We'll See

The dense southern forest fell into dead silence amid a thunderous roar that shot into the sky.

The alloy gate of the last secret Red Ribbon Army base had been blasted into scraps scattered across the ground, while smoke and dust slowly drifted through the damp canopy. Chen He stuffed the last Dragon Ball, caked with mud and smelling of scorched residue, into his pack. On the radar, the seven flashing green dots had now completely overlapped.

He wasted no time at all. Without even wiping the blood from his clothes, he arranged the seven orange-red spheres in a circle in a clearing deep within the forest.

"Come forth, Shenron."

Chen He's voice carried no emotion in the silent jungle.

Rumble—

The once-clear sky was instantly swallowed by rolling black clouds. A dark green dragon roared as it spiraled upward, its immense divine pressure forcing every bird and beast in the forest to collapse to the ground trembling. Yet Chen He, standing at the heart of the storm, merely raised his head. His abyss-dark eyes remained so calm that not a ripple stirred within them.

His lips moved as he spoke his wish in an extremely soft, rapid voice.

"Your wish has been granted."

Shenron's deep voice boomed through the clouds. Then, the black clouds covering the sky abruptly dispersed. The seven Dragon Balls, once crystal-clear and radiant, lost all their luster in an instant, turning into lifeless gray stones that shrieked through the air toward every corner of Earth.

Chen He looked at the empty grassland and slowly exhaled a long breath of hot, murky air. He slipped his hands back into his pockets and turned around.

The first phase of his plan was complete.

West City, Capsule Corporation's gravity training room.

A year was enough time for countless things to change beyond recognition.

Boom!

As the gravity generator's core components emitted a piercing short-circuit screech, the alloy floor of the entire training room suddenly sank. Goku emerged from the thick white smoke, drenched in sweat, and tore off the silver-gray gravity suit that had nearly been soaked to ruin.

Over the past year, Bulma had rebuilt the gravity suit's core components countless times. To squeeze out every last bit of potential, Goku had trained day and night in the gravity field, constantly pushing himself to the brink of death under twenty-five times gravity.

"Breathe... inhale..."

Goku lowered his head and looked at his palms, feeling the terrifying ki inside his body. He estimated that his power level had now reached 30,000.

The Saiyans' almost cheating-like passive ability had been exploited to the fullest by him this past year. Whenever twenty-five times gravity crushed him until his internal organs hemorrhaged and he nearly blacked out, as long as he endured it, his ki would undergo another frenzied transformation.

"Goku! Stop training! Something huge has happened!!"

Bulma shoved open the laboratory doors, practically crawling and stumbling inside. Snow crackled across the screen of the portable television in her hands.

On the television, a withered, ugly old man with dark green skin was cackling maniacally at the camera. It was the demon who had escaped his seal—King Piccolo. Yet because of the anomaly that was Chen He's transmigration, Earth's energy field had long since undergone a bizarre upheaval. As a result of the chain reaction, the ancient Demon King had been reborn with a despair-inducing power level of 40,000!

"All Earthlings... must die! Hahaha!"

The old Demon King's murderous proclamation echoed around the world. Kaisilujin, West City, and countless other cities were reduced to ruins by the explosive energy blasts Old Piccolo casually fired.

"Leave it to me, Bulma."

Without a moment's hesitation, Goku mounted the Flying Nimbus and shot into the heavens through the storm clouds.

That battle turned the sky dark and the earth dim.

From barren wastelands to shattered ruins, Goku, with a power level of 39,000, and Old Piccolo, with 40,000, waged the most brutal hand-to-hand battle in Earth's history. Two afterimages continually tore through the clouds overhead. Every clash of fists and kicks unleashed gales strong enough to shave the mountaintops below flat. The longer Old Piccolo fought, the more alarmed he became. He could not imagine why such a monstrous brat had been born on Earth. Goku, meanwhile, had been driven into a bitter struggle, forced into a true dead end by the old Demon King's endless vicious techniques and bizarre demonic arts.

"Die, you little brat!!"

With a furious roar, Old Piccolo unleashed an Explosive Demon King Wave infused with all his demonic power, striking Goku squarely in the chest.

