【Respect】The Beautiful Future

Arakawa Zawakita tapped the keyboard to end the machine's adjusted testing procedure. He took off his glasses and wiped them and put them on again before he was finally free enough to get up and pour himself a glass of water.He casually glanced at the screens in front of the other researchers, and suddenly there was the sound of footsteps behind him. Arakawa Zekita turned his head and said, "Munakata, you..." The words stuck in his throat because of the sight of the person coming, and the teacup fell from the The hand slipped and fell on the ground with a crisp sound, causing other people to turn their heads to look over, and then they were all so shocked that they forgot to move.

Because they saw the little girl next to Zhou Fangzun.The red gothic dress was covered with lace, and her snow-white soft hair was hanging loose. She lowered her head slightly and held Zhou Fang's hand tightly. Lifting his head up, his eyes were facing Kamiarakawa Sawakita's.

It was a face that could not be worn out in the memory of these researchers no matter how many years passed. The plain white face, purple eyes, and expressionless face were like the most exquisite dolls in the window.It was the face that had faced them three years ago in front of the Perception Lab under the fire of the assault gun.

Arakawa Zebei staggered forward, his eyes fixed on Kushina Anna, his voice trembling: "...is she still alive?"

"We saved it." Reji Munakata said, then added after a pause, "She is the only one among those children who are still alive."

The almost ecstatic light in his eyes dimmed in an instant, and he opened his mouth several times before struggling to make a sound: "Oh, so... that's right."

Munakata looked down at the expressionless Anna, and after hesitating for a while, he planned to bring up this topic, but in the future he was as stunned as everyone else when he had time to speak.

Arakawa Zebei knelt down without warning, his fingers were put together in front of his knees, his forehead rested on the cold floor, and his back was bent into an extreme arc.

He was apologizing to Anna.The voice finally calmed down: "I'm sorry."

Anna Kushina let go of Zhou Fangzun's hand and walked out from behind him, looked at Arakawa Zebei in silence for a moment and said softly, with the usual calm tone: "I will not forgive you."

No one said anything.Anna lowered her eyes and continued, "But I accept your apology."

Arakawa Zebei gave a low chuckle, then raised his head again, "That's enough." He was finally able to calmly face the eyes hidden in the depths of his dream, "Because I am the same. But no matter how much Faced with that situation again, I will still make the same choice.”

The corners of Zhou Fangzun's lips twitched slightly, but in the end he didn't say anything, he just raised his hand and gently patted the top of Anna's hair.

She lay down on the iron bed following Arakawa Sawakita's guidance, and before putting on the helmet, she suddenly turned her head to show a cute smile and a childlike comfort to Shufang and Munakata who were standing aside.

The machine starts and the consciousness connects.Munakata Reiji glanced at the steady energy fluctuations on the display stage, and tried to ask, "Can you see it, Anna?"

"I can see it," Anna replied, hesitated for a moment and continued: "But... I can't see it clearly, I can't find where it is."

She was standing in front of a mountain, the sky should be very gloomy, and her originally monotonous black and white vision became even more blurred, and she could only see the withered vegetation in winter.Anna looked around but still found nothing, except for the occasional laboratory conversations in her consciousness, there was no other sound. This place was dead silent and gloomy, like the end of an abandoned world.

It's so lonely.She couldn't help but feel this strange feeling, the hair hanging on the side of her face fluttered gently without wind.

"Anna." A low and hoarse man's voice sounded in his mind, asking in an almost gentle tone: "If it's red, can you see it clearly?"

"...Red?" Anna Kushina repeated unconsciously, her mind blurred and slow.

Zhou Fangzun grabbed the helmet that was put aside and lay down on another iron bed.Arakawa Sawakita subconsciously wanted to stop, but Munakata raised his hand to block it, "You forgot just now..." However, his words were also interrupted by Munakata.

"How long have I been with him just now?" Munakata asked while raising his hand to signal the researcher to come forward to assist Zhou's defense equipment.

"About seven or eight minutes." Arakawa Zebei said.

Munakata nodded knowingly, pressed Arakawa Zebei's shoulders to let him sit back in his original position: "I believe Anna will be able to find the stone slab within this time."

Zhou Fang also laughed vaguely.Arakawa Zebei lingered on the two of them for a while, finally sighed and continued with the operation.

The machine starts up, and the consciousness is connected again.

