Android 18: Why wear that ragged clothing? I'll teach you

Day Twenty-Five of Warp Travel.

Android 18 woke up.

More precisely, her brain had recovered from its passive dormant state.

The remnants of Babidi's magic had been completely metabolized by the Eternal Furnace on the twenty-second day. Her brainwave frequency had returned to normal.

But she did not get up from the folding chair.

She lay there for another three days.

Chen Mo knew she was awake, because her breathing rate had returned from four breaths per minute to normal.

Androids did not need to breathe, but the human physiological habits Dr. Gero had retained made her maintain a normal breathing rhythm while awake.

He did not call her out on it.

Because Android 18's arm was still around his waist. The pressure had changed from "naturally resting there while asleep" to "deliberately tightening while awake."

The difference was obvious.

Loose while asleep. Tight after waking.

Yet she kept her eyes closed.

On the afternoon of the twenty-fifth day.

Android 18 finally opened her eyes.

She sat up from the folding chair, smoothed her hair, and glanced at Chen Mo.

"How many days?"

"You slept for six days."

"I wasn't sleeping." Android 18's tone was flat. "I was repairing myself."

Chen Mo did not argue. Repairing herself or sleeping, it made no difference.

The fact remained that she had held him and lay on that sixty-centimeter-wide folding chair for six days.

Over those six days, the system had been flooding his screen with notifications.

Emotion points poured in from all sorts of categories.

Dependence, a sense of security, possessiveness, lingering drowsiness—there was even one called "body temperature satisfaction."

The King Kai Fist multiplier had already unlocked up to twenty-sixfold.

Fifty thousand base power multiplied by twenty-six. One million three hundred thousand.

Android 18 got to her feet and rolled her wrists.

"Boring," she said.

"Want to fight?"

"No."

Chen Mo let out a sigh of relief.

He had kept up the daily hour of sparring for nearly two weeks.

He had already gotten used to the feeling of going all out with the Twentyfold King Kai Fist and being used as Android 18's punching bag.

A day of rest would be nice.

Android 18 walked over to the porthole.

In warp, the starlight stretched into white lines.

"How many days until we arrive?"

Chen Mo glanced at the navigation panel.

"Nine days."

Android 18 turned her head.

"How many times have you worn that lousy outfit of yours?"

"What?"

"That one." Android 18 tipped her chin toward the emergency locker. "The white, ugly thing you have to put on every time you go out."

"The spacesuit?"

"Yeah. That."

"I wear it every time I go outside. Why?"

Android 18 leaned against the porthole frame, arms crossed.

"What a hassle."

"What is?"

"Every time you go out, you have to put it on. Then after you go out and fight, you have to check whether it's torn. If it is, you have to patch it. Then you wear it again next time."

Android 18's tone was like she was scolding a roommate who took an hour to get ready every time he went out.

"Your movements are affected in a fight too. Your joints' range of motion is reduced by at least twenty percent."

Chen Mo opened his mouth.

"I'm human. Humans die in a vacuum without a spacesuit. You know that, right?"

"I know."

"Then why are you still complaining that it's troublesome?"

"So I'm going to teach you something." Android 18 said. "Once you learn it, you won't need to wear one."

Chen Mo froze for a moment.

"What?"

Android 18 raised her right hand and spread her palm. A faint blue membrane of light, nearly invisible to the naked eye, spread from her palm.

It covered her entire hand, then crept up past her wrist. Within three seconds, that layer of light had enveloped her entire body.

"A barrier," Android 18 said.

Chen Mo stared at the layer of light.

He recognized it. Android 17 had used it before.

In the original story, Android 17's energy shield was one of his signature techniques. It could block physical impacts and energy attacks, and even sustain life in a vacuum.

Broly also survived in space through a similar principle. A Saiyan's ki enveloped the entire body, forming an isolating layer.

"Isn't that exclusive to you androids?" Chen Mo asked.

"No." Android 18 withdrew the barrier. "The essence of all ki techniques is the same. Release ki from inside your body to its surface and form a thin membrane. You just need to maintain it. Human martial artists can do it too. No one's taught them."

She was right. The Z Fighters had briefly survived in space several times in the original story.

