Sending off Vegeta and Raditz, an urgent assembly order came to the great hall, something is going to happen

"Well then, little prince, are you saying goodbye to me too? What about Nappa? Isn't that guy supposed to be glued to your ass as your bodyguard at all times?"

Gou Kong casually tugged at the collar of his bodysuit and asked in an offhand tone.

In his memory, Nappa—that hulking mass of muscle with the simple, rugged face—had always been Vegeta's shadow. For him to suddenly be nowhere in sight really did feel a little strange.

Vegeta did not even lift his head. He kept fiddling with the cracked scouter in his hands and replied coldly, "No. This time, only Raditz and I are going. I didn't bring Nappa."

"Oh?" Gou Kong raised an eyebrow, feigning surprise. "I thought that big oaf was growing out of you."

"He set out last night to carry out another mission." Vegeta finally raised his eyes and glanced at Gou Kong, his black eyes carrying a steadiness far beyond his age. "My father arranged it. He said it was to test whether this guy and I could function independently as a team. Once this mission is over, Nappa will return to the squad and continue assisting me."

"So that's how it is..."

Gou Kong nodded thoughtfully, but inside, he was secretly delighted.

With Nappa, that "gate guardian," gone, this was simply heaven helping him!

That big fellow, all brute strength and simple thoughts, looked intimidating enough, but the upside was that he was easy to fool. Over the past few years, Gou Kong had pried no small amount of information out of him.

Now that Nappa had left ahead of time, it meant there was one fewer eyesore of a monitor at Vegeta's side. For Gou Kong's upcoming grand escape plan, there was no doubt that a fairly sizable obstacle had been cleared away.

It felt as satisfying as the small mobs in a game automatically dispersing right before the boss fight.

"Well then, starting tomorrow, this miserable sparring-partner job is finally coming to an end."

Gou Kong stretched, and his bones let out a crisp series of cracks.

Four years of living as a "sandbag" day after day had indeed made his strength skyrocket, but he was honestly sick of it.

Once these two little brats left, he would finally be able to cut loose completely.

However, he was also very clear in his heart that this freedom had a time limit.

There was less than a month left before Planet Vegeta disappeared from the cosmic map.

In the coming days, he would have to race against time to find a window that allowed him to both avoid Frieza's eyes and ears and slip away perfectly.

"I can't keep standing around in the palace like a statue the way I used to. That's just wasting my damn time."

Gou Kong calculated inwardly, his gaze sharpening unconsciously.

He sincerely hoped that after these two brats went off on campaign, King Vegeta would not have some brain spasm and summon him back to the royal guard.

If that old man really dragged him back to keep serving as a gate guardian, things would get tricky.

After all, the closer it got to the countdown for the planet's destruction, the tighter the surveillance around the palace would be, and the difficulty of escaping would increase exponentially.

"If it really comes to that, then I won't be polite."

A dangerous thought flashed through Gou Kong's mind, and the corner of his mouth curved into a cold arc.

If King Vegeta insisted on blocking him, he would not mind letting that crown change owners.

Of course, that was nothing more than a dark joke he himself did not even find funny.

His current top priority was to survive, not to wade into these muddy waters.

Gathering his thoughts, Gou Kong walked over to Raditz, whose snores were as loud as thunder, almost capable of shaking cracks into the alloy floor of the training ground. He squatted down, grabbed Raditz's shoulders with both hands like iron pincers, and shook him hard without the slightest courtesy.

"Hey, wake up! Stop sleeping! The sun's burning your ass!"

"Mmph... so annoying..." Raditz frowned, mumbling indistinctly as if he were talking in his sleep. "Five more minutes... just five minutes..."

Gou Kong put more strength into it, shaking and dragging him at the same time.

Only then did Raditz open his sleepy eyes with extreme reluctance. He slowly sat up from the ground, rubbing his eyes, looking as though his soul was still wandering somewhere else.

"That was a good sleep... Brother Gou Kong, why do you keep waking me up..."

Looking at this heartless idiot, Gou Kong asked irritably, "Hey, Raditz. I just heard that starting tomorrow, you're leaving this place, and you'll be gone for over a year. You're still going to keep sleeping like this? Before you leave, at least say goodbye to your family, right? At the very least, go see your little brother. Gine said Kakarot will be picked up from the Incubation Center in a little while."

"Oh, right!"

Raditz had still been half-asleep at first, but the moment he heard the two keywords "Kakarot" and "setting out tomorrow," it was as if adrenaline had been injected into him. He sprang up from the ground with a jolt, his eyes going wide.

"I said I was going to see him today! Starting tomorrow, I'm going out with Prince Vegeta to conquer planets! I actually forgot!"

Seeing Raditz's slow-witted reaction, Gou Kong and Vegeta simultaneously showed expressions that said, "I knew this would happen." The two exchanged a glance and saw a trace of helplessness in each other's eyes.

What exactly was in this guy's head?

What did he think about every day? He could even forget something as major as what he had to do tomorrow.

Watching Raditz look foolishly regretful only about the passage of time, without considering what came next at all, Gou Kong could not help feeling tired on Vegeta's behalf.

For the next year, Prince Vegeta would have to run around the universe with this "pig teammate." Just thinking about that scene was enough to give one a headache.

