Target: 'Kami's Lookout'!

"Well..."

Holding the phone, Son Goku had no idea what to say for a moment.

"Goku, you called me and you don't even know what to say? Are you messing with me?"

From the other end of the line came Bulma's puzzled voice. After all, Son Goku taking the initiative to call her was truly an extremely rare thing.

Son Gohan gently nudged Son Goku, pointed at the wall clock beside them, and reminded him that Chi-Chi would be back from grocery shopping very soon.

With that reminder, Son Goku's breath caught at once. He thought of how, if he did not say it now, he might end up so swamped by household trivialities in the future that he would have no way to train in martial arts at all.

"Bulma, I... I'm short on money!"

Son Goku mustered his courage and shouted straight into the phone.

The other end of the line was utterly quiet. There was not even the sound of breathing. For a moment, it was so silent you could hear a pin drop.

Two seconds later, there was suddenly a snort from the other end, followed by a rough, womanly burst of laughter that immediately came through the receiver, leaving Son Goku stunned.

"Hahahahaha..."

"I never thought there'd come a day when you, Goku, would say something like that to me. If I weren't completely sure this was your voice, I'd think some guy was playing a joke on me."

"By the way, Goku, when you say you're short on money, you're not trying to borrow money from me, are you?"

"Hello... Goku... hello???" Bulma asked in confusion when she could not hear Son Goku's voice.

"I'm here," Son Goku answered, black lines practically covering his face.

"Then say it. Are you trying to borrow money from me?" Bulma pressed again.

From her tone, Bulma seemed very eager to hear Son Goku say those words. To her, money was nothing more than a string of numbers.

But being able to hear the super-straightforward Son Goku borrow money from her would simply be one of life's great surprises.

The expression on Son Goku's face kept shifting, but he still could not say those words.

"If you won't give it to me, I'll go make a wish to Shenron!" After quite a while, Son Goku suddenly spoke.

"You..." Bulma seemed to have been angered. She said, "Is it really that hard for you to open your mouth and ask me for money? I just wanted to hear you borrow money from me in person."

"Forget it, forget it. I should've known a guy like you wouldn't say it. Give me your bank card number."

Just then, Son Goku gave Son Gohan beside him a thumbs-up, then said, "Give me cash. I'll come over and get it from you right now."

Son Gohan had long since figured it out. With Son Goku's personality, there was no way he would have registered for any bank account. Only Chi-Chi had one.

Then this money naturally could not be transferred directly into Chi-Chi's account. Otherwise, she would definitely know it had come from Bulma.

As for how to explain it to Chi-Chi afterward, Son Gohan was not responsible for that. That was Son Goku's own business.

"Goku, where did you get so much money?"

After dinner, Chi-Chi looked at the huge box packed full of cash that Son Goku had placed on the table, her face as if she had seen a ghost.

If she did not know Son Goku's personality so well, Chi-Chi would even have suspected her husband had gone off to rob a bank or done something bad.

"Don't worry about where the money came from. In any case, I didn't get it by cheating, swindling, or tricking anyone. With this money, Gohan's tuition and my food expenses are completely covered, right?" Son Goku asked, being forceful for once.

After all, martial arts and fighting were a major part of his life. If he truly lost them, then half his soul might be gone.

Chi-Chi looked at the money in the box, then looked at Son Goku.

Click.

After decisively closing the box, she placed it beside herself. Chi-Chi raised her head to look at Son Goku and said, "As long as there's enough money, I won't object to whatever you want to do from now on."

"But!"

Just as Son Goku's face lit up with joy, Chi-Chi suddenly stretched out a finger and pointed at Son Gohan. "You can, but Gohan can't. He has to get good grades so he won't grow up only knowing how to fight like you!"

Son Goku turned his head to look at Gohan and blinked, signaling that he had to solve his own trouble himself.

Son Gohan raised his eyebrows, but there was no fear at all. He straightened his small body and said in a childish yet confident voice, "Mom, if I say I can guarantee my grades while training in martial arts at the same time, could you give me a certain amount of freedom?"

Chi-Chi was taken aback when she heard this. A little puzzled, she said, "Are you sure you can train in martial arts while keeping up your studies?"

Son Gohan nodded and said, "Mom, you can be completely at ease about that. If my grades fall behind, you won't need to say anything. I'll know what to do myself."

For her son to be only around three years old and yet able to say something so mature, Chi-Chi immediately felt that this child might be a genius. No, he was definitely a genius!

Thinking of this, Chi-Chi said, "All right. As long as you can guarantee excellent grades, then I can refrain from interfering with your martial arts training."

"It's a deal," Gohan said with a smile, while winking at Son Goku beside him.

One week later, Son Gohan had just finished six hundred handstand push-ups and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Compared to a week ago, his strength had already improved to a certain extent.

His bare upper body no longer had the fair, tender softness that a three- or four-year-old child should have. Instead, there were faint muscle lines.

Compared to when he had fought the fierce tiger before, his strength had already increased very noticeably.

He could not say he was able to defeat a fierce tiger head-on, but he definitely would not be as wretched as before.

But Son Gohan was still dissatisfied with his own strength, because it would not help at all in the battles to come.

A single Raditz could completely crush him, let alone Nappa and Vegeta after that, as well as those powerful guys under Frieza.

Even though Son Gohan possessed knowledge of the plot that put him above everyone else, that still could not directly help him break through to invincibility.

But after only a moment of daze, Son Gohan immediately came back to himself. Then he raised his head and looked up at the sky.

"What are you thinking about?"

Beside him, Son Goku saw his son staring blankly up at the sky, so he asked.

"Hey, Dad, I want to go to Kami's Lookout!" Son Gohan suddenly said.

Son Goku was startled. He was not curious about how his son knew of Kami's Lookout's existence, since he had told him about it himself.

He was surprised as to why Son Gohan wanted to go there.

Yes, Son Gohan's target was the Hyperbolic Time Chamber on Kami's Lookout, that wondrous place where one day outside equaled one year inside.

As for whether going there now was too early, he felt it absolutely was not.

The greatest function of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber was nothing more than the extension of time, followed by its ten-times gravity and its test of the mind.

All three of these were things Son Gohan needed most right now, and the most important among them was the third—the tempering of the mind.

A steady mind and enough S-Cells were the conditions for becoming a Super Saiyan.

This was also why Son Gohan had been able, in the original work, to break through and become a Super Saiyan in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber!