Nobita's Time Heist

"The Human Instrumentality Project... is..."

"I do not know."

"What?!" Nobita nearly dropped his glasses in shock. "Aren't you the one in charge of executing this plan?"

"Yes."

Are you telling me that, as the person responsible for implementing the plan, you don't know anything about the plan itself?

"Yes."

"Why is this happening?"

"I do not know."

……

After putting in so much effort, he only ended up back where he started, which infuriated Nobita. Just as he was about to unleash Nobi's signature "45-degree angle furniture restoration master" on the machine, the door suddenly opened. The girl stood quietly in the doorway without turning on the light, her dark red eyes seemingly gleaming faintly in the dim light.

"That won't work."

"Ayanami-kun?" Nobita was caught off guard. After all, Gendo Ikari was nominally the girl's adoptive father, and it felt inappropriate to interrogate him so openly. But it was too late to press the switch now, so he could only smile sheepishly, "Um, I..."

“NERV’s position is not the same as the position of the whole world. The E-series project has consumed a lot of money, and the organization is a secretive agency that adheres to absolute secrecy and does not disclose the progress to the outside world. There are many people who are dissatisfied with us. As the commander-in-chief of NERV, he could be captured at any time. If he were to fall into that situation, the enemy would do anything to get the information in his mind.”

"Enemies?" Nobita was stunned for a few seconds. "Aren't your enemies some unknown creatures called Apostles?"

"..." Rei Ayanami glanced at him. Although she was a girl younger than him, Nobita could read a hint of helplessness in her eyes.

"To prevent this worst-case scenario, the commander regularly cleans up his memories. This is a method evolved from memory categorization, which forcibly pulverizes things that he doesn't want to remember, leaving not a trace. He is particularly ruthless with his own memories, to the point that even if he takes truth serum, he won't reveal a single word."

Nobita was stunned by the answer. It was truly beyond common sense that a person could go to such lengths for something. So he subconsciously asked, "Really?"

“That’s true.” Gendo Ikari on the screen admitted expressionlessly, “The mechanism for self-destruction of memories comes at a huge cost. Through certain means, I’ve strongly associated a certain memory with ‘pain.’ Once the association is made, an instinctive psychological defense mechanism is generated.”

"How do I remove it?"

Keywords are needed.

"What about keywords?"

"Only MAGI knows that when the plan reaches a critical point, it will make its own judgment and activate a part of my memory."

……

At this point, a sense of admiration arose in Da Xiong's heart. Along with it came a deep sense of apprehension—this guy was too ruthless; if he could be this ruthless to himself, one could only imagine how he would treat others.

"Dinner is ready. Commander Katsuragi is calling you to go out for dinner."

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

This was Gendo Ikari's additional condition. He didn't want NERV to be completely excluded from the plan; he needed to know at least the general movements of the three pilots. To achieve a delicate balance between the two sides, he wanted to select someone who wouldn't offend Nobita to act as the recorder for this operation, representing only NERV's position, observing the entire process without interfering, and incidentally providing logistical support for the three pilots.

Without much discussion, the candidates were chosen naturally.

"laugh----"

As the tab was opened, the unique aroma of beer, reminiscent of bread, wafted out and filled the entire room.

"It's been almost a day and a night since I last touched it, really... glug glug..." Before she could finish speaking, she grabbed a can of beer. It's not even appropriate to use the word "drink" but rather "pour," as if her mouth was a bottomless pit. She downed so much beer in one gulp without even turning red or panting. In the end, she even wiped her mouth with a very magnanimous expression, revealing a satisfied look.

"The commander of the Evidence World Organization is actually an alcoholic who can't live without alcohol... Ah~~~" Asuka shook her head and complained in a drawn-out tone, "I think this world is really beyond saving."

