A Strange Space

After receiving Son Wukong's message, Zhang Wutian bought a semi-autonomous hovercar from a store—he could finally afford a car now—and followed the signal toward where Son Wukong was.

Penguin Village was the place where the protagonists of another manga drawn by Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama, Dr. Slump, lived. The village had made a guest appearance in Dragon Ball before. Naturally, there was no problem with it appearing in a manga; all the differences in worldview, including the living sun, all kinds of supernatural lifeforms, and the Earth having shattered several times, could be explained away as comedy. But Zhang Wutian was now in a complete world. How could a place with a different worldview exist within the same world? He was immensely curious about how it would fit in.

Would those unreasonable beings in Penguin Village compromise after integrating into this world and vanish? Or would Penguin Village remain self-contained, becoming an independent little world unaffected by outside forces? At least in the memories of people in this world, Earth had never shattered so far. Though its future was worrying. How was that supposed to be explained?

Until the very moment he stepped into Penguin Village, Zhang Wutian was still pondering these interesting questions.

"This is... Penguin Village?"

Everything before him made Zhang Wutian hesitate.

Was it an illusion caused by light and shadow, tectonic displacement from an earthquake, or had Zhang Wutian been watching too much television lately and strained his eyes from exhaustion? In his eyes, all of Penguin Village was tilted at roughly fifteen degrees, as conspicuous and jarring as an ill-fitting building block embedded in the earth.

From afar, everyone in the village was slightly tilted. Only Son Wukong was not. She stood at the entrance to Penguin Village. Though she stood on the slanted ground, her own posture was perfectly straight, and she grinned as she walked toward Zhang Wutian.

"I've been waiting for you, Zhang Wutian. Is this the Penguin Village you were looking for?"

"Maybe..." Zhang Wutian said as he watched a pig standing in a tree at the village entrance, shouting, "This is Penguin Village!"

"What's wrong? Why are you standing there without moving? Come on, I'll take you to meet the new friends I made here."

As she spoke, Son Wukong tried to reach out and pull Zhang Wutian along. Zhang Wutian instinctively stepped forward, and suddenly, heaven and earth inverted.

The original fifteen-degree tilt abruptly intensified, and the entire world flipped over. Zhang Wutian felt the ground vanish beneath his feet, as if the land had suddenly disappeared. With the one-hundred-and-eighty-degree reversal, the ground became the sky, and the sky became the ground.

Zhang Wutian felt himself falling endlessly. The last thing he saw was Son Wukong's outstretched hand.

"Zhang Wutian!!"

The shout that seemed to reach his ears jolted Zhang Wutian awake.

"I... passed out?"

Realizing that he seemed to have blacked out for a while, Zhang Wutian sat up from the ground.

Then he discovered that he was surrounded by complete darkness.

This was a pitch-black space. It was the kind of place where one could not see one's fingers even with a hand held out.

"I seemed to be in Penguin Village before. What is this place? Is it connected to Penguin Village's strange situation?"

Zhang Wutian pondered as he felt around and stood up.

"That Wukong didn't seem to notice anything abnormal about Penguin Village. Was it normal to her? In other words, was I the only one who could see that abnormality?"

"Damn it, there was no plot like this in Dragon Ball. Where the hell is this??"

There was no point in sitting around and waiting to die. Even if he stayed where he was, all he could see was darkness, so Zhang Wutian had no choice but to try walking forward.

Perhaps he was moving forward. Zhang Wutian reached out to test the way, but never touched any obstacle. This place seemed like an infinitely vast space, and Zhang Wutian could not even guarantee that he was walking in a straight line. After all, for someone accustomed to using sight for direction, suddenly being plunged into darkness would inevitably hinder movement.

Zhang Wutian did not know how long he had walked. He even became confused over whether he was truly walking at all. Sometimes, he felt as though he had seen something, but it always turned out to be nothing but his imagination. The darkness never changed.

In the end, Zhang Wutian started shouting as if venting his frustration.

"Aaaaaaah!!!!!!"

Fortunately, sound did not seem to be obstructed here. Zhang Wutian could hear his own shout, and there was no echo, which indirectly proved just how vast this place was.

"What the hell is this place? I was in Dragon Ball World just before this. Did I transmigrate again?? Wait... Dragon Ball World?"

"Right, I can still use that trick!!"

Having suddenly fallen into trouble, he had instinctively treated himself like an ordinary person. Now Zhang Wutian abruptly remembered that he was a man who had spent money in Dragon Ball World.

"Light up for me!!"

He gathered ki in his fist and maintained a steady output. The next moment, Zhang Wutian's fist emitted a soft glow, illuminating the surroundings like a light bulb.

Zhang Wutian's ki illuminated an area about five meters around him, but beyond that was still total darkness.

Using the light, Zhang Wutian examined the ground beneath his feet and found that it was equally black, with no tangible substance present.

"So what exactly am I standing on?"

The moment he considered that possibility, Zhang Wutian suddenly felt the ground disappear beneath his feet. He began falling again.

Falling, falling... as though it would never end. At first, Zhang Wutian was terrified, but after roughly a minute of falling, he calmed down.

"At first, when I couldn't see, I believed there was solid ground beneath my feet. After I could see, I changed my mind. As a result, my support vanished and I started falling. Is this a world where everything is determined entirely by my thoughts?"

"Let's try it. I want to... stop!!"

The next moment, the fall came to an abrupt halt. Zhang Wutian discovered that he was floating in the air like a balloon.

"Then... let there be light!!"

A brilliant radiance burst forth, and the dark space became pure white. Zhang Wutian could use the light to see his own body. The entire world was blank, with no objects anywhere within his field of vision. Compared to before, aside from being able to see himself, there seemed to be no difference at all.

"What a bizarre place. I have to find an exit!!"

The next moment, a black circular hole opened before Zhang Wutian.

"That really is an easy-to-understand exit..."

Zhang Wutian poked half his body through the circular hole and found that the other side was a normal world bathed in bright sunlight. But it was not Penguin Village from before; it was somewhere else.

Zhang Wutian wanted to leave, but he was not sure whether he could return to this space after doing so. Having found a way out, he became interested in this strange space.

"I want to be able to return to this space again after leaving."

Based on his previous experience, Zhang Wutian began thinking in that direction.

The next moment, he felt a strange connection form between himself and this space.

It was an indescribable sensation. No substance or phenomenon could prove it, yet Zhang Wutian simply felt that he had become bound to this space.

After accepting that feeling, Zhang Wutian finally made up his mind and crawled out through the black circular hole.

After Zhang Wutian left, the black hole vanished. The space remained pure white, as though time itself had frozen in this place.

"How fascinating. To think he can freely control this gap between time and space. Even I cannot do such a thing."

A somewhat effeminate voice suddenly rang out in the space, breaking its silence.

"So be it. This place has already exceeded the scope of my authority. Even if I wanted to do something, I lack the power. We'll wait until Lord Beerus awakens before discussing everything. Until then, let me exercise my sole authority and quietly observe the changes in this space..."

The voice softly echoed through the space before fading into nothing. A moment later, boundless silence once more enveloped the entire space.