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001 Death and Rebirth
"Lu Mingfei!"
Oh no, I accidentally fell asleep!
He jolted awake from his light sleep, propping himself up with his numb arm, his gaze slowly focusing. The girl on the hospital bed was still sleeping peacefully, her expression revealing a fragile sadness. He glanced at the monitor; the green bars rose and fell, emitting a rhythmic low beep.
Is it an auditory hallucination?
It's someone else.
He heard someone panting heavily behind him. As he turned around, purple hair came into view.
Lu Mingfei opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, a tight hug interrupted him.
then,
"Click." A chill ran down the back of my neck; the circuit was locked and powered on.
The thing that had been constricting his neck for so long finally came loose, and he instinctively shrank back, feeling a cool sensation.
"sorry."
Lu Mingfei's head was wrapped around her chest, his clothes smelled of gunpowder and sweat, and the metal zipper was digging painfully into his face.
"...Bastards. We're all bastards." Her voice began to tremble. "Making excuses, finding reasons... saying it's for the world, saying it's your mission... but it's just because we ourselves can't do it."
"At an age when they should be arguing with classmates in the classroom and buying popsicles at the convenience store after school..."
"You've never complained. Lu Mingfei, the more you do that, the more I feel unworthy of being an adult. The more I feel... sorry, I..."
The woman took a deep breath and pressed him into her arms with unreasonable force.
Lu Mingfei stared blankly at the collar controller in her hand:
[CMD Remote Command: Start]
Collar connection: Disconnected
Synchronization rate observation: Off
[Suppression function: Off]
[Detonation Function: Off]
[Master Key Mode: Off]
[Awakening Analysis Mode: Off]
If any of these parameters is abnormal, it will blow his head off.
Lu Mingfei then realized that he had started breathing, his chest was rising and falling, and air was filling his lungs.
For the past few months, he had been merely holding his breath in his throat, like someone underwater who dared not breathe.
"Ms. Misato, do I need to insert the thrombus now?"
Misato Katsuragi stiffened, her hand abruptly pulling away from his back. Lu Mingfei was forced back half a step by a force pressing against his shoulder.
He braced one hand on the bed railing beside him.
The hospital bed made a slight metallic creaking sound and shook slightly with his exertion.
Lu Mingfei turned his head to look at Asuka. The girl's long red hair was scattered on the pillow, her arms were exposed, her fingers were slightly curled, and she was not holding onto anything.
"Headquarters has been hacked." Misato Katsuragi's voice came from behind. "EVA and the pilots are the primary targets."
"Unit 3 is ready," she said. "I need you... to pilot Unit 3."
"Where is she?" Lu Mingfei asked, looking at the girl on the hospital bed.
"She's going too," Misato said. "Right now, inside EVA is the safest place."
A muffled explosion came from the other end of the corridor. A light tube on the ceiling broke, and shards of glass clattered to the floor.
Misato strode over, turning sideways to avoid Lu Mingfei's gaze, and forcefully pushed away his hand that was propped up on the edge of the bed. "I will hide Unit 2 at the bottom of the lake."
"Go." Her purple hair fell down, and Lu Mingfei couldn't see her expression.
"Okay." Lu Mingfei walked to the door, turned back and took one last look at Asuka.
Misato bent over and began to disconnect the wires and tubes connected to the girl. The oxygen mask was removed, the IV drip was pulled out, and the monitor emitted a long alarm.
The girl's body swayed slightly as the cable was pulled, her arms hanging limply at her sides, wobbling gently...
He opened the door and went out.
Most of the lights in the corridor were off, and broken glass and debris were scattered on the floor. He could see the doors on either side receding in his peripheral vision—one, two, three. Each one looked exactly the same.
He couldn't tell how far he had gone, nor whether he had been staying in the same place the whole time.
There seemed to be someone shouting something in the distance, but it was unclear. The sound was distorted by the wall, like a movement coming from underwater.
-----------------
"You're the fourth Child? Are you kidding me! Look at your dead fish eyes."
-----------------
The corridor was swaying, or perhaps it was he himself swaying. He looked down at his shadow, its edges blurred, like a badly printed photograph.
Lu Mingfei tried to clear his mind, but after a few steps, he found he couldn't.
Some things just pop into my head on their own.
For example, Asuka's hair was spread out on the pillow just now, like red seaweed.
For example, he recognized every line of text on the collar controller, but he could no longer piece together the meaning of the instructions.
Forget it.
As I walked, it seemed like the corridor had no end.
What is Rei Ayanami thinking each time she walks by like this?
Underground hangar, third launch pad.
When Lu Mingfei crawled out of the maintenance tunnel exit, he looked up and saw it.
Unit 3 stood in the center, its massive black fuselage supported by a fixed frame, its head drooping like a sleeping giant. The fuselage was not yet fully repaired; the wound on its abdomen was still open, and the armor plate on its right arm was not completely closed, its edges curled up, revealing the flesh and blood underneath.
He reached out his left hand and clasped his right forearm.
When you press down with your finger, you can feel the bones, muscles, and blood vessels.
How long did he press it? A few seconds? A dozen seconds? The green waveform on the monitor jumped up and down.
No! That's the sound coming from Asuka's hospital room.
He dug his fingernails into the skin of his right arm and scratched hard.
The skin split open, revealing the flesh underneath; the edges curled up, and fresh blood slowly flowed out.
He exhaled, his body trembling uncontrollably.
That's correct.
The enormous mask was bowing its head, looking down at him.
"The fourth eligible candidate has arrived."
"Plug in place! Initiating contact procedure."
Lu Mingfei stepped onto the umbilical bridge; the hatch for the insertion device was already open. The inner walls were dark gray, with a dense array of sensing electrodes and neural transmission interfaces extending from all directions, the deepest part of which was an arched driver's seat.
"Plug locked. LCL injection initiated."
An orange-yellow liquid rose from beneath my feet, followed by a metallic, rusty smell that filled my nostrils, like a glass of diluted blood.
As the water reached his chin, Lu Mingfei tilted his head back and took one last breath.
The liquid was poured into the nasal cavity and rushed into the lungs, where the LCL began to deliver oxygen.
"LCL injection complete, charge conversion in progress."
"Neural connections begin."
The mind is expanding, and the body's senses are growing.
The fingers grew longer, the spine extended, and the outline of the torso was being covered by a form that did not belong to humans.
"Synchronization rate—"
"...100%."
"Let me confirm this again."
"Synchronization rate 100%. Values are stable, with no fluctuations or abnormal waveforms."
The dome shook violently, and large chunks of concrete debris slammed into the mech's shoulder armor.
"The seventh armored gate has been breached!"
"The Central Dogmatic Zone has fallen, and the defensive line is retreating."
"Prioritize EVA's deployment!"
The sounds piled up layer by layer, like hitting something solid, shattering into inaudible noise.
Lu Mingfei closed his eyes, relaxed his body, and let his consciousness merge with EVA. Deep within his mind, a voice arrived as expected.
"Brother, welcome back."
Yes, he's back.
From the moment he was fitted with the DSS collar, he knew there was no going back. He had already been consumed by this nightmare called EVA, becoming a part of it.
But now, nightmares have become his destiny.
Lu Mingfei opened his eyes.
【EVA Unit-03, sortie!】