In the following days, Fang Zheng and the three little ghosts had a very leisurely life, but Ding Yuantang was not so idle. The League of Nations summoned him to the United Nations headquarters several times to report and asked Ding Yuantang to give an explanation. At the same time, organizations and institutions in various countries also began to collect information and clues about the "Tiandao Palace".
In fact, the League of Nations already had a plan to seal up NERV's headquarters, but SEELE's infiltration power was strong enough, so there has been no change so far.
But Fang Zheng knew that the situation would change soon.
Because he received a call from Misato Katsuragi.
"The higher-ups have already decided on the fifth qualified candidate. You will be in charge."
"oh?"
Hearing the voice of Katsuragi Misato on the other end of the phone, Fang Zheng raised his eyebrows.
"What's his name?"
"Kaoru Nagisa."
"hehe."
Hearing the name, Fang Zheng chuckled and then rolled his eyes.
"I understand, Captain Katsuragi... By the way, if you have time, why don't you come with me to pick him up?"
"I?"
Facing Fang Zheng's invitation, Katsuragi Misato was obviously a little surprised, but she thought about it for a moment and then nodded.
"Okay, I happen to be free during this time."
"Then I'll pick you up."
As he spoke, Fang Zheng hung up the phone and walked out of the room.
"Hey, little guys, are you free today? Come out with me."
"fine."
Hearing Fang Zheng's question, Ikari Shinji shook his head, while Ayanami Rei stood up silently. Asuka turned her head curiously and looked at Fang Zheng.
"But Fang Zheng, where are we going?"
Facing Asuka's curious question, Fang Zheng smiled slightly.
"Go see someone."
"???"
Although they were a little confused, the three of them still followed Fang Zheng obediently. They first picked up Katsuragi Misato, and then Fang Zheng stepped on the accelerator and drove towards the outskirts of the Third New Tokyo.
"Hello."
Sitting in the middle of the back row, Asuka looked at Ayanami Rei and Ikari Shinji on her left and right, and finally reached out and pulled Ikari Shinji's clothes.
"Why do you think Fang Zheng brought Misato with him?"
"I have no idea……"
Shinji Ikari was still somewhat awkward with Misato Katsuragi, so he just shook his head in response to Asuka's question.
"Tell me, could it be that Fang Zheng and Misato are secretly dating?"
Asuka's mind was full of ideas as she looked at Misato Katsuragi sitting in the passenger seat.
"Is he planning to find a place where we can be witnesses and then propose to Misato... It hurts! First of all, why are you pinching me?"
"Feel sorry."
Rei Ayanami silently withdrew her hand.
"I didn't mean to..."
"...Huh...Okay, I'll believe you didn't mean it."
Asuka blew on the back of her hand that was pinched red, then glared at Ayanami Rei in annoyance without saying anything more.
At this moment, Fang Zheng, who was driving, spoke.
"Since we still have some time, why don't I give you a lesson now."
"class?"
"good."
As he spoke, Fang Zheng chuckled.
"History lesson."
"???"
Hearing this, everyone was stunned, but before they could say anything else, Fang Zheng continued talking.
"This story begins a long, long time ago. At that time, there were no humans on Earth. Just as we have discovered in the archaeological community, dinosaurs dominated the world at that time... Well, if there hadn't been a small accident, perhaps the world would have been occupied by intelligent dinosaurs. But unfortunately, these dinosaurs were not very lucky because two uninvited guests came to this planet."
Having said that, Fang Zheng looked up at the sky in front of him. In fact, through "Whispering Banner", he already knew everything that happened in this world.
"In today's terms, we can call them alien creatures. One of them is Adam, and the other is Lilith."
Hearing this, Katsuragi Misato's expression suddenly changed. She turned her head and stared at Fang Zheng, but Fang Zheng was unaware and continued to speak.
"Adam and Lilith represent two directions of life development. Adam represents the limit of the individual, while Lilith represents the wisdom of the group. As the saying goes, there is no room for two tigers in one mountain. The two sides fought a great battle for dominance. In the end, Lilith defeated Adam and sealed him up. The battle between them also led to the first impact - and the extinction of the dinosaurs."
Speaking of this, Fang Zheng couldn't help but sigh. In fact, the human race against the apostles was strictly speaking a "civil war" because both Adam and Lilith were actually launched by the goddess of order. After all, just like doing scientific research, it is impossible to go all the way, and all kinds of ways and methods must be explored, right?
