Dimensional Codex System: I'm really not a cultist!

Chapter 1565: Chapter 1563: No Chance for You to Appear

”This is your first battle, and I suppose I don’t need to say much for you to know that it won’t be simple.”

Fang Zheng said seriously, looking at Rei Ayanami, who had already put on her pilot suit. Normally, the battle plan should have been completed by Misato Katsuragi. But the problem was, Misato wasn’t at headquarters; Fang Zheng didn’t need to guess to know where she had gone.

She’s definitely gone to pick up the protagonist according to the plan.

But come to think of it, this should’ve been my job...

Looks like Gendo Ikari is really upset with me, but for Fang Zheng, this little trick is something he can ignore.

Such is the wisdom of mortals.

Of course, Fang Zheng could guess Gendo’s thoughts to some extent. He probably believes Unit-00 can’t defeat the Third Angel, Little Shui, which is quite understandable. Despite many animations portraying prototype units as overpowered, with mass-produced units being trash, here, the prototype Unit-00 truly struggles.

Based on Fang Zheng’s assessment of Unit-00 and Unit-01, purely in terms of ”Mech Attributes,” Unit-00’s average rank is only C, whereas Unit-01 is A. Of course, this includes the difference due to Unit-00’s own shortcomings and Unit-01’s enhancement by Yui Ikari’s soul. But even without considering these, Unit-00 is just barely ready for actual combat.

So Gendo is probably waiting for Unit-00 to deploy, get beaten by Little Shui, and then send his son in for the show.

The script’s good, but whether I follow it depends on my mood.

Fang Zheng still has confidence in Rei Ayanami’s ability to defeat Little Shui because the key combat element for EVA is the AT Field.

From the animation, it’s clear that EVA’s combat means are essentially to neutralize and then damage the Angel. So the battle between EVA and Angels is essentially a contest of AT Field strength. If you’re powerful enough, like Unit-01, you can crush the Angel’s AT Field to dust and not take a scratch.

If not, you’ll be the one getting crushed by the Angel.

In martial hero terms, it’s like both sides are competing with Inner Strength. Whoever has stronger Inner Strength is superior; fists, weapons, and hidden weapons are useless.

Oh, not entirely useless—at least the Positron Cannon has some use.

Which fully illustrates that no matter how high your martial skills, a single shot can take you down.

Speaking of which, Fang Zheng finds it curious that despite proving the Positron Cannon’s threat and efficacy against the Pyramid, it hasn’t evolved into a regular EVA weapon. What’s with them using it once and then discarding it?

Honestly, I don’t know what kind of crazy mentality the people upstairs have.

Forget it; let’s discuss it later.

As for now...

”The League Army is offering futile resistance, and soon it will be our turn. Rei, are you ready?”

”Yes.”

”Good. Listen to me; remember, your goal is to defeat the Angel. But our objective isn’t to defeat the Angel outright. Remember the card game we played earlier?”

”...”

This time, Rei Ayanami remained silent, just nodding softly.

”You know how many trump cards you hold, but you don’t know how many I hold.”

As he spoke, Fang Zheng pointed at Rei Ayanami and then at himself.

”Remember: probing, observing, defending, counterattacking. You don’t need to defeat the enemy immediately. Remember, the enemy’s target is Tokyo-3. If we prevent it from achieving that, our victory is halfway there, and eliminating the enemy is the other half.”

Indeed, Fang Zheng has no need to compete with Misato Katsuragi for command authority.

Why? Because what he taught Rei Ayanami is more fundamental combat operations.

Although Misato is nominally the operations director, she handles the bigger picture.

For instance, what goals we should achieve in this battle, how we’ll do it, issuing orders, directing Unit-01 here, Unit-00 there, and Unit-02 somewhere else.

And then?

That’s it.

Just that simple.

It’s like playing Interstellar; I point and click with the mouse and send Vikings to fight Flying Dragons.

How the Vikings fight the Flying Dragons isn’t the player’s concern. Whether they choose long-range attacks or dogfight, that’s the pilot’s choice.

And that’s Fang Zheng’s responsibility.

Exactly, what’s Fang Zheng’s responsibility?

The pilot’s ”Observation” and ”Training”!

Strictly speaking, ”combat training” for the pilots is also his task.

To put it bluntly, Misato issues orders while Fang Zheng handles the micro-management.

So Fang Zheng doesn’t care about Misato’s command authority. As long as he has elite in hand, he can win, no matter how crazy the orders are!

Of course, for small-scale surprise attacks, tactics can be impactful. But for Angels and EVA, it’s primarily one-on-one, with limited effect from tactics. Ultimately, the pilot’s observation and micro-management solve the problem, so Misato’s role is really not significant.

Unit-00 may be lousy, but the pilot itself is excellent.

If Shinji relies on his mom to cheat, Rei Ayanami relies on the Power of Lilith within herself.

And she’s even better than Shinji; if Fang Zheng remembers correctly, during the final appearance of Kaoru in the animation, Rei even deployed an AT Field herself!

