Cooperation

The next day, Turles arrived at the Mercenary Arena alone.

At the arena entrance, Bels watched Turles approach with an elegant smile.

"Mr. Turles, welcome to the Mercenary Arena. This way, please!" Bels said, bowing slightly and gesturing for him to enter.

"Mr. Bels, it's a pleasure to see you again. After you!" Seeing how courteously Bels treated him, Turles returned the courtesy rather than giving him the cold shoulder.

The two exchanged pleasantries at the entrance for a while. When they noticed they were attracting attention, Bels had no choice but to lead Turles inside.

They made their way to the reception room, exchanged another round of courtesies, then took their seats, host and guest.

Turles sampled the fruit and desserts that had been prepared while taking an interested look at the fierce matches beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows. He made no move to speak first.

After quite some time, when it became clear that Turles had no intention of speaking, Bels had to break the silence. "Mr. Turles, we at the Mercenary Alliance sincerely apologize for what happened yesterday. Please accept this gift as a token of our apology!"

With that, Bels placed a black metal card in front of Turles.

Turles picked up the metal card and examined it closely. He couldn't tell exactly what it was made of, but it seemed similar to a bank card on Earth.

Noticing Turles's confusion, Bels helpfully explained, "This is a Black Gold Card issued by the Cosmic Business Alliance. It comes with a spending limit of one million and can be used on all inhabited planets under the Cosmic Business Alliance, the Cosmic Mercenary Alliance, and the Galactic Patrol—including the North Galaxy, of course."

As Turles listened to Bels's explanation, his expression turned somewhat peculiar. He gave Bels a half-smile and asked, "Does even Emperor of the Universe Frieza recognize the Mercenary Alliance's name?"

"Heh, you jest. King Frieza has close business ties with the Cosmic Business Alliance, so naturally he shows the Cosmic Mercenary Alliance some respect as well." Bels acted as if he hadn't noticed Turles showing no deference whatsoever to Frieza, the Emperor of the Universe.

Turles nodded. "That makes sense. Frieza mainly sells planets. If he didn't have suitable buyers, why would he bother with such a thankless business? And the kind of rich tycoon who can afford to buy a planet would hardly be without ties to the Cosmic Business Alliance."

Then Turles changed the subject. "Still, this seems like a lot for what was only a misunderstanding, doesn't it?"

Bels didn't argue. Instead, he brought up something else. "Mr. Turles, what do you think of the Mercenary Arena?"

"Hm?" Turles was taken aback, but quickly caught on. "It's not bad. It looks lively!"

Bels didn't reply. He simply watched Turles.

Seeing this, Turles fell silent as well. The reception room grew quiet.

After a long while, Turles spoke. "Mr. Bels, I can more or less guess why you wanted to see me. If you can agree to three conditions, I'll consider it."

"Please, go ahead!"

"First, I need an unclaimed habitable planet in the central region of the galaxy. It must have a clean history, with no disputes over it!"

"Second, the Cosmic Mercenary Alliance must help me search for my people in the central region of the galaxy without conditions, until I leave the Cosmic Mercenary Alliance!"

"Third, I must be free to choose which missions of the Cosmic Mercenary Alliance I take. You must not assign me any compulsory missions!"

"That's all. You can think it over."

Bels frowned at Turles's conditions. Given the combat strength Turles had demonstrated, they weren't unreasonable. But agreeing to them outright might make the Mercenary Alliance seem too easy to push around.

"I can agree to all three, but you must fight once a year in the Mercenary Arena on Obsidian Planet. We'll choose your opponent, of course, and they definitely won't be much stronger than you!"

This time, Turles frowned. After pretending to consider it for a while, he said with some reluctance, "Fighting for you once a year isn't a problem, but I won't be staying on Obsidian Planet indefinitely. If every round trip takes too long, I won't be able to do anything else!"

"Don't worry about that. The Mercenary Alliance has Hyperspace Spaceships, which are ten times faster than ordinary spaceships. It takes only a month to travel from the center of the galaxy to the farthest planet in the North Galaxy. If you live on a planet the Mercenary Alliance selects for you, it might take only half a day!"

"That fast?" Turles was shocked. He hadn't expected the Cosmic Mercenary Alliance to have technology like that. If Bels was telling the truth, those spaceships were nearly as fast as Whis traveling through space.

