The Past

Turles had never expected King Vegeta to have such a past. It also seemed there was some untold history between Paragus and King Vegeta, which immediately piqued his interest.

Turles wasn't the only one. Broly and Raditz were also staring at Paragus with gossipy expressions, their eyes practically saying, "Come on, tell us! We want to hear!"

Paragus looked at them and gave a bitter smile. Then, with a wistful expression, he began his story.

In Age 550, a group of Saiyans wandering through space landed on Planet Plant. At the time, the Tuffles were living on Planet Plant. For certain reasons, they accepted the Saiyans and set aside an area for them to live in.

The Tuffles loved peace. Though they were only half the size of the Saiyans, they were highly intelligent and had a flourishing technological civilization. The Saiyans, meanwhile, were physically powerful but savage and backward. With the Tuffles' help, the Saiyans quickly put down roots on Planet Plant, and their population soon recovered. The two races lived together peacefully for more than a hundred years.

In Age 700, King Vegeta was born. He displayed extraordinary talent from an early age, and before he was even fifteen, he had surpassed his father, defeated the previous Saiyan leader, and claimed the throne.

The ambitious young King Vegeta finally launched an invasion of the Tuffles in Age 720.

With their ability to transform into Great Apes, the Saiyans completely wiped out the Tuffles in Age 730, and Planet Plant was renamed Planet Vegeta.

After taking control of Planet Vegeta, the Saiyans absorbed the Tuffles' technological achievements. But because Saiyan culture revered violence, there were few researchers among them, and their technology stagnated.

King Vegeta had already enjoyed the conveniences technology could bring. How could he possibly tolerate going without them? He had conquered Planet Vegeta to live a better life, not to keep living like a primitive. In particular, he had long coveted the Tuffles' healing medicine, which was practically a "miracle drug."

King Vegeta gathered all the Saiyans and established the Science Division. He proposed the "Saiyan Rise Project," but hardly anyone answered the call. The Saiyans prided themselves on being a warrior race. Why would they take up research?

At that point, the equally young Paragus stepped forward. Drawn in by King Vegeta's charisma, he gave up the honor of being a warrior and resolutely joined the Science Division, choosing to devote his life to the Saiyan cause. (Turles was skeptical!)

Before long, King Vegeta struck a deal with Frieza. With Frieza's support, the Science Division quickly established itself and reverse-engineered the Tuffles' healing medicine. The Saiyans began venturing beyond Planet Vegeta, setting out to conquer other planets for Frieza.

Paragus had earned great merit, winning King Vegeta's favor. He remained one of King Vegeta's trusted ministers until Broly was born.

Broly's birth was a pleasant surprise for Paragus, but to King Vegeta, he was undoubtedly a thorn in his side.

Broly's birth power of 10,000 left everyone stunned. As a member of the Saiyan royal family, King Vegeta recalled a closely guarded royal secret: a terrifying warrior born only once every thousand years—the Legendary Super Saiyan. The thought filled King Vegeta with an unprecedented sense of crisis.

At the time, all the Saiyans worshipped the legendary warrior, the Super Saiyan. They firmly believed that, led by this super warrior, the Saiyans would surely rule the entire universe. All of them—except King Vegeta.

King Vegeta knew that the Super Saiyan didn't just represent strength. He also represented brutality, cold-bloodedness, and a complete lack of humanity. Once a Super Saiyan lost his reason, he would slaughter indiscriminately. It didn't matter whether someone was an enemy or one of his own. No one was spared.

So when King Vegeta saw Broly, his first thought was to kill him as quickly as possible. He couldn't let Broly lead the entire Saiyan race to ruin. He completely forgot that, before this, he had always regarded his son Vegeta as the future Super Saiyan—he had even named him after Planet Vegeta.

King Vegeta quickly made his decision. Ignoring everyone's objections, he exiled the newborn Broly to Planet Vampa, a desolate world on the edge of the universe.

Turles already knew the rest. Enraged, Paragus chased Broly's spaceship all the way to Planet Vampa, but the ship ran out of energy, leaving him stranded there for eighteen years—until Turles arrived.

