"We can get underground through the Seventh Passage from here."
"But the door won't open. It's a manual door."
"Come on, Shinji, Lu. Time to show us what you're made of!"
"You only remember to ask for help at times like this!" ×2
Dark. Stifling. No air conditioning, no ventilation. The only visible light came from the faint green glow of the emergency signs.
Lu Mingfei walked down the maintenance passage, his clothes soaked through and sticking clammy to his back. The air smelled of machine oil, rust, and sour sweat.
"It's so hot! So damn hot! What idiot designed the backup power system?!"
Asuka's furious shouting came from up ahead.
It was the day of NERV's great blackout, the day the Ninth Angel, the Rain Angel, descended.
The Angel was right outside. The enormous spider-shaped monster was dripping acid onto the armor plating, slowly melting humanity's last shield. All of NERV Headquarters resembled a dead tomb of steel.
In this suffocating underground maze, the pilots could only follow the maintenance passages on foot, climbing toward the EVA hangar at the very bottom.
Lu Mingfei leaned against the scorching iron wall, panting. He raised his head and looked at the small figure in a school uniform at the front of the group.
Rei Ayanami.
She held a red NERV emergency manual, using the dim light to call out directions at every fork:
"This way."
"Left. Down the escalator."
"Enter the outer wall of the Third Cooling Tower and climb thirty meters down the maintenance ladder."
The four of them reached the end of the R·075 Maintenance Area. The command center was just next door.
"This is a blast door. We can't open it with our bare hands," Shinji Ikari said.
"No choice. We'll break open the ventilation duct and go in through there." Rei Ayanami picked up a maintenance tool from the floor and tested it against the duct.
"The First Child is scary. She'll do anything to get what she wants. That's what they call being full of yourself," Asuka whispered to Lu Mingfei.
Hey, Asuka, that's not what that expression means!
"Ayanami, aren't you scared?" Lu Mingfei couldn't help asking. "If we take a wrong turn, we could suffocate down here."
"We won't take a wrong turn," she said. "Our objective is to pilot the EVAs. If we can't get there, none of this has any meaning."
When they crawled out through the ventilation duct and reached the Underground Launch Shaft, the sight before them stunned Lu Mingfei.
Commander Ikari was leading the logistics staff and technicians, all of them hauling on the winch cables and shouting themselves hoarse as they forcibly hoisted the Entry Plug above Unit-01's spine.
Inside this underground fortress, which the Angel might breach at any moment, humanity had stripped away all its high-tech trappings. Clumsy and tragic as ants, they pushed their god onto the battlefield.
And Rei Ayanami, who had led the way, was the embodiment of that human will. She didn't understand emotion, but she always knew where to go.
"Thump, thump, thump."
A knocking sound suddenly rang out against the armor plating.
The dorm room was cool, the air conditioner blowing cold air.
"Thump, thump, thump."
Someone was knocking at the door.
"Who is it? It's the middle of the night. Can't a guy get some sleep?" Fingel grumbled irritably from the upper bunk, then rolled over, making the metal bed frame creak.
Lu Mingfei rubbed his throbbing temples, slipped on his slippers, and opened the door.
Zero stood in the doorway, wearing a silky nightdress with a shawl draped over her shoulders. Her unruffled blue eyes stared straight at him. She looked like a white rose blooming in the night.
"Holy shit!"
Fingel leaned over the edge of his bunk, his eyes nearly popping out. "The middle of the night! A gorgeous little babe! Knocking on your door! Dressed like that!" He clutched his hair in anguish. "Lu Mingfei, you animal! You've already cleared the Late-Night Show in your first week here? God, are you blind?!"
Bang!
Lu Mingfei hurriedly pulled the door shut behind him, leaving himself and Zero outside in the corridor. Looking at her, he felt sweat beginning to seep down his back.
This emotionless girl's perfect-girlfriend routine had already been unsettling enough. Now she was showing up in her nightclothes in the middle of the night. Had that bastard Lu Mingze left her some instructions to take care of his physical needs, too?
