Mr. Gohan Died, Last Month

The moment the door closed, ten times gravity came crashing down.

Chen Mo's knees bent slightly, but he did not stagger like he had the first time he entered.

Half a year of training with a turtle shell on his back, combined with the cleansing of the Ultra Divine Water, had already accustomed his body to this level of gravity.

A white void.

A horizon with no end.

A dim gray sky overhead. There was no sun, yet uniform light filled every corner.

The temperature kept changing. Near the door, it was normal room temperature. Ten steps deeper, the temperature began to swing wildly.

One moment it was scorching, like standing beside a stove; the next, the cold drilled straight into his bones.

Trunks stood beside him and swept his gaze across the surroundings.

Ten times gravity did not affect him. He stood perfectly straight.

Of course. To a body with three million battle power, ten times gravity was like putting on an extra layer of clothing.

"This is the Hyperbolic Time Chamber," Trunks said.

"Yeah. You've never been here before?"

"No." Trunks took two steps and looked down at the white ground beneath his feet. "Mr. Gohan mentioned this place. He said he trained here with his father when he was little."

Mr. Gohan.

Chen Mo noticed the form of address.

"When did Gohan... die?"

Trunks stopped walking.

He did not turn around. He stood where he was, his back facing Chen Mo.

His short purple hair looked strangely quiet beneath that gray-white light.

"Last month."

Last month.

Chen Mo calculated silently.

He had crossed into this world around a year and two months ago.

In the original story, Gohan had been killed by Android 17 and Android 18 working together. He died in a torrential rainstorm.

Trunks found his body and transformed into a Super Saiyan for the first time.

Last month.

In other words, Trunks had been a Super Saiyan for less than a month, at most.

"How did he die?" Chen Mo asked.

Trunks turned around.

His expression was flat. Too flat.

A child under ten should not have worn that kind of expression.

Only then did Chen Mo truly see Trunks's face clearly.

When they had met in the ruins earlier, Trunks had been covered in blood and wrapped in layer after layer of bandages. Chen Mo's attention had been entirely on his injuries.

Now that a Senzu Bean had restored his body and the lighting was sufficient, Chen Mo finally noticed.

Trunks's face was very young.

It was not the face of the teenager from the original story who had traveled back to the past and stood before Frieza.

That Trunks looked seventeen or eighteen, with a worldly maturity in his eyes.

The Trunks before him had not fully grown into his jawline yet. There was still a trace of baby fat around his cheekbones.

His eyes were large, and the blue in his pupils was pure and clear.

Not even ten years old.

Not even ten years old, in an apocalypse ruled by androids.

"Android 17 and Android 18." Trunks's voice remained steady. "They attacked together. Mr. Gohan lost an arm. He took me and ran, but they caught up. Mr. Gohan told me to leave first, while he stayed behind to hold them off alone."

He paused.

"When I went back, it was raining. He was lying face-down on the ground. His body was already cold."

Chen Mo said nothing.

"I lay beside him and kept calling him. For a long time. Then I changed." Trunks raised his right hand and looked at his palm. "My hair turned gold. My energy burst out. It was hot, but I couldn't feel it. I couldn't feel anything."

The awakening of a Super Saiyan.

It did not come from training. It did not come from surpassing one's limits.

It came from rage. It came from loss.

"Did Mr. Gohan teach you ki techniques?" Chen Mo asked.

"He did." Trunks lowered his hand. "Basic ki blasts. Flight. Simple fighting. He only had one arm himself, so he couldn't teach anything too complicated. Most of the time, he had me watch him fight, then practice on my own."

"How long did he teach you?"

"Three years. Since I was six."

Six years old.

Chen Mo pressed his lips together.

Trunks had started learning to fight under Gohan at six. Gohan died when he was nine.

After that, he had lived alone in a world ruled by the Androids, carrying the power of a Super Saiyan.

In the original story, Trunks had trained alone for several more years after Gohan's death before becoming strong enough to take the time machine back to the past.

But this timeline was different.

This Trunks had yet to go through those years of solitary hardship.

His Super Saiyan state had only awakened a month ago.

A battle power of 150 million sounded terrifying, but it was unstable, berserk power.

Like a child who had just been handed a gun.

He had a weapon in his hands, but didn't know how to aim.

The Androids of this timeline had appeared much later than those in the original future timeline.

