Chapter 530: Infiltrating Central Dogma
When the massive shadow of the Eighth Angel, Sahaquiel, enveloped Tokyo-3, and the ear-piercing air raid sirens sounded simultaneously with NERV Headquarters' highest-level combat alert in every corner, Ryo knew the moment he had been waiting for was ripe.
The attention of all of NERV, like a spring wound tight by an invisible giant hand, was entirely focused on the imminent threat overhead.
In the corridors inside Headquarters, the sound of running footsteps, shouted commands, and the metallic clanging of automated system lockdowns wove into a chaotic symphony.
This was exactly the perfect background noise and cover for infiltrating Central Dogma.
Shedding his white researcher's coat, Ryo revealed the disguised, form-fitting combat suit underneath.
He did not wear that overly conspicuous Hades-pattern Terminator Power Armor; it was unsuited for an operation requiring extreme stealth.
He mobilized his psionic talents, enhanced by his gene-seed, not for an attack, but for delicate self-concealment and environmental interference.
An imperceptible ripple of psionic energy shrouded his body, distorting the path of light around him and cleverly interfering with the sensor components of nearby surveillance equipment.
This was not complete invisibility, but it was enough to turn him into a blurry, easily overlooked shadow while moving at high speeds.
Relying on the Headquarters structural map he already knew by heart and the real-time security vulnerability reports provided by the AI virus, he moved like an incorporeal ghost, silently passing through heavy blast doors that theoretically required high-level clearance or simultaneous multi-person authentication to open.
His psionic energy acted as a skeleton key, probing into the precise electronic locks to simulate valid access signals, or creating insignificant moments of distraction in the blind spots of the guards' vision.
The deeper underground he went, the further the clamor faded, replaced by an almost deathly, freezing suppression.
The air here carried a unique scent—a mix of disinfectant, machine oil, and a faint, indescribable odor of decaying biomass.
The walls were no longer the metallic gray of the upper levels, but a strange, dark red material that seemed to pulsate with life.
He finally reached the last barrier leading to the deepest core of Central Dogma.
According to the information acquired by the virus infiltration, this was not only the storage site for the Key of Nebuchadnezzar but also the vault for NERV's—or rather, SEELE's—most core secret.
Utilizing a backdoor command fed back by the virus, combined with a brief psionic influence on the guards' minds, he successfully bypassed the final set of rotating laser grids and biometric scanners, slipping into the legendary forbidden zone.
The sight before him was enough to shatter the sanity of anyone witnessing it for the first time.
This was an unimaginably massive underground space, so vast it created the illusion of being in a subterranean world.
The main body of the space was occupied by a boundless, scarlet liquid lake. The liquid emitted a faint luminescence—it was highly concentrated LCL.
In the center of the lake stood a colossal white cross.
Nailed to the cross was a gigantic white giant, shaped like a human female, yet absolutely not human.
It had no lower body; everything from the waist down seemed to merge with the cross or the space itself.
The most shocking sight was a bizarrely shaped, entirely dark red, astonishingly long spear—the Lance of Longinus—piercing its chest, pinning it firmly to the cross.
Where the face should be was covered by a featureless white mask, bearing no holes, only NERV's fig-leaf-like emblem.
Lilith.
The source of the Second Impact, or rather, the "God" named and sealed by humanity.
Even in a sealed state, that massive body still exuded a soul-trembling, silent, and vast oppressive aura. The air was filled with formless whispers stemming from its very essence.
Ryo's psionic perception was like crashing into a bottomless, freezing, and dead ocean.
This shared the same origin as the slumbering consciousness he had sensed within Rei Ayanami, but was millions of times more massive.
However, this did not cause him much emotional fluctuation.
Through the dimensional communicator, his main body had already transmitted the memories regarding the core secrets of this world to him. Everything before his eyes was merely confirmation of expectations.
His gaze quickly swept across this core area and immediately locked onto a protruding platform near the shore of the lake, just beneath the cross.
On the platform, suspended inside a precisely structured transparent container, was the primary objective of this trip—the Key of Nebuchadnezzar.
Just as the intelligence described, it was not a metallic creation. Its main body exhibited a bizarre form resembling a bundle of human nerves, emitting a soft biological luminescence, and at its top was attached a complex key-like component clearly of mechanical make.
Biology and mechanics were perfectly fused in a manner that surpassed NERV's current conventional technological level.
Without hesitation, Ryo's psionic energy extended outward like an invisible hand, easily bypassing the container's physical and energy locks, which were considered top-tier for this era.
The container slid open silently. He took out the Key of Nebuchadnezzar; it felt slightly cool to the touch, and he could feel a very obscure energy pulsation contained within.
He quickly placed it into a specially made shielded containment box.
Having accomplished his primary objective, his line of sight turned to an area behind and to the side of the platform.
Lined up there were dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of massive cylindrical cultivation tanks, resembling a forest of cold tombstones.
The tanks were filled with a pale yellow maintenance fluid. Suspended inside each tank was the naked body of a young girl with short blue hair and pale skin—Rei Ayanami.
Their eyes were tightly closed, their expressions as serene as if they were in a deep slumber. Their bodies were connected to various tubes, like spare parts waiting to be used.
Biologically speaking, they were completely identical to the Rei Ayanami Ryo interacted with on the outside; all were clones manufactured based on Lilith's cells and Yui Ikari's genetic template.
Ryo calmly recorded this scene.
Cloning technology itself was not rare to him. In certain dark corners of the Warhammer universe, it was even the norm.
What was important was the direct connection between these clones and the Lilith main body, as well as the specific role they played in the Human Instrumentality Project.
All of this matched the memory information transmitted by his main body.
In the distance, the roar of EVAs launching and the violent tremors of the Angel impacting the city's defensive shields could be faintly heard.
The battle overhead was reaching a white-hot stage.
Ryo lingered no longer.
He took one last look at Lilith nailed to the cross and the silent forest of clones, then turned around, quietly retreating along the path he came.
The entire process of infiltration, observation, evidence gathering, and extraction was efficient and calm, triggering no alarms and leaving no physical traces behind.
When he safely returned to the Ninth Research Institute, NERV Headquarters' attention was still entirely captivated by the Eighth Angel.
He sat down in front of the console, watching the fierce combat footage on the screen.
The objective was acquired, and the core secrets had been verified with his own eyes.
The next step was how to use this intelligence and physical item to leverage the chessboard of this world, seeking the maximum benefit for himself and for his main body's dimensional exploration plan.
And NERV remained completely oblivious to all of this.