Kisses Number 18 at the Start, She Didn't Kill Me?

West City was gone.

Chen Mo lay beneath a slanted slab of concrete, peering at the sky outside through gaps in the rebar.

The sky was red. It looked like sunset, but it was fire.

The entire city was burning.

Skyscrapers that had once stood hundreds of meters tall had collapsed at all angles across the streets.

Chen Mo knew that smell.

He had worked with silicone at a chemical plant in his previous life.

But there had been no androids at the chemical plant in his previous life.

"Heh."

A soft chuckle drifted over from afar.

Then a building snapped in half.

Its upper section was pierced by a visible pillar of golden energy, shattering like papier-mâché as it toppled toward Chen Mo.

Thousands of tons of concrete, rebar, and shattered glass curtain walls came crashing down with a destructive roar.

Chen Mo buried his head between his arms and curled himself into a ball.

The ground trembled.

Rubble struck his back, and one piece tore open the skin at his lower back.

He bit down on his lip without making a sound.

He couldn't make a sound.

Absolutely couldn't make a sound.

He had been transported here for forty-seven minutes.

In those forty-seven minutes, he had figured out the basics.

This was the Dragon Ball World—the timeline of Future Trunks.

The Z Fighters were all dead. Goku had died of a heart virus, while Vegeta, Piccolo, Krillin, Tien Shinhan... all of them had died at the hands of the androids.

Trunks was nowhere to be found. Maybe he was still alive. Maybe he was already dead.

And finally, the one currently outside blowing up cities for fun was Android 18.

That last point was the most important.

Because she was only two hundred meters away.

Through a gap in the rubble, Chen Mo saw her.

Short blonde hair, jeans, a striped shirt beneath a denim vest.

She was beautiful, with delicate features and skin so pale that she looked nothing like someone who had spent time among ruins.

Of course she didn't.

She was the one who made the ruins.

Android 18 stood atop the roof of a crushed bus, propping up her cheek with one hand as she tilted her head at several buildings in the distance that had yet to fall.

"Boring," she said.

She raised her right hand, and a point of light formed at the tip of her index finger.

A beam shot out, and three buildings exploded at once.

The shockwave from the rising fireballs blew the rubble off Chen Mo.

He was exposed.

A normal human playing hide-and-seek in front of an android?

How was that any different from an ant hiding beneath a person's shoe?

Android 18 turned her head.

Their gazes met across more than a hundred meters of ruins.

Chen Mo saw the corner of her mouth twitch.

Like the little "oh?" someone made upon discovering a bug still moving on the ground.

"Still alive?"

Chen Mo didn't move.

His mind raced wildly.

Run? He couldn't get away.

Androids moved at faster-than-light speeds. If she got serious, he wouldn't even have time to blink.

Fight? With what?

Before transmigrating, he had been an ordinary corporate drone working 996.

His only fighting experience was two Tai Chi classes in college PE—and he had even failed the course.

Android 18 had already appeared in front of him.

There had been no process of movement whatsoever.

One second, she had been a hundred meters away; the next, she was standing right before him.

The wind pressure arrived belatedly after she landed, stirring the loose strands of hair on Chen Mo's forehead.

She looked down at him.

Chen Mo was nailed to the spot by those eyes.

Ice-blue eyes—beautiful, yet devoid of any warmth.

Android 18 bent down, pinched the back of Chen Mo's collar between two fingers, and lifted him up as easily as a chick.

Chen Mo's feet left the ground, his legs dangling in the air.

At 1.78 meters tall, he hung before Android 18 like a keychain.

She examined him closely.

"An ordinary human." she said lazily. "No ki, no fighting power. Why haven't you run?"

"I... I can't outrun you."

Android 18 seemed to find that answer somewhat interesting and tilted her head.

"So your choice was to lie there and play dead?"

"...I wasn't playing dead. I really didn't dare move."

The truth again.

Android 18 stared at him for several seconds before letting go.

Light lit up in her right palm as an energy blast began to gather.

Heat rushed toward his face, instantly curling his eyebrows.

At this distance, she did not even need to fire it. The thermal radiation leaking from the gathering energy blast alone was enough to cook his face.

The ever-brightening ball of light reflected in Chen Mo's pupils.

He was going to die.

[Ding—]

[Host detected in a near-death state. Infinite Kaio-ken System emergency activation initiated.]

[Binding system... Binding complete.]

[Emotion collection target locked: Android 18.]

[Target emotional fluctuation detected: curiosity (weak). Emotion Value +5.]

[Current Emotion Value: 5/100.]

