After pulling his mind out of that timeline, Gamos flew toward Bulma's house with a grave expression.
"Bulma! Bulma!"
As soon as he reached the courtyard of Bulma's house, Gamos called out.
A moment later, a blue-haired girl came out of the house. Seeing Gamos, whom she hadn't seen in ages, she asked, "What's up, great scientist? You actually have time to come visit me today."
As a fellow scientist, Bulma rather liked Gamos. Compared to those Saiyans who did nothing but fight all day, he was much more interesting.
"Bulma, I'm planning to leave for a while. Could you help me get some food together? Enough to feed tens of thousands of people for a year."
Bulma frowned. Enough to feed tens of thousands of people for a year? Was he kidding?
Even with her family's wealth, gathering that much food would take time.
"Do you need it urgently?"
"Yeah, very urgently. I found a really terrible timeline. Earth in that parallel world is on the verge of being wiped out, and I have to take Sun Wukong and Vegeta there to help."
Hearing that it was Earth in a parallel world, Bulma immediately grew interested.
"A parallel world? Is it like ours? And what about Vegeta and Sun Wukong in that world?"
Gamos shook his head. He didn't know either.
"Okay, I'll do my best to gather as much food as I can. When are you leaving?"
"Tomorrow morning. Actually, forget the food. Lend me the Dragon Radar."
Bulma immediately understood what he was planning: he was going to ask Shenron for food!
"Do you need us to prepare anything?"
Two figures flew down from the sky. They were none other than Sun Wukong and Vegeta.
The two got along far better than they had in the original story. Back then, Vegeta had only one rival: Sun Wukong. Now, there were rivals everywhere, so his resentment was spread around. That left Sun Wukong as a fellow sufferer, a brother in misfortune.
Gamos took thirty Senzu Beans from the jar he kept in his storage space and handed each of them ten.
"Keep these as backups."
A short while later, Bulma brought out two Dragon Radars. Gamos had originally planned to search for the Dragon Balls himself, but now that he had two helpers, he casually tossed a radar to each of them and sent them off to find the Dragon Balls.
Future timeline.
"Gohan, I'm sorry. You got hurt because of me."
Son Gohan lay in a dilapidated little house. It was very small, but spotlessly clean, showing that its owner often tidied it.
Bulma placed a towel on Son Gohan's forehead and helped bandage his wounds.
Son Gohan had already fallen unconscious. Trunks sat on a chair beside him, his face full of remorse.
If Trunks hadn't been so impulsive, Gohan wouldn't have been hurt. Now he had even lost an arm.
The more Trunks thought about it, the angrier he became. He was so weak, yet he'd still recklessly challenged the Androids. He was completely useless. Not only could he not help at all, he'd even dragged his Gohan into trouble.
"Damn Androids! I'll get stronger. One day, I'll kill every last one of you."
Trunks's eyes were filled with murderous intent. He was only a twelve-year-old middle schooler, yet he had already shed the innocence of childhood and shouldered the responsibility of protecting Earth.
"Trunks, you've done very well. You know, when Goku was your age, he wasn't nearly as strong as you. Don't put too much pressure on yourself, or you'll break."
Bulma tried to reassure him.
Just then, the ground suddenly shook, followed by a deafening explosion in the distance.
With a boom, every building trembled—or rather, the entire earth shook.
Trunks sprang to his feet. He stared toward the door and clenched his fists. He wanted to rush outside and fight, to settle things once and for all with those loathsome Androids, but reason told him he couldn't.
"Those damn Androids are wreaking havoc again."
Trunks had gotten into danger because he'd acted on impulse. Son Gohan had fought with all his strength and sacrificed an arm to save him. He absolutely couldn't let himself act recklessly again.
"Trunks, calm down."
Bulma wrapped her arms around her son and pulled him into her embrace, repeatedly trying to soothe him.
What mother wouldn't be heartbroken to see her son suffering so much?
But there was nothing she could do. Son Gohan and Trunks were the last warriors left on Earth, so the burden of protecting it had fallen to them. It was a responsibility they couldn't shirk.
But as a mother, she truly didn't want her son to fight anymore. She just had no way to change things.
"Trunks, hold on a little longer. Once Gohan wakes up, you can train together and get stronger. Then you'll have a chance of winning."
Trunks looked at his mother, who was pretending to be strong, and clenched his teeth before finally nodding.
Amid the ruins of the city, a short-haired blonde girl sat atop the broken remains of a skyscraper. Across from her stood a black-haired boy.
"Android 17, how did it go?"
Android 17 shook his head and said regretfully, "Too bad. He still got away."
Neither of them was discouraged. They slowly got to their feet and soon left.
"Android 18, are you sure that, aside from us, the only Android around now is that bug?"
"That should be right. We completely destroyed Dr. Gero's underground lab, so there shouldn't be any other labs."
Android 17 thought about it, then agreed.
"True. Dr. Gero was short on funds back then. Setting up one lab was already impressive enough. How could he have had any others?"
Android 17 and Android 18 were indulging in the urge to destroy and the thrill of killing, living carefree lives.
After the two had left, a green head poked out of the ground. It glared viciously after them and couldn't help cursing.
"Bastards! I'm the Ultimate Android, Cell, and I nearly got done in by those two low-level Androids. Damn it!"
Cell was still in his ordinary form. Even after constantly absorbing people's life force, his battle power had only barely reached 1.9 billion. He'd thought that, facing Android 17 and Android 18, whose battle power was 1 billion, he could defeat them and absorb them to become Perfect Cell.
But who could have guessed that Android 17 and Android 18 wouldn't play by the rules? After killing Dr. Gero, they had indeed started wreaking havoc, just as they had in the original story. Then they killed the Z Fighters who protected Earth, leaving only the two Saiyans alive.
But what happened after that was different. Android 17 and Android 18 actually went to Kami's Lookout in the sky, then went inside and trained hard. When they emerged, their strength had broken through to 2.5 billion.
Cell was facing two opponents at once, both with infinite energy. That was already troublesome enough, but those two were also training fanatics: if he didn't absorb them today, they'd be stronger tomorrow.
What was even worse was that they knew he existed. They were searching for him everywhere, desperate to kill him.
Whenever Cell thought of those two, he got a splitting headache. He couldn't figure out what had gone wrong.
Dr. Gero shouldn't have told them he existed! And at first, they hadn't come after him. They probably hadn't known about him then. But later, they suddenly did. What on earth had happened?
Before you continue