The Ginyu Force

The shrill alarm instantly put Karochi and Tights on alert. Dr. Brief had built this alarm system based on the Scouter Karochi had brought to Earth.

At first, it went off when it detected a power level of 3,000. But over the past few months, Karochi's power level had continued to rise as he trained, so Tights had kept adjusting the alarm's upper threshold.

The alarm system had three warning levels. The first sounded only on the left, indicating the presence of someone with a power level above 10,000!

The second sounded on both sides, indicating someone with a power level above 50,000. The third warning level was something else entirely!!

After adapting to one hundred times Earth's gravity, Karochi's power level had reached 90,000. The third warning level was set according to the maximum limit of Karochi's power!! In other words, there might be a terrifying being with a power level of 100,000 on the planet ahead, Fidel.

And right now, the highest-level warning—the third—was blaring.

"Uh... Wasn't Fidel a low-level planet?" Karochi asked uncertainly. Had they taken a wrong turn?

Tights hurriedly tapped away at the keyboard, then frowned. "No, that's right. This is Fidel! The information says it's a low-level planet, too! But... what's going on here?"

The information she brought up showed the Fidelian people's physical characteristics: short bodies, pale purple skin, and two antenna-like feelers on their heads!! Because of their physical limitations, Fidelians hardly trained at all, instead focusing on developing their technology.

Now it was Karochi's turn to be completely baffled. If this was what "hardly trained" meant, then there were people on this planet with power levels over 100,000!! What a joke. Power like that would make anyone a hot commodity anywhere!

It was easy to think that in Dragon Ball Z, powerful beings were everywhere, with everyone you picked out having a power level of hundreds of millions! It was as if anyone below a hundred million didn't even deserve to appear.

In reality, across the vast universe, with its enormous population, those handful of powerful individuals could hardly represent the overall standard. In fact, anyone with a power level above 10,000 could be considered a formidable fighter! Someone with a power level of 100,000 was already a regional overlord, more than capable of ruling over a dozen planets.

After thinking for a moment, Karochi asked, "Tights, if we don't refuel here, can the ship make it to the next planet?" He opted for the safer approach.

He didn't have a skill like Instant Transmission yet. If their opponent really was too strong to resist, they wouldn't even have a chance to escape.

Having been reborn once, he didn't want to die for no reason. Fighting did require courage, but that didn't mean throwing your life away pointlessly. That wasn't courage—it was stupidity.

Knowingly doing the impossible was the act of a fool!

"No. If we miss this planet, the next one is half a month away! We won't make it," Tights said with a bitter smile, shaking her head.

(A note: Since the distances between planets in the universe are too vast to express using ordinary units, the story uses the time it takes a spaceship to travel as a measure of distance!)

Karochi couldn't help smiling wryly, too. The stars outside might look close together, but that wasn't the case! The distances between planets in space were immense, and the void between them was utterly desolate.

This empty expanse was what most of space was like. Their spaceship happened to be incredibly fast! Otherwise, once they left the Solar System, they'd be stranded in space, trapped for the rest of their lives.

"Then let's do this. Use the ship's radar to scan the entire planet and find out where the high power levels are coming from. I have a feeling this isn't the kind of power Fidelians could have," Karochi suggested after a moment's thought.

Thinking back, the shattered space stations and spaceship wreckage outside did seem strange! The Fidelians had probably been invaded by outsiders.

"Mm! We can do that." Tights didn't object and started working again.

Invisible waves scanned the entire planet!!

Meanwhile, in a city on Fidel, an alien dressed in a Combat Suit stood before a group of Fidelians prostrate on the ground. His skin was pale purple, and two long black horns grew from his head. In a cold voice, he said, "King Frieza heard that a legend about the Galactic Warriors is passed down on your planet! That's why he sent the Ginyu Force here to ask about it. And you're telling us you know nothing??"

His icy tone made the Fidelians tremble like leaves. Three days earlier, these aliens had suddenly descended on their planet without warning!! They'd casually destroyed the space station the Fidelians had built in orbit.

The newcomers had immediately asked them about the "Galactic Warriors," leaving them utterly confused. At first, the Fidelians hadn't dared to fight back, hoping not to anger them.

After all, the aliens had waved a hand, and their space station had vanished! That showed just how powerful they were.