[Initial ability unlocked: Double Kaio-ken.]

A system.

He had a system.

A system that needed Android 18's emotions to level up.

Chen Mo formed a basic understanding of the system in 0.3 seconds, then made a decision.

It was a crazy decision.

Create a greater emotional fluctuation.

Let the system obtain more Emotion Value.

"Kaio-ken."

He spoke softly.

A red aura erupted from his body.

He grabbed the hand Android 18 had used to hold him and pulled himself upward.

Android 18 was unprepared.

She had never even considered the need to be on guard.

If an ant suddenly became a slightly bigger ant, would you guard against it?

Relying on the explosive force of Double Kaio-ken, Chen Mo swung himself upward and closed in on Android 18's face.

Then he kissed her.

Lips pressed against lips.

The world fell silent.

Chen Mo felt the touch of those lips.

Cool.

But soft.

Then, zero seconds later, he broke away from the kiss, planted both feet on Android 18's shoulders, and used the force to launch himself away.

He flipped once in midair, and when he landed, his knees nearly shattered from the impact.

Red aura wrapped around his body as he turned and ran.

He did not look back.

He did not dare to look back.

He ran past a ruptured road.

Past three overturned cars.

Past a billboard with only half of it left, still bearing the Capsule Corporation logo.

[Detected target emotional fluctuations: Shock (Moderate) + Confusion (Intense). Emotion Points +12.]

[Current Emotion Points: 17/100.]

The system notification popped up in his mind.

But Chen Mo had no time to look.

He ran like a madman. Double Kaio-ken had pushed his speed beyond human limits.

He charged into a half-collapsed building, stumbling and scrambling into the basement entrance.

The stairs had already broken apart, so he jumped straight through the gap, crashing onto the basement's concrete floor hard enough to see stars.

The red aura went out.

Double Kaio-ken was released.

The backlash hit him instantly.

Every muscle in his body spasmed.

His joints felt as though they had been filled with lead, and his heart pounded as if it were about to leap out of his throat.

Chen Mo lay on all fours against the freezing concrete, a trace of blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.

His whole body felt like it was about to fall apart.

But he was alive.

At least, at this very second, he was still alive.

The basement was dark. Its only source of light was the firelight filtering down through the gap overhead.

Pipes and rusted machinery filled the surroundings, like some kind of underground heating system.

The space was small, around twenty square meters, covered in dust and standing water.

Chen Mo rolled onto his back and lay facing upward, his chest heaving violently.

He stared at the ceiling.

The ceiling was shaking.

Someone had landed on top of the building.

Chen Mo held his breath.

Android 18 was floating somewhere above the floor directly over his head.

The straight-line distance between them was no more than ten meters.

Chen Mo counted. One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.

Every second felt like a year.

Then the air pressure returned to normal.

She had left.

Chen Mo still did not move.

He did not trust something like this.

What if she was baiting him?

What if she had merely flown a little higher and was waiting for him to come out?

He lay in the standing water, his back icy cold and his chest burning hot.

There was not a single muscle in his body that did not hurt.

One minute passed.

Five minutes passed.

Ten minutes passed.

She really had left.

Chen Mo finally dared to let out a long breath.

He had transmigrated into the Dragon Ball World—the Future Saga, no less.

There was no Goku, no Vegeta, no one who could protect him.

Only two androids who delighted in killing rampaged across the surface.

His only cheat was a system that needed Android 18's emotions to charge it.

"Is this system sick or something?" Chen Mo finally found the strength to speak. "You want me to flirt with the destroyer of the world? Did I come here to date, or to die?"

The system gave no response.

A dull crash echoed in the distance as another building collapsed.

Then came voices.

They were far away, but in the silent ruins, sound carried a long way.

"Android 17." It was Android 18's voice. "I just met an interesting human."

"A human?" The other voice was male and lazy. "What do you mean? 'Interesting' and 'human' don't belong together."

"He had red ki around him."

"...Ki? Are you sure? Don't humans of this era all know nothing about ki? We already took care of Gohan."

"I'm sure. It was red, and very bright." Android 18 paused. "And he kissed me."

Silence.

"What did you say?" Android 17's voice changed.

"He kissed me. The kind where our lips touched. Then he ran."

More silence.

Then Android 17 began to laugh.

"Interesting," he said. "So you didn't kill him?"

Android 18 did not answer right away.

After a few seconds, she said, "He ran pretty fast."

"Android 18, you couldn't find him?" Android 17's tone turned teasing. "You're an android."

"I never said I couldn't find him." Android 18's voice grew a shade colder. "I said he ran pretty fast."