When Planet Namek exploded, Goku had relied on ki protection to hold out for a while.

Vegeta could also move around in space for short periods.

The key wasn't whether it could be done. It was how long it could be maintained.

"Your base combat power is fifty thousand." Android 18 walked up to him. "Maintaining the bare minimum barrier will probably consume five percent of your total ki. How long you can sustain it depends on the precision of your ki control."

"Master Roshi taught me ki control."

"He taught you ki control for Earth." Android 18 said. "Space is more complicated than Earth. It's not just vacuum you need to block out. There's radiation, extreme temperatures, micrometeorites, cosmic rays. Each one has to be dealt with separately."

Chen Mo fell silent for two seconds.

"Doesn't sound easy."

"It's not hard." Android 18's tone was casual. "Dumber people learn it in three days. You should manage it in two."

"Since when did you think so highly of me?"

"You're smarter than those bugs." The bugs Android 18 meant were Babidi's two subordinates. "Compared to bugs, you count as smart."

Chen Mo decided not to pursue the issue of what she was comparing him to.

"Start now?"

"Were you planning to wait until tomorrow?"

Five minutes later.

Inside the spaceship, Chen Mo stood in the middle of the corridor.

Android 18 stood a meter away from him. The corridor was only about seventy centimeters wide, so it was cramped with the two of them facing each other.

"First, release your ki onto the surface of your body," Android 18 said. "Don't burst it out. Let it seep through. Like water oozing out through your skin."

Chen Mo closed his eyes and mobilized the ki within his body.

Master Roshi had taught him the basics of ki control: concentrate it at one point, then release it in an explosion. That was the principle behind the Kamehameha.

What Android 18 was asking for now was the exact opposite.

No concentration. No burst.

It had to seep out evenly through every pore across his body.

Chen Mo gave it a try.

Ki surged from his dantian, spreading through his meridians into his limbs and torso.

He tried to push it toward the surface of his skin.

A faint red glow emerged from his body.

It was uneven. The ki in his left arm was dense, while his right leg was thin. His chest shone the brightest, while there was almost nothing on his back.

"No." Android 18 reached out and poked his back with her index finger.

That poke scattered Chen Mo's ki, and the glow around his body vanished.

"Your back is exposed. In a vacuum, that spot would rupture first. Then you'd die."

Chen Mo took a deep breath.

Again.

The second time, the ki was distributed more evenly. But it was still thin below his legs.

Android 18 moved behind him and pressed her palm against his lower back.

Chen Mo's body trembled.

"What are you doing?"

"Helping you feel the flow of your ki." Android 18's palm remained steady. "When your ki splits at your waist, more flows upward and less flows downward. The meridians in your lower body have more resistance than those in your upper body."

Her hand moved two inches up along Chen Mo's spine.

"Here. Your ki gets blocked here for a moment."

Chen Mo focused his attention.

Sure enough, there was a faint sensation of sluggishness around the middle of his spine.

When the ki reached that point, its speed increased, but its volume decreased.

"Relax," Android 18 said. "Don't force it through. Let the ki flow through on its own."

Chen Mo adjusted the way he released it, changing from "pushing" to "letting go."

Instead of forcibly pouring ki into the ends of his limbs, he let it naturally spill out from his dantian and find its own path.

The red glow reappeared, much more even this time.

"Still not quite there." Android 18 withdrew her hand. "The soles of your feet."

Chen Mo looked down.

The ki on the soles of his feet was indeed the thinnest.

Normally, when standing on the ground, there was no need to release ki from the soles of his feet.

But in space, the soles of his feet were exposed surfaces as well.

He directed part of his attention to the soles of his feet.

The red membrane of light finally covered his entire body, a thin layer.

"Maintain it," Android 18 said.

Chen Mo gritted his teeth.

Thirty seconds. The membrane began to tremble.

One minute. A hole appeared around his left calf.

One and a half minutes. The hole expanded.

Two minutes. The membrane shattered.

Chen Mo let out a breath.

"Two minutes." Android 18's assessment was concise. "Not enough. If you fight in space, you need to maintain it for at least half an hour."

"It's my first time."

