"Huh?"
Hearing the voice from his phone, Shinji Ikari could hardly believe his ears.
"An explosion at Matsushiro? Then... what about Asuka and Mr. Fang Zheng?"
"There's no news of them yet."
"..."
At that, Shinji felt his heart pound violently. But he quickly forced himself to calm down.
After all, Fang Zheng's hellish Sparta training was no joke.
"Got it! What do you need me to do?"
Shinji looked up, clenching his fists.
The battered elevator crashed down. Then, amid the swirling dust, Fang Zheng rose to his feet.
"Holy crap... I knew this damn EVA wasn't safe... Good thing I'm smart..."
Muttering to himself, Fang Zheng looked down at the unconscious Asuka in his arms. He had blocked the impact in time, but Asuka was only human. It was no surprise that the blast had knocked her out cold.
Anyway, they needed to get out of this hellhole first... Who knew how everyone else was doing?
When Fang Zheng carried the unconscious Asuka into the underground command center, he found it in complete chaos as well. Fortunately, it was far from the center of the explosion and had not suffered a direct impact. In fact, Ritsuko Akagi had already regained consciousness and was directing the rescue efforts.
Ritsuko was stunned when she saw Fang Zheng and Asuka.
"You're actually okay?"
"Got lucky and escaped disaster. Not getting blown to ashes means we're damn fortunate."
Fang Zheng set Asuka down nearby and snorted. Ritsuko did not know what to say for a moment. This activation test had indeed been rushed, and as Fang Zheng had said, Unit Three had never received a thorough inspection. Of course, no one could have anticipated an Angel infecting an EVA, but the biggest problem was not that they had failed to foresee it—it