System Upgrade, Increased Battle Power

Carnegie and the other two looked at one another.

But after glancing at Soya, they felt a lot more at ease.

Good thing Soya had run in and volunteered to be the punching bag.

That meant one less chance for us to be the punching bag.

"Prince Vegeta went to bed, so he won't be taking part in the game," Nappa said with a smile.

Vegeta was only five years old, but his battle power had already reached the astonishing height of 15,000, making him the most talented Saiyan warrior.

Some might ask: why did Vegeta have a battle power of 15,000 at age five, yet it was only 18,000 when he was nearly thirty and went to Earth? He'd only gained 3,000 points. Wasn't that a little ridiculous?

Actually, it was perfectly normal.

At this point in time, a battle power of 15,000 was enough to dominate almost any planet.

A battle power of 15,000 was like a high-level character, over level 90, killing monsters in a beginner's village.

It didn't matter if he killed them for a year; even a hundred years of killing beginner monsters wouldn't level him up.

Vegeta had done remarkably well just to raise his battle power to 18,000.

On top of that, Frieza treated Vegeta with special consideration and rarely sent him to fight on planets where the inhabitants had high battle power.

In reality, there weren't many humans with a battle power above 15,000.

A lot of characters with astronomical battle power appeared later in Dragon Ball, but if you counted them up, there really weren't that many—and most of them were gathered on a single planet.

Saiyans grew stronger when facing strong opponents. Without powerful enemies to push them, it was difficult for their battle power to improve any further.

Take the Android era, for example.

Although Trunks had traveled back in the Time Machine to warn them how terrifying the androids were,

Son Goku and Vegeta had never met the androids.

You'd think that with three years to train, Son Goku and Vegeta would be able to surpass the androids. Could they really not manage it?

That wasn't the case. If they fought the androids first and then trained, they'd probably surpass them with ease.

So when Saiyans encountered opponents stronger than themselves... well, provided those opponents weren't absurdly stronger, it drove them to desperately increase their own battle power.

For example, during the Namek period, Vegeta raised his battle power to over two million in one go.

But if the opponent was too overwhelmingly powerful—like Beerus, whom they encountered at the beginning of Dragon Ball Super—then they existed on an entirely different plane, and defeating them was obviously impossible.

Take Frieza now, for another example. With a battle power in the hundreds of millions, he was several planes above them. He wasn't the sort of opponent who would spur the Saiyans to increase their battle power.

During the first thirty years of Vegeta's life, he was already at his peak when he was five.

Before meeting Kakarot, his battle power grew extremely slowly.

Only after Vegeta went to Earth and fought Son Goku to the death, nearly dying in the process, did his battle power increase dramatically.

The second-highest battle power in this squad belonged to Nappa.

Nappa's battle power had already reached 3,000.

Next was Raditz, with a battle power of 700.

From Akira Toriyama's interview, he had indeed said that Raditz was an elite warrior.

The Saiyans' assessment of an elite warrior was probably based on their battle power at birth.

After all, Raditz's battle power had already exceeded 200 when he was born.

Those with a battle power between 100 and 200 were mid-class warriors.

Those below 100 were low-class warriors.

As for how strong you became later, no one cared.

Next came Soya, with a battle power of 600.

Carnegie: Battle power 500.

Kuri: Battle power 450.

Baru: Battle power 440.

So for this game, they would draw lots among Soya, Carnegie, and the other two. Whoever drew the red bean would get beaten.

From the knowing looks Nappa and Raditz exchanged, Soya could tell they'd already planned this out.

"There are four beans here: three green beans and one red bean. We call the red one the punching-bag bean!" Nappa grinned at Soya and the other three as he put the beans in a jar, shook it vigorously, and set it on the ground.

"Go ahead!" Raditz snickered, grinning like he was asking for a punch. "Blame your battle power for being the four lowest in our squad! Once your battle power surpasses mine, I'll join the game too!"

"Really?" Soya's eyes lit up.

"Of course. Why would I lie?" Raditz rolled his eyes at Soya, then said with a grin, "Come to think of it, your battle power is only 100 below mine. If you work hard, you've still got a chance to catch up."

"Mm-hmm." Soya nodded.

"But I'm absolutely not giving you that chance!" Raditz snickered.

"Uh... wait a moment. I'll try to catch up right now." Soya rubbed his hands together.

Raditz: "????"

Nappa was also a little stunned.

Carnegie and the other two looked at one another, unable to figure out what Soya was trying to do.

"Give me thirty seconds!" Soya waved at Nappa and the others.

Nappa didn't object. It was only thirty seconds, after all.

The thing this spaceship had no shortage of was time.

This long journey through space really was incredibly boring.

Soya checked his system list and saw that he had already accumulated 100,000 Negative Emotion Points.

He'd gotten some of those points today by farming them from Vegeta and the others.

Some had come from other Saiyans as well.

He'd even collected quite a few Negative Emotion Points on that planet the last time he went with Bardock to Planet Cereal.

100,000 Negative Emotion Points!

Every 10,000 Negative Emotion Points granted one draw.

Every draw was guaranteed to win something!

With 100,000 points, he could do a ten-draw.

Soya had no reason to hesitate. He immediately started the ten-draw.

"Congratulations! You received 9 points of battle power!"

"Congratulations! You received 5 points of battle power!"

"Congratulations! You received 2 points of battle power!"

Soya cursed inwardly.

This damn system!

It was increasing his battle power by single digits at a time.

Did you think that was why my battle power had only increased by 300?

But when he reached the fifth draw of the ten-draw, the system suddenly froze.

It was as if the system had crashed.

Soya broke out in a cold sweat.

System, don't you dare malfunction.

If you're going to malfunction, at least wait until I've raised my battle power above three million.

It stayed frozen for about three seconds.

"System upgrade successful! Current version: 1.0!"

Soya paused in surprise.

That freeze just now... it had secretly gone off to upgrade.

So the old version had just been a beta test?

"Congratulations! You received 33 points of battle power!"

"Congratulations! You received 22 points of battle power!"

"Congratulations! You received 55 points of battle power!"

Soya was thrilled.

This damn system was finally being generous.

His battle power gains had reached double digits.

Soya immediately checked his battle power.

Battle power: 780!

His battle power had increased by 180.

"Congratulations! You received Battle God Water!"

The final message from the system.