Your Heartbeat Quickened, Because of Her?

Dr. Gero's tracking robot.

Chen Mo stood behind the low wall, slowly loosening his grip on the Scouter.

This thing should not have been here.

Dr. Gero had been dead for four years.

The laboratory had been personally blown up by Android 17 and Android 18.

In theory, all the equipment should have been destroyed.

Yet this bee was still flying.

Chen Mo pulled up the scan data again and examined it carefully.

The bee's signal frequency band was not entirely consistent with Dr. Gero's original data stored in the Scouter.

It had been altered.

The frequency had been recoded. The encryption was crude, but highly effective.

It was not Dr. Gero's original control signal.

Someone had taken over this bee.

A cold sweat broke out across Chen Mo's back.

He remembered something.

Android 18 had gone to Dr. Gero's laboratory in the north last month.

She had said she was just going to take a look.

Take a look at what?

Chen Mo's mind raced.

Android 18's combat power was the result of mechanical modification. The Eternal Furnace supplied limitless energy.

And the mechanical parts of her body had originally been creations of Dr. Gero.

Could she read Dr. Gero's equipment?

The answer was yes.

Android 18 herself was a product of that laboratory. Her internal systems were naturally compatible with all of Dr. Gero's equipment, including the tracking robot's control protocols.

This bee had been found and reactivated by Android 18 in Dr. Gero's laboratory.

To monitor him.

Chen Mo closed his eyes.

He carried a tracking marker implanted by Android 18. That marker could track his location, but it could not see images or hear sounds.

Android 18 was not satisfied with merely knowing where he was.

She wanted to know what he was doing, who he was talking to, and what they were saying.

So she activated the bee.

The ventilation duct. From that position, it could capture the entire laboratory.

Which meant—

Everything that had happened in the laboratory just now—Bulma leaning over to look at the blueprints, Bulma smiling as she asked, "Are you interested?", the way he had looked at Bulma—

Android 18 had seen it all.

[Ding--]

[Detected emotional fluctuations from target "Android 18".]

[Emotion Type: Jealousy.]

[Intensity: Extremely High.]

[Ding--]

[Emotion Type: Anger.]

[Intensity: Extremely High.]

[Ding--]

[Emotion Type: Possessiveness.]

[Intensity: Breaking historical peak.]

[Ding--]

[The target is moving rapidly in your direction.]

[Estimated arrival time: 47 seconds.]

Chen Mo looked up.

A point of light appeared on the northern horizon.

It cut straight toward them on a trajectory far beyond the speed of sound.

There were no unnecessary arcs. The shortest distance. The fastest speed.

Forty-six seconds.

Chen Mo turned and ran.

Not toward the camp. The opposite direction. Toward the sea.

He could not let Android 18 enter the camp.

Bulma was inside. Trunks was strong, but if Android 18 ran into Trunks in this state, things would spiral out of control.

Chen Mo flew at full speed. The Tenfold King Kai Fist activated instantly, kicking up dust beneath his feet.

Eight seconds later, he had flown beyond the camp's perimeter.

Twelve seconds later, he crossed the coastline.

Fifteen seconds later, he was above the sea.

He stopped and turned to face north.

Android 18 had arrived.

She hovered fifty meters away.

Her short golden hair fluttered in the sea breeze.

Her denim jacket hung open, while a black striped fitted tank top tightly wrapped her upper body.

Below her waist, her jeans clung to her legs under the wind pressure from flying, outlining their long, toned contours.

Her face was calm.

The calm at the eye of a storm.

"Chen Mo."

Android 18 spoke.

"Your heartbeat sped up just now."

Chen Mo said nothing.

"One hundred and twenty-three beats per minute." Android 18 stated a number. "Duration: seventeen seconds."

"It happened after that woman pressed herself against you."

[Ding—Emotion Points +900. Type: Jealousy.]

"Android 18, listen to me—"

"I want to ask you something."

Android 18 drifted two meters closer.

Her movement was slow, like a fallen leaf floating across the sea.

"Did your heart speed up because of her?"

"Not in the way you think."

"You're lying." Android 18's eyes fixed on Chen Mo's chest. "Your heart rate is now one hundred and forty-one. Even higher than before. But this time, it isn't because of that woman. It's because you're afraid."

She was using the Eternal Furnace's sensory functions to read his heart rate in real time.

"So you can tell the difference." Android 18 tilted her head. "For her, your heart races. For me, you're afraid."

[Ding—Emotion Points +1200. Type: Anger/Jealousy/Possessiveness Mixed.]

"Android 18. Bulma is Trunks's mother. She..."

"I know who she is."

Android 18 raised her hand.

Chen Mo's body reacted before his brain could.

The Twentyfold King Kai Fist surged forth instantly, his entire body engulfed in dark red energy as he crossed his arms to block.

Android 18's hand did not strike him.

She grabbed Chen Mo by the throat.

Her five fingers were icy cold, her fingertips precisely positioned on either side of his carotid arteries.

Not tight enough to suffocate him, but tight enough for Chen Mo to clearly feel his pulse beating beneath her fingertips.

"You belong to me." Android 18 leaned closer, her nose nearly touching Chen Mo's.

There was no dilation in her light blue eyes. Their focus was fixed. Locked on.

"The right to have your heart race belongs to me too."

Then, gripping Chen Mo by the neck, she plunged headfirst beneath the surface of the sea.

The seawater, struck at supersonic speed, shot up into a white column.

Chen Mo was dragged along by Android 18.

They skimmed over the sea for less than three seconds before she flung him away.

His body skipped across the surface four times, like a stone skipping over water.

Each bounce blasted a ring of seawater outward.

The force of the final bounce sent him flying nearly two hundred meters.

Chen Mo steadied himself in midair. The taste of blood filled his mouth, and he wiped it away.

Thirtyfold King Kai Fist. Activate.

His aura shifted from dark red to crimson, and the pressure of his ki pressed a depression over ten meters wide into the sea.

Android 18 had already caught up.

For the first punch, Chen Mo crossed his arms to block.

He was slammed straight into the sea.

Seawater surged in from all directions, while the shockwave formed a spherical vacuum beneath the surface.

He burst out of the water and fired a Kamehameha backhandedly.

Android 18 twisted aside. The energy wave grazed past her waist, vaporizing a corner of her denim jacket.

Android 18 lowered her head and glanced at the burned fabric.

"Interesting."

Android 18's second punch was faster than the first.

Not a little faster. Twice as fast.

Chen Mo saw it, but his body could not keep up.

He managed to block.

But he could not dissipate the force afterward.

Her fist smashed into his crossed forearms, and his entire left arm went numb in an instant.

She had not used ki.

It was purely physical strength.

Mechanical bones and artificial muscle fibers powered by the Eternal Furnace.

The output of a single punch was equivalent to the physical limit of a super soldier at full strength.

Chen Mo was struck onto the sea surface and skimmed fifty meters with his back against the water.

He got back up. His left arm was still tingling.

The aura of the Thirtyfold King Kai Fist flickered in the sea wind.

This was Android 18.

Trunks feared her not because he was weak.

It was because her power had no depletion, no fatigue, no limit.

Every punch was at full power. The force behind a hundred punches was exactly the same as that behind ten thousand.

But Chen Mo was no longer the bug with a power level of only five from a year ago.

His base combat power was two million. With the Thirtyfold King Kai Fist, it was sixty million.

Not enough to defeat Android 18.

But enough to endure. Enough to get back up. Enough to charge back in after being sent flying.

He charged back in.

His right fist blazed with crimson ki as it drove straight for Android 18's face.

Android 18 did not dodge.

She merely tilted her head, letting Chen Mo's fist brush past her cheek.

At the same time, her knee drove into Chen Mo's abdomen.

Chen Mo doubled over as his stomach churned.

But the instant he bent over, his right hand pressed onto Android 18's shoulder.

Using the force, he sprang himself away and opened the distance.

Android 18 looked down at her shoulder.

The imprint of Chen Mo's palm remained on her skin, a mark left by the scorching crimson ki.

"You hit me."

There was a strange delight in Android 18's voice.

She rolled her shoulders, and the marks faded at a visible rate under the Eternal Furnace's repair.

Her snow-white skin returned to normal.

"Again."

She charged.

This time, she did not use her fists.

Her left leg swept sideways, the arc of her calf tracing a circle across the sea.

Long, powerful, the top of her foot taut.

The wind pressure kicked up by her foot split the seawater in a clean fissure.

Chen Mo raised both arms to block and was knocked back three steps.

Each step left a crater on the surface of the sea.

He returned with a kick.

Android 18 caught it with her forearm.

The kick made her body sway slightly.

"Mm." Android 18 made a sound through her nose, as if savoring something.

Then came her counterattack.

Faster.

Denser.

No ki blasts. No energy waves. Pure fists and kicks. Every strike was precise. Every strike came from the angle Chen Mo found most uncomfortable.

Chen Mo fought as he retreated. One of his ribs cracked on the seventh punch, and his left eye socket began swelling after the twelfth.

But he kept counterattacking.

