Tao Pai Pai: You Think You're Worthy of My Effort?

Chen Mo had not slept well all night.

The basement's concrete floor was harder than the partitioned room he had rented in his previous life.

The wound on his lower back had soaked in filthy water and started to fester in the middle of the night, aching and itching at the same time.

He tossed and turned until three in the morning. Unable to endure any longer, he folded his jacket into a pillow beneath his head and forced himself into a shallow sleep through sheer willpower.

The concept of dawn did not exist in the basement.

Chen Mo was awakened by Old Zhang.

"Chen Mo, get up and have something to eat."

Old Zhang squatted beside him, holding an enamel mug.

Inside was a mush of compressed biscuits soaked in hot water, with two pieces of dehydrated vegetable leaves floating on top, God knew where they had been dug up from.

Apocalypse Michelin cuisine.

Chen Mo took it and drank two mouthfuls. It scalded his mouth, but at last, some warmth reached his stomach.

"Old Zhang, I'm leaving today."

Old Zhang froze. "Leaving? Going where?"

"South."

"There's nothing in the south. South City was blown up by Android 17 last month. It's worse off than West City."

"I'm not going to South City." Chen Mo drained the biscuit mush from the mug. "I'm going to find someone."

"Find someone?" Old Zhang looked at him. "Are you crazy? The outside is nothing but ruins, and the androids could show up at any moment. You're heading south alone?"

"If I don't leave, what will you use to stop Android 18 when she comes again?"

Old Zhang had no answer.

Everyone had seen what happened last night.

Android 18 had come looking for them, and Chen Mo had gone out alone and sent her away.

As for how he had sent her away, nobody knew, and nobody dared ask.

They only knew one thing: Android 18 had left, and they were still alive.

"Are you sure?" Old Zhang asked in a low voice.

"I'm sure."

Lin Ke walked over from the side.

She held a bulging army-green canvas bag in her arms.

"This is for you." She stuffed the bag into Chen Mo's arms. "Three days' worth of compressed biscuits, two bottles of water, a folding knife, and a clean jacket."

Chen Mo weighed it in his hand. It was not light.

"You don't have enough food for yourselves."

"If you leave, that's one less mouth to feed," Lin Ke said. "By that math, we're making a profit."

Chen Mo looked at her. The girl spoke tough, but her eyes were red.

"Thanks."

He did not linger. He slung the canvas bag over his back and changed into the clean jacket Lin Ke had given him.

It was a dark gray hoodie, two sizes too large, but it was ten times better than his ragged T-shirt that had been soaked in filthy water.

As he headed out of the basement, a little girl's voice called from behind him.

"Uncle, are you coming back?"

Chen Mo paused.

"I'll be back."

He did not turn around.

It was a little past six in the morning when he climbed out of the supermarket ruins.

The sky was gray and overcast, and the air still carried the scent of smoke from yesterday's fire.

The skyline in the direction of West City had been completely flattened. Not a single building remained standing.

Chen Mo took out the folding knife from the canvas bag and clipped it to his waist, pulled his hood low, and headed south along the ruined highway.

His target was Master Roshi.

In the original story, Master Roshi, the Turtle Hermit, was the founder of the Turtle School and had taught Goku and Krillin.

After the Saiyan Saga, his power level could no longer keep up.

But he possessed something Chen Mo needed most: a cultivation system.

The system had given him the King Kai Fist, but the King Kai Fist was built upon ki.

His current physical condition was F-, the lower limit for an ordinary human.

If there were a device to measure battle power, his was probably only 5—absolute trash.

He needed to learn how to sense ki, use ki, and raise his base battle power.

Otherwise, even if the system gave him a hundredfold King Kai Fist, it would be useless.

The question was, was Master Roshi still alive?

The original story's future arc had barely mentioned Master Roshi's situation.

The androids mainly caused trouble in cities, while Master Roshi lived on a small island out at sea.

Maybe he had been lucky and had never been discovered.

Or maybe he was already dead.

It was a fifty-fifty chance.

But Chen Mo had no other choice.

Other than Master Roshi, he could count on one hand the people in this timeline he could think of who still knew how to train.

Chen Mo walked along the blasted highway for two hours, climbing over three small hills of ruins.

There were no living people on this road.

Every so often, he saw the wreckage of vehicles. Some still looked as though they were driving, except their roofs and passengers were gone.

Several cars bore blackened scorch marks inside. Chen Mo did not look closely.

When the third hour came, he stopped for a drink of water and rested against an overturned truck.

His feet hurt.

When he had transmigrated here, he had been wearing an ordinary pair of sneakers. Their soles were nearly worn through by now.

"At this pace, it'll take at least four days to reach the South Sea coast," Chen Mo muttered to himself.

