Spring Had Arrived

In the pitch-black rift in space and time, there was no sense of up or down, left or right—only an endless kaleidoscope of bizarre sights.

Son Gohan and Trunks were wrapped in a faint golden light as they hurtled through the turbulence of time and space. The light came from the golden Bracers on their wrists. Like a lighthouse, they forced a path through the chaotic timeline.

On either side of the passage, countless glimpses of parallel worlds flashed by like scenes in a revolving lantern.

Son Gohan saw many familiar sights. The moment Namek exploded. The deadly battle at the Cell Games Arena. A gigantic golden dragon coiling through a sea of stars. A gaunt purple creature with a catlike head yawning as he casually destroyed a planet.

The images flashed past in an instant, too quickly to make out clearly.

"Gohan, where does this passage lead?" Trunks asked, sticking close behind Son Gohan. The warped scenes around them made his skin crawl.

"I don't know. Follow the Bracer's guidance." Son Gohan stared at a white speck of light growing larger ahead. "Get ready. We're almost there!"

Whoosh!

The two of them turned into streaks of light and plunged into the white speck.

Earth, somewhere in a primeval forest.

The midday sun dappled the clearing through the dense canopy. Two enormous Tyrannosauruses, their bodies covered in hard scales, were piled on top of each other, rumbling deafeningly as they explored the meaning of life.

Just as they reached the final, crucial stage—

The air above them suddenly split like a torn scrap of cloth. A pitch-black rift burst open out of nowhere, accompanied by violent purple lightning and a deafening sonic boom.

The two Tyrannosauruses were scared out of their wits. The male let out a horrified shriek and shuddered, then scrambled away, crashing through dozens of towering trees as he fled without looking back. The female fled after him, and the entire forest erupted into chaos as the birds and beasts scattered.

Son Gohan and Trunks landed steadily on the ground.

Looking at the wrecked forest, Trunks's mouth twitched. "I think we interrupted them."

"Forget about that. Hide your energy first." Son Gohan immediately suppressed his energy to the bare minimum, almost blending in with the natural surroundings.

This was a completely unknown timeline. Until they understood the situation, openly releasing their energy would be foolish.

Trunks did as he was told.

Son Gohan raised his left wrist and fed a faint trickle of ki into the golden Bracer. Its ancient markings glimmered.

"Lord Popo, can you hear me?" Son Gohan spoke into the Bracer.

Popo's voice soon came through, hollow and utterly even. "I hear you clearly. It seems you arrived safely in the target timeline."

"What should we do next?" Son Gohan got straight to the point. "Where are the Original Dragon Balls in this timeline?"

Popo fell silent for two seconds.

"I can't sense their exact location." His voice remained calm. "The only thing I can confirm is that the Original Dragon Balls are on Earth."

Trunks grew anxious. "Then how are we supposed to find them? Earth is huge. We can't exactly dig up the whole planet!"

"Search for the 'root cause' that made the world deviate from its course," Popo said cryptically. "Miracle Power cannot influence things without cause. It must be tied to someone or something that defied its predetermined fate. Find that root cause, and you'll find clues to the Original Dragon Balls. Good luck."

Crackle.

The call ended unilaterally, and the glow on the Bracer faded.

Son Gohan and Trunks looked at each other.

"The root cause that made things deviate from their course?" Trunks was at a loss. "What kind of clue is that? How are we supposed to find it?"

"Complaining won't help. Popo clearly can't offer us anything more." Son Gohan closed his eyes and carefully sensed the energy across Earth. "If something made this timeline stray from its course, then there must be something seriously out of place in this world. Let's find out what's going on here first. We'll look for someone we know."

Suddenly, Son Gohan frowned.

He sensed an extremely agitated energy not too far away.

"Found someone." Son Gohan opened his eyes, a hint of confusion flashing in them. "It seems to be Vegeta's energy."

"Dad?" Trunks froze.

"Yes, but his energy seems very weak." Son Gohan rubbed his chin, quickly thinking it over.

Vegeta's power level seemed to be only around forty or fifty thousand. That made no sense. According to the normal timeline, when Vegeta first arrived on Earth, his power level had been around eighteen thousand. After the Ginyu Force beat him badly on Namek and Frieza gravely wounded him, his Saiyan ability to grow stronger after recovering from near death had pushed his power level close to a million.

This current figure of forty or fifty thousand fell into an extremely awkward range.

If this was during the Saiyan invasion, forty or fifty thousand was far too high. If it was after the Namek saga, that figure was pitifully low. What was going on?

"Come on. Let's go take a look," Son Gohan said decisively.

To avoid alerting anyone, the two didn't use the Flight Technique to race through the air. Instead, they flew low over the treetops toward their destination.

A little over ten minutes later, they reached a desolate valley.

Nothing grew there. Dark red rocks, scorched by intense heat, covered the area. Before they even got close, they heard a series of rumbling booms from the center of the valley.

They landed on a high cliff at the valley's edge and peered down.

At the bottom of the valley, Vegeta wore a tattered old Battle Suit and swung his fists like a mad beast, pounding the hard cliff face in front of him.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Each punch blasted a huge crater into the cliff, sending rocks and dust flying in every direction. Vegeta was drenched in sweat and gasping for breath, but he kept raging as if he couldn't feel the exhaustion.

"Why?!"

Vegeta suddenly stepped back, brought his hands together, and unleashed a brilliant Galick Gun. It blasted away half of the small mountain in front of him.

He panted amid the billowing smoke, his eyes bloodshot and the muscles in his face twisted with fury.

"Why?! Why?!" Vegeta roared hysterically, his voice echoing through the empty valley. "I'm the prince of the Saiyans! I have the purest royal bloodline!"

He slammed a fist into the ground, splitting it with a crack more than ten meters long.

"Lin Fan!"

"Kakarot!"

"How can two low-class warriors surpass me?! How dare they trample me underfoot?! I refuse to accept this! I refuse to accept it!"

Above the cliff—

Hearing Vegeta's roar, Trunks was stunned. He knew Kakarot was what his father called Uncle Goku, but who was the person he'd named first?

"Gohan, who's Lin Fan?" Trunks whispered, confused. Neither his mother nor Gohan had ever mentioned that name.

Son Gohan didn't answer, but his heart skipped a beat.

Lin Fan.

That sounded like the name of a classic webnovel protagonist. It definitely didn't belong in the original Dragon Ball world. Add Vegeta's strangely low power level and the humiliation in his words—

Mystery solved.

This Lin Fan was absolutely the "root cause" Popo had mentioned. He was most likely a transmigrator who knew the story, or someone with a cheat ability. In this timeline, he'd stolen the spotlight from Son Goku and Vegeta and might even have changed what happened on Namek.

Thinking about it, Son Gohan sighed inwardly. If only his own cheat were still around. For some reason, it had appeared only once, right after he'd transmigrated. No matter how much he called for it after that, there'd been no response.

"Let's go down." Son Gohan shook off the thought and leaped lightly from the cliff. Trunks followed right behind him.

They suppressed their energy to the bare minimum, and when they landed, they didn't even stir up a speck of dust.

But as they descended, the glaring afternoon sun cast their long shadows across the ground in front of Vegeta.

Vegeta froze.

His battle instincts, honed by years spent on the brink of death, kicked in at once. Like a startled wildcat, he whipped around, his body tensing as he assumed an aggressively defensive stance.

"Who are you?!" Vegeta stared at the two strangers who had appeared out of nowhere, a bead of cold sweat forming on his forehead.