"Huh? Really? You've got a point!
Besides, even if the Dragon Ball gets taken, we can find it again afterward with Bulma's Dragon Radar.
In that case, I'll stay and eat with everyone first."
Hearing Tien Shinhan's advice, Krillin rubbed the back of his smooth, bald head. It made sense, so he abandoned the idea of running the errand alone.
Beside him, Goku watched Krillin sit back down just as he had been about to get up, and vaguely felt as though a stone that had suddenly risen in his heart had settled back onto the ground.
"Here comes the steamed rice!"
But the waiter's voice soon drowned out the strange feeling in Goku's heart.
Bucket after bucket of steamed rice, carried over in succession by pairs of waiters, instantly captured Goku's full attention.
Tien Shinhan nodded at the sight.
No matter how quickly they prepared the meat dishes, those would still take quite some time. After all, this restaurant didn't use premade meals.
Steamed rice, on the other hand, was always in high demand, so plenty had already been cooked in advance and could be brought out immediately.
Looking at the bucket of steamed rice placed before him, Tien Shinhan didn't bother waiting for the meat dishes. He simply hugged the wooden rice bucket and dug in.
There was no telling when Tambourine would arrive. He had to replenish as much of his strength as possible right away.
Earlier, he and Goku had both fought to the point of utter exhaustion.
And it wasn't just Tien Shinhan. Looking at another bucket of steamed rice, Son Goku pulled it straight in front of himself, stood on his seat, and started digging in too!
Goku had originally planned to wait until all the dishes arrived before starting, but now that Tien Shinhan had begun, he naturally wouldn't mistreat his already growling stomach any longer.
"Isn't this... a little too much?"
Bulma and Yamcha stared blankly at Tien Shinhan and Goku wolfing down plain steamed rice, their mouths hanging open in astonishment.
They had seen big eaters before, but never anyone who could devour plain rice with such ferocity!
"Haha, looks like that fight really wore them both out and left them starving.
Here, let me serve everyone some rice!"
Even Krillin couldn't help being a little stunned by how fiercely Tien Shinhan and Goku were eating.
But he quickly chuckled and offered an explanation for them, then considerately volunteered to serve everyone rice.
"Please, sir, let us do that!"
The large restaurant Tien Shinhan had chosen was a fairly upscale establishment.
And with all the dishes Tien Shinhan had just ordered, he counted as one of the restaurant's biggest customers that day.
None of the waiters dared neglect a big customer.
How could they let a guest like Krillin serve the rice himself?
Aside from Tien Shinhan and Goku, whom they couldn't serve while the two ate straight from their buckets, serving rice to everyone else was still something they could manage.
Soon, a small bowl of rice was placed before Krillin, followed by one for Chiaotzu beside him.
Chiaotzu looked at the rice before him, then at Tien Shinhan beside him, who had already swept through half a bucket like a whirlwind.
"I'm digging in, Brother Tien!"
"Mmph... all right, Chiaotzu, go ahead!"
Tien Shinhan's reply came out muffled and indistinct.
His appetite wasn't as terrifying as Son Goku's, a Saiyan's, but as a martial artist, it still far exceeded an ordinary person's.
With half a bucket of steamed rice in his belly, he was only thirty percent full, though he was no longer as weak and drained as before.
"That's the man I fell for. Even when he's eating, he radiates such captivating masculinity."
Blonde Launch propped her cheek on one hand and idly poked at the steamed rice in her little bowl with the chopsticks in her other hand, her gaze growing ever more intoxicated as she watched Tien Shinhan.
Sigh, this woman is hopeless.
Beside her, Bulma quietly watched Blonde Launch's behavior and sighed inwardly.
"Hahaha, a good appetite is a blessing, a blessing! Young martial artists need to eat well, train well, and sleep well!"
Unlike the others, who were astonished, Master Roshi looked thoroughly pleased as he watched Tien Shinhan and Goku ravenously devour their rice.
These youngsters were all the future of Earth's martial arts world!
At that thought, he looked at the bowl of steamed rice before him and found it rather bland.
So he took his treasured swimsuit pinup magazine out from behind his back.
With practiced ease, he opened it to page 32. As he ate to the expanse of snowy white on the page, hot, scarlet blood involuntarily seeped from his nose.
For a moment, Master Roshi felt that the steamed rice before him no longer seemed so bland. Instead, it seemed to give off a faint milky fragrance, soft and delicious.
"Here comes the braised beef!"