Rumble—

As the dust cleared, Goku fell limply from the sky and slammed heavily into a pile of rubble. Seven or eight of his ribs were broken, and every meridian in his body had been shattered. He no longer even had the strength to lift his eyelids. The old Demon King, at a power level of 40,000, had also exhausted an enormous amount of energy. Gasping for breath, he landed on the ground and stalked toward the unconscious Goku with a savage expression.

But at that very instant between life and death, Old Piccolo's immense ki perception suddenly caught a faint, ethereal presence—an unusual aura that made his entire body tremble instinctively.

That aura was far away, in some unknown corner of Earth, yet it weighed upon his nerves like an entire universe crashing down on them. The old Demon King abruptly turned his head and stared uncertainly toward the distant horizon. "Who is that?! Get out here!!"

That brief moment of distraction gave the Turtle School, trapped in utter despair, its only chance at survival.

Krillin, who had been watching from the edge of the ruins and trembling in terror, seized the moment Old Piccolo turned away. Summoning the last shred of strength in his body, he crawled over with both hands and feet and forcibly shoved a round Senzu Bean into Goku's mouth.

"Gulp."

The instant the Senzu Bean was swallowed.

BOOM—!!!

A golden wave of ki beyond description erupted from the rubble without warning and blasted into the sky!

King Piccolo turned around in horror. What greeted him were Goku's eyes, now completely transformed into those of a wild beast burning with fanaticism. At that moment, the Saiyan's recovery from the brink of death fully took effect.

68,000 power level!!

The berserk force of his ki directly pulverized all the rocks within several miles into dust. Goku slowly rose to his feet, clenching his fists tightly as golden flames of ki danced wildly over his body. Facing the old Demon King's terrified, twisted expression, Goku suddenly felt an unprecedented surge of confidence rise within him.

"Chen He..."

Goku murmured the name quietly in his heart.

"Impossible... What kind of technique is this?! Aaarghhh!!"

Old Piccolo charged forward with a hysterical roar, but this time, his movements seemed as slow to Goku as crawling through a swamp.

Squelch!

Goku became a meteor defying the heavens, his right fist carrying unmatched penetrating force as it tore through the old Demon King's protective demonic aura and punched straight through his chest!

"Cough... The Demon Clan's bloodline... will never be extinguished..."

Old Piccolo convulsed painfully in midair. One second before his body completely exploded, he used the last of his life force to vomit up a massive egg glowing with an eerie purple light from the depths of his throat, then hurled it with all his strength toward some unknown range of towering mountains in the distance.

Boom!

A generation's Demon King turned into a rain of blood that filled the sky, utterly vanishing between heaven and earth.

Goku stepped over the rubble-strewn ground and collapsed onto the floor in exhaustion. The dark clouds in the sky dispersed, and long-awaited sunlight fell across his blood-smeared face. Yet his gaze drifted uncontrollably toward the other end of the horizon.

Meanwhile, within an unknown mysterious pocket dimension somewhere on Earth.

Chen He sat quietly cross-legged at the center of his own Hyperbolic Time Chamber, which emitted a faint, ghostly glow. The gravity and flow of time here had both grown ever more powerful through the upgrades he had relentlessly purchased with points over the past year.

Over the past year, the system had shown no sign of waking up. But recently, it had finally recovered...

[System reboot complete.]

[Host's mental state detected as stable.]

Chen He did not open his eyes. He merely asked coldly in his heart, "Why did you play dead back then?"

[With the host's current strength, learning the specific reason would only cause your body to explode. Please focus on tempering your current strength.]

Chen He's mouth twitched. The damn system had disappeared for so long, and he still couldn't even get an answer as to why?

Still, he did not care.

Over the past year, without the system's cheat-like assistance and relying only on himself, he had continued to grow stronger.

Chen He slowly rose to his feet. The gravity field within the Time Chamber, reinforced by points, made his bones crack with deep, muffled pops.

"68,000 battle power..." Chen He seemed to sense the violent aura belonging to Son Goku in the distance, which had only just calmed down.

"Then let's see what happens, Goku."