A platform elevator with only simple guardrails was rising steadily in the purple light, and there was a slight mechanical friction sound coming from directly below.
And the sparks flying between Katsuragi Misato and Akagi Ritsuko, who were standing side by side, were about to become reality.
"Someone stole my vacation selfie from my computer and scrawled on it. As the director of the information security department at NERV headquarters, do you have any clues?"
"That's just one of the titles. My full-time job is in the technology development department. If you need it, I can ask [MAGI] to check it for you."
"That's great. When the time comes, let me help you find out who the lip prints 'accidentally' printed on it are from, and you can kick that little thief out of the headquarters."
"MAGI has many processes that need to be processed at the same time, and since this is wartime, things unrelated to NERV and Eva may be delayed. It should not exceed a hundred years."
Shinji Ikari stood behind them, flipping through the extremely secret manual and looking left and right, pretending not to understand what they were talking about.
After meeting Ritsuko Akagi, although he didn't get lost again, he walked through some winding and dark areas, which didn't look like a formal passage at all. I don't know whether he wanted to give Misato Katsuragi a chance or the place he was going to was very confidential.
For example, at this moment, the opposite side of the purple-red curtain wall looks full of liquid, so they may be rising from the bottom of a huge swimming pool towards the water surface. And those who can use such a huge swimming pool, in addition to "Artificial Apostle" Eva, are also
What could it be?
"I'm not afraid to tell you that I have already thought about the torture after catching that little thief."
"NERV is preparing for abuse of lynching."
While Misato Katsuragi and Ritsuko Akagi were still holding guns and clubs, taunting each other in secret, a huge blue-purple palm slowly appeared on the opposite side of the curtain wall that Shinji Ikari thought was the "swimming pool", and it seemed that he was preparing to grab the elevator.
ladder.
Very good, not only is she modeled after the apostle, Eva herself is as alive as the apostle, and may even have a will of her own.
So how exactly do you want to "drive" it?
Shinji Ikari shook his head slightly, looked down at the manual and looked up again. The giant hand that almost grabbed the glass wall had disappeared.
squeak——whoosh——
The elevator stopped, the door opened, and it was dark outside. Only the faint light attached to the elevator slightly illuminated the metal floor inside, but Misato Katsuragi and Ritsuko Akagi stepped out without hesitation.
It has been confirmed that this time we went to the destination through the maintenance tunnel, and the whole process was suppressed, just to give myself a "surprise" when the lights suddenly turned on.
Shinji Ikari followed the two of them out of the elevator.
It might be a bit troublesome if you don't give any face at all. You can consider cooperating. Speaking of which, how do you make the "shocked" expression?
Click, as the elevator door closed, the mysterious place became invisible.
It takes a long time to turn off the lights, why don't you say something along the lines of "It's so dark, it's so narrow, it's so scary"...
Click.
Before Shinji Ikari could make any grandiose performance, with a soft sound, this "mysterious place" suddenly became brightly lit.
What appeared in front of him was a huge face of a girl who looked to be at least ten meters tall.
"...This, this is?" Even without deliberately performing, Shinji Ikari knew that the expression on his face was definitely "shocked" and "shocked".
She has short light blue hair and red eyes, and her appearance is quite cute. Her whole body is soaked in the purple-red pool water, only her neck and a bit of shoulders are exposed, but her eyes are completely out of focus, and she seems to be in a trance.
At this moment, affected by the sudden turn on of the lights, those huge red eyes blinked and began to slowly rotate, observing the three people "in front of" her.
What about the “real” manual? Come on out and explain it!
After Shinji Ikari was surprised, he quickly started to flip through the "Ultimate Secret" manual, but unfortunately, the content above was still the "Antarctic Meteorite" edition.
"Don't turn it over, it's not in the manual," Ritsuko Akagi said, "This is the ultimate general-purpose humanoid weapon made by humans, the artificial human, 'EVANGELION'."
I know! But the manual doesn’t say it’s this level of “humanoid”!
"This 'Unit No. 1' was built under extremely confidential conditions and is our humanity's last trump card." Ritsuko Akagi said.
Humans who made their final ace look like this should perish as soon as possible!
The huge blue-haired girl blinked again and turned her attention to Shinji Ikari.
