Three in the morning, Blue Star.
A remote county in the south lay beneath endless rain. Inside an old apartment block, in a cramped, narrow rental room...
A yellowed monitor gave off a cold blue glow, illuminating a face that was rather handsome, yet worn down by the relentless grind of life.
Luo Chen was thirty-two. In an age when academic credentials were fiercely competitive, an associate degree wasn't even worth calling a foot in the door. Thanks to favors cobbled together by his family, he'd finally managed to get a temporary job at a local state-owned company.
He languished at the bottom, doing the hardest work and taking the blame for the worst messes, all for a meager paycheck.
Life never gave him any breathing room. Once the rent was paid, most of his money was gone; what remained was barely enough to keep him from starving. His so-called life amounted to gritting his teeth and making it through one day at a time.
There was no way out in the real world. His only solace was the anime that had kept him company throughout his youth: Dragon Ball.
"Pssht—"
Luo Chen cracked open a can of flat cola and tipped it back, swallowing a large mouthful. Its cloying sweetness sank into his stomach.
On the screen played one of Dragon Ball Z's most iconic tearjerker scenes: Son Goku teleported away with Cell, who was about to self-destruct, sacrificing himself to save Earth.
Comments raced across the screen: [Tears!][Now that's a true hero!][Goku is amazing!]
"Smack!"
Luo Chen slammed his palm onto the desk, making his cup of instant noodles jump. His eyes bloodshot, he hammered away at the keyboard:
"Heroic, my ass!"
"He could've just gone Super Saiyan 2 and crushed Cell, but instead he had to mess around until things got desperate and then sacrifice himself? That's not inspiring—it's idiotic!"
"If I were in charge, I'd have rewritten the story already! I'd crush the enemy and marry into money. The protagonist should have a great time so the audience can enjoy it too!"
With an indignant look, he hit Enter and sent the message!
"Boom—!"
A sudden, strange change!
A sharp pain exploded in his chest! It felt like a huge, icy claw had clamped around his heart, then squeezed hard!
"Ugh—!"
Luo Chen's pupils contracted violently. He dug both hands into his chest, but before he could even cry for help, he crashed down with a "thud!" onto the ash-covered keyboard.
Darkness gradually swallowed everything.
"Ah... It hurts!!"
After who knew how long, a soul-rending pain jolted Luo Chen awake!
He sucked in a breath and snapped his eyes open.
There was no moldy ceiling, no cramped rental room. Before him stretched a deep blue sky and a lush, primeval forest!
Before he could make sense of it, an old man wearing a green-and-orange skullcap, with a white handlebar mustache, suddenly leaned close.
"Thank goodness! Goku, you're finally awake! You fell off the cliff just now. You scared Grandpa half to death..."
The old man's voice trembled. His eyes were red, and he pulled Luo Chen into a tight embrace.
Luo Chen's body stiffened as if struck by lightning.
Goku? Grandpa? What was going on?
He looked down. Instead of an adult's large hands, he saw a pair of small, fair-skinned child's arms. He wore a shabby blue martial arts uniform with a crossover front.
And, even worse, a furry tail at his tailbone swished through the air against his will!
"..."
Had he transmigrated?! Into someone else's body?!
At that moment, Luo Chen's more than thirty years of materialist beliefs shattered. But as a longtime webnovel reader, he quickly accepted the premise.
This was the point when Kid Goku had accidentally fallen off a cliff, hit his head, and lost the violent nature of a Saiyan!
In other words, the original Kakarot was gone. This body, coursing with the blood of the strongest warrior race, now belonged to him!
"Heh heh heh... Hahahaha!"
Luo Chen lowered his head, the corners of his mouth rising before he could stop them. The comment he'd typed before dying echoed wildly in his mind.
"Since you've given me another life, Heaven, don't blame me for giving the protagonist a different way to live!"
That original routine of risking death to get stronger, then clawing back from the brink with a last-second counterattack? No more! The protagonist would enjoy himself to the point of madness!
But soon, Luo Chen thought of something and frowned.
If he wanted to live well, he had to eliminate every threat! There was an urgent problem right in front of him: Great Ape Transformation!
In the original story, Goku's Saiyan tail meant that one full-moon night, he accidentally saw the moon and transformed into a mindless, rampaging Great Ape. He trampled his adoptive grandfather to death.
"This ticking time bomb has to go! Son Gohan isn't just my lifesaver—he's also a top disciple of the 'God of Martial Arts,' Master Roshi. Learning martial arts systematically under him is worlds apart from blindly fumbling around like in the original. So he absolutely can't die—not before the Dragon Ball story truly begins, at least!"
He slipped out of Son Gohan's arms, lifted his chubby-cheeked little face, and filled his big eyes with tears, perfectly acting out "innocent" and "shaken."
"Grandpa... Don't cry. I'm all right! But... I don't like my tail!" He pointed at the restless tail behind him and pouted. "It got caught on a branch, and that's why I fell off the cliff! I want to be normal like you. Could you cut it off for me?"
