Revenge

The two sides collided.

Reke had chosen to meet the monster head-on.

With every collision, every cell in Reke's body protested. He felt as if he were about to fall apart.

He forced himself to swallow the blood in his mouth, not daring to let his breath falter.

The two sides continued to clash.

What the monster didn't notice was that

Reke's position was steadily dropping. At first, he had traded blows with its fists and arms, but gradually, he began clashing with its legs instead.

Reke was getting closer and closer to the monster's feet.

Finally, when Reke was a hundred meters above the ground, his elbow collided with the monster's right shin.

Reke fought against the force pushing him back as the ki inside him erupted again and again.

The moment their struggle paused, Reke vanished. In an instant, he reappeared beside the monster's left foot.

A huge mass of energy had gathered in his palms.

"Hah!"

Reke let out a mighty shout.

A shock wave blasted toward the ground beneath the monster's left foot.

It hit the ground in an instant. The shock wave met no resistance and plunged straight underground.

"Boom—"

A chasm thousands of meters deep opened beneath the monster's feet.

There was nowhere for the monster's left foot to brace itself, while its right leg was still suspended in the air.

Its balance broken, the monster plunged uncontrollably downward.

Its arms flailed wildly in the air.

Reke had moved to the edge of the chasm the instant he blasted it open.

He held his hands one above the other in front of his chest. The ki within him surged toward the space between his palms, gathering and compressing.

A deep-blue ball of energy appeared. Its light grew brighter and brighter as the energy continued to build.

Sweat trickled down Reke's cheeks.

The instant the monster's head reached the same level as Reke,

his gaze sharpened. He flickered out of place and appeared right in front of the monster's eyes.

"Die, monster! Take a taste of my Dulong Destruction Cannon!"

Reke thrust the Kikoho in front of his chest forward with all his might.

The Kikoho, powered by 250,000 units of battle power, struck the monster.

The point of contact kept disappearing. The monster's defenses did nothing to stop it. The Kikoho shattered its head, then continued flying into the distance, finally shooting into space and exploding.

Reke floated in the air, his arms hanging limp in front of him. Blood covered his entire body, and exhaustion showed on his face.

His injuries did nothing to dampen his mood. He grinned and burst into laughter.

"Ha ha ha ha! Cough, cough!"

Reke had barely managed a few laughs before he started coughing. Blood spilled from his mouth.

"That felt great! You piece of crap. Let's see you mess with me now!"

Reke didn't care about his condition at all.

After laughing for a while, Reke slowly rose higher, all the way to an altitude of ten thousand meters.

In his current state, he couldn't afford to fly recklessly over the Rocky Mountains. He could only cross them from high above.

It would be a real joke to struggle to take down the big boss, then get killed by some small fry. Reke would never be able to rest in peace.

After crossing the Rocky Mountains and reaching the forest, Reke didn't hurry to look for the spaceship. He was in desperate need of rest.

If he hadn't agreed to meet Plus at a certain time, the best thing for him to do right now would have been to recover from his injuries.

He hadn't expected this trip to be so dangerous. He had nearly bought it.

When he returned to his previous lodgings, Reke could no longer keep going. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.

His worries woke him after less than two hours.

He felt a little better than before. At the very least, he could move both arms now.

He dug up the spaceship, supported it from beneath with both hands, and flew toward Panxi City.

The return trip was much slower. It took nearly four hours, and Reke didn't land outside Plus's home until after nine.

As soon as Reke touched down, he saw Plus standing at the door, his eyes bloodshot as he stared fixedly at the spaceship.

It was obvious from his appearance that he hadn't slept all night. For all Reke knew, he might have been standing there the entire time.

"Is this a spaceship?"

"Reke, are you all right?"

The two questions came at the same time.

Plus had asked the first, while Lola had asked the second.

Reke first shook his head at Lola, then said to Plus, "That's right. This is a spaceship. I came here in it, too."

Seeing that Plus was about to reach out and touch it,

Reke continued, "Let me explain a few things first."

"First, there's a tracking device inside the spaceship. You have to find it before anything else."

"Also, check whether there are any listening devices on the ship, or anything else you don't think belongs there."

"And then there's the Gravity Chamber. The higher the multiplier, the better."

"That's all for today. Study it carefully. I'll come back to see you in a while."

Only after hearing Reke's instructions did Plus look away from the spaceship and turn his attention to Reke.

"Are you all right? How did you end up covered in injuries just from retrieving a spaceship? I can call a hospital for you."

Seeing Reke's torn-up Battle Suit and the blood covering his body, with some wounds still oozing, Plus finally realized how badly the kid in front of him was hurt.

Reke thought it over, then shook his head.

"I ran into a little trouble. I'm not going to the hospital. Remember what I just told you. It's important. The fate of this planet depends on it."

Watching Reke walk away, confusion filled Plus's eyes.

He really couldn't understand Reke's behavior. Judging by the injuries he'd just seen, Reke ought to have been lying on the ground, barely able to stand. He couldn't figure out why Reke was acting as if nothing had happened.

If he refused to go to the hospital, then with injuries that serious, he'd need at least three months to recover, even if he stayed in one.

Plus shook his head helplessly and turned his attention back to the spaceship.

He called over some robots to transport it to his workshop, then eagerly began running tests on it.

As he examined it, he kept letting out amazed exclamations.

Meanwhile, Lola looked at the figure ahead of her and gathered her courage to speak again. "Reke, shouldn't we go to the hospital anyway? You could recover sooner."

"No need. I'm hungry. Go home and make me something to eat."

Reke answered Lola casually, paying no attention to the looks from passersby.

To be honest, his injuries weren't as trivial as he made them seem. He simply had his reasons for not wanting to go to the hospital.

He didn't want his blood left outside. If he went to the hospital, they would definitely take a blood sample.

Ever since he was injured yesterday, he had destroyed every bit of his blood, including the blood that seeped out of his body along the way.

The moment it appeared, his ki vaporized it. He hadn't even left any bloodstains on the spaceship.

He was being so careful because the original story had scared the hell out of him.

Who the hell could have guessed that a planet like Earth, where the strongest fighter had a battle power of no more than 300, could create Androids with battle powers in the hundreds of millions, or even billions?

And that wasn't even counting Super 17 from Dragon Ball GT or Zaiko from the unofficially recognized AF series.

At least those two were all right, since Toriyama never recognized them, even if Zaiko's battle power was even more absurd.

Dragon Ball GT was different. Although it wasn't part of Dragon Ball's official canon, even Toriyama had been involved in some capacity and acknowledged it as something that happened in a parallel universe.

Super 17 could go toe-to-toe with Super Saiyan 4. Just thinking about that terrified Reke. After all, he still had no idea what point in time he had traveled to.

Reke shuddered and hurriedly banished the images from his mind.