Chapter 51: The Training Is Complete!

Sikong Xu and Mikasa were not far from the main group. After hurriedly traveling for a while, they arrived at a relatively expansive meadow surrounded by towering trees. Soldiers crowded the branches, their wary gazes hinting at vigilance against some unseen threat. Mechanical devices capable of launching steel wires as thick as fingers were affixed to several trunks; faint blue smoke drifted from their nozzles, evidence of recent use. Following the wires, at the center of the grassy field stood a giant, fourteen meters tall, its head bowed, both hands covering the critical spot at the nape of its neck.

The female titan’s body was riddled with bloody holes from the wires, but her formidable regenerative abilities had staunched the bleeding. The finger-thick wires, however, remained embedded in her flesh. Captain Levi stood atop her head, attempting to converse with the person inside the titan, but Annie, hidden within, paid him no heed.

Sikong Xu maneuvered his maneuver gear and landed beside Erwin, who nodded at him.

“What’s the situation?” Sikong Xu motioned for Mikasa to come over as he addressed Erwin.

“As you see, the mass of wires has finally managed to restrict her movements. Unfortunately, we have no way to extract the one concealed within her body,” Erwin replied.

“As expected…” The situation mirrored the original story: after limiting the female titan’s movements, her defenses remained impenetrable.

“Are you planning to use explosives?” Only after Mikasa landed at his side did Sikong Xu speak to Erwin.

Erwin looked at him in surprise, clearly not expecting Sikong Xu to predict his next step. He had assumed Sikong Xu was merely a skilled fighter; now he saw his intellect as well.

“Haha, don’t look at me like that. I’ve fought this female titan several times. That crystallization ability of hers is a real headache. With the technology we have, explosives are the only way we can blast open her hands.”

Sikong Xu finally voiced what he had always wanted to say: “But you should be careful. This one seems able to summon ordinary titans with her roar. If she calls a horde, we’ll be in real trouble.”

“What! Are you serious?” Sikong Xu’s words immediately drew Erwin’s full attention. Trusting Sikong Xu, Erwin quickly ordered his men to intensify the perimeter’s defenses, though it would prove futile.

“Tech squad, prepare the explosives, hurry—”

Erwin hadn’t finished his instructions when the female titan, bound by countless steel wires, suddenly began to tremble violently. She drew a deep breath and unleashed a piercing scream.

“Aah—”

Her immense lung capacity made her cry not only deafening but enduring. Everyone present clamped their hands over their ears, yet the titan’s shrill voice was so sharp that even with ears covered, the vibrations in the air and the faint sounds reaching their eardrums were unbearable.

The sound was unnaturally sharp, like a sword plunging deep into each person’s body, stirring violently within. Sikong Xu, ears plugged, felt his blood vibrate, his organs on the verge of bursting.

“Hah—hah—” Sikong Xu gasped for breath, the titan’s shriek torturing him as if he were suffering from a martial artist’s sonic attack—killing with sound alone.

He glanced at Mikasa; her condition was no better, on the verge of fainting.

The cry lasted a full thirty seconds, but in that brief span, everyone seemed to have visited hell. Sweat poured from their brows, and some even collapsed unconscious. The most terrifying part was the titan showed no sign of stopping.

“Damn it, how can her voice…”

Nauseated as his insides twisted, Sikong Xu thought grimly. When he read the original story, the female titan’s scream hadn't seemed so powerful—yet now its force was overwhelming.

“Fine, since you’re courting death, don’t blame me!”

A flash of coldness in his eyes, Sikong Xu endured the agony threatening to rupture his bones and rushed to the front of the female titan using his maneuver gear.

Levi, standing closest to the titan’s mouth, was suffering the most. Sikong Xu saw the captain’s eyes bloodshot, a trickle of crimson leaking from his ear.

“I’ll give you something to scream about!”

Sikong Xu darted past the titan’s face. As he faced her gaping maw, he flicked his wrist, tossing a stone wrapped in an unfamiliar white paper into her mouth.