That was normal. In the original future timeline, Majin Buu had also appeared nearly ten years later than in the Z Timeline.

"When Android 18 fought you just now," Chen Mo said, "did you transform?"

"I did." Trunks's tone remained flat. "But I couldn't maintain it. I reverted after about thirty seconds. Then she kicked my sword in half and beat me into this state."

Thirty seconds.

He could only maintain the Super Saiyan state for thirty seconds.

Chen Mo nodded once.

He walked over to the small living area in the corner of the Time Chamber—beds, water, and basic food supplies. It was the same as the last time he had entered.

He set down his backpack and pulled open the zipper. The scouter was stuffed at the very bottom.

He didn't take out the scouter.

What he brought up was the system panel.

The panel popped open in his mind.

[Host's Current Status]

Base Battle Power: 5000

King Kai Fist Multiplier Limit: 20x (Newly Unlocked)

Theoretical Peak Battle Power: 100,000

Mastered Skills: Kamehameha, Flight, Afterimage Fist, Solar Flare, Ki Blast

Note: The emotional fluctuations of the emotion collection target have recently been intense. A large amount of emotion points has poured in, and the Twentyfold King Kai Fist has been automatically unlocked.

Twentyfold.

Chen Mo stared at that number for three seconds.

Last time, it had only been tenfold. He had originally thought it would take a long period of accumulated interactions to go from tenfold to twentyfold.

But instead—

Because Android 18 had exploded emotionally after he ran away.

Her anger, sense of betrayal, possessiveness, paranoia, killing intent, and obsession had all broken previous records.

And there was also that emotion the system had marked as "first detected."

Longing.

Together, those emotions had directly filled the unlock requirements for the Twentyfold King Kai Fist in one go.

Chen Mo's mouth twitched.

In other words, the more Android 18 hated him, the more she wanted to kill him, the more she wanted to tie him to her side, the stronger he became.

What kind of twisted growth path was this?

Other people's cheat abilities let them level up by killing monsters. His cheat ability was raising a yandere.

The more unhinged the yandere became, the stronger he got.

Five thousand times twenty.

One hundred thousand.

A battle power of one hundred thousand.

In the Saiyan Invasion Saga, he could have gone toe-to-toe with Captain Ginyu.

But on this timeline, he was still an ant.

At least he was an ant that could run fast.

"What are you looking at?" Trunks walked over.

"Doing the math." Chen Mo closed the panel. "Calculating the gap between you and me."

"What's your battle power?"

"Five thousand base. With King Kai Fist, I can reach a maximum of one hundred thousand."

Trunks glanced at him.

He did not show any contempt. That surprised Chen Mo.

If it had been Vegeta from the original story, he would have sneered at that number long ago.

But Trunks did not.

"What multiplier is a hundred-thousand King Kai Fist?"

"Twentyfold."

"Twentyfold King Kai Fist..." Trunks frowned slightly. "Can your body handle it?"

"Mr. Goku's King Kai Fist," he lowered his voice, "Mr. Gohan told me about it. The higher the King Kai Fist multiplier, the greater the strain on the body. Above threefold, it tears muscle fibers. Above tenfold, the heart can't withstand it. Mr. Goku developing heart disease later might also have been related to using King Kai Fist for so long."

"I know," Chen Mo said. "But mine is different."

He did not explain why it was different.

He could not explain. He could not tell anyone about the system.

"So your limit is one hundred thousand." Trunks sorted through the information. "My normal state is around three million. If I become a Super Saiyan... it's unstable. Around one hundred and fifty million, but I can only maintain it for a short time."

"How short?"

"Thirty seconds last time. If I focus, maybe I can hold it for a minute."

One hundred and fifty million for one minute.

Versus one hundred thousand without end.

Chen Mo thought for a moment.

"Then we start here," he said. "You teach me how to take hits from one hundred and fifty million. I teach you how to turn thirty seconds into thirty minutes."

Trunks raised an eyebrow.

"You can do that?"

"I can't. But I know the principle," Chen Mo said. "Transforming into a Super Saiyan doesn't consume stamina. It consumes emotional tension."

"Every time you transform now, you rely on anger. On remembering Mr. Gohan's death. But anger is one-use fuel. Once it burns out, it's gone. What you need isn't greater rage. You need to make the Super Saiyan state as natural as breathing."

Trunks stood where he was.

He stared into Chen Mo's eyes for a long time.

