Lin Fan had just come out of the passage for the contestants beside the ring when a blue figure came rushing toward him in a flurry, nearly crashing straight into his arms.
"Lin Fan!"
Bulma planted her hands on her hips, her bright blue eyes sparkling with intense excitement and curiosity, as if she could see right through him. "Hurry, tell me! How did you do that?!"
She fired off questions like a machine gun, gesturing wildly as she spoke. "How did that big guy go flying? You barely even touched him! Did you use some kind of secret weapon? Or did Master Roshi secretly teach you some special move?"
Son Goku and Krillin squeezed over too, poking their heads out from behind Bulma, one on either side. Their faces were filled with the same curiosity and confusion.
"Yeah, yeah!"
Son Goku grabbed his spiky hair, his tail curling in bewilderment. "It felt so weird! It wasn't like the Kamehameha or the Wolf Fang Fist!"
Krillin nodded vigorously. "And when Giran used his hypnosis, how come it didn't affect you at all? We almost got hypnotized!"
Even Master Roshi, disguised as an old man, leaned closer on his cane. His eyes glinted with curiosity behind his sunglasses. He didn't say anything, but his perked-up ears showed just how eager he was to know.
Lin Fan couldn't help feeling a little helpless at the spectacle. Looking at the three faces full of questions, he knew he wouldn't get away without offering some kind of explanation.
He paused briefly, gathering his thoughts.
He couldn't just tell them about "cultivation" or "True Qi." That would be far too shocking, and he wouldn't be able to explain it clearly anyway.
He had to describe it in a way they could understand—especially in a way that would interest Bulma, the scientific genius.
"It wasn't a secret weapon, nor was it a secret technique of the Turtle School."
Lin Fan spoke slowly, his tone calm and composed in a way that belied his age. "It's simply a way of... precisely controlling one's own energy."
"Energy? Precise control?"
Bulma immediately latched onto the key words. Her brow furrowed as her scientific mind kicked into gear. "You mean 'ki'? But your 'ki' is so weak I can barely sense it!"
The energy detector on her wrist had been working just fine. The reading had been pitifully low.
"It's not simply 'ki.'"
Lin Fan shook his head, deliberately keeping his explanation vague and mysterious. "It's a more fundamental, more deeply rooted kind of life energy. You condense it to an extreme degree and release it at a single point in an instant. You don't need overwhelming force, only maximum efficiency. It's like..."
His gaze swept over the surroundings. He spotted someone in the stands popping a balloon with a fine needle and pointed toward them. "Like piercing a balloon with a needle. You don't need great strength. Just find the right spot and give it a light touch. Hypnosis works the same way: guard the core of your mind, and outside influences can't invade."
The analogy was simple enough to understand, while still leaving room for imagination and further inquiry.
Son Goku seemed only half to understand. He scratched his head. "Oh... so you make the force smaller and then hit them with it? Sounds pretty hard..."
Krillin looked thoughtful. "Guarding the core of your mind... That sounds a bit like meditation?"
Behind his sunglasses, Master Roshi narrowed his eyes and muttered, "Inner energy... precise control... Sounds a bit like some ancient cultivation ideas mentioned in old books. But this kid's so young..."
Bulma's reaction was the most intense of all.
She didn't get hung up on what "inner energy" actually meant. Instead, she was completely captivated by the idea of "precise control"!
"Precise control... extreme concentration... maximum efficiency..."
She murmured to herself, her eyes growing brighter and brighter, as if she'd just discovered a fascinating new field of research.
A genius who believed in science and data, she had always been dedicated to developing more powerful energy weapons, such as the Impact Gun, and pursuing ever-greater energy output.
But Lin Fan's words seemed to open a new door for her. If you couldn't gain an overwhelming advantage in the total amount of energy, could extreme control and efficiency still produce unexpected results?
She grabbed Lin Fan by the arm and asked urgently, "Then this kind of control! Could it be used elsewhere? Like... on machines?"
Lin Fan's heart stirred. He knew she'd taken the bait. He kept his expression calm, even letting a hint of reluctance show. "In theory... everything follows the principle of energy flowing through it, and that includes machinery. It's just..."
He paused at just the right moment.
"It's just what?"
Bulma pressed him for an answer, clutching his arm even tighter.
Lin Fan sighed, and his performance came naturally. "It's just that my abilities are still weak. I have the theory, but not the means to put it into practice. Many of my ideas... like building more efficient energy circuits or making special devices to help condense and transform energy... can't be realized without suitable materials."
He looked at Bulma with sincere eyes. "Especially rare metals or minerals that conduct energy well or contain unusual kinds of energy, as well as stable, pure energy sources... Those are the most basic requirements."
"Rare metals? Unusual minerals? Energy sources?"
Bulma's eyes lit up like searchlights. Her family's money and her passion for research both blazed to life!
"That's easy! My family has plenty of everything—money, labs, materials! What rare metals do you need? Adamantium? Uh... I mean, that's from comics... but I'm sure we have something similar! As for energy sources, do you need high-purity energy blocks? Or a Z-Type Battery? I've got both in my lab!"
She was practically dancing with excitement, already listing the inventory in her lab and planning what to order. "If you can really make something 'more fun' with those materials, I can get you as much as you need! I'll cover everything!"
Seeing Bulma's excitement, Lin Fan secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He put on just the right expression of surprise and gratitude. "In that case... thank you in advance, Miss Bulma. If we find suitable materials, I might be able to try making a few small devices. Perhaps they could even help us find the Dragon Balls."
That last sentence struck exactly the right chord.
"Right, right! Finding the Dragon Balls!"
Bulma nodded emphatically, completely immersed in fantasies about high-energy-control equipment. "Maybe we could make a detector even better than the Dragon Radar! Or a shield that can block the Kamehameha directly? Wow! Just thinking about it gets me excited!"
She had already started dragging Lin Fan into a discussion of the specific properties the materials would need, completely forgetting that she'd been grilling him about his fighting techniques moments ago.
Son Goku and Krillin exchanged bewildered looks as the two discussed things like "conductivity," "energy resonance," and "purity thresholds"—terms they couldn't understand at all.
Watching Bulma's attention get diverted in an instant—and seeing her offer to provide materials—Master Roshi's mouth twitched slightly beneath his sunglasses.
This kid... didn't seem nearly as honest as he looked...
Still, he found himself strangely interested in the "more fun things" Lin Fan had mentioned.
As Lin Fan fielded Bulma's rapid-fire technical questions, he quietly made plans of his own.
He had secured his first investment and earned some initial trust. Next, it was time to use this world's resources to make himself some genuine "magical artifacts."
At the very least, he needed a robe that could clean itself and protect him from ordinary attacks, right?
Using True Qi to shake off the dust every time was rather taxing on the mind.
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