Infinity Begins in Attack on Titan

"Huh?!" Eren was a little confused, but trusting Ryan, he still switched to the belt Ryan handed him. Ryan's actions made him vaguely sense something.

Armin seemed thoughtful. Mikasa found it baffling. The crowd watching couldn't make sense of it either, but Instructor Keith gave Ryan a deep look and didn't stop Eren from changing his belt before the test.

"Ready? Pull him up!" Keith ordered solemnly.

Eren slowly rose into the air. He wobbled slightly at first, but overall remained steady.

That easy? Eren was stunned. Was all that training yesterday a joke?

"No way?!"

"That's amazing!"

"Almost no swaying at all!"

Ignoring the gasping bystanders, Instructor Keith declared, "Congratulations. You passed."

"Yes! That's awesome!" Eren shouted joyfully while still suspended on the balancing gear.

The crowd, infected by Eren's excitement, erupted into cheers.

Keith walked up to Ryan and deliberately asked, "What did you discover?"

"Eren's belt was damaged."

Keith took the belt from Ryan and pretended to inspect it for a moment.

"The buckle is loose. This kind of failure has never happened before."

Everyone suddenly understood. Ryan just rolled his eyes—originally, in the anime, Keith instantly spotted the damage and declared it suspicious. Like this wasn't obviously his doing?

That particular part of the belt had never failed before, and yet Keith figured it out with two quick pats? Totally not suspicious.

Truly an Oscar-worthy performance. Ryan almost wanted to roll his eyes out of his head. Come on, it was you who sabotaged it in the first place! Back when he watched the show, he had suspected as much. He didn't even need someone yelling, "The truth is always only one!"

Of course, Ryan wasn't stupid enough to expose Keith. In the military, you avoid making enemies of instructors whenever possible.

And just like that, the incident passed. Starting tomorrow, real training would begin. A week from now, the omni-directional mobility gear would arrive.

Instructor Keith looked around at the now-quiet group of trainees and sneered, "Good. There are 295 of you left. Let's hope over 200 make it to graduation."

Everyone fell silent again. After a bit more free practice, it was time for lunch. Ryan headed to the mess hall with Eren, Mikasa, and Armin. On the way, Eren looked like he wanted to say something.

"You want to ask when I noticed your belt was broken, don't you?" Ryan asked first.

"Yeah… but anyway, thanks a lot for today!" Eren said sincerely.

"I noticed yesterday afternoon while I was helping you. The tether was vibrating ever so slightly," Ryan said, completely straight-faced.

"You noticed yesterday?!" Mikasa interjected, visibly upset.

Eren and Armin also stared at Ryan. Eren wasn't angry, just surprised that he hadn't mentioned it sooner.

Ryan suddenly stopped walking and looked back at them.

"I just thought you were too impulsive, Eren. A bit of failure is good for growth."

Though to be honest, he also did it out of mischief.

"Huh?!" Eren was stunned. You watched me struggle all afternoon yesterday just so I'd eat a little dirt? And I thought you were my comrade!

Eren gave Ryan a hurt look. This "good friend" of his was starting to seem a little untrustworthy.

Ryan: Yep. A good friend's job is to stab you in the back—purely for your own good.

Armin's mouth hung open. He didn't know how to react to Ryan's shameless behavior. Mikasa glared daggers at him, clearly displeased by Ryan's deliberate concealment.

Ryan patted Eren on the shoulder and said with deep meaning:

"Sweat more now, bleed less later. Hardships are real, but that's no excuse to quit. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger!"

Another bowl of inspirational chicken soup served. Without waiting for the trio to respond, Ryan turned and strode off.

At a distance, Keith lit a cigarette and watched Ryan and the others walk away, deep in thought:

Grisha… I tried to stop it, but your son still became a soldier today.

Keith recalled how Grisha once told him, "You're special." It had lit a fire in his heart, and for years he'd thrown himself into expedition after expedition beyond the Walls, even becoming Commander of the Survey Corps, determined to establish a human foothold in Titan territory.

And then… total failure. Looking back, even the woman he loved—Carla—had been taken by that bastard Grisha. Maybe it was karma. Now Grisha's son was even more determined to fight Titans and pursue freedom than he ever was.

Keith had done all he could, but that kid saw through everything. Maybe Carla was wrong—maybe Eren was special.

Keith thought about his own unremarkable life and laughed at himself. He was never special. He'd just fallen for Grisha's nonsense.

As for Ryan? He also believed he was special—especially miserable. After transmigrating twice, he was still in such a pitiful state.

After the morning test, they practiced some more balance training before breaking for lunch.

At the mess hall during noon—

Ryan got a piece of bread and a bowl of thin rice soup, then looked around for a place to sit.

"Ryan, over here!" Thomas waved him over.

Ryan looked and saw the usual suspects: Connie, Jean, and Thomas seated at a table, with a seat left just for him.

He sat down directly. Connie the little buzz-cut asked, curious, "How did you know Eren's belt was faulty?"

Ryan smiled. "How? By looking, of course."

What, was he supposed to tell them he watched the anime?

Connie was speechless. Ryan's answer was so perfunctory. Jean wasn't interested in discussing Eren and cut in, "So we're finally training with the mobility gear next, right?"

Thomas explained, "They'll bring in the omni-directional mobility gear in a week. Until then, we've got physical training in the mornings and theory lessons about the gear in the afternoons."

Using the gear wasn't easy. New recruits needed to understand its structure and principles.

The afternoon continued with more balance training. This kind of training would go on for a week until the gear arrived. That's when the real training would begin.

Here's the official training schedule:

6:30 AM: Wake up

30 mins: Wash up

30 mins: Morning run

30 mins: Breakfast

8:00–9:00 AM: Culture/Theory class

9:00–11:30 AM: ODM gear training

12:00 PM: Lunch

2:00–4:00 PM: Physical training

4:00–6:00 PM: More ODM gear training

7:00 PM: Dinner

9:00 PM: Lights out

Occasionally, other classes would be interspersed. In the second year, they'd add horseback riding and hand-to-hand combat training. Every year had a major evaluation: first year, snowfield training; second year, forest march; third year, live combat drills.

Before they knew it, a week had flown by.

At last, the Military Police arrived and delivered boxes of the long-awaited omni-directional mobility gear!

Everyone's eyes burned with excitement as they stared at the stacked crates. Ryan, too, was a little excited—this was the gear that could fly!

Just like learning to drive: after the theory comes the road test. Practice enough and you'll become a pro.

Classical style: A true man must ride such a magnificent chariot!

Modern style: I'm driving this baby!

The same went for ODM gear. After finishing balance training and theory, it was time for practical application. Yes—hands-on training! No doubt about it.

To be honest, everyone was eager. Eren's eyes sparkled—flying, soaring—every boy's dream. Ryan was excited too. Anyone who'd seen the anime knew how cool this thing was.

Soon, gear was handed out. One set per person. Ryan hefted his—must've been around 8–9 kilograms, about 20 pounds. Clearly a much-refined version.

Before the excitement could boil over, more than a dozen instructors wearing full ODM gear walked over. Leading them was none other than bald Keith.

"You excited?" Keith growled.

The rowdy trainees instantly fell silent. Without another word, Keith hit a switch on the hilt of his blade.

Whizz! One of the grappling anchors shot out, piercing a tree trunk with a thunk, followed by a burst of gas as it retracted.

Keith pointed to the deep hole gouged into the tree trunk and said coldly:

"See that? That's what happens when this thing hits you. We covered this in theory class. Yet every year, someone ignores the warning!"

No one said a word. Some drew in sharp breaths. This thing was more dangerous than they'd thought.