural radiation absorbed by an average person in 4-8 years of daily life. 】