Chapter 4

- [Liam] -

'So Eren really didn't show up.' Liam thought as he landed on the roof, managing to stabilize himself despite having a passenger.

"Are you okay?" He asked, putting her down and allowing her to stand on her own.

"Why?" She asked lifelessly, drawing a raised brow from the boy.

"You'll have to clarify your question if you want an answer." He stated as he felt for his gas tank. 'I still have more than enough for now.'

The cadet he saved earlier was a pain in the ass with his whining and sobbing. Liam was too tempted to simply knock him out but that wouldn't help at all.

After he finally managed to get him to talk, he hurried on in the direction he was pointed to only to find a certain Ackermann who was literally wishing to die.

'Don't tell me that the titan that ate Eren actually chewed this time.' He thought in slight annoyance.

He was aware that the titans were simply Eldians who were forcibly transformed and let loose by Marley to keep the people of Paradise confined within the walls. He was also aware that if a pure titan eats someone who possesses one of the nine titans, they'd transform back to their human forms.

The reason the titan that ate Eren didn't revert to a human was simple: plot armor. However, this was now reality and things could change.

'If Eren actually got eaten then I've got a lot of work to do.' He thought as he focused back on the girl in front of him.

Just as she opened her mouth to speak, a voice screamed her name.

"Mikasa!"

They both turned just in time to see a short blond boy with a small frame zipping towards them and landing on the roof.

"Mikasa, are you hurt?" The boy asked frantically. Before the girl in question could even respond, another short cadet with shaved grey hair landed beside them.

"Are you guys okay?" The cadet asked on arrival. Liam recognized them both as Armin and Connie.

"Yeah! We're okay." Armin answered, letting out a sigh of relief before turning to Liam. "Huh? Who are you?"

The fact that Liam looked as old as they did yet they didn't recognize him confused them a bit. His state of dress also raised a lot of question marks.

"I'm getting tired of hearing that question today." Liam said with a frown before turning to Mikasa. "Are you good?"

The girl didn't answer, instead looking down, the emotionless look returning to her eyes.

"Mikasa?" Armin called out in confusion.

"Shit! This is bad! There's a 15 meter class here!" Connie exclaimed, getting their attention.

"We have to go!" Armin said only to pause as Liam jumped off the roof. "Hey!"

He shot his grapple at one of the surrounding buildings, pulling himself towards the titan. It immediately caught sight of him, quickly stretching its hand to catch him in its grasp.

Tightening his grip on the blade handles, he took advantage of the momentum, spinning with the blades at his sides and appearing like a deathly cyclone as he cleanly cut through the titans arm.

Quickly running up the arm, he jumped over the titans other arm as it attempted to squash him, firing his hooks into its neck and smoothly cutting out its nape as he reeled past it.

Letting out a deliberate breath, he made his way back to the roof the three cadets were on. Upon reaching there, he found them looking at him strangely.

"Amazing!" Connie exclaimed while Armin and Mikasa simply held looks of shock.

"If you're done gawking, I have to get back to work. Gather whoever you can and make your way to HQ. I'll clear a path." Liam said as he swung his hand to the side, the titan blood splashing off.

"You want to fight all those titans on your own? You'll die!" Connie protested.

"He's right. We'll all go together." Armin agreed with the other boy.

"How do you expect to do that when she's out of gas?" Liam questioned, gesturing to Mikasa.

'Logically, it would be more efficient for her to come with me seeing as how she is more competent than the others. Plus I can use [Photographic Memory] to grind [ODM Piloting] by observing her.' Liam thought but the girl didn't look to be in the correct mental state to fight and words from a literal stranger would do next to nothing.

"If you're going to die, at least let your death have meaning." He said to the girl directly before turning to the two boys, missing the minute widening of the girl's eyes.

"Make sure you don't die before you get there." He said simply before shooting off, ignoring their protests.

'I need to raise my Cha stats when this is over. Erwin just naturally has that in spades.' He complained internally at the 'unfairness'.