As for those "Galactic Warriors," the Fidelians only knew they had been a few powerful warriors from ancient times!! They knew nothing else. But when they told the aliens everything they knew, the aliens weren't satisfied. Instead, they began killing and destroying on a massive scale.

The aliens called themselves the Ginyu Force, completely crushing any desire the Fidelians had to resist!!

Fidel had close ties with the Galactic Patrol, and the Fidelians knew about Frieza, the emperor of the universe, and the elite force under his command, the Ginyu Force.

They'd never imagined that a band of villains like them would come all this way over a meaningless legend!!

The Fidelian at the head of the group spoke in a trembling voice. "M-M-Milord, w-we... we really haven't hidden anything!! We... we've already t-t-told you everything we know... Please, please spare our lives?"

The suffocating sense of impending death made it hard for him to speak; he could barely get the words out!

"Oh? So you're saying the information King Frieza received was false?" Ginyu said with an amused expression, his tone exaggerated.

The lead Fidelian quickly raised his head and frantically waved his hands, terrified. "N-No... no... I didn't mean that!! We really don't know! Please, I beg you, sir, have mercy and spare us!!"

The Fidelians behind him pressed themselves even lower to the ground, their whole bodies shaking violently!

These people were demons. They'd launch into a massacre over the smallest thing—even a single word they didn't like. Their city had once been home to millions, but now only a hundred or so remained.

Just then, the Scouter on Ginyu's face beeped, and a deep voice came through.

"Captain, the Fidelians over here say they don't know, either! What should we do? Why not just kill them all?"

Another voice immediately followed. "Recoome, keep your voice down. You're hurting my ears!"

"Oh, Burter! Any news from the area you and Jeice are handling?"

"Not a damn thing. Same result as on your end, Captain! Maybe these useless idiots really don't know anything about those damn 'Galactic Warriors.'" The voice wasn't Burter's, but Jeice's.

Jeice was fuming. He'd already been annoyed at having to carry out such a pointless mission on this garbage planet! And now these trash didn't know a thing.

Ginyu's voice came through then, devoid of emotion. "Stop complaining. This is a mission from King Frieza! We must bring him a satisfactory result."

At the thought of Frieza's terror, Jeice's expression instantly shifted to fear. Frieza's unfathomable power made people think only of submission!! No one could even imagine resisting him.

"Yes, Captain! I lost my composure!!" Jeice quickly replied. That was right—complaining showed disrespect to the king! It was a crime worthy of death.

Ginyu didn't dwell on the matter. Instead, he said to Recoome, "Don't kill everyone just to indulge your little hobbies! Leave some alive and bring them to the king. Let him decide what to do with them."

"Yes, Captain!! Understood." Recoome ended the call, then kicked the Fidelian in front of him to death.

"Hey, Recoome! What are you doing? Didn't the captain say to leave some alive?" asked a short, green-skinned, four-eyed alien in confusion. He was Guldo, the weakest member of the force, but he had many strange psychic powers.

Recoome grinned and crouched down, tilting his pineapple-shaped head as if he were about to whisper something to Guldo. But he didn't lower his voice at all. "Relax. The captain said to leave some alive! It won't hurt if we kill a few, right?"

"Heh heh! True. Then let's have a contest, Recoome! Let's see who can come up with the most ways to kill them," Guldo said, grinning cruelly as he made his suggestion.

"Sure. Then let's play rock-paper-scissors! The loser goes first. Whoever runs out of creative ways to kill them loses! Then the winner gets the other's chocolate for the next month."

"Sounds good!! Rock, paper, scissors!"

"Rock, paper, scissors!"

............

Hearing their cruel conversation, the Fidelians huddled on the ground were terrified! One of them was shaking so badly that he wet himself.

"Ha! I win. Recoome, sorry, but I'll go first!!" Guldo said excitedly. He clenched his fist, then walked toward the group of Fidelians, murder in his eyes.

Recoome looked completely unwilling, as if he'd suffered a terrible loss.

Meanwhile, Karochi and Tights had finished scanning the entire planet. A virtual image of the planet appeared in the control room, with five red dots on it.

Two groups were made up of two people each, while one group consisted of a single person!

The scan was only a rough one and couldn't show what was happening on the planet. What's more, Fidel was covered by a layer of anti-surveillance waves!! They'd need to send down some scanning machines to see what was going on inside.

"Five of them? They seem familiar, but that can't be right!! They shouldn't be coming to a low-level planet like this." Karochi immediately formed a theory of his own.