Chapter 98: Feels Like I Missed Something
After stepping out of the cubic spaceship, both Zuke and Nail felt an odd sense of disorientation, as if they had been away for ages.
The interior of the spaceship had been transformed into a Hyperbolic Time Chamber, allowing them to spar for half a day, even though only a few minutes had passed outside.
"The Grand Elder said he couldn't move easily, so he won't be seeing you off."
Once outside the spaceship, Nail received a telepathic message from the Grand Elder.
He turned to Zuke, his tone much friendlier—after all that sparring, he'd grown somewhat familiar with Zuke.
Still, he couldn't quite understand why the Grand Elder placed so much importance on Zuke.
Yes, Zuke's strength now surpassed his own… but only marginally.
If they truly encountered an opponent that Nail couldn't handle, it was unlikely Zuke could do much better.
However, when Nail had asked the Grand Elder about this, he'd simply smiled without answering, leaving Nail to keep his doubts to himself.
"If you need anything else, feel free to come back to Namek anytime. As the Grand Elder's guest, you're also a guest of the Namekians."
Seeing that Zuke was about to return to his ship, Nail nodded at him.
"But don't rely too much on the Dragon Balls. After all, they're an external power. To improve yourself, you must work on your own strength."
"Of course."
Zuke smiled. Nail had a point; most of the strongest beings in the Dragon Ball universe had achieved their power through training.
Even Broly, the Saiyan prodigy with monstrous strength, was trained from a young age on Planet Vampa.
However, Zuke's current situation was unique. To quickly defeat Frieza in his 100% powered state, he had to increase his strength by every possible means.
In this case, using the Dragon Balls was unavoidable.
...
After closing the door to the cubic spaceship, Zuke pulled out his notebook containing a wealth of information from Zuno and found Earth's coordinates.
He'd already acquired the Turtle School's techniques from the Namekian Dragon, and just needed to practice them to fully master them.
But Earth still held many valuable things to explore. For example… some moves from the Crane School weren't too bad either.
Although going to Earth meant he wouldn't be able to upload the techniques directly to his brain like the Dragon Balls did, the Crane School and Turtle School came from the same roots, so it shouldn't be too difficult to learn.
Yet, after inputting Earth's coordinates into the spaceship's system, he received an unexpected response.
"Traveling to the target planet will require 8,924 taks."
Nearly 9,000 taks... meaning a trip to Earth would take close to three days.
Is that fast? Actually, it is relatively quick.
In the original story, Namekian spacecraft took about a month to travel from Earth to Namek.
Even Dr. Brief's modified spherical spaceship, which was faster, still needed almost a week.
The cubic spaceship would need only about three days, which was already faster than any spacecraft in the original series.
But it still wasn't fast enough for Zuke's expectations.
"It seems I'd need an angel to pilot this spaceship to achieve maximum speed… But where could I find an angel to pilot my ship?"
Zuke shook his head, dismissing the impractical thought.
Of course, if he chose to go to Earth, he could also skip those three days using the "Time Leap" feature in the mission world.
That way, he could enter the Dragon Ball world tomorrow night and be on Earth directly.
"But there's something I want to try first."
Zuke flipped a few pages in his notebook and soon found another set of coordinates.
These coordinates were unique—they led to a place that couldn't normally be reached.
This was the location of King Kai's Planet in the Other World!
The Other World was a special realm within the universe, accessible only to gods and souls approved by King Yemma.
But it was still technically within this universe, and after memorizing King Kai's "ki," Goku could teleport there instantly.
Similarly, this god-crafted cubic spaceship could reach it too!
After inputting King Kai's coordinates, the cubic spaceship quickly responded:
"Traveling to the target planet will require 247 taks."
Nearly 250 taks, which was about two hours.
Zuke calculated that, despite his extensive sparring with Nail, it had all taken place within the spaceship.
In reality, only around two minutes had passed.
This meant he still had about two and a half hours left in the Dragon Ball world.
If he spent two hours traveling to King Kai's Planet… he'd have half an hour to chat with King Kai.
Of course, whether it would just be a "chat" depended on King Kai's attitude.
"But King Kai's Planet should be the last stop for today."
Zuke nodded and activated the cubic spaceship, heading toward King Kai's Planet.
Though the flight would take two hours, with the Hyperbolic Time Chamber effect inside, Zuke could train for a full month.
Of course, with no entertainment onboard, he figured a month of intense training alone might be a bit tough.
He'd probably end up deactivating the time dilation halfway through to reach King Kai's Planet sooner.
Moreover, he doubted his training efficiency would match Goku's journey to Namek.
Goku's spaceship could adjust gravity up to 100 times, which his ship couldn't do.
As for Goku's rapid power increase, that might have come from his near-death experiences during training…
Zuke recalled Vegeta's words—putting yourself in near-death situations wouldn't produce the same effect, so it probably wasn't related to the Saiyan's near-death power-up ability.
"Wait a minute, wouldn't that mean I missed out? I should've had Nail kill me a few times."
Realizing this, Zuke's face changed. It hit him that he might've overlooked something important.
He had an immortal body! If he had Nail beat him to near death and then recovered, he could've skyrocketed his power!
A Saiyan's strength increases after near-death experiences. How could he have forgotten such a crucial detail?
"...Should I try it? See if putting myself near death will boost my strength."
After a moment of regret, Zuke looked down at his hands, deep in thought.
With an immortal body, it was worth a try, wasn't it?
To be continued…
Zuke and Rin advance to Einzbern Forest.
Artoria Pendragon and Irisviel Intercept them!
Will Zuke crush even the women?!?!?!
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