"You'll understand later. In the adult world, it's hard to survive without even a little comfort." Misato actually has a high alcohol tolerance, but she just wanted to enjoy this half-drunk, hazy feeling, squinting her eyes as the alcohol took effect. "Just this little bit of cheap dopamine can temporarily free us from the terrible reality."

"Kids... don't grow up to be like me, okay?"

Chapter 366: Your voice sounds a lot like my mother's.

"Ugh... Ugh... As expected, staying up late really does have an effect; my endocrine system is all messed up. This is such a small amount; I used to drink it like water..."

In the dead of night, Misato Katsuragi couldn't fall asleep. Waves of nausea and dizziness forced her out of bed, and she vomited for a while in the bathroom. After grumbling a few times, she was about to go back to bed when she suddenly caught sight of a figure sitting on the sofa. Years of training had ingrained muscle memory, allowing her to react instantly. With a forward roll, she used the edge of the sofa as her foot, making only a tiny scraping sound, and instantly pinned the person beneath her!

"Miss Katsuragi?! Calm down..." Nobita was about to greet her when he was caught off guard by this barrage of questions and quickly identified himself, "It's me!"

"Nobita?"

Misato paused for a few seconds, her groggy head clearing before she realized she had several new tenants. Before this, she had always been a single, reclusive woman with rather poor lifestyle habits, her alcohol dependence reaching an inescapable point. It felt like the day was wasted if she didn't drink a few cans of beer each day. Misato had always been a very easygoing person; as long as the house wasn't unbearably dirty, she could live comfortably in it.

Regardless, it's never good for underage children to see this kind of living situation. Therefore, before letting them into the house, Misato did a "reluctant" cleaning. To call it cleaning was more like packing up all the dirt and mess and stuffing it into a corner to create a false impression of cleanliness.

However, while cleaning is important, the psychological shift is difficult to reverse so quickly.

"Um, Ms. Katsuragi..." Nobita's tone was a little awkward. Although he tried to look away, in his current posture, it was difficult for his eyes to wander. "Why don't you find something to cover yourself with?"

"Hmm?" Misato groggily looked down, her cheeks instantly flushing. Having been home alone for so long, she always slept in a close-fitting nightgown. Her lower body was completely exposed, whatever made her comfortable, revealing her healthy, full figure. Realizing she was still pressed tightly against Nobita, Misato instinctively bit her lip, quickly rolled off, grabbed a blanket from the sofa, and covered herself with it.

"I'm sorry, Nobita, I..." She wanted to explain herself, but when she saw Nobita's eyes shining even in the dark, she couldn't help but laugh and felt that it was unnecessary. "I've done something stupid again."

"Ms. Katsuragi, it's best not to drink so much at night. It's fine occasionally, but drinking every day... wouldn't that be bad for your liver?"

Nobita earnestly advised his father, while simultaneously thinking of his own father, Nobi Shinsuke, the man who worked nine-to-five and silently supported the family. One time, his father came home completely drunk, barely recognizing anyone. He unusually threw a tantrum, declaring himself the head of the household and untouchable. Left with no other choice, Doraemon and Nobita had to send his father back decades, to when his grandmother was still alive, so she could discipline her son.

What Nobita saw and heard that night was somewhat heavy. What impressed him most was a sentence from Doraemon.

"Adults are actually quite pitiful, because there is no one older than them who they can act spoiled with."

"Thinking about it that way, it's true..."—These were Nobita's exact words at the time. Because he was still too far from that age, Nobita couldn't understand what that feeling was like; he only vaguely sensed that in the distant future, he would also become such a pitiful adult.

Alcohol and tobacco, in essence, were created to fill an emptiness. Most adults can only use these things to stimulate themselves, thereby obtaining simple pleasures to combat this numb and indifferent world.

Nobita looked at the empty beer cans that had been roughly stuffed under the coffee table and were now rolling out one by one, and said with a wry smile, "Is becoming an adult really such a terrible thing?"

