Chapter 599: Elysium
Under the focused gazes of Asuka, Shinji, and Rei Ayanami, Maine's squad began to describe the world they had just experienced, known as "Elysium".
Falco and Dorio primarily handled the narration, with Rebecca and Pilar occasionally chiming in to add details. Maine remained silent for most of the time, just listening and occasionally nodding at key points.
A World in Despair
"That was also an Earth," Falco's voice drew everyone's thoughts away from the Death World, "but it's very different from the one we are familiar with, or the one where Night City is located. The environmental destruction there is much more thorough, or rather, more desperate."
He brought up some processed landscape images from his personal terminal—stripped of specific mission details—and projected them into the air.
The images clearly displayed a world in ecological collapse:
The sky was permanently shrouded in industrial smog and chemical pollutants, taking on a sickly, dim yellow and lead-gray hue that sunlight struggled to penetrate.
The earth was universally cracked and parched, and the surviving vegetation showed an unhealthy, withered yellow, sparsely scattered across the barren wilderness.
Massive landfills, like festering scars, stretched across the horizon on a scale beyond normal comprehension.
Overcrowded, dilapidated settlements clung tightly to the heavily polluted riverbanks or the edges of abandoned industrial zones; low shacks hastily cobbled together from rusted metal and scrap boards were packed densely together, seemingly without end.
The entire scene showed almost no signs of modern infrastructure or effective public services, and the air itself seemed permeated with dust, chemical waste, and the stench of despair.
"Looks kind of like some places after the Third Impact," Asuka commented with a frown, the images triggering some unpleasant memories for her.
"It's worse than that," Dorio shook her head. "At least in your world, the survivors still have hope for reconstruction and a certain level of organization. On that Earth, the vast majority of ordinary people live in a state of systemic oppression and poverty. The social structure is rigid, resources are extremely scarce, and order is maintained by cold, corrupt security robots from a company called Carlyle, which treats civilians like cattle."
Shinji looked at the numb faces of the people struggling to survive in the ruins within the images, a trace of pity showing in his eyes. He thought of the world he once lived in—a world that seemed normal but was actually alienating—but compared to the hellish scenes in the images, it could easily be called a paradise.
The Artificial Paradise
"However," Rebecca raised her voice, her tone carrying obvious sarcasm, "suspended right above this utterly ruined Earth is a little something—the Elysium space station!"
The image switched, and a massive, exquisitely structured ring-shaped space station appeared before everyone.
It rotated slowly against the backdrop of the starry sky, gleaming with a clean light. Inside, one could see simulated blue skies and white clouds, lush vegetation, and elegantly designed mansions scattered like pearls. It formed a stark, heaven-and-hell contrast with the filthy Earth below.
"Whoa..." Asuka let out a gasp of amazement. This magnificent artificial wonder truly exceeded her previous knowledge. While NERV's bases were massive, they were highly functional, lacking this kind of luxurious aesthetic.
"Elysium," Falco explained, "built and monopolized by a tiny fraction of the wealthiest and most powerful people on Earth. They live up there, enjoying pure air, water, food, and—as we later found out—nearly limitless medical resources. They enjoy immortality and eternal youth, treating Earth merely as a garbage dump and a source of cheap labor."
"Immortality? Eternal youth?" Shinji repeated in surprise; it sounded like a myth.
"Exactly," Dorio confirmed. "It relies on a technology known as Med-Bays. It is said that as long as the brain hasn't suffered instantaneous, complete death, any illness or injury, even fatal trauma or terminal diseases, can be cured in minutes. It can even reverse the aging process through regular use."
Rei Ayanami's red eyes flickered slightly; she seemed to harbor a slight interest in the principles behind this technology.
The Divide and the Mission
"What about the people on Earth?" Asuka pressed, keenly grasping the crux of the matter. "Don't they want to go up? Or do the people up there simply not care about the ones below at all?"
"They want to, of course they do," Pilar chimed in, his mechanical fingers tapping lightly on the tabletop. "Every day, people attempt to risk rushing the space station in crude, homemade spacecraft, or even just wrapped in rudimentary spacesuits; they are called 'illegals'. But Elysium has a formidable defense system, including automated robot guards and orbital defense platforms. The vast majority of illegals are ruthlessly destroyed during their approach. The people up top... they view the Earthlings as insects, as an entirely different species. Unless they need certain specialized labor that robots cannot replace, they don't care about the lives or deaths of those below."
Maine's deep voice finally sounded. "After we arrived, we established contact with a local organization called the Resistance. They are made up of former Carlyle company employees, technical experts, and civilians unwilling to be enslaved. Their goal is to break Elysium's monopoly and allow the medical technology to benefit everyone on Earth."
"So you decided to help them?" Asuka looked at Maine, her eyes inquisitive. She didn't quite understand why Maine's squad would intervene in the internal struggles of a strange world.
Dorio answered, "Partially out of sympathy. The wealth gap and level of oppression in that world, even to those of us who have seen our fair share of darkness, were simply too extreme. The other part was mission requirements. The directives given to us by Magos Ryo include evaluating the technological levels of different dimensions and recovering valuable tech. Elysium's medical technology clearly met those criteria."
"Plus, the smug faces of those rich snobs were just too repulsive!" Rebecca waved her fist. "Just looking at them pissed me off! Helping the Resistance beat them up sounded totally thrilling!"
Shinji remained silent. He couldn't imagine what kind of life that was—eternal suffering on one side, eternal indulgence in the clouds on the other. Rei Ayanami remained as calm as ever, as if listening to a story that had nothing to do with her.
The High-Risk Assault
"Helping the Resistance means you needed to assault that heavily defended Elysium space station," Asuka pointed out the most crucial and dangerous step. "How did you manage that?"
Falco and Maine exchanged a glance, then Falco slowly said, "That was an incredibly high-risk operation. We utilized an old cargo ship secretly modified by the Resistance, disguised it as a transport vessel, and mingled it into a smuggling route secretly controlled by corrupt Carlyle company officials in an attempt to breach Elysium's close-in defense network."
The atmosphere in the room grew tense as the narrative deepened; even their breathing seemed to lighten.
Asuka, Shinji, and Rei Ayanami all felt as though they had been transported aboard that ship, braving immense risks, hurtling towards a place that was both heaven and hell.