After awkwardly waiting ten long minutes, no one else dared to enter the arena. Only now it hit Gero that it was time to check the data patterns of this place and indeed, it was always a native noble who challenged some new fighter in order to get an easy win. For Fatomites it was like going to a pub or a bar and play pool or darts, and so after another ten minutes, he was kindly escorted out of the fighting pit.
"As per rules, the victor get the opponent's propriety in case of death. Would you like to conserve it or sell it to the High Fatoma?" Demanded an official. The crown princes and princesses were Fatomas with numbers while the ruler was the High Fatoma.
"Can I check the inventory before deciding?" Asked Gero.
"Yes of course my Lord." Said the official presenting the data pad. The title was part of the belongings and of course offered a lot of privileges and perks, but useful only if one decided to own land in this insanely large planet sized city.
After browsing everything in mere minutes, strictly nothing caught up Gero's eyes, and everything was sold for twenty thousand billion Zenis. Gero speed run wealth in the outer space just like that.
After getting a ride to the main arena, it was finally time to truly test his might. After his two performances he still had to pay ten million Zeni to be allowed in, and then he discovered the many options the fighters had in there.
"You can register for a fight slot, and you will receive in the next months information regarding the event you would be signed up in. You may also discuss the division of gains from the spectator's attendance, ten percent of the ticket prices will be going to the High Fatoma, but the other ninety percent would be yours to deal with. You can also submit a challenge for one billion of Zeni for any fighter, but they still have the right to refuse, in the case of the refusal the arena takes the payment as service fee. However you can also stake your whole fortune for a death match, the winner wins everything and the loser dies. However you won't be choosing who would be your adversary, first arrived, first served."
"I'll stake everything, I don't have six months to waste anyway. Please proceed with the death mach." Said Gero. Surely there won't be a fighter with one hundred twenty million power level, here right, right?
Unbeknownst to him, every manager, organiser and stable got notified as soon as the twenty billion stake was posted. A cartoon like competition with sabotages, bribery and even murder took place in mere twenty minutes, the exact delay Gero had to wait before being notified that the fight was ready, and that he had to enter the arena.
The whole building took a twentieth of the whole planet, and the arena was clearly visible from the multitude of satellites turning around this giant planet. The death match interrupted the scheduled program, but the billions packed there to witness fights were not upset, on contrary. It was rare to see the best fighters the entertainment could provide fighting to death, and usually pre programmed events of this kind would cost astronomical amounts, and the tickets would often be auctioned. But here they were, witnessing history without going broke.
"Today's death match will oppose the great, the powerful, the brilliant, Apex Gharaga! Tooooooooooo the freshly arrived out of nowhere, the killer who needs only one move to kill, self proclaimed Doctor of death, Geroooooo!" The MC hyped the public, and the Apex Gharaga seemed really popular there.
Gero, advancing to this spot on the arena scanned the being he would fight now. He looked human, except he had two tiny horns on his head, was green, and had reptile ember eyes. His white hair were cut short.
"A pleasure to take your money." Said Apex to Gero.
"A pleasure to take your head." Greeted the doctor.
His scanners were screaming eight hundred thousand power level, the guy was much more stronger that Freezer in first form, and himself. For once determination flashed in his cold android's eyes.
"Fight!"
Both fighters lunged right at each other with monumental speed. Gero went all in, lightning was frenetically sparking all over him and turned around him, but there were no other phenomena as on Earth, it wasn't so easy to destabilise a giant planet's sky and create catastrophic weather phenomenons. His enemy wasn't holding back either, Ki aura was blasting all around Apex, the two fighters were the definition of viciousness at that moment. However, just as the two fighters were about to exchange punches, Apex's power level suddenly rose to one million and half. The punch aimed at Gero's head would have normally beheaded some one with a similar power level at this point, as taken by surprise there was no way one could be ready to take efficiently the hit. This is when the Ki training and all the sensory modules from the red planet entered in play. The data processing speed went trough the roof, every micro detail was instantly calculated, and with Ki sensing added to the equation, Gero used his right elbow to slightly deviate the hit and enter inside the enemy's guard. There, he delivered a heavy curved knee strike, a khao khong, on the adversary's torso. Gero was trained to find and use pressure points to get a land sliding advantage by Tao Pai Pai, and nothing was more easy than that when all your body is robotic. Additionally to this, the Muay Thai techniques were made for effective warfare and hit just right when one wanted to down an enemy, coupled with the toughness of adamantium, it was deadly. No one in this world can you trust. Not men, not women, not beasts, once said the father of Conan. But he was gravely mistaken. One could not trust steel, but the Emperor of the Mankind and the Machine God? Hell yeah!
