Son Gohan had indeed tried to break through just now.
Although the ki within his body had been steadily rising, he could already feel himself nearing the ceiling.
So Son Gohan had begun gathering and raising his ki, attempting to break through that ceiling and trigger the energy within his body to transform.
But after giving it everything he had, he discovered that he simply could not blast through that ceiling. In the end, he failed.
Still, he had gained something—the threshold of Pseudo Super Saiyan.
This was a state that had appeared in the movie, one Son Goku entered when fighting the Super Namekian Lord Slug.
Son Gohan had originally thought it was not Akira Toriyama's original creation, so it would not appear in this world.
But just now, he had touched its edge. He could take a single step into it and complete the Pseudo Super Saiyan transformation.
According to analyses from forum users and various discussions in his previous life, Pseudo Super Saiyan could be considered a half-Super Saiyan, with roughly a twenty-five- to thirtyfold increase in battle power.
Its drawback was that, upon entering this state, one would be corrupted by the rage inherent to Super Saiyans and easily lose most of one's reason.
Looks like my own battle power still isn't high enough. Otherwise, according to that guy Akira Toriyama, the higher your battle power, the easier it is to break through to Super Saiyan.
But I'm already close to touching the ceiling. It's basically impossible to make a huge breakthrough in a short time.
This had become a vicious cycle. To raise his strength, he needed time to train, but time was exactly what Son Gohan lacked most right now.
*Looks like I'm ultimately destined to break through only during my battle with Cooler.