I participated in the development of EVA

20:11:10

617. I got stuck on the th level of Collapse Iron again. I don’t have time to study it this time.

Before they started the rescue, they detected the vital signs of prisoner No. 2.

"You escaped by yourself?"

Ikari Fumihiko was a little surprised, but not shocked.

"As long as he has enough desire to survive, he will not be completely devoured. After all, from a certain perspective, he is still just an embryo."

He paused and added.

"It's not a good thing to escape by yourself."

The incidents of swallowed people escaping from the core using their own consciousness have happened twice before.

One is Professor Yamaki and the other is Professor Kyoko.

However, both of them only escaped partially, one lost part of his memory, and the other had mental problems.

Naoko Akagi naturally knew this information, so she nodded in approval.

"So if he only escaped part of it, he would have to enter the core again to get back the lost part..."

Having said that, she paused for a moment before speaking again.

"No, even if he enters it again, without external interference, he will never be able to find the lost part in his lifetime."

Ikari Fumihiko nodded.

"Indeed, if that part of the soul wanted to return to reality, it would not choose to split."

Naoko Akagi nodded and sighed.

"Humanity may seem like a whole, but in reality, just like the Three Sages system framework, it has different ways of thinking, or different perspectives. Under normal circumstances, it will switch to different perspectives according to the different things it encounters, just like the bystanders and participants in an event. Once it enters the core seed, these different ways of thinking will exist independently..."

Having said this, she paused, as if she had thought of something, and spoke again after a moment.

"Could there be another dimension inside the core?"

"Uh?"

Ikari Fumihiko was a little confused.

Naoko Akagi took out a piece of paper, folded it in half, then unfolded it and placed it on the table.

"It's like this. From my current perspective, this piece of paper is a whole, but from a two-dimensional perspective, it is just two scattered straight lines."

After her explanation, Fumihiko Ikari understood.

The general meaning is that when humans are swallowed into the core, they will be like this folded and combed paper, which will change from a whole into two lines due to some changes.

However, compared to Naoko Akagi's dimensionality reduction understanding, Fumihiko Ikari felt that things were not that profound.

"I think it's possible that human self-awareness becomes blurred in the core, which leads to the dispersion of consciousness. Well, to put it simply, human consciousness is like a bracelet, and self-awareness is the rope that connects all the pillars together. Once you enter the core, the rope is gone and the beads naturally scatter."

Naoko Akagi asked back thoughtfully.

"What are beads?"

"It could be a different way of thinking, or it could be some thoughts in my mind... I'm not sure what it is exactly."

Prisoner No. 2, who was left aside, woke up after reconstructing his body.

Unusually, he didn't make any noise or struggle, but just sat there stupidly, looking like his brain had been eaten by zombies.

Apparently, just like Asuka's mother, Professor Kyoko, only a small part of his soul escaped from the core.

Naoko Akagi was surprised after taking a look at the data.

"He doesn't have any mental problems, he just has a missing part of his brain."

Ikari Fumihiko leaned over to take a look.

The reconstruction of Prisoner No. 2's body was incomplete, and it was obvious that a large part of his brain was missing.

Although such a case had never happened, he could still guess it.

"It should be that only a small part of him escaped. This part was too small, so he couldn't even recognize his 'self' clearly, and he was never able to condense a complete AT force field, which led to his current state."

Having said that, he added one more sentence.

"If he doesn't find back the lost parts, once the current balance is broken, he will lose this part forever."

"Put him back in again?"

"It won't make any difference if you stuff it back in. This part will still separate if it needs to. He is in his current state and can't even realize the problem."

Having said that, Fumihiko Ikari is still prepared to give it a try.

"Put him back in and start the rescue procedure at the same time."

"Uh……"

Naoko Akagi hesitated for a moment before speaking.

“So far, none of the rescue procedures have worked.”

At this time, Ikari Fumihiko also thought that it was hard to say whether Akagi Naoko's rescue program worked. Although it appeared in the original work, the first time it was used to rescue Ikari Yui, it ended in failure. The second time it was used to rescue Ikari Shinji, it was hard to say whether the rescue program really worked or Ikari Yui took action.

"Try it."

Naoko Akagi did as she was told...but nothing happened.

When prisoner No. 2 reappeared, he was still in that mutilated state, and it was unclear whether the rescue procedure had any effect.

This scene made Naoko Akagi very embarrassed.

Fumihiko Ikari didn't think that there was a problem with Naoko Akagi's ability. Rather, he thought that it was amazing enough that Naoko Akagi could find a solution in this regard. After all, the swallowing phenomenon involved mysterious things such as the soul and the at force field.

"You are already amazing enough to find a solution. Others would be helpless in the face of this situation."

As he said this, he silently added something in his heart.

That's why you die in the original book.

In the original work, the death of Naoko Akagi was not due to a problem with her ability, but because Naoko Akagi gave Gendō Ikari hope and then threw herself at him, causing Gendō Ikari's suspicion.