In Chtholly's world, the Goddess of Order wanted to transform chaotic creatures back into orderly creatures, so she asked the Star God to seal the power of those beasts and transform them into humans. Of course, the final result is also known, the soul of the Star God is not enough to continue to maintain the existence of humans, causing humans to be transformed into beasts again and the world to be destroyed.
In this world, the goddess of order obviously wanted to see which order was more effective between the extreme individual and the collective wisdom. The result was that Adam failed and Lilith won.
"After that, Adam's body was sealed, and the other parts turned into fragments and scattered around and fell into a deep sleep. And Lilith also created humans... as a representative creature of collective wisdom. In fact, the story should have ended here."
Having said that, Fang Zheng glanced at Misato Katsuragi beside him.
"Until the Second Impact."
Hearing the word "Second Impact", Katsuragi Misato's expression changed slightly, and then she forced herself to look out the window. On the contrary, Ikari Shinji was stunned for a moment, and couldn't help but ask.
"But didn't the teacher say that the second impact was caused by a meteorite falling?"
"Are you stupid?"
Asuka immediately taught Shinji Ikari a lesson.
"That's just an excuse to cover up the truth. It's not true at all... As an EVA pilot, you should at least know something about this. Isn't that right? First?"
“…”
In response to Asuka's question, Ayanami Rei just nodded slightly and stared at Fang Zheng in silence.
"That's right. The second impact had nothing to do with the meteorite. In fact, the first impact was not the cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs because of the meteorite... Okay, but before that, I want to tell you about an organization called SEELE."
"SEELE?!"
Asuka and Ikari Shinji immediately perked up at the name, because the girl with the red ponytail had mentioned the existence of "SEELE" before, and Fang Zheng mentioned the name again, which made them realize that Fang Zheng was definitely not taking them out for a picnic or to enjoy the scenery this time.
"That's right. Before the Second Impact, the world order was not like it is now. To put it bluntly, SEELE at that time was just a religious organization that didn't see the light of day, just like the Illuminati or similar groups. They held a book of nonsense written by someone who had a brain attack hundreds or thousands of years ago as a holy book, and fought for it all their lives... Well, to put it bluntly, it was just a cult group hiding in the dark."
Having said that, Fang Zheng chuckled and looked at Ikari Shinji through the rearview mirror.
"Shinji, don't think that this matter has nothing to do with you. In fact, your mother was once sponsored by SEELE, which is why your father approached her."
"Why?!!"
Hearing this, Shinji was stunned.
"Mr. Fang Zheng, you said, you said my mother... is that..."
"Of course, I'm not saying that your mother is a bad person. Although I think SEELE is a psychotic cult, at that time it was just an organization similar to a public welfare foundation. It would sponsor some researchers who seemed promising. At that time, your mother was doing research under Professor Dongyue and received funding from SEELE."
"You mean Deputy Commander Fuyutsuki?"
At this moment, Misato Katsuragi was also shocked. She had never thought that such a thing would happen.
"As for Ikari Gendo... I don't know what he was thinking, but at the time he just wanted to connect with SEELE, so he got in touch with your mother Ikari Yui, and eventually the two of them got married and had a child... That's you."
Having said that, Fang Zheng glanced at Katsuragi Misato.
"Captain Katsuragi, you may not know that Ikari Gendō was also in the investigation team of your father... Professor Katsuragi at that time. Moreover, the day before the second impact, Ikari Gendō left the investigation team with all the investigation materials. Or... the second impact occurred the day after Ikari Gendō left the investigation team."
"you mean……"
Misato Katsuragi was not stupid, she was just young at that time. But now, after listening to what Fang Zheng said, she seemed to realize something and clenched her fists.
"That's right, the Second Impact was not an accident, not even as claimed in official documents."
Fang Zheng turned the steering wheel again.
"The fact is that SEELE's Chairman, Kiru Lorenz, deliberately lifted the seal on Adam through remote control, triggering the Second Impact. Because the Second Impact is necessary for their so-called 'Human Completion Project'..."
"Bang!!!"
Before Fang Zheng could finish his words, Misato Katsuragi punched the car window next to her heavily, which even scared Asuka and Shinji Ikari.
Fang Zheng just glanced at her calmly.
"Don't smash it. You'll have to pay for it if you break it."
"…It's okay, we can ask NERV Operations Department to reimburse you."
