Idiot

"Open fire! Hurry, open fire!!"

No one knew who was the first to crack under the nearly suffocating pressure, letting out a shrill, broken scream.

Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat—!!

More than a dozen submachine guns erupted with blinding muzzle flashes in an instant. Dense bullets wove into an impenetrable iron net, completely blanketing the clearing where Chen He stood. Countless rounds tore through the air with piercing shrieks, striking that motionless figure with deadly precision.

Yet in the very next second, the pupils of every soldier who had opened fire contracted violently.

Those steel-core bullets, capable of ripping wild beasts into minced flesh, stopped half an inch from Chen He's body as if they had struck an invisible wall of incomparably hard steel. Amid showers of sparks and screeching metallic impacts, one bullet after another ricocheted away, warped, and fell helplessly onto the sand with dull clatters.

Chen He did not even raise an eyelid.

With his current combat power, ordinary firearms like these could not even penetrate his ki.

"The era of the Red Ribbon Army is over. You should understand that."

Chen He rasped out the words. His right hand, extended from his pocket, did not even clench into a fist. He merely pressed it casually toward the empty air.

Boom!!

A localized explosion of air erupted from that instantaneous motion!

A visible milky-white pressure wave burst outward in a hemispherical shape. The first few Red Ribbon Army soldiers caught in its path did not even have time to scream before they were struck head-on as if by an invisible ten-thousand-pound hammer. Men and guns alike flew more than ten meters, smashing heavily into the steel plates of the armored vehicles behind them and passing out on the spot.

The violent gust of force tore the central military tent into strips of cloth that filled the sky.

As the dust settled.

Chen He walked forward with heavy steps, leaving behind a string of evenly deep footprints in the mud. Unhurriedly, he approached the metal combination case. Bending down, he lightly pinched the faintly orange-glowing Two-Star Dragon Ball between two fingers and lifted it into his hand.

Cool, smooth, and carrying faint energy fluctuations.

Chen He slipped the Two-Star Dragon Ball into his pocket, where it bumped against the Three-Star and Four-Star Dragon Balls he had obtained earlier. He listened to the crisp little clink from within his pocket.

"That's the third one."

Without sparing a glance for the remnants of the Red Ribbon Army lying on the ground, Chen He took out the Dragon Radar and glanced at the next green dot's location. Then he turned and disappeared once more into the boundless night of the northwestern wilderness.

At the same time, in distant West City, Capsule Corporation.

"Cough, cough... ha..."

Inside the gravity laboratory, Son Goku spat out mouthfuls of bloody saliva. His entire body weakened again, and he dropped to his knees on the alloy floor. Several miniature vents on the surface of his silver-gray gravity vest had already turned red-hot.

Localized gravity: 15 times. Core component temperature has reached the critical point. Please cease training immediately!

The cold electronic alarm had been sounding for half an hour straight, but Goku still gritted his teeth, his hands gouging deep finger marks into the metal floor.

Only when the gravity reached sixteen times did he truly understand what despair meant.

Every cell in his body was being violently pulled and torn apart. Even the bones inside him were making faint grinding sounds.

"That guy Chen He... how did he withstand something even more terrifying than this in the arena back then, while still throwing out such terrifying attacks?"

Cold sweat from the agonizing pain covered Goku's forehead, yet the innocence that had once belonged to a boy was utterly washed from his clear eyes at that moment, replaced by an icy gaze.

He could not stop. Whenever he thought of the blue pillar of light shattering inch by inch at the martial arts tournament, whenever he thought of that black-haired figure walking away without even looking back, Goku felt a fire raging madly in his chest.

"Haaahhh—!!"

Goku let out a beast-like roar from deep in his throat. Veins bulged one after another across his arms as he endured sixteen times gravity and forced his bent spine upright again, inch by inch!

Inside the observation chamber.

Bulma stared at the temperature reading on the display, which was nearly breaking past the critical threshold. In fury, she crushed the empty milk carton in her hand flat.

"Idiots! They're all idiots! One of them is as cold as a stone, and this dumb fool is trying to throw his life away too!"

Bulma gritted her teeth, and before she knew it, her delicate eyes had reddened around the rims. Looking at the boy below, blood seeping from all over his body under the crushing pressure while he still wore that foolish grin, the pride she had once felt in genius technology was shattered at that moment by an indescribable sense of helplessness.

She had once thought that as long as there were Capsule Corporation's capsules, endless wealth, and a clever mind, that would be enough in this world. But now, watching Chen He and Goku charge at full speed along the edge of the abyss like two madmen, she understood for the first time that there were some things her science would never be able to decipher, not even in a lifetime.

"Fine! One last time! If I ever help you modify the cooling system again, I'm a puppy!!"

Bulma wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes while viciously tapping away at the control panel. Though her words were harsh, the afterimages of her ten fingers flying across the keyboard betrayed her anxiety and refusal to give in.

At the edge of the wilderness.

The first ray of morning sunlight pierced through the clouds and fell upon the ragged hem of Chen He's black pants.

He stood atop a high loess slope, facing the rising sun as he slowly closed his eyes.

There were no more shortcuts. The future plot had also veered into an unknown fog because of his appearance. But as Chen He touched the three heavy Dragon Balls in his pocket, his gaze hardened once more.

"The fourth one... is in the south?"

He opened his eyes again and, with somewhat heavy steps, began walking toward his next target, one step at a time.