The Key to Memory

The three key pieces of information came together like old yet precise keys, clicking crisply into place and throwing open a long-sealed door deep within his memories.

Dragon Ball GT.

He had not simply traveled to some random point in the Dragon Ball world. He had landed directly in this unique and perpetually controversial timeline—the world of Dragon Ball GT.

A flood of scenes and information surged into his mind: Goku, still innocent yet powerful after being turned into a child; Baby, the vengeful galactic tyrant lying in wait; Super 17, born from the grudges of androids; and all the terrifying monsters of the Shadow Dragon Saga, formed from the Dragon Balls' negative energy...

The plots, characters, and battles he had watched on television as a child had all come alive before him. It was as though he had just rewatched them yesterday, every detail crystal clear.

"So that's how it is..." Qi Heng murmured, his voice so soft it was nearly carried away by the wind.

The faint golden light in his eyes shifted with complicated emotions—realization, heaviness, and even a subtle unease at facing a fate he already knew.

Dragon Ball GT.

A timeline separate from the main continuity, one that stood as a complete system of its own.

There was no God of Destruction Beerus here, no enigmatic angel Whis, nor any of the increasingly absurd divine powers and dimensions that came later.

This world was rather isolated. Its canonical status had always been fiercely debated among fans, and many simply regarded it as an excellent story from a parallel world.

Vegeta had kept his eyes on Qi Heng the entire time, missing not even the slightest change in expression on his face.

That sudden realization followed by deep thought was clearly not the reaction of someone who had merely heard a new term.

"What did you realize?" Vegeta's tone was low and direct, his suspicion written all over his face. "How much more do you know about the Black Star Dragon Balls?"

Qi Heng ignored Vegeta's questioning.

His mind raced as though it had been supercharged, rapidly sorting through GT's timeline: Baby's parasitism and revenge, Super 17's return from Hell, the Shadow Dragons' final trial...

According to Bulla, eight months had already passed since Goku had been turned into a child and set out to search for the Dragon Balls. That meant the story should be about to enter the Baby Saga—or Baby had already begun making moves in secret.

Was Baby, that avenger from Tuffle Planet, already lurking in some corner or actively making his move?

Qi Heng was still frantically piecing his thoughts together when Vegeta's patience was about to run out—

"BOOOOM—!!!"

A thunderous explosion suddenly erupted from the eastern district of West City, loud enough to tear the sky apart!

Immediately afterward, an enormous fireball of crimson flames and black smoke burst across the city skyline like a flower blooming in hell.

Even from far away, they could see countless fragments of buildings hurled high into the air before raining back down like fiery rain.

Piercing air-raid sirens, car alarms, and the screams of the crowd instantly tore the peaceful afternoon into chaos. The standoff amid Capsule Corporation's ruins was blown away completely.

Vegeta's expression changed at once. The aura of a proud prince vanished, leaving only the sharpness and gravity of a warrior.

He abruptly closed his eyes. Several strands of black hair over his forehead stirred without wind as his powerful senses spread rapidly toward the explosion like radar.

The next second, he snapped his eyes open, and a terrifying light burst from his dark pupils!

"This energy... it carries intense malice and hatred. It's definitely not an ordinary terrorist attack or fire!" Vegeta said in a low, urgent voice, his conclusion absolute. "Something has infiltrated the city. Something powerful!"

"Dad!" Bulla was frightened by the sudden turn of events and her father's stern tone. Instinctively, she gripped the armor on Vegeta's battle suit, her little face pale as she trembled on the verge of tears.

"Stay here! Do not run around!" Vegeta barked, flinging his daughter's hand aside without hesitation.

A pale golden aura burst from his body with a hum, reducing the rubble beneath his feet to powder.

Without wasting even half a second, his figure flashed and became a golden streak that tore through the sky toward the smoke-shrouded eastern district, leaving only fading heat waves behind.

Yet Qi Heng remained where he was, making no move to follow Vegeta.

He even slowly closed his eyes, as though he were completely unmoved by the distant disaster or Vegeta's departure.

But within his own sensory world, another clear scene was unfolding.

His spiritual perception spread outward like spilled mercury, swiftly covering all of West City and continuing to expand.

The city's clamor, the faint presences of countless ordinary people, the chaotic energy fluctuations—all of it flooded into his consciousness like a tide.

He quickly caught the anomaly.

Several utterly revolting auras permeated the explosion's epicenter and the surrounding areas.

They were neither alien life forms nor simple evil intent, but a twisted, viscous energy brimming with resentment and predatory desire.

Like parasites, those auras had wrapped around and fused with the life force of numerous ordinary people. They were clearly foreign, a form of control forcibly imposed upon them.

They were devouring and transforming human life energy, turning living people into malicious puppets in a way that made one's scalp crawl.

Within Qi Heng's mind, his perception painted scene after scene: on the streets, people who had been fleeing in panic suddenly began moving strangely. An eerie red glow rapidly appeared in their eyes, and they let out inhuman howls before turning to pounce on those who had not yet been infected...

The chaos spread like a virus.

Qi Heng opened his eyes. The distant black smoke and fire reflected in his golden pupils, cold and clear.

"Baby." Looking at the empty ruins, he softly spoke the name destined to stir up a storm.

Tuffle Planet's revenge had begun.

He knew the plot of Dragon Ball GT all too well.

Baby was the Tuffles' final creation of vengeance, a biological weapon capable of parasitizing and completely controlling its host.

It existed for only one purpose—to exact a bloody revenge upon the Saiyans across time and space, because the Saiyans had once betrayed and destroyed Tuffle Planet.

"Qi Heng?" Bulla's voice pulled him back from his memories.

She stood before Capsule Corporation's metal gates, her brows slightly furrowed as she looked toward the smoke-filled sky in the distance. "Aren't you going to help? My dad is all alone..."

"There's no need." Qi Heng's voice was as still as stagnant water. He did not even raise his head. "Your father can handle it."

Before his words had even faded, another thunderous blast erupted in the distance—the shriek of energy blasts tearing through the air, the deafening crash of reinforced concrete collapsing layer by layer beneath shockwaves, and Vegeta's signature roar, beastlike as it pierced through the clamor of all West City.

At the heart of the explosions, the once-prosperous commercial district had become a living hell.

The streets had been blasted into deep ravines, shop windows shattered into crystalline dust that drifted through the air alongside fragments of burning billboards.

The charred ground was littered with twisted metal and smoking rubble. Several cars lay overturned by the roadside, their alarms still blaring intermittently.

Thick smoke hung low over the ruins like a filthy curtain.

At the very center of it all, several figures stood silently.

Dense, gloomy black auras coiled around them, the flames slowly writhing as though alive, swallowing even the light.

At the front stood a burly blond man, his physique impossibly massive.

His work vest had been stretched to its limit by his swollen muscles, while strange dark-red patterns covered his exposed skin.