As the saying goes, judge others by yourself.

At the beginning, Ikari Gendō approached Ikari Yui in order to join Seele, and for this reason, Ikari Gendō almost used all means. Therefore, he suspected that Akagi Naoko deliberately said that she had a way to rescue in order to get close to him, but in fact, it was to delay time so that Ikari Yui missed the rescue time.

however……

Now the plot has changed. Naoko Akagi still came up with this rescue program whose effect is unknown. From this, it can be seen that Naoko Akagi is not as unscrupulous as Gendō Ikari thought.

Naoko Akagi really wanted to say: I referred to your plan when I created the rescue program.

But I felt that this was like throwing the pot, so I didn't say it out loud.

She skipped the subject and asked a question in return.

"What should we do now? Should we find someone he cares about to bring back more souls, or... try the dream program?"

The corner of Ikari Fumihiko's mouth twitched slightly.

Recover more souls? Why does this sound like a shaman dance? Uh... No! It's a spirit summoning.

Uh……

It’s true, what we have to do now is to summon spirits.

He glanced at the information.

"All his relatives died in the second impact. That's why he became like this. He wanted to revive his family through a blood sacrifice."

20:11:22

618. Empathy

Zhao Shuo seemed to have thought of something and couldn't help but speak.

"All of them deserve no pity and no sympathy—"

Ikari Fumihiko was a little surprised. It was surprising what had happened to Zhao Shuo, who had always been very calm.

Without waiting for him to say anything.

Zhao Shuo continued speaking.

"Since the second attack, a cult has appeared here, saying that as long as you sacrifice enough souls to the gods, you can resurrect your dead family members. Almost all of these prisoners are believers of that cult. My niece who was studying here survived the attack, but eventually became a sacrifice to these cultists.

The reason why I was selected to join the project team.

It was because I had previously joined the official special investigation department here to investigate this cult for revenge.

The reason they are here is the result of my years of hard work.”

The stimulated Zhao Shuo was a little incoherent, but Ikari Fumihiko and Akagi Naoko understood him.

There is a cult in the outside world that claims that blood sacrifice can resurrect relatives. Zhao Shuo's niece who was studying here died at the hands of those cultists. The prisoners used in this experiment were all cultists captured by Zhao Shuo himself.

Zhao Shuo paused for a moment, then sneered and spoke again.

"The soul of the second prisoner that escaped from the core should be the obsession of resurrecting his family. However, he obviously knew in his heart that there were no gods in this world. He was stupid and no matter how many sacrifices he made, his family would not be resurrected... Not only the second prisoner, but the others were almost the same. They knew it was fake but still did it..."

Ikari Fumihiko added.

"Because only then will I have an excuse to live."

"Yes! To put it bluntly, they just want to give themselves a reason to continue living."

Ikari Fumihiko sighed in his heart.

A normal person would definitely not be like this, but the second impact brought too much psychological damage to the people in this world, causing everyone's mental state to be far from normal.

The more he knew about the outside world, the more he would think about one thing.

Like the original, it might be a good thing to restart the world.

But he quickly put the thought aside.

First of all, this concerns his own life. Secondly, the restart of the world is not like Dragon Ball, which resurrects all those who died because of the apostles and turns back the time to before the Second Impact. Instead, it resurrects those who were devoured in the completion ceremony and erases all memories related to the apostles from the minds of all mankind.

Perhaps he had vented enough, Zhao Shuo calmed down again.

"Sorry, I lost my temper."

Ikari Fumihiko shook his head and didn't take it seriously.

"fine."

The only rescue methods available to humans now are to rely on "calls from loved ones" and use dream programs for talk therapy.

Prisoner No. 2 has no relatives, so the only remaining method of rescue is dream chemotherapy.

However, he only reacted when he opened his mouth and wanted Naoko Akagi to construct a dream.

"The test machine's brain has been transformed by the Three Sages. Can it still read data and construct dreams?"

Naoko Akagi was stunned for a moment. It was obvious that she and Fumihiko Ikari had ignored this information.

"let me try."

After some inspection, she shook her head in disappointment.

"No."

Ikari Fumihiko thought for a moment before speaking.

"In fact, we can change our thinking. There must be some kind of connection between the brain and the soul. As long as we use this connection, we should be able to affect the lost soul of Prisoner No. 2. Hmm... In simple terms, I can actively build a dream and attract the soul of Prisoner No. 2."

"Is this possible?"

Ikari Fumihiko was not actually very sure, so he explained his thinking, "It should be possible. I just reversed the logic that 'the physical form of life is solidified by the soul's at standpoint'. Well, to put it simply, the soul allows the organism to have a body, and in turn the body must be able to affect the soul."

"What kind of dream could attract Prisoner No. 2?"

When Akagi Naoko asked this question, she looked at Zhao Shuo.

The same is true for Fumihiko Ikari.

Among the three people at the scene, only Zhao Shuo knew more about these death row prisoners.