Poor Dodoria

Piccolo felt like he was about to explode. All he wanted to do was destroy—destroy everything in front of him.

Whether it was living or inanimate, he wanted to wipe it all out.

Just as Piccolo was about to lose control, Son Gohan rushed forward and wrapped his arms around Piccolo from behind.

"Pencil, pencil case, case, bullet, slingshot..."

This was a word-chain game Son Gohan played while training with Piccolo.

At the sound of his voice, the aura around Piccolo vanished at once, and the darkness in his eyes receded like the tide.

That voice was the one pure sanctuary deep within Piccolo's heart, and the most important thing that allowed him to keep himself under control!

Phew!!

Piccolo let out a breath and finally calmed down completely. He reached back, pulled Son Gohan around in front of him, looked into his eyes, and said earnestly,

"Gohan, thank you! If it weren't for you, Uncle Piccolo would have completely lost himself!"

Son Gohan's eyes filled with tears. "I knew it! I knew Uncle Piccolo could do it!"

Piccolo gently set Son Gohan down, clenched his fists, and felt the ki within him.

Incredibly powerful!

He didn't know whether he could measure up to Son Goku now, but he could certainly feel that he was countless times stronger!

Frieza: Kid, you've only gone from 78,000 to 78 million. That's a big boost, but you're still a nobody!

Considering that Slug had a power level of 100 million in his giant form, Piccolo had gained only 77.92 million. Quite a bit had indeed gone to waste.

Still, the advantage of this over assimilation was that Slug had kept his life!

And Slug had already grown powerful once. Even if he'd become kind, he could still train himself back up over time.

After all, Slug had a body with a normal power level of 60 million. His power level was only 400,000 now, but anyone below 50 million wouldn't even be able to break through his defenses.

Dodoria was terrified!

Earth is terrifying! I want to go back to King Frieza!

Waaah~~

You could tell just how terrifying Piccolo was by the fact that even Dodoria had been scared to tears.

Hearing him cry, Piccolo shot him a blade-sharp look. Dodoria was so frightened that he didn't even dare tremble.

The Grand Elder spoke again.

"He's one of Frieza's men, and Frieza's most trusted lackey—uh, subordinate. Don't hurt him! You can't imagine how terrifying Frieza is. Son Goku and the others won't win!"

Piccolo knew the Grand Elder's predictions never failed, and Frieza wasn't the indiscriminate killer King Kai had described, either.

For the Grand Elder's sake—and for Frieza's—Piccolo decided to let Dodoria live for now. But until Frieza came to Earth, Dodoria would have to stay with Piccolo and do hard labor!

Dodoria had no idea what awaited him. He kept thanking the Grand Elder for saving his life.

After that, things on Earth returned to their original course. First, they used the Earth Dragon Balls to revive the Namekians who had been killed by King Cold's men.

130 days later, they tried to use the Namek Dragon Balls to revive Son Goku, but failed, since Son Goku wasn't dead in the first place.

The Namekians reminded Bulma that they could bring Son Goku to Earth, but, just like in the original story, he refused.

As for Vegeta, well, he still hadn't earned everyone's trust and had already been forgotten completely.

Even the fact that Vegeta had been the first to transform into a Super Saiyan couldn't change that.

So the group had no choice but to give up on that plan and choose to revive Yamcha, Tien Shinhan, and Chiaotzu instead.

Another 130 days passed, and they summoned Shenron again.

This time, their wishes were simple. First, they learned that Son Goku was on Planet Yardrat with Vegeta. Then they found out that Frieza had returned to Ice Planet.

Finally, with their last wish, the Namekians transported themselves to a planet suitable for them to live on, one without humans.

The ending was a happy one all around, and Earth returned to a time of peace once more.

On the new Namek, all the Namekians gathered around the Grand Elder, who had grown extremely frail.

"From now on, Slug will be your new Grand Elder. I believe that under his leadership, our people will thrive anew!"

After he spoke, the Grand Elder's hand fell limply to his side. Tears glistened in Slug's eyes.

Now, only pure kindness remained in Slug's heart. All he could think about was how to strengthen the Namekian people!

On Earth

Poor Dodoria was using all four limbs to clear mountains and build roads. Piccolo took all the money he earned and gave it to Son Gohan. After all, Gohan ate so much that Chi-Chi could barely feed him on her own.

As Son Gohan's uncle, Piccolo felt he ought to help the boy's family.

Poor Dodoria worked harder than anyone and ate worse than a pig. He'd already lost several pounds.

The one consolation was that Dodoria's power level had risen to 50,000. He was still trash, but at least it was the result of his training.

And the ones training him were Yamcha, Tien Shinhan, Chiaotzu, and Krillin!

At last, this group of future benchwarmers had broken through the limits of Earthlings.

Yamcha had a power level of 45,000, Tien Shinhan had 70,000, Chiaotzu had 40,000, and Krillin was the strongest, having soared to 100,000. He was the undisputed strongest person on Earth.

Master Roshi's era was long gone.

Thinking back to the days when Master Roshi would flex his muscles and blast the moon away with a Kamehameha, he was now a bona fide dirty old man.

With a whole bunch of badass disciples, there was no way he wouldn't get cocky!

One day, Frieza opened his eyes deep beneath the ice on Ice Planet. His power had not only stabilized, but had soared once more to 600 million!

More than 300 days had passed, and Frieza finally remembered what he'd forgotten.

That was his lackey, Dodoria!

With a sigh, Frieza decided he still needed to go check on Earth. If the Earthlings hadn't killed Dodoria, then he was probably still there.

Frieza glanced at the clone he'd created with the Dragon Balls. It had successfully fused with Frieza's cells, and its power was slowly increasing. It had reached 100 million, but once it passed that point, its growth slowed to a crawl!

A power level of just 100 million clearly wasn't enough, so he could only keep letting it grow here.

His own power was progressing too quickly. There seemed to be no chance the clone could catch up. What a miscalculation.

Fusion was impossible without equal power levels. If he weakened himself to match the clone, then what would be the point of fusing at all?

What if, after fusing, he turned out weaker than he was on his own?

Forget it. He'd keep letting it grow. Maybe a miracle would happen one day.

Whoosh~~

Frieza vanished from where he stood. When he appeared again, he was on Earth—and right beside Piccolo.