Master Roshi: "Get lost, I have nothing more to teach you."

Eighth Month.

Chen Mo learned the Kamehameha.

The process was nowhere near as cool as he had imagined.

Master Roshi stood by the sea, bringing his hands together and striking that classic pose.

"Ka--me--ha--me--ha!"

A blue beam shot from his palms, skimming over the ocean before exploding on the surface several hundred meters away and sending up a column of water.

The water shot roughly thirty meters into the air, then came crashing down, splashing the sea turtle right in the face.

"Did you see that clearly?"

"I did."

"Your turn."

Chen Mo took a deep breath and brought his hands together.

He drew out his energy, guiding it along his arms and gathering it in his palms.

Master Roshi had taught him that the core of the Kamehameha was not "firing a beam," but "gathering."

Compress the energy within the body into a single point, then release it.

"Ka--me--"

His palms lit up. The blue glow was about the size of an egg.

"Ha--me--"

The ball of light shrank. It grew brighter. Compressing. Continuing to compress.

"Ha!"

Blue light shot from his palms.

It was about as thick as a flashlight beam.

It flew around fifty meters before falling into the sea.

The splash it made was just enough to wash someone's feet.

The sea turtle did not even turn around.

"..."

"It was like that the first time," Master Roshi said, pouring himself a cup of tea. "When I first fired the Kamehameha, I hit a fish."

"Did it die?"

"I scared it away."

"Then I'm worse than you. I didn't even scare a fish."

"Keep practicing. A hundred shots a day. Once you're done, practice energy control."

A hundred shots a day.

For the first three days, Chen Mo ran out of energy after his fortieth shot.

He was so drained that he could only lie on the beach and stare at the sky, without even the strength to roll over.

When the sea turtle passed by, it stepped on his face and kicked sand all over him.

By the tenth day, he could fire seventy shots. The quality had improved as well.

The beam had gone from flashlight-thick to water-pipe-thick.

Its range had extended from fifty meters to a hundred and fifty.

On the twentieth day, he completed all one hundred shots. The quality of the final thirty declined drastically; they were basically clouds of blue light that sprayed out and hit nothing. But at least he could fire them.

Master Roshi's requirements for him were simple: do not pursue power yet. Pursue quantity and stability first.

"Your energy pool is too small. One Kamehameha drains a third of your energy. After three shots, you're just an empty shell."

"How do I fix that?"

"Practice. Make your energy pool bigger. At the same time, learn to control the output of every shot. You don't need to go all out with every Kamehameha. Firing ten Kamehamehas at seventy percent power is more useful than firing three at full power."

"In actual combat, you may not need to kill with one strike. More often, you need sustained output and suppression."

Chen Mo remembered that.

Ninth Month.

Energy blasts.

They were simpler than the Kamehameha. The Kamehameha required charging, compression, and release—a complete process.

An energy blast was just pouring energy into the palm and throwing it out.

Like tossing a stone.

"The advantage of energy blasts is speed." Master Roshi squatted on the ground and drew a diagram. "The Kamehameha takes at least two seconds from charging to release. In a fight, two seconds is enough for you to get punched ten times. Energy blasts don't need charging. You fire them the moment you raise your hand."

"How powerful is it?"

"Roughly one-fifth to one-third as powerful as a Kamehameha. Depends on how much ki you pour into it."

"Can it be fired repeatedly?"

"Of course."

Master Roshi stood up and raised one hand toward the sea.

Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!

Five yellow spheres of light shot from his palm in rapid succession, like machine-gun fire.

They struck the ocean and exploded into five columns of water in a neat row.

Chen Mo looked at his own hand.

Then he raised it.

Pop.

A ki blast flew out. It hit the sea and splashed up a sheet of water.

It was bigger than a Kamehameha, but not by much.

He flicked out two more in succession. The second veered off and flew to the left. The third was even farther off, nearly hitting the folding chair on the beach.

"Your aim is terrible." Master Roshi moved the folding chair two meters farther away. "Ki blasts don't need to be too powerful. But they have to be accurate. A ki blast that can't hit anything is just fireworks."

"How do I train?"

"I'll throw coconuts out over the sea. You shoot them."

Over the next month, Chen Mo shattered around three hundred coconuts.

His accuracy rose from fifteen percent to sixty percent.

Master Roshi said that when Krillin had reached this stage, his accuracy had been eighty-five percent.

Chen Mo decided he would never ask about Krillin's numbers again.

The tenth month.

Flying.

Flight.

This was the skill Chen Mo had been looking forward to the most.

"It's very simple." Master Roshi sat in the folding chair. "Release ki from the soles of your feet and use it to push yourself upward. Same principle as a ki blast, except the direction is downward."

"You can fly?"

Master Roshi gave him a look.

"Your master is, after all, the Martial Arts Master."

"No... I thought you couldn't fly. You never flew during the martial arts tournaments before."

"Couldn't be bothered. Walking is nice. You get to enjoy the scenery. What's there to see when you fly that high? Clouds?"

