Because of Krillin's words, Vegeta thought a little more highly of him.
He might look cowardly, but he could be pretty brave when it mattered.
Though the original Krillin often let people down, there were plenty of things about him worth praising.
"Looks like you're surprised I've fully recovered. I wonder how that Kakarot fellow is doing now? Let me guess—lying in a hospital bed, smashed to pieces, and that's why he couldn't come, so he sent you to Planet Namek to look for the Dragon Balls." Vegeta spoke mockingly.
Krillin and Son Gohan were instantly enraged. They glared at him, gritting their teeth.
They were furious, but couldn't say a word in the face of an enemy they couldn't handle.
If they'd known this would happen, they shouldn't have let Vegeta go back then.
Krillin was consumed with regret. He'd had the chance to kill Vegeta back then, but Goku's request had made him spare him.
Sensing their murderous glares, Vegeta wore a smirk. Then his expression changed, and a sudden killing intent flashed in his eyes.
Krillin and Son Gohan were both shocked, their hair standing on end.
Vegeta's sudden burst of power was more than they could withstand.
They couldn't even bring themselves to fight back.
"Boom~!!!"
A muffled blast rang out.
Vegeta raised his hand and fired an energy blast. It swept over the heads of the panicked Krillin and Son Gohan, then shot toward another island in the distance.
Two Frieza Force scout soldiers were hiding there.
At the last possible moment, they managed to react and narrowly escape the island.
"Bang~~!!!"
A massive explosion blew the island to pieces. Terrifying flames soared into the sky as a storm swept across dozens of miles.
Krillin and Son Gohan were confused until they realized there were two more people in the sky.
They wore the same kind of Battle Suit and had conspicuous Scouters. They were on Vegeta's side!
But they couldn't understand why Vegeta would attack his own allies for no reason.
Then they remembered Nappa, the Saiyan Vegeta had killed, and found they could accept it after all.
Vegeta was the kind of utterly wicked, emotionless, cold-blooded monster who couldn't be judged by ordinary standards.
Vegeta didn't care what they thought of him. He glanced at the two scout soldiers with a cold smile.
He slowly rose into the air and spoke as he took off. "I don't know whether to call you lucky or unlucky!"
He remembered those two scout soldiers. In the original story, Krillin and Son Gohan had killed them.
Anyone could see the situation was bad. The two scout soldiers were so terrified of Vegeta that they were beside themselves.
After all, they were merely scouts with a battle power a little over 1,000.
"L-Lord Vegeta, spare us! We weren't hiding on purpose. We just happened to see a spaceship land here, so we came to investigate."
"Y-Yes! We're part of Lord Zarbon's scout unit. We had no idea it was you, Lord Vegeta."
Sweating profusely, the two hurried to make excuses.
That kind of lie could only fool idiots.
"Oh? Is that so? Has the news that I'm a traitor still not spread? No, that's not it. You only saw that someone else had arrived here, so you came to investigate. Then you found me and hid, planning to learn what was going on so you could claim credit with Zarbon and Frieza, right?" Vegeta kept his cold smile as he unknowingly came right up to them.
He'd hit the nail on the head, exposing their intentions.
The stench of death already hung over them. One of the two was so terrified that he chose to run.
The other steeled himself. He knew Vegeta wouldn't spare them, and figured that if he was going to die anyway, he might as well attack first.
But the gap in their strength was too great. Even with the help of an energy weapon, he couldn't get through Vegeta's defenses.
Vegeta took the energy blast head-on and charged through it. One punch blew the scout soldier apart.
Then he raised a hand and aimed at the other soldier, who was fleeing.
The man had already gotten some distance away, but Vegeta didn't need to chase him. An energy blast shot from his palm and caught up with him at incredible speed.
"Rumble~!!!" A blast rang out.
The fleeing scout soldier was blasted to dust, leaving not a trace behind.
After taking care of the two men, Vegeta slowly descended and landed in front of Krillin and Son Gohan.
Their faces were deathly pale, their expressions miserable.
They had no idea what Vegeta was planning.
But they'd clearly heard him say he'd become a traitor, and it seemed to involve people far beyond anything they could imagine.
Zarbon?
And Frieza?
They didn't know the details, but they could imagine that Zarbon and Frieza might have been Vegeta's former superiors.
They'd guessed right.
Face-to-face with them again, Vegeta couldn't be bothered to keep talking. Until he gained overwhelming power, he was still in constant danger of being hunted by Frieza, so he got straight to the point. "Hand over the Dragon Radar you have. You can't imagine the crisis Planet Namek is facing right now, let alone do anything about it! With your strength, you'd better stay put for now. Hiding away to watch TV and drink milk wouldn't be a bad choice. Or you can leave Planet Namek before anyone finds you. Frieza and the others won't bother chasing you. You're only small fry, after all."
It was both a well-meant warning and a threat.
Krillin and Son Gohan were shocked, disbelieving, and afraid.
They looked at each other.
In the end, Krillin was the one who spoke up. "H-How did you know we had a Dragon Radar?"
"You don't need to know that. The Dragon Radar will be useful only in my hands now. You don't want Frieza's crew to collect all the Dragon Balls, do you? I'll tell you this: that guy calls himself the Universe Emperor." Vegeta sneered.
"The Universe... Emperor?!"
"That impossibly evil presence?!"
Son Gohan and Krillin drew in sharp breaths. This was the first time they'd encountered information this terrifying, and it completely overturned their understanding of the world.
Vegeta was already terrifying enough. Now they knew there was someone even more frightening, and they couldn't help but tremble with fear.
Vegeta had told them all this so they'd know the state Planet Namek was in.
He turned his gaze toward the spaceship. "Come out. There's no point hiding. If I really wanted to attack you, do you think you'd still be alive?"
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