Scaring Aila

That old man!

Watching Master Roshi fall asleep sprawled over the table, Rhode was at a loss for words. He strongly suspected the old man was only pretending to sleep.

As someone who had lived for several centuries, Rhode did not believe Master Roshi failed to recognize that the Three-Star Ball hanging from him was a Dragon Ball.

Forget it, none of that mattered.

As a grandmaster of his generation, Master Roshi was exceptionally good at judging people. Perhaps he was certain Rhode would not misuse the Dragon Ball, which was why he had handed it over so readily.

No matter what, this was a favor. Since Rhode planned to live on Earth anyway, there would be plenty of time to repay it. At worst, he could just save Earth a few more times.

Master Roshi could no longer bear the burden and was the first to get drunk. Although Rhode and Aila did not drink, the lavish feast on the table let them eat to their hearts' content.

After eating and drinking their fill and cleaning up, Rhode carried Master Roshi back into the house.

"Master Mutian, we'll be going now. I'll come visit you often!"

Standing beside the bed and looking at Master Roshi, who was sleeping soundly, Rhode bade him farewell softly before walking out of the room.

"Rhode, where are we going next?"

Over the past three days, Aila had gained quite a lot. She had also come to acknowledge Rhode much more and no longer questioned his actions.

"To look for this!"

Rhode waved the Three-Star Ball in his hand at Aila, making his intentions clear. He did not plan to hide it from her; in any case, it was not something he could keep secret.

"This ball?"

Hearing that they were going to search for balls, Aila froze for a moment, then became excited, an unusual gleam flashing in her eyes. "You mean the legend that old man mentioned was true?"

"That's right!"

Seeing how eager Aila was, Rhode grinned and looked at her. "If you could make a wish, what would you wish for?"

He asked because he wanted to know what this little girl was thinking.

At the mention of a wish, Aila answered without hesitation, as a matter of course, "Immortality, of course! That way, I can keep fighting forever. No matter how strong Frieza is, as long as he can't kill me, I'll surpass him sooner or later!"

Uh, you really are exactly like Vegeta!

Aila's wish made Rhode complain inwardly. Still, this was the kind of proper wish that suited Shenron's lofty status.

Wishes for panties, growing five centimeters taller, or getting rid of wrinkles—what the hell were those? No wonder Shenron in Dragon Ball GT turned evil. It was simply an insult to such a lofty being!

"Hehe! Aila, you're thinking too simply!"

Looking at the naive Aila, Rhode felt it was necessary to set her straight. Immortality was nowhere near as wonderful as she imagined.

"What do you mean? Even if I become immortal, I still can't beat Frieza?"

Seeing Rhode reject her idea, Aila retorted indignantly.

"That's not it!"

"I knew it! Once I'm immortal, how could I possibly fail to defeat Frieza?"

"What I mean is, you don't need immortality to defeat Frieza. No, what I mean is that immortality is nowhere near as good as you think!"

At this point, Rhode paused and gathered his thoughts before continuing.

"Immortality only means you won't die. But there are many ways to deal with an immortal. For example, someone could absorb you. Even if you can't die, it would be useless, because you would become someone else's nourishment, a part of them. In a sense, that wouldn't count as death.

"Also, as far as I know, there's a technique called sealing that can seal you away.

"Mm, sealing means trapping you in a tiny space. You can't get out, and no one else can get in. There's no food, no water, and no one to fight. But because you're immortal, you can't even die if you want to!"

"Th-This..."

Hearing Rhode's description, Aila suddenly realized that this was not immortality at all. It was pure torture!

Her little face paled in fear as she repeatedly waved her hands at Rhode. "Forget it, forget it! I don't want to suffer like that. It'd be better to die!"

Seeing Aila's pale face, Rhode could not help laughing and continued.

"Besides, I've heard that while immortality can keep someone from dying, it also limits their potential. In other words, once you wish for immortality, your strength might stop improving completely and never increase again!"

Rhode was not certain that obtaining immortality through a wish would limit one's potential. He merely had some suspicions; mostly, he was trying to scare Aila.

Still, whether it was true or not, he would never try it. What if it really was true? That would be tragic.

Besides, once someone became reliant on immortality, they would naturally lose their sharpness. That was not a good thing.

"Huh?!"

There was such a side effect?

Aila's little face turned green with fright, and she could not help feeling lucky.

Good thing Rhode had warned her beforehand. If she had known nothing and foolishly wished for immortality, she would truly have nowhere to cry!

"Then forget it. Other than immortality, I don't have anything else I want to wish for."

With so many restrictions on immortality, Aila immediately lost interest in this so-called wish. However, seeing how convincingly Rhode spoke, she grew curious about his wish as well.

"Rhode, what wish do you want to make?"

"That's a secret for now. You'll find out!"

Facing Aila's question, Rhode gave only a brief answer and did not tell her directly. The next moment, he suddenly accelerated, and before long, he arrived at the uninhabited area where their spaceship had landed earlier.

The spaceship was completely intact. It seemed no one had come to cause trouble, and the one up in the sky had not made any rash moves either.

"Come on, let's fly the spaceship to Dr. Brief's house."

As he spoke, Rhode called Aila aboard the spaceship. He then started it, sent it into the air, adjusted its direction, and flew toward West City.

"Little Rhode, we've run into a problem building the Gravity Chamber!"

Dr. Brief had been waiting in the yard. His astonished gaze immediately shifted away from the spaceship, and he spoke to Rhode with a troubled expression.

"A problem?"

Rhode was not surprised to hear Dr. Brief's words. After all, Earth did not yet possess this kind of technology. Even with the technical data Rhode had provided, Dr. Brief was bound to encounter difficulties. "What problem? Please tell me, Doctor. I'll do my best to solve it."

Hearing Rhode say that, Dr. Brief frowned and said, "I've already thoroughly understood the technical data you brought. There's no problem with the technology itself, but building a Gravity Chamber requires some special materials and metals. I can synthesize and manufacture them, but it will take quite some time!"

That's all?

The problems Dr. Brief spoke of really were different from ordinary people's.

Rhode clearly remembered that in the original Dragon Ball story, when Goku went to Planet Namek, Dr. Brief had also helped modify his spaceship.

But even when time had become extremely pressing, Dr. Brief had stubbornly insisted that the spaceship was not finished. When asked, it turned out that it was because he had not sorted out a speaker?

Jokes aside, Rhode had long considered this issue and come prepared. He turned and returned to the spaceship. When he came back out, he was carrying several kinds of metal—the exact materials needed to build the Gravity Chamber.

Placing the materials before Dr. Brief, Rhode smiled. "Doctor, these materials should be enough to build a Gravity Chamber, right?"