Transmigration

Early morning, Mount Paozu.

Chen He sat atop a bare boulder, staring blankly at his hands. They were a child's hands, yet the knuckles were tough, and the palms bore calluses from years of gripping tree bark.

"Smack."

A furry brown tail behind him swished over and cracked sharply against the rock.

"I still couldn't resist. This thing feels so weird," Chen He muttered, the corner of his mouth twitching.

It had been three days since he transmigrated, and he had finally accepted the bullshit reality of becoming a Saiyan. As a die-hard Dragon Ball fan, one moment he had been reading manga under the covers, and the next, he had landed in this primitive forest, staring wide-eyed at dinosaurs. Most absurd of all, he had somehow become Son Goku's "neighbor."

[Ding! System loading complete.]

[Mission location detected: Mount Paozu. Would you like to check in?]

Chen He perked up. It was here—the standard-issue cheat for webnovel protagonists. Even in a world like Dragon Ball, where planets got blown up at the drop of a hat, having a system finally made him feel a little less panicked.

"Check in!"

[Ding! Check-in successful. Beginner's gift pack has been issued!]

[Obtained: Power Level +100, Saiyan Cells Activated, Points +50.]

Boom!

Chen He felt a surge of heat shoot from the base of his tail straight to his head. Every bone in his body crackled. He clenched his fists sharply, feeling an unprecedented force racing wildly through him.

He summoned the status panel and gave it a quick glance:

Host: Chen He

Power Level: 112

Points: 50 (1000 required to unlock the shop)

"Over a hundred..." Chen He exhaled a breath of stale air, his eyes gleaming frighteningly bright.

Son Goku probably only had a power level in the teens right now, while even Master Roshi was only a little over a hundred. This was basically like entering the beginner village with a max-level account right from the start.

He leaped down from the boulder.

Chen He looked deep into the forest. Somewhere in there, that dumb kid was probably dragging a fish home.

"Sorry, Son Goku. With your intelligence, following Bulma might slow down my search for the Dragon Balls. Better let me handle it!"

Chen He flashed forward, turning into a blurry shadow as he sped toward the dirt road at the foot of the mountain.

Before long, he heard a long-forgotten sound—the sound of civilized society—

"Beep beep—!"

A compact car came bouncing wildly around the bend along the muddy road.

Chen He stood in the middle of the road with his hands in his pockets, not even lifting his eyelids.

"Hey! Get out of the way if you don't want to die!!"

Bulma's face had gone pale inside the car. She frantically spun the steering wheel, her cheeks flushing red from the strain.

In the original plot, the car would have sent Goku flying, and then Goku would have flipped it over like a wild man. But Chen He had no intention of playing that barbarically.

He raised his left hand, slowly spreading his fingers!

"Bang—!!"

A thunderous crash!

The hood crumpled beneath Chen He's palm like old newspaper. The tires screeched against the ground under the sudden braking, kicking up thick smoke as the stench of burnt rubber filled the air.

The car stopped.

Perfectly steady, without even a twitch.

Bulma lay sprawled over the deployed airbag, completely dazed from the impact. Trembling, she raised her head and saw Chen He calmly looking at her through the cracked windshield.

"Hey, miss. Driving like that, aren't you afraid of hitting a dinosaur? The dinosaurs are probably more afraid you'll wreck the mountain road."

Chen He patted the mangled front of the car and yanked open the door.

It took Bulma a long while to recover. Her eyes were wide as saucers. "Y-you... what kind of monster are you? You stopped a car with your hand?!"

"I'm Chen He. I'm very strong, and my identity is a secret! You're looking for the Dragon Balls, right? How about hiring me as your bodyguard?"

[Ding! Congratulations, Host, for successfully intercepting the mission "First Encounter." Reward: Points +500!]

Chen He was delighted. Sure enough, stick with a rich girl and the points would come rolling in.

"A bodyguard? Can you do magic?" Bulma eyed Chen He suspiciously. The boy was pretty handsome, but that ragged martial arts uniform of his was far from convincing.

"You'll find out. Come on, there's a Dragon Ball up ahead."

Just then, cries of "Heave-ho! Heave-ho!" drifted out of the forest.

"Awesome! I caught dinner for tonight!"

Goku was happily heading over, dragging a giant fish five or six times bigger than himself.

When he saw Chen He and the smoking car, Goku froze. His hands instinctively tightened around the Power Pole on his back, his gaze wary like that of a young leopard.

"A monster? Are you here to steal my fish?"

"Goku, it's me, Chen He. I even treated you to fruit a couple of days ago." Chen He waved.

"Chen He?" Goku tilted his head and thought for a long while. His guard dropped slightly, but he still stared at Bulma's car and swallowed. "Then what kind of monster is this big square thing? Was it trying to eat you just now?"

Bulma rolled her eyes beside him. "Hey! This is a car made by humans, not some monster! Where did this savage come from?"

"I'm Son Goku! I'm not a savage!"

After a round of completely mismatched explanations, Goku finally understood that the two of them were not here to steal his fish.

He led Chen He and Bulma back to his crude little grass hut.

In the middle of the room, an orange-red Four-Star Dragon Ball sat quietly on the table. The moment Bulma saw it, her eyes lit up. She moved to grab it, but Goku got there first and stopped her.

"This is my grandpa's keepsake! No one is allowed to touch it!" Goku firmly blocked Bulma's path, gripping the Power Pole.

Seeing this, Bulma had no choice but to take the two Dragon Balls at her waist out of her bag...

"Huh? Grandpa! You have two too!" Goku was stunned when he saw the two Dragon Balls in Bulma's hands. He had thought his grandpa's keepsake was one of a kind.

"Hehehe! These are Dragon Balls." Bulma smiled.

"D-Dragon Balls?"

"These glowing orbs are Dragon Balls. There are seven in total. Your one has four stars inside it, so it's the Four-Star Dragon Ball. As long as you gather all seven Dragon Balls, you can make any wish you want!" Bulma patiently explained to Goku.

"Goku, how about lending us the Dragon Ball? We can search for the Dragon Balls together, and you can see the outside world while you're at it!" Chen He chose to interrupt their conversation.

With Goku as he was now, getting him to simply hand over the Dragon Ball would be too difficult. It would be better to rope Goku in as well—he could even serve as a top-tier bodyguard.

"Let's go! Forward, toward a delightful journey!" Bulma shouted excitedly. After all, she had not expected Goku to actually listen and join them in searching for the Dragon Balls.

And so, two people with their own ulterior motives and one somewhat dim-witted boy formed a three-person team and set off on the road to find the Dragon Balls!