Planet Akasque, Cooler's Armored Squadron!

"We'll be passing by a giant planet called 'Akasque' in two days. It's actually habitable, and I need to collect some material there." Yes, this wasn't a request; it was just informing Karochi of the itinerary.

Karochi was used to it by now. After all, Tights had already made him act as her private chauffeur to the Elf Planet several times! She'd gone there seven or eight times in the past year. Sigh! To think such a fine elf princess was snatched up by her... it left a sour taste in his mouth.

"By the way, you mentioned Cooler earlier—Frieza's brother, right? Is he really that strong?" Last time, Karochi had been interrupted mid-explanation when Rielbea contacted him, forcing him to abandon his crash course on East Galaxy trivia.

Karochi stopped eating and said with a solemn expression, "He's strong. Many times stronger than Frieza! Cooler is a fully matured Frost Demon; he doesn't need to suppress his own power to adapt like Frieza does."

He took a sip of juice from the table, though he seemed to choke slightly as if he hadn't fully swallowed his food.

"Wow~! He's that amazing?" Tights had already pulled out her notebook to start recording. Throughout this journey, aside from exploring unknown planets, she spent her time listening to Karochi recount the secret lore of the universe.

"Yes. Frieza needs to undergo three transformations to unleash 100% of his power, yet his combat strength is only 120 million. Cooler, however, has a base combat strength of 150 million and still retains the ability to transform once." In the movie The Incredible Strongest vs. Strongest, Cooler even stood by and watched the destruction of Planet Vegeta.

He had also known that Kakarot escaped, but he simply hadn't told Frieza! He probably never imagined that the Saiyan he let slip away would turn into a Super Saiyan twenty years later, not only defeating Frieza but eventually defeating him as well.

"Hmm! Anything else? Since you say that's his base state, he must have even stronger methods, right???" Tights already had a plot forming in her mind.

Karochi didn't really want Tights to have too much contact with these villains. Of course, these were just the villains of the Z era; compared to the brainless Goku in Dragon Ball Super, the Frost Demon race could almost be considered saints! After all, Goku single-handedly triggered the annihilation crisis of the 12 universes in the [Tournament of Power].

"He still has one transformation left, which will instantly multiply his strength to around 470 million!" Forget it; even if they didn't cross paths now, they would eventually. Earth was a magnet for disaster, after all.

Just as Karochi was lamenting this, a sketchbook was shoved in front of him. Karochi's face darkened; he wasn't good at drawing, so why did she have to make him do it?! Wasn't this just bullying an honest man?

"It's too hard to just imagine it. Since you know him so well, you must have seen him, right!! Please," Tights said, pressing her palms together with a sincere expression.

Karochi really wanted to say he'd never seen him—laughable, if he'd actually met Cooler, would he even be alive?! He didn't think the guy would spare a child just because he was young! Of course, to prevent Tights from digging deeper, Karochi took the sketchbook and began to draw with a pained expression. Thankfully, the Frost Demon race had fairly simple lines.

If it had been Cell, hah! Karochi would rather wait until he successfully achieved Super Saiyan 2 and drag Cell in front of Tights so she could see him clearly.

It was no wonder Cell had no screen time among the other villainous bosses! He was just too hard to draw; he really didn't please the author.

After struggling for over half an hour, Karochi handed a doodle-like drawing to Tights, who looked at it with disdain. She was even wondering if she should sign up for an art class.

Karochi didn't care. She asked him to talk, he talked; she asked him to draw, he drew! If it looked bad, that wasn't his problem. He went back to eating and drinking.

Two days passed in the blink of an eye.

Tights finally saw the planet she wanted to visit! It was truly massive—even larger than the sun in the solar system. This was highly illogical; a planet of such size should have had an absurdly high gravitational pull, yet the data indicated it was no different from Earth.

"It's so big~!! This is incredible. A planet this huge that isn't a gas giant is just shocking." Tights' expression was exaggerated. She was just about to initiate the landing sequence when Karochi stopped her.

Tights looked at Karochi in confusion: "What's wrong?" Karochi's face was slightly grave.

"Tights, did the data say what level this 'Akasque' planet is?" He could sense powerful ki; based on combat strength, there was at least one reading over 100,000.

Tights didn't hesitate to look it up. A moment later: "This planet hasn't birthed intelligent life, only some massive, dinosaur-like creatures! The planetary rating is 'High-Level Planet'."

A high-level planet meant the peak combat strength on the planet exceeded 10,000. However, Karochi was sensing ki signatures exceeding 100,000, and there was more than one.