She is not a machine, she is alive, and she even has a certain degree of curiosity.
Shinji Ikari closed his eyes tightly and then opened them again, but the scene in front of him was still the huge girl, and it did not disappear like the "real manual".
So she is real?
"...Is this my father's job?" Shinji Ikari asked with a little contempt.
"[That's right]."
As Shinji Ikari's familiar yet unfamiliar male voice sounded, a middle-aged man appeared in the observation window above the giant girl's head, which was quite high from the ground.
He has a Chinese character face, messy black hair, brown goggles, and a beard on his chin.
"[Long time no see]." The man said.
The giant blue-haired girl looked up, as if she wanted to see the source of the sound, but failed because of the angle.
"...Father." Shinji Ikari raised his head and glanced at the man, then turned to look at the huge girl in front of him, not wanting to look at him.
This is his father, Ikari Yuantang. The original purpose of his trip was to meet his father, whom he had not seen for three years, and to ask him why he wanted to divorce his mother, but now it seems that it cannot be more reasonable.
"[Hmph...]" Ikari Gendo didn't care about Shinji Ikari's reaction and continued: "[Attack.]"
"Attack directly?" Misato Katsuragi said in surprise: "Ayanami and Unit-0 were synchronized for 7 months. I thought today I would just bring Shinji-kun to see Unit-0 and test drive it. If we can make it perform simple operations,
The action is even better. Isn’t it a bit overwhelming to directly fight the apostle? He is just a child who has never been on the battlefield!"
"Well...it's not impossible." Ritsuko Akagi said.
"The trial scheduled today is to start! It hasn't even started yet!" Misato Katsuragi turned to glare at her.
"After the startup is successful, we will arrange for him to fight the virtual target," Ritsuko Akagi's expression remained unchanged: "It doesn't seem to be a problem to replace the virtual target with a real apostle. You know, Eva is not a car, airplane, or ship. It relies entirely on
Thinking and consciousness control, as long as the child can fight."
"With Shinji-kun's character and physique, he is definitely the one who gets beaten at school!"
The huge blue-haired girl blinked twice and turned her gaze back to Shinji Ikari.
Normally, I only have to punish others, but there is no need to talk about it now...
"Father," Shinji Ikari interrupted the discussion between the two eldest sisters and looked at Yuantang Ikari: "Why did you ask me to come?"
"[You already know it, don't you?]" the man responded.
"You want me to 'drive' this..." Shinji Ikari looked at the giant girl and thought for two seconds, unable to find a suitable title: "Fighting the apostle?"
"[That's right.]" Ikari Yuantang responded.
"I don't want it! If I had known this, I wouldn't have come!" Shinji Ikari raised his head and yelled angrily.
"[I called you here just because I need you.]" The voice coming from the radio showed no emotion.
"Why choose me?"
"[Because others can't do it.]"
Shinji Ikari lowered his head and looked at the giant blue-haired girl.
She was still looking at herself with ruby eyes, with no expression on her face, as if if he decided to "drive", she would accept it.
"I can't do it either!"
"Driving" a giant girl and fighting "apostles" or something...
"I've never seen or heard of such a thing! How can it be done?"
"[I will teach you.]" Ikari Yuantang continued.
Father teaches son how to drive giant girl...
"How could you do this!" Shinji Ikari said angrily: "I can't do it! How can I 'drive' this guy!"
We've just met and we haven't gotten to know each other yet!
"[Do you want to do it or not? If not, go back!]" Ikari Yuantang finally became angry.
"you--"
Boom!!
Before Shinji Ikari spoke, a huge explosion sounded from above, and at the same time, the entire venue began to tremble.
"[It seems that guy discovered this place.]" Ikari Yuantang said in a deep voice.
Boom! Boom!
The second and third explosions occurred one after another, and the hearing distance was getting closer and closer.
The huge blue girl slowly turned her eyes and looked left and right, as if she was wondering where the explosion came from, but she still showed no expression.
"[First floor, No. 8 Armor Plate is damaged.]" A mechanical announcement came.
"Shinji-kun, there is no time left," Ritsuko Akagi said.
"Go and drive." Misato Katsuragi said.
"No," Shinji Ikari looked at the giant girl in front of him who was still moving his eyes: "It shouldn't be like this."
