"Umm...where am I?"
"On the sea."
"What a bunch of useless people the Marleyan army is...they let the enemy get away so easily? But, it's completely reasonable too..."
After leisurely sleeping and waking up naturally, the girl opened her eyes to a dim ceiling. She remembered being kidnapped by enemy spies, but unlike before, she could recall the memory now. Looking around and seeing no one, she laid back down. Though the bed was hard, it was still more comfortable than being in a tank of fluid. Plus, there were no instruments or boots clacking on the floor around her.
It was rare to have such a leisurely time, and she wanted to make the most of it.
"Hoot hoot..."
Not long after she settled back down, her stomach started to rumble. She tried to ignore it at first, but suddenly remembered seeing something that her stomach would love on the table.
"Crack! Crack!"
She jumped up and the sound of her sharp teeth clashing against the plant bulbs echoed in the room. She wondered about the identity of her "enemies."
"Are they really so humane? Could it be the people of the Empire of the Sun?"
On the table were clean potatoes, carrots, and onions. She must be a prisoner of war, right? Being given enough fresh food to eat was already good treatment for a prisoner. The Marleyans would even hesitate to provide ordinary soldiers with such food.
In comparison to the rising Marleyan Empire, which had never relied on Titans, the Empire of the Sun, which relied on industrial development, controlled more territory and had a deeper industrialization level. Naturally, their food production was also much higher than Marley's. Potatoes that were good enough to be given to prisoners were only possible in countries that were not friendly with Marley.
"Crack! Burp..."
Although she looked like a ten-year-old girl on the outside, her appetite was not large when her limbs were not injured. One carrot, onion, and potato were enough to satisfy her hunger. After finishing her meal, she wanted to go back to sleep, but she couldn't calm down and tossed and turned for a while, unable to fall asleep. She touched her chest and wondered if she was afraid of the unknown future.
As a professionally trained soldier, she shouldn't be losing sleep over this level of fear, right?
Emotionally speaking, this was not right. She had enjoyed her meal and was supposed to be satisfied.
"But, what if it's the people of the Empire of the Sun who have captured me? How would they treat me? Dissect me? Or...take away my brain that has been injected with a mysterious substance? Or maybe they would just disgust Marley and shoot me?"
"Ah, it's so scary."
The inhumane kidnappers didn't even leave her a window, only an old-fashioned oil lamp on the table to guide her to her food. She couldn't even look up at the sky at a 45-degree angle to ease her depression. The more she looked at the chipped ceiling, the more depressed she became. Unable to bear it any longer, she stood up from the bed. Since the kidnappers only used a chain to limit the range of her hand and foot movements, rather than locking her to the bed or binding her tightly, that must mean...they allowed her to move around, right?
"Dong Dong."
"Whoosh!"
The girl knocked on the door of the cabin. After a long while, the door was pushed open from the outside. Five rifles of different styles were pointed at her, and her first reaction was to immediately raise her hands, rather than try any tricks.
Although she had lied to everyone about her ability usage conditions, the effect was only to weaken her opponents, as the military knew. To make adult men unable to pull the trigger of a rifle, a skill like "dizziness" was needed, which she did not possess.
"It's nothing important... but guys, do you have any cigarettes?" The girl asked cautiously, only after she saw that they were calm enough and wouldn't shoot her immediately.
The plainclothes guards looked at each other in confusion. It wasn't strange for a woman to want to smoke these days, as it was fashionable for even high-class ladies to smoke. But... the woman in front of them was still a child.
She was only ten centimeters away from having to pay for her ride.
Could she be trying to trick them?
One guard became nervous and pulled the bolt, ordering the girl to immediately kneel down and hold her head. But a calm colleague patted him and told him to relax. His status was evident from his clothing, which was higher than that of the frightened fish. Therefore, he should know more details about the girl.
It's impossible for a person to remain calm at all times through sheer willpower alone. Therefore, the assistance of medication is necessary. In most of her training tasks, the only requirement for the girl was to quickly regain consciousness from emergency situations such as losing limbs, and to inject herself with a tranquilizer and bandage her wounds in a timely manner. In fact, she was very dependent on cigarettes, alcohol, and tranquilizers. Out of pity, the small leader took out a cigarette from his pocket and threw it to the girl, who caught it. But she didn't leave, her eyes still fixed on his cigarette pack, looking pitiful and desperate.
"Click, take it."
"Thank you, kind sir."