"..."

"Besides, the wind is too strong when you fly. It messes up my beard."

Chen Mo looked at Master Roshi's white beard. It did seem like it would get messy.

"Could you demonstrate?"

Master Roshi sighed.

He rose from the folding chair and lightly pushed off with both feet.

Then he floated up.

Just floated. There were no special effects at all.

No aura. No light.

A short old man in a floral shirt slowly drifted two meters into the air like a helium balloon.

Then he crossed his legs in midair, pulled out a magazine, and began reading.

"Like that."

"...Like that?"

"What did you expect, a chant?"

Chen Mo closed his eyes. He poured ki into the soles of his feet.

Released it.

He felt a force beneath his feet pushing downward. His body grew lighter.

Then he left the ground.

About three centimeters.

He held it for half a second.

Then he fell.

He landed on his butt. Sand poured into his pants.

"Control the amount. You released too much ki just now and blasted it all out at once. Keep the output steady. Like a faucet—turn it down a little. Don't crank it all the way open."

Chen Mo tried again.

This time, he successfully hovered for two seconds, about ten centimeters off the ground.

Then he tilted, his body leaning left. He hurriedly increased the ki under his right foot, but overdid it and flipped to the right.

He fell again.

Learning Flight was even more painful than learning the Kamehameha.

Because every failure came with physical damage.

It took five days to go from ten centimeters to one meter.

It took another five days to go from one meter to five meters.

It took half a month to go from five meters to hovering steadily at twenty meters.

During that time, Chen Mo fell more than two hundred times.

He had landed face-first, hit the back of his head, and once suddenly lost control at a height of ten meters, plunging straight into the sea in free fall.

Luckily, the water was deep enough that he did not die from the fall, though he swallowed a bellyful of saltwater.

A month later.

Chen Mo could fly.

He was not very fast, roughly as fast as a jet car.

His directional control was still somewhat stiff, and his body would tilt when turning.

But at least he could fly.

He stood on the beach of Kame House Island, releasing ki from the soles of his feet as he slowly rose thirty meters into the air.

The sea breeze swept over him.

Master Roshi stood below, as small as an ant.

Even that folding chair looked as tiny as a matchbox.

This was the first time since crossing into this world that he had seen scenery so far away.

Not that patch of red sky he had glimpsed through the cracks in the ruins.

This was blue.

Both the sea and the sky were blue.

"Don't space out up there!" Master Roshi shouted from below. "Get down here and keep practicing your punches!"

Chen Mo withdrew his ki and descended from the sky.

His knees bent slightly when he landed, but he did not fall.

Progress.

The eleventh month.

Master Roshi began teaching him the final technique.

"Afterimage Fist." Master Roshi spread his hands and held them beside his face.

A flash of intense light burst forth. Chen Mo was instantly blinded, unable to see anything.

His vision returned three seconds later.

Master Roshi was already standing behind him.

"This isn't a fighting technique. It's a survival technique," Master Roshi said. "When you face an opponent you can't beat, use this move to buy time to escape."

"You're teaching me to run away?"

"I'm teaching you to live." Master Roshi's tone was calm. "Only those who know how to run can survive long enough to become strong. Goku ran too when he encountered opponents he couldn't defeat."

"Who did he run from?"

"Tao Pai Pai."

Chen Mo remembered that encounter on the highway.

"Tao Pai Pai fought Goku?"

"He did. He beat Goku until he was nearly dead. Goku held on by relying on three Ultra Divine Waters. Later, after he grew stronger, he went back and took Tao Pai Pai out in one move."

"The important part isn't that he took Tao Pai Pai out in one move. The important part is that he ran. Only because he ran did everything afterward happen."

Chen Mo learned Afterimage Fist and Solar Flare.

They were not difficult. Their essence was simply releasing a burst of high-intensity ki light in an instant to blind the opponent.

The demands on ki control weren't high, but the timing of release was crucial.

Too early was useless—the opponent wouldn't be watching you yet. Too late was useless too—the opponent would have already attacked.

The best moment was when the opponent's attention was focused on you, right as they were preparing to strike.

Master Roshi gave him a criterion to judge by.

"Watch the opponent's shoulders. The instant they tense up is when he's about to move. Your Afterimage Fist only needs to be faster than his punch."

The twelfth month.

A full year.

Three hundred and sixty-five days.

Chen Mo aimed the scouter at himself.

A number flashed across the screen.

100. With the threefold King Kai Fist activated, 300.

A power level of 300, in the early days of the Dragon Ball world, was roughly around Goku's level when he fought King Piccolo.

But on the current timeline?

Android 17 and Android 18 had power levels in the billions.

He wasn't even a fraction of theirs.

But he had the Kamehameha, ki blasts, Flight, the Afterimage Fist, six months of sparring experience, ki control, and a stable threefold King Kai Fist.

He was no longer that office worker trembling beneath the rubble.

At least now, he was a martial artist who could tremble.

"Master."

Master Roshi was still sitting in his folding chair.