- [Later] -

The HQ looked like it would take quite a distance but when you count the fact that he'd simply glide over the buildings and all obstacles, it didn't seem that far.

He had so far slain more than a few titans on his way and the building was just in front of him. He had circled the building taking out the titans around it before focusing on the remaining three that were stupidly clawing at the building.

With them distracted by whatever they were seeing inside, Liam went for his first target, the 13 meter titan which was the biggest of three.

'When you do this for a few hours, they don't seem that tough. Just tedious in plentiful amounts.' Liam thought as his hook latched into the shoulder of the titan, drawing its attention as he reeled himself over.

Before it could even react properly, Liam had cut out its nape before going for his next target. This time, the last two had their attention on him.

As he fell towards the ground, he shot the grapple at the rib area of the first titan, using his weight along with the momentum to swing himself upwards, dodging the first titan completely and going for the one behind it.

Quickly withdrawing the hooks, he took aim, letting it shoot into the titan's left eye, blinding it and causing it to scream in pain. As it moved its other hand to pull the steel cable, Liam was already there to quickly cut off those fingers.

He swung behind it, cutting out its nape before finishing off the last one.

Latching his grapple to the side of the building, he didn't bother searching for an entrance, instead breaking the window and making his way in.

He immediately discarded the now dulled blades as he entered. 'The gas is about three quarters empty if I had to make an estimate. This is the fourth pair I'm using.' He thought as he surveyed the empty room that looked like it was supposed to be an office.

'If I remember correctly, the supply of gas and blades should be downstairs.' He thought as he made his way towards the door before frowning.

He paused for a moment, looking at what he stepped on as a look of disgust appeared on his face.

On the floor were pools of blood that seemed to be coming from underneath the table. The rotten smell already notified him of the corpses he would find when he took a look.

A shotgun lay innocently beside two dead bodies, the blood on the barrel didn't need any explanation. With him not having any footwear, he was notably disgusted that his barefoot stepped into it.

- [Jean] -

'Who was that?'

He and the rest of his squad were making their way towards HQ to refill their gas. They had lost a few people due to them rushing in and going to their deaths.

While they made their way to HQ, they could see a figure far ahead of them also going towards the same place. The only difference was that while they were avoiding the titans, this person was seemingly actively seeking them.

He wondered what kind of idiot they could be only for them to cut down each titan they came across and they did it quite fast at that.

'Was there always someone this strong? Why hasn't anyone heard of it?' He wondered as they went through the path the person had cleared.

Judging by the trail of dead and steaming titans, he could easily guess that that person was responsible for it.

'We might just survive this!' He thought determinedly as he watched the person smash their way into the building.

- [Liam] -

Walking down the stairs after cleaning the blood off his foot. The lift was available but he preferred not to use it.

It didn't take him long to get to the floor where the gas was being held. Upon entering the room, he found himself being the focus of seven titans.

'Oh right, these are here too.' He thought dryly, his eyes flickering around the room. 'ODM gear isn't designed for indoor use but that's fine. I was getting a bit impatient.' His palm went down to touch the ground, a layer of frost around it.

As the titans attempted to dash towards him, the floor was immediately covered in ice, freezing their feet in place. Before they could scream, large spikes of ice rose up underneath each of them, tearing straight through their entire bodies, nape included.

[Skill Gained]

[Ice Spike](Lvl 1/10)

Creates a spike of ice

Cost: Varies

Liam looked around the room, letting out a sigh of relief as he spotted the untouched gas tanks in the corners of the room. He had been careful to avoid hitting them during his attack.

With a thought, the icy disaster in front of him shattered into tiny pieces, leaving only cold mist and the steaming corpses of the now dead titans.

