Inexplicable

On the weed-filled wasteland, there was a road that stretched farther than the eye could see. Though it was called a road, and was perfectly intact, not a single car was driving on it.

Kashius, lying beside the road, felt deep regret over this. For someone who loved eating and desperately longed to race cars, being unable to "borrow" a car to drive was undoubtedly an enormous agony.

"Seriously, is this some remote area or what? How has there not been a single car in hours? Fine, I won't borrow one, okay? I just want to hitch a ride. Is that so much to ask?"

"If I'd known this would happen, I might as well have flown straight into the city and grabbed one. Uh... no, no, no, how can I call it grabbing? That'd obviously make me a bad guy. I should call it 'borrowing.'"

A month had already passed since Kashius left Mount Paozu. During this time, our protagonist, Student Kashius, successfully "borrowed" a set of clothes from a small village.

He also conveniently ate a meal there. Of course, as repayment, Kashius took care of the bandits nearby while he was at it.

After that, as an upstanding young man who had transmigrated from the twenty-first century, Kashius declared that not racing cars in Dragon Ball was absolutely unacceptable.

Then, unable to find a sports car in the small village, Kashius followed the locals' directions, gave up on the idea of flying straight to the city, and set foot on this road that stretched farther than the eye could see.

He intended to "borrow" a sports car from the passing vehicles and race it all the way into the city. Unfortunately, the heavens did not grant people their wishes. Kashius had walked along the road for so long, yet not a single car had passed by.

This result was undoubtedly the greatest mockery of Kashius, who had been planning to "borrow" a car.

"Damn it! What kind of lousy place is this? There isn't even one car!"

After casually grumbling a few more times, Kashius stomped hard with both feet and flew into the sky, speeding toward the end of the road.

"I'd like to see what's at the end of this road. I waited this long and there wasn't even one car! I'm so pissed!"

After flying for nearly several hours, Kashius finally discovered a small city. However, this city was not lively like the cities in Dragon Ball. Instead, it seemed extremely deserted.

Kashius found an inconspicuous spot and descended at high speed. People who could fly were pitifully rare, and he did not want to be surrounded and stared at like some rare creature.

"Gurgle~"

After walking along the street for a while, Kashius's stomach began to growl, and waves of hunger followed.

Kashius had originally wanted to find a place to eat, but after seeing the desolate state of the city, he felt terribly stifled inside.

Because after walking for so long, Kashius still had not found a single shop or restaurant that was open. Even people were pitifully scarce.

The most common things were scraps of waste paper drifting along the streets in the wind, torn garbage bags, and the like.

Kashius was extremely puzzled by this situation. In his impression, when it came to the cities in the world of Dragon Ball, which one was not bustling and lively? When had something like this ever happened?

If there had been, it was that time when Cell appeared and absorbed everyone in an entire city, leaving it empty and desolate.

However, the Cell plotline was still absurdly far away right now. Because of this, Kashius felt faintly uneasy. Could it be that his arrival had caused a huge butterfly effect?

That shouldn't be. He had only just left Mount Paozu, so how could he have caused trouble? Was it because he wiped out that group of bandits?

Kashius sat down on a bench on the street and began to sink into thought.

Time passed second by second, and Kashius was almost starving to the point his chest was sticking to his back, just short of dropping dead.

But at that moment, Kashius sensed a trace of killing intent. He knew that he had probably been targeted.

Following the principle of "if the enemy doesn't move, I don't move," Kashius did not take the initiative to attack. Instead, he punched the iron door of a bakery straight off its hinges.

After that, he rushed inside like a starving wolf and, ignoring the panicked shopkeeper running down from upstairs, picked up bread and stuffed it into his mouth.

There was no helping it. Kashius was truly starving. Ever since leaving the small village, Kashius had spent nearly two days trying to intercept cars on the road.

During that time, because the surroundings were all wasteland, forget small animals like rabbits—even the grass grew sparse and patchy. One glance was enough to tell it was caused by malnutrition.

Speaking of which, if blame had to be assigned, it could only be blamed on this idiot black-haired guy's terrifying desire to race cars. He had actually crouched beside the road for two whole days, and during those two days, he had not eaten a thing.

That experience was truly something else. One could purely and simply conclude that a certain black-haired guy was an idiot.

"L-little brother..."

The shopkeeper looked at Kashius, who was wolfing food down, his face full of fear.

"Uh... Don't worry, I'll pay."

After hearing the shopkeeper's words, Kashius frowned slightly, felt his pocket, and after discovering that the money he had "borrowed" was still there, looked at the shopkeeper and said with confidence.

"N-no, that's not it. I'm not worried you can't pay."

When the shopkeeper heard this, he realized Kashius had misunderstood and thought he was worried he could not afford it, so he hurriedly spoke up to explain.

"Then what is it? I can't even eat a few pieces of bread from you? It's not like I can't pay. Do you have to be so stingy?"

After swallowing the last mouthful of bread in his hand, Kashius looked at the shopkeeper somewhat unhappily.

"Little brother, you've misunderstood what I mean."

"Oh? Then what is it?"

When Kashius heard this, he could not help feeling a little puzzled.

"What I wanted to say is, take the bread and then leave this city as quickly as you can. This place isn't safe for you!"

As he spoke, the shopkeeper actually took out a sack from behind him and began putting bread, cakes, and other food into it.

"Shopkeeper? What are you doing?" Kashius indicated that he was becoming more and more curious about what exactly had happened here.

"Little brother, take these and eat them on the road. Don't ask so much. In any case, just leave this city quickly. This place isn't somewhere outsiders like you should come. Hurry up and go. Don't come back."

After filling just under half the sack, the shopkeeper handed it to Kashius, refused to take any money, and simply pushed him toward the door, his expression extremely ugly.

"Wait, shopkeeper, please wait."

Though he had no idea what had happened, Kashius still abided by the principles of a good citizen. His delicate little hand quickly took a stack of banknotes from his pocket and handed them to the owner.

The look on the shopkeeper's face always made him feel as if he was extorting him, like those gun-wielding criminals forcing a bank teller to stuff money into a sack.

"Although I don't know what happened here, I still know it's wrong to take someone's things without paying. So please, take this money."

"All right, I'll take it. Now hurry up and go. Walk straight ahead from here, and in about ten minutes you'll be out of the city. Remember, don't come back."

The shopkeeper took the banknotes Kashius handed over, then pointed in a direction, telling Kashius to leave the city as quickly as possible.

Seeing the shopkeeper acting like this, Kashius was truly baffled. Even so, he listened to him, carried the little sack on his back, and quickly left the city.

Only, just after he left, the owner of that bakery seemed to be relieved of a heavy burden, wiping away the sweat that had appeared on his forehead at some point.