"What do you think that... could be?" Zofia asked solemnly.

"I don't know, but..."

Before he could finish his words, all the lights in the villa suddenly went out - not only that, even the light sources on the street outside disappeared, and the entire block was suddenly plunged into an eerie darkness.

But soon, the extinguished lights lit up one by one, and the villa was bright again.

"What's going on?" Caroline stuck her head out and asked, but the members of the first team stationed outside were also confused and said they didn't know what was going on.

"Power outage?" Ke Lan glanced at her mobile phone, but the originally full signal now turned into "out of service area". It seemed that the signal base station in the Ark was also affected by the power outage. It seemed that their block was far from the only one without power.

"We are currently using the emergency backup power supply..." Zofia glanced at the orange indicator light on the electric meter at the villa terminal. "The power supply of the main line has not been restored. The existing emergency energy should be able to last for about 48 hours."

"That's impossible..." Caroline looked up in confusion, looking at the lights on the ceiling that had returned to normal, and said, "The power supply system on the Ark has so many safeguards. In the past hundred years, except for regional maintenance, the power outage time has never exceeded 0.1 seconds... Now it's almost a minute, and I don't know how great the direct losses will be..."

"I'm afraid it will be very big." Ke Lan said while looking at the phone, "The phone can't find any base station signal, which means that at least the industrial area has also been affected by the power outage..."

"This is really strange... If the main power supply is not restored, what about the backup secondary line network? It can't be that there is a problem with the Ark's core control center?" Caroline tried to contact the headquarters using the communication equipment built into the power armor, but there was no response either.

"It seems you are right." Ke Lan reached into his pocket and took out a universal interface adapter cable. "I even think this is not an accident."

Since the Ark is so large, it is difficult for conventional radio equipment to fully cover its communication radius, so people have set up a large number of base stations inside the Ark for signal relay. However, now not even a single base station can be found. This can only mean that wireless communications in at least half of the areas on the Ark have been paralyzed.

"But wired communications should still be usable, unless there is a problem with the fiber optic network buried inside the Ark." Ke Lan walked to the monitoring screen and connected the mobile phone to the villa's wired network with an adapter cable.

"Fortunately, the people who invaded the villa only destroyed the security system, but did not cut off the external network..."

As soon as Ke Lan's phone connected to the Internet, he immediately received a communication request. He glanced at the screen and saw that it was a completely unfamiliar number. Judging from the prefix of the number... this call should be from a military communication terminal.

"Hello?"

"Is this Ke Lan? I'm Makino. I heard from Nick and the others that you were also attacked?"

"Well, someone attacked Miss Zofia Soma's residence, but I'm not sure if they were targeting me or Zofia... but it could be both."

"Is it safe over there now? Do you need me to send troops over?" asked Maginot.

"Not for now. The reinforcements from the Soma Group have arrived, and the attackers have been dealt with... By the way, General, do you know what the power outage was about?" Ke Lan seized the opportunity and asked quickly.

"...To be honest, I'm not sure. It seems that a very powerful energy pulse appeared in the power supply network, which burned the core control center of the Ark's power supply mechanism. The entire Ark has lost power. Now the core area is urgently repairing it."

"A very powerful...energy pulse?"

"Well, this is what the Security Bureau said. I have no idea what happened specifically. By the way, Ke Lan, do you know the identity of the people who attacked you and Miss Soma?" Maginot asked. He had told Ke Lan before that his superiors had given him a very special "task", which was to be responsible for protecting Ke Lan and others in secret - although power outages in the entire area were not a trivial matter, for him, the attack had a higher priority.

"It can be basically confirmed that they are from the Arasaka Group. One of the attackers is Gunzuo, one of the Six Samurai of the Arasaka Samurai Club."

"Ah... I knew it..." A sigh came from the other side of the microphone, "The people who attacked Nick and the others are also from the Arasaka Group..."

"What does the Arasaka Group have to say about this? According to the laws of the Ark, this crime should at least start with exile, right?"

"This is what's giving me a headache... We can't contact the Arasaka Group at all. All communications have been cut off in the East 9th District where their headquarters is located. I sent a team over, but after they entered the East 9th District, there has been no news from them."

"All communications are cut off? Is it because of a power outage? What about the wired network?"

"It's all cut off... Now the entire East 9th District seems to have become an isolated island, and no one knows what's going on inside." There was a hint of irritation in Maginot's voice.

The East 9th District is not only the headquarters of the Arasaka Group, but also the place where the Arasaka Family made their fortune. The residents living in this district are either members of the Arasaka Family, or employees working for the Arasaka Group and their families. For the Arasaka Group, although the hardware conditions in the East 9th District may not be as good as those in the previous districts, their control over the district where the headquarters is located is unmatched by any other group or family... The entire East 9th District is like a piece of iron plate. Even when many people mention the East 9th District, they will directly refer to this district as "the territory of the Arasaka Group." It is extremely difficult for outsiders to infiltrate it without being noticed.

"I think the power outage was caused by the Arasaka Group." Ke Lan said to Maginot.

The other end of the phone fell into silence for several seconds. Just when Ke Lan was wondering if there was a problem with the signal again, Machino asked in a low voice: "...Do you have any evidence? Although I also find it very strange...but based on the information we have so far, there is no direct connection between the two things."

"General, you should already know about the super-pure crystals, right?" Ke Lan suddenly changed the subject and asked about the crystals.

"……Know."

"Manstein, the former head of the Soma Foundation's Leviathan Base, secretly hid a radioactive object that was more valuable than the super-pure crystal. He wrapped it in some radiation-isolating material and hid it in his body."

"What is this thing?" Maginot asked anxiously.

"No one knows... Manstein was just assassinated. When the people from the Soma Group found the body, the thing had already been taken away. As for the identity of the assassin, although we can't be sure, it is very likely that he is from the same group as the people who attacked us." Ke Lan analyzed.

"…Keep going."

"Assuming this thing is a crystalline mineral, and the energy contained in it is higher than that of super-pure crystals... Using this thing to artificially create a high-intensity energy pulse, not to mention burning the core control center of the power supply mechanism, even the central computer of the Ark may be threatened."

"...I understand. I will immediately report this situation to my superiors and send more personnel to seal off the East 9th District." Maginot said seriously.

"Well, I will rush to the East 9th District immediately." Ke Lan said... Deep in his mind, there was always a voice urging him to go to the headquarters building of the Arasaka Group, where something seemed to be waiting for his arrival... Although Ke Lan did not intend to act completely according to the instructions of this voice, at least he had to find out the situation there first.