"...Why do those bugs appear here?" Sakurai Na asked, her tone finally slowing down a little.

"We don't know either." Ke Lan shook her head and said, "If Miss Sakurai has any unique insights, please share them. We are all ears."

"I...what insights can I have? I've never even seen this kind of creature before coming here!"

"Even a genius like Miss Sakurai doesn't know, so we definitely don't know either." Ke Lan shrugged, "You old dog, don't you think so?"

"If we knew the origin of that thing, would we be so embarrassed? Girl, can't you ask some decent questions?" Maybe it was because of what happened with Yui, and the different positions of the camps, even though Sakurai Nana in front of him was a rare beauty, the Hound did not have any good feelings towards her at all.

"Hey! What's the attitude of you guys?!" Sakurai Nai stared at Ke Lan and the hound with gritted teeth, "We came here to rescue you based on humanitarian spirit...but you actually..."

"We didn't do anything to you, did we? And you saw it. If we hadn't run fast, we would have almost died."

"But how can you abandon the others——"

"It's not that we left the others behind, but that we didn't have enough time to save them!" Ke Lan's speech speed suddenly increased. "I'm sorry for the sacrifice of Mr. Mitsui and other rescuers... But who killed them? Was it me?"

Ke Lan looked directly into Sakurai Na's eyes and continued, "If I hadn't knocked you out, would you have evacuated with us at the first moment? If I hadn't used such a 'rough' method, would your name have been added to the list of casualties? Hmm? Miss Sakurai Na?"

"But...but..." Sakurai Na stammered, but after saying "but" for a long time, she couldn't say a word of rebuttal.

"From a certain perspective, those medical staff were indirectly killed by you because you wasted too much time." Ke Lan finally stabbed the girl, who was not even twenty years old, in the back.

"I...I..." Sakurai Na's eyes suddenly turned red. She always felt that there was something wrong with what the guy in front of her said, but she couldn't find out what the problem was.

This girl seems to be very innocent. She was fooled by me with just a few words. Ke Lan thought to herself... Could this be the legendary "flower in a greenhouse" who has lived a life like a princess since she was a child and has never been exposed to the dangers of the outside world? But how could such a "baby" be sent to a "poor and bad place" like the Leviathan Wreck?

Or is she actually acting?

Like the hound, ever since being fooled by Yui's acting skills, Ke Lan's trust in women... especially good-looking women, has plummeted - he still remembers a widely circulated emoticon package on the Internet, with the caption "The more beautiful a woman is, the more likely she is to lie."

It's like once bitten by a snake, one will be afraid of ropes for ten years.

"If you don't want to kill us, you'd better not think about causing trouble... This is not a threat, but advice. Without us, you won't survive long here alone." Ke Lan glanced at Sakurai Na and his tone suddenly became cold.

"I...since you think I will be a burden to you, just send us back to the base of the Mitsui Group, and then you will have nothing to do." Sakurai Na said.

"To be honest, we are now flying to the base of the Mitsui Group." Ke Lan stood up, walked to the cabin door, leaned out and looked outside, then walked to sit next to Sakurai Na, turned around and said to her: "But you'd better not hold out too much hope..."

Sakurai Na moved to the other side of the seat, keeping as much distance from Ke Lan as possible, and then asked, "Why?"

"Because I sent a total of twenty-seven messages to the Mitsui Group's base... Oh, I just sent it again, making it the twenty-eighth time... A total of twenty-eight communication requests, and not a single one received a response." Leighton, who was sitting in the driver's seat, finished the conversation.

"…Could it be a signal problem?" Sakurai Na asked cautiously.

"Before in the Soma Group, you were able to receive the rescue signals I sent out using individual portable communication equipment in your base. Now the communication equipment on this plane is much more powerful than what I used before, there is no reason why you can't receive it... and this plane belongs to your Mitsui Group, so there can't be any problems with the frequency band and identification code." Layton replied.

"Then...then why?"

"It's not just the Mitsui Group. We haven't been able to contact all the mining bases on the Leviathan's skeleton... I suspect that we may not be the only ones attacked." Ke Lan said in a deep voice.

"How could it be? When we set out, everything was fine. There was nothing unusual. The dozen or so mines attached to the base were also operating normally..." Sakurai Na didn't want to believe what Ke Lan said. "From the time we received your rescue signal... no, it should be counted from the time the second batch of planes carrying engineering equipment took off from the base. It's only been two hours. Even if we were attacked, our base couldn't have failed for two hours!"

"Ms. Sakuraina, how long do you think the Soma Group's base lasted? We also have large energy shields, well-trained mercenaries and guards, and even heavy weapons like siege tanks... But do you know how long the Soma Group lasted? Not to mention two hours, it wasn't even an hour!"

Ke Lan continued, "What's more, the ones that attacked the Soma Consortium base were not those bugs, but humanoid monsters that spewed acid... I think if the attackers were replaced by these bugs, I'm afraid there would be no living people in the entire base in less than five minutes."

Although Ke Lan concealed the fact that spies had invaded and the command system had been paralyzed, if it was this red swarm of insects that attacked the Soma Group instead of those "anemone heads", the outcome would have been the same even if there were no problems with the base's command system.

Sakurai Na seemed to suddenly remember something and asked again: "These bugs...you, you mentioned Leviathan in the communication before, right? You said Leviathan is going to be resurrected, so these bugs...are they related to Leviathan?"

"I think there is a connection... but I have no evidence." Ke Lan said, "Originally we cut the rock layer to look for evidence, but... you already know the result: Mr. Mitsuisuke died, and no one in the rescue team survived except you..."

