Beerus?

"Aaaaaah!"

Lin Fan's shrill, miserable scream echoed throughout West City.

The purple-red energy of Destruction clung to him like bone-deep rot, swallowing Lin Fan whole in an instant. This power defied all logic; it held no temperature, only a pure, absolute destruction that erased every rule of existence.

Lin Fan's prideful, fused body was like paper before this energy. His skin began to disintegrate inch by inch, turning into purple light particles that dissipated into the air.

"Damn it! What the hell is this thing! Vegeta! What have you done to me!"

Lin Fan roared in sheer terror, desperately channeling the ki within him to block the onslaught. But to his despair, he found that his golden aura—capable of destroying worlds—was wiped clean the moment it touched the purple light, like snow meeting molten lava.

Vegeta hovered in mid-air, gasping for breath. Watching Lin Fan's agonizing torment, he couldn't help but burst into wild laughter.

"Hahahaha! You trash! So you have a day like this too!" Vegeta laughed so hard his facial muscles twitched.

He certainly didn't know what this purple energy sphere was; Son Gohan hadn't explained it when he gave it to him. But as long as it could kill the bastard who had humiliated him so thoroughly, he didn't care what it was!

In the ruins below, Son Goku struggled to lift his head. Seeing Lin Fan being swallowed by the purple light in mid-air, a flash of satisfaction crossed his eyes: "Well done, Vegeta!"

Atop a skyscraper in the distance.

Krillin jumped three feet high in excitement, tears almost streaming down his face: "He did it! Vegeta hit him! That guy is finished!"

Piccolo, however, stared fixedly at the mass of purple light, his brow furrowed and cold sweat pouring down his body.

"Something's wrong." Piccolo's voice trembled. "That purple ki... it's not Vegeta's power at all... That sense of pure destruction, it's almost as if..."

Piccolo couldn't find the words to describe it; he only felt his soul instinctively shudder before that purple light.

Above the clouds.

Trunks clenched his fists, staring intently below: "Brother Gohan, he's done for, right?"

Son Gohan's expression remained calm, his gaze locked on the rampaging energy of Destruction: "Don't be hasty. Let's watch a bit longer."

The power of Destruction was a tyrannical erasure of rules. The combat power Lin Fan had displayed so far was clearly insufficient to withstand it head-on. Son Gohan wanted to see exactly what trump cards this fellow transmigrator was hiding.

The screams within the purple light grew weaker. Lin Fan's left side had been completely erased, and it looked as though he and his soul were about to be thoroughly evaporated by this power.

Sure enough, at the critical moment.

A blinding golden light suddenly erupted from Lin Fan's mangled body. This golden light was extremely abrupt, actually carving a tiny fissure through the encirclement of the Destruction energy.

Bang!

A puff of white smoke exploded out of thin air.

The purple-red energy of Destruction contracted instantly, obliterating its target completely. But when the purple light faded, all that drifted down from the sky was a small handful of ash.

And where the ash had originated, a charred piece of rotten wood had appeared!

"What?!" Vegeta's wild laughter came to an abrupt halt.

"Vegeta, watch out behind you!" Son Goku screamed at the top of his lungs from the ruins below.

Vegeta whipped his head around.

Lin Fan had appeared behind him at some point. Lin Fan looked wretched to the extreme; his left arm was gone, the flesh on the left side of his face had been completely erased to reveal white bone, and his signature spiky hair had been half-burned away.

Yet, this miserable state only made his twisted face look even more ferocious and terrifying.

"Vegeta!!!"

Lin Fan roared, his remaining right hand turning into a blur as he delivered a fierce hand-blade strike to the back of Vegeta's neck.

Crack!

The sound of shattering bone was clearly audible. Vegeta didn't even have time to groan; his eyes rolled back instantly, and his Super Saiyan golden aura flickered out. He plummeted like a ragdoll, smashing heavily into the ground and falling completely unconscious.

"Vegeta!" Son Goku roared, forcing his broken body to soar into the sky.

"You're next!"

Lin Fan fired a backhanded ki blast. The violent energy slammed Son Goku face-first into the ground, erupting into a massive mushroom cloud. Son Goku lay charred and motionless, following in Vegeta's footsteps, his fate unknown.

Krillin and the others on the distant building were completely stunned.

"Wood? Why did he turn into a piece of wood?" Yamcha's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "Is that magic?"

