"Aaaaaaaah!"
Rayan cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted toward the sea, venting the frustration in his heart.
Another ten days had passed. Ten lonely days.
He still had not thought of a way to cross the plain alone. Relying on the supplies from the ship could not guarantee his safety at all. And it was worth mentioning that, according to the normal travel time, this ship should have already returned to the Marleyan port by now.
But it had not returned.
Even allowing for a margin of error, it definitely would not exceed a day or two. So in these few days, Marley might send a new warship to investigate. If that happened, Rayan would not have any peaceful days left.
If he could not find a way to cross the plain before that warship arrived, he was doomed.
Even so, he still felt it was better than being in the internment camp. He never wanted to experience that life worse than death again.
"Stay optimistic, stay optimistic."
Rayan rubbed his temples, trying his best to calm his mind.
After all, being alone for too long could really lead to mental problems. This was not Earth. There was no internet, no distractions. The only two newspapers on the ship had been read word for word by him, and the only other entertainment was a deck of playing cards.
However, he could not exactly play cards with himself, so he had been having a hard time for the past half month. No matter how beautiful the sea was, looking at it for too long eventually got boring.
"Thump."
Jumping down from the ship's bridge, Rayan headed to the high platform built around the island once again. He sat down, pressed his eyes against the mounted military binoculars, and gazed into the distance.
This was his daily routine. He had moved the ship's high-powered binoculars to this platform to observe the surroundings. Of course, even with high magnification, he could not see the walls from here, but he could vaguely make out the towering jungle reaching into the clouds.
Rayan knew that was the Forest of Giant Trees, a special area on the island. The trees there were generally over eighty meters tall, making it very conspicuous. At the same time, in the story, it was also the place where the Survey Corps planned to capture the Female Titan, although the plan ultimately failed.
"Grrr..."
His stomach rumbled. Rayan rubbed it, stood up, and turned to get something to eat, but he froze after only a few steps. His expression shifted several times, and his body stiffened slightly.
Just now, it seemed...
He suddenly turned around, squatted down, and pressed his eyes against the binoculars again, searching anxiously.
In the instant he had looked away, he thought he had glimpsed some small black dots moving... and he found them.
Through the high-powered binoculars, his magnified gaze caught sight of a group of tiny, slightly moving black dots at the extreme edge of his vision.
At ten times magnification, the human eye could see up to ten kilometers away, and at that distant horizon, the "wriggling" black dots were clearly not titans. They were humans.
"Humans?"
Rayan was puzzled. He focused more carefully. The black dots were not moving very fast, but they were steadily approaching, becoming clearer and clearer through the lens.
Although he could not see their clothing clearly, Rayan was sure they were not riding horses. And that proved one thing: they were not soldiers of the Survey Corps.
That left only one possibility.
A chill ran down his spine, and a memory suddenly surfaced.
"The official story of the titans begins in the year 845. In that year, intelligent titans first appeared. The Colossal Titan and the Armored Titan jointly destroyed Wall Maria, and a large number of titans began to invade, causing countless deaths and injuries. A large population flooded into Wall Rose..."
Rayan thought carefully. The influx of refugees had caused an extreme shortage of food. To alleviate the pressure, the government had launched the "Wall Maria Reclamation Operation" in the following year, 846.
This operation involved twenty percent of the total population, about two hundred fifty thousand people, but only a few hundred survivors returned...
"If I am not mistaken, this group of people should be the refugees sent to their deaths... That is the only explanation. The story only has this one large-scale human movement outside the walls. That means it is 846 now."
Rayan deduced the answer. He gritted his teeth, clenching and unclenching his fists repeatedly, hesitating for several seconds before suddenly standing up.
This was an opportunity. If he could join those people, maybe he could enter the walls alive.
Although only a few hundred out of two hundred fifty thousand survived, some still did.
If he stayed here, even if Marley did not send a warship, he would starve to death once the food ran out.
Despite the dangers, he had to seize this only opportunity.
"Da da da da!"
He quickly ran back to the ship and pulled out a backpack he had prepared long ago. Inside were canned food, bread, some medicine, and bandages. He put it on his back, slung two automatic rifles over his shoulders, stuffed two pistols into his pockets, and hung a portable telescope around his neck, discarding everything else.
There was no other way. As someone traveling on foot, he could only carry so much. Even just a backpack was already a heavy burden for his weak body.
To reduce the load as much as possible, he only took the essentials.
After packing up, he immediately left the ship, carrying a rope with a grappling hook he had prepared beforehand, and climbed up to the high platform. He hooked the grappling hook onto the platform's edge, turned back to glance at the ship, feeling a pang of reluctance.
Not for the ship itself, but for the more than half of the food that was still left on board. But there was no other way.
He tugged on the rope to make sure the grappling hook was secure. After carefully checking through his telescope to confirm there were no titans nearby, he slowly began to climb down.
Even though there was a pile of sand below, Rayan dared not risk jumping directly. If he twisted his ankle, he would be completely doomed.
As he descended the rope and stepped onto the sand, his heart skipped two beats.
This was titan territory.
It was now 846, still four years before Eren's awakening. Humanity was still completely living under the terror of the titans. Even the Survey Corps' strategy was to avoid direct combat at all costs.
In this situation, how could Rayan not be terrified?
"It is okay... I looked carefully from above just now. There are no titans within a few kilometers."
He comforted himself with these words and quickly sprinted in the direction of the large group of humans.
It had to be said that his half-month on the ship had not just been spent idly. He had also been deliberately exercising his body.
Of course, the exercise was simple and unprofessional, just push-ups, sit-ups, running, and the like. He could not expect major changes in such a short time, but his endurance had definitely improved a little.
"Run!" Rayan shouted to himself, for the sake of survival.
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