Son Gohan visibly hesitated. Cutting off part of his body sounded absurd. But when he met his grandson's clear, pleading gaze, the old man's guilt and affection overwhelmed his doubts. The child had just come close to death, and now he only wanted to cut off a troublesome appendage that brought bad luck and become ordinary. How could a grandfather refuse him?
"All right, son! If it's caused you so much trouble, Grandpa will get rid of it for you!"
Then Son Gohan's whole bearing changed, his aura turning sharp with the intensity of a martial artist. He held two fingers together like a blade, wisps of energy curling around their tips.
"Brace yourself. It might hurt a little!" he told Luo Chen.
"I'm ready, Grandpa. Go ahead!" Luo Chen held his breath and gritted his teeth.
"Snick—!"
One swift, clean stroke!
The tail, imbued with the Saiyans' Great Ape genes, flew off and landed on the ground!
"Whew—"
The moment his tail was severed, Luo Chen felt a brief sting and weakness. But at the same time, he clearly sensed the violent, bloodthirsty genetic shackle deep in his soul snap completely.
In an instant, his mind felt clear and his thoughts flowed freely.
The greatest danger in his new body had been eliminated in the simplest, most direct way on the very first day of his transmigration.
Time flew by, and the seasons passed.
Five years vanished in the blink of an eye.
Halfway up Mount Paozu, atop a massive boulder jutting out over a cliff...
Fourteen-year-old Luo Chen sat cross-legged, bare-chested, his body showing off perfectly sculpted muscles.
"In... out..."
Over the years, he hadn't focused solely on building brute strength by roaming the mountains like Goku in the original. With an adult's soul, he knew all too well the power that knowledge and technique could unleash together. What's more, his mind held countless ingenious cultivation systems from the webnovels of his previous life!
"Ki in the Dragon Ball world is astonishingly powerful when unleashed, but its early applications are crude. Put simply, it just burns through your life force."
Luo Chen mused to himself. After years of painstaking experimentation, he had carved out an entirely new path of cultivation in this world. If he could guide his martial arts energy through the proper meridians and form a cycle through his body, he might become the first person in this world to "cultivate immortality."
Luo Chen slowly raised his right hand, bringing his index and middle fingers together. He focused inward and began trying to guide his energy outside his body.
As his energy circulation grew faster, streams of exceptionally pure ki surged along his meridians and gathered at his fingertips like rivers flowing into the sea.
"Vmmm—!"
There was no spectacular display, nor any dazzling light. A transparent vortex, no bigger than a marble, quietly formed at his fingertip and spun in place.
In the Dragon Ball world, low-class Saiyans had a battle power of just one at birth. An ordinary adult Earthling with a double-barreled shotgun had only five. Even Master Roshi, the pinnacle of Earth's martial arts, had a normal battle power of just 139. And Piccolo Daimao, who plunged the entire planet into fear, had only 260.
With a battle power of 120, Luo Chen had already entered the ranks of the strongest people in the world.
Just then, Son Gohan called from the direction of the wooden house.
"Goku, come here for a moment!"
Luo Chen dismissed the vortex at his fingertip, then leaped down from the boulder, more than ten meters high. He landed lightly as a falling leaf, without raising a speck of dust.
Inside, white-haired Son Gohan wore a solemn expression and held two things.
A short, dark-red staff and an orange-yellow ball with four red stars inside.
"The Power Pole and the Four-Star Ball!" Luo Chen's pupils contracted, and his heart beat a little faster.
"Goku, I've watched you train hard all these years, and it's made me very proud. Your talent is simply made for martial arts!" Son Gohan handed him the dark-red staff. "This is the Power Pole. My master, Master Roshi, passed it down to me. It can stretch as far as you want. Today, I'm passing it on to you."
Then he solemnly placed the Four-Star Ball in Luo Chen's palm.
"I found this ball by chance many years ago. Grandpa's old now and can't stay by your side forever. Your future lies in the world beyond these mountains. Take it with you, and let it be as if Grandpa is there too."
Luo Chen felt its solid weight in his palm and silently accepted this legacy. It wasn't just a god-tier starter item from the beginner village—it carried the years of care and hopes this old man had given him.
"Don't worry, Grandpa!" Luo Chen nodded seriously, a confident smile on his face. "The world out there will be a whole lot more exciting with me in it!"
He turned and looked beyond the lush Mount Paozu, toward the distant horizon.
By his reckoning, according to the original timeline, Bulma—the gorgeous heiress who drove an off-road vehicle, carried a Dragon Radar, and changed the fate of the entire universe through her own efforts—would soon be charging into this primeval forest.
Luo Chen toyed with the Four-Star Ball in his hand, anticipation flashing in his eyes.
"In the original, Goku went on adventures with this top-tier heiress, with every advantage on his side, only to somehow end up marrying Chi-Chi and returning to the countryside to scrape by as a farmer."
Luo Chen shook his head and darted into the forest like a leopard, leaving behind a murmur only he could hear.
"I'm not doing that! What's wrong with living off a rich wife?"
Before you continue