Piccolo gritted his teeth, his nails digging deep into his palms: "I didn't see how he moved at all, not even the trajectory of his ki! It was as if he swapped positions out of thin air!"

Above the clouds.

Trunks was also bewildered: "Brother Gohan, what kind of technique is that? How did he turn into a piece of wood to escape?"

Son Gohan raised an eyebrow slightly.

Wood? Substitution Jutsu?

Isn't that a basic ninja technique from Naruto? Could it be that Lin Fan possesses a Naruto System?

In mid-air.

Lin Fan gasped for air, looking at his empty left shoulder with lingering fear. It was close—if not for the Substitution Jutsu he had just exchanged for in the System Shop, he and his System would have been completely evaporated from this world. And he still had so many people to see and so many things left to do!

The thought that his fragrant, soft, and wonderful future had almost been destroyed made his blood boil.

His eyes turned sinister as he retrieved a Senzu Bean from his system space.

The green bean appeared abruptly in his palm.

Lin Fan didn't hesitate to toss the Senzu Bean into his mouth, chewing it up and swallowing it. His left arm and half of his cheek, which had been erased by the energy of destruction, instantly regenerated.

"That strange trick again!" Piccolo watched clearly from a distance, his heart filled with shock.

They had witnessed Lin Fan do similar things many times, but they could never understand the principle behind it.

Restored to his peak state, Lin Fan did not immediately move to finish off Son Goku and Vegeta, who lay on the ground. Instead, like a startled beast, he looked around nervously, his muscles tensed to the limit.

"Come out, Beerus!"

Lin Fan roared at the empty void, his voice laced with poorly concealed bravado. "I know you're here! A dignified God of Destruction, hiding in the shadows to launch a sneak attack—what kind of skill is that?"

Silence.

Across the entire city, aside from the sound of the wind and the lingering echoes of collapsing buildings, no one responded to him.

"Beerus?" Krillin scratched his bald head, his face full of confusion. "Who is Beerus? Is he an enemy of Lin Fan?"

Piccolo shook his head, equally bewildered, though he noted that Lin Fan seemed extremely tense at the mention of that name.

Yamcha and Tien Shinhan were the same; they had never heard the name before either.

Above the clouds.

Son Gohan watched Lin Fan below, who was busy playing mind games with thin air, and nearly burst out laughing.

It seemed this fellow countryman's intelligence wasn't very high.

He hadn't even figured out the source of that destruction energy before pinning the blame directly on the God of Destruction, Beerus. Then again, it was hardly surprising; at this point in the original Universe 7, who else in the world could wield such power of destruction besides Beerus?

Son Gohan rubbed his chin, quickly piecing together the intelligence he had gathered on Lin Fan.

A cross-system Substitution Jutsu for survival, a storage space that could conjure Senzu Beans out of thin air, plus that "strength anchoring" mechanism that grew stronger as the opponent did.

The type of "cheat" he possessed was becoming obvious.

Combined with his behavior of frantically collecting women on Earth and even forcibly brainwashing Bulma and the others, it was highly likely he had a "More Children, More Blessings" or "Random Lottery" style system. Son Gohan calculated silently. The drawbacks of such cheats were obvious: a long development cycle and unstable returns.

Below.

Seeing that no one had responded for a long time, Lin Fan felt the cold sweat on his forehead begin to pour.

He had truly smelled the scent of death just moments ago.

Damn it! How could Beerus wake up so many years early? The plot is completely ruined! Lin Fan cursed frantically in his heart.

He knew his own limits well. His current strength relied entirely on the system's passive anchoring, allowing him to suppress Son Goku and Vegeta. But such suppression was completely ineffective against a being at the level of a god!

If Beerus truly had his eyes on him, he had no possible way to resist with his current means. Even if he could exchange for more substitution talismans in the shop, his points were limited! A few more blasts of destruction energy, and he would surely die!

No, I have to think of a way!

Lin Fan gritted his teeth, his eyes flickering uncertainly. If he left this place to take refuge in another universe, he would lose Son Goku and Vegeta—his cash cows for combat power—as well as the women who could help him reach the pinnacle of the world. He was a Snatch System user; how could he develop if he strayed from the plot?

Got it! A flash of brilliance crossed Lin Fan's eyes as he looked toward the villa where the women were staying.