150x Gravity

The moment the spaceship burst out of the atmosphere, only the high-pitched hum of rapidly operating electronic components remained in the sealed gravity chamber.

Beyond the porthole, the outline of Earth's blue sphere was shrinking visibly, eventually vanishing into the cold, pitch-black sea of stars.

Chen He stood expressionlessly before the gravity control console, his fingers pausing slightly over a knob gleaming with a cold metallic sheen.

[100x Gravity, activated.]

BOOM!!

Inside the cramped cabin, the air seemed to be sucked away in an instant, transforming into a tangible, leaden pressure. Goku's body suddenly sank, his feet stamping two harsh, muffled metallic thuds into the specially reinforced alloy floor.

"Breathe..."

Goku clenched his teeth hard. In an instant, his bronze skin had flushed bright red from the blood rushing through it. Tiny beads of sweat seeped from his pores, but before they could slide down, the hundredfold gravity hurled them to the floor with sharp splats.

"Piccolo... he really is completely gone."

Goku lowered his head, his voice hoarse and heavy.

When Nappa died, he had gone to the Other World. Though burdened with grief, he had known the Dragon Balls were still an option. But this time, when he crawled out of the ruins and saw Piccolo's lifeless body pierced clean through, the unique energy belonging to both the Demon Clan and Kami had completely dissipated. The Dragon Balls on the ground had instantly degenerated into gray, dead stones.

That hollow sense of helplessness hurt even more than the backlash from the tenfold Kaio-ken.

"If we can't find a way on Namek, then he—and everyone else who died in this battle—will never come back."

Goku slowly raised his head. Those eyes, always so clear and even somewhat innocent, were now filled with an adult's heaviness and resolve.

After facing cosmic enemies far beyond anything he could have imagined twice in succession, the boy from Mount Paozu had finally been forced to see the cruelest truth through blood and tears.

Chen He looked at him, his gaze as cold and emotionless as solid ice.

His pragmatism ran to his bones. Piccolo's death had certainly cost Earth a powerful fighter, but according to Chen He's strict logic of survival, wallowing in grief was the most useless form of self-inflicted waste. The danger on Namek—Frieza was like a colossal beast lurking in the shadows, ready at any moment to tear apart every life that entered that star system.

A power level of 380,000 would barely be enough to protect themselves in the coming storm.

"Instead of wasting time thinking about that, deal with the pressure in front of you first."

Chen He rasped out the words, then shoved both hands forward on the console. The knob swept decisively across several markings.

[150x Gravity!]

BANG!!

The air let out a piercing blast as it was compressed to the extreme. Even Chen He's knees bent slightly. The crushing force of gravity surged madly through his limbs and bones, and he relied on his body alone to withstand the terrifying pull that could crush even bone.

"Again! Haaahhh—!!"

Goku let out a beastlike growl from deep in his throat. The hundred-and-fiftyfold burden stretched every muscle in his body to its limit, yet the Saiyan blood within him erupted completely at that moment. He suddenly stepped forward, his right fist carrying a terrifying red current of energy as it smashed, slow yet immensely heavy, toward Chen He's shoulder through the warped air.

Chen He neither dodged nor retreated. His right arm produced a low rumble of thunder under the crushing gravity as he met the blow head-on.

Inside that silver spaceship traveling alone through the black universe, two men carrying the fate of an entire planet on their shoulders used the most primitive hand-to-hand combat to madly squeeze out every last bit of potential from their bodies beneath inhuman pressure of one hundred times, two hundred times, and eventually three hundred times gravity, nearing the limit.

They were both racing against time. Because they knew all too well that something even more terrifying awaited them on Namek.