A Saiyan's Journey

"Curiosity is indeed a fine thing. The first time in a spherical spaceship, a few hours felt fine, but this second time, even an hour or two felt excruciatingly boring."

As the spaceship smoothly landed, Zuke emerged from the cabin with a lifeless expression—he'd been so bored during that one to two hours that he had actually fallen asleep.

Dr. Brief's original suggestion in the series about adding entertainment facilities to Goku's spaceship was spot on. The lack of any recreational activities during long flights was painfully unbearable.

Even someone as obsessed with training as Goku would need at least a bit of space to move around. This spherical spaceship required the whole body to be cramped inside, which felt almost inhumane.

But after landing, Zuke got a sense of this planet's general situation—different from his earlier guess; this wasn't Planet Vampa but a planet without a name, known only by its numerical designation.

Based on the information available from the spaceship, this planet seemed to host a vast population of wild beasts with considerable combat power. Non-combat personnel would likely be at risk of being devoured by these creatures.

Zuke took out his combat power detector, put it on, and scanned the surroundings. As expected, he saw numerous combat power readings in the distance—mostly large beasts, judging by the detector's outlines.

The combat power of these beasts wasn't low either. Quite a few of them surpassed a power level of 1000, which, if on Earth, would be devastating enough to threaten human civilization.

"Although these beasts have decent combat power, it shouldn't be enough to make Frieza's army issue a distress signal, right?"

Despite their remarkable combat power, Zuke couldn't quite understand why the Frieza soldiers here would need to request rescue.

Usually, Frieza's soldiers travel with combat personnel. Even if they couldn't eliminate all the beasts here, they should at least be able to escape.

But soon enough, Zuke noticed something else on his combat detector—a few high-power signals appeared in the distance. And judging by their outline, they weren't beasts.

"Could it be Frieza's men?"

Zuke aimed the detector in that direction and activated the power level viewer—and the numbers on the lens began to skyrocket.

In an instant, the combat power readings surged past ten thousand, prompting Zuke to quickly shut off the detector.

It wasn't the numbers that startled him but the fact that he knew the upper limit of the detector he was wearing was about twenty thousand. If it went beyond that, the detector might explode.

This was his only combat power detector, so he couldn't afford to let it blow up.

"Over ten thousand combat power? No, judging by the rate at which that number was rising, it's likely astronomical in the end—perhaps even stronger than Frieza himself. Where did this monster come from?"

Zuke muttered under his breath, surprised to find a creature with such combat power on this planet.

Despite his words, Zuke lowered his power level and cautiously moved in the direction of the source.

Though it was risky, he was already here; he couldn't leave without at least seeing who possessed this power. Otherwise, this trip would've been for nothing.

Even if he ended up with no substantial gain, at the very least, he'd know who was here.

Due to suppressing his energy, Zuke's speed slowed, but he still managed to reach the destination after about ten minutes.

Hiding behind a large rock, Zuke carefully peeked out at the scene ahead—just up ahead was a large clearing, where a strange structure stood prominently.

Upon closer inspection, he noticed four pillars supporting the structure, so it was actually a spaceship.

"This spaceship is enormous. Could Frieza's army's distress signal have something to do with it?"

Zuke scrutinized the spaceship, deep in thought—the overwhelming power level he sensed earlier likely originated from within.

He combed through his memories of Dragon Ball, trying to recall a spaceship of this design but came up blank.

"There must be another clue."

Zuke examined the spaceship closely again and finally spotted a familiar mark carved into one of its corners.

It was an ornate "M" symbol. He hadn't noticed it right away since it was tucked away in a corner, but now that he saw it, he immediately realized what it was.

It was Babidi's spaceship!

Zuke suddenly understood— in the original series, Babidi had buried his spaceship underground, leaving only an entrance exposed. That explained why he hadn't recognized the design.

So Babidi was already planning to resurrect Majin Buu? His presence here must be to collect the energy of these wild beasts, right?

To revive Majin Buu, Babidi traveled across the universe, gathering the strength of powerful beings to inject it into Majin Buu's egg for resurrection.

This explains the Frieza soldiers' distress signal. Some of Frieza's men likely wandered onto this planet and ended up captured by Babidi's forces, triggering the signal.

After sending the distress call, it's likely they didn't survive. Babidi isn't exactly merciful; he wouldn't hesitate to kill.

As for the terrifying combat power source… it's likely Babidi's henchman, Dabura, the King of the Demon Realm.

Dabura's strength at this time was practically unmatched, belonging to the later stages of the series.

Even if Frieza were to use his full 100% power, he'd be instantly defeated by Dabura.

"Dabura, Majin Buu..."

Zuke frowned. Facing Dabura head-on right now wasn't an option—not only was there no benefit to him, but Dabura would likely consider him as trivial as an ant.

In fact, there was a way to increase his strength here by having Babidi awaken his inner evil, allowing him to enter a Majin state and gain some power.

However, the cost would be coming under Babidi's control.

Although Babidi's control wasn't absolute, as demonstrated by the Earth warrior Yamu, who once temporarily resisted Babidi's influence in fear after his companion was killed.

But even minor control was still control. Zuke wasn't willing to accept even a small increase in power if it meant being under Babidi's thumb.

To be continued…