That didn't make sense. After all, exceeding 10,000 and exceeding 100,000 were two different concepts. Still, it could be that he was overthinking it, but just to be safe, Karochi had Tights deploy a probe.

It wasn't that he was afraid or anything—don't make him laugh, his current combat strength was 3 million! Plus, he had researched a transformation ability. Unless he ran into something truly outrageous, they were all small fry.

The purpose of scouting was mainly to confirm things. If they were intelligent life, the two of them could approach with a friendly attitude! If not, it was better to keep Tights out of danger.

The feed came through quickly! The figures that appeared on screen made Karochi gasp in shock, and at the same time, Tights used her [Spirit Eye] technique to see the other party's information.

Name: Salza Race: Unknown Combat Strength: 150,000 Note: Captain of Cooler's Armored Squadron. He once competed with Jeice for the captain's seat and won!

Salza had blue skin, short golden hair, and wore a Scouter. He wasn't very tall, only 170cm. He looked quite similar to Jeice of the Ginyu Force, but their combat strengths were worlds apart.

Name: Neiz Race: Old Zoldian Combat Strength: 123,000 Note: Due to the environment of his home planet, he is amphibious.

Unlike Salza, he wasn't a humanoid. His head was somewhat flat, like a frog's, but his skin was an earthy brown. He was the tallest of the three, likely over 2.5 meters.

Name: Dore Race: Old Bepan Combat Strength: 167,000 Note: A champion of the Universal Wrestling League with 300 consecutive wins. Cruel and bloodthirsty.

Dore's skin was even greener than a Namekian's, but his body was exceptionally muscular! A cruel smile hung on his face, and his Scouter was the strangest of the bunch, looking like a hard hat.

"This... they are!!" Tights was stunned. She hadn't expected that just two days after talking about this "Cooler," they would run into his elite squad.

"Yeah, it's Cooler's elite squad!!" Karochi was also quite surprised. What a coincidence! To actually run into the Armored Squadron.

Although Tights was surprised, she wasn't particularly nervous. While the opponents were strong, Karochi was stronger! Even though her Scouter showed Karochi's combat strength as 0, her [Spirit Eye] technique clearly saw his 3 million.

"Hmm~ what are they doing here?" It was just as abrupt and illogical as the Ginyu Force appearing on Fidel Planet! As Cooler's elite, they usually operated alongside him.

Yet, there was no powerful ki sensed in the vicinity, which meant Cooler wasn't nearby, and the three of them seemed to be searching for something.

"What now? Should we leave or..." Tights didn't finish the sentence, but Karochi understood she was asking if they should take them out.

If we are talking strictly about combat power, Dore is clearly the strongest of the three, even twenty years later! However, in the movie's plot, both Dore and Neiz were killed by Piccolo, with only Salza managing to hold his own against Piccolo for a short while.

It must be noted that this Piccolo had already assimilated with Nail on Namek, and his combat power had once suppressed Frieza's second form, placing it well above one million.

How could Salza possibly hold his own against Piccolo? One theory is that although Piccolo assimilated with Nail, there was a time limit, and the effect wore off after a certain period!

But if that were the case, there would be a plot hole regarding the Universe 6 Namekians, Saonel and Pirina, who assimilated the power of their entire race to reach a total combat power of 20 billion—the level of a Super Saiyan 3.

Their combat power did not show any significant decline even after a long time! The only explanation is that the author intentionally nerfed the high-end combat power of the Z Fighters, even taking Goku out of the picture for a time!

Karochi pondered for a moment: "I might as well finish them off; these people have committed countless evils, so it can be considered acting on behalf of heaven! Mostly, I want to know the reason they appeared here. As Cooler's elite squad, they were actually sent out to find something. I'm quite curious about what could make Cooler care so much."

Since there was no way to hear what they were saying!

"Hmm, then be careful yourself!" Tights couldn't help but urge him, sounding like a concern for family!

Heh, hilarious. With his current combat power of 3 million, if he could still manage to flip his car, Karochi might as well just bash his head against a block of tofu and die! Not to mention he still had quite a few superpowers like Time Stop, Bind, and Telekinesis; bullying three small fries with combat powers of a few hundred thousand would be child's play, wouldn't it?

"Don't worry, Tights-jie, they are no match for me!" Karochi was extremely confident. After two and a half years of training, Karochi was no longer his former self; he no longer needed to be as cautious as he was when facing the Ginyu Force!

Moreover, although these three had high combat power, they possessed no superpowers to worry about, nor did they have any strange, unique skills like Ginyu's Body Swap!

After saying this, Karochi was enveloped in a white light and vanished from before Tights with a whoosh.