Chapter 570: Taking Her Out to Relax
The main body's response was cold and highly efficient, accompanied by a series of environmental parameter comparison data and sociological-psychological model deductions.
"The logical chain stands. The environment possesses a definitive adverse effect on the psychological health of a standard human adolescent. Recommendation: Provide environmental intervention or psychological counseling protocols. However, her core value as a pilot remains unaffected; the base environment is sufficient to sustain her physiological existence and combat skill training. Emotional state fluctuations constitute a minor variable."
"I intend to take her away from the Death World to a nearby Imperial world to relax," the second avatar proposed his specific thought, carrying an unquestionable persistence.
"Necessity is questionable." The main body's feedback carried pure rational balancing. "Investing resources into non-productive 'relaxation' is highly inefficient. Her value lies in synchronization rates and combat efficacy. Emotional issues can be redirected through positive stimulation by increasing training difficulty or introducing new technological modules."
"I was the one who brought her here," a trace of emotional fluctuation drifted within the second avatar's consciousness stream. "I bear responsibility for her—not merely as a pilot, but as a person. A stable emotional state yields benefits that outweigh the drawbacks for her long-term development."
"Responsibility?" The main body's consciousness stream seemed to pause for a fraction of a second—not due to computational delay, but more like a deep retrieval and interrogation of a specific keyword.
"Our core objective is to converge the knowledge and technology of thousands of worlds to chart the path home. Serving the Imperial Adeptus Mechanicus is a means to acquire resources and authority, not the ultimate destination. An individual's emotional state, within the optimal efficiency solution, is universally viewed as a variable requiring management rather than a high-priority item. Your continuous focus on this specific individual yields an input-output ratio that does not appear to reach optimality."
The second avatar fell silent for a brief moment. He could feel the main body's evaluation method based on pure rationality and efficiency—a result brought about by Mechanicus modification and a long-term, logic-driven mode of thinking.
Yet he himself, serving as a vessel closer to "humanity," sensed something entirely different.
"Efficiency... perhaps. But what lies at the end of the path home? If we ultimately transform into machines that completely disregard emotion just to reach our goal, even if we find the road back, will 'I' still be the original me?" He paused, images of that red-haired girl struggling time and again in her original destiny—desiring to be loved yet constantly wounded—clearly flitting through his awareness. These were precious pieces of information originating from a transmigrator's memories, preventing him from viewing her merely as a sample.
"Seeing her like this, I cannot use 'efficiency' to convince myself to look away. Furthermore—" a trace of unquestionable confirmation infused his consciousness stream, "she is Asuka, isn't she? The her that we 'know' shouldn't be trapped to death within this kind of gray despair. This has nothing to do with efficiency; this is a choice generated by 'us' based on our 'knowing.'"
This time, the main body remained silent for a significantly longer duration.
The massive database not only retrieved the personality models and behavioral prediction data regarding Soryu Asuka Langley, but at a deeper layer, those strictly sealed-away, profound perceptions and emotional projections belonging to a transmigrator toward the EVA character were also briefly activated and subjected to weighted calculations.
The data clearly demonstrated a strong correlation between the target individual's psychological state and her combat efficacy, with the risk probability of efficacy degradation caused by long-term low morale exceeding the threshold. Concurrently, a deeper, non-logical directive was at play.
Protecting these "known," unique individuals who carried special significance was, to a certain extent, also guarding the anchor of "humanity" that was gradually being eroded by mechanical logic.
"Based on maintaining the long-term stability of a high-value experimental unit, optimizing her psychological state to guarantee the continuous output of research data, and—" the main body's final verdict was handed down, the logical chain remaining ironclad, yet the underlying parameters driving the logic now contained the weight of those suppressed "special emotions"—"taking into account the selective protection originating from our shared memories that you insist upon, I approve the temporary environmental adjustment scheme. Target world: Corona VII, an agri-world. The world's environmental parameters are mild, and the information complexity is moderate, aligning with the psychological relaxation requirements of a standard human adolescent. The relevant authorities have been temporarily granted to your access identification code."
"Additionally," the main body's information stream continued to transmit, "the exclusive EVA-Titan units for Shinji and Rei Ayanami have entered the final assembly phase. Rei Ayanami's spirit-flesh synchronized repair treatment is essentially complete, and she will awaken shortly. The three of them can form an EVA-Titan combat squad. The Legio Canum side is exceptionally enthusiastic about this; they urgently desire to obtain the practical combat data of the EVA-Titans and explore the possibilities of coordinated operations with the Imperial Titans."
The information transmission concluded, and the main body seemed prepared to sever the link, but a trace of sentimentality surfaced within the second avatar's consciousness stream: "Bringing these three children out of that despairing world only to plunge them into the vaster, more brutal wars of this universe—is this truly a good thing?"
The main body's response carried an almost chilling sense of self-examination: "Before undergoing the comprehensive modifications of the Mechanicus and the systematic suppression of the majority of my emotions... was I such a sentimental person?"
There was no answer, nor was there any further discussion. The consciousness link quietly terminated.
Ryo's second avatar took a deep breath of the cold air, turning to walk down the observation tower. He needed to go inform Asuka of this temporary departure plan.
When the light transport craft's engines emitted a steady hum, smoothly breaking free from the suffocating gravitational bounds of the Death World, Asuka pressed virtually her entire upper body against the chilly viewport.
She stared unblinkingly, watching that dark, grayish planet in her field of vision gradually shrink, its colors dulling further until it ultimately blended into the endless blackness and starlight of the background as if it had never existed. That invisible pressure that had long encamped within her chest—almost becoming a part of her physical body—seemed to quietly loosen as the distance widened, finally transforming into a soft sigh of relief that even she herself might not have noticed.
The flight duration was so brief that it barely granted anyone time to savor the moment of escaping that cage.
When the eternal darkness outside the window was replaced by a gradually enlarging planet overflowing with the radiance of life, Asuka's eyes instantly ignited.
It was a display of rich, vibrant colors that almost seared her vision, which had grown accustomed to gray hues—a boundless, deep blue ocean resembling the finest sapphire, forming a powerful contrast against the rich layers of emerald and dark green forests and agricultural fields stretching out to the horizon. Fluffy, massive cloud formations resembled white behemoths, slowly stretching their bodies across the clear sky.
This was a registered agri-world, but unlike those planets that only pursued a single crop yield, the database indicated that it was dedicated to producing a diverse variety of agricultural products that retained their primitive flavors.