N-A-A 004 The Other Side of the World
004 The Other Side of the World
The next afternoon.
The shade of the old banyan tree sliced summer into several pieces.
Lu Mingfei hid in a shady corner, pressed against the rough bark of the tree. He pulled out his new Nokia from his pocket and dialed the only number in his contacts.
"Hey? Is this Lu Mingfei? Thank God you finally contacted me!" A male voice with a dubbed film accent boomed through the receiver, "This is Guderian from Kassel College! Did you receive the letter?"
"Just received it."
"What a coincidence! I was just about to have No... have his assistant contact you again." Professor Guderian's tone was as excited as a player who had just drawn an SSR card. "Congratulations, Lu Mingfei! The college has decided to offer you a full scholarship, covering all tuition fees, plus an annual stipend of $36,000."
A gust of wind blew by, and the banyan leaves overhead rustled.
$36,000.
In her aunt's eyes, this money could get Lu Mingze into an Ivy League school; in the eyes of an ordinary high school student, it was like a pie falling from the sky.
But in Lu Mingfei's mind, which had been thoroughly steeped in LCL solution, the unexpectedly large allowance could only mean three words—
It's called "risking your life for money." Also known as compensation for high-risk work.
"Thank you," Lu Mingfei asked politely, "What obligations do I need to fulfill?"
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone.
On the leather sofa in the office, a girl with dark red hair was chewing bubble gum and practicing StarCraft with headphones on.
Upon hearing the rhetorical question on speakerphone, her fingers, which were typing on the keyboard, suddenly stopped. She turned her head and looked at Guderian with great interest.
Guderian, who had been pacing around the room with his phone in hand, bracing himself for the Chinese boy's overflowing gratitude, was stunned by those words and stood there speechless.
"Business? Oh, it's an obligation! The main thing is to study hard!" Guderian quickly pulled out the admissions brochure and stammered as he read, "Kassel is a university with a long history, mainly studying ancient civilizations..."
"Ancient civilization?"
"Yes, yes, the college has many interesting projects, and sometimes they organize small teams to do field research around the world!"
"On-site inspection?"
"Yes! There are areas for cooperation in Europe, South America, and Africa!" Guderian said, getting more and more enthusiastic. "Especially China, which is the future focus of our academy!"
Lu Mingfei hummed in agreement and raised his hand to touch his neck.
"Sounds like you're quite busy."
"Academic research, after all," Guderian chuckled, "requires stepping out of the library."
Is the school located in downtown Chicago?
"No," Guderian explained happily, "It's in the far suburbs, a very quiet environment, perfect for studying! It's a gated campus."
"A gated campus?"
"Yes, it's a very pure academic atmosphere!"
Where are the data brought back by the expedition team usually stored?
"The college archives and laboratories, you know."
Above ground or underground?
This question is a little beyond the scope of the curriculum.
Guderian hesitated for a moment: "...For security reasons, the core data is all in the underground archives. What's wrong?"
"It's nothing." Lu Mingfei nodded slightly.
Mythical creatures, global operations, closed fortresses, underground facilities.
Oh.
On the other end of the phone.
The red-haired girl on the sofa stopped playing games altogether; she had initially just been listening out of boredom.
Calling new students is usually quite boring; it's mostly about how scholarships are awarded, how difficult the courses are, and whether the food in American cafeterias is good.
But after listening for two minutes, she suddenly felt something was wrong.
The student's questioning style was a bit strange.
He rarely spoke in long sentences, but simply repeated the words the other person had just said, as if confirming each and every clause.
"Are the students going on fieldwork?" Lu Mingfei asked.
"Only a select few elite projects require..."
"I see, I understand." Lu Mingfei interrupted him crisply, "Where's the interview?"
Guderian instinctively straightened up: "Regent Hotel, 10 AM the day after tomorrow!"
"OK."
A crisp busy tone came through the receiver.
Guderian put down his phone. "This kid... he's pretty, pretty calm. Is this what S-rank kids are like? Not enthusiastic or moved?" He took out a handkerchief and wiped his forehead. "But he's quite interested in academics, he even asked where the archives are. Very studious! Very studious!"
"professor."
Nono tapped her fingers slowly on the table a few times, interrupting Guderian's self-absorbed reverie.
"What's wrong, Nuonuo?"
