He smiled as he said goodbye to the fatherly boss.
"Now that the contract's signed, there are still a few more formalities to take care of. I won't keep you any longer. I'll be going."
"Ah, of course! Take care, Mr. Vitelli! Give Mrs. Brief my regards!"
The stout boss warmly saw him off to the ranch gate.
Then, to the stout boss's utter shock, as if he'd seen a ghost, Vitelli casually lifted both feet off the ground and shot away with a whoosh, vanishing into the distance in no time.
Vitelli headed to West City Hall to handle the relevant property transfer paperwork.
However, the process turned out to be far more complicated than he'd imagined.
Faced with all the forms, documents, certificates, and the officials at the various counters, who kept asking the same procedural questions and making one demand after another, Vitelli felt completely overwhelmed.
His tremendous strength was utterly useless against all this red tape.
Just as his patience was about to run out, an official smiled and handed him a thick stack of forms that needed to be filled out in detail.
Vitelli looked at the pile of paperwork, which was nearly half a foot high, and fell silent for three seconds.
Then he decisively set all the papers down on the desk and said to the official, who was still smiling apologetically:
"Well... I'm off!"
Without waiting for a response, he turned and left, moving more than ten times faster than when he'd arrived.
"Better leave these troublesome formalities to the all-capable Bulma and have her assign some professionals to handle them!"
Vitelli muttered to himself.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Earth.
Beep beep~ Beep beep~
Vegeta held the Dragon Radar and flew rapidly through the sky at tremendous speed.
On the radar screen, the dots representing the Dragon Balls kept flashing as they drew closer.
"This is the place!"
Vegeta abruptly stopped, hovering high in the air.
He looked down at the endless expanse of deep blue sea below.
The Dragon Ball's signal was coming from beneath the ocean!
Without the slightest hesitation, he took a deep breath, plunged into the icy water, and quickly dove toward the location indicated by the radar.
The light grew dimmer, and the water pressure kept increasing, but none of that mattered to Vegeta.
Following the radar's directions through a colorful coral reef, he finally spotted an orange-yellow orb half-buried in the sand and gravel, with three red stars inside.
"Found it!"
Vegeta's heart leaped with joy as he quickly scooped up the orb.
At last, all seven Dragon Balls were gathered!
He eagerly burst through the surface and flew back into the sky.
Water dripped from him, but he paid it no mind. He was too excited as he stared at the Dragon Ball he'd just found in his hand.
After his elation subsided, Vegeta gazed at the Dragon Ball and suddenly fell into a daze.
He remembered how, not long ago, he, Nappa, and Raditz had been hunted down by the Frieza Force and forced to flee in a sorry state.
The situation had been dangerous, but he'd still been filled with pride. He'd even considered escaping Frieza's grasp proof of his own strength.
But all that confidence had been utterly shattered after meeting Vitelli!
That brief, despairing clash and Vitelli's unfathomable power had made him experience helplessness for the first time!
A mere high-class warrior! How could he?!
"Heh... hehehe... Hahahahahaha!!!!!!!"
Vegeta suddenly burst into uncontrollable laughter. His voice rang over the empty sea, brimming with emotions too complicated to name.
He stared at the Dragon Ball in his hand, as if he'd finally found the answer.
"So that's it!!! This is how you got stronger, Vitelli!"
Vegeta kept talking to himself, his expression shifting from one moment to the next.
"A mere high-class warrior! No wonder I couldn't beat you! You relied on the power of this thing! That way of getting stronger that the dumb woman said you knew—this is what she meant, isn't it?! Hahahahaha!!! This is how you got stronger!!!"
He loudly vented his excitement and the thrill of having seen through the truth. Only after a while did he gradually calm down.
"Now that things have come to this..."
Vegeta's gaze sharpened again.
"I'll find somewhere secluded, then make my wish right away!"
Having made up his mind, he turned into a streak of light and sped low over the sea, his eyes sweeping the horizon like a hawk as he searched for an uninhabited island.
Just as Vegeta's emotions surged violently,
at Kame House,
Master Roshi, who had been lounging in a beach chair and reading the latest swimsuit magazine, suddenly tumbled off it with a thud.
Ignoring the magazine, he sat bolt upright and stared blankly in the general direction of Vegeta, his face filled with shock.
