First Battle

"To fight or not to fight? That is the question."

It must be said, Reke was terrified.

He was full of suspicion regarding the numbers on his scouter, unable to believe that the creature opposite him had a combat power of only 15—a full 30 points lower than his own.

His face turned pale, then green, and he stood on the tree branch, not daring to move a muscle.

Although he had fully inherited the combat techniques of a Saiyan, he had barely been in a single fight in his previous life; being asked to take on such a behemoth right out of the gate left him filled with hesitation.

If a normal Saiyan were his age, they probably would have charged in to fight long ago; the problem was that he was not a normal Saiyan.

As someone who would hide far away even from dogs in his past life, being told to fight something like this—even knowing his strength was far superior—was a mental hurdle Reke just couldn't clear.

"Gurgle!"

Before Reke could continue his indecision on the tree, his stomach let out a growl.

The four ears of the wolf-like creature opposite him twitched, and its four lantern-sized eyes locked firmly onto Reke's position.

Its two front legs shifted slightly backward, bracing itself to pounce at any moment.

"Roar! Roar!"

Two low growls jolted Reke, leaving him no time to overthink.

He knew he had drawn the creature's attention and that he had been targeted.

"Whoosh!"

The moment Reke looked toward the wolf-like creature, it pushed off with all four limbs and lunged at him, crossing the ten-meter distance in an instant, its blood-stained maw arriving less than half a meter from Reke.

Although the creature's movements were fast, in Reke's vision, they didn't seem fast at all; it was like watching slow motion.

He instantly thought of several ways to respond.

He bent his knees slightly and leaped upward with force, while the wolf-like creature snapped through the branch Reke had been standing on and landed twenty meters away.

As Reke landed, the wolf-like creature turned its head and locked onto him once more.

"Is this for real? Is this wolf-thing really this slow?" After dodging the attack, Reke's confidence surged.

He hadn't expected this creature to pose no threat at all. He steadied his nerves, clenched his fists, shifted his right foot back, and assumed a striking stance.

This time, Reke prepared to go on the offensive.

The wolf-like creature attacked again, pouncing toward Reke, and the moment it leaped into the air, Reke dashed beneath its belly.

He twisted his body slightly and threw a straight right punch directly into the creature's stomach.

"Pfft!"

"Roar! Roar!"

To Reke, it felt like punching through a piece of paper; there was no resistance at all. His fist punched a hole right through the creature's belly, and blood splattered all over him.

As he pulled his fist back, the creature's internal organs spilled out through the hole, and its two heads let out agonizing howls.

"That easy?"

"Is it too weak, or am I too strong?"

Reke ignored the creature on the ground and stared blankly at his own hands, unable to believe this was the power he possessed.

He hadn't expected such a massive disparity between them when he only had 30 more points of combat power.

Without a doubt, this was a one-shot kill; he had killed the opponent instantly.

Reke walked over to the wolf-like creature and found that it had only a faint, dying breath left.

He crouched in front of its wolf heads, stared fixedly into those four lantern-sized eyes, and said with a look of disgust, "How did you get one-shot by me? I only have 30 points on you, don't I?"

Whether the wolf-like creature understood Reke's words or simply sensed the disdain in his eyes, it glared in fury, its two heads slumped to the side, and it died.

Seeing that the creature was dead, Reke didn't dare linger in the area.

He dragged the wolf-like creature into a nearby stream to wash it, taking the opportunity to clean the blood off himself as well.

After moving to a new location, Reke roasted the creature while lost in thought.

"This shouldn't be right. How could it be one-shot?"

"Kakarot and Piccolo were both able to take down Raditz, who had so much more combat power than them. What is going on with this guy?"

Reke truly didn't understand.

He genuinely couldn't fathom how Raditz, with a combat power of 1500, was taken down by two people with less than 1000. Based on his own fight just now, Kakarot and Piccolo shouldn't have even been able to touch Raditz.

In terms of combat power, speed, strength, visual reflexes, and cognitive processing, the gap between the two sides should have been astronomical.

Yet, Raditz ended up dead.

Reke's mind was full of question marks; he had no idea how Kakarot and the others had managed it.

Until he figured this out, he simply couldn't feel secure.

It wasn't until he smelled something burning that Reke finally realized.

First, Raditz was just too trashy—he was weak and loved to toy with his food.

Second, he was heavily injured by Gohan, so his combat power after the injury was definitely not 1,500; a conservative estimate would be around 1,000.

Third, Kakarot and Piccolo had combat powers of around 800 after powering up, so the gap between them and the heavily injured Raditz was not that large.

In the end, it still took Kakarot sacrificing himself to take Raditz down.

Once he thought it through, Reke felt completely at ease and made up his mind never to act like Raditz in the future.

A battle should be fought with full effort; even if one has a specific goal, one must first cripple the opponent and never give them a chance to turn the tables.

After several hundred pounds of meat entered Reke's stomach, he had to admire the Saiyan stomach—it was truly beastly.

He didn't even weigh a hundred pounds himself, yet several times his body weight had just gone into his belly, and he was still only ninety percent full.

Damn, if I had this stomach in my past life and entered competitive eating, wouldn't I have made a fortune? Reke sighed to himself while lying on the ground.

He performed a kip-up to his feet, looked toward the mountainside, and started running.

Standing before the mountain, he clenched his fists and began punching rapidly.

Before long, a space of about five square meters had been smashed out by Reke. After clearing away the rubble, he found a rock large enough to block the entrance, stood inside the cave, and sealed it shut.

"That's enough for today; I'll deal with the rest tomorrow." Reke clapped his small hands.

He lay down on the ground and fell into a deep sleep.

When Reke woke up and pushed the rock aside, sunlight shone onto his face; it was already broad daylight outside.

Reke sat cross-legged on the ground, thinking about the results of the past eleven months, and sighed helplessly.

"Novels really are all lies."

As it turned out, despite eleven months of hard work, Reke still hadn't learned to control his ki, let alone sense it.

Aside from his combat power increasing by 15 points over the year, the only other thing he had achieved was being able to slightly control his mind from wandering.

This was of no help to his survival in the immediate future.

He steadied his mind, closed his eyes, and focused his spirit within his body, continuing to try and sense his ki using the method Gohan taught Videl in the anime from his past life.

Half an hour flashed by, and Reke's stomach began to growl again.

"You've got to be kidding me. I put away hundreds of pounds yesterday, and it's only been a few hours and I'm hungry again?"

Reke wailed in his heart; truthfully, he didn't want to go out at all.

Even after a night had passed, the 3,000 combat power he saw yesterday was still etched in his mind.

Especially after the battle yesterday with a 30-point gap in combat power, he had an even deeper sense of what 3,000 combat power meant.