Others who transmigrated either befriended princes and nobles or fought their way up through the cultivation world, living more carefree than the immortals.
With the protagonist's halo around them, the system chimed, the mission was completed, the rewards were claimed, and everything went smoothly.
But what about him? He had a cheat too—the legendary Super Saiyan bloodline, said to appear once in a thousand years. Once awakened, it could shake the stars and tear the heavens apart.
It sounded impressive, but what good was it? Ever since he could remember, he'd been trapped on this wretched planet called Vampa. As far as the eye could see, there were only wind-eroded pillars of rock and barren, dark-red soil.
Electromagnetic storms could strike at any moment here. Purple lightning writhed and exploded like giant serpents in the leaden clouds, casting an eerie light over the lifeless wasteland.
The air was thin. Every breath tasted like swallowing rust. By day, it was hot enough to crack stones; by night, the cold could freeze a man to death.
It was a veritable dead zone.
The only other person here was the original owner of this body's father: Paragus, a man whose edges had been worn away by the years and despair.
Forget people—even the hardiest cosmic moss only showed a few green shoots now and then in the shade of the rocks.
Their only hope was the battered spaceship that had brought them here.
But years ago, a storm had reduced it to a heap of rusted scrap, overgrown with strange crystals and half-buried in the gravel like a cold tombstone.
Want to leave? The spaceship couldn't be repaired, no one was coming to help, and every path was a dead end.
The only thing he could do was hone himself into the sharpest blade he could be in this desperate place.
The days passed, year after year.
He smashed his fists against strange rocks and ran through the howling winds, slowly taming the violent golden aura within him.
His sweat soaked him, then dried. His skin split, then healed, leaving fine scars all over his body.
He had to get stronger—strong enough to withstand the cruelty of the universe, strong enough to find a chance to escape this prison.
And so he endured for forty-one years!
In his previous life, he'd been an elite agent, with a will harder than steel.
But after forty-one years on this utterly lonely, hopeless wasteland, his heart had been worn down too, riddled with cracks.
Restlessness, despair, resentment, brutality...emotions like underground currents, churning now and then in the dark of night.
His mind never stopped. Day and night, he thought about how to leave.
Lately, he'd repeatedly studied the planet's magnetic field, searched through the spaceship wreckage, and examined the energy inside him. At last, he'd found a lead.
His plan was utterly insane: use the extreme energy erupting within him to forcibly warp space and create a rift like a "wormhole."
If it worked, he could escape this wretched place.
At the very least, he could leave this dead planet of nothing but rocks and storms.
The universe was vast. Somewhere, there had to be a place where people could live, with blue skies, clear waters, and the breath of life.
As long as he made it off Vampa, as long as he could blend into an interstellar civilization, even if all he could get was the shabbiest spaceship...then the whole universe would be open to him.
He had absolute confidence in himself when it came to the world beyond.
These forty-one years of hellish training hadn't been for nothing.
He couldn't even say for sure how strong he was now.
Most of the time, he seemed much like an ordinary person. Only that restrained explosive power lurked within him.
But as soon as he stirred his golden aura even a little, the air began to hum and loose stones floated into the air.
He knew it well: he hadn't fully mastered that legendary ultimate power, but he'd already grasped most of it.
That power was like a sleeping volcano, lying dormant deep in his bloodline, waiting for the right moment to erupt.
He climbed to the highest rocky peak and gazed toward the dead horizon, facing winds fierce enough to tear a person apart.
Slowly, he clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white.
Golden aura began seeping from beneath his skin, lighting up the rocks beneath his feet.
"Soon..." he murmured, his voice hoarse but resolute. "I'll be able to leave this wretched place soon."
One, ten, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred million, a trillion, a quadrillion, a quintillion, a sextillion, a septillion, an octillion, a nonillion, a decillion, a googol...the ladder of numbers stretched endlessly, like the power hidden in the depths of the universe.
Broly stood on the desolate rocky ground, cracked red earth beneath his feet and a heavy, dark sky overhead.
The wind and sand swept over his powerful frame, but couldn't even ruffle a single hair.
He hadn't lived through Frieza's rampage across the galaxy or the rise of the Saiyans, but his memories from his previous life told him that power levels in the Dragon Ball universe had become hazy long before the end of the Universe Survival Saga.
Those numbers had lost their meaning long ago, because true power was far beyond what numbers could contain.
Still, Broly had his own way of measuring it.
In his previous life, he'd been a seasoned webnovel reader who'd read countless fanfics and mulled over all kinds of settings.
Though the Dragon Ball universe's power system was vague and immense, he'd sketched out a rough outline, even without official confirmation.
He quietly sensed the energy surging within him.
By his rough estimate, even in his most ordinary state, his explosive battle power had already passed the "sextillion" mark and neared the realm of "septillion."
That was a level ordinary people couldn't even begin to imagine.
By his own scale, ordinary life was the first dimension; a battle power below "ten thousand" was the second dimension; from "ten thousand" to "a hundred million" was the third; from "a hundred million" to "a trillion" was the fourth...each step brought a world-shattering leap in the level of life.
As he was now, even in his normal state, he stood between the eighth and ninth dimensions.
More terrifyingly, this was nowhere near his limit.
If he wanted, his power could erupt like a volcano, like a galaxy reversing course, surging wildly upward.
Whether he was strong or not all depended on what he wanted.
"Maybe this is a pretty clumsy method..." Broly's voice faded into the wind, as if he were speaking to himself. "But I have to try. Otherwise, all that time I spent forcing myself to master air compression and control would've been wasted."
He looked up at the dim star on the horizon.
"If even this doesn't work, then I'll just have to wait for the hyenas in the Frieza Force to catch my scent and find this forgotten planet again, just like they did in the original timeline."
With that, he finally stopped hesitating.
Broly drew a deep breath—as if he meant to suck the whole world into his lungs.
He slowly clenched his fists. His knuckles gave a faint crack, and the muscles in his arms and chest swelled like iron.
He guided that vast, star-sea-like power with his will, sending it rushing through every inch of his body.
BOOM—!!!
The next instant, a deafening blast tore through the sky and earth! Centered on Broly, a terrifying wave of energy erupted like an invisible tsunami!
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