[*Ding!*]

[Mission Completed]

[Mission Objective: Survive]

[Bonus Objective: Kill 5 Titans](Complete)

[Bonus Objective: Kill 10 Titans](Complete)

[Bonus Objective: Kill 20 Titans](Complete)

[Bonus Objective: Kill 50 Titans](Complete)

[Reward: EXP]

[Bonus Reward: EXP, Moderate Health Potion x3]

[Bonus Reward: EXP, EXP card x10, Gacha Token x2]

[Bonus Reward: EXP, 20 stat points, +10 levels in Alchemy]

[Bonus Reward: 70 stat points, Legendary Gacha Token]

[Rewards have been sent to Inventory]

'About time! I thought I'd have to go out there and kill some more.' He thought, ignoring numerous level up notifications as he leaned on the wall, sliding to the ground into a sitting position. 'Status'

Name - Liam Ross

Level - 37

Race - Human

Hp - 2400 [96 per minute]

Mp- 1300 [80 per 30 seconds]

Str - 45

Vit - 48

Dex - 45

Int - 26

Wis- 40

Cha - 21

Points - 150

'That is a lot of points.' He thought in slight shock. It was one thing seeing it in the mission log and it was an entirely different thing to see it reflect on his status.

He had already leveled up a few times since the last time he checked his status. Those points added to the 90 points from the mission rewards put him at this amount.

The first thing he did was raise each stat to 50.

Name - Liam Ross

Level - 37

Race - Human

Hp - 2500 [100 per minute]

Mp - 2500 [100 per 30 seconds]

Str - 50

Vit - 50

Dex - 50

Int - 50

Wis- 50

Cha - 50

Points - 75

He groaned feeling the changes take place in his body. His body didn't start bulging with muscles but he felt it grow firmer and more compact.

'What to do…' he wondered. He had many ideas and many builds for each idea but not enough stat points to accommodate all of them.

Though he hadn't had a reliable way to test his physical capabilities, he was sure that it was above the normal average.

'I'm not getting into a fistfight with a titan anytime soon so I can leave that for later.' He thought, ruling out Str for the moment.

One of the problems the people within the walls realized was that once their gas finished, they were grounded and they were no match for titans on foot. It's the same situation when there are no buildings or structures that support the use of ODM gears.

That marked Dex as a possible place to spend some points. Int and WIS were obviously important for him to eventually hold his own against the titans.

Despite the fact that he was fighting the titans up close, it didn't mean that he enjoyed it.

It was done out of necessity. Personally, he preferred to work from the shadows and make moves in silence.

Why do the work when you can have people pointing fingers and doing it for you? That would involve a lot of talking and verbal manipulation which necessitates Cha. Vit was also up there in the order of importance.

In the end, he was forced to make a choice.

Name - Liam Ross

Level - 37

Race - Human

Hp - 3500 [140 per minute]

Mp - 3250 [130 per 30 seconds]

Str - 50

Vit - 70

Dex - 55

Int - 65

Wis- 65

Cha - 70

Points - 0

'Let's hope I don't regret it.' He thought, moving to the next item on his list. He pulled out the two Gacha Tokens from his inventory, containing his excitement.

[Roll?]

[Yes] [No]

He immediately confirmed it.

[Gacha Rolled]

[Item Added]

[Card Deck]

A deck of playing cards.

'…'

[Gacha Rolled]

[Skill Added]

[Acting Mastery](Lvl 1/50)

You know the basics of acting.

'What are these rolls? What the hell?!' He complained internally before forcibly calming himself as he took out the Legendary Gacha Token.

Unlike the normal silver token, this one was gold.

[Gacha Rolled]

[Item Added

[Thousand-Mile Flight: Mastema]

An imperial Arm that takes the form of two floating discs that sprout wings that enable flight.

'I'll take it.' He thought with a bit of satisfaction and disappointment as well that he didn't get an extremely OP ability.

He heard the faint sound of glass shattering. 'They finally got here.' He thought, not bothering to get off the floor. 'I just want this to be over so I can take a shower.' He complained, ignoring the faint voices that he could hear from the stairs.