Bai Yu's eyes slowly opened as a cool breeze brushed past, fluttering his lapels and his short hair. He stood atop the fifty-meter-high wall, his eyes slightly squinted, still retaining a hint of laziness as if he hadn't fully woken up yet.
Looking down at the familiar town below, it was laid out exactly like the Shiganshina District. However, the difference was that many places were damaged, and Titans wandered aimlessly through the city.
The once bustling streets were now deserted, as if the entire world consisted only of Bai Yu and those dozens of wandering Titans.
Equipped around Bai Yu's waist was a set of Omni-Directional Mobility Gear. He held the blade handles, though the blades were not yet attached, and quietly watched the Titans below with their eerie smiles.
There were small two-meter Titans, as well as five or six-meter ones; the tallest even reached a height of about sixteen meters. Their smiles stretched to their ears, and their grotesque faces were enough to strike fear into anyone's heart.
He made a slicing motion in the air, creating a whistling sound, then tapped the device at his waist, listening to ensure there were no issues.
The Titans on the ground seemed to have discovered him; their eyes fixed intently on Bai Yu atop the wall, and they began crawling toward his direction one after another.
However, given the Titans' height, they couldn't scale the 50-meter-tall wall. They could only crane their necks upward to look at Bai Yu above.
With a click, Bai Yu snapped a blade from the scabbard into his handle and slowly drew it out. With his other hand, he took out a pair of wireless earphones that didn't belong to this era from who-knows-where and stuffed them into his ears, as soft music began to surround him.
This caused him to unconsciously focus his mind. This was his habit, giving him a peculiar, indescribable feeling.
Maybe it's a kind of psychological suggestion, he thought.
Bai Yu's thoughts didn't halt his movements. Holding the long blades somewhat casually, he leapt down from the high wall amidst the greedy gazes of the Titans.
The Omni-Directional Mobility Gear at his waist rapidly deployed cables, and gas hissed from the device, leaving a long line of white mist behind him.
A Titan about fifteen meters tall suddenly lunged upward, its gaping maw snapping toward Bai Yu's figure. However, Bai Yu's gaze wasn't fixed on it alone; he was surveying all the Titans collectively.
Spinning his body with the thrust of the gas, a flash of blade light flickered in his hand.
Like a meteor, he carved a perfect arc across the Titan's neck. A chunk of flesh from the nape fell away. Bai Yu stepped onto its falling corpse, using its descent to pin down two other Titans that were only three or four meters tall.
Bai Yu's figure propelled back into the air. The cables of the Omni-Directional Mobility Gear shot out again, anchoring into the eye socket of a nearby Titan as a large amount of scalding blood sprayed out.
His expression remained lazy, but deep within his eyes was a sharp edge.
The battle had only just officially begun.
...
"Ha... ha..."
As the evening sun gradually set, Bai Yu sat slumped on the tall wall, panting heavily. His body was covered in blood that was still steaming and gradually evaporating. On the ground were bones that hadn't finished evaporating yet, along with a massive corpse that was still half-flesh.
Although a few Titans still wandered scattered about, Bai Yu no longer had the strength or stamina to fight.
He sat on the wall, blood constantly dripping from him. A chunk of flesh was missing from his shoulder, his left arm was mangled, and he suffered from numerous abrasions and fractures.
Yet Bai Yu didn't seem to care; his face only bore a look of helplessness.
Beside him, his blades were severely chipped. All the blades in his scabbards had been used up, and he had replaced the gas canisters many times.
Looking at a Titan below, Bai Yu picked up a blade with his right hand, stood up unsteadily, and threw it with all his might at the creature.
The blade flew out, spinning continuously through the air toward a nearly fifteen-meter Titan, but it was kicked away by a side-kick from the creature, landing in the ruins nearby.
One could see a Titan that looked eighty percent like Bai Yu; there was no confusion in its eyes, only the fullness of human intelligence.
This was a Titan modeled after Bai Yu's own stamina, reaction speed, and intelligence. It was essentially a giant version of Bai Yu, a world apart from the other Titans.
It stared quietly at Bai Yu on the wall. It wasn't in great shape either; chunks of muscle had been sliced off, steam was rising from its joints as they repaired themselves, and its hands were missing entirely, though they were slowly regenerating.
In contrast, Bai Yu looked at its figure with helplessness in his eyes.
I can't win...
Even though Bai Yu had given it his all, unreservedly utilizing the walls, the town, and pushing the Omni-Directional Mobility Gear to its absolute limit, he still couldn't win.
Although Bai Yu knew that an Intelligent Titan wouldn't normally be this agile or possess such natural human-like control over its body, he had directly given this Titan his own full reaction speed just to be safe.
Consequently, Bai Yu didn't know how many times he had been killed by it. A hundred times? A thousand? Or ten thousand?
His physical weakness meant he no longer had the strength to keep himself standing. He collapsed powerlessly onto the wall, every part of his body screaming in pain as blood flowed slowly down the stone.
"It hurts so much."
Bai Yu murmured while looking at the sky.
Why train so hard? Why endure this kind of pain? There are plenty of ways to just survive by laying low, right?
Was it to fight Titans just in case, for the sake of survival?
Yeah, probably.
He smiled and unconsciously reached a hand toward the sky, spreading his fingers. He watched the white clouds drift by and birds circle in the air through the gaps between his fingers.
With his remaining right hand, he adjusted the volume on his earphones, turning it up a bit, and closed his weary eyes.
[Training Reset]
After Bai Yu lost consciousness, several large characters appeared before him. Everything was restored; Titans randomly spawned in various areas, and Bai Yu's body was completely healed.
He scrambled up from the ground and gave a long stretch, as if nothing from before had ever happened.
But this time, he ignored the Titans in the town. A figure appeared in front of him, taking a combat stance.
Now it was time for combat training.
After all, his future enemies would include not just Titans, but also humans and firearms. Bai Yu didn't want to neglect these life-saving skills.