The Unfamiliar Visitor

Android 18 frowned slightly, her slender fingers tapping rhythmically against the edge of the table. She looked up at Chen Hao. "Then... what about Goku and Vegeta?"

Chen Hao raised his teacup, thinking for a while before setting it down. His gaze followed the fading sky into the night.

"Goku and Vegeta are still training. I can clearly sense their ki right now—honestly, even in my normal state, I might not last ten minutes against them." He shook his head. There was no pride in his tone, only barely concealed disappointment. "The opponent I want is one who can make me genuinely feel danger."

"I want to face the kind of battle that makes my heart race and sends chills down my back. Not slaughtering weaklings." At that point, his gaze suddenly turned cold, as if it had pierced through the night sky and seen a place deep in the distant universe where something was hidden. "My instincts tell me... that presence, that guy hiding somewhere in the universe, isn't far from appearing on Earth."

Android 18 asked no more. She simply picked up her fork and cut open the fried egg on her plate.

The golden yolk flowed down the egg white onto the lightly charred edge of the toast, slowly seeping into it.

The wind slipped in through the window crack, stirring the loose strands by her ear. The distant streetlights flickered on and off, as though something uneasy lurked within them.

Time quickly skipped ahead three days, to nighttime at West City's central plaza.

Neon lights flowed like strings of moving beads, dragging winding streaks of color across the dark night.

The shops lining both sides of the street still glowed with warm yellow light, while some indistinct melody drifted from the café around the corner.

Pedestrians moved about in twos and threes. Some were laughing, while children shouted and played.

Chen Hao wore a dark-gray casual jacket, his hands in his pockets as he strolled leisurely through the colorful night.

Android 18 walked beside him, her hair tied in a ponytail and a soft white cotton dress draped over her body.

She lowered her head, absorbed in the swaying patches of light on the ground, a rare gentle curve at the corner of her lips.

"Actually... this is pretty nice." Android 18 had grown tired from walking and slowed her pace, her attention caught by the colorful outfits displayed in the shop window.

Tilting her head, she looked at a black leather jacket and a polka-dot skirt, smiling thoughtfully. "Sometimes I almost forget that Earth is actually pretty dangerous."

Chen Hao stopped and glanced at her, tenderness and helplessness blending in his eyes like water. "Yeah."

"But peace—always lasts less time than people hope."

Before he could finish, the air suddenly seemed to freeze.

Without warning, a dazzling golden light tore open the horizon, as though an invisible giant hand had ripped the night sky apart.

The light carried unstoppable force, growing brighter and hotter as it fell from the starry sky like a meteor crashing toward the center of West City.

Everyone on the street froze. Before they could even cry out as they looked up, that ball of golden light streaked down like lightning and crashed directly into the center of the plaza fountain.

Boom—!

The blast nearly ruptured their eardrums. The fountain's white stone structure exploded into pieces on the spot, water shooting into the air along with shattered bricks before crashing heavily back down and drenching everyone in mud and water.

A crater more than ten meters wide appeared in the ground, cracks spreading like a spiderweb. Even the streetlights tilted, their bulbs bursting with a bang and scattering glass everywhere.

"Ah—!"

"Run!"

The plaza descended into complete chaos. People screamed as they rushed outward. Some fell, while others shielded their children and forced their way through the crowd. Tables and chairs by the roadside toppled over, coffee spilling everywhere.

The smell of dust mixed with cement. The neon lights refracted through the smoke and haze into a blurry glow, making the entire plaza seem as though it had fallen into a nightmare without warning.

Chen Hao instinctively pulled Android 18 behind him. He lowered his body slightly, twisted his feet firmly against the paving stones, and poised himself like a leopard ready to pounce at any moment.

He narrowed his eyes, staring through the thick dust and rubble at the figure slowly rising from within the crater.

His breathing became slow and deep, while an almost imperceptible current of ki surged through his palms.

The smoke and dust slowly dispersed, and the man's silhouette stretched long beneath the night.

He was tall and lean, every muscle perfectly defined. He wore a tattered, heavy silver cloak, and his grayish-white skin looked like stone carved for a thousand years.

His eyes glowed red beneath the shadows, while a chilling smile curled across his lips.

He wore no shoes. Rubble crunched beneath his feet, and with every step he took, the cracks around the deep crater spread a little farther across the ground.

The air itself seemed frozen by his presence. The wind stopped, the lights dimmed, and even whether anyone was still fleeing in the distance became indistinct.

Chen Hao could not stop staring, his emotions a mixture of tension and excitement surging up from the depths of his heart.

"Finally... you're here," he said in a low voice. It was not loud, yet it carried extraordinary force, like clashing iron.

The smoke slowly faded. Rubble at the edge of the crater slid down and struck the charred ground with several dull thuds.

The air was filled with the burnt stench of scorching heat, along with a cold hint of melting metal. It was unfit to breathe.

The figure at the bottom of the crater steadied himself. His dark-blue divine official's robe shimmered beneath the night, its brim lowered and casting a shadow over his forehead.

His face was sharply defined, cold and hard like an ancient god statue. His skin carried a gray hue, like the color weathered into stone by time.

Most paralyzing of all were those golden eyes, still as two ancient divine eyes at the bottom of a lake, gradually lighting up in the darkness. Deep within his pupils seemed to lie the secrets of another era.

He stepped up onto the crater's edge, one step at a time. Each time his foot landed, another crack spread across the ground like a spiderweb.

He stopped and cast his gaze at Chen Hao. His voice was low and oppressive, like the first muffled thunder hidden behind a flood. "Found you."

His voice pierced through the air and reached straight into the bone marrow. Even the wind around them was abruptly cut off. The leaves stopped swaying, and the insects in the distance suddenly fell silent.

The man walked forward, dust rolling beneath his feet with each movement, swirling into a chaotic vortex under the moonlight. "You are the unstable factor."

Android 18 immediately stepped in front of Chen Hao's side. Rubble crunched beneath her feet as she opened her hand, faint ripples of energy flickering in her palm. Her muscles tensed, and her eyes locked firmly onto the other man. "Who are you?"

The man did not even look at Android 18. His gaze seemed nailed to Chen Hao, as though among all things in heaven and earth, only one target was worth his attention.

He tilted his head slightly, as if only now noticing that the person before him was somewhat interesting. "Mortal conflicts aren't worthy of my attention. But you... are different."

He raised a pale hand, his fingertips lightly brushing through the night air. A faint blue thread of light flickered between his fingers before vanishing. "There is a power within you that does not belong to this universe."

"I can feel its resonance. It's trembling, like you've thrown another stone into a lake."

Chen Hao frowned tightly, feeling that gaze slice through his consciousness like a knife drawing silk apart.

He clenched his fists, cold sweat pouring down his body. His heartbeat raced so violently he could barely suppress it, yet he forced himself to remain calm. "Who exactly are you?"

"Whis."

The man before him answered naturally, his tone as light as if he were stating the most ordinary fact in the world—"Attendant to Beerus, the God of Destruction."

Chen Hao's pupils instantly constricted, as though pierced fiercely by a needle.

Beneath the night sky, he felt his heart skip a beat. A bone-deep chill rose from the soles of his feet, spreading up his spine and freezing the back of his head.

Beerus, the God of Destruction—at last, he understood who that thunderous presence from the depths of the universe belonged to.

It was an existence before which even the stars had to yield.