The next day, at noon.
"Finished!"
Bulma burst out of the lab, holding up a modified scouter. Excitedly, she said to Son Goku, "I took out the listening system and replaced it with an energy-amplifying circuit of my own design. The only limitation is the materials I had to work with, so its current reading cap is... five million!"
"Five million?!" Son Goku's eyes lit up as he took the scouter. "Bulma, you're amazing!"
"Of course I am!" Bulma raised her chin smugly, then blushed. "You... just make sure you reward me properly tonight..."
Son Goku paused, then nodded earnestly. "Okay! I'll give you a massage tonight!"
Bulma: "...Who said anything about a massage?!"
Son Goku smiled and headed for the backyard with the scouter. "I'm going to test it out!"
He made his way to an open stretch of wilderness and took a deep breath.
"Let's see... just how strong am I now?"
He raised the scouter and aimed it at himself. Then—
He slowly released his ki.
"Bzzzt—"
White flames of ki rose around him, and the numbers on the scouter began changing wildly—
1,000... 10,000...
50,000... 500,000...
1,000,000... 5,000,000!
"Beep—"
The scouter gave a clear chirp, and the number froze at:
5,000,000
Son Goku looked at the number and smiled, murmuring to himself.
"Five million... about what I expected. Now I'll be able to get an exact reading of everyone's battle power."
What he didn't know was that the instant he released his ki—
Every martial artist on Earth who could sense ki looked up at the same time.
The Lookout.
Mr. Popo stood in the courtyard, his white eyes gazing into the distance. A hint of surprise appeared on his usually placid face. "This ki... Goku?"
The Heavenly Realm, Kami's Lookout.
The teacup in Kami's hand slipped to the ground with a clatter. His green face was filled with shock. "Th-this is Son Goku?! He's grown far too quickly!!!"
At the top of Korin Tower.
Master Karin woke with a start, while Master Korin's bell rang wildly. "Meow?! Th-this ki... it's tens of thousands of times stronger than King Piccolo was back then! Just how far has that boy gotten with his training?!"
Kame House.
Master Roshi took off his sunglasses and gazed west. His white beard fluttered in the wind. "Goku... you've made it this far already..."
Fire Mountain.
Ox-King wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked at the golden pillar of light in the distance. He grinned. "My son-in-law... what a monster..."
Piccolo looked at Son Goku nearby. Crushed beneath his ki, he was down on one knee, his green face filled with shock as cold sweat poured from him!
"Son Goku?!"
His eyes widened as he felt an oppressive force that made his very soul tremble. Against this ki, the more than one thousand battle power he'd once been so proud of seemed as insignificant as dust!
"Impossible... impossible..." Piccolo's voice trembled. "How... how could he possibly be this strong?!"
The ki lasted only a few seconds before vanishing without a trace.
"Damn it..."
"This difference..."
Piccolo clenched his teeth, his green fists balled so tightly that his knuckles turned white. But the next moment, he leapt to his feet, a look of grim resolve flashing through his eyes!
"I can't keep getting stronger the safe, steady way... I have to take some risks... or I'll never catch up to him!"
After learning that Vegeta, whose battle power was as high as 18,000, would reach Earth in a year, the group made their way to the Large Gravity Chamber in Bulma's Estate in West City.
They'd also learned from Raditz that Vegeta and the others had disposable weapons called Saibamen, each with a battle power of 1,200.
After testing everyone, they discovered that not one of them reached 1,200. In other words, aside from Son Goku, none of them could even beat the disposable weapons Vegeta would bring to Earth a year later.
The news hit the warriors hard.
So the group began another round of brutal training in the Large Gravity Chamber.
"Fourteen times gravity... adaptation complete!"
Krillin shouted as his short figure dodged and weaved through the red-lit room. He'd just evaded an automatically fired rubber pellet, then sliced another one in half with a Destructo Disc.
"Fifteen times!"
Tien Shinhan sat cross-legged in midair, all three eyes closed. He maintained his meditation under fifteen times gravity, while the afterimages produced by his Multi-Form Technique performed different physical training exercises in the corner.
"T-Tien Shinhan is amazing..." Chiaotzu floated nearby, his little face flushed red. Eight times gravity was already his limit, but he was still struggling to stay aloft.
"Chiaotzu, don't push yourself." Tien Shinhan opened his eyes, a hint of warmth in all three. "Your psychic powers are your real trump card. Take your physical training one step at a time."
"Okay!"
Piccolo was in the deepest section of the chamber. The gravity indicator there flashed a blinding red—thirty times gravity.