With a spaceship like that, several things he'd been considering would become possible. Even a trip to Earth wouldn't take long. And once he reached Earth, he could use the Dragon Balls to make a wish—whether for the Instant Transmission technique or something else.

"Phew!" Turles let out a long breath and calmed himself. Then he asked Bels, "What would I need to do to use one of those Hyperspace Spaceships?"

Bels hadn't expected Turles to want to use a Hyperspace Spaceship. After a moment of surprise, he fell into thought. In the end, he decided to do Turles a favor. "If you want to use one now, I can authorize an application right away. But it would be best if you fought your match for this year first. That way, I'll have something to tell my superiors when I submit the application."

Turles gave Bels a long look, then said slowly, "All right. You can arrange it right away. An opponent with a combat strength between 50,000 and 60,000 will do. Submit the application to your superiors as soon as possible. I need an answer quickly."

"Of course. I'll arrange it at once!" Bels stood up excitedly, bowed to Turles once more, and left the reception room.

Watching Bels leave, Turles sat in his chair and began to think.

The events of the past two days had completely disrupted his plans.

Because of Frieza, Turles had initially been forced to leave the North Galaxy and come to the center of the galaxy. He had planned to go to Earth or Namek later, after he'd secured his strength enough to protect himself. That way, even if he ran into Frieza, he would be better able to deal with him.

He hadn't expected to encounter a descendant of the Namekians living far from home, or to build a good relationship with Dero. That would be a huge help when he eventually went to Namek to seek out the Dragon Balls.

On top of that, he'd now joined the Cosmic Mercenary Alliance and unexpectedly learned about the Hyperspace Spaceships. They would let him reach Earth or Namek in next to no time, putting his worries to rest. Coming to the center of the galaxy in the first place had indeed been the right choice.

Turles wasn't particularly concerned about joining the Cosmic Mercenary Alliance. It was a fairly loose organization, sustained mainly by recruiting powerful individuals from across the universe. Aside from its core members, it placed few restrictions on ordinary mercenaries. Joining it would have almost no effect on him.

Besides, he had already wanted to fight a variety of powerful opponents to improve himself. The conditions Bels had proposed were exactly what he wanted.

His plans had taken an unexpected turn, but for Turles, it was a good thing. Once he'd thought it through, he felt refreshed. He stood, stretched, and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, where he continued watching the fights in the arena.

The two fighters on the platform were aliens with combat strengths below 10,000. One of them was the mantis-armed alien who had fought Dero yesterday.

The mantis alien swung his arms, using them like two blades to steadily hem in his opponent. Every so often, he sent out a blade of energy, leaving deep gashes in the arena platform.

Faced with the mantis alien's razor-sharp arms and energy blades, his opponent soon found himself unable to advance or retreat. In the end, he had no choice but to concede.

Watching this, Turles fell into thought, rubbing his chin as he considered how he would handle an opponent like that.

As it happened, none of the fighters at the Mercenary Arena had low combat strength; the weakest had at least 5,000. They also had their own trump cards, whether unique racial abilities or unusual techniques.

Even Turles could be caught off guard by such techniques. Captain Ginyu in the original story was a perfect example: if you didn't know his ability in advance, who could defend against it when caught unawares? So even though Turles was powerful, he still watched the fights with great interest.

"It looks like Turles is very interested in all this!"

Bels's voice rang out suddenly, and Turles turned around.

Seeing the smile on Bels's face, Turles's thoughts stirred. He smiled and said, "It looks like you've brought me good news, Mr. Bels!"

"Hahaha! You're clever, Mr. Turles!" Bels first offered a compliment, then continued, "That's right! Headquarters has approved the application. A spaceship will be available in a month, and it'll dock directly at Obsidian Planet. You can use it then."

"Your opponent has also been selected. The match is in three days, and their combat strength is around 55,000."

Turles was secretly thrilled, but showed nothing on his face. He simply nodded.

After chatting with Bels a little longer, Turles left the Mercenary Arena. But now he had a watch on his wrist: the Mercenary Arena's Points Watch. Every time he defeated an opponent, he would earn points. He could spend them on any planet under the Mercenary Alliance, and they were interchangeable with the Cosmic Business Alliance's currency. This was the final gift Bels had given him.