At that moment Apex Gharaga discovered the weakness of flesh. He was sent flying backwards, his armor shattered into smithereens, green blood flowing from the point of impact. But it is there that the difference of the power level disparity entered in play, the wound inflicted by Gero was just superficial, not damaging any vital organs, to simplify it was the same as bleeding after scratching a knee.
While Gero was still moving slightly backwards due to momentum, Apex used his arms to disperse the fall's impact and backflip back up. Without losing the chance to deal with this unexpectedly annoying alien, he lifted his hands above his head, jointly, forming like a cup, then as he pulled down a green spiralling Ki ray was launched right at Gero, mercilessly smiting him. Unexpectedly though, it did nothing. Gero was tanking it without taking any damage, and had to feign resistance to prevent his adversary to stop. He was even happy, the Ki he was absorbing was steadily rising up his own battle power. Infinite energy, Ki absorption, and most advanced technology that ever existed before the age of strife. He was much more than a Cell Max on steroids!
"Tchhh... Stop resisting already! Dieeeee!" Yelled Apex while putting everything he had in him into the Ki ray, which expanded and spun even faster, like a drill determined to pierce a diamond.
Six hundred thousand... Six hundred fifty thousand... Seven hundred... Gero continued to liche out of the free power boost, now pretending to be on the verge of death. Then, as soon Apex believed this was over, and was utterly exhausted, stoped the attack, only to get stabbed from the back by two blades. He believed those were blades, but Gero used his hands to pierce right under the lungs, then as he was holding the internal organs of the unfortunate guy, he used his knees to fix himself on Apex's back. No matter what the local star tried to do in order to get rid of the good Doctor, it was useless. Slaming on the ground or walls? He felt tremors of pain as it allowed Gero to stab in even deeper. He felt weakness gradually submerging him, while Gero was casually monitoring the Ki syphoning progress. He was really pleased as it was one to one conversion without loss, if for whatever reason he decided to build Cell, the later would take much less time than the original to reach the adult stage with this kind of technology.
One million one hundred... One million one hundred fifty thousand... and it was it. Apex Gharaga was a dried up mummy that crumbled in pieces as soon as he was let go.
The crazy cheers drowned whatever the MC tried to say and Gero chose to just leave the arena as there was probably nothing else he could achieve on this planet anymore. He went from twenty billion of Zeni to twenty four, as obviously, no one was as rich as a local noble over there, and after this kind of demonstration, he would never get another fighter to freely feed him Ki, or at least for a long while.
After purchasing the latest coordinates and the ship ID of Turles' crew, he run a few quick simulations and departed. After weeks of scanning different places, he finally found out the evil Son Goku. The mercenary's ship was heading to a little planet without signs of civilisation, this alone was telling that Turles already had the seed of the tree of might, and was about to use it. Without any warning, Gero ejected from his ship, and casually dismantled the vessel piloted by his victims. He stole the little Ki they were holding as they were asphyxiated and cooked by the void. The seed? It was carefully packed in a container, ready to be collected by Dr. Gero, what a kind sayien Turles was, really. Instead of going to that desolated planet, the Omnissiah decided to bless a much larger one, three times the size of Earth he discovered while traveling to Fatoma. No advanced civilisation, power level of insectoid populace capped at six hundred, it was child's play.
As he planted the seed, it started to devour all the vitality, growing exponentially and not showing any signs of stopping. Gero scaned and recorded the whole process in order to get the needed data for synthesising the fruits later.
After two months of gardening, he packed two tons of fruits before the planet was transformed into a dried giant and crumbling rock, the seed was recovered after the brittle tree trunk collapsed. All the way back to Earth, the process kept repeating itself, Gero became the harvester, and after destroying a dozen of big and lively planets, with a karma hitting at least six digits in negativity, he returned to Earth with a haul of ten tons of fruits. Plenty for what he planned to do.