"Your first time should be your best." Android 18 sat in the passenger seat and crossed her legs. "Again."

Chen Mo wiped away his sweat.

Again.

The third time: three minutes and ten seconds. The fourth time: four minutes and twenty seconds. The fifth time: six minutes.

But at the six-minute mark, a gap burst open in the membrane over his right shoulder.

Android 18 flicked a finger. A tiny ki bullet flew over, passing precisely through the gap and striking the skin of Chen Mo's right shoulder.

"Ow!"

"That's what happens when the membrane breaks in space," Android 18 said. "A micrometeorite would pass straight through and punch a hole in your skin. Cosmic rays would burn through your cells. The vacuum would make your bodily fluids boil. All three at once. You'd probably live five seconds."

Chen Mo rubbed his right shoulder. The ki bullet's force had been controlled with precision. It hurt, but he was not injured. His skin was merely red.

"Thanks for the warning."

"It wasn't a warning." Android 18 looked at him. "It was instruction."

Chen Mo continued practicing.

The tenth attempt: twelve minutes. The twentieth attempt: eighteen minutes.

By the thirtieth attempt, Chen Mo's ki was nearly depleted, but he could steadily maintain the membrane for around twenty minutes.

"That's enough." Android 18 stood up. "Rest for a while. We'll continue tomorrow."

Chen Mo collapsed into the folding chair.

"Android 18."

"Mm."

"There's a question."

"Go ahead."

"The barrier can block vacuum and radiation. But if I'm fighting someone in space..." Chen Mo looked at the ceiling. "What if they blow up the planet beneath my feet? Can the barrier withstand the shockwave from a planetary explosion?"

Android 18 glanced at him.

"With your current amount of ki?"

"Yeah."

"No."

Chen Mo had known it.

"The energy released by a planet's explosion is on a planetary scale." Android 18's tone was flat. "Your base power level is fifty thousand. Even with a twenty-sixfold King Kai Fist, that only puts you at 1.3 million. Maintaining the barrier while resisting a planetary-level impact? Dream on."

"Then when I fight in space—"

"Don't fight near planets," Android 18 said. "Or don't fight people who can blow up planets."

"People who can blow up planets include you."

"So when you fought me, I never blew up a planet, did I?" Android 18 raised a brow. "You should be thanking me."

Chen Mo truly had nothing to say.

During their daily hour of sparring, Android 18 had never used any wide-area attacks. Everything had been close-quarters combat.

She controlled her force, controlled her range, controlled every variable that could possibly hurt Chen Mo.

That kind of micrometer-level control over her power was more terrifying than bombing everything at full strength.

Because it meant she had been fighting him with only a tiny fraction of a percent of her power all along.

"Train for one more day tomorrow." Android 18 sat back down. "The day after that, you should be able to maintain it steadily for over half an hour. Before we reach Planet Namek, you need to extend it to at least two hours."

"Planet Namek."

"Call it whatever you want."

On the twenty-seventh day of warp travel.

Chen Mo's barrier duration broke through forty minutes.

Android 18's teaching method was not gentle. It was cold and mechanical.

The instant a flaw appeared in Chen Mo's light membrane, she would jab him with a ki blast.

Every shot passed precisely through the gap and struck exposed skin.

It wasn't hard. But it hurt.

After two days, Chen Mo had gained around forty red marks across his body, spread over every area where his ki control was weakest.

Android 18 called it "marking weaknesses."

Chen Mo called it "a human scoreboard."

"One last time today." Android 18 stood outside the spaceship.

Yes. Outside.

Chen Mo took a deep breath and opened the side hatch.

This time, he wasn't wearing a spacesuit.

A red light membrane covered his entire body. He had not activated the King Kai Fist, relying purely on his base ki to maintain the barrier.

The hatch opened, and the air pressure leaked out.

Chen Mo drifted outside.

No spacesuit. Only a barrier formed from his own ki.

Vacuum.

He could feel it. Beyond the barrier was absolute nothingness. No pressure. No temperature. No sound. Nothing at all.

If the light membrane broke, he would die.

There would be no buffer. No second chance.

His feet. Steady.