Kushina Anna blinked and stared at the mountain in front of her.A crimson glow suddenly lit up in the mountain, and gradually gathered into a cluster of flames, which then penetrated the mountain and came towards her with the momentum of a prairie fire. The flames dragged out a bright red light band, just like a ribbon in her hair.Anna didn't dodge or dodge, letting the flames come all the way and finally wrapped around her palm.

The crimson swirls in her hand, and spreads in all directions like thick ink in water in an instant, climbing over cliffs and rocks, bypassing tall trees and dead branches, not burning, but lighting up, and finally in her vision Spread out a brilliant red.

Such a warm red.

...is the red color of Zun.

Anna suddenly lifted the hem of her skirt and ran along the light belt. She also penetrated the mountain body formlessly. Every step under her feet was like stepping on the surface of water, and red ripples appeared. All the land is dyed crimson.

visible.visible.

In the center of the entire mountain is a huge and empty cave, and as she steps into it, red floods the entire space like a tide.A tall man stood in front of the deepest rock wall, his red hair was like a burning flame, far better than the color that filled the cave.

Anna stopped beside him, and the man looked sideways, with a lazy smile on his lips.Anna smiled back, then turned to look at the rock wall in front of her.

——Perhaps it is more appropriate to call it by another name after seeing it clearly, the Dresden Stone.

She was still panting slightly from running, but raised her hand firmly to the stone slab.

Got you.

I won't lose to you.

"Is it actually hidden in the mountains?" Munakata Reiji leaned over slightly and looked at the topographic map that Anna had already drawn, resting his fingers on his chin.

"It looks familiar." Zhou Fangren Arakawa Zebei put on a bracelet for him to record the connection data this time, and after hearing the sound, he glanced over and drew a conclusion.

"Familiar?" Arakawa Zebei repeated wonderingly, and leaned over to look over.While speaking, Anna had finished drawing, and she closed the pen cap to clear the way for them to see more comprehensively.Arakawa couldn't help taking two steps closer, and after confirming, he twitched his mouth in disbelief, and tapped the computer a few times after hearing Munakata's doubtful inquiry.

A three-dimensional map was called out, and then enlarged and projected, which completely matched Anna's painting.

"It's actually our mountain?!" A few sharp-eyed researchers exclaimed first.

Zhou Fangzun looked down at the ground, "It's under our feet."

Mobility has never been what these people lack. After confirming the location, they dispatched several tunnel boring machines from Tokyo that day, and they operated alternately day and night along the track marked by Anna.The situation in Japan has stabilized, and there has been no movement in the alliance since the last battle. In addition to Arakawa Sawakita, who was in charge, Munakata Reiji and Zhou Fangzun also left other jobs and stayed in the research institute to watch the progress.

The specific performance is that Munakata Reiji and Arakawa Zebei analyze and discuss issues related to progress and slates, while Zhou Fangzun sleeps aside, and occasionally inserts a few words when he is awake.

A week later, in the middle of the night, the engineering team received the news that the tunnel boring machine was blocked in front of a huge door, and the diamond drill bit was worn out, but it failed to scrape a layer of dust from the door.This news meant that they were only one step away from the stone slab, but Arakawa Zebei also had a difficult time how to cross this step, so he had to bother the two who had stayed up for several nights before resting in shifts.

The tunnel is high and deep, with a diameter of about six meters. The shield machine followed by the tunnel boring machine embedded a hard shield on the tunnel wall to prevent collapse.When Zhou Fangzun and Munakata Reisi arrived, Arakawa Sawakita was writing something on a simple table full of documents, and when Munakata greeted him, he didn't even have time to lift his head and only responded vaguely.

The door stood in front of them. The huge stone-like door was engraved with complicated patterns. The sonar detection showed that it was less than one meter thick, but it showed a degree of hardness that did not match it.

Zhou Fang raised his hand and pressed it, but the place touched by his palm faintly fainted with a bright halo.He turned his head to look at Munakata in surprise, and the other party looked at him hastily before being called over by Arakawa Sawakita.

"I guess this door is a product of Dresden Slate's self-defense. The slate put a ban on it to prevent people like us from entering. It thinks we are not qualified." Arakawa Zebei said with a frown: "Probably It needs a so-called king to open it. I have considered explosives, but the amount of explosives that can achieve the purpose is likely to cause the tunnel to collapse. But I have thought of other methods," he tapped the words he just wrote with the pen in his hand , "I would like to trouble you to apply for something for me, this door..." His words were silenced the moment his eyes moved to Shimen, and he was so shocked that he didn't even have time to close his mouth.