"Um..." Lu Mingfei swallowed. "It's pretty late. What's up?"
"There's a problem with the people the boss left behind."
"What happened?"
"You said before that the boss had fallen asleep and wouldn't be able to appear for a long time, correct?"
"Yes."
"There are three of us working for the boss. Besides me, there's Su Enxi, who handles strategy, and the ninja who handles field operations, Shadw."
"Shadw has a younger sister, Shide Aki," Zero said quickly. "You met her during your interview at the Regent Hotel."
"Her?" The gentle Japanese girl who had bowed to him during his interview at the Regent Hotel flashed through Lu Mingfei's mind.
"Yes." Zero nodded. "She and another agent, Ye Sheng, are currently carrying out an academy mission in the Three Gorges of the Yangtze-the Kui Gate Project. Their objective is to enter the Bronze City, a Dragonkind Ruins site fifty meters underwater."
"It's an Alchemy Labyrinth," Zero continued. "In the boss's original script, once Shide Aki and the others were trapped in the labyrinth with no way out, he would somehow trigger Spirit Vision in you to guide you. Then you would decipher the map of the Bronze City and send it to them."
"Script?"
"A script to make you worthy of your S-Rank title, though you don't need it anymore. The problem is that the boss is asleep. Did he give you the map?"
"No. I didn't even know about any of this..."
"Su Enxi just ran a simulation. Without a map, given Ye Sheng and Shide Aki's oxygen reserves and Word Spirit consumption, their mortality rate will be one hundred percent once they enter the Bronze City."
"Shadw is desperate. She's decided to go underwater herself to rescue her sister, but without a map, she'll only be throwing her life away."
"You're in charge now. What do you intend to do?" Zero asked.
That gentle Japanese girl, Shide Aki, who had smiled and said "Good morning" to him in the hotel, was now crawling like a blind insect, inch by inch, toward an underwater alchemical tomb.
"How dangerous is the Bronze City? What's the academy's ultimate objective?"
"It's a palace belonging to Norton, the Bronze and Fire King," Zero answered quickly. "But there's currently no indication that the Dragon King has awakened. The academy's objective is to retrieve an Ancient Brass Jar from inside. It may contain the Dragon King's egg."
"Strictly a retrieval operation. No need to engage and eliminate the enemy." Lu Mingfei nodded.
"Don't send Shadw." Lu Mingfei straightened. "Tell her I can handle it."
"How?"
"I'm S-Rank." Lu Mingfei took out his phone. "I've already proved that I'm a priceless weapon of war. It's time I got to enjoy the school's resources and privileges."
"Ring... ring..."
"Hello, Cadet Lu Mingfei. It is now one forty in the morning. How may I help you?" Norma's gentle female voice came through the receiver.
"Norma, connect me to Principal Angers's private line immediately."
"Authorization verified. S-Rank privileges activated. Transferring you to the Principal's Office."
A faint click came from the other end of the line. "Mingfei? Calling so late-are you unhappy with your new dorm room?"
"Principal." Lu Mingfei got straight to the point. "During the 3E Exam, I didn't draw everything I saw in my Spirit Vision."
"I saw a bronze city," Lu Mingfei improvised. "There was a voice inside calling to me."
"It's in the Three Gorges, at Kui Gate," Lu Mingfei said. "I've dreamed about it every night these past few days. I think I should go there."
In the corridor, Zero quietly listened to this spiel worthy of a charlatan, a faint flicker passing through her eyes.
"Excellent." Angers chuckled softly. "It seems my S-Rank is not only a sharp blade, but a sensitive radar as well."
"Norma."
"I'm here, Principal."
"Dispatch the Gulfstream Jet Sleipnir. Have it standing by on the runway at Chicago Airport immediately. Notify the Executive Department and have them plan a flight route for our S-Rank."
Before hanging up, Angers added, "Mingfei, bring back our people, along with what we're after."
"Understood." The two ended the call.
Lu Mingfei turned to look at Zero.
"Let's go."