The pre-exercise briefing for Operation Bedrock was underway. Chu Zihang, Caesar, Nono, Pazzi, and Susie sat around a long table, their eyes all fixed on Professor Schneider.
"You may ask your questions about Lu Mingfei's Word Spirit now," Schneider said.
Caesar spoke first. "Professor, his Word Spirit has been classified as an evolution of Realm of Dust, but Realm of Dust is a repulsion field that uses high-speed air currents to form a defensive perimeter. According to this data, his defensive mechanism is more like..."
"Absolute physical hardening," Schneider finished for him. "Realm of Dust only provides a frame of reference for classification. In reality, his Word Spirit is not an exact match for any known Word Spirit."
Chu Zihang turned a page of the report and asked, "What about his output? On the Day of Freedom, the force he used to knock Caesar and me away was roughly enough to push someone three meters."
"Correct," Schneider said. "His defensive mechanism is highly flexible, but our time was limited. We didn't measure his output."
Susie asked, "Does his defense have any weak points? His back, for instance?"
"No."
Chu Zihang spoke up. "Could we find gaps in his defense through high-frequency, low-intensity attacks? For instance, applying continuous pressure to see whether the barrier fails at some critical threshold?"
Schneider shook his head. "The Equipment Department tried. A diamond probe under seventy thousand newtons of pressure, followed by a hundred-round burst of 30 mm depleted-uranium armor-piercing shells. His defense showed no degradation."
"What about disrupting his vision?" Caesar said. "Releasing a Word Spirit usually requires mental focus. If we distracted him..."
"A hundred 30 mm autocannon rounds exploded and vaporized in front of his barrier. The entire testing ground was filled with smoke," Schneider interrupted. "It didn't disrupt him."
"Could we use corrosive alchemical items? Or low temperatures to make the barrier brittle?"
"There is no evidence that this Word Spirit is affected by temperature or chemicals."
"What about sonic attacks? Internal resonance-"
"The barrier can block the shock wave of a C4 explosion, as well as reflected low-frequency sound waves."
"In other words," Chu Zihang concluded, "all we can do is hold out until his stamina is exhausted. Until then, there's nothing we can do to him."
"Correct," Schneider said. "You need to use your numerical advantage and attack without interruption, forcing him to maintain his Word Spirit for an extended period until he exhausts himself."
"How long?" Chu Zihang asked.
"We don't know. The Equipment Department never established the upper limit of his endurance. But based on his performance during testing, I suggest you prepare for a prolonged battle."
The sheer power of an S-Rank left everyone silent.
Caesar suddenly turned to Nono.
"You've spent the most time with Lu Mingfei," he said. "What kind of person is he?"
"What kind of person is he..." Nono repeated Caesar's question.
She raised her head, her gaze passing over everyone at the table.
"He bears pain you can't begin to imagine."
After leaving the women's dormitory, Lu Mingfei kept replaying the sight of Zero walking away.
"See you tomorrow," she had said.
Damn it. It was as though his brain had caught a virus, with the image of Zero's retreating figure constantly popping up in his head. He felt as if he were trapped in a dating sim, except Zero was the player, and he, Lu Mingfei, was the one whose romance route she was speedrunning.
She had to be cheating!
After the briefing ended, Chu Zihang headed toward the Student Union. Susie walked beside him, discussing their formation for tomorrow's exercise. He answered a few times, but his mind was elsewhere.
He bears pain you can't begin to imagine.
Nono's words echoed in his ears, and Chu Zihang thought of his own pain.
The typhoon four years ago. The rainy night, the Maybach, the overpass. The tall man who had faced a god, and his own cowardice and regret as he stepped on the accelerator and fled. That had been the most painful day of his life. His soul had died completely in that rain, leaving only a hollow shell bent on revenge.
It was also because of that day that he remembered Lu Mingfei, whom he had happened to see sheltering from the rain in a corridor at Shilan High School before tragedy struck.
Had Lu Mingfei experienced something similar?
Chu Zihang's gaze swept over the path ahead.
Lu Mingfei walked alone beneath the streetlights. The light and shadows split his face into a bright half and a dark half, and there was something indescribably glum about his expression.
Susie followed his gaze and noticed Lu Mingfei too.
"Should we go over and fish for information?" she asked.
"You go on ahead. I have something to do," Chu Zihang said.
Susie nodded, turned, and left.
"Lu Mingfei."
"Senior Chu."
"Out for a walk?"
"I guess." Lu Mingfei scratched his head. "Just wandering around."
