Chapter 503: EVA
After completing the final activation and basic tuning within the Gene-Forge of the main body's laboratory on Necromunda, the second avatar immediately returned to the Death World base via conventional shipping channels.
He bore a clear mission: utilizing the forward base as a starting point, he was to execute cross-dimensional exploration missions. The core objective lay in evaluating the potential value and risks of unknown domains, laying the foundation for potential subsequent resource acquisition or technological recovery.
Within the base's teleportation zone, he conducted a final adaptive check.
The operating parameters of all systems on his Tartaros-pattern Terminator armor, Librarian variant, were verified one by one. His power sword, force staff, and wrist-mounted bolter were all in optimal standby condition.
Upon confirming everything was ready, he stepped into the dimensional teleporter located at the core of the base, connecting to the endless void.
This time, the teleportation protocol was not locked onto a known coordinate, but pointed toward an unmarked, random unknown dimension. The exploration was about to begin.
The sensations of sensory deprivation and space-time displacement brought about by the teleportation process were a manageable shock for a nervous system augmented by gene-seed.
When a stable sense of reality returned, Ryo (Second Avatar) found himself situated in an entirely unfamiliar environment.
He was standing in the middle of a broad but completely deserted street.
It was daytime, yet the sky presented a rather cheerless hue.
Surrounding him were dense, modern-looking high-rise buildings; the layout was orderly, and the streets were almost abnormally clean.
Permeating the air was a scent entirely different from either the Warhammer world or Night City—a mixture of cleaning agents, a faint, unidentifiable industrial emission, and... a deeper, more pervasive anomaly.
His massive frame was encased in silver-grey Tartaros-pattern Terminator armor. This Librarian variant, optimized and improved via the STC system, retained heavy protection and a powerful energy core while the massive array of internal sensors silently booted up to full power.
On the display interface inside the helmet, data streams began to scroll rapidly.
The first thing to catch his attention was the environmental energy readings.
There was an unnatural, stable fluctuation in the background radiation levels; its spectral signature differed from any energy form he knew.
His logical core temporarily tagged it as "Unknown Background Radiation."
This radiation seemed omnipresent, permeating the molecular gaps in the air, the soil, and even the building materials.
Immediately following this, his psychic perception captured a more abstract signal.
It was not a specific thought or emotion, but an "atmosphere" shrouding the entire area—no, a much vaster range.
A profound sense of sorrow and suppression, seemingly originating from the world itself, washed continuously over his psychic senses like silent background noise.
Almost simultaneously, the Terminator armor's sub-surface penetrating scanners issued a sharper alert.
Deep underground beneath the city, hidden away, were several massive energy sources impossible to ignore.
Their energy signatures were extremely powerful and complex. One was particularly massive, carrying an almost biological pulsation, while the other two were relatively dormant but contained equally staggering energy levels.
The locations of these energy sources were precisely marked, pointing to a colossal composite structure deep beneath this city.
In addition to this, the smaller energy nodes (power supply, transportation, communication networks) scattered throughout the city, which conformed to the operational patterns of a conventional city, were identified and marked one by one.
"A world possessing an anomalous energy environment, hiding massive unknown energy sources underground, and shrouded in an unnatural, global atmosphere of sorrow," Ryo (Second Avatar) swiftly made a preliminary assessment.
Threat Level: Unknown, but potential risk is extremely high.
He immediately activated the Terminator armor's cloaking field generator. His massive silver-grey body gradually blurred and distorted on the street, ultimately blending with the surrounding environment and disappearing visually.
Although the physical mass of the Terminator armor still existed, on the currently deserted street, he temporarily avoided the most direct exposure.
He needed intelligence.
The data tendrils of the Terminator armor began attempting to access the local global information network.
This process was not entirely smooth sailing.
The network security protocols of this world were quite advanced; multi-layered encryptions and firewalls formed a tight defense system.
However, the technology Ryo (Second Avatar) carried was a creation fusing the data litanies of the Adeptus Mechanicus and the optimization algorithms of the STC system; its computational power and decryption logic far exceeded local levels.
Encryption protocols were stripped away layer by layer; firewalls existed in name only.
After spending approximately three minutes, he successfully obtained high-level anonymous access clearance.
A massive stream of information began flooding into his processing core.
He first established a foundational world history timeline model.
A critical node was swiftly locked onto: In the year 2000 AD, a super-explosion of unknown cause occurred in Antarctica, known as the "Second Impact."
The event caused a shift in the Earth's axis, a rapid rise in sea levels, drastic global climate change, and the deaths of nearly half of humanity.
This event aligned perfectly in terms of timing with the sorrowful atmosphere permeating the air and the anomalous L-particle background radiation.
Ryo (Second Avatar) preliminarily deduced that the "Second Impact" was highly likely the origin of the series of anomalies in the current world.
Further data mining revealed the current direct threat.
Since the Second Impact, a type of mysterious, giant biological entity known as "Angels" began appearing periodically.
Their forms and abilities varied, but their behavioral patterns displayed a clear goal-oriented nature—they were continuously attempting to approach and attack this city named "Tokyo-3," or more specifically, to attack the massive organization hidden beneath the city: "NERV."
Public information regarding NERV was limited and polished, claiming it to be a special agency under the United Nations dedicated to countering the Angel threat.
But from the fragmented information in the encrypted databases, Ryo (Second Avatar) smelled a deeper secret.
The purpose of this organization was absolutely not as simple as mere "defense."
And what drew his keenest interest were the weapons NERV used to fight the Angels: "EVAs."
From limited combat records and blurry blueprints, he identified this as a massive humanoid combat unit.
Preliminary analysis indicated they were not purely mechanical creations, but hybrids fusing biotechnology and precision engineering.
Their drive methods, energy sources, and especially that absolute defensive domain capable of withstanding Angel attacks known as the "A.T. Field," operated on technological principles entirely outside the scope of Ryo's (Second Avatar) current database.
This unique neural connection synchronization mechanism between the bio-mech and the pilot, along with the almost idealistic defensive characteristics displayed by the A.T. Field, represented an entirely new technological path of extreme research value to him.
This might provide subversive solutions to certain difficult problems faced by his universe, such as the interference of Warp whispers on precision equipment, or more efficient human-machine interfaces.
His observation targets were swiftly clarified: the NERV organization, the EVA technology it possessed, and Angel samples.
The Angels themselves, as powerful biological entities with unknown purposes, also held extremely high research value.
Just as he preliminarily completed organizing the intelligence and was preparing to plan his next move—whether to attempt cautious contact with NERV or continue hidden observation—a sharp, urgent alarm ringing throughout the entire city tore through the surrounding silence without warning.
Almost simultaneously, the public network channels he was tapped into were overridden by emergency alerts detailing an invasion warning of the highest level.
The Terminator armor's seismic sensors detected regular, heavy impacts coming from afar, growing steadily closer.
Ryo (Second Avatar) immediately terminated all active data probing behaviors, switching his systems to passive reception mode while simultaneously elevating his cloaked state to the maximum.
His massive body remained still as a boulder within the cloaking field; only his sensor array and psychic perception extended outward like invisible tentacles toward the direction of the alarms and vibrations.
He realized that the "normality" of this world had been shattered.
A perfect opportunity to observe the true interaction between NERV, EVAs, and Angels was presenting itself on its own accord, accompanied by immense risk.
He needed to witness this conflict with his own eyes and gather first-hand actual combat data. Based on this, he would evaluate the true danger level of this world, and... the potential methods and depth of his future intervention.
(End of Chapter)