His green skin had begun to seep blood under the crushing weight. Each time he threw a punch, tiny beads of blood flew from his pores, tracing crimson arcs through the gravity field before slamming heavily into the floor.
"Son Goku..."
He slammed a fist into a specially reinforced alloy punching bag. Its surface caved in, and the shock-absorbing fluid inside made a strained gurgling sound.
"I'll never... lose to you..."
"Special Beam Cannon—!"
He pressed two fingers together, and a spiraling surge of green ki gathered at his fingertips. Under thirty times gravity, the beam that could normally pierce a planet was now only as thick as his arm, and it shook violently. But it still roared from his fingers, leaving a charred, deep scar in the alloy wall.
"Huff... huff..."
Piccolo fell to his knees, bracing himself with both hands. Green blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
"Still not enough... Sleeping only four hours a day... still isn't nearly enough..."
In another corner, in the twelve-times-gravity zone.
Raditz was doing push-ups. His long hair was soaked with sweat and stuck to his cheeks. Each time he pushed himself up, his arms trembled violently.
"Nine hundred and ninety-eight..."
"Nine hundred and ninety-nine..."
"One thousand...!"
He pushed himself up, then collapsed onto the floor, utterly spent, his chest heaving.
"Kakarot..."
He panted, his expression complicated.
"I... I won't let you look down on me again..."
I used to be the elite of the Saiyans... an Elite Warrior...
Yet I couldn't even beat you... my little brother, a Low-Class Warrior...
No... it wasn't that I couldn't beat you...
I'd never truly understood what it meant to be strong.
He rolled onto his back and lay on the cold alloy floor, staring up at the gravity chamber's glaring white ceiling.
In this family... on this Earth...
I learned shame... and I learned dignity.
He abruptly sat up and dropped back into a horse stance.
"Another thousand!"
"Uncle Raditz!" Wuqi's little head suddenly poked through the observation window. He stared straight at him. "You're amazing! You work even harder than Dad!"
Raditz's movements abruptly stiffened.
"...Kid," he said, turning his face away, his voice a little muffled. "Your dad works harder. What I'm doing... is nothing."
"But Uncle Raditz is sweating so much!" Wuhao's little head squeezed into the window too. "Mom says people who sweat are the coolest!"
"..." The tips of Raditz's ears suspiciously turned red.
"You two!" Chi-Chi's voice came from farther away. "Don't distract your uncles while they're training!"
"Okay!"
The two little ones ran off in a flash.
Raditz watched them go, the corner of his mouth twitching despite himself.
...Honestly.
This feeling of having someone believe in him...
Wasn't so bad.
He lowered himself again.
"One thousand and one..."
Outside the Large Gravity Chamber, Bulma held a cup of coffee and watched the monitors, where one crazed figure after another pushed themselves to the limit. She sighed helplessly.
"These guys... they really don't care if they live or die."
After Piccolo had gotten somewhat used to thirty times gravity, a look of grim resolve flashed in his eyes. He reached out and adjusted the controls.
"Forty times gravity—activate!"
"Boom!"
The crushing weight grew heavier. Piccolo's bones groaned ominously, but he didn't fall.
Son Goku...!
Just you wait...!
I won't let you leave me behind!!
Krillin saw Piccolo's gravity setting and cried out,
"Hey, hey, hey! Piccolo! Are you crazy?!"
"Quit yapping, baldy!" Piccolo's voice came from deep inside the chamber, laced with gritted-teeth determination. "Either keep up... or get left behind!"
Krillin froze for a second, then grinned, the veins bulging on his bald head.
"Ha! You think I'm scared?!"
"Sixteen times! Activate!"
Yamcha groaned. "You're all monsters—!"
Tien Shinhan opened his eyes, a hint of amusement in all three.
"...Interesting."
"Seventeen times! Multi-Form Technique—full power!"
Chiaotzu's little face turned red too. "I... I'll do it too! Nine times!"
In the twelve-times-gravity zone, Raditz heard the shouts and rumbling echoing all around him, and his own fighting spirit flared.
"Hmph..."
"Twelve times... adaptation complete."
"Fourteen times—"
"Activate!"
Inside the Large Gravity Chamber, shouts, bursts of ki, and the groans of bones blended together, forming the most primal battle song of the Z Fighters.
Inside the Exclusive Training Room, Son Goku sensed the ki of everyone pushing themselves to new heights in the distance. His smile grew brighter.
Everyone's working hard...
That's more like it... Increasing the gravity one step at a time is certainly steady and safe, but everything has two sides. The safer it is, the slower it goes!
Right now, raising their battle power is more important than anything else!
Looks like I should work hard too!
Before you continue