"That's not really true. It's just that... some people, no matter what, simply can't adapt to this world." Misato simply drew back the curtains, letting the light stream into the room. She let out a long sigh, leaned back on the sofa, and surprisingly let down her guard in front of a stranger. "The ideal castle is beautiful, but reality is cruel and cold. If I lived alone in such a big house, I really couldn't sleep without having a drink."

"Where's Da Xiong?" she suddenly changed the subject, a hint of curiosity in her eyes. "Are you having trouble sleeping too?"

"Insomnia." Da Xiong never expected that he would be associated with these two words one day. He shook his head with a wry smile. "If I wanted to sleep, I would never have insomnia. It's just that... there are many things that I have to consider in advance."

"Because those three children clearly all have very serious psychological problems, right? Low self-esteem, avoidance, self-denial, lack of cognition... each has their own problems. One or two might be a coincidence, but all the drivers I've seen so far are like this, so I can only understand it as one of the implicit criteria for selecting suitable candidates."

Misato Katsuragi looked at him quietly, neither denying it nor denying it; rather, it was a fact that everyone at NERV tacitly accepted.

This was also the result of Gendo Ikari's deliberate guidance: three psychologically vulnerable candidates could easily have their weaknesses exploited and become pawns to be manipulated at will.

However, in Nobita's eyes, this is a mistake that urgently needs to be corrected.

"I want to give everyone a happy ending, like 'the hero defeats the dragon and lives happily ever after with the princess,' simple and straightforward, without any dragging. If I can achieve that, then I won't have lived in vain."

……

Misato's pupils dilated slightly; she subconsciously thought Nobita was cool for saying those words. The cold light from the window shone on him, making him look like a messiah, compassionate towards all living beings, who had stepped out of a mural.

So, she instinctively asked, "Does 'everyone' include me?"

"Of course, Miss Katsuragi, you..."

Halfway through his sentence, Nobita seemed to realize something, paused for a moment, and gave an awkward laugh. This pause only fueled Misato's curiosity. She braced herself on the sofa, leaning slightly forward. The soft blanket draped over her, outlining her shapely curves, and a faint fragrance wafted from her, causing Nobita's face to flush slightly once more.

"What am I?"

“Your voice sounds a bit like my mother’s, so… of course I’ll help you.” Nobita scratched his head sheepishly. He had used up almost all his emotional intelligence on Shizuka, without considering how she would react to what he said. “At least I can feel that you still care about Shinji and the others, and that’s enough.”

……

Misato was truly stunned. Nobita's words had kept her rooted to the spot for nearly several tens of seconds, without even changing her expression.

But soon, as if suddenly realizing something, she burst into laughter. To avoid waking the three children, she deliberately covered her mouth with a blanket, almost laughing herself off the sofa.

The curtains fluttered gently.

The pure, bright moonlight witnessed all of this.

Chapter 367: Grand! Nobita's Fourth New Tokyo!

"Wow……"

Even a girl as proud as Asuka couldn't help but exclaim in amazement.

To be honest, when she saw Nobita pull a pink wooden door out of his pocket like a magician, slam it onto the ground, and confidently declare, "Open this door and you'll find our training base," she initially thought he might have some mental issues. Most normal people would have the same thought upon first seeing a gadget like the Anywhere Door.

The moment you open the door, the world changes.

What came into view was a colossal tree that seemed to stretch from heaven to earth; the phrase "covering the sky and blocking out the sun" would be no exaggeration. Its trunk, like the arm of a giant, was as hard as rock, curving majestically yet solemnly; its outstretched branches resembled an old dragon stretching its body, soaring in the azure sky, displaying unparalleled vitality. They had never seen a tree of such scale on earth before; it seemed to have completely transcended the limitations of living things, and with the naked eye, they couldn't even discern its exact height. They only knew that its shade was enough to envelop the entire city.

Yes, centered on this unprecedented electric tree, flowers bloom in all directions, creating a steel city.

