Between Life and Death

After spitting out blood, Son Gohan actually felt his head clear a little.

He stared at the pants less than half a centimeter from his fingers, yet they seemed as impossible to cross as a chasm. Every bit of strength in his body had been completely drained, and he could not move forward even a single millimeter.

Because the gravity kept intensifying and pressing down on his lungs, Son Gohan even felt his breathing begin to stop. A powerful sense of suffocation started to stab at his brain.

"No... How could I possibly die here!"

His fierce will to survive roused Son Gohan's spirits again, and his eyes, which had begun to lose focus, recovered once more.

Ah!!

A beastlike, hoarse growl leaked through his teeth, and in the end, it turned into a roar.

At that very moment, the gravity multiplier outside happened to reach 40G. And in that instant, Son Gohan seemed to feel some kind of shackle inside his body break open.

Thump, thump~ Thump, thump~

At this moment, every sound from the outside world had vanished. All that remained was the strong, powerful beating of the heart in his chest, filling his mind.

The blood throughout his body, which had been in chaos, was like soldiers who had found their commander again in that instant, quickly returning to normal.

Boom!

A burst of blazing white aura suddenly erupted from Son Gohan's body. His body, which had already been exhausted, seemed to be infused with energy once more.

Snap.

In one burst of effort, he found the two Senzu Beans in his pants pocket. Without the slightest hesitation, Son Gohan grabbed one out and quickly stuffed it into his mouth.

He did not even have time to chew, decisively swallowing it straight down.

His body, which had been on the verge of complete collapse, recovered to its peak in that instant. Without even thinking, Son Gohan turned around and fired an energy wave at the gravity generator behind him.

Boom!

Under the powerful gravity, the energy blast wobbled crookedly and almost missed its target, but it still struck the gravity generator in the center, instantly causing a violent explosion.

Son Gohan had thought this would quickly stop the Gravity Machine, but to his surprise, an even more terrifying gravity instantly descended on his body.

At the same time, on the external gravity display, the previous 40G rapidly increased to 50G after Son Gohan's energy wave struck.

Pfft!

Son Gohan, who had just recovered, immediately spat out another mouthful of blood. He had only managed to stand halfway before the 50G gravity crushed him flat onto the ground.

He complained in his heart who knew how many times that anime and TV dramas had deceived him. He had never expected that destroying the machine would actually cause it to burst out with even stronger gravity.

The next moment, under such terrifying gravity, Son Gohan's brain decisively shut down its own operating mechanism for self-protection.

Simply put, his vision went black, and he fainted.

At the same time, the monitoring staff member, who had been startled awake by the tremor caused by Son Gohan's energy wave explosion, looked around in confusion for a moment before he was instantly scared stiff by the conspicuous 50G number in front of him.

Without another word, he rushed forward and slapped the red button beside him, cutting off the gravity generator's power in an emergency and returning the room to its original state.

Uh...

After who knew how long, Son Gohan, who had regained consciousness, slowly opened his eyes and found himself in a bright room.

"I'm..."

He was stunned for two seconds before he recalled the memories before he passed out. After sorting through what had happened a short while later, Son Gohan tried to get up.

"Holy crap!"

The moment he moved, intense pain came from all over his body, including his internal organs. He was very clearly in a state of severe injury.

"Gohan, you're awake?"

Just then, Bulma, who had happened to push open the door, hurried forward and supported Son Gohan, letting him lean back against the soft cushion.

Sitting down on the stool beside him, Bulma said with an apologetic expression, "I'm sorry, Gohan. This time it was our fault. We didn't adjust the Gravity Machine properly."

After groaning twice, Son Gohan said, "Where are the pants I was wearing before?"

"What?" Bulma froze for a moment.

"The pants, the ones I was wearing when I came here. There's a Senzu Bean inside." Son Gohan forced himself to finish this sentence, then felt as though it had drained all the strength from his entire body.

Bulma, who finally heard him clearly this time, immediately got up and walked outside. About ten minutes later, she rushed back into the room, her face covered in sweat.

"Come on, open your mouth!"

After returning to the room, Bulma did not rest. She immediately came to Son Gohan's side, helped him open his mouth, and placed the Senzu Bean inside.

Using the last of his strength to chew it up and swallow it, Son Gohan recovered to his peak in less than a second.

Phew~

Letting out a long breath, Son Gohan finally felt comfortable.

"Um, Gohan, about the Gravity Machine... this was all my fault. You don't hate me, do you?" Bulma asked, her face full of worry.

After all, if the monitoring staff had not woken up in time, Son Gohan might have lost his life. If that had happened, she would not have known how to face Son Goku.

"It's fine." Son Gohan had no intention of blaming Bulma either.

Although he had indeed gone through the danger of nearly dying, this was still a world where the Dragon Balls could bring people back to life. It was not yet time to despair.

"Y-you really don't blame me?" Bulma asked a little timidly.

After all, if she had been the one to run into something like this, she would definitely have chased the other person down and beaten them up.

"I really don't blame you."

Son Gohan turned and got out of bed. "You don't need to worry about that. I just want to ask—there won't be any problems like this with the new Gravity Machine, right?"

He had to ask this clearly. Otherwise, if it went the same way as Son Goku's experience in the original work, with the Gravity Machine suddenly going out of control in the void of space and jumping from 50G to 100G, that would truly be bad.

After all, that was the void of space, an environment where no one would answer if you called to the heavens or the earth. The only person you could rely on was yourself.

Son Gohan even suspected that if Son Goku hadn't had the protagonist's halo protecting him, anyone else might have simply dropped dead in space.

So he had to confirm this!

Bulma hurriedly raised her hand. "I-I promise, this Gravity Machine has gone through more than ten inspections from top to bottom, as well as operation tests at its highest multiplier. I absolutely guarantee there won't be any problems this time!"

Son Goku smiled and thanked her. "Then thank you, Sister Bulma."

Seeing the smile on his face and sensing that Son Gohan truly did not blame her at all, Bulma regained her cheerful mood and said, "Then I'll tell you some good news. During the three days you were unconscious, the spaceship was basically completed as a whole. It can enter use at any time."

Hearing this, Son Gohan's eyes lit up, and he immediately asked again, "The spaceship's systems and everything have all been modified?"

Bulma immediately replied, "Of course! Who do you think I am? The spaceship's system was modified into idiot-proof mode plus voice operation ages ago, and I've also set the coordinates you gave me."

"Is that so..." Son Gohan picked up the glass and took a sip of water.

"I've even prepared spacesuits and everything. Now we're just waiting for Goku to come out, and then we can go travel to alien planets." Little stars shone in Bulma's eyes.

"We will. Very soon."

Putting down the glass, Son Gohan smiled faintly, and as he looked at the night sky outside the window, a strange glint appeared in his eyes.