NERV headquarters, second test site.

"Okay, now we're officially going to start the first test. Li, are you ready?"

"Yes."

Hearing Fang Zheng's question, Ayanami Rei nodded, and Fang Zheng also smiled slightly.

"Very good. Like I said before, you know that EVA is not very reliable. No one knows what will happen during the startup test. But remember, it is very necessary to control your mental state. No matter what, you must stick to your heart, just like you feel when you are meditating."

"yes."

"Then I'll leave it to you next."

Fang Zheng waved his hand and watched Rei Ayanami walk in to insert the plug before coming to the main control room of the test site.

"From the look on your face, it seems like you think this experiment won't go very smoothly?"

Fang Zheng had just stood by the glass wall when Akagi Ritsuko next to him pushed her glasses up curiously and asked.

"Who knows?"

In response to Akagi Ritsuko's question, Fang Zheng shrugged.

"It's always a good idea to be fully prepared and plan for the worst. Even if it's a purely mechanical machine, there will be a lot of problems during the first test run. Not to mention something like EVA that's neither human nor ghost. Frankly speaking, I don't want anything to go wrong, but can you give me a 100% guarantee that it won't go wrong? Dr. Akagi?"

“…”

Facing Fang Zheng's question, Akagi Ritsuko didn't say much. Just as Fang Zheng said, EVA is not a pure machine. She even knew that many things about EVA were still mysteries...

However, it still has to be done.

And at this moment, Ikari Gendo, who had been silent all the time, finally spoke.

"Start the process."

"yes."

Hearing Ikari Gendō's order, Akagi Ritsuko nodded and quickly gave the order.

“Connect mains power to all circuits.”

"The main power supply has been connected, and the system has begun to start up... The operating voltage is 0.5... 0.2... Breakthrough!"

"Start the system and enter the second stage."

"LCL concentration is normal. We are beginning to connect with the driver and are entering the second stage. LCL pressure remains the same. Inserting synapses, starting to combine, transmitting pulses... All circuits are normal, there are no abnormalities in the initial contact, and power is transmitted to the left and right upper arm muscles. Opening the footstep transmission circuit, all nerve connections are normal, and the inspection is up to 2550 items... Prepare for the third contact, 2580 inspections passed."

Following the staff's announcement, Unit 0 slowly raised its head.

"The distance to the absolute boundary line is 0.9, 0.7, 0.5, 0.4..."

“Beep…!”

However, at this moment, the picture on the screen suddenly began to reverse rapidly.

"Pulse Countercurrent!"

At this moment, the voices of the staff immediately became tense.

"An abnormality occurred in the third stage, and the central neurons began to produce a rejection reaction!"

It’s true.

Looking at Unit-00 struggling in pain, Fang Zheng curled his lips. In fact, he had already guessed this problem. Although Rei Ayanami's soul and spirit were strengthened, Unit-00 was not under Fang Zheng's jurisdiction. However, Unit-00, which only had a broken soul fragment, was like an untamed wild horse. Its instinctive reaction would definitely be to resist the first person who climbed up and tried to control it.

Next, it depends on whether Rei Ayanami can tame this wild horse.

"The pulse backflow intensifies and cannot be stopped!"

At the same time, Unit-0 began to struggle angrily, breaking free from the restraints on the wall, then it suddenly moved forward... and stopped.

"What's going on?"

Everyone was shocked when they saw Unit-0 standing still, because all the data showed that Unit-0 had lost control and could not even transmit signals into it.

This shows that Unit 0 has gone out of control, but looking at its current state...what is going on?

Ritsuko Akagi was still trying in vain to regain control of Unit-0, while Fang Zheng just stood quietly by the glass wall, staring at the trembling Unit-0.

Can you try to move me again?

Even though it's just a half-complete defective product, it's still just a living thing after all, and as long as it's a living thing... When I use my dragon power to attack you, can you still run away?

Are you touched? Unit-00?

“Woo…Woo…!”

At this moment, Unit 0 groaned in pain. Fang Zheng's dragon might had divine power added to it, so even a real apostle would have to kneel down. But Fang Zheng had no intention of taking it in as a younger brother, so he just used dragon might to suppress Unit 0's rampage. As for what happened next... let's leave it to Li.

Unable to counter Rei Ayanami through neural connection, Unit 00 can only fight for control with Rei Ayanami on the mental level.

It's like a wild horse and its trainer. Either the wild horse kicks the trainer away, or it becomes tamed obediently under the trainer's hands.

However, Fang Zheng is still very optimistic about Rei Ayanami.

Not to mention that Rei Ayanami has already digested a part of Lilith's soul power, and Unit-00 itself is a defective product, and its biggest problem is that it is wild and difficult to tame. But because of its incomplete soul, it is also more pure. To put it bluntly, from the perspective of the confrontation from the perspective of the soul, perhaps Unit-00 can break through with its own brute force at the beginning, but as long as Rei Ayanami is familiar with the confrontation at the spiritual level, relying on her current soul and spiritual power, it should not be a problem to suppress Unit-00.

The facts were similar to what Fang Zheng had guessed.

"Connection successful!"

Just five minutes after Unit 0 lost control, Unit 0, which had been fighting like a trapped beast, suddenly lowered its head. At the same time, the staff who had been busy doing nothing before also shouted in surprise.

"The central neuron is reconnected! The pulse backflow is stopped! The critical point of the third stage has been successfully broken through!"

"Stop the experiment."