"Okay, let me continue... You all know that after the Second Impact, the original order and governments of countries around the world almost collapsed. And SEELE had foreseen the Second Impact long ago - nonsense, this was initiated by them, so they deployed their people in advance. And they took advantage of the chaos in various countries after the Second Impact to take action and control the world from the dark."
Having said this, Fang Zheng curled his lips.
"To put it simply, you can think of SEELE as a virus. It must weaken the host before it can take effect. The world has now been completely eroded by the virus called SEELE, but fortunately, this stupid thing they did also brought about a significant impact - that is, the awakening of the apostles."
"Apostle...?"
"That's right. The Angels are the incomplete halves of Adam. When SEELE lifted the seal on Adam, the Angels naturally woke up. They have always longed to reunite with Adam. This is why the Angels were so stubborn as to only attack Tokyo-3 - because Adam's real body is in the NERV headquarters."
“I see… So that’s how it is…”
Asuka also frowned and began to think.
"That makes sense. I was wondering why the Angels only attacked Japan..."
"If the human race is destroyed by the Angels before the plan is implemented, then SEELE's plan will be completely shattered. That's why they established NERV, an organization to fight against the Angels. Of course, on the surface, NERV was established to fight against the Angels, but in fact it is obviously more than that. In fact, EVA is the key to the human completion plan."
"What exactly is the Human Instrumentality Project?"
Misato Katsuragi finally couldn't help but ask.
"If you put aside SEELE's obviously stupid cult lines, their purpose is simple, which is to create an artificial god."
"A man-made...god?"
"That's right. Let's merge all the people in the world together, abandon the differences between individuals, merge into one, and ascend to the realm of gods... Of course, this is what they say. Let me put it in more common terms - let's all die together and ascend to heaven to become immortals."
"So disgusting? I don't want it!"
As expected, Asuka was the first to refuse.
"What human completion? If I want to fuse with stupid Shinji, I might as well die!"
“…”
Hearing this, Ikari Shinji's expression was somewhat subtle. He smiled bitterly and didn't know what to say - he was not stupid, and he knew that if he said to Asuka at this time, "It would be nice if we merged together", Asuka would probably slap him in the face.
"But...how do you know this?"
After recovering from her shock, Misato Katsuragi couldn't help but look towards Fang Zheng, staring at him warily.
"Who are you?"
"Perhaps you have already guessed it. Well... I am too lazy to hide it in the fog, so I will just say it out loud. My apparent identity is that of a member of the League of Nations... and in fact, that is also true."
“Huh?”
Faced with this unexpected answer, Misato Katsuragi's jaw dropped.
"What did you say?"
"I didn't lie. I am indeed from the League of Nations. In fact, you may not know that since the Second Impact, there have been people in the League of Nations who have suspected that there was something wrong with the Second Impact and have been conducting secret investigations without alerting SEELE. I am one of them. Not only that, I am also from the Tiandao Palace... Do you understand now?"
"Tian Dao Palace?"
Everyone was shocked by this answer.
"Then the girl with the red ponytail..."
"Well...we do know each other."
Fang Zheng coughed, then changed the subject and looked at the stunned Katsuragi Misato.
"Captain Katsuragi, the reason I'm telling you this is because I'm going to need your help next."
"My...help?"
"That's right."
Fang Zheng nodded, then he looked forward.
"But now, let's deal with the last problem first."
Having said this, Fang Zheng suddenly braked and stopped. At this time, everyone realized that they had unknowingly reached the beach, and on the beach, a young man in a white shirt was standing there with his back to them.
"That is..."
"That is the last apostle."
Fang Zheng opened the car door.
"This is why I called you here, Rei, Asuka, Shinji. You are the pilots of EVA, and your goal is to destroy the apostles. But this apostle is too troublesome for you, so..."
The flame suddenly appeared, and the next moment, a knight in silver-white armor, holding black and white swords, appeared in front of everyone.
"Mr. Fang Zheng...?"
Looking at this scene, Ikari Shinji was so surprised that he was speechless, while Asuka and Ayanami Rei also widened their eyes in surprise.
However, Fang Zheng was not afraid at all. He strode behind the young man and raised the pitch-black sword in his hand.
"Are you ready to die? The last messenger."
"……certainly."
Hearing Fang Zheng's question, the young man in white turned around with a smile.
"I've been waiting for you for a long time, Li Lin."