章節 24: Deployment simulation [2]

Eren and Jean Kirstein's dispute was about a fox that they considered edible, but everyone knew that this was a trivial matter.

After hearing Sasha say that foxes can be eaten, both of them with an arrogant look went hunting and from one moment to the next they started fighting, Eren who couldn't find any fox, stopped Jean and blamed him for being so rowdy.

To be honest, the relationship between Eren and Jean is very strange. After the ordeal on the mountain, Jean understood a little bit about why Eren wanted to join the Exploration Corps, but the two hard heads fought very often over very absurd things. The strangest thing about their behavior is that no matter how hard the fight is, after a fight, both of them can communicate normally after a few days.

Jean told Armin to write down what happened, "Let's report it, just put that Eren Jaeger's actions obstructed the group's food supply, fate because of his arrogant shortcomings."

Eren was angry when he heard Jean's words and gritted his teeth: "You bastard!"

Seeing that the trouble was about to resume again, Nelson immediately intervened and said, "Stop fighting, Armin, don't point that out, it's just a meaningless little fight."

Armin was a bit overwhelmed for a while, but in the end, he secretly wrote down the incident impartially and completely, including everyone's reactions.

There was a lot of high-pitched noise from Jean's side, yet no one noticed the possible danger in the woods ahead for group one.

By three o'clock in the afternoon, Takashi's group had strayed deeper into the forest. Takashi and the others had been clearing the ground in a relatively open space; they found no anomalies at the moment, except for the hard-to-clean ground.

Mikasa was recording some topographical features of this place, and Takashi was standing on a stone looking at the map. Most of the crowd sat on the grass to drink water or feed the horses.

The old horse, Babas, studied the scenery inside the forest and began to eat grass, ignoring Takashi completely. However, Takashi suddenly focused his ears on the surrounding noises, feeling that everything was going well for the test that should be a bit more complicated in the first place.

His experiences as a hunter and those things he had to pay attention to in the forest to hunt had been imprinted on the current Takashi, so he immediately acted on his instincts.

"Shh!"

Takashi jumped off the stone and immediately pulled out two swords, these are the ideal tools against the titans. They are sword blades found on the sides of the body of the three-dimensional maneuvering equipment. According to the theory classes they are sword blades made of a steel alloy modified to be super strong. Therefore, they would work to wipe out any living thing that might exist in the world.

"What's wrong?" Reiner and the others were about to ask, but Takashi motioned for him to stop talking.

Takashi walked into the forest on the left side of the team, and Reiner and the others followed him silently.

A soldier named Daz was in the forest, and the three-dimensional maneuvering equipment was laid out on the grass next to him. Initially he didn't want to take it off when he heard Takashi's words, but then he felt tired so he relaxed for a moment in a place where he wouldn't be looked at.

Daz, who was resting, didn't notice that a long hand came out of the bush and silently picked up his three-dimensional maneuvering equipment.

His appearance was typical of black hooded thieves. This thief was actually just a special test member of Takashi's team. According to the instructions, the group that pretended to be thieves would approach the settlements of both teams to rob and kidnap.

This was something Takashi had expected, the test was very important to take into account all these factors. Unexpectedly for Daz, he was the first to fall victim to the test for not following Takashi's directions.　　

"Whatever happens now may be within the test, let's not rule out that they are instructors in disguise." Takashi slipped through the trees and shouted, "Stop!"

The instructor froze as he was caught, putting Daz's gear on the ground, quickly pulling out a knife and running towards Takashi and the others.

"Let's take care of him, Reiner." Takashi gave an order and pointed, "The others watch the surroundings, maybe he's not the only thief."

"Understood!"

Takashi, Reiner and Thomas slowly approached towards the thief, Takashi's eyes shrunk and he picked up a stone from the ground, making use of his Chakra on the surface of the stone he slowly prepared himself in secret. 　　

When Reiner was closer to the thief, Takashi threw the stone with precision.

"Boom!"

The stone flew straight towards the thief's blade he was holding with one hand, as fast as a sharp arrow. At this moment, the thief was thinking about how to escape from this place, it would be very embarrassing to be caught by some recruits.

"Metallic Noise!"

The stone that had hit the thief's weapon directly, caused due to the great impact the blade flew out of his hands, and with a metallic clang it fell to the ground far away from the thief.

The thief was stunned for a moment, he wanted to pick up his weapon again. However, Takashi had quickly used his three-dimensional maneuvering equipment to appear at the thief's back. 　　

The hooded figure of the thief stopped abruptly and before he could raise his fist, a cold metal blade rested on his neck and a slight bloodstain could be seen due to the edge so close to his skin.

Takashi looked at the bandit with indifference, "If you waste my time again, beware of losing your head!"

The bandit who was an instructor shivered, his eyes scanned the cold blade on his neck and slowly raised his hands to signal his surrender.

At that moment, Thomas and Reiner ran over, grabbed the bandit's arms and held him tightly, Takashi on his side put away his swords and the blade that the bandit had dropped on the ground and picked up Daz's three-dimensional maneuvering equipment. The thief was caught without loss.