Zhou Fangzun stood in front of the door with his hands still in his pockets. He lazily retracted the kick he had kicked out. The faint light from the wide-open door reflected his face even more sharply.Zhou Fangzun glanced over slowly, looking at Arakawa Zebei with some doubts in his eyes.Arakawa Zawakita was silent for a few seconds and then plunged into the pile of documents to search for information. Munakata couldn't help giving him a sympathetic look.

Munakata Reisi walked over to stand side by side with Zhou Fangzun in front of the door, neither of them made a sound.The Dresden stone slabs on the rock wall in the depths of the cave flowed with a faint light, and the fine flowing flames passed through the gloomy air to reach them but could not leave the door, so they had to keep spinning and hovering in front of them, just like an invitation.

After many years of absence, they finally saw this "old friend" again, and finally they were able to bring destruction to it as they wished.

In the meeting room of the research institute, Munakata Reiji, who was the most present at the scene, spoke first. He asked Arakawa Sawakita a question, and he just stunned the researchers who had just digested the ecstatic news of "we finally found the slate". :

"I want to know, are there any existing weapons that can completely destroy the slate?"

Arakawa Sawakita was surprised for a moment, but then realized that this was the ultimate goal of Munakata Reiji restarting the project.He thought for a moment and said cautiously: "Judging from the data collected from the stone slab just now, I think there are still weapons that can reach this level, but there has never been a similar record before, and even the existence of the stone slab is an untraceable I can't guarantee the complete destruction of the documented records."

"Always try." Zhou Fang leaned back in his chair and said, "What weapon are you talking about?"

Arakawa Zebei pondered: "The Freya I participated in the development of when I was still an intern is a weapon of super-mass destruction. It can be understood as a modified nuclear bomb. For some reasons, it cannot be mass-produced, and only one with Freya is equipped. It is called the prototype of Qilin, but the previous emperors did not allow it to be put into the battlefield, so the Qilin has been sealed in the hangar of the king city, and it needs the permission of the emperor to open it."

"Freya...salvation?" Munakata chuckled, "Can the scope of influence be estimated?"

"This is not a question..." Arakawa Zebei almost bit his tongue when he realized half of the answer, "Are you really planning to use it?"

"Obviously." Munakata tapped the conference table with his fingertips, and said slowly, "If it's not a weapon of this level, I'm afraid it's really not worthy of sending it on the road."

The application for using the Kirin prototype was successfully approved, and the Luoyang side in Kyoto was also very efficient. On the evening of the third day, they saw the dusty mecha.The streamlined body, the pure black armor, and the simple and neat equipment don't look very eye-catching.Although it has not been used for a long time, the Federation has been maintaining it regularly, which is convenient for them.

Reiji Munakata adjusted his glasses and looked at the mech. Arakawa Zekita came forward and handed over a thick booklet in his hand, "The pilot who originally drove the Kirin lost contact not long ago. Considering the situation on our side, so Sending the mecha first, I also want to see if we can find someone to drive it here."

The booklet was intercepted first by Zhou Fangzun, who had just come out of Qilin's operating cabin. He lit a cigarette for himself and glanced quickly at the book.

"It's really unexpected how much you are interested in this kind of thing." Munakata looked at him with a smile.

"Aren't you?" Zhou Fang turned the page with one hand without lifting the head.

"Then you two..." Arakawa Zebei raised his hand and rubbed his forehead, and his face suddenly changed after speaking halfway.

Not only him, Zhou Fangzun and Munakata Reishi also glanced at each other quickly, and the teasing expression disappeared instantly.The ground under their feet trembled faintly, the lights in the hangar flickered, and the sound of electric current faintly sounded, accompanied by sharp air-defense sirens.

The people in the hangar still ran out in an orderly manner with good quality. Arakawa Sawakita, who arrived at the open space first, glanced at the distance and was stunned, looking back at Zhou Fangzun and Munakata Reiji with a stiff expression.As soon as the two of them took out the terminal, they both called before they could dial out the deputy.

"Respect, just like three years ago, the alliance is here."

"Your Excellency, a large number of alliance mechas are lurking under the sea. They launched an attack just now, and most of them have already entered the airspace and headed towards your position."

They have already seen that, on the edge of the cloud-strewn sky, a golden color seeped out, mixed with the smell of gunpowder smoke, and Knight Mare was shot down continuously, hitting the ground heavily and splashing flames into the air.It was like the reappearance three years ago, but it was clear that the alliance had a precise goal this time, and under the strict air defense system deployed by Munakata and Zhou Fang, those mechas almost tore apart a way forward with their lives.