She said in the language spoken by the Akkadian people in Arcadia and picked up at least forty cigarettes given to her by the special agent uncles. She was satisfied and sat back on the bed. She lit a cigarette with the oil lamp, took a deep breath, and felt refreshed. Ordinary girls couldn't stand the burnt taste, but she was essentially a giant at the 1.3-meter level, and her respiratory tract could regenerate even if it was cut. The irritation of the smoke was nothing.
The calming effect of nicotine took effect quickly. The girl's fear of death was no longer hanging over her head, and she could review her life and consider her future.
"They didn't train me on how to deal with armed enemies. So I lay down and waited for them to kill me, so they couldn't blame me... or not. How could they not be angry? They had invested so much hope and money into this project, only to see it fail. Venting their anger by crushing me to dust should be a normal reaction. And my brother..."
With each breath the girl took, the oil lamp flickered on and off, much like her mood. Sometimes she thought optimistically that neither she nor her brother should be held responsible for her death no matter how you looked at it. Other times, she was pessimistic and wondered if anyone would seek revenge. Without any legal or influential protection, how could her brother avoid being punished for it?
Worrying about the final outcome, the girl clasped her hands together and looked up at the ceiling, hoping that Marley's military could rescue her quickly and safely. But what if she was taken back to enemy territory? What if the military suspected her of being a traitor? She didn't want to know what torture methods they might use in their interrogation rooms, as they probably wouldn't provide her with anti-interrogation drugs.
However, relying on Marley's military didn't seem realistic. Marley's foreign wars had brought in a lot of wealth, but it had been used more on the consumption of the powerful and financial investments rather than on technology development or expanding the military. While Marley had free Titans to conquer cities, it was far from capable in conventional warfare. The intelligence agencies were naturally inefficient, as evidenced by more than ten foreign spies infiltrating the core forces of the "Warrior Unit" supply troops. Marley's limitations were evident.
"They can't rely on anyone but themselves?" The only way out seemed to be relying on herself. But how?
She had five cards in her hand:
One trump card was her ability, which could weaken an opponent's physical and mental strength.
One card was her Ackerman bloodline, which gave her stronger endurance, explosiveness, and combat ability than human special forces. She could even easily take on three skilled soldiers with just a knife.
One card was her small stature, which could confuse enemies and help her pass through small passages that adults couldn't enter.
One card was her calmness under pressure. Even if she was cut in half, she would focus on finding a way to escape instead of wasting time on fear.
The last card was her broad knowledge and experience, as she had memories from a past life. She wasn't surprised by the tremendous changes and advancements in the first ten years of the 20th century, despite her appearance as a ten-year-old girl.
On the other hand, the enemy had two pairs of kings:
They had more people.
They were skilled in American sword fighting.
As an Ackerman, she had super-regenerative abilities, and she could regenerate faster if she were in a cultivation tank. However, if she were shot in the brain or heart, she would die on the spot. If she were shot in the limbs, the bullet's impact would immediately deprive her of her mobility. If she were shot in other organs and didn't receive professional medical care to stop the bleeding, she would die from blood loss.
If it were a one-on-one or hit-and-run fight, she could use her iron chains to restrict her evasion ability, but she could still fight with one arm and crush the enemy's throat with the other. It would be challenging to fight two people at once, but she still had a chance. However, with five people outside the door, armed with both rifles and handguns, it was beyond her abilities.
"If they had taught me how to use a gun, it would be great. If I could kill one person, take their gun, and then roll and find cover to return fire, I might be able to take out all five of them. But unfortunately, they were too cautious, afraid that I would use what I learned in the laboratory against them."
When the sixth cigarette butt fell to the ground, the girl stopped thinking. A simple and easy-to-understand truth was that Marley would not allow her to have the ability to escape from the custody of multiple armed soldiers. Although Marley did not know about her "ability activation conditions" and "having the mentality of an adult," which might help her solve the current dilemma, concealing her true abilities would likely make the leadership angry, more than being suspected of defection or even being killed by the enemy.
Human life is like grass and can easily die in unexpected ways. If it is really her turn, she will accept her fate. However, she is not alone and without attachments. At least, she owes her older brother two lives. By working for Marley and trying to stay alive, her brother does not have to serve in the Eldian decoy army with a total disability rate of 40%. If she fails here and stops, she cannot truly endanger his life.
"Fu..."
she muttered to herself.
"Well then...!?"