"This is your first battle. I don't think I need to tell you that this fight definitely won't be easy."
Looking at Rei Ayanami, who had changed into her plugsuit, Fang Zheng spoke with a grave expression. Logically, Misato Katsuragi should have been the one to handle the pre-battle operation plan. But Misato wasn't at headquarters right now, and Fang Zheng didn't even need to think to know where she had gone.
She had definitely gone to pick up the male lead according to the plan.
But come to think of it, that had originally been his job...
It seemed Gendo Ikari had really been angered badly by him. Still, Fang Zheng simply pretended not to notice this level of petty trickery.
Such was the wisdom of mortals.
Of course, Fang Zheng could roughly guess Gendo Ikari's thoughts. He most likely believed Unit-00 could not defeat the incoming Third Angel, Little Watery. That was perfectly normal. In many anime settings, prototype units were overpowered while mass-produced units were trash. But here, Unit-00, the prototype unit, really was no good.
Based on Fang Zheng's inspection results for Unit-00 and Evangelion Unit-01, Unit-00's average rating was only C in terms of "machine attributes," while Evangelion Unit-01 was A. Naturally, the gap was also due to Unit-00's incompleteness and the boost Evangelion Unit-01 had received from being completed by Yui Ikari's soul. But even setting those aside, Unit-00's current state was only barely sufficient for actual combat.
So Gendo Ikari was probably waiting for Unit-00 to sortie, get smashed to pieces by Little Watery, and then let his own son go up there to show off.
The script was well written, but whether things followed it depended on his mood.
Fang Zheng was confident that Rei Ayanami could defeat Little Watery, because the