"What... what... what's going on?" Master Roshi stood there in a daze. Like a sleepwalker, he staggered two steps forward and leaned in to get a closer look at King Piccolo, who no longer looked remotely demonic. He even cautiously nudged the limp arm with his toe.
King Piccolo lay flat on the ground, green blood mixed with bubbles pouring from his mouth. The only movement left in his body was a few faint, involuntary twitches.
Master Roshi: "..."
Master Roshi really couldn't make sense of it.
The scene before him had completely upended everything he knew.
"Hey, you... are you really King Piccolo? Or are you just some insignificant lackey he sent out? Maybe a clone or something?" Master Roshi crouched down and asked the faintly twitching green body, his voice full of uncertainty and a glimmer of absurd hope. He seemed to be hoping for a denial.
"Thud!"
The next moment, as if in answer to Master Roshi's question, King Piccolo's twisted head suddenly slumped to the side. The last trace of life left him.
He was dead.
His vacant eyes were frozen in the fear and disbelief he'd felt in his final moments.
"Hey, are you okay? King Piccolo? Don't play dead." Broly came over too and lightly nudged King Piccolo in the side with his toe.
King Piccolo lay motionless on the ground like a real corpse. He didn't react at all.
Master Roshi's face went pale again.
Could this guy... actually be pretending to be dead?
How was that possible?
Broly had pinned his head down and killed him with just that little push?
Master Roshi couldn't help recalling when Broly had pushed him down earlier.
It had hurt, and left a crater, but he was still alive and kicking...
King Piccolo really was dead.
Stone-cold dead.
After all, the difference in their Battle Power was simply too enormous.
Even though Broly had used only one ten-thousandth of his strength, and had unconsciously reined most of it in partway through, it was still like being hit head-on by a meteor to King Piccolo, whose Battle Power was only around 260.
If Broly hadn't checked his strength in time, King Piccolo's head wouldn't merely have been deformed. It would have burst apart with a "pop," like a rotten watermelon!
"Old man, I told you he couldn't take a hit." Broly looked at the lifeless green corpse on the ground and shrugged helplessly at Master Roshi. Then, with a faintly reproachful sigh, he added, "So why'd you have to use that Evil Containment Wave that would cost you your life? He was such a weak opponent. You could've just beaten him up a little..."
Master Roshi: "..."
Master Roshi opened his mouth, but his throat was dry and he couldn't get a word out.
After a brief daze,
Master Roshi could only crouch down in silence and examine King Piccolo's body once more, his feelings a tangled mess of confusion and absurdity.
His heart had stopped, his breathing was gone, and his energy had completely faded away...
He really was dead!
Couldn't be deader!
And he'd died horribly. His head was badly deformed, as if it had been crushed by a hydraulic press weighing thousands of tons.
"Th-this guy... he really is King Piccolo?" Cold sweat beaded on Master Roshi's face. Utter shock and bewilderment filled his eyes, and he began to seriously doubt his own memory and judgment.
Had King Piccolo's power weakened during the centuries he'd spent inside the Rice Cooker?
But that didn't make sense!
Hadn't Krillin been killed by one of his minions?
"No idea..." Broly shook his head innocently. "You've met him before, haven't you? Can't you tell?"
"Hey! You people in the spaceship up there!" Master Roshi suddenly looked up and shouted with all his might at Pilaf's castle spaceship, which still hovered low in the distance, trying to keep a low profile. "Could this green guy just be a clone of King Piccolo, or one of his underlings pretending to be him?!"
Aboard the spaceship,
Pilaf, Mai, Shu, and Piano—the only surviving member of King Piccolo's Demon Clan—were pressed against the windows, watching everything below with their own eyes.
They were all white with fear, their faces growing greener by the second as they trembled like leaves.
"L-Lord King Piccolo... th-that... was he... beaten to death?" King Pilaf stammered. His voice was barely audible, choked with fear.
"Y-you've got to be kidding! How could that be possible..." Mai was aghast. Cold sweat had ruined her carefully applied makeup.
"I... I didn't see that wrong, did I? That kid... he... he only hit him once..." Shu was drenched in cold sweat, his tongue stumbling over his words.
Piano: "..."
Piano was too terrified to speak. His green skin had turned ashen, and sheer terror clenched his heart.
Lord King Piccolo... was dead?
That invincible, magnificent Lord King Piccolo...
Just like that, so easily... beaten to death by some unknown kid, like he was swatting a fly?
I must be having a nightmare!
This can't possibly be real!
Something must have gone wrong!
"Wh-whatever! Hurry! Get us out of here! Now! Right now!" Piano suddenly snapped out of it and let out a shrill scream, issuing his final order to the stunned Pilaf Trio. His voice warped with sheer terror.
"Y-yes, yes, yes..." Pilaf scrambled toward the pilot's seat, trembling as he tried to start the spaceship's engines.
A hum rang out as the spaceship turned around, its thrusters spewing flames as it tried to flee toward the distant horizon.
"They're getting away! King Piccolo's remnants are still aboard!" Master Roshi's brows knitted together, his expression turning grave again as he shouted, "We can't let them escape, or they'll cause trouble later! Kamehameha..."
But before Master Roshi could gather enough energy to unleash the Kamehameha again,
Broly glanced at the fleeing spaceship, then at King Piccolo's limp corpse beside him.
The next moment, Broly seemed to come up with a brilliant idea. He stepped forward, casually grabbed King Piccolo by the wrist, then lightly swung his arm and tossed the corpse toward the spaceship like a bag of garbage!
"Whoosh—bang!"
King Piccolo's corpse traced a green arc through the air like a cannonball. With pinpoint accuracy and unstoppable force, it smashed straight through the spaceship's flimsy hull and slammed into Piano, who was trying to hide!
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