Frieza had no choice.
It was too far away. The only presence he could sense on Earth was Piccolo's.
Piccolo hadn't stopped training during this time, and his battle power was now close to 100 million. He still wasn't much to look at, but he was considerably stronger than in the original story.
He had Slug to thank for that!
When Frieza saw Dodoria, who had lost several inches around his waist, he almost failed to recognize his number-one lackey.
Could you imagine the once-round Dodoria transformed into a bodybuilder with eight-pack abs?
If not for Dodoria's distinctive skin color, and the little bumps that hadn't disappeared from his body but had only gotten smaller, Frieza would never have guessed this person was Dodoria.
The moment Dodoria saw Frieza, all his grievances came flooding back. Tears poured down as if they were free.
He tossed aside the steamed bun in his hand and was about to complain to his master!
As for that steamed bun, Son Gohan had only asked Piccolo to improve Dodoria's meals after he couldn't bear to watch him eat any longer.
Otherwise, Frieza would have found Dodoria gnawing on pig slop—and not just any pig slop, but the leftovers!
"Oh ho ho ho ho! Dodoria, you look much better like this than you used to. Those eight-pack abs are quite nice! Looks like you've been training very hard on Earth!"
Dodoria, who hadn't even had a chance to speak, was dumbfounded. Piccolo was dumbfounded too.
Piccolo's reason was simple: Frieza's aura had overwhelmed him. Frieza had just finished training and hadn't yet had a chance to conceal his battle power.
A battle power of 600 million nearly drove Piccolo to despair.
Piccolo had thought that even if he was weaker than Son Goku now, the gap wouldn't be too great. But Frieza's aura had dealt him an enormous shock.
Aside from Frieza, who had the Scouter Technique, everyone else could only judge the strength of someone's battle power by feel.
But Piccolo didn't need exact figures to sense the difference between them.
Frieza's overwhelming battle power had crushed him!
Dodoria was dumbfounded by what King Frieza had just said!
As the number-one lackey, Dodoria had immediately picked up on the admiration in Frieza's words.
"King Frieza, I'm your most loyal subordinate. To avoid bringing shame upon you, I've trained with all my might here on Earth!"
"Not only did I volunteer for every backbreaking chore, I also fought all kinds of people. I slept only three hours a day and ate the roughest, most unpalatable food. After nearly a year of unrelenting effort, I finally built this fine physique!"
"But after seeing King Frieza again, I finally understand that you are the sun in the heavens, while I am merely a weed on the ground. Your radiance shines upon the earth, allowing a little weed like me to flourish!"
......
(If I kept writing, even several million words wouldn't be enough. To avoid finishing the story so soon, I can only use "bro" as a substitute.)
Piccolo was once again stunned by Dodoria's shamelessness!
No wonder the Grand Elder had called Dodoria Frieza's number-one lackey. With flattery like that, Piccolo wouldn't catch up even if he rode a spaceship!
"Hmm!?"
Frieza was enjoying Dodoria's millions of words of praise and feeling a little pleased with himself when he suddenly noticed a Mechanical Spy Bug approaching.
Suspecting what it might be, Frieza didn't crush the bug. He waited for it to collect his cells, then chased it away.
No one else noticed the bug. They only saw Frieza's eyes suddenly narrow, then watched him wave his hand and lower his aura.
Piccolo had thought Frieza was about to fight him, and he was trying to figure out how to contact Grand Elder Slug and get him to use the Dragon Balls to bring him back to life.
But before he could come up with a plan, Frieza's aura quickly dropped. Before long, it was about the same as Krillin's.
Phew~~
Piccolo secretly breathed a sigh of relief, then said to Dodoria, "Mr. Dodoria, now that King Frieza is here, your training can come to an end for the time being. I'm sure King Frieza will need you to look after him!"
Piccolo was being very accommodating, which almost made Dodoria cry with grievance.
After nearly a year of inhuman treatment, was this shameless man now expecting him to thank Piccolo?
Dodoria wanted no part of it!
How could Frieza not know what had happened? He just thought Dodoria was pretty amusing.
Now he'd discovered that Piccolo was pretty amusing too, so he decided to play along.
"Hmm?! Dodoria, where are your manners? You're my subordinate. Do you want people to say I can't keep my underlings in line?!"
Frieza's eyes instantly turned dark and ominous. The chill he unconsciously exuded made Dodoria shiver dozens of times in a row, nearly giving him a cramp!
Smack!
Dodoria snapped his legs together, then bowed ninety degrees to Piccolo and loudly said, "Thank you very much, Mr. Piccolo, for devising my training plan. Please accept my most sincere gratitude!"
Piccolo was stunned!
He'd had a slightly unrealistic idea, but he'd only wanted to make things unpleasant for Dodoria. He hadn't thought Frieza wouldn't see through it.
Piccolo didn't know whether Frieza had seen through it or not, but he knew one thing for certain: Frieza had gone along with what he said!
This...
King Kai was a total con artist!
That unreliable, chuunibyou girl Bulma was more dependable!
Bulma had been right. Frieza was easy to talk to, but sometimes he didn't seem human!
This was clearly Frieza toying with his subordinate—an utterly loyal subordinate, no less!
"Your name is Piccolo, right? I remember you. Your battle power wasn't this high before. Did something happen that I don't know about?"
Frieza waved his hand and conjured a table and a chair from his storage space. A plate of fruit sat on the table: Tree of Might fruit.
He tossed one to Dodoria, giving his subordinate a tiny reward. That was how you kept your underlings in line!
"Sit!"
Frieza settled down in the only chair, yet told Piccolo to sit too.
Where the hell was Piccolo supposed to sit?
On the ground or on the table?
Piccolo really wanted to flip the table and pick a fight!
But he didn't dare. Not everyone was Crow, who could flip a table whenever he felt like it.
Piccolo was certain that if he made even the slightest move to flip the table now, he'd be blasted to smithereens!
Frieza hadn't actually meant anything by it, but his appearance alone gave Piccolo that impression.
When you looked that evil, even the friendliest behavior was useless.
Frieza could only say that Piccolo was too shallow. Judging people by their appearance wasn't something a mature person should do.
"I told you to sit. Are you refusing to show me respect?"
Frieza picked up a Tree of Might fruit and tossed it straight into his mouth, like Zhu Bajie eating a ginseng fruit. It wasn't graceful in the slightest.
The Tree of Might fruit wasn't much use to him, but it tasted pretty good—at least it quenched his thirst.
Before you continue