Although the situation looks good at the moment, Ritsuko Akagi still issued an order to stop the experiment. After all, no one knows what happened to Unit-00 when it went berserk just now. Although it seems to be fine now, who knows? What if it goes berserk again?

"How's the driver?"

"Everything about the physical features is normal!"

Hearing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and then Ritsuko Akagi immediately gave the order.

"Re-restrain Unit-0 and remove the plug."

Soon, under the order of Ritsuko Akagi, Unit-0 was once again restrained. During the whole process, everyone was very careful, fearing that it would go berserk again. Fortunately, Unit-0 was quite obedient this time, and there were no problems until the end of the experiment.

Even when Ayanami Rei walked out of the plug, apart from her pale and weak face, everything else about her looked normal. She was not in the miserable state of being wrapped in bandages like when she first appeared in the anime.

"Hey, Li, are you okay?"

Looking at Rei Ayanami who walked out of the plug, Fang Zheng waved with a smile, and looking at Fang Zheng, Rei Ayanami also nodded slightly.

"A little tired, but nothing serious."

"That's good. Let's go get a full physical examination, and then we'll go back and rest. By the way, what do you want to eat today? How about beef noodles?"

“I don’t like meat…”

"You have to eat a little bit... beef noodles in clear soup with barbecued meat. It's top quality, I tell you, you'd be missing out if you don't eat it..."

As he spoke, Fang Zheng turned around and left with Rei Ayanami. Ikari Gendo, who was a step late, could not get a word in, and could only watch Fang Zheng holding Rei Ayanami's hand and leading her away from the second test site...

At this moment, Gendo Ikari felt that his blood pressure was about to reach a critical point.

If there weren't a bunch of staff members around, Ikari Gendō would probably have shouted, "You thief, don't leave!"

But now... he can only watch.

Dongyue next to him glanced at Ikari Gendo and then shook his head silently.

The results of the physical examination were normal, which was normal. After all, in the animation, Rei Ayanami's body was so bad because Unit-0 went berserk and hurt herself. However, this time, Unit-0 had no time to hurt itself before it was suppressed by Fang Zheng Longwei. In the battle at the soul level, Rei Ayanami obviously had the upper hand. Therefore, the final result of the examination was that there was nothing serious, and she just needed to rest for a few days.

So Fang Zheng led Rei Ayanami to retreat decisively, and Ritsuko Akagi did not stop them. Apparently, she was also trying to figure out the connection between Unit-00's previous rampage and its sudden stop afterwards.

However, Fang Zheng believed that she would never be able to come up with any results in her lifetime.

Of course, in the end Fang Zheng didn’t succeed in eating beef noodles, because there was no such thing in Japan. He could only eat ramen - the problem was that it didn’t taste very good.

So Fang Zheng simply went home and made his own clear soup noodles.

During the meal, Rei Ayanami also reported to Fang Zheng what happened to her in Unit 0. As Fang Zheng expected, when Rei Ayanami was about to break through the critical point, Unit 0's soul attacked her. Fortunately, Rei Ayanami had been on guard because of Fang Zheng's reminder. Although she was not familiar with the soul shock at first and was caught off guard, Rei Ayanami quickly reacted and began to fight back.

There is nothing much to say about what happened next. After the three-pronged attack failed and Unit-0 was suppressed by Long Wei, it was finally defeated, and Rei Ayanami won.

"It seems that meditation is still effective, so let's continue training according to the plan."

"yes."

Hearing Fang Zheng's answer, Ayanami Rei nodded without hesitation. Obviously, this victory also made Ayanami Rei, who was a little confused, become more determined.

In the following days, everything went well.

Just as Fang Zheng thought, until the end, Ritsuko Akagi didn't know what happened that day. She also asked Rei Ayanami about the situation at that time, and Rei Ayanami explained it truthfully. But unfortunately, as a scientist, Ritsuko Akagi had almost no knowledge of the soul level. In the end, she came to a messy conclusion that "Unit 0 was almost mentally polluted due to some special reasons, but was returned intact afterwards."

It's basically the same as saying nothing.

However, Ritsuko Akagi was quite interested in the "meditation" training that Fang Zheng gave to Rei Ayanami. She knew before that Fang Zheng had given Rei Ayanami this kind of training, but at that time, Ritsuko Akagi was still a little skeptical about such mysterious things as meditation.

However, no one expected that this time the Unit 00's runaway would actually play an unexpected role because of the seemingly mysterious "meditation" training, which forced Ritsuko Akagi to take note of it.

After that, everything was normal. Unit-0 did not run away again, and the synchronization rate between Rei Ayanami and Unit-0 was also rising steadily. Unlike the Unit-0 in the original book, which would explode at any time due to abnormal taming, this time Unit-0 had been completely conquered by Rei Ayanami and would naturally not hold her back. Under Fang Zheng's guidance, Rei Ayanami's performance, who had absorbed the power of Lilith's soul, became more and more eye-catching.

As for the relationship between Fang Zheng and Rei Ayanami, it has naturally improved a lot. Although Fang Zheng did not cultivate Rei Ayanami into a lively and cute girl, at least she is no longer so autistic when communicating with others.

Of course, Fang Zheng didn't even bother to care about the fact that Gendo Ikari took blood pressure medication on a regular basis every day after that.

It’s better to have a cerebral stroke as soon as possible and get out of here.

Finally, the time has come.

One morning, Fang Zheng had just finished breakfast when he received an emergency call from NERV.

The figure of the apostle was discovered.

In other words, the time has come for Unit-00 to be deployed.