"Never, ever provoke Frieza." That was King Kai's advice. No matter how Goku asked him why, King Kai kept his mouth shut. He only stressed it to Goku again and again: do not go looking for trouble with Frieza.
Even though Goku's current power would make him a formidable fighter anywhere in the cosmos, compared to the cosmic emperor Frieza he was still like a little bug.
Goku agreed readily enough, but in his heart he didn't care. Challenging the strong was always what he loved to do.
Hearing Goku agree, King Kai finally let out a slow breath. In recent years, Goku was the most gifted and kind-hearted martial artist he'd come across; otherwise he wouldn't have taught him the Spirit Bomb, a god-tier technique that doesn't harm the good-hearted.
Of course, King Kai had his own selfish reasons. In a few years the Kais of each quadrant would, under the Grand Kai's organization, hold an intergalactic martial arts tournament. Though he was the North Kai, the fighters under him were truly limited in strength, and for countless years none had cracked the top three. The other Kais often mocked him for it. Meeting Goku gave him a feeling: if Goku kept growing, maybe he could measure up to the top fighters under the other Kais. Word had it his archrival, the West Kai, had recruited a top expert, Pikkon, whose power was said to rival Frieza's.
Even if by then Goku still wasn't Pikkon's equal, if he at least finished in the top three and he wasn't dead last, he'd be satisfied.
There were only four Kais in total. Can you imagine how it feels when your fighters never make the top three? Sometimes the fourth place wasn't even from the North Area! Even gods aren't free of desires, okay!
"By the way, Goku, I have some bad news. In less than a month, a very evil master will descend on Earth." The North Kai's voice grew heavy as he spoke. Though that person's power level was a bit below Frieza's, he was still a top-tier powerhouse with a place in the universe.
"Lord Slug? Is he really strong? How does he compare to Frieza?" Hearing the opponent was a top-tier fighter, Goku was already raring to go.
"Of course he's strong. Goku, his power is beyond your imagination." Standing on his planet, King Kai produced a handkerchief from who knows where and kept wiping the sweat from his brow. "Rumor has it that Lord Slug's power surpasses Frieza's, at least ten times your current strength. But after watching another battle recently, I realized Frieza is even stronger than I had imagined."
"At least several hundred times stronger than Slug is right now. Frieza's power is terrifying. Do you understand, Goku? Do not fight Frieza! You cannot be his match."
"King Kai, which battle are you talking about?" Trust Goku to focus on something different. Others would dwell on the gap of several hundredfold; he homed in on the "other battle," glossing over the difference.
"That newcomer, the Chimera Ant King—Meruem—against Frieza's brother, Cooler." As he said this, King Kai kept wiping the sweat from his forehead.
"It was too frightening, simply too frightening. Goku, you cannot imagine how strong they were. And Frieza is said to be even stronger than his brother."
"As expected of Meruem—so powerful." Clearly, Goku hadn't taken King Kai's warnings to heart. In one ear and out the other.
"Goku, in less than a month, even though that man is old, his power is still beyond what you can oppose, so you should run." Unfortunately, King Kai's hopes were doomed. Was Son Goku the kind to run from a strong opponent?
"King Kai! Leave Lord Slug to us!" With that, Goku ignored King Kai and stepped toward Vegeta.
The match between Vegeta and Tien Shinhan had already produced a winner, and in the end Tien couldn't match Vegeta. By now Vegeta's power level had risen to twenty thousand.
Worthy indeed of the Saiyans' elite prince—worthy of Vegeta.
"Raditz! You're saying that as long as we train under gravity, our power levels will definitely rise, right?" Three days had passed since that fight. It had ended with Goku victorious. After all, Goku's true power level had reached ten thousand; with a twofold Kaio-ken he could match Vegeta.
With a threefold Kaio-ken or higher, even Vegeta wasn't his opponent. But was Vegeta someone who would admit defeat easily? Especially when his opponent was another Saiyan. Even gravely injured, Vegeta refused to yield.