Every three or four blocks, he found one chance to strike back.

A punch. Or an elbow. Most were easily defused by Android 18, though one or two occasionally landed on her.

Whenever he hit her, Android 18 wore that delighted expression that made Chen Mo's skin crawl.

She was enjoying this process.

This fucking bitch isn't some kind of pervert, is she?

The realization sent a chill through Chen Mo's heart.

Android 18's right fist had already arrived.

Chen Mo twisted aside, avoiding its main trajectory.

At the same time, his right hand caught Android 18's wrist, using her momentum to pull himself in. His left elbow drove toward her ribs.

Android 18 blocked it with her free left hand, but Chen Mo immediately followed with a headbutt.

It hit.

Android 18's chin was knocked upward, her body tilting back by the tiniest margin.

"Ha."

She laughed aloud, the corners of her eyes curving as her lips parted slightly.

The sea breeze blew her short golden hair across her face. She raised a hand and tucked the loose strands behind her ear.

Then her eyes fixed on Chen Mo again.

There was a light in those pale blue eyes that Chen Mo had never seen before.

"You've grown stronger," Android 18 said. "I'm very happy."

Then she punched Chen Mo straight into the sea.

[Ding—acquiring a large amount of emotional energy—]

[Jealousy/Excitement/Pleasure/Possessiveness/Combat Thrill/Complex Attachment—]

[Total emotional fluctuation value has surpassed the system's historical single-instance record—]

[Infinite King Kai Fist increasing... 31x... 32x...]

Chen Mo burst up from the seabed, drenched from head to toe.

Blood and seawater mixed together, impossible to distinguish.

The 32x King Kai Fist spread open. His aura grew deeper. Steadier. Heavier.

His perception was changing.

When his body was pushed to its limit by the beating, the upper limit of the King Kai Fist expanded instead, as if the system were using pain as fuel.

Android 18 stood on the sea, both hands tucked into the pockets of her jeans.

The sea breeze stirred the hem of her tank top, revealing a strip of snow-white waist and abdomen.

Her abdomen was flat and toned. The curve of her waist cast faint shadows in the lingering light of the setting sun.

She simply stood there, waiting for him.

No urging. No pursuit.

Waiting for him to climb back up on his own, then continue fighting.

"Android 18." Chen Mo wiped the blood from his face. "Are you addicted to beating me up?"

"Answer me one question." Android 18's smile faded. "You call her Bulma. You call her Ms. Bulma. What do you call me?"

"Android 18."

"I have a name."

Chen Mo froze.

"Lazuli," he said.

Android 18 fell silent for a second.

Then her speed rose by another level.

Chen Mo did not see that punch at all. He only felt a jolt in his chest.

His body lost all weight, and his vision spun upside down.

By the time he came back to his senses, he was already floating on his back atop the sea.

Android 18 descended from above and crouched over his chest, one bare foot pressing against his collarbone.

Her pale toes rested on his blood-soaked clothes.

"Remember this." Android 18 leaned down, hooking a finger beneath Chen Mo's chin and forcing him to look at her.

"Your heart is only allowed to race for me."

"Otherwise..."

Her thumb brushed across Chen Mo's lips.

The pressure was just enough for him to feel the coolness of her fingertip.

"I'll kill everyone who makes your heart race, then lock you away somewhere only I can find. Until your heartbeat recognizes only one person's rhythm—mine."

[ Ding-- ]

[ Emotional value has reached the advancement threshold. ]

[ Infinite King Kai Fist, thirty-three times, unlocked. ]

Chen Mo looked at Android 18, so close before him.

The sunset lay behind her, its golden light outlining her jaw and neck.

Seawater dripped from the tips of her hair, drop by drop, onto Chen Mo's face.

She really was beautiful.

But she really was insane, too.

Chen Mo finally understood the bone-deep fear Trunks revealed whenever he mentioned Android 18.

"Lazuli." Chen Mo spoke, his voice hoarse, blood still at the corner of his mouth.

"Hmm?"

"You're stepping on my broken rib."

Android 18 lowered her head for a look, then moved her foot away.

And replaced it with her other foot.

Pressing down on an unbroken rib.

"This one isn't broken," she said.

Chen Mo closed his eyes for a moment.

Then he did something Android 18 had not expected.

He reached out and grabbed the ankle of the foot she had placed on his chest.

Android 18's body stiffened slightly.

She did not pull away.

Chen Mo lifted her foot from his chest and slowly sat up.

The two of them sat face-to-face on the surface of the sea.

The water came just up to their waists.

The setting sun dyed the entire sea orange-red.