This is nothing short of a minor technological upheaval for NERV's environmental technology department.
Previously, treating waters contaminated by the Angel Battles required the use of large equipment for pumping, isolation, and complex chemical-biological degradation, a process that was lengthy, costly, and had limited effectiveness.
Osiris' method seems to offer a near "one-click purification" possibility. Although the synthesis volume is currently extremely small and the application scope is limited, its principle and the potential it demonstrates are astonishing.
Project reports and presentation videos were quickly submitted to higher levels.
Ritsuko Akagi personally reviewed all the data again, and her technical intuition made her realize that this was by no means a simple "coincidence," but must be backed by a sophisticated control theory that has not yet been fully revealed.
She signed her opinion recommending that the project be given higher resource priority and that the "protection" and "observation" of Dr. Osiris and her research findings be strengthened.
Misato Katsuragi also saw the value from a tactical perspective—if the battlefield environment could be quickly purified, it would greatly reduce the secondary disasters and logistical pressures caused by the battles with the Angels.
Thus, Osiris' "Experimental Station No. 9" was quietly upgraded.
His funding increased, his equipment was replenished to a limited extent, and the level of monitoring was upgraded accordingly.
He successfully leveraged NERV's internal resources with a real, strategically valuable, and "harmless" technological achievement (because it could not create life and would not interfere with SEELE's plans), thus securing a more stable position and more room for maneuver for himself.
He knew he was walking a carefully calculated tightrope: he had to demonstrate enough value to gain attention and resources, but also ensure that the value wasn't so high that SEELE would feel threatened and intervene directly.
He threw out a carefully trimmed, tempting but nutritionally limited technical breadcrumb, enough to entice the big fish NERV to continue swimming around him, creating conditions for him to eventually access deeper secrets.
That isolated body of water, which had just regained its azure hue, was his most successful bait.
The resources gained from NERV's increased investment were meaningless to Osiris.
What he truly craved was higher internal access, a pass that would grant him free access to the inner sanctums of NERV headquarters, and the opportunity to get close to core secrets—especially Rei Ayanami's.
Therefore, after the initial results shocked NERV and he successfully obtained more resources, he immediately began the next step.
He handed over the daily operation and management of "Experimental Station No. 9" entirely to Tanaka and Miyuki Suzuki.
The newly transferred auxiliary technicians were also instructed by him to be led by these two "veterans" to continue the repetitive environmental monitoring, data recording, and preparatory work for the synthesis of "catalytic particles" according to the fixed procedures he provided.
He quickly withdrew from his tedious daily affairs and took on the role of a genius researcher who was "naive" and devoted himself to breakthroughs in key technologies.
His desk was soon overwhelmed by piles of documents filled with complex formulas and design sketches.
He began submitting reports to NERV's technical management department and Ritsuko Akagi herself on a frequent and continuous basis.
The core content of these reports is highly consistent: they emphasize the "extremely rudimentary" and "severely restrictive" current experimental conditions, repeatedly demonstrate the "decisive significance" of the stable and large-scale synthesis of "catalytic particles" for achieving the strategic goal of "ocean purification", and attach one increasingly sophisticated and expensive list of "essential equipment" after another.
The equipment on this list ranges from high-precision energy focusers to ultrapure material synthesis chambers, from multi-dimensional spatiotemporal parameter monitoring arrays to bioactive confinement field generators…
The names all sound cutting-edge and logical, but many of these devices are not only expensive, but more importantly, they are usually highly regulated within NERV and require special permissions to apply for and use.
Some were even labeled as "only for use by specific laboratories in the central vertical trench (deep headquarters)".
Osiris' strategy was clear: he was no longer satisfied with just playing in the sand at the beach.
He wanted to use these devices to link the "necessity" of his project to the core facilities of NERV headquarters.
His reports became increasingly urgent and rigorous with each submission, fully demonstrating a researcher's anxiety about technological bottlenecks and his desire for breakthroughs.
"Without the XX equipment, the particle synthesis efficiency cannot break through the one percent threshold..."
"The lack of the YY instrument prevents us from analyzing the key parameters of the particle's stable phase, posing a huge safety hazard..."
"Request permission to use the AAA equipment at headquarters' ZZ laboratory for joint experiments; this is the only way to verify the feasibility of large-scale synthesis..."
These reports flooded onto Ritsuko Akagi's desk like snowflakes.
Initially, the technology development department could politely decline or delay the request by citing reasons such as "insufficient permissions" or "equipment shortage".
However, after each rejection, Osiris would submit a more detailed technical explanation, pointing out the infeasibility of the alternative and emphasizing the "huge losses" caused by the project delay.
He even "inadvertently" revealed to Misato Katsuragi, who had expressed interest in his project, in several informal exchanges that "technical bottlenecks" could affect the potential for rapidly purifying the battlefield environment in the future.
The pressure begins to be transmitted.
Ritsuko Akagi had to carefully evaluate these requests.
She acknowledged from a technical perspective that many of the equipment requirements proposed by Osiris did indeed address the key difficulties in the synthesis experiment.
The value of this "catalytic particle" has already begun to emerge, and if stable mass production can be achieved, its strategic significance is beyond doubt.
However, completely relocating its research to the deeper areas of headquarters raises another issue regarding security and confidentiality levels.
She convened an evaluation meeting.
At the meeting, supporters argued that key researchers should be given the necessary support to achieve greater results; opponents, on the other hand, were concerned about the risk of an outsider gaining access to core facilities.
Ultimately, Ritsuko Akagi made a compromise, a decision that Osiris had anticipated: partial approval.
Osiris received an approval for a significantly reduced equipment list, but it also included a crucial piece of information: given that some of the approved equipment was large, fixed-installation equipment that could not be moved to Experiment Station 9, Dr. Osiris was granted temporary, limited access to the NERV headquarters area.
He was permitted to visit several designated core laboratories during specific time periods, accompanied by security personnel, to use the equipment for "critical experimental verification."
Looking at the permission upgrade notification displayed on the communication terminal and the accompanying headquarters map marked with the permitted activity areas, Osiris knew that his carefully woven net had finally caught its first important fish.
The gate to the giant underground city that hides all the secrets has cracked open for him.
The next step is to see how much truly valuable information he can extract from this limited access and close surveillance.