"Whoosh!"
Emerging from the water through a long, pitch-black passage, Roland entered the interior of the treasure vault. It was a sealed space beneath the sea. From his memories, he knew an ambush lay ahead. When Goku and General Blue had passed through here, they'd faced plenty of hardships.
But none of that would trouble him. Roland easily evaded the traps and robot guards, and soon reached the chamber where the treasure was stored.
With a deafening crash, the thick metal security door came tumbling down.
After breaking through the final obstacle, Roland strode into the vault with a broad smile.
The vault was piled high with gold and silver treasures, their dazzling gleam almost blinding. The treasures were heaped as high as a person, all valuable gold and silverware, diamonds, and gemstones. They were the pirates' savings from years of plunder, but now they all belonged to Roland.
He took out a box of Hoi-Poi Capsules. When he opened it, a series of empty crates appeared. Grinning, Roland began stuffing the treasures inside by the armful.
Before long, he had emptied the entire vault. Roland hadn't left a single coin for anyone else. He'd truly stripped the place bare.
If the pirates came back and saw their "treasure vault" completely empty, they'd probably burst into tears.
Among all the treasure, Roland didn't find the Dragon Ball that Goku and General Blue were looking for. But that made sense. Goku only found it when he searched for the Four-Star Ball again, after completing his first round of collecting Dragon Balls. The pirates hadn't discovered it yet, let alone brought it beneath the sea.
"Let's go!"
With a pleased smile, Roland put away the treasure and retraced his steps. Then he found a fairly large gold and silver shop in a big city. A smaller shop might not be able to handle that much merchandise. But even when Roland took out just a portion of his haul, the staff were still stunned.
It wasn't much—just the contents of one wooden crate, less than a tenth of the total.
At first, the clerk didn't believe a child had come to sell anything. But when he saw the crate full of gold and silver, sweat began to bead on his face.
Did this kid rob a bank vault?
The truth wasn't far off. Roland hadn't robbed a bank, but he had emptied the pirates' entire stash of savings.
As the gold shop's employees bustled about, frantically counting everything, Roland lounged comfortably in the VIP room, sipping a drink.
That was how society worked in the Dragon Ball world. If you dared to bring something in, the other party dared to buy it. They wouldn't call the police on their own initiative. Martial arts were widespread here, and robberies were common. Even if you saw someone storming into a bank with a gun, there was no need to be surprised. Just hand over the money.
That was exactly what Blonde Launch did in the original story.
After about an hour in the VIP room, the employees of the gold shop finally wiped the sweat from their brows and carefully handed Roland a bag of cash and a bank card.
Roland took a sip of his drink, hopped down from the sofa, and smiled as he accepted the cash and card. There was 300,000 in cash, and the card held 250 million in Earth currency. Since it was an anonymous account, he could withdraw the money at any bank.
He wouldn't have to worry about money anymore.
"Mm, I'm very satisfied with your service."
"If you have more business like this in the future, please consider our company."
"I will."
Roland strutted out. With this fortune, he could buy whatever he wanted and live in style.
He headed to a large Hoi-Poi Capsule store in the city, intending to buy some equipment for living in the wilderness. The store displayed high-tech products developed by companies under Bulma's family: tiny capsules that contained motorcycles, cars, planes, houses, and more.
He bought a two-story house, a refrigerator, a color TV, an air conditioner, and other appliances. He also got a camper, a motorcycle, and a yacht for traveling. All at once, he spent nearly half the money on his bank card, and couldn't help marveling at how quickly money disappeared.
Once everything was ready, Roland felt he could live very comfortably on Earth. Next, it was time to train.
First, he'd look for the Dragon Balls, and train along the way.
He'd finally made it to Earth, but he hadn't even seen a Dragon Ball yet!
With his plan set, Roland took a short rest and then wasted no time setting out on his journey to find the Dragon Balls. Of course, he wasn't in any real hurry. No one else on Earth was competing with him to find them.
His first stop was Mount Paozu.
There was a Dragon Ball there that Roland knew about.
The locations of two Dragon Balls on Earth were well known: Son Gohan's Four-Star Ball and Master Roshi's Three-Star Ball. They'd had their Dragon Balls for a long time, especially Master Roshi, who had found his while swimming in the sea more than a hundred years ago. But Roland was more interested in meeting the old man who would one day adopt Goku.
Once he found the first Dragon Ball, he'd go to West City and ask Bulma's father, Dr. Brief, to make him a Dragon Radar.
Dr. Brief was a genius who had developed even the kind of cutting-edge technology found in Hoi-Poi Capsules. In the original story, he'd also modified Goku's spaceship in just a few days. There was no reason he couldn't build a device to detect Dragon Ball signals. Roland wasn't worried that Dr. Brief might refuse, either. A great scientist like him would surely be interested in something unknown.
Roland turned on his Scouter and scanned toward Mount Paozu.
It beeped, and a power level of 142 appeared on the screen. That was Son Gohan's signal.
"It's only 1,000 kilometers from here. It'd take just over an hour to fly there, but there's no rush. I'll take the motorcycle and enjoy the ride."
This motorcycle, with its glass canopy, was very easy to drive. As long as he kept it pointed in the right direction, even someone as small as Roland could ride it.
Roland wrapped his tail around himself, climbed onto the motorcycle, and started the engine. Then he set off at a leisurely pace.
Put-put-put~
A cloud of yellow dust rose behind the motorcycle as it tore down the gravel road on the outskirts of town.
Technology in the Dragon Ball world was wildly uneven. The moment Roland left the city, the road gradually changed from gravel to muddy dirt.
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