It was a good thing the ship hadn't stopped abruptly. Otherwise, the terrifying inertia would have torn it apart, let alone Karochi and Tights.
After the ship stopped, it began moving off course. "Moving" wasn't quite the right word—it was more like something was pulling it along.
"What is this?" Karochi asked, looking at Tights in confusion. Even inside the ship, they could feel the force pulling them along. That showed just how terrifying it was.
Tights didn't answer. She hurried to the control room, and Karochi followed close behind.
The alarm was already blaring inside.
"It seems like some enormous force is pulling the ship!" Tights said in disbelief.
The ship had been specially modified. When it was moving, it could travel far faster than light, and had even reached warp speed.
It was pushed forward by the structure of space itself. Even if it encountered a black hole, it should have been able to escape easily, as long as it didn't fly straight into it.
But now, it couldn't move normally. It was being captured.
"Is there any way to get away?" Karochi wasn't too worried. What was there to be afraid of? He still had Instant Transmission. Taking the ship with them wouldn't be a problem.
Besides, he wanted to see a black hole for himself. He'd heard that passing through one could take you to a different time and place, though he didn't know if that was true.
Tights glanced at the unconcerned Karochi, at a loss for words. Couldn't he at least look a little worried?
"I'll try!" Tights was sure they should be able to get away.
She clattered away at the keyboard, activating all the ship's thrusters to push against the force pulling them.
"Warp engine activated. Preparing to jump!"
The electronic voice put Tights at ease. Once they entered a spatial jump, escaping this place wouldn't be a problem.
"Phew... That should do it!" Tights let out a long sigh of relief.
But right after that, the ship shook violently and failed to enter the spatial jump. Even the thrusters shut down, and the piercing alarm kept blaring.
"H-how could this happen?" Tights was stunned. What was going on? Even if they'd run into a supermassive black hole, they should still have been able to escape.
Seeing the damage to the ship, Tights cried out, "What in the world is going on?"
"Uh, how about I just use Instant Transmission to get us out of here, Tights?" Karochi suggested, cutting to the chase.
Karochi could clearly feel the terrifying gravitational pull. More importantly, he sensed a strange presence.
He couldn't describe it. Just sensing it made him feel terribly uncomfortable.
Of course, he hadn't used Instant Transmission right away because his Sixth Sense hadn't warned him. That meant their lives weren't in danger.
"Yeah, I guess we have no choice." Tights sighed. It seemed the ship couldn't escape.
Honestly, she couldn't make sense of it. She could only conclude that the universe was vast and full of wonders, with unknown dangers everywhere.
Karochi didn't waste any time. He grabbed Tights by the arm with one hand and touched the ship's control panel with the other.
He couldn't just leave it behind. Dr. Brief could build ships on his own now, but that would still be a lot of trouble for the old man.
They only had to take it back for repairs. Besides, Karochi planned to return to the Lookout and officially begin training to break through to the next level.
Karochi closed his eyes and began sensing Earth's spatial coordinates.
Ten seconds... Twenty seconds... A minute!
As the ship was pulled faster and faster, Tights hurriedly called out, "Little Chi, are you done yet?"
Before, whenever Karochi used Instant Transmission, it had been instantaneous. He'd just close his eyes, and the next moment they'd be there! Why was it taking so long to prepare?
Karochi looked flustered. He opened his eyes. "T-That... Tights, I can't use Instant Transmission!"
"What? Why?" Tights was stunned. The only reason she'd been able to stay so calm was that Karochi was there to teleport them. And now he was suddenly telling her the teleportation crystal was broken?
"The... the structure of space around here has somehow been shattered. I can't pinpoint our coordinates." Karochi spoke bitterly.
Kidd's Instant Transmission couldn't be activated just by sensing a planet's coordinates.
The structure of the space they occupied also had to be intact. It worked by exchanging their location in space with a location within the planet!
But according to Karochi's senses, the structure of space around them had already been twisted beyond recognition. If he tried to use Instant Transmission in a place like this, the two of them might end up falling into the gaps between spaces.
There was one more thing Karochi hadn't mentioned: he sensed an extremely evil presence. It wasn't about how powerful it was. It was evil, bloody, and viscous, making it hard to breathe.
"Th-Then what do we do?" Tights was finally panicking. The teleportation portal she'd always relied on had suddenly announced it was taking the day off! Especially at a time like this.
No way... Was she really going to die before becoming Earth's bestselling author? A wave of despair washed over Tights. She could clearly feel the force pulling at her body.
