Beneath the clear blue sky, a silver streak tore through the clouds. A piercing sonic boom suddenly rang out across the mountains.
The gentle mountain breeze came to an abrupt standstill. The birds and insects in the forest fell silent.
A cold, domineering, savage aura from the cosmos ruthlessly crushed the entire forest.
Bulma still clutched the Four-Star Dragon Ball she had just dug up, the delight on her face not yet faded. Hearing the noise overhead, she instinctively looked up.
When she saw the small spacecraft that had pierced the atmosphere, its body silver and black and its design brimming with advanced technology, she froze in place, her pupils contracting sharply.
"W-what is that?! A plane? No! That's not an Earth aircraft!"
As West City's top young scientist, Bulma had encountered Earth's most advanced aerospace technology. But the craft's design, propulsion, and speed were all far beyond anything she knew.
Its cold metallic finish and sharp, angular hull radiated a chilling aura of war. It was no civilian craft—without a doubt, it was a military warship.
Little Goku stopped fooling around, too. He gripped the Power Pole, his small face taut as he stared at the ship in the sky, instinctively sensing mortal danger.
"That's a terrifying feeling... way scarier than the fiercest beasts in the mountains!"
Only Lin Chen's expression darkened completely, the sense of danger in his heart rising to its peak.
It was a full three days early.
Frieza's scouting party hadn't arrived anywhere near the time the system had predicted.
The Universe Emperor's efficiency was far more terrifying than Lin Chen had imagined.
[Emergency Alert: The Frieza Standard Recon Ship has locked onto ground coordinates!]
[Enemy composition: One elite scout]
[Enemy battle power: 4200]
[Enemy status: Fully armed, equipped with cosmic detection devices and micro-weapons]
[Host's current base battle power: 1040. Weakness seal not removed!]
Every word of the system's warning hit hard. The gap was plain to see.
Four thousand two hundred battle power.
On early Earth, that was an overwhelming, higher-dimensional advantage.
When Vegeta first came to Earth, his battle power was 18,000, enough to sweep aside all opposition. The Frieza elite before them was nowhere near Vegeta, but he was still a monster Earth couldn't stand against.
Among the early martial artists on Earth in the original story, Master Roshi's peak battle power was barely over 200, while Tien Shinhan topped out at 300. Against a battle power of 4,000, they wouldn't even count as ants.
Even Little Goku, gifted as he was, had a battle power of 1,350 right now. He wouldn't last three moves, even if he gave it everything he had.
A fourfold gap in battle power. It looked like a hopeless mismatch.
But there wasn't a trace of panic in Lin Chen's eyes. Instead, he became utterly calm.
Ten years of fighting to the death on Planet Vegeta, countless victories against stronger foes, and turnarounds in desperate situations had long since become part of him.
Battle power was only a baseline. What truly decided victory or defeat was combat experience, the will to kill, mastery of techniques—and his one-of-a-kind ability to absorb and evolve!
"You two, get deeper into the forest right now. Find somewhere hidden and stay there. No matter what you hear or see, do not come out."
Lin Chen turned to them, his voice low and stern, leaving no room for argument.
Bulma had never seen him like this before. Cold and fierce, his entire presence had changed. He was like a drawn blade, chilling her to the bone.
"What about you?!" Bulma asked urgently.
"I'll hold him off."
Just three simple words, steady and firm.
Goku immediately stepped forward, gripping the Power Pole. "Big brother, I'll help too! I'm really strong!"
"You can't beat him," Lin Chen said flatly, bluntly. "Your opponents are Earth's beastly fighters. He's a warrior who's fought across the cosmos and killed countless people. If you go up against him, you'll only get yourself killed."
Goku was pure-hearted and didn't understand the cruelty of life and death. He had no idea how terrifying cosmic warriors were.
Every bit of their battle power had been honed through endless slaughter and mountains of corpses. Their attacks were lethal, and they had no scruples.
Goku was about to argue, but Lin Chen stopped him with a stern look.
"Protecting her is the biggest help you can give me. Listen to me."
Seeing how serious Lin Chen was, Goku gritted his teeth, then finally nodded firmly.
