Oil Shrimp!

Three days had passed since returning from Namek to Earth. With nowhere to stay, An Xiu simply moved into Kami's Lookout. Popo had no objections, and the Kami who had returned from the dead did not object either.

At An Xiu's request, this idle tool-man Kami even began keeping busy again.

—Upgrading and modifying the Dragon Balls.

Earth's Shenron was far too underwhelming. He could only grant one wish at a time, which was nowhere near enough.

In the original story, even a Namekian brat like Dende had been able to upgrade the Dragon Balls the first time he took control of them, raising the number of wishes from one to three.

And as Kami, who had independently created Earth's Dragon Balls, he could naturally do the same.

The reason there had previously been only one wish was that the old Kami's original intention in creating the Dragon Balls had merely been to give humanity "a trial of hope." He had not deliberately pursued the limits of their power.

But things were different now. The Dragon Balls practically had nothing to do with ordinary people anymore.

Their only purpose was to serve as a safeguard for the Z Fighters and resurrect those who had sacrificed themselves. Naturally, the stronger they were, the better...

Above the clouds, at Kami's Lookout.

An Xiu studied the changes in the system and the new mission it had updated, deep in thought.

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Host: An Xiu

Lifespan: 81

Race: Ancient Saiyan [Human]

Realm: Lower Beginner Stage of the Divine Domain (Normal State)

-PS: Roughly equivalent to Ultra Instinct -Sign- during the Tournament of Power.

Ability: Time-Space Travel

Mission: Travel through any Dragon Ball timeline — Reward: Instant Transmission [Uses ki as an anchor point; teleport infinitely to sensed coordinates]

The appearance of realms undoubtedly meant that numbers could no longer represent An Xiu's strength.

It was just that there was no suitable reference point, leaving An Xiu without a clear understanding of where he stood.

Probably around God of Destruction level... An Xiu mused, shifting his attention to the new mission.

The mission was simple, and so was the reward.

He only needed to use the travel ability he had obtained earlier to visit another parallel Dragon Ball timeline. He did not even have to do anything there.

However, An Xiu did not yet know whether, after traveling there, he would be able to return—to his original time-space.

Though he was not particularly attached to this timeline, no one wanted to become someone with no roots and nowhere to belong.

Besides, An Xiu was also worried that, with his current strength, he might travel into some fanfiction setting.

For example, one of those parallel timelines with completely broken power scaling. What if he arrived face-to-face with the boss and got instantly killed?

In another world, death would be real death. There might not even be a chance for someone to revive him like there was in this timeline.

Still, there was no point in overthinking it.

Some things had to be faced eventually. Although An Xiu was cautious and prudent, yet also arrogant and conceited, fond of bullying the weak with strength, oppressing the small with the big, and ganging up on the few with the many... he was not afraid of death. If something had to be faced, he would not run from it.

At the center of the plaza on Kami's Lookout, An Xiu extended one hand and gave a light wave. The next second, space before him tore open a slit just wide enough for one person to pass through.

Beyond the slit was nothingness. It was not darkness, nor were there any turbulent currents. There was simply nothing at all. It seemed endless, like a passage bored through the barrier between worlds by some worm.

Blue-black time-space turbulence churned constantly around the passage, yet it was restrained by an invisible force... the energy granted by the system was holding it back.

An Xiu could clearly feel that after opening this time-space rift, the energy within him had diminished by a trace. Fortunately, it was not fixed and finite. Like ki, it would recover on its own after being consumed.

I wonder if my body alone could withstand this time-space turbulence...

Lost in thought, An Xiu slowly stepped into the passage.

There was no sensation of traveling as he had expected, nor did he need to journey for a long time before arriving. In an instant, An Xiu found himself in another time-space.

The system mission was complete, and An Xiu immediately mastered Instant Transmission. He looked around. The surroundings were no longer Kami's Lookout, but the skies above a wilderness near a coastline.

The only thing An Xiu could confirm was that this was still Earth.

He carefully sensed the area, then frowned. On this Earth's timeline, there were not even more than ten living ki signatures left.

There was no need to guess. Everyone else was dead.

And the few remaining ki signatures were far stronger than those in the timeline he had come from.

This was obviously a future timeline.

Which one, though...

Just as An Xiu was considering it, the two extremely powerful ki signatures he had sensed earlier suddenly began fighting, only a few hundred kilometers away.

He suppressed his ki and used Instant Transmission to flash near the battlefield, then hid himself.

Watching Nobita Gohan fight the vest-wearing Patrick Star, An Xiu immediately understood which period this timeline was in.

At this point, Majin Buu had already absorbed Piccolo and Gotenks, becoming the unquestioned strongest being in this time-space. Even Son Gohan in his Ultimate form struggled to hold his own against him.

Their battle was not quite one-sided, but Buu was thoroughly crushing Gohan.

Watching Son Gohan struggle to hold on, An Xiu had no intention of intervening. He chose to wait and see—not to preserve the course of time, but simply because he wanted to meet the fusion warrior who would soon appear, the man who had mastered the defeated pose.

As a longtime Dragon Ball fan, before transmigrating, Vegito and Gogeta—the two overwhelmingly powerful fusion warriors—had naturally been An Xiu's two favorite Dragon Ball characters.

With a chance to meet the idols of his childhood, and perhaps even spar with them, An Xiu naturally did not want to miss it.

As time passed, at the center of the battlefield, Son Gohan, who had barely been able to fend off Majin Buu before, had now been beaten to the point where he could hardly fight back at all.

In Supreme Kai World, Son Goku watched the scene through a crystal ball, frantic with worry. Elder Kai looked at him, seemingly lost in thought.

Meanwhile.

In the Underworld, inside King Yemma's palace, Vegeta, whose physical body had been retained by King Yemma, was about to return to the world of the living as one of the dead under Fortuneteller Baba's guidance.

Without An Xiu's interference, everything unfolded just as it had in the original story. Elder Kai gave Son Goku his own thousand years of lifespan to revive him, and Vegeta successfully returned to the world of the living as well.

After Son Gohan fumbled and failed to catch the earring, Son Goku had no choice but to instantly go Super Saiyan 3 and stall Buu.

Unexpectedly, after Gotenks's fusion ended, Son Gohan, who had only just found the Potara Earrings, was absorbed by Buu through a severed tentacle that had been left behind in advance.

The situation took another sharp turn for the worse.

Just as Son Goku was at a loss, a familiar and powerful aura suddenly appeared in the distance, reigniting his hope—it was Vegeta!

Overjoyed, Son Goku used Instant Transmission to arrive at Vegeta's side while Buu was not paying attention.

After going through all the same confrontations as in the original story and getting brutally beaten by Buu, Vegeta, knowing that he was no match for him and hearing what had happened to Bulma and Trunks, was finally persuaded by Son Goku and agreed to fuse with him.

Seeing Buu charging toward them, Vegeta hurriedly shouted:

"Give it to me, now!"

Overjoyed, Son Goku tossed the earring over.

"Damn it, I put it on my right ear, right?"

"Yeah. Vegeta, let me make this clear first. Once we fuse, we'll never be able to separate again. Do you understand?" Son Goku's expression was grave.

Vegeta froze. "Y-you said what? Damn it, you're only telling me now?!"

But there was no turning back. In his panic, Vegeta finally fastened the earring onto his ear.

As the earring began to shine, their bodies were pulled uncontrollably toward each other. When the light faded, a figure slowly emerged from within.

"All right!!!"