It would be more appropriate to describe it as a "fortress" rather than a city.

This defensive fortress, seemingly forged from steel and munitions, had most of its gun emplacements suspended in mid-air using anti-gravity technology, like stars surrounding the moon, ready to fire at any angle at any time. Countless guns and cannons were aimed outwards, and Shinji could already imagine them unleashing their overwhelming firepower, tearing the enemy to shreds.

At the heart of the heavily fortified city, everything was running smoothly. Spaceships the size of whales rose and fell through the steel jungle without a sound. Teardrop-shaped aircraft darted through the air, leaving trails of azure light behind them. Despite reaching far supersonic speeds, they maintained perfect order, weaving a dazzling transportation network above the city—a testament to the pinnacle of "order amidst chaos."

And those "self-construction robots" responsible for repairing the city are also busy working in every corner of the city, maintaining weapons and inspecting buildings to ensure that this huge steel behemoth is ready to go at full speed at any time.

"This...this place is so big, and you can just push open a door and..." Asuka watched as Nobita magically put the Anywhere Door back into his pocket. Just that simple action of putting it back in and putting it away, and what she saw afterward, was enough to amaze her. "How did we get here? Is there a mechanism inside this door?"

“It’s warped space, isn’t it?” Rei Ayanami said calmly, but in a very short time, she successfully deciphered the principle of the gadget. “If you compare space to a piece of paper, the fastest way to get from point A to point B is to fold the paper.”

"Is something like this, which seems like something out of a science fiction movie, really possible?" Asuka, like a curious child, craned her neck and looked around, unable to get enough of the sight. "Even so, this fortress city is much larger than Tokyo-3. I heard that NERV found this huge underground cavity, which is why they set up their base there. The building density here is already very high; in theory, there shouldn't be such a large space."

“Unless…” Shinji stepped on the white “ground” beneath his feet. The texture was softer than he had imagined, like stepping on cotton candy of varying shades, yet not enough to make him fall. “We are above the clouds.”

"Huh?" Asuka looked at him with a "Are you out of your mind?" expression, then squatted down with a smile, saying with a hint of smugness, "I'm telling you, you idiot Shinji, have some common sense, okay? Clouds are made up of small crystals formed by the solidification of ice and gas. Even elementary school students know that, how could you possibly..."

When she tried to tear a piece of cotton-like cloud from the ground, her expression froze on her face, and she couldn't continue her lecture.

“Shinji is right. This city was built in the clouds. I used 22nd-century technology to solidify the clouds into a solid foundation strong enough to support a city. No matter how much we cause trouble up there… it’s fine.” As he spoke, he symbolically jumped twice. The solidified cloud ground was very elastic; even a couple of jumps with normal force had the same effect as jumping on a trampoline. “Even the celestial beings, using their armed forces, couldn’t shake the foundation of this fortress!”

"A celestial being?"

"Ah...no, it's nothing." Getting carried away, Nobita couldn't help but recount his past adventures. He quickly waved his hand with a smile, pointing to the towering tree standing in the city center. "See this tree? It's called 'Yuktrasil,' a new species that Xiaoshan and I created together, but that's another story. Its intelligence far exceeds your imagination. It's directly connected to all the systems of the fortress. You can think of it as the head steward here, handling everything from the smallest details, like the real-time flight path of a droplet transport ship."

“Yuktrasil, what a tongue-twisting name,” Asuka remarked. “It doesn’t sound like something you would come up with. If it were you, you’d probably just call it ‘Little Green’ or ‘Little Tree’ or something like that, right?”

“This,” Rei Ayanami immediately retrieved the relevant information from her vast knowledge base, “is it the meaning of ‘World Tree’ in Norse mythology?”

The giant tree's canopy emitted a soft, emerald-green halo, bathed in holy light and filled with divinity, as if responding to her words.

