Chapter 187: The Kelaofu Family

Minos Island, which is two hours ahead of Bulgaria, is already deep night.

The base situated on the island's eastern side resembles a small city.

Most of the recruits have already turned off the lights and gone to bed, but the class that ranked last in the evaluations stays up with the instructor, scrubbing the restroom.

Besides those unlucky bottom‑ranked cadets, the base still has many night‑shift staff, armed security on patrol, and Sui Bian, who likes to work until the early hours.

Inside the private dormitory's living room.

Sui Bian, sitting in the middle of the sofa, is dressed casually in a black short‑sleeve shirt and leisure trousers, with no hair gel—after all, he has just finished washing up.

Hong Hou, seated at the far left of the sofa, is still in staff uniform, but not the long‑coat style of a suit jacket; instead she wears a white long‑sleeve shirt and a black work skirt that reaches just above the knees.

Several holographic screens placed in the living room are streaming helmet footage from the Special Task Force, along with related data compiled by Hong Hou.

Earlier, Kelaofu used a satellite phone to contact his father, and the conversation was intercepted by Hong Hou, who is in charge of anomalous phenomena.

She picked up the key points about the "Glowing Lake" and the "Artemis Temple," then directly contacted the nearest Hope Vessel, sent the locations of George, Tom and the other three to the Hope Vessel's captain, and ordered Pulaise to lead the Special Task Force and technical staff to handle it.

At the same time, Hong Hou also instructed Buleiya, one of the London supervisors, to lead intelligence personnel to a manor outside London to make contact with Earl Richard Kelaofu, Kelaofu's father.

After arranging the above, Hong Hou concluded that this anomalous incident is very likely linked to an ancient deity.

Thus Hong Hou immediately left the lounge she shared with the White Queen, went next door, and reported directly to Sui Bian.

The holographic screen now shows that the Special Task Force has preliminarily ruled out danger near the lake, but continues to expand the area to ensure the technicians have a green‑field environment.

Seeing that a dozen or so spirit sprites show no hostility toward humans, the technicians do not treat them roughly but patiently guide them through the inspection.

At first, the sprites were terrified of the lifeless Yuyou and Crane Ostrich Vessel, but upon seeing that the technicians and the Special Task Force had no "malice," curiosity overcame fear and they cooperated with the inspection.

As for the five university students, they have finished the physical exam and are now being interrogated by Ghost and Soap.

Sui Bian, watching the interrogation, remains silent.

Among the five students, Laura Crouff does catch his slight attention.

Both in appearance and background, Laura Crouff resembles the Tomb Raider heroine Sui Bian is familiar with.

Of course, it's not the new game version nor the movie version, but the Laura from the original game.

"Hong Hou," Sui Bian says without taking his eyes off the holographic screen, "keep an eye on Laura Crouff; she seems to have the potential to become a competent intelligence officer."

"Yes," Hong Hou replies as usual, then proactively suggests:

"Sir, his father, Earl Richard Kelaofu, is renowned in the archaeology world and has extensive experience in archaeology.

Therefore I propose that the company's intelligence department should form a team tasked with excavating Earth's ancient relics, and we could recruit Earl Richard Kelaofu into this team to serve the company."

"Hmm…," seeing Hong Hou proactively make the suggestion, Sui Bian mulls for a few seconds and then nods in agreement:

"Then let's establish such a team, with you selecting and recruiting professionals from inside and outside the company; if needed, the White Queen can also assist you.

By the way, I recall that the senior professor who discovered Gobekli is also excellent; send an intelligence officer to approach that archaeology titan, and if his physical condition permits, try to recruit him as well."

"I'll take care of it, sir; rest assured," Hong Hou replies, her expression unchanged.

Sui Bian stops speaking with Hong Hou and focuses his attention on the screen.

Hong Hou, using her extraordinary multitasking ability, concentrates on the Artemis Temple site while monitoring worldwide, and has already begun organizing the archaeology team under the intelligence department.

Before long.

Sui Bian, ahead of the technicians, discovers that the strange language spoken by the sprites is Ancient Greek.

Although Sui Bian isn't strong in math, physics, or chemistry, he never gave up studying, including various ancient scripts and languages; after all, with both Hong Hou and the White Queen assisting company affairs, he has ample free time to learn.

The sprites babble to the technicians, asking "Are you humans or gods?", "Have the demons been eradicated?", or "Can you save my master?" among other remarks.

Demons? Salvation?

Hearing the key terms, Sui Bian furrows his brows slightly.

Immediately after, the sprites begin gesturing wildly; even without translation, one can guess they intend to lead everyone to a certain place.

Seeing this, the technicians submit a request to follow to Hong Hou, who then forwards the request to Sui Bian.

"Go with them," Sui Bian says without objection: "Tell Captain Pulaise to allocate the personnel appropriately."

"Understood," Hong Hou acknowledges.

———————

…

At this moment.

Inside the temple ruins, Pulaise, wearing his powered‑armor helmet and lighting a cigar, after receiving Sui Bian's orders from Hong Hou, lifts his left hand, draws a puff of smoke, and issues a communication command:

"Soap, Xiaoqiang, you two lead a team to stay here on guard, ensure the safety of the five university students and the airship; the rest come with me."

"Copy," Soap replies.

"..." Xiaoqiang says nothing.

Command issued.

Pulaise extinguishes the cigar, places it back in his mouth, reseals his helmet, grips his commander‑type beam rifle, and leaves the ruins.

Next, led by Pulaise and Ghost, forty members of the Special Task Force escort the five technicians, following the sprites away from the lakeside toward the dense forest east of the temple.

Entering the forest, Pulaise's group trekked east for over ten minutes, then looped around to the north side of the cliff wall, and this time headed west for another ten minutes.

Finally, the sprites guide Pulaise's party to an entrance that leads into the interior of the cliff.

The entrance, appearing from the outside as a naturally formed fissure in the cliff wall only three meters wide, surrounded by European spruces, is something no one would pay attention to.

Pulaise also opens the map on his helmet screen and discovers that the fissure lies opposite the temple.

Subsequently, the sprites wave to the group and are the first to fly into the fissure.

Seeing this, Pulaise signals Ghost and the Special Task Force to stay alert, shields the five technicians in the center, and leads them in a single file into the fissure.

The first half of the fissure is extremely narrow and dim; even with night‑vision aid, it is highly unfriendly to those with claustrophobia.

However, as they progress deeper, the situation makes a 180° turn: the space widens dramatically, filled with abundant luminous plants.

(End of Chapter)