The world really wasn't that simple after all.
Jiang Che gasped for breath, his throat raw and hoarse. He unconsciously pressed his lips together, unsure whether he was mocking himself or simply feeling irritated.
He had tried too many times already.
Every time, it felt as if he were on the verge of breaking through the threshold, as though one more push would let him step into a whole new world.
But every time, just when he was about to make it, some invisible force seemed to grab him by the nape and drag him all the way back to the beginning.
The ground was covered in salt stains left behind by sweat drying again and again—testimony to all his failures.
He stood up and brushed the dust from his knees, his gaze settling on the cold numbers displayed on the system panel.
Time here flowed like a sluggish river. Only two days had passed outside, but he had already spent a full two years in this sealed little room.
More than seven hundred days and nights. Countless times falling down, and countless times getting back up.
What kind of person had he become over these two years?
He knew.
He was not only stronger; his mind had become much clearer, too.
"Combat," which once seemed so mysterious, now felt more familiar, as if he had finally found his way to its threshold.
Every dodge was like writing a poem, every move like carving his name into the wind. Little by little, he had learned to hear the whispers of "godly ki."
The incomprehensible fluctuations he had sensed when he first arrived had now become familiar.
"It's about time I left."
He murmured, then pushed open the iron door, its surface long since covered in rust.
The hinges shrieked unpleasantly. Sunlight poured in from outside, making his eyes ache as if countless silver needles were stabbing into them.
Jiang Che squinted, but it took him only a few seconds to adjust to the light.
The blue sky and white clouds stretched overhead, while Mr. Popo stood dazed in the doorway.
Mr. Popo stared at Jiang Che and opened his mouth. It took him a long moment to finally manage, "Your... your ki seems to have disappeared completely?"
Jiang Che smiled at him. There was little emotion in it—not pride, not a desire to show off, just calm.
His current state was like the reward granted by the "Super Saiyan God" form: his ki was completely concealed, and he seemed to have merged entirely with the world.
Standing right in front of someone, he was like a patch of air that had suddenly become empty.
"Thanks for having me."
He bowed slightly, lightly touched the ground with his toes, and shot straight into the sky.
The wind whipped his clothes around. In an instant, the buildings below shrank to a speck, and even Mr. Popo's shiny bald head was almost nothing but a memory.
Jiang Che stopped in midair and glanced back at the Lookout and the mountains below. Then he finally turned and flew farther away.
This was the beginning of his new life.
Now he would face the world himself, with the calm of a true strong fighter and the stubborn resolve to never give in.
He rose as lightly as a feather, hardly making a sound. His toes skimmed the weathered bluestone, leaving not the slightest trace.
His dark blue martial arts uniform fluttered in the wind. The golden emblem on its hem caught the sunlight and reflected a faint gleam.
The sky was crystal clear, with a few lazy clouds drifting through it. The distant mountains were so lush they almost seemed to bleed green.
He drew a deep breath and spread his arms. Freed from the oppressive weight of the "high altitude," he drifted higher.
Little by little, the Lookout became a blurry shadow beneath him.
The wind rushed in from every direction, tossing his hair into disarray. The air was cold and clean.
He didn't hurry to leave. Instead, he floated among the clouds and closed his eyes, his hands hanging naturally at his sides, fingertips slightly curled, as if listening to something faint.
Sunlight spilled down from overhead, outlining him in silver.
The blue sky was like a canvas, dotted with a few stars that had yet to fade.
His breathing gradually slowed, and the ki within him began to flow. It was like a sleeping dragon turning over deep within his meridians.
His perception spread like a tide, piercing the clouds and crossing mountains, rivers, and seas. The whole Earth quivered faintly beneath his awareness.
He could hear the wind breathing, the shifting of tectonic plates beneath the ground, and the flutter of birds' wings in a distant forest—
Two years.
He had given two whole years to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. Day and night had blended into one, and he had wrung every last bit out of every second.
That gray-white space had no clocks and no seasons, only endless training and a silence that nearly drove him mad.
There, he had swung his sweat-soaked fists at training robots and watched his ki blasts flare against the walls. Every time exhaustion left him gasping on the ground, he gritted his teeth, got back up, and assumed his fighting stance again.
Every struggle had forged a stronger will.
He could no longer measure his current strength by the standards he had once used.
His perception of "ki" was a hundred times sharper than before, as if blurry eyes had suddenly been given a high-end telescope.
At that moment, he could clearly "see" the life force of every living thing on Earth. The gentle, feeble auras of ordinary people were like fireflies in the night; the auras of a few powerful fighters burned like torches.
Two particularly distinctive auras made his brows knit together—cold and viscous, like venomous snakes slithering through the darkness, coiling around his nerve endings and stirring an indescribable discomfort.
The two of them were closing in at incredible speed, racing through outer space. They were almost at Earth's low orbit.
Jiang Che could vaguely sense them tearing through the atmosphere. Their power even seemed to drag space itself out of shape—a malice so absolute it was unmistakable.
He sensed hatred spanning thousands of years hidden within those auras, twisted and surging toward Earth.
And they were getting faster.
The atmosphere began to tear apart. Shock waves rippled through his senses like the ringing of an alarm bell.
"Ding!"
A system notification chimed in his mind, like a bell suddenly resounding in a secluded valley.
Jiang Che opened his eyes, a hint of sharpness glinting in their dark depths.
The space before him warped slightly, and a translucent blue panel appeared, faint as mist in the sunlight.
The mission details materialized before his eyes, one word at a time, with a cold, technological feel.
[System Mission Issued] Mission Name: Kill Great Ape Baby Mission Description: Baby, a vengeful survivor of the Tuffles, has arrived on Earth. The Saiyans once wiped out this race. Its last survivor combined resentment with technology and became an entirely new life-form. He is now parasitizing an ordinary person and speeding toward the surface, where he intends to control all Saiyans and turn Earth completely into a new Tuffle stronghold. Completely eliminate Baby within one month, or all life on Earth will become his pawns of revenge. Mission Reward: 50000 Exchange Points Failure Penalty: None
"Baby..."
Jiang Che murmured the name, the corner of his mouth slowly curling into a meaningful smile.
He slowly clenched his fist, his knuckles cracking sharply.
The wind swirled in his palm, compressed, and condensed into a tiny vortex before disappearing.
He looked down through the clouds, his gaze seeming to pierce the atmosphere and lock onto the monster plunging toward Earth.
He still remembered the plot of Dragon Ball GT.
Baby was the Tuffles' last hope, a monster that controlled others through parasitism. His real body was nothing more than a mass of mutated flesh.
He could burrow into his host's spine, taking over their body and mind.
His targets were the Saiyans, especially fighters of Vegeta and Gohan's caliber. If they fell into Baby's hands, Earth's line of defense would collapse in an instant, leaving ordinary people with nothing to do but wait to be slaughtered.
The air began to grow tense.
The real battle was only just beginning.
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