Ke Lan said, pointing at herself: "We were lucky enough to escape because the previous attack made us all frightened, so our reaction was a little faster than yours, and just this little bit was the difference between life and death."

"But you must have discovered something. Otherwise, why would you insist that the giant cocoon on the Soma Consortium base is part of Leviathan?"

"I've already said that all of this is just my guess. If you're so interested, I can put you down now and you can study it yourself."

"You said that on purpose because you knew I couldn't do it!" Sakurai Na said angrily, "I don't think you are a good person. Maybe those things are biochemical experiments you conducted in private, and because the experimental subjects got out of control, you blamed the indigenous creatures and Leviathan!"

"That's such an injustice!" Ke Lan almost laughed out loud at the girl's words. Even the hound who had been keeping a straight face couldn't help laughing... Ivan simply covered his mouth, his shoulders twitching. "Please, we are just a group of relic hunters hired by the Soma Group. Although I have the title of a special consultant, I am actually just a non-staff member. I even just arrived at this base today... These things are not confidential. Miss Sakurai, you can find them out with just a simple search... As for whether the Soma Group is conducting any secret biochemical experiments on Leviathan, you have to ask Mr. Manstein."

"Ah?" Manstein was stunned when he was named, and then shook his head like a rattle. "How could there be any secret biochemical experiments? Mr. Ke Lan, you can't pour sewage on my head... The mining base on the back of Leviathan is generally configured the same by each consortium. In addition to the ore warehouse and the refining plant, there are only staff dormitories... Even if I want to do some biochemical experiments, the conditions in the base do not allow it... There is no equipment related to biochemical experiments. If you don't believe it, you can check the material transportation list carefully... This matter really has nothing to do with me..."

Seeing Manstein unable to defend himself, Ke Lan couldn't help but smile and said, "I didn't say that this matter had anything to do with you. It's not me who thinks you are doing secret biochemical experiments, it's Miss Sakuraina."

At this moment, the speed of the plane slowed down significantly, and Layton's voice came from the front driver's seat: "We are about to reach the base of the Mitsui Group...something seems to be wrong."

"What's wrong?" Ke Lan stopped smiling and asked.

"There's nothing unusual on the radar, but there's black smoke in the airspace directly ahead that hasn't dissipated yet... There may be an explosion or a fire below..." Leighton said.

"...Well, it looks like something did happen...but it's also expected..." Ke Lan quickly walked behind Leighton, held onto the back of the driver's seat with his hands, leaned forward and looked, only to see a faint trace of black smoke lingering in the air not far away, and vaguely visible traces of a column of smoke rising vertically from the ground.

"Tsk... things are really serious now..." The Hound subconsciously wanted to reach out to rub the stubble on his chin, but the armor on his hand collided with the jaw guard of the helmet, making a crisp sound.

"Come closer...can the height be raised a little bit more?" Ke Lan said to Leighton.

"We can't go any higher. If we go any higher we'll be in the clouds and won't be able to see anything." Layton shook his head.

Their current altitude was calculated relative to Leviathan's back, and when Leviathan's own altitude was added, they were now at an altitude of nearly 3,000 meters. If Layton had left Manstein outside the cabin for a little longer, his wet crotch would have probably frozen...

However, compared with the previous time at the glacial ruins, the high-altitude air flow here is still very stable. In order to facilitate observation, Ke Lan did not even close the cabin door.

Manstein and his secretary were both wrapped in a blanket pulled out from under their seats. The former even needed to grab the oxygen mask beside him and take a few breaths from time to time. In comparison, Sakurai Na's physical fitness was much stronger than theirs, although the white coat and shirt she wore were thinner.

"Aren't you cold?" Ke Lan turned his head and looked at her and asked.

Sakurai Na shook her head.

"We'll be arriving at the Mitsui Group's base soon. I suggest you be mentally prepared," Ke Lan said again.

Sakurai Na was stunned at first, then nodded slightly.

"We're here...hiss..." As soon as Leighton said the word "we're here", he took a breath of cold air. As there was a loudspeaker next to the driver's seat, the sound of the gasp could be heard clearly by everyone in the cabin.

Everyone's heart sank.

"Sure enough." Seeing the sea of ​​blood below, Ke Lan sighed, "I'm afraid the situation in the other bases is similar, and... that thing is here too."

The "thing" that Ke Lan mentioned was the giant cocoon on the square of the Soma Group's base. There was also a similar giant cocoon in the Mitsui Group's base, but this giant cocoon was not located in the center of the square. Instead, it pushed out from the west side of the main control building, squeezing the entire building and causing it to crack.

"In fact, the location is the same..." Ke Lan's finger slid across the screen, "This central axis is the spine of Leviathan under the rock layer... It seems that this giant cocoon also grew from the spine."

"What should we do now? Should we go back to the Ark... or?" The Hound asked Ke Lan.

"Ivan is right. We can't do anything in front of Leviathan... But at least we have to pass on the existing intelligence to someone who can solve this problem... If we choose to take a detour, we will miss the fleet coming from the Ark. Then they will have to collect information from scratch, which will waste a lot of precious time... I decided that we should wait here until the fleet sent by the Ark arrives at Leviathan."

[PS The power outage at home happened to happen to happen to happen to prevent me from saving the code. I didn’t buy a membership for WPS, so it doesn’t have the cloud storage function… In the end, I only managed to recover less than half of it… I was so upset, so the update was even later. Moreover, this chapter was rushed out. In order to secure a perfect attendance award, I typed like crazy to get 4,000 and uploaded it. I didn’t even have time to check for typos or missing sentences. I hope everyone can understand… I have to go to the hospital for a blood test tomorrow… I’m really overwhelmed…