Rendezvous

The auras of these four Earth warriors were now several times more condensed than they had been a year ago.

They had undergone hellish special training at Kami's Lookout, and their strength was already nothing like before.

Right after that.

Boom!

A white cape snapped loudly in the wind.

Piccolo descended coolly onto the tallest boulder, his arms folded across his chest.

Behind him stood a little boy wearing the same style of Demon Clan martial arts uniform, only without a cape.

Son Gohan.

After a year of Piccolo's training, the bookish little crybaby he had once been had completely disappeared.

In his place was a young warrior with resolute eyes and a wild aura radiating from his body.

Though he was only five years old, the ki he gave off was even slightly stronger than Krillin's.

"Gohan!"

Krillin greeted him in surprise. "Wow! You've gotten a lot taller! And that ki... Looks like Piccolo trained you well!"

"Uncle Krillin!" Gohan bowed politely. Though he had become a warrior, the courtesy ingrained in him had not changed.

Piccolo snorted. "Don't get too friendly. If you hold us back when the fighting starts, I won't save you."

"Same as ever, Piccolo." Yamcha gave a wry smile.

As everyone exchanged greetings.

A sudden whistling sound came from the sky.

"That is..." All three of Tien Shinhan's eyes turned toward the sky.

A golden Flying Nimbus came hurtling down like a meteor, carrying a young man in an orange-red King Kai martial arts uniform.

"Everyone!!! I'm back!!!"

That familiar booming voice instantly lifted everyone's spirits.

Bang!

Son Goku leaped from the Flying Nimbus and landed firmly on the ground.

Though his martial arts uniform was worn and tattered, he was in extraordinarily good condition.

The confidence and power radiating from within him gave everyone present an inexplicable sense of reassurance.

"Goku!!"

"Dad!!"

Everyone crowded around him.

"Hehe, looks like everyone got a lot stronger!"

Goku sensed their ki and said in surprise, "Especially Gohan. Your ki got so strong!"

"Of course!"

Krillin laughed and punched Goku's shoulder.

"We worked ourselves to the bone this past year! But... Goku, how about you? Did King Kai's special training work?"

At that, Goku rubbed his nose, a smug little expression appearing on his face.

He released just a trace of his aura.

Hummm—

A vast wave of ki, as immense as the sea, instantly spread outward from him, whipping everyone's clothes in the wind.

"This... this ki..."

Cold sweat instantly trickled down Tien Shinhan's forehead. "How is this possible...? You've become this much stronger in just one year?!"

Piccolo stood atop the boulder. His previously closed eyes snapped open as he stared intently at Goku.

"His battle power... is at least ten thousand?!"

Comparing it against the battle power calculations Sun Wuxiu had provided before, Piccolo was deeply shocked.

In the original timeline, Goku's battle power had only been a little over eight thousand when he returned from training.

But in this life, with Sun Wuxiu, an even stronger target, constantly ahead of him.

Goku had trained on King Kai's Planet like his life depended on it, forcibly raising his base battle power to the ten-thousand mark!

"Hehe, what do you think? Surprised?"

Seeing everyone's stunned expressions, Goku planted his hands on his hips with a hint of smugness.

"And... I didn't just get stronger. I also learned an incredibly powerful technique!"

"Once I use it, my battle power can multiply several times over!"

"What?!!!"

Even Piccolo could no longer remain calm.

Several times over? Wouldn't that mean tens of thousands?!

"You're bluffing, Goku, right?" Yamcha could hardly believe it. "How could there be a technique that broken?"

"It's true!" Goku said seriously.

"It's King Kai's secret technique, called the Kaioken! But it puts a huge strain on the body. Right now, I can only raise it to around three or four times at most."

Even so, that was a battle power of thirty or forty thousand!

That would be enough to instantly crush that Vegeta or whoever he was!

The tightly wound nerves of the group immediately relaxed considerably.

"Great! With this, we've definitely won!" Krillin clenched his fist excitedly.

Just then, Goku took a deep breath, and his immense aura vanished without a trace like the sea pulling back at low tide.

At that moment, he looked like an ordinary young man from Earth, with a battle power that might not even reach five.

"But it's better to keep it suppressed normally. Otherwise, it would be too conspicuous." Goku said with a smile.

Goku turned to look at Sun Wuxiu, who had been standing quietly to the side.

He walked over, challenge gleaming in his eyes.

"Big brother, what do you think? I've been risking my life this past year to chase after your shadow."

"The Kaioken is really amazing. If you learned it too, you might become even stronger. But me right now... hehe, if I use the Kaioken, I might not necessarily lose to you!"

Seeing his younger brother looking as if he were begging for praise, Sun Wuxiu could not help but smile.

A base battle power of ten thousand, multiplied by four with the Kaioken, made forty thousand.

It was indeed very strong.

In the original course of history, this was already enough power to dominate Earth.

Unfortunately...

"Well done, Goku."

Sun Wuxiu patted his shoulder, his tone gentle, as though he were praising an elementary school student who had scored a perfect hundred.

"The Kaioken is indeed a good technique. But..."

Sun Wuxiu did not continue. He merely smiled faintly and waved his hand.

"For me, I have no use for it for now. If I need it later, I'll learn it."

What a joke.

His normal battle power was now twelve million, and his Super Saiyan form was six hundred million.

(During this past year, Sun Wuxiu had spent most of his time controlling his ki in order to reach the full power state as quickly as possible, rather than further increasing the intensity of his training. Therefore, his battle power had not grown particularly quickly.)

Seeing his older brother's calm, unruffled look, as if he did not take "forty thousand battle power" seriously at all, Goku froze for a moment. Then the fighting spirit in his eyes grew even stronger.

As expected... Big brother is still unfathomable.

Goku thought to himself, Even after becoming this strong, I still feel like I can't see through him.

Just then.

Beep beep beep beep beep!!!

The device in Sun Wuxiu's hand emitted a frantic alarm.

Everyone's expressions changed instantly, and the relaxed atmosphere from moments ago vanished completely.

"They're here!!"

Piccolo roared.

He did not need to say it. Everyone could feel it.

Two enormous fireballs fell from the sky like meteors, carrying suffocating pressure as they crashed violently onto the wasteland not far ahead!

Rumble—!!!

The earth shook violently as a massive mushroom cloud rose into the sky.

A fierce shockwave mixed with rocks and dust swept toward them like a tsunami.

"Everyone, watch out!!"

Goku shouted, crossing his arms before him.