Just as Tien Shinhan and Goku were each nearly finished with a bucket of steamed rice, the dishes they had ordered began arriving one after another.
First came the braised beef, then the poached chicken with soy sauce and vinegar, followed by braised pig's trotters. The whole roast lambs would take a little longer.
But Tien Shinhan had ordered enormous portions of every dish already on the table.
With portions like these, never mind Tien Shinhan-even a big eater like Goku could eat until he was eighty or ninety percent full!
The only slight pity was that this one meal had completely emptied out his World Martial Arts Tournament prize money.
But compared with staying alive and getting stronger, a little prize money meant nothing.
"Most of the dishes are here. Everyone, dig in!"
As Tien Shinhan continued sweeping through the food to replenish his strength, he didn't forget to invite Master Roshi, Krillin, and the others to start eating.
Half an hour later, Tien Shinhan felt ninety percent full, and most of his stamina had returned.
The remaining physical fatigue wasn't something a single meal could instantly relieve.
Under the current circumstances, sleeping to eliminate his fatigue completely wasn't really possible either.
But even in his current state, he was more than capable of dealing with Tambourine, whom the aged King Piccolo had spat out.
"Everyone's about finished, right? Come on, let's all go back to the World Martial Arts Tournament grounds to get the things!"
In the original plot, he, Goku, and the others were still sitting around foolishly waiting to eat while Krillin ran the errand, unaware that Tambourine had already killed him at the tournament grounds.
Now, with Tien Shinhan deliberately pushing the meal along, every one of them had eaten and drunk their fill.
Goku put down the last leg from the five whole roast lambs, smacked his little lips, patted his firm, bulging little belly, and called out contentedly.
"Thanks for treating us, Tien Shinhan! I'm full too. Let's go!"
Everyone set off together, heading straight toward the World Martial Arts Tournament grounds.
The large restaurant wasn't far from the tournament grounds to begin with. In just two or three minutes, Tien Shinhan led everyone back to the arena.
The area around the arena that greeted them was no longer bustling with crowds. Instead, it resembled hell.
Boom!
Bang!
Slash!
Above the arena, a green-skinned monster with a pair of wings on his back was wantonly firing wave after wave of ki, slaughtering the martial artists on the ground.
He clearly intended to wipe out every last martial artist.
And hanging from his back was a bundle-the very one Goku had forgotten in the waiting room.
At the sight, Kid Goku immediately leaped high into the air and launched a fierce punch straight at Tambourine, who was massacring the martial artists.
With his stamina restored, Goku's punch was blindingly fast. Tambourine had only just felt a chill when Goku's fist was already upon him.
Fortunately for him, Kid Goku couldn't fly, while Tambourine had wings.
Using his advantage in the air, he narrowly avoided having Goku's sudden punch strike a vital spot.
Even so, Goku's punch broke the very arm he had just been using to bombard the ground with ki blasts.
"Damn you! You dare interfere with the mission the Demon King gave me? Brat, I'll make you pay!"
Clutching his broken arm, Tambourine glared viciously at Goku, who had begun falling back toward the ground.
He had figured it out. This kid's punches were powerful, but he couldn't fly. He had actually jumped all the way up here!
But now the kid was falling, with nothing to push off against in midair. With the aerial advantage his wings gave him, he would surely get his revenge.
"You won't get the chance!"
But just as Tambourine was about to seize the opportunity to counterattack Goku, whose movements were limited in midair, a cold voice suddenly sounded behind him.
What followed was a burst of pain that pierced straight to his heart.
Crack!
With a sharp snap, Tien Shinhan, who had flown behind Tambourine using the Crane School's Flight Technique, struck without hesitation.
After all, although Tien Shinhan was now a true martial artist,
before turning over a new leaf, his goal had been to become the world's greatest cold-blooded assassin, like Mercenary Tao.
Devastating martial arts methods like tearing off arms and legs came effortlessly to Tien Shinhan.
Green blood sprayed across the sky as Tien Shinhan forcibly tore off Tambourine's wings.
"Aaargh!"
Tambourine screamed in agony.
On the ground, Yamcha, who had arrived on crutches, watched the scene in the sky and couldn't help recalling the terror of having his leg broken by Tien Shinhan in the ring. He stumbled and nearly fell.
Fortunately, Bulma, who was still his girlfriend at this point, was right beside him and immediately reached out to steady him.
"How about ditching the crutches? Shall I get you a wheelchair instead?"
Holding Yamcha steady, Bulma thought for two seconds, then turned her head and asked.