They walked side by side for a while, streetlights passing overhead one after another.
Lu Mingfei noticed that Susie was no longer beside Chu Zihang.
Susie was wonderful. Gentle, earnest, considerate, and very normal. She was restrained around Chu Zihang, never overbearing, like a glass of water at just the right temperature. Zero and Nono, on the other hand... they were hard liquor over ice, or branding irons glowing a dark red, always scorching you into a curled-up ball when you least expected it.
He glanced sideways at Chu Zihang and couldn't help sighing.
"What's wrong?" Chu Zihang asked.
"You and Susie are close," Lu Mingfei said.
"We're not in that kind of relationship," Chu Zihang said.
"Oh," Lu Mingfei replied, inwardly muttering that he hadn't asked what kind of relationship they had.
A brief silence followed.
"Zero is a very nice girl too," Chu Zihang suddenly said.
"She pays attention in class, stays focused on what she does, and never drags things out. When she looks at you, you're the only person in her eyes."
"Senior Chu." Lu Mingfei's voice sounded a little unsteady.
"Yes?"
"Have you ever dated anyone?"
"No."
They kept walking, passing a large ginkgo tree whose leaves rustled in the night breeze. Lu Mingfei remembered that there had been a ginkgo tree beside the sports field at Shilan High School too. In autumn, it carpeted the ground in gold. Back then, Chu Zihang had been someone the entire school looked up to: top grades, good at every sport, and handsome to boot. Girls lined up beneath the tree to hand him love letters. Lu Mingfei, meanwhile, had been someone everyone ignored: near the bottom academically, dead last in sports, and nothing special to look at. He had liked a girl named Su Wenwen but never dared confess.
And now they were walking side by side along a stone-paved path at a secret elite college in America, discussing who was in what kind of relationship with a Russian girl and a Chinese girl.
"You're right. Zero really is wonderful."
"Lu Mingfei."
"Four summers ago," Chu Zihang said, "there was a rainy night."
"That night, I lost someone. Someone very important." Chu Zihang's voice was level. "After that, I became who I am now."
The wind blew past, and the ginkgo leaves rustled again.
"I saw you at Shilan High School. Back then, you always walked with your shoulders hunched, your head down, never looking at anyone. I thought that was just your personality."
"That really is just my personality."
"No," Chu Zihang said.
Lu Mingfei wanted to say something to brush it off. All he had to do was shrug, scratch his head, and say, "I'm a loser. What can you do?" Then the conversation would move on.
But he looked into Chu Zihang's eyes, and Chu Zihang looked back at him. "You've had a rainy night like that too, haven't you?"
Lu Mingfei stood still. The streetlight cast his shadow onto the ground, short and dark.
The cockpit of Unit-03, the LCL fluid, the warnings on the screen. Sachiel's spear of light had pierced the armor. Rei Ayanami had piloted Unit-00 into a suicide attack, clutching an N2 Bomb. Asuka's Unit-02 had been torn apart by the Mass Production Units, and Shinji Ikari's wails had echoed across the whole world.
He had come here alone, enjoying an invincible campus life, with two formidable girls hovering around him and the Equipment Department treating him like a priceless treasure.
What right did he have to feel troubled?
What right did he have to play the loser and act stupid?
"Yes," Lu Mingfei said. "I have."
"How," Chu Zihang asked, "did you make it this far?"
"I lost people who were very important to me too. I wanted to protect them, but I wasn't strong enough. In the end, they were the ones who protected me instead," Lu Mingfei said. "That kind of power is a curse. I watched people get destroyed by the very power they thought they controlled."
"It's like... looking at things with your eyes open underwater. At first, the water is clear, and you can see everything. But the longer you stay, the murkier it gets. In the end, you don't even know whether you're still in the water."
"So what I want to ask is, after gaining that kind of power," Chu Zihang said, his voice dropping a little, "how are you still here?"
"Not all of me is," he said.
Chu Zihang frowned slightly.
"Sometimes I can't tell who the person in front of me is. Sometimes I feel like I'm in another world. And sometimes a monster eats me, and as it digests me, I become it. Sometimes I wonder whether any of this is real, or whether it's just my life flashing before my eyes as I die," Lu Mingfei said. "Sorry. My intermittent madness is acting up. I can't give you any advice."
"Thank you. You've already helped me," Chu Zihang said. "You've shown me that there's still farther to go down this road."
The night breeze picked up again. The ginkgo leaves rustled like countless hands softly applauding.
Lu Mingfei raised his head and looked at the night sky. The stars were exactly the same as those in the EVA world.