"Master Mutaito?!"
Krillin rushed out of the house too, his face plainly frightened as he looked in the direction Master Roshi was facing. His voice trembled.
"Th-this is?! The guy who fought Goku last time? H-he's got such an incredible ki!"
He was so terrified he could barely speak. He looked to Master Roshi, hoping the God of Martial Arts might offer him some reassurance.
An extremely complicated expression crossed Master Roshi's face before it settled into a long sigh. He shook his head and murmured softly:
"I'm old. I really am old... The young people these days are all as strong as monsters... I can't make sense of this world anymore."
Krillin swallowed and asked in a strained whisper:
"Could it be... that in the fight before... Goku... lost?"
Vegeta couldn't be bothered with the two faint auras in the distance, so weak they were barely worth noticing.
All he could think about now was making his wish.
He streaked across the sea, and soon a seemingly deserted island appeared in his view.
It was shaded by lush green trees, but there wasn't a trace of human activity.
"This is the place!"
Vegeta swiftly landed on the beach of the deserted island.
With excitement and reverence, he carefully and solemnly placed the seven Dragon Balls on the sand.
After steadying his breath, he faced the Dragon Balls and shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice full of longing:
"I want to become stronger than Vitelli!!!"
All was quiet.
Only the wind rustling through the palm trees and the waves softly lapping at the shore could be heard.
The Dragon Balls lay motionless in the sand, showing no reaction.
Startled by Vegeta's sudden shout, a seagull let out a flurry of squawks and flapped away in a panic.
Vegeta: "..."
The excitement and anticipation on his face froze.
Could that woman from Earth have lied to me?
Vegeta furrowed his brow, but immediately dismissed the thought.
No! She had no reason to lie to me! Something must have gone wrong!
He slapped his hands together, certain he'd found the key:
"Right! I must have put them in the wrong place! Or maybe I need to make the wish in a different pose! This is nothing Vegeta can't handle!"
He got right to it, carefully rearranging the seven Dragon Balls. This time, he lined them up in a neat shape.
Then he took another deep breath and shouted with even greater force:
"I want to become stronger than Vitelli!!!"
The Dragon Balls: "..."
Vegeta's forehead began to bulge with veins.
Still undeterred, he rearranged the Dragon Balls again. This time, he put them in a straight line...
Meanwhile, inside the Lookout's temple,
Kami and Mr. Popo watched Vegeta busily rearranging things on the deserted island.
Kami's face darkened, and the corner of his mouth twitched as he complained to Mr. Popo:
"Mr. Popo... this Saiyan prince... does he have... something wrong up here?"
He pointed to his head.
Mr. Popo remained expressionless and stared at Vegeta, who was still tirelessly rearranging the Dragon Balls. After a moment of silence, he nodded in agreement and replied in his usual flat voice:
"Kami is right."
At Brief Manor in West City,
Bulma was in her room, helplessly staring at the huge pile of paperwork Vitelli had brought back. She felt completely overwhelmed.
She sighed and muttered in complaint:
"What an idiot... He couldn't even fill out a few dozen forms... Useless jerk... If he doesn't have ninety-nine roses ready when he proposes to me..."
She paused, seeming to remember how much Vitelli hated troublesome things, and casually changed her mind:
"No! Nine! If he can't prepare nine roses for me and plan a romantic proposal, then I, Miss Bulma, won't marry him!"
She conveniently ignored the fact that roses were easy to find all over Earth.
After all, based on what she knew about Vitelli's sense of romance, she'd probably have to secretly buy the roses herself, slip them into his hands, then make him kneel and hand them back to her just to pull off this "romantic" proposal...
As she thought about it, Bulma's mind began to wander.
She started imagining her future wedding to Vitelli and their everyday life once they had children. She even forgot about the forms she needed to fill out.
Just as Bulma was dreaming about the future—
Boom!!!
A tremendous sonic boom suddenly rang out from the sky, making the windowpanes buzz!
The unexpected noise startled Bulma and jolted her back to reality.
Frowning, she stood up and went to the window to look outside.
A figure plunged down from the sky at incredible speed and crashed onto the manor's lawn, sending grass and dust flying—
It was Vegeta, back from searching for the Dragon Balls.
"Honestly!"
Bulma pushed open the window and shouted irritably at Vegeta outside: