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Chapter 64 - Dragon Ball, The Future World Where Cell Appears

In the blink of an eye, Moss was transported from the clean and orderly DATS headquarters to a desolate and crumbling wasteland.

She looked around—devastation everywhere.

It felt like a post-apocalyptic landscape ravaged by a meteor shower. From what remained of the buildings, the setting appeared to have a near-future architectural style.

Moss couldn't yet tell what world she had entered. She quietly asked, "Do you sense anything?"

"Nothing," replied Angewomon.

She had studied the transport devices in the DATS archives—those that allow travel between the Digital World and human world were also a kind of dimensional jump.

Thinking it might help with understanding dimensional travel, Angewomon had studied them in detail.

But in the recent jump, she felt nothing.

Moss murmured, "So knowledge alone isn't enough. We'll need to turn that knowledge into actual ability before we can sense the travel process."

It was like trying to replicate nuclear fusion by hand, starting from the mass-energy equivalence equation—a long, long road ahead.

Back to the present…

"What world is this?"

With that question in mind, Moss spread her wings and flew skyward, hoping to find a local and ask.

Thanks to her Digimon senses, she could detect lifeforms even hundreds of meters away. Highly sensitive Digimon could even judge the strength and vitality of those lifeforms.

Like Lalamon from the fifth season—able to detect Daimon Masaru's immense life energy from far away in Episode 1.

But…

As Moss extended her senses, she realized—there wasn't a single human life signal in this vast city.

The streets and alleys were dead silent. Desolate.

Moss growing in corners, vines creeping along rubble—signs this place had been abandoned for years.

"Let's try another city. It's impossible no one's left at all."

She flew forward a bit longer—finally, a life signal appeared in her detection range.

Judging from its strength, it seemed like an ordinary human…

So she thought—until the next moment, when she realized she was terribly wrong.

So wrong!

Because that "ordinary" life signal suddenly surged—Not by 100x.Not by 1,000x.But by millions of times!

The last time she sensed something this terrifying was during the global collection of Digisoul. No—this was even stronger than that.

"This is insane… That kind of power… Can that even be called human?"

Maybe it wasn't human at all!

Moss stiffened.

She was no ordinary Angewomon—having learned Reception Magic and gained Talisman powers, she was over ten times stronger than her species' norm. Her current combat strength could rival the likes of Gold SaberLeomon—an Ultimate-level Digimon.

With such power, she should be able to thrive and protect herself in most worlds.

But this time, one word flashed in her mind—

Danger!

And just then—disaster struck!

That overwhelming life force suddenly vanished, dropping to zero.

…They were dead.

That powerful being—was killed.

Killed by another powerful being.

"Crap!"

Moss immediately dropped to the ground and activated the Snake Talisman to vanish from sight, suppressing her energy signature as much as possible.

A thousand meters away, in the shadows—A pair of terrifying eyes stared her way.

Cold. Emotionless.

Eyes that saw all things as prey.

They were locked on Moss's direction, seemingly piercing through walls and ruins.

The eyes belonged to a green creature—tall and humanoid, with an insect-like exoskeleton. It clearly wasn't born of natural evolution.

In truth, it was an artificial life form created by a computer.

Cell.A name derived from the English word for biological cells—also his name.

Cell raised one arm, summoning a glowing energy orb the size of a fist.

In the next instant, he launched it—BOOM!

A towering mushroom cloud erupted, consuming half the city in an instant.

"Hmph, pathetic…" Cell had thought the signal was from a hidden master. But with no response after the blast, it must've just been a somewhat powerful creature—perhaps a martial artist.

Still weak. Must've died in the blast. No point checking.

Cell turned his attention to the machine beside him—a time machine. As the name suggests, it could travel through time. Its coordinates were already set to Age 763.

With the machine ready, Cell leapt toward the cockpit.

It was designed to fit an average human. His current form was too large to squeeze in.

If he wasn't inside during time travel—who knows what might happen? Without hesitation, Cell made a decision—his tall body twisted and shrank rapidly, turning into a larval form the size of a basketball.

Plenty of room now.

The time machine lifted into the air—And in the next instant, both it and the larva vanished.

Cell had assumed the "weak martial artist" he sensed couldn't possibly survive his energy blast. But he was wrong.

That "weakling"—Moss—had survived.

Not far from the blast center, buried under rubble, lay a white figure.

It was Moss.

The explosion had broken her invisibility on impact.

Now visible again, her mask was half-shattered, revealing her left eye. Blood trailed down from her forehead, dyeing a strand of her golden hair red. Her outfit was torn, her body covered in wounds, and most of her eight wings had lost feathers.

She looked a wreck—but the worse part was the internal damage.

Anyone else—human or Digimon—would surely have died from these injuries.

"Good thing I have the Dog Talisman."

Moss felt relieved. Its immortality had saved her. If only she also had the Horse Talisman—she'd be fully healed in an instant.

She did have healing—Holy Bubbles—but nothing as immediate as the Horse Talisman.

But she dared not use it now, for fear of being detected by that monstrous presence.

"I don't sense his energy anymore… but he might be hiding it. Better wait."

Gritting through the pain, Moss stayed put.

She had to make sure he was really gone before healing. Otherwise, if he saw her, even fully healed, she wouldn't survive a second blast.

Time passed.

After about half an hour…

Moss detected another life signal—this one was ordinary-level.

Was it the same threat?

No—it was someone else.

Click clack…

Footsteps echoed, growing nearer.

Soon, Moss saw the figure—it was a woman, about forty or fifty, with teal-blue hair and a white lab coat. She looked like a scientist.

"Trunks!"

The woman shouted a name anxiously. But seeing Moss instead, she paused—then asked, "You… are you still alive?"

If she'd made it here safely, that meant the threat was gone.

Moss thought so too and answered, "I'm alive."

She planted one hand on the ground and slowly rose, then asked the woman, "Are you Bulma?"

"You know me?" Bulma blinked in surprise.

Moss took a deep breath, then turned her gaze to the horizon. Her exposed left eye filled with melancholy.

The Dragon Ball World.

And not just that—The future timeline, the one consumed by despair.

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