(Ugh... what a disaster... The cover I uploaded didn't meet the requirements... I don't understand... It wasn't saved, so now I have to find someone I know to redo it.)
The round spaceship still streaked through the silent universe like the only light in the darkness, racing toward some destination and leaving layers of afterglow in its wake... This was Betkas's spaceship...
"Haah... We're almost there... We really are fast..."
Betkas suddenly opened his pale golden eyes inside the dark spaceship and spoke slowly... His arms remained folded across his chest, and he looked completely unconcerned, calm, and indifferent.
"Have I been quiet for too long lately? I feel like the instinctive stirring in my blood is about to be suppressed completely. Sigh, I guess things really have been too peaceful lately."
Betkas suddenly ran a hand over the bangs on his forehead... As he thought about how he'd spent the past ten years, the corner of his mouth unconsciously lifted... His face filled with eager anticipation...
Betkas had experienced plenty of major events over the past ten years... Take his bloody record of slaughter, for example: he'd constantly accepted missions to destroy planets and kill their inhabitants... After seeing so much, Betkas had gradually grown numb to it all... Especially after Frieza once assigned him and Vegeta to fight on a certain advanced planet.
Back then, he'd even eaten the flesh of aliens with Vegeta... Thinking about it now, those things had been downright disgusting... But once you saw enough, you gradually grew numb to it...
The even bigger headache for Betkas was Vegeta himself... Betkas's domineering ways had left Vegeta thoroughly unhappy for a long time. They'd also dealt a heavy blow to Vegeta's proud self-esteem. Especially in the past few years, the gap between him and Betkas had grown wider and wider... Vegeta had been in a foul mood every day. Nappa, meanwhile, had spent nearly every day living in fear, and even Raditz, that useless weakling who'd joined them only in recent years, was constantly on edge...
And thanks to Betkas's presence, Vegeta was indeed much stronger than in the original story... His battle power had even reached a remarkable 24,000, far above his original level. If Vegeta invaded Earth with that kind of strength, Son Goku and the others would have no chance of winning... For some reason, Nappa's battle power had only reached a little over 7,000 so far, which disappointed Betkas... As for Raditz, the lowest-class weakling, Betkas barely even spared him a glance...
The most interesting thing had happened a few years ago, when Zarbon and Dodoria suggested that Frieza kill Betkas... Betkas had known about it at the time, but he'd been watching Frieza's reaction. If Frieza had really intended to kill him, Betkas would have unhesitatingly let Bardock unleash his full power and instantly kill Frieza in his first form, before he even had the chance to transform...
Unfortunately, Frieza hadn't seemed to take the suggestion very seriously, and so he hadn't agreed with Dodoria and Zarbon... As a result, Betkas hadn't made a move... Afterward, Dodoria and Zarbon had practically started avoiding him whenever they saw him, because they couldn't afford to provoke him... Especially since Ginyu had once considered including Betkas among the candidates for the Special Forces, though Betkas hadn't agreed...
But the biggest issue was Betkas himself... The more he killed, the more numb he became, and the more likely he was to develop a violent streak... Especially since he was a Saiyan, a proud and cold-blooded race... As a result, he sometimes behaved abnormally in battle, almost like the rampaging Broly... After that, Betkas had worked out a way to deal with it. It was...
To stop killing for five years and avoid fighting unless absolutely necessary.
In other words, Betkas hadn't killed anyone for a long time, ever since five years ago... He hadn't even destroyed any planets. He wouldn't step on a blade of grass or a flower if he saw one... He was cultivating his mind—or, more precisely, calming himself and driving out the violence and darkness that didn't belong to him, so they could no longer affect him... He didn't want to end up like Broly.
This also showed, in a way, just how astonishing Betkas's record had been during the first five years of that decade... In just five years, he'd accumulated "over four million sin points" with King Yemma... That was terrifying, and it showed how badly Betkas had "lost himself" back then.
Betkas had also gone to great lengths to hide the fact that he wasn't killing or fighting during those five years... After all, Frieza wouldn't allow him to "be absent" without a reason... But Betkas had come up with a solution: he would show off more of his power. That way, as one of Frieza's top fighters, he wouldn't have to go out on missions all the time...
His plan had worked well... Ever since Betkas had revealed that his strength was surpassed only by Frieza himself and Ginyu, his "treatment" had improved considerably. He hardly ever had to go out on low-level conquest missions anymore; he only often went out for trade missions.
There were still occasional high-level planet-conquest missions, but those were always done in teams... So Betkas almost always stood by and watched without lifting a finger. Some people were puzzled, but no one dared to question him...
And just like that, Betkas had made it through five years...
Today, he'd just heard about an interesting mission, so he'd accepted it. After nearly five years without fighting, he'd completely cleared away the negative influence within him... His battle power hadn't dropped, either, since he'd kept up his regular training. As for how strong Betkas was now while under the "Saiyan Seal," by his own estimate, he was only around 110,000...
He was looking forward more and more to the day four years from now...
Because that day would mark the beginning of a legend... It would also be the day he transformed into a Super Saiyan. Then he'd finally be able to break free of the Saiyan Seal and attain that supreme, absolute power. He didn't know how strong he'd become by then, but in Betkas's estimation, he should be at least as powerful as Cell in his second form.
That would give him enough strength to temporarily hold his own against the likes of Android 17 and Android 18...
"Hmm... Have we reached our destination? All right... Let's go see who this impressive trader is..."
Betkas looked at the golden planet ahead and grew intrigued...
Before you continue