Vitality

Mo Yuan felt that his life—or perhaps his insect life—was shrouded in darkness.

It was bad enough that he had no system. Now he couldn't even control his own body.

All he wanted was to get out of this place, flee to some remote wilderness where no one lived, and keep a low profile.

Staying in the lab came with two possible outcomes.

Mo Yuan still wasn't sure which timeline he was in.

If it was the Future Timeline, he could keep himself alive until he regained control of his body. Then he could leave without a problem.

But if it was the main timeline, it wouldn't be long before Krillin and Future Trunks found and destroyed him.

Mo Yuan didn't want to entrust his life to something as nebulous as fate.

So he had to take control of his body as soon as possible and get out of this place.

As for the orders Dr. Gero had put in his head, he had no intention of following them.

Why pick a fight with the child of destiny when he had nothing better to do? Did he have a death wish?

Even if he had a cheat ability, he wouldn't want to kill Son Goku, let alone now, when he had no special advantages at all.

After all, if he wanted to survive, he'd need Son Goku to deal with the future threats.

Wasn't it better to let Goku handle things when the sky fell?

Otherwise, on his own, Mo Yuan might not even survive the Buu saga.

What was more, he wouldn't absorb other people's life energy to evolve, either.

He might not look human anymore, but deep down, he was still human.

Mo Yuan had grown up in peacetime. He couldn't stomach eating people, and even killing someone filled him with revulsion.

Mo Yuan struggled with all his might to open his eyes, but his eyelids wouldn't budge.

He felt like someone paralyzed from the neck down.

Only his consciousness remained clear.

"Open!!!"

At Mo Yuan's furious shout, his eyes finally...

Still didn't open.

But he could see.

Mo Yuan had entered a strange state.

It was an utterly mysterious sensation.

He saw everything from another perspective—a bird's-eye view.

The entire laboratory was laid out before him in perfect clarity.

"Hm?"

Mo Yuan looked at the little boy in the incubation pod, perplexed.

But more than anything, he was delighted.

His body had horns on its head and a tail behind it.

Still, at least it looked human enough.

The Cell in the original story had been an insect. Even after evolving into his perfect form and becoming a somewhat handsome humanoid insect, his appearance still didn't suit Mo Yuan's tastes.

As for why his appearance had changed so much, Mo Yuan thought it might have been a result of his transmigration.

The original Cell's appearance should have been shaped primarily by Frieza and Piccolo's genes.

Perhaps his transmigration had caused the appearance to be shaped primarily by Earthling and Saiyan genes instead.

And most importantly...

Frieza and Piccolo's races were genderless.

But now?

Mo Yuan looked down at the little appendage taking shape on his body and smiled in satisfaction.

A man was born with two heads.

The big head relied on brains, the little head on guts. A man needed both courage and wisdom to be a real man!

And losing either one could have serious consequences.

Without the big head, you'd die.

Without the little head, you'd die of embarrassment.

So neither was dispensable.

Besides that, Mo Yuan saw energy particles floating in the air.

Most of them were white, with a smaller number of blue-white ones.

From his memories, Mo Yuan knew that the white particles were what people called "ki."

When a fighter trained, ki would enter his body and be at his command.

The blue-white particles, on the other hand, were "Vitality."

When he heard Vitality, he couldn't help thinking of the Spirit Bomb.

The Spirit Bomb was a technique that gathered energy from plants, humans, animals, and even the atmosphere.

Only the kindhearted could wield Vitality, and it dealt tremendous damage to the wicked. The more evil the target, the greater the damage.

Conversely, it did very little harm to the kindhearted and the just.

That was why Cell and Goku Black had never used the Spirit Bomb in the original story.

First, they might not be able to use it successfully.

Second, even if they managed to, the damage would probably be less than that of an energy blast they threw out casually.

Although North Kai had created the technique and it hadn't been used many times, it had played a huge role whenever it appeared.

It had even become the key that let Son Goku achieve Ultra Instinct during the Tournament of Power.

Mo Yuan made a startling discovery.

His body was automatically absorbing ki.

But the absorption was incredibly slow.

"Can I make myself absorb ki faster?"

The moment Mo Yuan had the thought, the energy particles in the air began to flow rapidly, gathering around his body.

What shocked him most was that the particles gathering around him weren't just ki. Vitality was gathering, too.

And his body was absorbing it as well.

As Mo Yuan absorbed the Vitality bit by bit, he felt a faint connection forming between himself and his body.

It was only a slight connection. He couldn't even move his pinky finger.

But that tiny connection filled him with boundless hope.

Before, he'd felt as though countless chains had imprisoned him inside this body. This new connection was like a key, unlocking one of them.

Now that he had hope, Mo Yuan didn't waste another moment.

He focused on absorbing the Vitality in the air, determined to break free as soon as he could.

Days and nights passed, and time flew by.

A year slipped away in the blink of an eye.

Mo Yuan looked a little older in the incubation pod than he had a year ago.

Throughout that year, Mo Yuan had absorbed Vitality every waking moment.

But the Vitality in one place was limited. Once he absorbed it all, he had to wait for more to slowly form.

So it took him a full year to absorb enough Vitality to completely control his body.

"Crack!"

After Mo Yuan absorbed all the Vitality in the air, the last chain inside his body shattered, too.

He tested his body, then opened his eyes.

Joy shone in his amethyst eyes.

A smile spread across his adorable, chubby-cheeked face.

"A year... Do you know what I've been through this past year?"

He'd spent a year training in this place without day or night, alone and bored out of his mind.

Mo Yuan was about to go crazy from being cooped up.

He swore that once he got out, he'd eat and have fun to make up for all he'd missed this past year.

The nutrient solution had kept his body supplied, so he hadn't felt hungry.

But as a foodie, Mo Yuan knew wanting to eat wasn't always about being hungry.

After a year here, his mouth was so bored he could practically taste the birds.

"It's time to get out of here."

Mo Yuan clenched his right fist and applied a little force.

"Boom!"

A blast of purple energy shot from his fist, smashing the incubation pod before slamming into the lab wall and exploding violently.

"Boom! Boom!"

The powerful explosion immediately set off the machines in the laboratory, too.

Explosions echoed without pause.

Smoke and dust filled the air.

Σ(☉▽☉"a Mo Yuan stared at the scene in a daze.

Come on, I just wanted to sneak out of here, okay?

Mo Yuan had simply underestimated the power in his own body. In this world, a power level of ten thousand was enough to destroy Earth.