Arrival on Earth

Time passed quickly, and soon Roland's spaceship had been traveling through the cosmos for over five months; he would reach his destination in just a little while longer.

Inside the spacious ship, a dull thumping sound echoed from one of the rooms, as if a fierce collision were taking place, causing the ornaments hanging on the ship's walls to sway back and forth.

After a while, the noise gradually subsided. Entering the room, one could see a child less than a meter tall standing on his head, supporting his entire body weight with the strength of a single finger.

His black hair hung down naturally against gravity, and beads of crystal-clear sweat slid down his cheeks, dripping onto the floor. The room was in a state of disarray; the walls, constructed from sturdy materials, looked as if they had been struck by some immense force, showing large, uneven indentations.

"Hmph~"

After switching to another finger to continue supporting himself for a long time, Roland sprang up lightly, stood tall, and picked up a damp towel to wipe the sweat from his body.

The Dragon Ball world was a place of exceptionally fierce competition; if one fell even slightly behind the pace, one would quickly be relegated to a background character. Thus, even during interstellar travel, Roland did not waste a single moment of free time.

Just imagine: when the original protagonist was striving and constantly growing stronger, you were only able to stand still—what kind of feeling would that be? Especially knowing that even more terrifying enemies would appear later, such a sense of loss was even harder to accept.

Roland absolutely did not want to end up a background character like Krillin.

"I'll spend the next bit of time meditating."

Roland naturally didn't know the training methods of Earth's martial artists, but according to his memories from his past life, Goku in the original story had trained this way at Kami's Lookout. Meditation was a method to calm the mind and spirit, and he believed it could improve one's mental state through sitting in stillness. He guessed this method might also deepen his understanding of ki, so regardless of whether it was effective, Roland set aside time every day to meditate.

Sitting quietly cross-legged on the floor, his breathing gradually became long and steady. After a while, his mind turned blank.

Roland stared blankly ahead, not knowing what he was thinking about.

Sure enough, without a certain foundation in martial arts, meditation was no different from zoning out.

Still can't grasp the essence... Roland couldn't help but lament how exhausting and fruitless it was to explore on his own without any guidance.

Although his energy had been steadily increasing during this time, that was merely due to his Saiyan body growing. He remembered that in the original story, Krillin and Son Gohan had experienced "conscious combat" while traveling to Planet Namek; that was likely a higher realm of meditation. If he could master that technique, his strength would surely see a rapid leap.

For Roland, who hadn't even figured out what meditation was, he could only feel envious for now.

Click. Picking up a water bottle, he walked into the cockpit and sat down in the soft seat while drinking.

Staring at the ship's control screen, it displayed the distance between the ship and his destination; he would arrive at Earth in about a month.

But now he faced an awkward problem: the food in the ship was running out.

He hadn't been thoughtful enough before departing; the ship full of food actually might not be enough to sustain him until he reached Earth.

"If I ration it, it should be enough to last until Earth."

Roland scratched his head, feeling troubled.

What was worse, this cargo ship didn't have a cryosleep function... Interstellar travel without a sleep system—heaven knows how he had survived these past five months. If he had to stay in this cramped space any longer, his brain would go crazy.

The ship continued along its planned route, its speed remaining steady as the planets along the way turned into streaks of light passing by on both sides... In the days that followed, because of the dwindling food, Roland had to minimize his physical exertion as much as possible, and his training was temporarily pushed aside.

"How could the food not be enough? I should have rationed it earlier."

"I'm never using a ship like this again; I can't live like this." He wailed, head tilted back. The sensation of hunger stimulated his brain, and Roland glanced at the diminishing supplies in the cargo hold, smacking his lips and forcing himself to resist the urge to gorge on everything.

As the food continued to decrease, in the final few days, Roland was pitifully reduced to drinking only a little meat broth per meal. Affected by this, his body had thinned out significantly; if this continued, he would suffer from malnutrition.

Damn it!

Was he going to be the first Saiyan to starve to death?

Lying flat on the ship's deck, Roland stared blankly into space.

Fortunately, just as Roland was about to run out of supplies, the cold voice of the ship's core computer finally rang out. At this moment, it sounded incredibly sweet to his ears.

"Beep. Destination approaching. Current location: Southern sector of the North Galaxy, Solar System, Earth! This voyage has taken six months and nine days. The ship is preparing to land!"

The computer automatically switched the data to Earth standards.

"Finally here!!"

Roland perked up and scrambled to the ship's porthole. Through the sturdy, transparent glass cover, he saw a blue planet rotating leisurely in the third planetary orbit of the Solar System, accompanied by a smaller satellite—the Moon.

At this moment, Roland was almost moved to tears.

Haha, I finally made it.

Chomp, chomp, chomp. He devoured all the remaining food in one go, and his stomach, which had been empty for who knows how long, finally felt a sense of fullness, his body once again brimming with strength.

As they drew closer to Earth, the cargo ship entered the atmosphere. With a gravity different from that inside the ship taking hold, a smile appeared on Roland's small face.

"Beep. Ship landing in progress."

"The ship has landed safely. This voyage has come to an end. We look forward to serving you again."

As if there's going to be a next time; I almost starved to death.

I'm never using you again.

Roland muttered to himself, then straightened his clothes. He hadn't continued wearing his Planet Vegeta combat suit, having changed into the attire of the Mapa People found on the cargo ship. The Mapa People were short, so the adult-sized clothes actually fit Roland quite well. Although the style was a bit unconventional, it didn't look too bad.

With a hiss, the ship's hatch opened.

Roland jumped off the ship without a second thought and took a breath of Earth's fresh air. He felt instantly refreshed, squinting his eyes in intoxication—this was the scent of nature!

The cargo ship had landed on what appeared to be a plateau, so what Roland saw was a rather desolate scene. The surroundings were uneven, with deep canyons splitting the earth in the distance and a few small hills rising upward. The trees on the slopes were short, scattered here and there, decorating the environment along with some green vegetation.

Earth's gravity was only one-tenth that of Planet Vegeta, even less than the gravity on Planet Mapa, and Roland felt as if he were about to fly away.

He took out the Planet Mapa energy detector and scanned the area, causing a stream of data to appear on the screen.

"1", "5", "4", "2"...

A string of pitifully low numbers flickered, jumping back and forth between the same few digits, with very few exceeding a battle power of 5. Even if a few higher figures flashed by occasionally, they were quickly swallowed up by the massive amount of data.

Tsk, tsk.

Scum with a battle power of only 5!

Roland curled his lips upward, a look of disdain on his face as he uttered that classic line.