Another World

After crawling out of the black hole, Zhang Wutian found himself in a normal world.

There were green trees, flowing water, birdsong, and the chirping of insects. In short, it had everything a normal world should have. Zhang Wutian could almost believe he had escaped that bizarre space and returned to the world he originally knew.

He could only almost believe it because he had noticed something strange.

The portable communicators Miss Bulma had made for everyone could make calls and track their locations. Even though everyone else had their location tracking turned off, Zhang Wutian knew that at least Son Wukong should have hers switched on. Yet his communicator couldn't locate her. Clearly, something wasn't right.

Then Zhang Wutian tried calling the others, but it was all in vain. Every attempt to get in touch with them failed.

Miss Bulma had an astonishing talent for developing things. Her inventions could easily be called black technology. When she made the phones, she had boasted, "My phones don't have any dead zones. You can make calls from anywhere on Earth, so take them with you when you travel without a worry."

Given that, Zhang Wutian came to the following conclusion.

"Either my phone's broken, this isn't Earth, or there's no one here I can call."

He could basically rule out the possibility that his phone was broken. After all, not long ago, Zhang Wutian had used it to locate Son Wukong in Penguin Village. As for this not being Earth, the mountains, the water, the sky, and the trees all looked unmistakably Earthlike. Zhang Wutian couldn't find a single sign that he was on another planet.

With a vague suspicion in mind, Zhang Wutian quickly set off. Before long, he had left the forest, which reminded him a little of the woods near Son Wukong's home.

"Was this place hit by a meteorite?"

Beyond the forest, Zhang Wutian soon came across a human settlement. But the village before him had become something that could almost be called a ruin.

A huge crater lay in the middle of the village, and the remaining buildings had been thoroughly wrecked. Nature had reclaimed most of the structures, and the village was so quiet it felt like a ghost town. Not a single person was in sight.

Gazing at the ruined village, Zhang Wutian fell silent, then walked in.

After looking around, he found a map in a collapsed house beside the crater.

"So we're still in the Dragon Ball World?" Looking at the familiar map, Zhang Wutian pinpointed his location and worked out a route to West City.

He put the map away and set off across the mountains and rivers.

Compared with the days when he had first left the forest and needed a Tyrannosaurus to get around, Zhang Wutian's stamina had improved beyond measure. He made use of his incredible speed to travel, and after a few days, he reached the familiar West Metropolis.

He had barely encountered any living people along the way. Vast stretches of cities had vanished, replaced by meteorite craters of all sizes. It was now normal to find no one for miles. It was as if the whole world had become a paradise for animals and plants, with humanity—the species at the top of the food chain—gone in an instant.

"Was this an alien invasion or what? Everything's a complete mess."

It wasn't until Zhang Wutian reached West City, one of the world's great metropolises, that he saw signs of human life.

West City was in bad shape, too. It had lost all the glossy grandeur of the international metropolis Zhang Wutian remembered. Ruined walls stood everywhere, and the battered buildings seemed to tell the story of humanity's miserable fate. Most people were scavenging through the wreckage like wasteland scavengers. The apocalyptic scene was completely at odds with a city called West City. Following his memories, Zhang Wutian first went to the address of his martial arts school, only to find a pile of rubble. And it wasn't even his school—these were the remains of some unrelated buildings.

After that, Zhang Wutian went to Bulma's home.

This place had at least retained the appearance he remembered, though most of the buildings had collapsed. The enormous garden had also been left untended and had become a barren wasteland.

At the entrance to a basement, Zhang Wutian found a screen used for communication. He pressed the button, and Dr. Brief's haggard face appeared on it.

"Long time no see, Dr. Brief."

"Who are you? I don't know you."

"I'm a friend of Bulma's. Where is she?"

Dr. Brief's eyes suddenly turned hostile. It was hard to connect this man with the mild-mannered doctor Zhang Wutian remembered.

"You say you're my daughter's friend? Do you have any proof?"

Zhang Wutian thought for a moment, then took out the Tomato Phone and held it up in front of the screen.

"Does this count?"

Dr. Brief fell silent for a moment, then said, "It does look like something my daughter would make, but the casing alone can't prove she made it. Besides, even if she did make it, that still doesn't prove you're her friend."

"Since when did you become so suspicious? You're not acting like the doctor I know," Zhang Wutian said.

"Anyone would change in a world like this. As long as I can defeat that devil, I don't care if I have to become one myself!"

"A devil?" Zhang Wutian asked, puzzled.

He thought for a moment about what devil might have appeared recently, then ventured, "The devil you mentioned... Could you mean King Piccolo?"

"King Piccolo? You mean that useless green-skinned loser? No, he's no match for that devil!"

"All right. It seems we see the world very differently. Before we get into that, could you let me in?"

"No! I can't trust you!"

Zhang Wutian scratched his head, then opened his phone and pulled up a photo to show on the screen.

It was a group photo everyone had taken after the World Martial Arts Tournament. Zhang Wutian, Son Wukong, Bulma, Xiao Lin, Yamcha, Master Roshi, Oolong, and Puar were all in it.

"That should prove it, right? I really am Bulma's friend."

But Dr. Brief's face on the screen changed dramatically. "H-How is this possible?! That devil! How could he be with my daughter? Why did you fake this photo? What are you after?!"

"What are you even talking about? Who is this so-called devil?" Zhang Wutian was completely baffled, but Dr. Brief gave him no chance to continue.

"You suspicious character! Take it up with the Red Ribbon Army, who are protecting the world!"

The screen went dark, leaving Zhang Wutian standing in front of it, utterly confused as he mulled over what Dr. Brief had revealed.

"The Red Ribbon Army... protecting the world?"

"Has the old man finally gone senile?"

"Or maybe there's another possibility..."

About five minutes later, Zhang Wutian was still pacing in front of the ruins of Bulma's home. He was just about to use force to break through the ground and drag Dr. Brief out of the basement when five small airships, each about the size of a car, approached from above and surrounded him.

On the identical hulls, Zhang Wutian saw a red emblem formed from the letters RR.

The Red Ribbon Army had made a dramatic entrance!