In his previous life, he had run a half marathon once—twenty-one kilometers in two hours and ten minutes.

Now that he was injured and carrying supplies, walking fifty kilometers a day would already be good.

The South Sea was more than three hundred kilometers away.

As he calculated his route, a figure appeared on the road ahead.

Chen Mo instantly tensed up and crouched into the shadow beneath the truck's chassis.

Not an android.

Chen Mo let out a breath, but he did not lower his guard.

In the apocalypse, people were not necessarily safer than androids.

The figure drew closer.

It was a man.

He wore a modified Chinese long robe, deep purple with gold trim embroidered around the collar.

On his feet were a pair of black cloth boots, spotless, as though someone polished them every day.

His hair was combed immaculately, with a braid tied at the back of his head.

He had a long face, high cheekbones, narrow eyes, and lips that always curved slightly downward.

Most eye-catching of all was the pillar tucked at his waist.

A stone pillar. One nearly as tall as he was, casually tucked into his belt as if it were a set of keys.

Chen Mo recognized that face.

Cyborg Tao Pai Pai.

The world's greatest assassin. A disciple of the Crane School. Before fighting Goku at the World Martial Arts Tournament, he had been one of the strongest assassins on Earth.

Later, he had been defeated by Goku at the World Martial Arts Tournament and remade into Cyborg Tao Pai Pai by Dr. Gero.

But that had happened in the main timeline.

Chen Mo did not know Cyborg Tao Pai Pai's circumstances in this future timeline.

He might have been modified, or he might not have been.

Judging by his current appearance, at least outwardly, he was still in his original form.

The question was, why was this man still alive?

Where had Cyborg Tao Pai Pai been when the androids killed the Z Fighters?

He was not a Z Fighter, so the androids could not be bothered with him.

When there were too many ants, you did not stomp on them one by one.

To Android 17 and Android 18, Cyborg Tao Pai Pai's battle power was not much different from that of an ordinary person. Either way, one slap would do it.

But to Chen Mo, Cyborg Tao Pai Pai was a mountain.

A mountain he could not climb.

Tao Pai Pai stopped about thirty meters away from the truck where Chen Mo was hiding.

"Come out."

Each word seemed nailed into the air.

Chen Mo did not move.

"I said, come out." Tao Pai Pai tilted his head slightly, his narrow eyes sweeping toward the underside of the truck. "I could hear your breathing from fifty meters away. Hiding under sheet metal like a rat."

Chen Mo closed his eyes briefly, crawled out from beneath the truck, stood up, and dusted himself off.

Tao Pai Pai's first reaction upon seeing him was disappointment.

"An ordinary person." Tao Pai Pai frowned. "What a waste of my time."

He lifted a foot to leave.

Chen Mo was about to breathe a sigh of relief as well.

But Tao Pai Pai's gaze swept over the folding knife tucked at Chen Mo's waist and the canvas bag on his back.

"Stop."

Chen Mo's feet froze in place.

Tao Pai Pai turned around and looked him over from above.

"What's in the bag?"

"Compressed biscuits and water."

"Put it down."

Chen Mo stared at him. "It's mine."

Tao Pai Pai smiled.

"Kid, do you know who I am?"

"Tao Pai Pai. The world's greatest assassin."

Tao Pai Pai raised his brows.

"You know me? Good. Then you should know what kind of existence is standing before you."

Tao Pai Pai stood with his hands behind his back, his braid swaying gently in the wind.

"I, Tao Pai Pai, have dominated the world for decades. I've killed more people than you've ever seen. Androids running rampant? What a joke. Those two tin cans merely rely on brute strength. If I had not disdained to act, how could the world have come to this?"

Chen Mo looked at him.

Was this man serious?

Android 17 and Android 18 could shatter mountain ranges with one hand, and he said he disdained to act?

But Chen Mo said nothing.

He had survived until now because his mouth was tough enough and his mind was flexible enough. Arguing with someone who could poke him to death with one finger over whether he could beat the androids was the sort of thing he should leave to people online.

"Senior Tao Pai Pai," Chen Mo swallowed, "these supplies were given to me by the shelter."

"I don't care where they came from." Tao Pai Pai cut him off. "Put it down. Turn around. I'll give you a quick death."

Chen Mo took the canvas bag's strap off his shoulder.

He slowly placed the canvas bag on the ground.

Tao Pai Pai nodded in satisfaction. "Very good. I'll make sure you die without pain."

He walked over and bent down to pick up the canvas bag.

The instant he bent over, Chen Mo moved.

"Kaio-ken!"

A red aura burst from his body.

The newly unlocked Triple Kaio-ken.

Chen Mo's right fist, wrapped in red aura, smashed toward the back of Tao Pai Pai's head.

It was fast—at least, fast for an ordinary person.

But to Tao Pai Pai, it was as slow as a frozen image.