All stories will have an ending, and the beginning of everything is destined to be the end of everything.

Zhou Fang narrowed his eyes slightly and looked into the distance, "It seems that the news about Qilin's dispatch has been leaked from Luoyang, the capital."

"Then bring all the sixth-generation mechas that can fly in the alliance... that's crazy." Arakawa Zebei murmured.

Munakata withdrew his gaze calmly, and said to the terminal: "How many mechas can be deployed for air combat?"

Seri Awashima hesitated for a moment, and said uncertainly: "The Second Army has returned to Luoyang, Kyoto. The only teams that can quickly gather in the Fourth Army are the squads. The guards in the Japanese area can also be called, but I am worried that the alliance will take advantage of the situation. And enter..."

Another terminal was suddenly stuffed into Zongxiang's hands, and he looked up. Zhou Fang took out the Qilin key and shook it at him, smiling a little arrogantly: "There is also Baru Wuluo."

"Can you manipulate a unicorn?" Munakata asked in the middle of the call.

"Almost." Zhou Fang replied indifferently, "Looking at this desperate posture, I probably won't give me time to practice, so let's do it today." He raised his hand and pulled Arakawa Zebei two steps aside, "By the way According to your experience, can you completely destroy it if you launch it at the stone slab?"

"Are you crazy?!" Arakawa Zebei shook off his hand, and raised his voice uncontrollably: "If you launch Freya in the cave, the whole mountain will definitely collapse, and it is even more likely that you and the whole mountain will collapse." It was blown to pieces!"

Zhou Fangzun glanced at Zongxiang who was giving orders to the terminal not far away, raised his eyebrows and said: "It means that the stone slab can be destroyed, right?"

Arakawa Zebei hesitated for a moment, then turned his head away from him annoyed, "There is a 0.04-second pause after Freya launches the launch, if you can catch it, withdraw, maybe you can survive."

He exhaled a puff of white smoke and asked, "What are the chances of surviving?"

Arakawa Zebei moved the corner of his mouth, lowered his eyes and unconsciously lowered his voice, "Up to 30.00%."

"Ah, that's enough." Zhou Fangzun pointed to Munakata Reiji, the other party frowned and focused on the call, not paying attention to the conversation here, "Don't tell him."

Arakawa Zebei was silent for a while, then nodded, "Okay."

Not long after the voice fell, Munakata Reji also closed the line and came over, "The transfer of residents within the possible affected area has ended in the past few days. The remaining question is how much preparation time does it take for Freya to activate?"

"It takes about seven to 10 minutes for the pilot to enter the matching information and reach the critical point." Arakawa Sawakita said.

"Can you stop Brigadier General Munakata?" Zhou Fang glanced sideways and smiled.

"Don't you think it's ridiculous to say this kind of question?" Munakata looked back.

Arakawa Zebei looked at the two of them, hesitated for a moment and left before checking Qilin's mobile equipment.Looking at his back, Zhou Fang sneered and stopped talking, turned his head and found something and threw it to Zongxiang.

The object flashed a silver arc and landed in Munakata's hand. It was a KnightMare key. He curled up his lips and turned it around his fingertips, then raised his eyes to look at Zhou Fang: "Give the Winged Lion to my hand." Li isn't worried that Wuwuluo will start a fight?"

"You care about that?" he asked back.

Munakata stopped his hands, gathered his fingers and held the key in the palm of his hand, and after a brief silence, he spoke again, and the breath he exhaled turned into a cloud of white mist and dispersed in the cold air: "Zhou Fang, the last question..."

But was interrupted, "Zongxiang," Zhou Fang pinched the cigarette and crushed it with his heel, he also let out a long breath, "See you later."

Zong Xiang narrowed his eyes slightly, and then showed a faint smile, "Well, see you later."

The terminal rang again, and the female deputy reported that KnightMare had assembled.Zhou Fangzun and Munakata Reisi said nothing more, turned around and walked with their backs.

Qilin had already stopped in front of the hangar door, and Zhou Fangzun was about to jump up, but his movements suddenly paused, and he looked up at the vast sky unexpectedly.

The car that came to pick up Munakata Reisi to go to the military base was parked in front of the research institute. He pressed the edge of the door with his hand, and a coolness fell on his face. fall.

"Snowing."

"Snowing."

——The last question, when the stone slab is destroyed, can we who have been given life again by it continue to survive?