"[Dongyue,]" Ikari Yuantang turned behind him: "[Wake up [Zero].]"
"[Can she still fight?]" an old male voice responded.
"[She's not dead.]" Ikari Yuantang responded coldly.
After a brief silence, there was a call from Ikari Gendo. He did not turn off the speaker here, and seemed to be talking specifically to Shinji.
"【zero】."
【yes?】
"[Your substitute is useless, you come to fight.]"
【yes.】
"...!?"
Shinji Ikari was still debating whether to have some communication with the giant girl as soon as possible, but his father's conversation with a girl named "Zero" attracted his attention, not because he said he was useless, but... in response
His father's was the huge blue-haired girl in front of him.
After two soft "yes"s, the image of the giant blue-haired girl disappeared in the blink of an eye by Shinji Ikari, and was replaced by a super giant giant wrapped in purple armor, with its entire head covered in a roughly triangular shape.
The helmet is tightly wrapped, and the eye sockets are two diamond-shaped "headlights" that make it impossible to see the eyes.
Who would say no to driving this thing! Is it too late to regret it now?
"Replace the built-in system of Unit No. 1 with the 'Zero' template and restart it!" "Transport her weapons and equipment as soon as possible!" "Load the life support system in advance!" "Watch her and don't let her act on her own!"
But at this time, no one paid attention to Ikari Shinji who was standing by the pool. Ritsuko Akagi and Misato Katsuragi each ran away while giving orders.
Really...the vision is getting more and more serious. Fortunately, his "superpower" is not a vision. Shinji Ikari touched the back of his left hand with his right hand.
As a special ability that "qualified people" have, Shinji Ikari possesses a "card"-like thing. Whenever he "enters battle", there will be an extra card on his left hand that only he can see.
A silver-white arc-shaped long board. A stack of cards with a brown vortex on the back will appear in the clip in front of the long board. Every 60 seconds, he can draw a card from it, and the upper limit of the cards in his hand is 6. If it has not been used,
, new cards will not be drawn, and the effects obtained and the drawn cards will disappear after the battle.
The types of these cards are roughly divided into orange "monster cards", green "magic cards" and red "trap cards". Judging from the cards he has used so far, trap cards are the strongest, but they need to be "set" in advance.
, the magic card is medium and can cause some special effects and does not need to be placed. The most useless one is the monster card. This kind of card seems to be able to summon monsters out of thin air to obey your orders, but it cannot be summoned no matter how you place it.
It is said that drawing them is equal to -1 hand card.
At present, it seems that driving this giant robot called "Eva" is a very important supplement to one's abilities. The main reason why he could only run away before was that there was no stable situation to use cards.
After riding Eva, even if it is completely immobile and only provides itself with defense, it should be enough to beat the apostles to pieces with magic cards and trap cards - probably.
Kakaka——
At this moment, the gate on the other side of the pool opened, and three medical staff ran in pushing a stretcher cart. Shinji Ikari looked up casually and was stunned on the spot.
It was a blue-haired girl who looked exactly like the "giant girl" from before. She was wearing a white tights, but her body was countless times smaller. At the same time, she was covered with bandages all over her body, and even covered her body with tape.
One eye.
She is "Zero"? But the attitude of her father and others seems wrong... Shinji Ikari stared at her familiar yet unfamiliar face, unable to look away for a moment.
"..." After glancing at Shinji with her single eye, the girl named "Zero" immediately turned over and sat up, about to get off the ground.
"Wait?" "Oh, my sister-in-law, please slow down." "Let us help you, don't do it yourself." The doctor and nurse pushing the cart hurriedly stopped her.
It doesn't look like her injury has healed, but why does she act so carelessly?
Shinji Ikari glanced at Unit-1, which maintained the appearance of a "giant robot", and then looked at her.
Could it be that this "zero" has no consciousness of being a human being at all?
Boom!!
He was about to talk to the girl when a more violent explosion came from the direction of the roof. Everyone present staggered. At the same time, a large piece of the building structure on the roof shattered and fell straight down. Shinji Ikari said, "
"Zero", as well as three doctors and nurses were all covered.
laugh--
Perhaps this meant that he was attacked, and the long board and cards that only Shinji Ikari could see appeared. He didn't have time to think too much and raised his hand to draw the card.