As Takashi handed over the three-dimensional maneuvering equipment to Daz, he looked at the crowd watching the thief who entered the vicinity without anyone noticing and said coldly, "Daz, I think I was very direct when I mentioned that you should take care of your equipment if you decided to take it off to rest. However, you almost lost your equipment in the first second of taking it off. As soldiers, you must be careful and know that this is not just a test."

Daz looked scared and was sweating profusely, "No, I'll be careful next time!"

"That doesn't matter to me, concentrate on the test and don't make me waste my time again." Takashi looked at everyone and said, "Every two hours a roll call will be taken of the soldiers along with their equipment, we will set up a surveillance routine and everyone must move in groups of two."

"Understood!"

Everyone started to move, they knew it was just a thief, but they couldn't be careless like Daz a moment ago.

Looking at Daz, Takashi knows that Daz's training performance is relatively low, but he also knows that if he loses the three-dimensional maneuvering equipment, Instructor Keith will make him feel much more than embarrassed, he might even be kicked out of the training corps.

Ignoring Daz, he looked back, Ymir had tied the thief with a rope, Mikasa grabbed the thief's hood, which was the face of a middle-aged man with messy hair and a scar on his forehead.

Takashi approached the thief, "Tell me, how many people are with you, what kind of weapons do they have and where did the others go?"

Mikasa had no affection for kidnappers and thieves at all, and kicked the middle-aged thief, and just asked if they were a group or alone.

Takashi's eyes jumped, he didn't think Mikasa would act so rashly against a thief who was possibly an instructor in disguise. However, he adapted to the script and waited silently.

The middle-aged thief looked at Takashi, his forehead was covered with sweat and he did not speak.

Takashi directly pulled out the knife from his equipment and said, "I admire your hard bones. I can cut off your fingers one by one, do you want to try?"

"No, you can't do this to me. I just wanted to steal some three-dimensional maneuvering equipment, I didn't kill anyone. You have no right to torture me, I'm on my own!" The thief shouted resentfully.

"So you know about the equipment you were trying to steal, now I'm more sure you're possibly an instructor." Takashi thought to himself as he brought the knife slowly towards the thief's fingers, "Then you'll have to tell me what it feels like to lose a few fingers!"

Reiner, Annie, Ymir and Mikasa watched silently without saying anything. These people actually have their own backgrounds before they decided to enter the training corps, though not otherworldly, their experiences are no more complicated than Takashi's.

Thomas was a little uncomfortable with Takashi's behavior of pulling out a knife when the thief did not agree to tell his secrets.

Thomas: "Why doesn't everyone react at all, I'm the only normal person in the group?"

"Stop, Recruit Ackerman, they are not allowed to perform physical torture with abnormalities that occur during training." An instructor came over and said, "You'd better speak up and tell us what you know, I'm not playing."

The thief looked at the instructors and after some intimidation, finally the thief confessed most of the information he knew. He definitely thought that if it wasn't that way, the black-haired girl would cut off his fingers without thinking.

When Takashi and the others learned that the group of thieves had fifteen thieves in addition to the unfortunate one who fell into their hands, they were all worried when they learned that they were armed with swords and bows. Especially when they heard that they all went to Eren and Nelson's side, Mikasa and Ymir couldn't sit still. Mikasa was worried about Eren, but Ymir was worried about the goddess Christa.

"We're safe on this side of the forest, but Eren and the others will have a hard time." Reiner's expression was a bit heavy, although these thieves seemed to only want to steal their three-dimensional maneuvering equipment and had no intentions of harming people, in a direct conflict anything could happen.

"We should go and see the situation on Eren's side..." Ymir said.

"Are you going to give up the training mission?" Thomas asked.

At that moment, Annie walked up and said, "I found the tracks left by the fire the robbers made, and the tracks of three carriages."

Of course, Takashi knew this was part of the test and perhaps he was the only one who realized this, looking at the instructors, he made up his mind.

He waved his hands and said, "We will make a special group of our troops to scout the situation in Nelson's group, Reiner, Mikasa, Thomas and Ymir, you four will be in charge of going with your three dimensional maneuvering equipment to find team 1 and brief them on the situation, leave immediately, I will take care of briefing the rest of them on our situation.　

"Understood!" Mikasa couldn't wait, so she handed the log book to Takashi.

"Wait a minute, remember not to seriously hurt the robbers, I'm not sure but possibly this is a test." He said to Reiner in a low voice.

Reiner was stunned for a moment, he looked at the instructor on the ground and nodded after recovering.

"Damn, if so Mikasa hit an instructor!" Ymir smiled coldly and walked away next to Reiner a little calmer at the thought of that possibility.

Takashi handed the record book and pen to Thomas and said, "Now it's up to you to be the recorder."

"Okay, Takashi." Thomas took the book and started to write the events now.

Takashi also wants to go, but there are more than 100 people here who also need someone to guide them, and it is not safe to be in the forest at night.

Takshi approached the crowd and after learning that Daz almost had his three-dimensional maneuvering equipment stolen, everyone was much more cautious and didn't dare to be alone.