His left calf. Steady.

His right shoulder. That was the spot Android 18 had hit most often with her ki blasts.

His ki control over that area had already become a conditioned reflex. Steady.

One minute.

Five minutes.

Ten minutes.

Chen Mo floated outside the spaceship, surrounded by the boundless starry sky.

Android 18 floated three meters beside him, both hands tucked into her pockets.

"How does it feel?" she asked.

"Cold."

"The insulation layer of the barrier is too thin. Make it thicker."

Chen Mo increased the output slightly. The light film thickened, and the cold vanished.

"What else?"

Chen Mo took a moment to feel it.

Silence.

The silence of space was different from the silence on Earth.

Even in the quietest places on Earth, there was wind, insects chirping, and the sound of one's own heartbeat.

There was nothing in space. Sound waves could not travel through a vacuum. He could only hear the sounds within his own body.

Blood flowing. His heart beating. Qi circulating through his meridians.

"It's very quiet," Chen Mo said.

Android 18 glanced at him.

"I spend every day in this kind of silence," she said. "Thirteen years."

Chen Mo turned his head.

Thirteen years had passed since Dr. Gero had modified her into an android.

She did not need sleep. She stayed awake through every night. She could hear every second of silence.

"This is what you've had in your ears the whole time?" Chen Mo asked.

"It isn't a sound," Android 18 said. "It's the absence of sound."

Chen Mo said nothing more.

He floated in space, the barrier operating steadily, its light film covering his entire body.

Android 18 floated beside him, her short golden hair spreading out in zero gravity, her icy blue eyes reflecting the distant starlight.

Twenty minutes.

Thirty minutes.

Forty minutes.

At fifty-eight minutes, the light film beneath Chen Mo's feet began to thin.

"Go back," Android 18 said.

Chen Mo did not force himself. He slowly floated back to the hatch and entered the ship. The door closed, and the air pressure returned.

He withdrew the barrier. His entire body went limp, and he collapsed onto the floor.

"Fifty-eight minutes." Android 18 floated in through the hatch. "Passable."

"What's the passing mark?"

"One hour."

"I was two minutes short."

"Two minutes short means you failed." Android 18 looked down at him as he lay on the floor. "But you can make it tomorrow."

Chen Mo closed his eyes.

But this barrier had another problem.

He had confirmed it during their later sparring sessions.

Using the King Kai Fist while keeping the barrier active caused the two flows of qi to conflict.

The King Kai Fist required him to pour qi inward, strengthening his muscles and bones. The barrier required him to push qi outward from the surface of his body, forming an isolating layer.

Running two qi techniques with opposing flows at the same time caused them to interfere with each other.

As a result, the King Kai Fist's multiplier was suppressed. Twenty-six times dropped to around twenty times.

"You can train it," Android 18 said. "Maintaining two qi flows at once is an advanced technique. Android 17 can do it."

"How long did he train?"

"He could do it straight out of the factory."

Chen Mo took a deep breath.

He could do it straight out of the factory. Androids and humans were not even starting on the same level.

Still, it was a path. He could take his time training it later.

"Android 18."

"Yeah."

"Thanks."

There was a three-second silence.

"What did you say?"

"Thanks for teaching me the barrier."

Android 18 turned her face away.

"I didn't do it for you," she said. "You took too long every time you put on that stupid suit. You were wasting my time. I taught you the barrier for my own convenience."

The system displayed a message.

[New emotion collected from target: Embarrassment (slight).]

[Emotion Value +440.]

Day thirty-one of warp travel.

Chen Mo could now maintain his barrier steadily for one hour and forty minutes.

Not enough for a major battle, but enough for normal activity in space.

Leaving the ship, moving short distances, and handling emergencies were all no problem.

He no longer needed to wear a spacesuit.

Android 18 was very satisfied. Not because Chen Mo had become stronger.

But because the time it took him to leave the ship had gone from "five minutes to put on a spacesuit" to "three seconds to activate a barrier."

"Much more convenient," she said the first time Chen Mo left the ship without a spacesuit.

Chen Mo made a mental note of it. Sure enough, her reason for teaching him had been that she thought he was too slow.