If the ship weren't protecting her, she might already have been torn to pieces.
"Uh... This..." Karochi was at a loss, too. Unless he had overwhelming strength, he probably couldn't escape this powerful gravitational pull.
Creak... Creak!
The ship began making strange noises, as if it were about to come apart! The immense force was already too much for it to withstand.
"Tights, turn on the defensive shield!" Karochi shouted at the sight.
Tights came back to her senses and immediately started operating the controls. If the ship was done for, they'd be done for too!! Well, Karochi could survive in space.
A layer of light appeared around the ship's exterior, stabilizing the hull just as it had begun to come apart! But the alarm inside the cockpit kept blaring.
The ship was being pulled faster and faster, at a speed that was nearly faster than light.
The light surrounding the hull was growing weaker and looked ready to shatter at any moment.
At last, Karochi and Tights could see what was giving off that endless gravitational pull.
It wasn't a black hole at all. It was an enormous crystal, at least a hundred meters long, standing there all by itself.
It was purple all over. The light drawn into it gave the middle of its body a golden hue, while a bizarre, blood-red aura radiated from its surface.
Just looking at it made Karochi feel sick. He couldn't describe the feeling. If he had to put it into words, it was as if trillions upon trillions of living beings had died because of it.
"Ugh!" The moment Tights saw it, she threw up. The bizarre aura knocked her unconscious!
Karochi wrapped an arm around Tights' slender waist and held her tight. Yellow energy began to radiate from his body.
He didn't cover himself completely, but even those few strands of energy were more than ten times stronger than before.
He could clearly sense that the energy shield around the ship was on the verge of collapsing. In his normal state, he could protect himself and Tights.
But if he also had to protect a spaceship this huge, it wouldn't be enough. He could survive in space, but Tights couldn't!
And Karochi couldn't bring himself to abandon her!
"Hah!" His powerful aura enveloped the entire ship, and in an instant, it steadied.
The crystal was drawing closer and closer. If they crashed into it, the ship would surely be destroyed and they'd die! But Karochi couldn't spare a hand to attack it.
All he could do was watch it slowly approach. The closer it got, the more oppressive the feeling became. That blood-red aura was nauseating.
"What the hell is this thing!?" Karochi found it vaguely familiar, but he couldn't remember what it was.
He had to wonder again: Was the Dragon Ball world I'd transmigrated into even the real thing?
There were strange things everywhere that he'd never seen before! First there was the Yitai Wonder, and now there was this bizarre crystal.
There was no way this was the real Dragon Ball world!!
Just as the ship was about to collide with the crystal, a huge purple vortex appeared on its surface! It was so big it could fit an entire planet.
The ship flew straight through it!
Karochi had already instinctively raised an arm to shield his head.
"This..." Karochi stared in shock. Was this actually a region of outer space?
What was going on? Karochi immediately closed his eyes and tried to observe Universe 7.
But he was disappointed almost at once. It was as if a wall had sealed off his consciousness. To put it this way, what had been 4K resolution was now 480p.
It was like he'd suddenly become farsighted and needed an eight-power magnifying glass to see clearly.
It was as if they'd entered a cage! Karochi was truly stunned. "What's going on? A new universe being born?! No, that doesn't make sense. The original story never mentioned anything like this!"
Karochi hadn't watched every episode of the entire Dragon Ball series, but he knew the general plot! Yet this situation hadn't been mentioned in Z, GT, or Dragon Ball Super. Damn, this was completely absurd.
And there was something familiar about that bizarre crystal. He just couldn't remember what!
"Mm..." With the bizarre aura no longer affecting her, Tights slowly woke up! She looked around in a daze.
"Tights, how are you feeling?" Karochi stopped trying to figure out that damned crystal, bent down, and helped Tights sit up!
"Little Chi...!? We survived?" Tights had still been dazed, but when she saw the surrounding space displayed on the screen, she immediately remembered what had happened.
She'd only needed one look at that bizarre red aura for her head to start throbbing, and she'd been overcome with nausea!! She'd even felt dizzy.
Karochi could only smile bitterly. "You could say we survived. We've been trapped inside that giant crystal!" He added bitterly to himself that they also couldn't use Instant Transmission.
He'd thought that with Instant Transmission, they could go anywhere without fear. And this was what happened? What a disappointment.
There were way too many limitations!
"What? That crystal has that much space inside it? But this is outer space, isn't it???" Tights' eyes widened as she cried out in disbelief.
Before you continue