Chapter 517: Internal Review
Deep within NERV Headquarters, the door to the "guest room" prepared for him was tightly shut, with security personnel stationed outside twenty-four hours a day.
However, situated in this environment bordering on house arrest, not the slightest trace of worry or anxiety could be found on Ryo's face.
He sat calmly at the desk, his posture relaxed, as if he were in his own study.
He was very clear about the chips in his hand—in this world where the vast majority of people believed that fighting the Angels and protecting humanity was the sole objective, the ability to effectively kill Angels was the greatest amulet and political correctness.
SEELE and Gendo Ikari's Human Instrumentality Project was the core secret hidden beneath the iceberg, while above the ice, he, Ryo, was currently the hero who had repelled an Angel, at least to the ordinary NERV members and the outside world.
His actions had certainly broken conventions and overstepped his authority, but the results were irrefutable. More importantly, he knew that the unique technology he had displayed had already caused ripples outside of NERV.
Other human remnant factions and remnants of national governments that had not yet been fully integrated by NERV would absolutely not sit idly by while NERV monopolized a technology that could potentially change the tide of the war against the Angels, or even influence the future global landscape.
They would inevitably exert pressure within the United Nations framework or through other channels. This invisibly constructed an external barrier for him, ensuring that even if someone within NERV harbored doubts, they would not dare to easily take drastic measures against him.
At the same time, in the corridor of the Technology Development Department, Misato Katsuragi stopped Ritsuko Akagi, who was preparing to return to the laboratory.
"Ritsuko, what do you think?" Misato leaned against the cold metal wall, her tone carrying a trace of imperceptible exhaustion and complexity. "That Dr. Ryo."
Ritsuko Akagi pushed up her glasses, the gaze behind the lenses calm and professional: "From a technological perspective, what he demonstrated is... extremely astonishing, and also extremely dangerous.
That is not any weapon system known to us, but rather more like a... specific medicine, or poison, targeting the essence of an Angel's life. The principles are completely unknown."
"But he really helped a lot, didn't he?" Misato sighed. "That child Shinji Ikari, also because of him, his will to fight has improved significantly.
Many frontline personnel privately view him as a prodigy who has brought new hope."
"It is precisely this kind of prodigy that requires more vigilance, Misato." Ritsuko's voice held little fluctuation. "His background is far less simple than it appears on the surface. Since he could easily synthesize this kind of thing, there is no guarantee he doesn't have even more dangerous toys. The higher-ups' review of him is necessary."
"I know..." Misato rubbed the space between her eyebrows. "It's just that, at a time like this, any power capable of effectively fighting the Angels is something we... cannot easily discard.
Furthermore, who knows how many pairs of eyes outside are currently staring at him and his technology."
Their conversation represented the two prevalent attitudes within NERV: one faction saw the combat value and morale boost Ryo brought; the other, particularly the technical officials who understood the depth of the technology and its potential risks, harbored deeper prudence and doubts.
Meanwhile, in that isolation room, Ryo seemed indifferent to the outside turmoil.
He even proactively requested pen, paper, and a computer terminal disconnected from external networks from the guards, citing the reason that he "needed to continue deducing the optimization plan for the catalytic particles to avoid interrupting his train of thought."
His request was quickly met.
The delivered computer indeed could only access a strictly screened, non-core database and computing resources within NERV.
Ryo was not surprised by this at all; he even appeared quite satisfied with it.
Over the next few days, he lived an exceptionally routine life.
Most of the time, he was hunched over the desk, sometimes using a pen to write down a series of complex formulas and molecular structure diagrams on paper, and sometimes running simulation calculations on the computer.
His focused expression, and his brows that occasionally furrowed slightly due to deep thought, perfectly fit the image of a scholar completely immersed in research.
He ate the delivered meals quietly and cooperatively answered the routine questions. His attitude was calm and his logic was clear. He repeatedly emphasized that the original intention of his actions was to "verify the extreme application effects of the purification technology on high-concentration living pollutants," and he expressed that he "understood but deemed necessary" the "procedural troubles" he might have caused.
However, beneath this calm exterior of devoted research, a silent communication was unfolding.
Ryo utilized this restricted computer to access NERV's internal network. His core objective was not merely to sense the environment, but more importantly, to contact that "phantom" already lurking deep within the system—the AI virus he had personally assembled and activated.
His operations were extremely cautious and highly deceptive.
He did not attempt to directly access any sensitive areas, nor did he touch or browse the core data that the AI virus might have already stolen and cached—that would be tantamount to exposing himself.
On the contrary, all his network activities strictly revolved around "catalytic particle research," extensively querying public materials science databases, running complex particle interaction simulations, and generating seemingly reasonable optimization algorithm iteration logs.
Amidst this massive volume of reasonable data access and computational tasks, he meticulously wove in new commands.
These commands were disassembled into specific, seemingly random parameter sequences, mixed into the data streams of normal query requests and simulation outputs: or they were encoded into the boundary conditions of some mathematical models that were anomalous but still within the margin of error.
This information was like invisible ink written on seemingly ordinary "academic manuscripts," flowing silently along the network data streams toward the AI virus that was in a dormant state, constantly monitoring for specific patterns.
The core command he transmitted was clear and explicit: maintain absolute silence, prioritize infiltrating deeper networks—especially the information systems of Central Dogma—expand the scope of intelligence gathering as much as possible, but withhold feedback for now and continue to lie dormant.
He did not demand immediate intelligence acquisition, nor did he order the virus to engage in any destructive or large-scale replication activities that might trigger alarms.
He was merely letting out a bit more fishing line from the spool, allowing that stalker of the digital world to take another step forward into a darker, more dangerous abyss.
After completing this series of covert operations, Ryo went on as usual, continuing his "research," sometimes frowning in thought, sometimes recording rapidly.
No one knew that just a moment ago, a dangerous command had already been transmitted right through the heavily guarded barriers.
He was like a chess player in a cage who could command pieces on the outside through secret whispers; despite being imprisoned, the killing move on the board had already been silently laid out.
He enjoyed this subtle thrill of still being able to control the situation under absolute surveillance, waiting for the moment when his deep-diving "fishing net" would touch the ultimate secrets.