Although not for a full second.

It hasn’t been compared directly, but Fang Zheng is certain that Rei Ayanami piloting Unit-00, though other aspects might be C, her ability level in Inner Strength (AT Field) is almost at A!

We’re solid!

Look at martial hero novels; the most formidable masters often seem half-dead, pale-faced, coughing blood, but one backhand can send you flying thousands of miles, right?

Inner Strength enhancement surpasses everything!

As for Little Shui...... It’s currently just an average B.

At this moment, suddenly, the screen in the preparation room turned white, and simultaneously, the whole room began to tremble slightly. Seeing this, Fang Zheng shrugged and didn’t speak. It was obvious that the League Army used the N2 mine. Of course...... but it’s totally useless.

”It seems the League Army’s final trump card has been played.”

Looking at Little Shui appearing again on the screen, Fang Zheng snorted softly.

”Rei, get ready to sortie, the order should be given anytime now.”

”Understood.”

Sure enough, just after Fang Zheng spoke, a voice came through the broadcast.

”Unit-00, prepare for sortie.”

When Fang Zheng returned to the command center, it was bustling over here as well.

”Unit-00 activated, prepare to launch!”

”Oh, looks like those old guys have left.”

Fang Zheng greeted Ritsuko Akagi while looking at the empty stands in front, where there were only a few ashtrays full of cigarette butts and no one else to be seen.

”Of course, from now on the operation is under our NERV jurisdiction...... How’s the situation on the pilot side?”

”No issues.”

”Great.”

Hearing Fang Zheng’s response, Ritsuko Akagi nodded.

”Unit-00...... Launch!”

Although Misato Katsuragi wasn’t here, since Gendo Ikari was the highest authority, as long as he didn’t oppose, the launch was definitely fine. So, Unit-00, ready for battle, was quickly ejected and then came to the surface.

At this moment, Little Shui, just hit by the N2 mine, recovered and began advancing towards Tokyo-3 once again.

”Rei, the Angel is advancing, prepare for battle.”

”Understood.”

After hearing Ritsuko Akagi’s words, Rei Ayanami nodded and then made a reaction that surprised everyone — she actually directly grabbed a gun and ran outside Tokyo-3!

”What are you doing, Rei?”

Seeing this, Ritsuko Akagi was shocked, while Fang Zheng smirked.

”No need to ask? Surely it’s to stop the enemy outside Tokyo-3?”

”Can you do that?”

Ritsuko Akagi, being a scientist, was absorbed in science, so she didn’t understand much about strategic and tactical matters, but she wasn’t a fool, she understood instantly.

”But if it’s outside the city, we can’t provide enough support......

”Anyway, regular weapons can’t penetrate the Angel’s skin, can they?”

”.........”

This left Ritsuko Akagi completely speechless.

By this time, Rei Ayanami had already arrived in the outskirts, using the mountains as cover to begin her attack on the Angel.

Much like in the anime, ordinary weapons were useless against the Angel. But this wasn’t the point; in fact, Rei Ayanami was faithfully executing Fang Zheng’s orders.

Observe, probe, defend, counterattack.

On the surface, it seemed she was doing useless work now, but in fact, while attacking, Rei Ayanami was also slowly maneuvering Unit-00 closer to the Angel to find the optimal distance for mutual AT Field negation.

Sure enough, at first, Little Shui didn’t take Unit-00’s attacks seriously and continued advancing towards Tokyo-3. But shortly thereafter, as Unit-00 successfully breached the Third Apostle’s AT Field, the situation suddenly changed.

”Bang bang bang!!”

A series of attacks instantly caused explosions and blood sprays on the Angel’s body. Noticing the change, the Angel finally halted, turned its head to stare at Unit-00, and suddenly those pitch-black eyes gleamed brilliantly!

At the same time, Unit-00 raised its right hand.

AT Field, full power!

”Boom!!!”

A flash of radiance, the next moment, Unit-00 was engulfed by an explosion, seeing this, everyone couldn’t help but tense up, except Fang Zheng who remained relaxed with his arms crossed, looking carefree.

Come on, smoke without damage is the law of animation, right?

”Bang bang bang!!!”

Sure enough, before the dust settled, a series of bullets were fired from the smoke again, hitting the Angel’s body. And when the smoke cleared, the unharmed Unit-00 reappeared before everyone.

”Whew......”

Seeing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Though they all knew EVA was the ultimate weapon against Angels, it was the first actual battle, and no one knew how it would turn out. But for now...... does it seem promising?

But unlike everyone else, Gendo Ikari, though maintaining his standard posture, was internally frustrated.

This was not how the script played out!

Although Unit-00 was initially launched, Gendo Ikari never expected Unit-00 could defeat the Angel. Although he didn’t fully understand AT Fields or souls, Gendo Ikari knew Unit-00 was just an unreliable defective product, and his plan was for Unit-00 to be beaten by the Angel, so he could then have his son pilot Unit-01 to show off.

But now it seems...... it’s totally different!