Bardock finished explaining the scanner loophole, and I slapped my thigh on the spot: Frieza is completely blind.

Gine bit down hard on her lower lip, the teeth marks so deep they almost drew blood.

Kakarot, cradled in her arms, had no idea their parting was near. His two chubby little hands opened and closed as he played with the fuzz on her battle suit, those damp black eyes innocent and clear, as if tears might roll out at any second.

Bardock walked over in silence, his broad palm resting gently on her trembling shoulder. The two met each other's eyes; no words were needed. Everything had already passed between them in that look.

"Trust me. Kakarot will be safe."

Seeing the unprecedented firmness in Bardock's eyes, Gine's taut nerves finally eased a little. She nodded, holding the child as she followed Bardock step by step toward the white Space Pod parked nearby.

"Tch, never thought a hard rock like you among the Saiyans would have a day when you worried about your kid." Gou Kong leaned against a boulder with his arms folded, watching this rare sight and unable to resist teasing him. "If this were before, wouldn't you have cursed it as 'womanly softness'?"

Bardock ignored his joke. Only the tips of his ears quietly flushed a little red.

Gine, however, burst out laughing. She looked up and shot Gou Kong a glare, then replied softly, "Kindness is contagious, Mr. Gou Kong."

Gou Kong shrugged and stopped disturbing the couple.

He watched as Gine lowered herself and lifted Kakarot out of her arms as though holding a fragile treasure, her movements so gentle they could not be gentler, afraid that even the slightest vibration when the Space Pod started would frighten the child.

She placed Kakarot on the cushioned seat inside the cabin, her fingertips lingering as they brushed over the child's soft cheek. Her voice trembled beyond control. "When you get to Earth, eat properly and stay healthy... If your father's worries are all just wild guesses, we'll come get you very soon... Until then, you have to be good on your own and listen to Mommy, all right?"

Kakarot still could not speak. He only stretched out his little hand and cooed, as if answering her.

Gine could not hold back anymore. She suddenly bent down and hugged the child tightly in her arms, kissing him hard on the cheek. Her tears instantly fell onto the child's black hair. "Be very, very careful on the way. If you see food with a strange color, you absolutely must not eat it! And... and..."

The more she spoke, the more frantic she became; the more she spoke, the more choked up she sounded, until she was about to sob aloud.

Bardock sighed, took a step forward, and gently embraced Gine's trembling shoulders from behind, patting her back again and again as he said in a low voice, "I'll say the rest."

He turned his head and solemnly instructed the bewildered Kakarot inside the cabin. "Kakarot, remember this. Earth has full moons. When we Saiyans see a full moon, we turn into Great Apes, lose our reason, and rampage everywhere, so you absolutely cannot stare at a full moon for too long. If you run into those guys from the Galactic Patrol on the way, stay far away from them. They think all of us Saiyans are trouble. Even if you don't do anything, they'll still catch you. Understand?"

Kakarot looked at him with round, wide eyes, seeming to understand and not understand.

After Bardock finished, he turned to look at Gou Kong.

Gou Kong understood. He nodded and reached out to press the button that closed the hatch.

"Hiss—"

The alloy hatch slowly shut, releasing a faint hydraulic sound.

Kakarot seemed frightened by the movement. His eyes suddenly went wide, and his little paws clung to the transparent porthole at the top of the hatch as he looked out at the three people outside.

The corner of Gou Kong's mouth pulled into a smile. He raised his hand and waved it lightly, silently mouthing, Don't be scared. Big bro will take you flying.

The hatch closed completely, cutting off inside from outside.

Gou Kong turned around, but his brow furrowed. He lowered his voice and asked Bardock, "Hey, are you really sure this place can launch? It's way too open. Even if the patrol doesn't catch us, what if the ship's surveillance catches us? Are we really launching?"

Bardock did not answer immediately. He only lifted his head and glanced at the gray sky above. After a long while, he said in a deep voice, "Don't worry. Frieza's command ship is parked on the other side of Planet Vegeta right now. This place happens to be an absolute blind spot for the surveillance cameras. If we launch the Space Pod from here, unless a scout manually detects Kakarot's energy, they won't find any trace at all."

"Kakarot's power level is only in the single digits right now. He doesn't even reach the automatic detection threshold for scouts. It's absolutely safe."

Gou Kong froze for a moment, then suddenly slapped his thigh. How had he not thought of that before?

He had made the problem too complicated!

Signal jamming, avoiding patrol routes—none of it was necessary!

From top to bottom, the Frieza Force all relied on that palm-sized green Scouter to make a living.

To put it plainly, that thing was an automatic energy-scanning device. It converted the biological energy it detected into a combat power value and displayed it on a little red screen. It also came with communication functions; at long range it could transmit calls across galaxies in real time, and at short range it could be used as a scope. It had more functions than could be counted on two hands. Frieza had long since issued the thing as standard equipment to all his subordinates, from elite captains to lowly cannon fodder, one for every person.

The Scouter's coverage range was extremely broad. At close range, it could scan dozens of meters around it; at long range, it could cover the entire Planet Vegeta. If desired, it could even detect neighboring star systems.

Back then, when Raditz fought Kakarot and Piccolo on Earth, the Dragon Ball information he learned was transmitted in real time to Prince Vegeta tens of thousands of light-years away.

That distance would take a year to cross even by Space Pod, yet the Scouter had somehow transmitted the sound with perfect clarity and not the slightest delay.

Frieza relied on this thing, paired with its automatic life-detection function, to weave an airtight surveillance net, keeping Planet Vegeta under a death grip. Not even a fly could get out. Surveillance cameras were basically decorations when it came to living beings.

Of course, Scouters were not without flaws.

They could not scan targets with extremely low combat power.

But to Frieza's soldiers, that was not an issue at all. After all, the average Saiyan's combat power was several hundred. Anything below the detection threshold did not even count as a threat. Who would be bored enough to scan manually?

Gou Kong had still been worrying over how to avoid surveillance before. Only now did he realize this was an open scheme!

Kakarot's combat power was so low the Scouter could not even pick him up, and Frieza's soldiers were arrogant beyond belief. There was no way they would notice such an "ant," let alone manually scan for him.

Wait...

Gou Kong's heart suddenly skipped as he thought of the Scouter's deadliest loophole.

If it was someone capable of freely suppressing their combat power below the detection threshold, rather than someone whose natural combat power was too low to be scanned...

Then this surveillance net was a joke!

Just like him right now. As long as he suppressed his nineteen-thousand combat power to even lower than Kakarot's, forget automatic detection—even if a scout came close and scanned manually, they still would not discover his existence!

Bardock's arrangement was not merely sending away his child. He had clearly mapped out the Frieza Force's weaknesses down to the last detail!

The brain of the God of Prophecy really was no joke!