Fragment Harvest

A few more days passed after the ridge run, and the training at Kame House gradually settled into a steady routine. Each day followed roughly the same rhythm as before: a run along a mixed-terrain route in the morning, then a swim out to the black or white reefs and back; a set of training in the gravity room in the afternoon; and moving rocks or sorting through the clutter in the yard at dusk. Lin Chen could feel his physical condition steadily improving. He recovered faster after every session than when he had first arrived, and the range of motion in his joints continued to expand.

That afternoon, Bulma's aircraft landed on the beach in front of Kame House once again. When the hatch opened, she jumped down carrying a metal case larger than the last one. Several fresh scratches marked its surface, and its corners were smeared with a little grayish-white dried mud. "I brought some new equipment." She set the case down on the sand and unclasped it, revealing a set of compact signal receivers and two display screens. "While I was making the shielding device, I upgraded the monitoring system too. If anyone scans this area from far away, this equipment will detect the signal in advance instead of waiting until energy fluctuations show up."

Lin Chen crouched down to inspect the equipment. The receivers were slightly smaller than his palm, with foldable antennas and dark gray casings. A small screen on each displayed several waveform graphs, their amplitude and frequency shifting in real time. "Where should we install them for the best results?"

"Somewhere high near Kame House, like the roof or the tallest coconut tree." Bulma pointed at the coconut tree behind the house, which stood even taller than the roof. "As long as the line of sight isn't blocked, the reception should be good."

Lin Chen picked up a receiver and walked beneath the coconut tree behind the house, stepping onto the trunk and climbing several feet up. The bark was rough, but his footing was steady. Once he reached a suitable height, he secured the receiver to a fork in the trunk with cable ties and adjusted the antenna so it faced the open sea. Bulma called from below, "Is the indicator light on?"

Lin Chen looked down at the side of the receiver. The indicator was glowing a steady green. "It's on."

"Then the signal's connected. Once it runs for a while, it'll automatically collect data." Bulma brushed the dust from her hands. "If it detects someone scanning this way with a focused signal, it'll issue an early warning."

By the time he returned to the beach, Master Roshi was sitting beneath the porch, watching them with an enamel cup in hand. "You've got more and more equipment."

"The more equipment we have, the clearer things become," Bulma said. "Once this system is running, you'll at least know in advance if someone is watching this area. I'm leaving now. If there are any unusual signals, I'll notify you through the communicator." She packed up her toolbox and jumped into the aircraft. The engine started, and the craft rose into the air before turning west and flying away. Its exhaust left a fleeting white trail over the sea, which gradually dispersed as it receded into the distance.

Lin Chen stood in the yard for a while as the wind fluttered several martial arts uniforms hanging by the wall. Master Roshi took a sip of tea and rested the cup on his knee. "Go get the shovel from the tool shed. The plot out back needs turning over. Train after you finish."

He entered the tool shed. The shovel leaned against the wall behind the door, its blade still crusted with dry soil from the last time the ground had been turned. He picked it up and headed to the backyard. The grass had grown noticeably, and several patches had already gone to seed. Their tips swayed faintly in the wind. He drove the shovel into the earth, stepped on its edge, and turned up a clod of soil. The dirt cracked dryly as it flipped over. Under the sunlight, dark damp earth mixed with pale dry soil, like a boundary between layers of sediment.

[ Ding! Picked up Strength Light Orbs ×2. Strength +6. ]

[ Ding! Picked up Constitution Light Orb ×1. Constitution +3. ]

After turning over the entire plot, he propped the shovel against the wall and wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. The yard was quiet, with only the distant sound of waves and the rustling of wind through the tops of the coconut trees. As he stood there resting, the surface of the sand nearby suddenly flashed—a tiny point of light rose from a crack in the sand, drifted toward him along the curve of the ground, and vanished when it touched his palm. The sensation was lighter than when he usually picked up fragments, like a feather landing in his hand and disappearing.

[ Ding! Environmental Perception Fragment ×1. Current perception accuracy +1%. ]

Lin Chen looked down at his palm, then raised his eyes toward the distant sea. That sensation had been different from before—lighter and more diffuse, as though the fragment itself was incomplete, as though it had peeled away from something much larger. The sea was calm. There were no boats, no birds. Sunlight fell across the water, reflecting a uniform sheen. Light flowed along the edges of the distant clouds, thin and dark, like the edge of a crack outlined by light.

He remained where he was for a few more seconds before turning and walking inside. The door closed behind him with a soft click. Outside, sunlight continued moving across the sea, casting the clouds' outlines onto the water before slowly pushing them farther away. The entire shoreline and ocean lay quietly spread beneath the afternoon light. The wind still blew, the grass still swayed, and the boundary between the earth and the air stretched along the coastline into the distance, joining the new horizon in a single line.