Paragus had complicated feelings about King Vegeta. He felt wistful about how, in his youth, King Vegeta's ambition had drawn him in, leading him to cast aside the honor of being a Saiyan warrior without hesitation. But after being betrayed, he had also come to hate King Vegeta with all his heart.

King Vegeta was now dead, having perished along with Planet Vegeta. He had even humiliated Vegeta mercilessly. So now Paragus only cared about building a future. He would carry on King Vegeta's ambition and aspirations and lead the Saiyans to rise again.

Broly didn't have the same complicated feelings about King Vegeta as Paragus did. He was very happy with his life now. He had his father, and he had friends!

Raditz hadn't expected Paragus to have such a past, either. But King Vegeta's mercilessness reminded him of Vegeta. They really were father and son; their personalities were exactly alike.

Only Turles watched Paragus's performance from the sidelines, his expression cold.

He wasn't as simple-minded as Broly, nor did he sympathize with Raditz, who had been oppressed by Vegeta.

Turles believed only half of what Paragus said. King Vegeta might not have been a good leader, or even a good person, but Paragus certainly wasn't as pure-hearted as he made himself out to be.

Turles didn't care, though. He had never wanted to be king of the Saiyans. As long as they could help him, that was enough—and all he had to do was stay strong. So he merely watched Paragus with a hint of disdain, without exposing him!

Once the story was over, they returned to the matter at hand.

Paragus wanted to use Great Ape Transformation in their normal state to raise the Saiyans' overall strength. Turles wasn't optimistic about the idea, but he still offered a possible direction: use medicine to trigger changes in the Saiyans' tails, inducing cellular mutations that would let them transform into Great Apes without a full moon.

"That's actually a pretty good idea!" Paragus considered Turles's suggestion, then agreed it had merit.

But there were only four Saiyans at present, so the project would have to wait until they had a planet of their own and could find enough Saiyans.

Training Room.

As usual, Turles sat cross-legged on the floor, thinking about what direction to take his training next.

After getting the Gravity Chamber, Turles had planned to train methodically under high gravity and steadily increase his strength. But his recent experience with Great Ape Transformation seemed to have revealed a shortcut.

After transforming into a Great Ape, Turles had gained a battle power of over 800,000. If he could make that increase permanent—or even integrate it into his body, like Super Saiyan 4 in GT—even a tenfold increase in strength would give him a trump card to raise his battle power before he met the requirements to transform into a Super Saiyan.

But the savagery that rose from deep within his bloodline after transforming into a Great Ape gave Turles pause. He had thought the spiritual strength of his two lifetimes would let him resist the savagery and keep his reason after transforming, but reality had slapped him in the face.

He had underestimated the power rooted in Saiyan blood. The moment his mind brushed against that power, it erupted and swept his consciousness away. In his daze, he even saw a Great Ape roaring at him.

That Great Ape possessed godlike power. Stars revolved in his hands, and his body seemed to blot out the sun. Turles's mind felt insignificant before that godlike figure. The creature merely opened its mouth, and Turles's consciousness crumbled completely.

Turles didn't know whether what he had seen was information buried deep within the Saiyan bloodline or merely a hallucination caused by his consciousness being overwhelmed. But he didn't dare experiment recklessly now. If it happened again, he couldn't guarantee that he would keep his reason.

Turles could still run some experiments on Raditz. First, even though Raditz's battle power had increased significantly through gravity training, he had only been training for a short time, so his battle power had barely broken 5,000. After transforming into a Great Ape, it would only reach 50,000—something Turles or Broly could easily handle.

Second, Raditz's natural physical talent was actually better than Turles's. Using him for experiments would provide a point of comparison, and the different results would help Turles develop the power of the Great Ape.

As for Raditz's opinion, Turles had unconsciously dismissed it. Wasn't a good underling supposed to take burdens off his boss whenever the boss needed help?

That was what "When the boss has a job to do, the underling does the hard work" meant!

At that moment, Raditz was being put through hell by Paragus's training when he suddenly shivered. Not understanding why, he glanced around, completely forgetting his situation—and Paragus punched him straight to the ground.

"You idiot! You can't even dodge an attack that simple? You're doing two extra hours!"

"Nooo!"

Paragus's roar and Raditz's repeated cries for mercy echoed through the Gravity Chamber!