"Okay! Big brother, you have to be careful!"
Bulma was scared and worried. Looking at the boy standing alone in the open clearing, she bit her lip. "Lin Chen, don't try to be a hero! If you can't beat him, we'll run!"
As soon as she finished speaking, she grabbed Goku and rushed into the woods to find a hidden cave. She didn't dare linger for even a moment.
The forest soon fell quiet again.
The entire mountainside was empty, with only Lin Chen left to face the approaching cosmic enemy.
Rumble—!
The silver ship slammed into the clearing a hundred meters away, sending dust billowing and stones flying.
With a hiss, the hatch opened. A tall, heavily built cosmic warrior in a black standard-issue Battle Suit walked out.
His skin was grayish-purple, his eyes narrow and sinister, and his muscles were powerfully defined. A thick aura of bloodlust surrounded him.
He was an elite scout of the Frieza Force, a veteran who roamed from planet to planet, wiping out alien stragglers and killing countless foes.
The moment he landed, his cold gaze fixed on Lin Chen. He looked him up and down, his eyes filled with contempt and amusement.
"Found you."
His low, hoarse words came in the universal language of the cosmos, dripping with haughty indifference.
"The Saiyan who slipped through the net and caught the lord's attention really was hiding on this low-level planet."
"Barely over a thousand battle power. A beaten, broken stray, a homeless dog—and he still escaped the Emperor's world-destroying attack. I suppose he's got some luck."
He didn't take Lin Chen seriously at all.
A battle power of 4,200 against 1,000 was like an adult crushing an infant.
As far as he was concerned, this mission was effortless. He just had to casually erase a stray who'd slipped through the cracks and report back.
"Just surrender, and I'll give you a quick death." The cosmic warrior raised a hand and formed a pale purple energy sphere, his tone lazy and mocking. "If you resist, I'll break all four of your limbs and cripple your bloodline. Then I'll let you experience endless pain before you die."
Lin Chen planted his feet firmly on the ground, keeping his aura completely suppressed as he stared coldly at his opponent. "Did Frieza send you here to die?"
"Impudent!"
The cosmic warrior's eyes turned icy, his bloodlust surging. "Wretched Saiyan, how dare you blaspheme against the Emperor! Since you're asking for death, I'll crush you!"
Before the words were out, he shot forward!
He was so fast he left a trail of afterimages. Purple energy coiled around his fist as he drove it toward Lin Chen's head with a thunderous crack of displaced air!
Decisive, vicious, lethal.
It was a textbook cosmic brawl: no probing, just a killing blow from the start!
His fourfold battle-power advantage overwhelmed Lin Chen in speed, strength, and explosive force!
An ordinary Saiyan at the same level would have had no way to defend against this attack. He'd be killed instantly.
But Lin Chen was different.
He'd survived Frieza's deadliest pursuit and seen the finest killing techniques the cosmos had to offer. In his eyes, the seemingly ferocious attack was full of openings.
The supreme reflexes he'd forged through ten years of fighting for his life peaked in that instant!
Just as the fist reached his brow, Lin Chen dropped low, slid, and dodged to the side!
He narrowly evaded the fatal strike!
Boom!
The enormous force of the blow crashed into the ground. The hard earth burst open, leaving a crater several meters wide as rocks and dirt shot skyward!
The cosmic warrior's eyes flickered with surprise when his attack missed.
"Hmm? Quick reflexes. No wonder you escaped Planet Vegeta."
He was surprised, but his contempt didn't diminish in the slightest.
He might have dodged the first attack, but he wouldn't dodge the second!
The next moment, a flurry of attacks erupted. Fists, kicks, and energy blasts rained down one after another, sealing off every avenue of escape!
Purple energy ravaged the clearing, blasting the earth into a cratered mess.
Lin Chen kept dodging at his limits, his figure weaving and darting like a lone shadow in the wind as he moved through the barrage of killing blows.
Each dodge was a hair's breadth away from failure. Each escape was perilously close.
His body took the full force of the blasts' shockwaves. His old injuries throbbed, and his already weakened body was nearing its limit.
Yet he never counterattacked.
He was waiting.
