Chapter 1058
Cui Ming: A Life of Toil
Seeing that Cui Ming didn't immediately refuse, the weak light and shadow finally stabilized a little. The dim light at its core flickered slightly, as if it had grasped the last straw. It dared not pause for a moment and hurriedly told Cui Ming everything about the mess in its world. Its tone was full of suppressed anxiety and collapse, and even the light and shadow in the dream flickered.
To put it bluntly, none of the humans under its control are well-behaved; they're always scheming about some "Human Instrumentality Project." This project sounds grand and lofty, constantly using the guise of "evolution" and "becoming gods," but in reality, it's just a bunch of clueless fools indulging in wishful thinking—trying to separate everyone's soul from their body and merge them into a "whole existence" without individual differences or painful barriers, euphemistically calling it eliminating all worldly troubles. But this thing is a dead end. If it were forcibly implemented, the entire world's ecosystem would collapse, and all life would vanish into nothingness; in short, it would drag the whole world down with it.
That's not even the most outrageous part. At the heart of this absurd plan lies a complete lunatic. That guy is a middle-aged man named Gendo Ikari, obsessed with seeing his deceased wife, Yui Ikari, one last time. To achieve this obsessive and morbid goal, he completely disregards the future of humanity and the survival of the world. He actually plans to directly tamper with the core program of the Human Instrumentality Project, using the life energy of all humanity as a sacrifice to forcibly summon his deceased wife's soul. In short, he's dragging the entire world down with him, completely disregarding the lives of others.
"His wife, Yui Ikari, willingly sacrificed herself, merging her soul into EVA Unit-01 to protect their child, Shinji Ikari!" The voice of the world consciousness suddenly rose, filled with a gnashing rage, distorting the light and shadows due to the extreme emotional fluctuations. "But that lunatic only had eyes for his dead wife, treating his own son, Shinji Ikari, as a tool to achieve his own goals. He abandoned him in the countryside from the time he could remember, neglecting him completely. Even after finding him, he only treated him as a 'spare part' for piloting EVAs, showing no fatherly love whatsoever. He even put his child in life-threatening situations multiple times to advance his plan!"
Long neglected and exploited by his father, and repeatedly forced to pilot EVAs to fight terrifying Angels, witnessing his comrades injured and sacrificed, he experienced far more cruelty than his age. The boy named Shinji Ikari completely shut himself off. Now, he's like an autistic person, not liking to talk or interact with others, showing no interest in anything around him, spending his days huddled in his own little world, his eyes filled with unease, confusion, and self-doubt. He wants to escape at the slightest setback, completely lacking the vitality of his peers.
What's even more catastrophic is that this autistic child, utterly exhausted and unable to even save himself, is actually the key to saving the entire world—whether it's stopping Gendo Ikari's insane plans or fighting against the ever-invading Angels who seek to destroy humanity, the burden ultimately falls on this child. Only he can perfectly synchronize with EVA Unit-01 and unleash power sufficient to combat the Angels, yet this child can't even control his own emotions; expecting him to shoulder the responsibility of saving the world is simply a pipe dream.
At this point, Guangying began to tremble violently again, his tone filled with ruthlessness born of despair, even tinged with a desperate madness: "After much thought, rather than hoping that such a child could turn the tide, who would most likely just be used by that lunatic and completely ruin the world, I might as well just ask you to come over and kill their whole family!"
"Just kill them all! Kill that lunatic Gendo Ikari, and all those guys who messed up the Human Instrumentality Project with him! Once these lunatics are gone, those messy plans will naturally fall apart, and this damn world might even be a little more peaceful! I've had enough of these suicidal humans, and I'm fed up with this life of constant threat of destruction!"
Cui Ming stood rooted to the spot, his eyes wide with disbelief, his mouth slightly agape, his face utterly dumbfounded. He remained stunned for a long time, his mind still processing the absurd things the world consciousness had just said, unsure how to react. After a while, he mentally raged with utter disbelief: What kind of insane world is this EVA?! A family's love-hate entanglement is dragging the entire world down with them? That's absurd enough, but the key to saving the world is a child with severe psychological problems caused by his own father?! This setup is utterly ridiculous! He'd traveled through so many worlds, witnessed all sorts of chaotic situations, but he'd never seen such a condensed version of an absurd plot. One family absorbing the risk of the entire world's destruction—it's unbelievable.
Cui Ming subconsciously raised his hand to rub his temples, feeling that this matter was more troublesome than any cosmic war he had ever faced before. He originally thought it was just a simple case of humans courting death and needed to be deterred, but he didn't expect it to involve such a complicated and absurd family drama, and that the survival of the world was tied to a poor child.
Cui Ming thought it was quite outrageous.
After listening to the World Consciousness's rant, he finally understood why Misato and Asuka both had some... mental issues. Living in such a chaotic and insane world, facing threats from Angels every day, and being caught up in these absurd plans, it was already a miracle they hadn't completely broken down.
Looking at it this way, I'm pretty amazing after all. At least under my protection, Misato and Asuka have slowly returned to normal, no longer tormented by those upsetting things, and their eyes have regained their vibrant light, no longer looking so tired and uneasy as before.
Yes. And Asuka's mother has also recovered from her previous abnormal state and returned to normal. Choi Myung felt it was worthwhile to pull them out of that quagmire and allow them to live a more stable life.
So now, Cui Ming finally fully understands the request from the world consciousness of Miri and her world regarding the ball of light and shadow before him.
Any consciousness that controls such a chaotic world would likely be driven to such a desperate situation. On one side are humans who are recklessly courting death and willing to drag the whole world down with them, and on the other side is the absurd situation of tying the survival of the world to a psychologically fragile child. It is understandable that it would be eager to ask for my help, and even propose the extreme idea of "wiping them all out".
Cui Ming doesn't consider himself a good person. His past battles were mostly for self-preservation and to protect the few people around him. He never thought of taking the initiative to be a "savior," let alone wasting his energy on a strange world.
But this time is different.
This matter directly affects those around them—Miri, Asuka, and Asuka's mother. Their roots are still in that world, and if that world is truly destroyed, or turned into ruins by Gendo Ikari's insane plan, it will be an irreparable regret for them, and they might even be dragged into danger again.
In that case
Cui Ming let out a soft breath. "Then let's do our best to help save this absurd and chaotic world." (End of Chapter)