Although Sasha's thought process was a bit unconventional at times, she was inherently kind-hearted and possessed an intuition that ordinary people lacked.
According to the original worldline, she chose to join the military firstly to drive the Titans out of the forest where her village was located, and secondly for food.
Sasha's village relied on hunting for a living; its resources were extremely scarce, and the land was equally barren.
However, Wall Maria had not been breached yet, and Zenith's "Utopia" was continuously selling cheap wheat and potatoes to the outside world.
Logically speaking, Sasha shouldn't have any reason to join the military.
Zenith had asked her about it, and Sasha's reply at the time was, "Eh, cheap grain? I've never heard of that."
This made Zenith realize that there must be merchants going around buying up the low-priced grain and reselling it at exorbitant prices.
The people from SPW were already handling it, but since Sasha was already here and had such great talent, there was no reason to just let her go back.
Otherwise, wouldn't such a promising recruit go to waste?
Zenith patted Sasha on the shoulder. "Remember the size of your aura right now. If you can make it grow to three times its current size within a month, I'll treat you to something delicious that you've absolutely never eaten before."
Sasha wouldn't believe an empty promise, but after seeing Zenith push out a handcart full of steaks and cakes, she instantly believed him.
Food equaled life, so feeding equaled saving a life. Rounding it up, Zenith inexplicably ascended in her heart to a status equivalent to a life-saving benefactor.
It wasn't easy to eat meat these days, let alone Zenith's steaks spawned from Minecraft. Every single muscle fiber in them was grilled to perfection; one bite and the juices would instantly burst and fill the entire mouth.
Keith Shadis's appetite was whetted just by the smell, but his dignity as an instructor kept him from staring longingly like the ordinary recruits.
Under this dual incentive, even the most foolish person barely managed to memorize a trace of the sensation. Although the starting point was a bit low, at least there was hope.
The handcart of food was eaten clean by this group of strapping youths. After everyone personally tested the X-ODM gear, Zenith set the assessment standards for a month later with them.
It had to be said, Zenith and Keith Shadis had played the good cop, bad cop routine perfectly.
By this time, the sun had already set in the west. After all the recruits returned to their respective dormitories, Zenith saw an unexpected person on the training ground.
Levi leaned against the wall, arms crossed, waiting for Zenith's training to end. Watching Zenith walk toward him, the usually reticent Levi spoke first, "The truth of everything is hidden in the basement, but could you be a bit clearer about which basement it is? I'll even owe you a favor."
In truth, the favors the Survey Corps owed Zenith couldn't even fit in a sack, but the Captain's words still carried weight.
Previously, Zenith had been addicted to playing the Riddler, and his cryptic conversation with Levi had directly caused them to spend an entire year rummaging through the fallen Shiganshina District.
In this day and age, whose house didn't have a basement? The Shiganshina District was so large, who knew which one Zenith was talking about? They could only search house by house under the constant harassment of Titans.
This kind of behavior was no different from finding a needle in a haystack, so after suffering for a year, Levi chose to volunteer and came over to communicate with Zenith directly.
Zenith scratched his chin, his tone a bit awkward. "Actually, I initially thought you'd come looking for me after a month at most, but you didn't. Later on, I got so busy that I completely forgot about it."
Calculating the time, it was actually about right. On the original worldline, the frequent outbreaks of battles and various reclamation operations all occurred in the year 850, which was three years from now.
And the war against Marley and Director Eren's initiation of The Rumbling happened in 854.
Now seemed like the perfect time to have the Paradis faction start considering preparations for war and integrating with the international community. It was much better than the rushed situation in the original plot.
With these two together, everything was definitely kept simple. Zenith didn't even need to carry him; Levi transformed on the spot into a human-sized Ultraman Zero and followed Zenith to retrieve Grisha's journals.
Looking at this ordinary kraft paper notebook, Levi's mood was very complicated for a moment, a mix of countless emotions.
It was too smooth—so smooth it was soul-crushing.
If he hadn't stubbornly kept searching on his own and had just come directly to ask Zenith, would they have avoided this entire year of arduous searching?
The journals recorded the origin of the Titans, as well as the world across the sea. It turned out that humanity wasn't just cowering behind the walls; it turned out there was an empire across the sea waiting to strike.
The journals were passed around among the higher-ups of the Survey Corps. Some of the doves were still indulging in wishful thinking. "Is there no possibility for dialogue? As fellow humans, the two regimes should be able to communicate amicably, right?"
Sometimes, the remarks of certain individuals always made Zenith sigh with the realization that human evolution was truly uneven.
Commander Erwin simply cast a mild glance at the man, and the latter immediately shut up. "There is no possibility for dialogue. The foundation of amicable communication is equal strength."
"If you fall behind, you get beaten," Zenith nodded. "The world's fear of Eldians, their greed for Paradis Island's resources, and their overwhelming technological superiority over Paradis. Combine these three, and right now, Paradis is a prime cut of meat that everyone wants a bite of."
Right now, the only thing holding back their ambitions was The Rumbling, a power capable of destroying the entire world. But the uncontrollability of The Rumbling was too high; it was like a button that launched all nuclear missiles, failing to distinguish between friend and foe.
Therefore, the mission of the Marleyan Titan squad wasn't to destroy, but to steal the Founding Titan's power. Whoever grasped this would control The Rumbling.
"Titans are a threat, but they are also a barrier. We must seize this precious time to comprehensively develop our technology. Gentlemen, the era of the arms race has arrived."
Watching the Survey Corps members get all fired up on their own, Zenith weakly raised his hand. "Well, about that... if we're talking about catching up technologically, I've already finished that on my end."
?
When did that happen? Are you SPW people all this fierce? And since you've already climbed the entire tech tree, couldn't we just wipe out the Titans here and start facing the world directly?
"No, of course not." Zenith slammed the table and stood up. "What is the current pain point for Paradis? Is it that you aren't strong enough? No, it's the prejudice that Eldians have suffered for generations!"
"You guys still aren't seeing the big picture. My plan is to watch the Captain slice up the Beast Titan, then directly trigger The Rumbling, and let the whole world see how Ultraseven and Ultraman Zero slaughter tens of thousands of Colossal Titans in one fell swoop!"
Director Eren's deterrent with The Rumbling was to shift the conflict, making the whole world hate him, Eren Yeager, and then having Mikasa kill him to end this hatred.
But he overlooked one problem: he himself was also an Eldian. This kind of thing only made sense if it was done by a completely foreign group.
Faced with Zenith's sudden speech, Erwin, Levi, and Hannes looked at each other in blank dismay.
*What pain points? What big picture? Why would Ultraman listen to you? What kind of unhinged nonsense was Zenith spouting now?*
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