"Mr. Gohan said something similar," his voice grew a little hoarse. "He said that one day, I would become like the sun. Not an explosion, but something that kept shining."

Like the sun.

Gohan had put that beautifully.

Chen Mo sighed inwardly. Unfortunately, the Gohan of this world would never get to see that day.

"Your master was right," Chen Mo said. "Now you have to walk that path yourself."

Trunks lowered his head.

Then he raised it again.

He forced the moisture from his eyes back down.

"When do we start?"

"Now."

Chen Mo stepped back three paces and stood on the white ground.

He raised his ki. Energy began to spin in his dantian, while the meridians in all four limbs lit up at once.

Twentyfold King Kai Fist.

He had never used it before. This was his first time.

But the system had said that Infinite King Kai Fist had no side effects.

He gave it a try.

Red ki flames erupted from his body.

It was completely different from the tenfold version before.

The red aura of the Tenfold King Kai Fist wrapped around the surface of the body like a coat of flame.

The red aura of the Twentyfold King Kai Fist seeped directly from his pores. His whole body seemed submerged in red light.

Power swelled within his bones. Energy filled his muscle fibers. The speed of the blood flowing through every vessel had increased by far more than double.

One hundred thousand.

The feeling of having a battle power of one hundred thousand.

Chen Mo clenched his fist.

The air was crushed by his fist. Literally. The instant his fingers closed, the air pressure around him produced a ring of white shockwave.

Ten times gravity was almost imperceptible in this state.

"Come," Chen Mo said.

Trunks looked at him.

The red aura reflected in those blue eyes.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. Just use your normal state. Don't go Super Saiyan."

"My normal state is three million." Trunks hesitated. "You're at one hundred thousand. That's a thirtyfold difference."

"I know how big the difference is," Chen Mo said. "Who do you think I trained with? Master Roshi had a battle power of twelve hundred, while I only had one hundred and fifty back then—an eightfold difference. He pinned me to the ground and rubbed my face in it with one hand."

He rolled his neck.

"A thirtyfold difference is the same. Taking a beating is part of learning. Master Roshi taught me that."

Chen Mo had not even finished speaking.

Because Trunks had already moved.

There was no warning. No opening stance. No charging up.

He simply vanished from where he stood.

Chen Mo's body reacted faster than his mind.

A year of Master Roshi's training had carved instinctive reactions into his spine.

As his waist twisted left, Trunks's fist grazed past his right shoulder.

The wind pressure nearly knocked him off balance.

That was just the wind pressure from the fist passing by.

By the time Chen Mo steadied himself, Trunks was already standing three meters away.

"Not bad reflexes," Trunks said.

Chen Mo's right ear rang. The airflow stirred up by that punch had struck his eardrum.

A thirtyfold difference.

So this was what it felt like.

"Again," Chen Mo said.

Trunks moved again.

This time, Chen Mo saw it. Not the movement itself, but the slight contraction of Trunks's shoulder muscles before he launched.

Master Roshi had taught him that—watch the shoulders before an opponent threw a punch. The shoulders were the starting point of the body's entire power chain.

The left shoulder dipped slightly.

Left fist.

Chen Mo dodged right.

He avoided it. But Trunks's right knee came up.

Chen Mo had no time to react. The knee slammed into his abdomen.

He was sent flying more than ten meters, flipping twice in the air before using his aura to steady himself and land.

His abdomen hurt, but he was not injured.

The physical strength granted by the Twentyfold King Kai Fist had withstood a restrained knee strike from normal-state Trunks.

"You're holding back quite a bit." Chen Mo straightened up and pressed a hand to his abdomen.

Trunks walked over.

"You really aren't afraid of dying," he said.

"I am," Chen Mo said. "I'm scared to death. But I'm even more afraid that I'll be unable to beat anyone after I get out there."

Trunks looked at him.

A nine-year-old child was looking at him with eyes that did not belong to someone his age.

"You're a little like Mr. Gohan," Trunks said.

Chen Mo froze for a moment.

"He was afraid of death too. But he fought harder than anyone."

The white void fell silent for a moment.

Then Chen Mo laughed.

"Don't put me on such a high pedestal. You, Mr. Gohan, could beat a hundred of me with one hand."

"That's exactly why you shouldn't be like him." Trunks's tone suddenly darkened. "You're too weak. Don't imitate him and throw your life away."

