But Ke Lan always felt that he seemed to have missed something...

"Manstein! I forgot about Manstein! He was one of the survivors who came back alive from Leviathan, but after leaving Maginot, he separated from us... If things are really as we expected, then he should also be one of the targets of the Arasaka Group!"

"I'll send someone to find him immediately..." Zofia walked quickly to the communication terminal in the safe house, and her ten slender fingers quickly tapped on the virtual keyboard formed by the holographic projection.

But just as Ke Lan leaned over, Zofia froze. After several seconds, she sighed softly and said, "It's too late. Half an hour ago, Manstein was killed in his residence, along with his wife, eldest son Martin, and the personal secretary who also survived. As for his kidnapped youngest son Andrew, his body was also found in the sewage pipe in East District 10."

Just as Zofia finished her words, there was a sharp brake sound above her head, followed by a lot of footsteps rushing into the garage. The footsteps stopped outside the secret door, and a voice with a hint of panic shouted outside: "Excuse me, is Miss Soma in there? I am Anthony, the director of the consortium's security department..."

"I'm inside," Zofia replied, nodding to Ke Lan, who put away the assault rifle pointed at the door.

"We rushed here as soon as we received the distress signal, but we were attacked by a madman with a bomb strapped to his body on the way...that's why we were delayed...Miss, are you not injured?"

"I'm not injured." Zofia said to the people outside, "But there may still be residual attackers inside the villa. You should take people to clean up the villa first."

"Okay, I'll leave the first group here to protect you, Miss. They are all people you know, so there won't be any problem with their loyalty," said Anthony.

"You also know the captain of the first team." Zofia turned to Ke Lan and said, "It's First Officer Caroline. She is actually from the security department of the consortium. She followed me to the Pioneer to protect me."

"Yeah, old acquaintance." Ke Lan nodded, and then pushed the big bed blocking the secret door open a crack.

Just as Zofia said, the first thing Ke Lan saw was Caroline, who looked anxious. She was wearing a lightweight power armor and carrying a large-caliber Vulcan cannon on her shoulder that was probably removed from a vehicle. As soon as she saw Ke Lan push open the bed board, she directly put one arm in.

"Mr. Ke, Mr. Ke Lan? Why are you here?" Caroline's tone was full of vigilance.

"Zofia came to me to discuss something, and then she was attacked by an assassin, it's that simple." Ke Lan simply pushed the entire bed aside and let Caroline get in.

"Let's talk about things..." Caroline seemed to have suddenly thought of something, and her expression suddenly became very strange. "Is it true that you and the young lady are...engaged?"

"I don't know, ask her." Ke Lan shrugged and stepped aside.

"It's true," said Zofia.

"Even if...even if you hate the Arasaka family...then why did you choose him? He..." Caroline thought for a long time before finally finding a less unpleasant explanation, "What are his advantages?"

"I think he looks nice. What's his advantage?"

"Does this count..." Caroline looked at Ke Lan with an unfriendly look.

"By the way, can you tell me about the specific situation on Manstein's side? Your first group should be the first to arrive there, right?" Sofia changed the subject calmly.

"Manstein..." Caroline's face froze for a moment. "My team members and I did just rush over from there. The situation over there was very bad. The scene was a mess. Almost all the bodies were badly damaged, and it seemed that they had been brutally tortured before they died..."

"Did you find anything unusual..." Ke Lan asked in a deep voice, "Especially with Manstein and that female secretary."

"The abnormal part..." Caroline recalled, "The female secretary died of suffocation. There was nothing abnormal except for the obvious marks on her neck... On the contrary, Mr. Manstein's entire abdomen was cut open, and the forensic doctor in charge of the autopsy told me that a high level of radiation seemed to be detected inside Manstein's abdominal cavity..."

"Not a low radiation level? What does that mean?" Ke Lan's eyes lit up, and he felt that he seemed to have grasped the key point of the matter.

"That's what I mean... maybe he accidentally swallowed a piece of radioactive mineral... But how could he accidentally swallow this thing? Mr. Manstein is not a child..." Caroline muttered.

"Could it have been stuffed in there by the person who killed him?" Zofia asked, "For example, using this method to force a confession..."

"No, it's not forced confession." Ke Lan said suddenly, "These people's purpose is not to get something from us... Otherwise, the people who attacked us would not have killed us directly..."

"Yes." Caroline nodded to show her agreement with Ke Lan's statement. "The forensic doctor also said that Mr. Manstein suffered from a chronic radiation sickness. Assuming that he really swallowed a piece of radioactive ore, then this ore would have to stay in his body for at least several days."

"That is to say, when he was at the Leviathan base, the stone was already in his stomach..." Ke Lan suddenly had a bad feeling...

He vaguely remembered that when the survivors returned to the Ark and underwent a routine physical examination, Manstein seemed to have found an excuse to skip the radiology examination...

"Zofia... the matter of super-pure crystals was reported to your consortium by Manstein, right?" Ke Lan turned around and asked.

"Yes, as the highest person in charge of the mining base, it was indeed him who reported it. Is there any problem?" Sofia's expression changed slightly at this time - from Ke Lan's words, she had also sensed something was wrong.

"Manstein must have discovered something even more incredible than the super-pure crystal inside Leviathan... but his greed made him decide to take it for himself... and he hid it in his body in this extremely risky way..."

"Something more incredible than super-pure crystals?!"

"Although I don't know what that thing is, it is now probably in the hands of the Arasaka Group... and that heretic sect."