Day thirty-three of warp travel.

The readings on the navigation panel began to change.

The target star system's gravitational field had entered the ship's sensor range. The warp engine began slowing down automatically.

The white streaks beyond the porthole gradually shortened.

They became short lines, then points of light.

The stars returned to their normal appearance.

Chen Mo stood before the porthole.

Ahead was a star. White with a bluish tint, slightly smaller than Earth's sun.

Of the several planets orbiting it, the third one—

Green.

Planet Namek.

"We're here?" Android 18 walked over from behind and glanced out the porthole.

"We're here."

Chen Mo shifted his gaze to the pocket of Android 18's skirt.

"It's time to let Trunks out."

Android 18 looked at him.

"Why let him out?"

"We've arrived. He needs to know what's going on before we land."

"I think he's doing just fine in there. Doesn't take up space. Nice and quiet."

"Android 18."

"Fine, fine."

She took the capsule from her pocket and tossed it to Chen Mo.

Chen Mo pressed the button.

Pop.

The hibernation pod unfolded in the corridor.

The layer of frost on its translucent walls slowly melted.

Trunks's eyes opened.

He sat up in the hibernation pod, purple hair plastered to his forehead. His gaze immediately swept toward Android 18.

Android 18 leaned against the porthole with her legs crossed, not even looking at him.

Trunks turned his gaze to Chen Mo.

"How long has it been?"

"Thirty-three days."

Trunks's eyes widened.

"Thirty-three days... I slept for thirty-three days?!"

"Technically, it was thirty days. You went in on the third day."

Trunks stood up from the pod and looked out the viewport.

A green planet.

"Namek?"

"We've arrived," Chen Mo said. "We'll land within four hours."

Trunks took a deep breath.

He glanced at Android 18, then at Chen Mo.

Then he noticed the change in Chen Mo.

"Your ki..." Trunks frowned. "It's changed. It's more substantial than when you entered the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. And it's distributed differently. There's a layer around you..."

"A protective shield," Chen Mo said.

"Did anything else happen on the way?" Trunks asked Chen Mo in a lowered voice.

Chen Mo thought about it.

They had encountered Babidi.

Android 18 had slapped him thirty kilometers away.

After being affected by the remnants of a curse, she had held him while sleeping for six days.

They had fought in space every day and blown up three planets infested with bugs.

"Nothing major," Chen Mo said.

Trunks clearly didn't believe him, but he didn't press further.

The spaceship began entering Namek's high orbit.

The green outside the viewport drew closer and closer, until the texture of the surface became visible.

Blue-green oceans. Emerald landmasses.

Its colors were purer than Earth's—a planet untouched by pollution.

Three suns hung in different parts of the sky.

Namek had no night.

Chen Mo looked at the navigation panel. Less than an hour remained until landing.

"Here's the procedure once we arrive." Chen Mo turned to face the other two. "Find the Namekians. Find the Dragon Balls. Summon Porunga. Make our wish. The Namekian Dragon Balls number seven, and each one is kept by an elder. We'll need to persuade them one by one to hand them over."

"Persuade?" Android 18's tone was off.

"Yes. Persuade." Chen Mo looked at her. "The Namekians are a peaceful race. The Dragon Balls are sacred artifacts to them. We can't take them by force."

"Why not?"

"Because if you kill a guardian of the Dragon Balls, the Dragon Balls will turn to stone."

Lin Mo casually made that up.

Android 18 fell silent for three seconds.

"Then we'll persuade them."

"I'll do the talking. Don't make a move."

"We'll see."

Trunks stood beside them, his gaze moving back and forth between Android 18 and Chen Mo several times.

He had spent a year with Chen Mo in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.

He understood Chen Mo's way of thinking.

Calm. Calculating.

Skilled at using information asymmetry to create advantages.

The spaceship slowed as it entered the atmosphere.

The heat-resistant coating on the hull began to glow, and the friction-generated heat dyed the scene beyond the viewport orange-red.

After passing through the clouds, the view suddenly opened up.

Green plains.

Blue lakes.

No cities. No industrial pollution.

Only nature.

Scattered Namekian villages dotted the plains.

White domed buildings.