"Heh, Vegeta, you're in for it now." Gou Kong laughed with schadenfreude.

Vegeta snorted coldly, folded his arms, and shot Raditz a look full of disdain. His tone was indifferent, yet carried a trace of certainty. "Still, though this guy is a little stupid, at least he knows how to work."

"Huh? Vegeta, what's wrong? Did something bad happen?" Raditz only belatedly reacted, looking at the two of them in confusion.

Vegeta finally could not help sighing at Raditz's persistent stupidity, and that sigh was filled with world-weary exhaustion.

Gou Kong looked at these two clowns and could not hold back anymore. He burst into loud laughter. This combination was practically a comedy skit.

Before the laughter had faded, Gou Kong suddenly bent down and placed his hands on the two little guys' heads, rubbing them messily and turning their hairstyles into bird's nests.

"Don't treat me like a kid! What are you doing?" Vegeta instantly bristled, waving his little hands in protest, his small face flushed bright red.

Gou Kong acted as if he hadn't heard and kept rubbing away as he pleased, feeling the slightly stiff texture of the hair beneath his palm.

"Tch, looks like you've all grown up."

His words referred to their bodies, but what he was thinking of was the transformation they had undergone over these four years in both spirit and battle power.

When they first met, these two brats had only just crawled out of their cultivation pods, tiny little things. Now, they had already become warriors capable of standing on their own.

Time had passed so quickly. It felt as if he had still been teaching them hand in hand how to condense energy blasts yesterday, yet today was already the time to part.

After tomorrow's farewell, long years would lie between them. If fate allowed them to meet again, the place would probably only be that blue planet—Earth.

By then, he wondered whether these two boys would still recognize him, their former "sparring teacher."

"Strange. I actually developed feelings for these two annoying brats?"

Gou Kong was slightly startled inside.

They had spent these four years together day and night. Though he beat them up every day, watching them grow from ignorant and clueless into spirited youths had filled him with an inexplicable sense of accomplishment.

Now that they truly had to part, a wave of loss he himself had never noticed before actually surged up in his heart.

He stopped rubbing them, pressed both hands firmly down on their heads, and forced them to look him in the eye. His tone also turned solemn.

"All these years, training with you two has been hard work. Starting tomorrow, you'll have to rely on yourselves. During missions, stay sharp and don't throw your lives away so easily. You should know that much very well, considering you've followed me to occupy a few planets too. Remember, if you run into a tough opponent you can't beat, don't try to play the hero—turn tail and run. Running isn't shameful. Only if you're alive can you deal damage, and chances will always come again. No matter how difficult things get, don't give up on getting stronger. As long as you can do that, it's enough."

"As long as you're alive, you'll definitely become stronger than you are now! Much stronger!"

"Who do you think you are? My dad?" Vegeta curled his lip. Though his words were unforgiving, a hard-to-detect flicker of emotion flashed through those bright black eyes.

Raditz scratched his head even more directly and grinned. "Haha, Brother Gou Kong, you sound just like my dad."

Though their reactions differed, they had clearly taken Gou Kong's words to heart.

In that brief silence, the three of them met each other's eyes. No more words were needed; everything was understood.

Gou Kong took one last deep look at the two of them, let go, stood up, and looked down from above as he said, "All right, that's it for today's sparring. You two hurry up and go back to rest. Get ready in advance, and don't let anything go wrong right before you head out tomorrow. As long as you can use the experience from sparring with me in real combat, then no matter how vast this universe is, there's nothing to be afraid of."

On Planet Vegeta, how many people could have a battle power over 19,000?

As Gou Kong said this, the corner of his mouth couldn't help lifting, revealing a trace of bold confidence. His tone made it sound as if he had merely bragged offhand.

Raditz nodded as if he half understood, while Vegeta clicked his tongue in disdain, turned, and walked away, leaving Gou Kong with a cool and aloof back.

"Tch, this little brat still can't take a joke even now." Gou Kong looked at Vegeta's tsundere back and shook his head with a smile. "But, so be it. From now on, you'll have to rely on yourselves."

If possible, Gou Kong really did want to stay by their side forever and witness their growth.

Unfortunately, that was destined to be a luxury.

Gou Kong smiled faintly and said no more, leading the two of them out of the Training Center.

"Beep beep beep—!"

Just then, the Scouter over Gou Kong's left eye suddenly let out a burst of rapid beeping. Immediately after, a cold synthetic mechanical voice exploded beside his ear:

[Alert: All palace guards, proceed to the royal hall immediately! Repeat, all palace guards, proceed to the royal hall immediately!]

Gou Kong's pupils abruptly contracted.

This sudden summons had come far too conveniently!

With only the last few days left before the planet's destruction countdown, why had King Vegeta urgently summoned all the guards at such a critical juncture?

Had he sensed Frieza's movements, or discovered something abnormal about him?

Thoughts raced through his mind, but the expression on Gou Kong's face quickly returned to stillness, without a ripple.

He turned his head slightly and waved at Vegeta and Raditz.

"Vegeta, go back to your room first. Raditz, hurry home. I need to go to the hall."

With that, Gou Kong no longer hesitated. His figure flashed, turning into an afterimage as he sped straight toward King Vegeta's location.