Waiting for his opponent to grow careless, to run out of steam, to reveal his biggest opening!
"Is dodging all you can do, you miserable rat?!"
The cosmic warrior grew more and more irritated. His attacks grew wilder, and his contempt turned to anger.
He was a proud Frieza Force elite with a battle power of 4,000, and he still couldn't take down a battered warrior with barely a thousand!
It was humiliating!
"This ends now!"
He roared and gathered all his energy into his palm, forming a gigantic purple energy sphere several meters in diameter. His aura surged as he locked onto Lin Chen and hurled it forward!
An unavoidable, wide-area killing technique!
There was nowhere to dodge!
Certain death!
Now!
A sharp glint flashed in Lin Chen's eyes. The moment he'd been waiting for had finally arrived!
His opponent had spent a great deal of energy on his relentless assault and was growing impatient. The killing blow looked ferocious, but it was hollow at its core, leaving his defenses completely exposed!
"System! Push my potential to the limit and unleash it all at once!"
[ Ding! An ideal opportunity to counterattack detected! Extreme Overdrive activated! ]
[ Temporary battle power has surged to 2000! Duration: fifteen seconds! ]
A torrent of power exploded through every inch of Lin Chen's body!
He stopped dodging. White ki burst around him as he shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow!
Maximum acceleration!
He blasted through the energy sphere's shockwave and slipped past the edge of the purple blast!
As the cosmic warrior stared in shock, Lin Chen rushed in close, focused all his energy into his right hand, and slammed a perfectly aimed punch into the vital energy center in his opponent's chest!
Kamehameha: Concentrated Point!
There were no dazzling effects. All of his power was compressed to the utmost and detonated in an instant!
Thud!
The dull, explosive impact of flesh striking flesh rang across the mountains!
"Impossible! How did your battle power surge like that?!"
The cosmic warrior's pupils contracted in disbelief. A wave of pain surged through his chest, his energy shattered, and his bones cracked!
The protective aura of a warrior with 4,200 battle power had been pierced by a desperate attack from someone with barely a thousand!
His massive body doubled over like a shrimp. He spat purple blood and flew backward, crashing beside the ship's wreckage, utterly incapable of fighting back.
The moment Lin Chen landed, his legs buckled slightly. Every last bit of strength drained from his body, and the pain of the overexertion swept through him.
The fifteen-second burst ended, and his weakness came crashing back twice as hard!
But he clenched his teeth and stood his ground. He didn't retreat a single step.
He'd won!
With a base battle power of 1,000, he'd killed a cosmic elite with 4,200!
A fourfold battle-power gap overcome with a single killing blow!
[ Ding! Frieza Force Elite Scout successfully killed! ]
[ Absorbing all of the enemy's battle-power essence, cosmic combat experience, and energy reserves! ]
[ Weakness seal greatly loosened! Permanent base battle power +1800! ]
[ Current base battle power: 2840! ]
[ Residual Cosmic Communication Chip detected. Analyzing signal... ]
[ Analysis complete! Encrypted transmission from the Frieza Force intercepted! ]
A flood of warmth coursed through Lin Chen's body. His damaged flesh healed rapidly, most of his weakness faded, and his battle power more than doubled in an instant!
At that moment, Lin Chen's battle power officially surpassed Nappa's early-series level, nearing the low end of Vegeta's battle power when he first arrived on Earth!
But the encrypted message decoded by the system in the next instant made Lin Chen's expression turn grave.
[ Frieza Force command intercepted: Scouting team has gone silent. Confirming high-risk resistance on target planet! ]
[ Five-man Second Echelon Elite Squad deployed! Average battle power: 5000! ]
[ Personal Guard Captain Frieza accompanying them! Battle power: 8000! ]
[ Estimated arrival on Earth: thirty minutes! ]
This wasn't the end.
It was only the beginning.
The scout who had just died had only been a pawn sent to test the way.
The real killing blow was just about to come.
In thirty minutes, five cosmic warriors with 5,000 battle power each and a guard captain with 8,000 would descend on Earth!
Lin Chen, whose battle power had only just broken through 2,800, was suddenly trapped in a true death match!
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