A year had passed. The canvas seat of that folding chair had been replaced three times. He had gone through two fishing rods. His sunglasses, however, had never been changed.

"Mm."

"My power level has reached 100."

"I know."

"What are you planning to teach me next?"

Master Roshi reeled in his fishing line.

He turned to look at Chen Mo.

His eyes couldn't be seen behind those sunglasses. But after spending a year with the old man, Chen Mo could already judge his mood from the curve of his lips.

"There's nothing left."

"What?"

"There's nothing more I can teach you."

Chen Mo stood there.

"I've taught you all the basics of the Turtle School. Weighted training, ki control, hand-to-hand combat, the Kamehameha, ki blasts, Flight, the Afterimage Fist." Master Roshi counted on his fingers. "I've crammed everything I could into you."

"What remains isn't something I can teach. It's something you need to realize for yourself through real combat."

"My foundation is still too weak."

"Your foundation is enough. That's not what you lack now." Master Roshi stood up. "What you lack is power on a higher level."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you know Korin Tower?"

Chen Mo knew.

It was where Korin lived. Korin Sacred Land. The tower that reached the heavens. The pillar Goku had climbed back then.

"There's something atop Korin Tower called Ultra Divine Water." Master Roshi's tone was calm. "Drinking it can awaken all the potential in your body."

"What's the price?"

Master Roshi glanced at him.

"You're a smart one. You know there's a price."

"The most expensive things are the free ones."

"Ultra Divine Water is highly poisonous," Master Roshi said. "Those who drink it either have all their potential unleashed or are poisoned to death on the spot. Throughout history, everyone who drank Ultra Divine Water except Goku died."

"Everyone died?"

"Everyone. Fourteen people drank it. Thirteen died. Goku was the only one who survived."

Chen Mo fell silent for two seconds.

"A ninety-three percent mortality rate."

"You can choose not to drink it. Keep training. With your current talent, after another two or three years, your power level should reach three or four hundred."

Two or three years. Three or four hundred.

The androids were in the hundreds of thousands.

"How much exactly can Ultra Divine Water increase it by?"

"Not sure. It depends on how much potential you have. After Goku drank it, his power level went from a little over a hundred to nearly two hundred. But that was Goku. A Saiyan's potential was never something humans could compare to."

"What about humans?"

"No human has ever survived after drinking it. So there's no data."

"..."

"No need to decide right away." Master Roshi folded up the lounge chair. "Go to Korin Tower first. Talk to Korin before deciding. Yajirobe should still be somewhere nearby."

Chen Mo nodded.

"You're not coming with me?"

Master Roshi tucked the folded chair beneath his arm.

"I'm not going."

"Why?"

"This old man has stayed on this island for almost thirty years. I don't want to go anywhere."

He walked toward the cottage.

After taking two steps, he stopped.

"Chen Mo."

This was the second time Master Roshi had called his name in the past year. The first had been when he accepted him as a disciple.

"Yeah."

"Of all the disciples I've taught, Goku has the greatest talent. Krillin works the hardest. Yamcha is the smartest."

Master Roshi stood with his back to him.

"As for you, you're the most afraid of dying."

"..."

"Being afraid of death is a good thing." Master Roshi's voice carried over. "Only those who fear death will do everything they can to stay alive."

"Goku wasn't afraid of death, so he died. Krillin wasn't afraid of death, so he died too."

"You're afraid of death. So you have to live."

Master Roshi did not turn around.

He pushed open the cottage door and walked inside.

The door swayed twice in the sea breeze before closing.

Chen Mo stood on the beach.

Waves lapped at his feet.

The turtle shell was still on his back. Sixty-five kilograms. He had carried it for a year, and he could no longer feel its weight.

He untied the turtle shell and set it on the sand. The canvas straps on its underside had frayed, while sweat stains and salt marks lined its edges.

Chen Mo bent down and propped the turtle shell upright by the cottage door.

Then he took out the scouter.

He had not seriously checked Android 18's signal in a year.

Before, he would glance at it every night, just to make sure the androids were not moving toward Kame House Island.

Over the past year, Android 17 and Android 18's signals had spent most of their time in the northern and western regions.

They occasionally vanished for several days. Once they went underground, the scouter could no longer pick up their electromagnetic signals.

Android 16's signal had remained in the east.

It barely moved. He was probably somewhere watching birds.

It had been a year since they last met.

On his first day after crossing into this world, Android 18 had nearly killed him.

She had said something to him.

"Come see me again once you're a little stronger."

Power level 5 to 100.

He did not know whether that counted as being "a little stronger."

Chen Mo glanced at the tightly shut cottage door.

Then he turned around. Air currents burst from beneath his feet, and he slowly rose into the sky.

He did not look back.

If he did, he would not be able to leave.

Facing north, he accelerated through the air.

Destination: Korin Tower.

Before Android 18 reached the southern coast, he had to drink the Ultra Divine Water.

Whether he finished it alive, or...

Was poisoned to death.