Dragon Ball: Reborn as a Saiyan, They're Coveting Me Author: Lan Bingshi
I was reborn in the world of Dragon Ball as Son Goku.
I was a bit of a shut-in, so the fact that I could become the protagonist made me so happy!
Now that I was Goku, I'd have to protect Earth when I grew up.
Although I didn't have the pure, innocent heart of the original Son Goku,
at least I knew far more than he did,
and I knew exactly how things would unfold in this world.
As long as I worked hard enough, I had the potential to save Earth too.
As for women, they'd only get in the way of my training.
So I began training hard day after day under Grandpa Son Gohan.
Ten years flew by. Bulma showed up and took me on an adventure.
All I wanted was to train hard every day and improve bit by bit.
But the very thing I feared came to pass.
When I grew up, I still hadn't gotten married.
Whether it was Bulma, Chi-Chi, or Launch,
or Android 18, who showed up later,
they'd all had their eyes on me for a long time,
and they were all clamoring to marry me...
Chapter 1: I Became Goku
Above Mount Paozu.
A dinosaur was flying through the sky, hunting.
Suddenly, a flash of white light streaked past,
hitting the dinosaur squarely.
Its massive body jerked, its eyes rolled back, and it plummeted downward,
bouncing off the treetops and smashing through branches as it fell...
Before the dinosaur's body could hit the ground,
a short child with a tail sprang into the air,
leapt up to the treetops in a few bounds, caught the falling dinosaur, flipped down to the ground, and hoisted it onto his shoulder.
His movements flowed together seamlessly, without a hint of wasted effort.
A little while later, smoke curled above the mountaintop, and the air filled with the aroma of roasting meat.
"That smells so good!!!"
"It should be ready, right?"
The little boy tore off a piece of meat from above the fire
and hurriedly stuffed it into his mouth.
"Mmm, it's so, so delicious! Grandpa, you have to try some!"
The old man sitting across from him tore off a piece too and took a bite.
After just one bite, the old man's face lit up with delight.
"Mmm, it really is delicious.
Crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, with fat sizzling everywhere. This dinosaur smells amazing roasted!"
The little boy grinned in satisfaction too.
He pulled two roasted drumsticks from the dinosaur over the fire and chomped them down.
As he ate, he exclaimed, "Roasted dinosaur tastes even better than roasted fish!
I wish I could hunt a dinosaur to eat every day!"
The old man smiled at him. "Slow down. No one's going to steal it from you. Don't choke..."
The old man was Son Gohan, a disciple of Master Roshi.
And the little boy was the protagonist of the Dragon Ball world,
the Saiyan Kakarot. Son Gohan had given him the Earthling name Son Goku.
But he wasn't the original Goku. He was a reincarnator.
He had the soul of a modern man,
and of course, in his previous life, he'd watched Dragon Ball and knew Goku's mission.
This world was full of danger.
Without a powerful Goku to protect it, Earth was bound to meet its end sooner or later.
Saiyans were only a little more gifted than Earthlings,
but compared to the people of the wider universe, someone like Son Goku was actually pretty underwhelming.
He started from a low point, grew slowly, and couldn't survive in space.
Later on, unless he transformed, he couldn't compete with the truly powerful.
In all those years, had the Saiyan race ever produced a real powerhouse?
Only Son Goku, exiled to Earth and blessed with a pure, innocent heart,
had grown into a warrior of cosmic proportions.
Of course, the mutant Broly was an exception.
He was born with cheat codes; ordinary people simply couldn't compare.
Once Little Goku understood the situation, as soon as he could walk and talk,
he began begging Gohan to train him.
He had no choice. If he wanted to survive, he had to get stronger fast. At the very least, he couldn't fall behind the original Son Goku.
But the hard part was...
When it came to talent, combat instincts, or passion for martial arts, he was no match for the original Son Goku.
Without a powerful interest in martial arts, he didn't think he could do better than martial-arts fanatic Son Goku.
But everyone had their own strengths.
Before he was reborn, he'd been the kind of modern person who pushed himself relentlessly.
He'd started grinding away in school so he wouldn't fall behind, then worked even harder once he got a job...
Though he'd lived at the bottom of society, he'd never let himself be outdone by the people around him.
Unfortunately, in his twenties, he'd suffered a sudden heart attack and passed out before he knew what was happening.
Luckily, the next moment, he woke up to discover he'd been reborn—or, rather, transported to another world.
He'd arrived in this fascinating world and become his idol, Son Goku.
At first, he couldn't speak yet.
As soon as he emerged from the incubation pod, Bardock and Gine had sent him off to Earth.
That had spared him the fate of perishing along with Planet Vegeta.
Inside the spacecraft, he couldn't help thinking
that this world was far more exciting than the one he'd left behind, where all he could do was study and work.
Not sure he could break through his limits at a crucial moment the way the original Son Goku had,
he'd already made up his mind as soon as he understood what was going on.
He'd train as hard as Vegeta did later on, pushing himself relentlessly,
and without any cheat codes, he'd grow stronger one step at a time through his own efforts.
He wanted to survive. He really, really wanted to improve.
As for marriage in the future, he hadn't given it any thought.
Strangely enough, ever since he'd transmigrated into the body of a young Goku,
he seemed to be in a state of perfect celibacy every waking moment.
Even knowing that the lovestruck girl Bulma would come up the mountain one day to search for the Dragon Balls,
Goku still didn't have any inappropriate thoughts about her.
Maybe he was just too young, and his organs hadn't developed yet, so his hormones hadn't kicked in.
None of that mattered. Getting stronger and staying alive were what counted...
Besides, Bulma would come up the mountain and shoot him a few times.
He should at least train until he was impervious to bullets first, right?
After Son Goku learned to talk and walk, he'd begged Gohan to let him train,
and Son Gohan had naturally taught him with all his heart.
And so, after more than ten years of training with him, Son Goku had learned to control his energy.
That was the essence of the Turtle School.
As for the Kamehameha, that was easy. Little Goku had mastered it ages ago.
In this world, the strength of the human body always had limits,
but the power of one's energy was limitless.
The stronger your energy, the stronger your Kamehameha.
Goku understood that perfectly, so he put even more effort into training his energy.
By now, his battle power had surpassed that of the original Little Goku at the same age.
That was why this Goku, despite being so much older,
could use the Kamehameha to take down a dinosaur without having trained under Master Roshi.
After eating his fill, Goku rubbed his belly.
"I'm stuffed!"
As Son Gohan cleared away the dishes, he smiled and said,
"Now that you're full, go train. I'll take care of the rest!"
"Okay, thanks, Grandpa!"
With that, Son Goku strapped on his weighted turtle shell and started running around the mountain.
Son Gohan watched Little Goku run off to train with such enthusiasm, a strange look crossing his face.
"That child Goku trains like his life depends on it. It goes completely against the Turtle School's philosophy.
I wonder if that's a good thing or a bad thing..."
After clearing away the dishes, Son Gohan carried them inside.
Suddenly, he noticed something unusual about the Four-Star Dragon Ball.
The usually quiet Dragon Ball had lit up, which left him very curious.
"Hm?"