Chen Mo's smile faded.

He looked at this nine-year-old child.

"I won't." Chen Mo said. "I'm much more afraid of dying than he was."

Trunks did not respond.

He pulled away again.

"Again. This time, I'll use thirty percent of my strength."

"Come on."

Chen Mo pushed the output of the Twentyfold King Kai Fist to its limit. Crimson aura blazed fiercely through the white space.

Their figures collided once more.

This was their first day in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.

Less than four minutes had passed outside.

At the same time, in the outside world.

Above a ruined city three hundred kilometers to the northeast.

A pillar of golden light shot from the ground into the sky.

Broly's roar shattered every shard of glass within a five-kilometer radius.

His golden hair stood straight up, his muscles swelled until his gi tore apart completely, and uncontrollable green aura poured from his body.

Android 17 stood atop a half-collapsed clock tower and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

He had held off two waves of attacks from Broly and Cell by himself.

Cell had run. After Broly sent him flying with one punch, he had burrowed underground and vanished.

Android 17 did not chase him. He could not. Broly would not let him leave.

This golden monster attacked whoever stood before it.

It recognized no one, listened to no reason, and knew only destruction.

Just as Android 17 was about to charge in for another round.

A figure descended from the southern sky.

Golden hair. A soaked white cropped tank top. Bare feet.

Android 18.

She landed beside the clock tower, her feet stepping onto broken tiles, and did not look at Broly.

She was looking at Android 17.

"You're hurt?"

"Just a scratch." Android 17 shrugged. "This guy's pretty strong."

Android 18 turned and looked toward Broly, who was still roaring in the distance. Her expression was icy.

Not the kind of cold she had in battle.

A different kind of cold.

Android 17 glanced at her.

"You're in a bad mood."

Android 18 did not answer.

"What about that human?" Android 17 asked. "Weren't you keeping him by your side all day?"

Android 18's fingers twitched.

"He ran."

"He ran again?"

"There won't be a next time."

Android 18's voice was very soft.

Soft enough that half the amusement vanished from Android 17's smile.

He knew his sister.

When Android 18 was angry, her voice was loud.

When her voice softened, she was no longer angry.

She was serious.

"When we find him," Android 18 raised her head, and there was something in her pale blue eyes that Android 17 couldn't identify, "he won't be keeping his legs."

Android 17's mouth twitched.

He decided not to speak up for that human.

Broly's fourth roar came from the distance.

Android 18 turned around.

"Let's deal with this first."

She took a step forward and rose into the air.

Android 17 followed.

The two androids charged toward that golden light from opposite directions at the same time.

Hyperbolic Time Chamber.

Chen Mo's back slammed into the white ground.

Trunks had knocked him down for the seventeenth time.

"There's a habitual opening in your defense around your left ribs." Trunks stood beside him. "Every time you throw a punch with your right hand, your left hand retracts 0.3 seconds too slowly."

Chen Mo lay on the ground.

His entire body hurt like hell. But the recovery speed from the Twentyfold King Kai Fist was also considerable.

He climbed back up.

"Again."

The eighteenth time. The nineteenth. The twentieth.

Knocked down.

Climbed back up.

Knocked down.

Climbed back up.

"Don't you get tired?" Trunks asked.

"You don't need to know." Chen Mo said. "You only need to know that once I get out, the higher my base combat power is, the more terrifying the number will be after it's multiplied."

Trunks looked at him.

"What's your goal in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber?"

Chen Mo thought for a moment.

"Raise my base to fifty thousand. Twentyfold makes it one million."

One million.

"Is one year enough?" Trunks asked.

"It has to be," Chen Mo said.

Because the woman waiting for him outside was far more terrifying than Frieza.

Frieza only wanted to rule the universe.

Android 18 wanted to tear off his legs.

The system quietly displayed a line in his mind:

[Latest emotional state update for emotion collection target--]

[New emotion: Calm (abnormal, analysis and judgment in progress).]

[Note: Target's anger level has not decreased, but her thoughts have shifted toward "planned pursuit."]

[Target is memorizing all known locations frequented by the host.]

Chen Mo closed the notification.

Planned pursuit.

Good.

She was making a list.

He looked toward the end of the white space. One year.

Three hundred and sixty-five days.

He didn't know whether that would be enough time for him to train until he could outrun a yandere woman who was making a hit list for him.