Alien Relic Hunter.

Chapter 188
"What do you think that...is going to be?" Zofia asked solemnly.

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

Before the words were finished, the lights of the entire villa were suddenly extinguished—not only that, even the light sources on the street outside also disappeared, and the entire block was suddenly plunged into a strange darkness.

But soon, the extinguished lights were turned on one by one, and the light in the villa was restored again.

"What's going on?" Caroline poked her head out and asked, but the members of the first team stationed outside were all stunned, expressing that they didn't know what happened.

"A power outage?" Ke Lan glanced at his mobile phone, but the signal that was originally full has now changed to "not in the service area". Presumably, the signal base station in the ark was also affected by the power outage. From this point of view Come on, they're not the only ones with power outages.

"The emergency backup power is being used now..." Zofia glanced at the orange indicator light on the electric meter at the villa terminal, "The power supply handle of the main line has not been restored, and the existing emergency energy should last for about 48 hours .”

"Impossible..." Caroline raised her head in confusion, looked 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 100 years, in addition to regional maintenance, The power outage time did not exceed 0.1 seconds... Now it is almost 1 minutes, and I don't know how much the direct loss will be..."

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

"It's really strange... If the power supply of the main line has not been restored, what about the backup secondary line network? It can't be that there is a problem with the Ark's core control center, right?" Caroline tried to use the power armor to automatically The communication equipment he brought contacted the headquarters, but there was also no response.

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

Because the size of the ark is too large, it is difficult to completely cover it with the communication radius of conventional radio equipment, so people have installed a large number of base stations for signal relay inside the ark, but right now it is impossible to search for any of the base stations. However, it can only show that the wireless communication in at least half of the area on the ark has been paralyzed.

"However, the wired communication should still work, unless there is also a problem with the optical fiber network buried inside the ark." Ke Lan walked to the monitoring screen and used an adapter cable to connect the mobile phone to the wired network of the villa.

"Fortunately, those who invaded the villa only destroyed the security system, but did not cut off the network connected to the outside..."

As soon as Ke Lan's mobile phone was 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 come from a military communication terminal.

"Hey?"

"Is it Ke Lan? I'm Maginot. 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 whether they targeted me or Zofia...but it may be both."

"Then is your side safe now? Do you need me to send troops over?" Magino asked.

"No need for now, the reinforcements from the Soma Consortium have arrived, and the attackers have been eliminated... By the way, Your Excellency, do you know what happened to the power outage just now?" Ke Lan seized this opportunity and asked quickly .

"...To be honest, I don't know very well. 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 agency, and the entire Ark was cut off. Now the core area is It's being repaired urgently."

"A very powerful... energy pulse?"

"Hey, this is what the Security Bureau said. I don't know what's going on. By the way, Ke Lan, do you know the identity of the person who attacked you and Miss Soma?" Magino asked He said that he had told Ke Lan before that his superior had given him a very special "task", which was to protect Ke Lan and the others in secret. In other words, the priority of the attack is a little higher.

"Basically, it can be confirmed that it is a member of the Arasaka Foundation, one of the attackers, and one of the six samurai members of the Arasaka Samurai Club. The gun is on the left."

"Oh... I knew it..." A lament came from the other side of the microphone, "The person who attacked Nick and the others was also from the Arasaka Consortium..."

"Does the Arasaka Consortium have anything to say about this? According to Ark's law, this crime must at least start with exile, right?"

"This is where I have a headache... Now I can't contact the Arasaka Consortium at all. The East Ninth District where their headquarters is located, all communications have been cut off. I sent a small team to rush there, but they are entering the East Ninth District. After that, there was no news at all.”

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

"It's all broken too... Now the entire East Ninth District seems to have become an isolated island, and no one knows what happened inside." Maginot's voice was filled with irritability.

The East Ninth District is not only the headquarters of the Arasaka Consortium, but also the birthplace of the Arasaka Family. Residents living in this district are either members of the Arasaka Family, or employees working in the Arasaka Consortium and their families—for For the Arasaka Consortium, although the hardware conditions of the East Ninth District may not be as good as the first few districts, their ability to control the district where the headquarters is located is incomparable to any consortium or family... The entire East The Ninth District is like an iron plate. When many people mention the East Ninth District, they will directly refer to this district as "the territory of the Arasaka Consortium". Outsiders want to infiltrate it without anyone knowing it. It's just harder.

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

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone. Just when Ke Lan wondered if there was another problem with the signal, Machino asked in a low voice: "...do you have any evidence? Although I also feel very strange …But judging from the information currently available, there is no direct connection between the two events.”

"The general should already know about the ultra-purity crystals, right?" Ke Lan suddenly changed the subject and asked about the crystals.

"……Know."

"Manstein, the former head of the Leviathan Base of the Soma Consortium, secretly hid a radioactive object whose value is higher than that of ultra-purity crystals. He wrapped this object with a material that can isolate radiation. hidden in his own body."

"What is this thing?" Maginot asked anxiously.

"No one knows... Manstein was also assassinated just now. When the people from the Soma Consortium found the body, the thing had already been taken away. As for the identity of the assassin, although it cannot be determined, the probability is the same as that of the person who attacked us." People come from the same source." Ke Lan analyzed.

"...you continue talking."

"Assuming that this thing is a crystalline mineral, and the energy contained in it is higher than that of ultra-purity crystals...Using the high-intensity energy pulse artificially produced by this thing, let alone burning down the core control center of the power supply mechanism, even Even the Ark's central computer could be compromised."

"...I understand. I will immediately report the situation to the higher-ups, and at the same time send more people to seal off the East Ninth District." Machino said seriously.

"Well, I will also rush to the East Ninth District immediately." Ke Lan said... In the back of his mind, there was always a voice urging him to go to the headquarters building of the Arasaka Consortium. There seemed to be something Things are waiting for his arrival... Although Ke Lan didn't plan to follow the voice's instructions completely, at least he had to figure out the situation there first.

(End of this chapter)