That white paper was a single-use item, an “Explosive Talisman,” earned from completing the hidden quest “Leader of the Masses.”

The female titan sensed danger, hurriedly stopped screaming, and tried to eject the foreign object with her tongue, but Sikong Xu could trigger the talisman immediately.

“Detonate!”

With a thought, the Explosive Talisman ignited, and then—

Boom—

A thunderous roar erupted. The talisman’s power rivaled that of a modern high-explosive grenade. Imagine such a grenade detonating inside the titan’s mouth—the devastation was inevitable, and the repulsiveness as well.

Sikong Xu now faced exactly this scenario. The Explosive Talisman’s power pleased him greatly: half of the titan’s massive head was blown away, but the reeking blood and disgusting brain matter splattered across Sikong Xu, soaking his clothes in foul, viscous fluids, making him grimace.

He frowned, but his attention quickly shifted. In front of him, thanks to the proximity of the explosion, the titan’s nape was completely blasted open.

There, wrapped in muscle, was Annie’s figure at the nape.

“Captain Levi!”

Sikong Xu shouted.

Immediately, a shadow flashed over—Levi himself.

“Kid, don’t shout so loud. My hearing’s a bit off, but I’m not deaf yet.” Levi had left the titan’s head at Sikong Xu’s signal, and now he was here for the figure at the nape.

The next moment, both Sikong Xu and Levi landed atop the collapsed titan.

“This one… is a graduate of the trainees corps!” As he approached, Levi instantly recognized Annie.

“Annie Leonhardt, that’s her name.”

Sikong Xu gazed at Annie, her face exposed amidst the muscle, and felt a surge of pity.

“Do you feel sorry for me?” Annie said with self-deprecation.

Despite her severe wounds, Annie was still conscious, her eyes fixed on Sikong Xu with strange emotion.

“I was careless. I didn’t expect what you threw to be so powerful,” Annie said slowly, as if stalling for time.

“Don’t bother. Before the titans you summoned arrive, I can easily capture you alive,” Sikong Xu replied coolly.

Annie, her intentions exposed, showed no embarrassment. “I really regret not killing you sooner. If you hadn’t appeared… none of this would have happened…”

“Well, sorry about that… Actually, you look quite beautiful when you cry…” Seeing the tears at Annie’s eyes, Sikong Xu no longer wished to say more. He glanced at Levi, who prepared to extract Annie.

But just as Levi was about to act, several blue lights burst from Annie’s body, dazzling as crystal.

“Back, quickly!”

At Levi’s shout, Sikong Xu retreated several meters away. He knew Annie intended to seal herself completely with crystal to avoid capture.

Shhh—

The blue light lasted a while before fading. A massive crystal appeared before Sikong Xu and Levi, inside which Annie, tear-streaked, lay tightly curled, like a sleeping beauty.

“Damn!” Levi cursed under his breath. With the crystal’s appearance, he knew their hope of learning titan secrets from Annie was gone. The crystal was identical to the one produced by the female titan’s partial hardening, and current human technology was helpless against it.

“Captain, tell the commander to retreat. The female titan’s scream likely summoned many titans. Have someone find a rope to move this crystal.”

Levi nodded at Sikong Xu’s suggestion, then used his maneuver gear to reach Erwin.

At that moment, a cold voice echoed in Sikong Xu’s mind.

“Cadet Sikong Xu has completed Main Quest Three.”

“Quest difficulty: Two stars.”

“Quest content: Participate in the first capture operation of the female titan and succeed.”

“Quest reward: 150 credits.”

“Congratulations, Cadet Sikong Xu has completed all main quests. All training missions in this world are now finished.”

“Please choose:”

“1. Return immediately.”

“2. Remain temporarily (Note: stay may not exceed two days).”

Hearing this, Sikong Xu finally smiled. Main Quest Two had been completed when Eren joined the Survey Corps, and now, with Main Quest Three finished, he could finally return to the real world.

Yet, before leaving, Sikong Xu had one last important matter to attend to…