That battle was ultimately brutal. Vegeta unleashed an incomplete Great Ape transformation. Though his power didn't multiply tenfold to two hundred thousand, it still reached one hundred thousand. But was Goku the sort to surrender? Facing a Vegeta at one hundred thousand, Goku pushed to the extreme with an eightfold Kaio-ken, and finally severed Vegeta's tail to end the fight.
Goku defeated Vegeta by a razor-thin margin, a heavy blow to Vegeta. In the end both were gravely wounded, both on the brink of death.
Fortunately, Raditz had plenty of Senzu Beans on him. Only after taking them did the two claw their way back to life.
The Saiyan physique once again drew envy—even jealousy—from the Z Fighters.
It was absurd. They, too, had been severely injured; recovering without losing ground was already hard enough. But the Saiyans didn't just avoid regression—their power increased dramatically. Truly enough to inspire envy and hate in equal measure.
After recovering, Goku's power level rose to twenty thousand, while Vegeta's climbed to thirty-two thousand.
Goku then relayed King Kai's news to the group. Everyone vowed to raise their power as much as possible in the less than one month remaining and defend Earth with their own hands.
Surprisingly, Vegeta also said he was willing to stay and fight. Moments ago they'd been mortal enemies ready to fight to the death; in the blink of an eye they'd become comrades.
The turn was so fast it was hard to get used to. Still, one more helper was a good thing—especially when that person was extremely powerful. From Goku, Vegeta also learned that the opponent, while not Frieza's equal, was still extremely strong, and upon learning that opponent was Lord Slug, he decided to fight Slug first to test his progress before heading to Namek.
Who was Lord Slug? Others might not know, but as someone who had once served under Frieza, how could Vegeta not? Slug was one of the top forces that ignored Frieza and carved out their own dominions in space.
A monster who styled himself Demon King—Lord Slug. His underlings weren't as strong as Frieza's Ginyu Force, but they were formidable in their own right.
In the past, Vegeta might not have been able to wipe out even all of Slug's subordinates. But now that his power had risen to thirty-two thousand, it was different. Having tasted the sweetness, Vegeta decided to train properly on Earth, then kill Frieza, and finally defeat Kakarot—so that everyone would know the strongest in the universe was the Saiyan Prince Vegeta!
Hence the conversation above. He had previously asked Bulma's father, Dr. Brief, to help build several gravity rooms. The standard ones could adjust from one to fifty times gravity, and the most advanced could go as high as two hundred times.
The suggestion to train in a gravity room had been passed to Raditz by Meruem, intended to push the Z Fighters to raise their power quickly so they could perform better in the battles to come.
One last point: why was Lord Slug heading to Earth at this time? That, too, had to do with Meruem. He had told the now-elderly Slug that Earth possessed a miraculous set of artifacts—the Dragon Balls—that could restore his youth!
Let Slug be the nourishment for the Z Fighters' growth. This was the board Meruem had laid out. Having altered the original plot, he would of course arrange the most thorough preparations for himself.
At the same time, because Frieza had departed with most of his own elites, the Chimera Ant army Meruem led kept plundering every resource on other planets.
The Dragon Ball world was far more complicated than he had imagined. Don't be fooled by Frieza styling himself emperor and calling the shots across the universe; that's only because he hadn't yet met someone even stronger.
For instance, even the space pirate Bojack wasn't someone Frieza could easily handle. Though Frieza was now stronger than Cooler, that didn't mean he could decisively defeat Bojack.
Bojack was said to rival Perfect Cell, with an official power level as high as 1.2 billion.
For a fighter of that tier, who knows how the four Kais managed to seal him. After all, Dabura, the Demon King, was merely said to rival Perfect Cell, yet Dabura's power was such that even the Supreme Kai—whose station is above the Kais and even the Grand Kai—couldn't contend with him.
That's why the Dragon Ball world is so complex. But danger and opportunity coexist. As Meruem's Chimera Ant army continued its plunder, he discovered a very interesting place.
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