"..." Misato's pupils dilated involuntarily. As a spy planted by NERV next to Nobita, her constant accompaniment was a result that both sides could barely accept after numerous negotiations. Of course, the moment she stepped into the base, all the devices worn on her naturally stopped working. The only things that could remember everything were Misato's own eyes and memories.

She couldn't help but pinch the back of her hand, using the pain to remind herself that this wasn't a dream. This fortified city, floating above the city like a heavenly kingdom, impregnable and militarily powerful, was real!

She felt that her position was somewhat delicate.

Last night's experience stirred a soft spot in her heart when she thought of Nobita. However, as a member of NERV and a soldier, her identity filled her with immense worry. The technological gap between the two sides had reached a level that was difficult to comprehend. No matter how hard she racked her brains, she couldn't understand how humans could stand on the clouds like that.

Nobita isn't stupid; on the contrary, he's quite sensitive to emotional changes—something Misato confirmed in their conversation last night. He couldn't possibly be unaware of Commander Ikari's hostility and wariness towards him, or even the underhanded tactics he's employing behind the scenes; he simply doesn't care because of the vast difference in power.

What will happen once he gets serious?

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

"This city probably doesn't have a name yet, right?" Shinji looked around, the novel experience bringing a spark of energy to his usually somewhat fixed eyes.

“Indeed, I haven’t thought about it yet. I was too busy building it back then…” Nobita rested his chin on his hand, pondered for a moment, “How about we call it, ‘Fourth New Tokyo City’?”

"One day, if the worst happens, you can make this a sanctuary for all mankind."

Chapter 368: Weapons and People

Riding in the self-driving maglev train, the brand-new skyscrapers flashed by in a quiet ride. Structurally, Tokyo-4 doesn't need so many buildings; it's merely a temporary training ground. However, considering practical needs, the city's layout was designed to mimic the structure of Tokyo-3 as much as possible. Nobita's intention was to allow the pilots to train in a familiar environment.

However, among the newcomers, only Misato noticed his intentions; the rest were like dwarfs entering a land of giants for the first time, finding everything novel and fascinating. Shinji and Asuka practically pressed their faces against the car windows to look, and even the usually composed Rei Ayanami turned her head slightly to carefully observe everything in sight.

On the winding road, they were the only vehicle, and they moved unimpeded wherever they went. The interior of this steel fortress was far more vibrant than they had imagined.

"See that white sailboat-shaped hotel? That's where we rest during training. Xiaofu told me that it's the most luxurious hotel in the world, and its shape is that of a sailboat, so it was specially designed that way."

Da Xiong patted his chest proudly and introduced, "When it was finished, I stayed there for one night myself, and it was simply indescribable. Speaking of which, after the second wave of the pandemic, many industries have become sluggish, right? For example, the tourism industry, the number of tourists has declined to the point that it can hardly be an industry anymore. Perfect, take this opportunity to take you to stay in the most luxurious hotel and have a good experience!"

"Um, Nobita..." Shinji said somewhat awkwardly.

"Training?" Asuka rolled her eyes at him. "Don't underestimate me. I didn't get on EVA just to enjoy life."

"Well, well, don't rush," Nobita comforted him like a child. "Actually, the training started the moment we stepped into this city."

"...Has it started?" Asuka tilted her head, puzzled. "I don't feel anything at all."

"That's good, you don't feel anything." Nobita nodded in satisfaction. "Now, let's head straight to the first training location!"

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

"Wow... Wow..."

The sound of the seawater gently lapping against the beach.

To everyone's true surprise, there was an ocean even above the clouds! Da Xiong hadn't transformed all the clouds into solids; instead, he had intentionally thickened a portion, retaining some of their liquid properties, and sprinkled [seawater essence] into it, creating a scene resembling a Hawaiian beach. The maglev train took them to the artificial beach next to the Burj Al Arab hotel. The beach, which had been waiting for some time, presented itself to them in a pose no less perfect than those depicted in tourist posters.