Deep beneath Capsule Corp in West City, inside a brightly lit laboratory packed with precision instruments and energy-monitoring screens.
Bulma chewed on an energy bar, her fingers flying across the virtual keyboard so fast they left afterimages, her brows tightly furrowed.
"That's not right... Why can't the resonance frequency at the planet's core sync up? The molecular stress in the Z-1 alloy is already reaching its fatigue threshold at 4.5 times gravity? This lousy material!"
She irritably raked a hand through her hair, then kicked the large humming machine beside her—the "Prototype Lin Fan Special Hypergravity Training Chamber 2.0."
Lin Fan sat cross-legged not far away, his aura steady as he slowly brought his training to a close.
He had struggled through several cycles of cultivation under three times normal gravity. He could feel his True Qi had grown a little denser, but a qualitative change was still a long way off.
Hearing Bulma complain, he opened his eyes.
"Materials are still the key."
Lin Fan said calmly, "If we could find a metal that's more resilient and can bear more energy, perhaps..."
"I know, I know!"
Bulma cut him off impatiently and brought up another screen, which listed a long string of rare materials. Many of them had red crosses beside their names. "You think I don't want to find them? Star Iron! Jade Marrow! They sound like something out of a myth! I've nearly dug up the entire ocean floor! The guys in procurement are about to go crazy. They scour the world for things every day, and all they bring back is a pile of useless junk!"
The more she said, the angrier she got. She pointed at an entry on the list. "Look! This High-Density Vibranium Alloy sounds impressive, right? I paid a fortune for it at a black-market auction! But the tests showed its energy conductivity was worse than Z-1's! It's infuriating!"
Lin Fan fell silent.
He knew Bulma had done everything she could. Finding materials in this world that met the standards for immortal cultivation and crafting was like searching for a needle in a haystack.
"No, we need to ramp up procurement even more!"
Bulma slapped the control console, fired up again. "I refuse to believe there isn't anything good out there! Maybe there's a treasure hidden in some forgotten corner!"
She immediately contacted Capsule Corp's procurement department over an encrypted line and rattled off a new set of instructions, ordering them to expand the search, raise the budget, and even consider paying a premium for samples of unusual minerals and unknown alloys from certain war-torn regions or illegal research facilities.
What she didn't know was that Capsule Corp's recent unusual global procurement spree—large-scale, high-value, and targeting strange items—had already drawn the attention of those lurking in the shadows.
Somewhere on Earth, a secret Red Ribbon Army base lay hidden among the mountains.
Dr. Gero's adjutant, a stern-faced officer, stood in a room lined with surveillance screens, reporting to a figure seated in a wheelchair with his back to him.
"...Yes, Dr. Gero. We've detected unusual activity from West City's Capsule Corporation recently. Its procurement department has been buying up rare metals and unknown mineral samples at high prices all over the world, including some with high levels of radiation or unusual energy signatures."
The adjutant glanced at the data pad in his hands, his voice utterly flat. "Their targets lack any clear industrial or commercial purpose. Their activity patterns are abnormal, and the funds involved are substantial."
The wheelchair on the screen slowly turned around, revealing Dr. Gero's pale, sinister face, alight with a neurotic fervor.
He pushed up his glasses, their lenses reflecting a cold glint.
"That blond girl, Briefs's daughter..."
His voice was hoarse, tinged with disdain. "What silly new invention is she working on now? A new model of Capsule? Or an even flashier sports car?"
"It doesn't seem to be either, Doctor."
The adjutant brought up another report. "Mole agents we've planted in their internal network have sent back bits of information. These procurement orders seem to be connected to one of Miss Bulma's special advisers. His name is Lin Fan, and his background is extremely unclear. He first appeared in the southern seas, then attended the World Martial Arts Tournament with Miss Bulma and placed quite well."
"A martial artist?"
Dr. Gero frowned, seemingly uninterested in "muscle-bound brutes."
"That's where things get interesting, Doctor."
The adjutant opened a grainy video clip, clearly filmed from a distance. It showed scattered footage of Lin Fan fighting Giran and Tien Shinhan at the tournament. "This man's fighting style... is unconventional. We can't detect any powerful ki, yet he has an uncanny way of moving and defending himself. He may even possess... limited flight capability. Our analysts can't classify him under any known ki-based martial arts school."
The footage froze on the moment Lin Fan had lightly pushed Giran off the ring with one palm, then on the blurry, distorted barrier in front of him that had blocked the aftershock of Tien Shinhan's Tri-Beam.
The impatience vanished from Dr. Gero's face.
He leaned forward slightly, his cloudy eyes fixed on the blurry image, his fingers unconsciously tapping the armrest of his wheelchair.
"No powerful ki... yet he can produce tangible effects... An uncanny way of using energy..."
He murmured to himself, his eyes gradually gleaming with the look of a mad scientist discovering a novel specimen for experimentation.
"Even more noteworthy,"
The adjutant added, "is that according to the fragments of information our mole has pieced together, Miss Bulma's research has recently shifted entirely. She's pouring enormous resources into two things: first, meeting Adviser Lin Fan's material requirements; second, secretly developing a... super-high-strength 'gravity simulation chamber.'"
"A gravity chamber?"
Dr. Gero's eyes gleamed brighter. "Combined with that strange use of energy... and the large-scale gathering of special materials..."
He abruptly raised his head, a twisted, excited smile on his face. "I understand... I understand! It's not ki! It's something else! A completely new, unknown energy system! Or perhaps... a more efficient and fundamental way of drawing out and using energy! That little girl Bulma must have discovered something! She wants to use it to make a breakthrough!"
His breathing grew quick, as if he could already see a whole new possibility beyond Android technology.
"Lin Fan... Lin Fan..."
He repeated the name, like a snake tasting the air. "Find him! Keep a close watch on him! And track every shipment of supplies going in and out of Capsule Corp! I want to know exactly what he's looking for! Where those materials end up! What that gravity chamber is for!"
"Yes, Doctor!"
The adjutant stood at attention and acknowledged the order.
"Wait!"
Dr. Gero called after him again, a sly, sinister glint in his eyes. "Don't alert them for now. Observe first and gather data. I want to see what they can come up with... Perhaps it could even be of use to me and bring the Android Project some... unexpected surprises."
He let out a low, hoarse laugh as his wheelchair slowly turned away, disappearing back into the shadows cast by the screens.
The adjutant left the room without a sound.
Far away in West City, Lin Fan opened his eyes as if sensing something and looked in a certain direction outside the window, his brow furrowing almost imperceptibly.
For an instant, he seemed to feel the faintest trace of someone watching him. But when he focused his senses, it was gone.
Was it just his imagination?
He shook his head, dismissed the thought, and immersed himself in cultivation once more.
He had no idea that the Red Ribbon Army's shadow had already crept over him.
A pair of eyes filled with greed and curiosity had locked onto him and Bulma's laboratory through countless surveillance feeds and streams of data.
A storm was silently brewing.
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