"He wasn't asking about the university."
Guderian asked instinctively, "Huh? If you're not asking about the university, what are you asking about?"
Nono leaned back against the table, her tone becoming very calm.
"He was confirming whether we were a military organization."
Guderian laughed: "Really? This kid's only seventeen?"
Nono didn't reply. She put her headphones back on and tapped the keyboard twice.
"Professor," she said.
"Um?"
"The interview is the day after tomorrow." She looked up. "I'm going too."
Lu Mingfei put his phone back in his pocket and sighed deeply.
It's not a diploma mill; it's a secret service agency that's all talk and no action.
"These lunatics, they actually came all the way across the Pacific to China because they were short of menial tasks."
Back home, Lu Mingfei opened his old laptop.
"Ahem!"
The penguin icon in the bottom right corner of the screen is flashing wildly.
"Want to cut a plate?" A large cat avatar popped up on QQ, the name was "Nono".
Lu Mingfei stared at the screen, searching his memory for the name, but he had no recollection of it. It was probably an online friend he had added while playing games before.
Before going to Tokyo-3, he did have some micro-management talent, easily keeping his units within five millimeters of the enemy Terran Marines' firing range. But in the years that followed, the only machine he had was a handheld console for playing Tetris, and his tactical awareness had long since vanished.
"I'm not playing anymore, I'm retiring."
He casually closed the chat window.
Immediately afterwards, a second message popped up.
"Go ahead, see you the day after tomorrow." The sender was Chen Wenwen.
Chen Wenwen.
He remembered the name. A cotton dress, long, flowing hair, and a soft voice, as if afraid of disturbing others. She was the class representative for Chinese, sitting in the third row by the window. She had even borrowed a pen from him, which he later forgot to return.
That's all; that's all that can be salvaged.
He tried to dig deeper, hoping to find more details about the girl. What did she look like when she smiled? What songs did she like to listen to? Why did she borrow his pen that day?
However, those memories that should have belonged to "Chen Wenwen" were occupied by other faces.
A young woman, her body wrapped in bandages and seemingly without any social standing, sat by the window, her gaze fixed on a distant, unseen place. A crazed old woman, eating beer, cigarettes, and instant noodles, patted him on the shoulder and said, "Mingfei, I'm entrusting you with an important task."
And one redhead—
Lu Mingfei quickly closed the QQ window, as if afraid something would pop out of the screen.
But it was too late.
One evening, the smell of gunpowder stung the eyes. A red-haired girl slumped on the edge of the ruins, the setting sun casting a long, thin shadow. She didn't turn around, but instead grabbed the hem of Lu Mingfei's filthy logistics department uniform.
"Idiot Mingfei." For the first time ever, her voice lacked its usual sharpness.
"You can't operate EVA anymore. From now on, when the alarm goes off, get down to the lowest level."
"Stay away from me, do you hear me?"
She cursed fiercely, but the hand gripping his clothes wouldn't let go.
Lu Mingfei leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling for a while.
Having spent a long time in that world, he knew one thing: this wasn't the first time in this world.
There were some things in NERV's files that he had seen by chance, but no one had explained them to him specifically, but he could piece together the general outline.
The world is not static. When a story reaches a bad ending, it will be forcibly refreshed by some force and start all over again.
So even though he's sitting here now, he can't actually be sure of one thing—
Is the world I'm in now a truly peaceful parallel universe, or is it the initial stage of a reboot after the previous world was restarted?
These two situations appear to be exactly the same on the surface.
He opened his browser and carefully typed four words into the search bar:
Travel to Japan.
The page redirects to a screen full of cherry blossoms, hot springs, and shrines.
Lu Mingfei moved the mouse and performed a secondary search in the search box.
This time, he typed two words.
"Hakone."
The screen was instantly filled with stunning images of Lake Ashi's shimmering waters, with Mount Fuji peacefully slumbering in the background. The lake water was a flawless, pure blue.
He remembered that lake. He remembered what was buried at the bottom of the lake, how long the corridors of the underground fortress were, and what it felt like to smell the LCL odor seeping out of the vents.
But he doesn't remember what happened there in the end.
He has to see it for himself.
If there's nothing on that land, if the strata are clean and there's nothing unusual...
Perhaps this means that someone repaired that world after he left.
Maybe.