Tao Pai Pai did not even straighten up.

Still bent over, he casually raised his left hand and caught Chen Mo's fist.

The red aura struck Tao Pai Pai's palm like sparks hitting iron. It crackled twice before going out.

"Oh?" Tao Pai Pai straightened, still gripping Chen Mo's fist. "Interesting. Ki? You know how to use ki?"

Chen Mo's fist was squeezed so tightly that his bones creaked.

"Red ki... Kaio-ken?" Tao Pai Pai narrowed his eyes. "Where did you learn something like this?"

Without waiting for Chen Mo to answer, he flicked his wrist and hurled Chen Mo away.

Chen Mo flipped twice in midair before crashing onto the hood of a wrecked car, back first.

The metal caved in in the shape of a human body.

Tao Pai Pai walked over, carrying a canvas bag.

"Kaio-ken." He repeated the name, his tone turning serious. "I heard Tien Shinhan mention it before. Supposedly, it was a technique King Kai taught Goku. Are you Goku's disciple?"

"No."

"No? Then where did you learn it?"

Chen Mo did not answer.

"You don't have to answer." Tao Pai Pai let go of the canvas bag and pulled the stone pillar from his waist.

The stone pillar spun once in his hand, its pointed end aimed at Chen Mo.

"The fact that you know Kaio-ken means you have secrets. And the thing I, Tao Pai Pai, do best is dig secrets out of other people's mouths."

He raised the stone pillar.

Chen Mo's pupils contracted.

He could not block this.

The gap between him, using Triple Kaio-ken, and Tao Pai Pai was like the gap between him and Android 18—separated by several orders of magnitude.

The stone pillar came down.

Chen Mo closed his eyes.

The sound of metal striking metal rang out.

Sharp, brief, followed by a trembling resonance.

Chen Mo opened his eyes.

A blade stood before him.

A katana. The blade was not long, but it was astonishingly broad, with a faint gleam along its edge.

Its owner held the hilt in one hand, blocking Tao Pai Pai's stone pillar.

It was a fat man.

Very fat. His round body was wrapped in a filthy blue shirt, while his messy hair was tied into a bun.

An empty, shriveled cloth bag hung from his waist, looking as though it had once held food.

Round face, small eyes, and an utterly unwilling expression.

The kind of unwillingness someone had when forced to wake up early for work by an alarm clock.

"Who are you?" Tao Pai Pai's stone pillar was knocked aside. He retreated half a step, his eyes fixed on the sword.

The fat man ignored him.

He turned to glance at Chen Mo lying on the ground, then frowned and said, "Why are you so weak?"

Chen Mo's mouth twitched. "...Thanks for your concern."

"I wasn't concerned. I was just asking."

Yajirobe.

A hidden character from the original Dragon Balls story.

A martial artist, but one who did not like fighting.

He was not among the strongest, but he was definitely not weak.

His sword had cut off Vegeta's tail. A man who had once made the Saiyan prince suffer.

In this future timeline, Yajirobe stayed atop Korin Tower with Korin.

He had outlived most of the Z Fighters for one simple reason: he never took the initiative to provoke the androids.

Tao Pai Pai's expression changed.

Not because of Yajirobe's appearance, but because of that sword.

"That sword..." Tao Pai Pai stared at the gleam on the katana. "It isn't an ordinary sword."

Yajirobe pulled his blade back from Tao Pai Pai's stone pillar and rested it on his shoulder.

"Good if you recognize it. Now get lost. Stop picking on ordinary people."

"Ordinary people?" Tao Pai Pai sneered. "He knows Kaio-ken."

"What does that have to do with you?"

Tao Pai Pai narrowed his eyes to slits.

"You fat bastard, do you know who you're talking to? I'm Tao Pai Pai, the world's number one—"

"The number one assassin, yeah, I know." Yajirobe yawned. "You've said it three times already."

"I said it first!"

"Too many people have said that to me. It's on automatic repeat by now." Yajirobe tilted his head. "Are you leaving or not? If you don't, I won't be polite."

Tao Pai Pai tightened his grip on the stone pillar.

The air went taut.

The two faced off for three seconds.

Then Tao Pai Pai let go. The stone pillar slid back into place at his waist.

"Fine." Tao Pai Pai snorted coldly. "You got lucky today. I, Tao Pai Pai, won't bother with a nobody."

He turned, took two steps, then glanced back at Chen Mo.

"You brat with the King Kai Fist. I'll remember you."

With that, he stepped onto the stone pillar.

The pillar shot toward the horizon, carrying Tao Pai Pai's figure as it vanished above the distant ruins.

Using a pillar as a flying vehicle.

Worthy of the old generation's king of showing off.

Before Vegito made his entrance, he had been the man best at putting on airs.