"Twelve thousand, nineteen thousand, twenty-eight thousand, thirty-four thousand…"
Taro strolled through the thick, black-brown dust clouds as if he were taking a casual walk. From time to time, a grotesque figure would burst through the smoke, throwing a punch at him. But each time, as if he had foreseen it, Taro would slightly shift his body, causing the attack to miss. Then, with a seemingly effortless counter, he would strike back, piercing through the attacker's body with ease.
While dodging and countering in the dense smoke, Taro also analyzed the strength of the dozen or so Enforcers present. He attempted to invade their consciousness with his psychic magic, but these Enforcers were even more chaotic than those on Planet Two—nothing but a swirling mess of madness and disorder, like a vat of glue.
One after another, streaks formed in the smoke—trails left by the bodies of Enforcers Taro had casually disposed of. His speed was so great, and his force so precise, that even before the first trail had faded, new ones would cross over them, forming a crisscrossing network—like an intricate traffic grid in the air.
"Heh… one hundred and twenty thousand?" Taro raised an eyebrow and turned toward the densest part of the smoke. Though his eyes couldn't penetrate it, his senses picked up an enormous fireball, radiating like the sun, hurtling toward him at immense speed. And overlapping with it… an even more intense energy signature!
Whoosh—!
A monstrous figure, gripping a burning mass of energy, tore through the black-brown smoke and charged at Taro!
Time seemed to slow.
Taro tilted his head slightly, his gaze cold.
The creature's body was covered in thick, knotted muscles, as if it had exploded with raw power. It soared through the air with an unnervingly fluid motion, its hand—gripping an incredibly dense energy sphere—raised high. But its face was twisted and beastlike, devoid of reason, acting purely on instinct…
A test subject with over one hundred and twenty thousand battle power, wielding energy potent enough to shatter the very planet beneath its feet, came crashing down toward this unknown "stranger."
Taro remained motionless.
As the raging brute's fist came smashing down, he simply extended his own hand—
His expression was serene, but the power within his outstretched palm was anything but. With just an inch of movement, an immense force erupted from his hand. The energy waves, condensed to an almost imperceptible range along his palm's edge, instantly blasted away the surrounding black-brown smoke!
In the blink of an eye, the dust was completely dispersed!
Taro's seemingly weightless palm met the high-energy punch of the monstrous experiment head-on.
High above, in the sky—
The mysterious alien who had rushed over from the underground research facility looked down, his expression surprised. How could someone with such a weak energy signature possibly defeat those experiments? Even if they were defective, they still possessed some degree of strength!
But…
The alien shook his head. His keen vision clearly captured the moment below—Taro, empty-handed, facing the final experimental subject's berserk punch head-on. The alien might not have the ability to directly sense energy levels, but he already knew that this particular test subject was significantly stronger than the others, its energy ten times higher than the rest.
And yet this man dared to block its punch with his bare hand?
Who does he think he is, me? The alien thought to himself. Even he wouldn't want to take that punch head-on. He was strong—unbelievably strong—but blocking that kind of hit would still hurt…
However, before the alien could finish his train of thought, the scene below completely shattered his expectations—
First, what he had anticipated—a shattered arm from taking the punch—did not happen. Instead, Taro's hand absorbed the full force of the experiment's devastating strike, stopping it completely! That punch, carrying an unfathomable amount of energy, had crashed directly against his palm…
Yet the terrifying energy failed to erupt.
"Hmph."
Taro, his face calm and unwavering, stared at the grotesque face of the "Enforcer" mere inches from his own. Because of the momentum, the creature's body had continued forward, even though its fist had been stopped. Without hesitation, Taro tightened his grip around its knuckles—
Muken!
A force vastly superior to the energy contained within the experiment's punch erupted from Taro's palm!
Strength born from the earth, guided by will, layered and amplified through every muscle in his body, fused with the explosive force of his inner ki—all of it concentrated into his palm!
BOOM!
From the point of impact—Taro's outstretched hand—a cone-shaped shockwave blasted outward at a forty-five-degree angle, engulfing everything within its range in a raging inferno!
Buzz—
In the sky above, the mysterious alien stared in stunned silence. His gaze shifted from the "ant" below to the vast wasteland beyond. What he saw left him speechless—a massive, forty-five-degree cone-shaped vacuum zone stretching from where the "ant" had stood, carved into the rugged, cratered landscape. It was as if some god had whimsically pressed a slice of pizza into the planet's surface, leaving behind a deep, unnatural imprint.
His mind went blank. There were no thoughts like "What just happened?" or "Did he really create that with a single strike?" Instead, he was paralyzed by sheer disbelief, as if his brain had stopped functioning entirely.
The experimental subject, once boasting a battle power in the millions, had now been reduced to a charred, statue-like husk, suspended in midair. Its outstretched fist still rested against Taro's palm. Taro could clearly feel it—the weight of this husk was now nearly nonexistent, its substance burnt away to almost nothing.
Without hesitation, he withdrew his hand. This slight movement was enough to cause the carbonized figure to crumble, disintegrating into tiny fragments. The delayed atmospheric shockwave from Taro's attack finally kicked in, stirring up chaotic turbulence. A violent gust swept the blackened ashes into the sky, forming a swirling, dark vortex.
Taro's gaze followed the rising black tornado, his expression calm.
High above, the mysterious alien stiffened. His exceptional eyesight allowed him to see it clearly—Taro's eyes had locked onto him. There was no trace of surprise in that gaze. He knows I'm here?
And then… Taro smiled.
A chill ran down the alien's spine. Before he could react, the tiny figure on the ground vanished.
"Where did he go?!" The alien flinched, scanning the wasteland below.
At that very moment, a voice sounded behind him.
"Intergalactic tycoon… Mr. Slinn?"
The alien—Slinn—spun around sharply, his face turning cold.
Standing right in front of him was Taro, his hand raised, palm facing Slinn's face. It looked utterly unremarkable—yet it sent a shiver through him.
"Tell me everything about this experiment of yours and its connection to Frieza. Otherwise…"