The Saiyan Gamer

Entering Planet Plants atmosphere for the first time since leaving it as a child was an incredible experience.

Illuminated by dual suns, the scarlet sky was brighter than anything I'd ever seen in my fourteen years of living. Granted, that was because my first purge planet, where I had been sent as an infant, had a star at such a distance that it only illuminated the surface of the planet once a year.

In truth, the intensity of the twin sun stung painfully, but I couldn't peel my eyes away from the beauty. Eventually, the dual suns disappeared behind clouds, and then a massive crystal mountain. Staring out from my ship, I appreciate the landscape of my homeworld.

While the sky was crimson red, the majority of the ground shimmered blue. Mountains of various rich colors stretched high into milky green clouds, with parts of them glittering as the light reflected through it. It was captivating, and it was my home. I'd longed for it for years, and now I could finally experience it.

Truthfully, it was the only thing that got me through my torturous experience on that backwater planet. While my miniature spacecraft brought me to the planet, it wasn't its only function. When I was about 10, I found it again, hidden far beneath the surface of the great ocean. It revealed to me my purpose, along with a library of education from the homeworld.

Pictures of Planet Plant were what got me through even the hardest days. Days when I'd even considered sparing the natives of the planet. I was able to squash those ideas by looking at pictures of my world and recalling my mission.

Exterminate them all and you will return an honored citizen.

It didn't take long to accept my mission, due to their treatment of me. It helped that compared to their measly strength, I was a God. I never got the chance to transform into the ultimate form of my race, because Planet X-32's atmosphere was constantly clouded by thick gasses and therefore, barely let in any form of light, let alone the light of the moon.

It didn't matter, in the end. I exterminated them all, and it only took just under four years from when I discovered my purpose. Ought to be a new personal best, I thought.

I was wrong.

I noticed something was off the moment that my ship's doors opened and a dark figure grabbed me violently by the throat and tugged me out. My immediate response was to fight, and so I did.

It was futile in the end. My first kick didn't even move the figure, let alone cause them to let go of me. Despite the growing terrible feeling in the pits of my stomach, I growled through the discomfort and tried again. I surely must have missed the first time. My kicks were strong enough to demolish even the strongest machines that the Alvion's could build.

This time the figure didn't simply let me hit them, however. Their free arm lifted slightly in response. When my leg collided with it, I winced at the unfamiliar pain. A warmth spread through my leg like I hadn't felt before, and an intense pulsating pain rocked my figure.

"You're joking, right?" The person in front of me said through a dry chuckle. My eyes were still adjusting to the brightness of the planet's surface compared to Planet X-32, but I could still see the outline of several people surrounding me. I could barely see the person in front of me, apart from their mocking green stare.

"Let me go and you'll find out!" I managed to growl despite my throat being crushed by their tightening fist. My attempts to pry them open were in vain. All around me I could hear whispers and giggling that made my heartbeat quicken. What were they laughing at?

"Let you go? Of course," The fist untightened a moment after the voice stopped, but before I could launch an attack, I landed on my right leg and yelled out unexpectedly. Ungodly pain rushed from it; something I'd never felt before. I fell to the ground and clutched it with gritted teeth.

"What did you do to it?!" I screamed up at my attacker. When I managed to look up, my eyes had finally adjusted enough to see my immediate surroundings without too much pain. The person directly in front of me had spiked light red hair that reached down to her lower back. She didn't look much older than me, but the deep scowl put on some years.

The others around us varied in size, but they didn't look older than the red-haired one. They weren't big enough to be adult Saiyans, so I guessed that they were adolescents.

Why am I, an honorable citizen, being greeted by a group of teenagers? Where is my applause and celebration for wiping out an entire civilization? And where is my family, who are meant to greet me and reward me for my return?

"Your leg is broken idiot," The red-haired girl spat while squinting her beady black eyes at me. "I'm surprised that a weakling like you haven't had a broken bone before."

Broken? I looked down at the leg, unable to respond through my shock. I could hardly remember the last time I felt any form of pain, let alone one of my bones breaking. I hadn't even considered it possible that my bones could break. Before I could get over the thought, her second statement was finally recognized by my brain and I snapped out of the shock.

"Weak? I just destroyed an entire world with my bare hands!" I yelled fiercely but was met with more snickering laughter. The red-headed teenager even cracked a smile, which made my anger increase tenfold.

"It took you fourteen years to do it. Don't flatter yourself," The girl took a step towards me. I knew something was coming before it happened, yet I was powerless to stop her kick from sending me high into the sky above.

The same burning sensation filled my chest, and I was sure that at least some of my rib bones were broken. My left arm, which I managed to throw in front of my body to try to soften the blow, was snapped in half, uselessly flailing in the air as I descended. I managed to catch myself in midair with my flight.

It didn't matter, though. A heavy shadow fell on me, and I didn't even have time to glance up at the person before a startling pain racked through my back and my body went flying to the ground, bouncing off of it like a rock on water. I couldn't hold the scream in. Muscle and skin tore off of my bones as my body skipped across the sharp, cerulean ground beneath me.

"Brussel, your brother would probably make a good volleyball for our game tonight, don't you think?" One of the voices gargled.

"He's not my brother!" The red-haired Saiyan, Brussel, hissed, with a voice exuding disgust. "He's far too weak to be related to me!"

"But, wasn't your entire family notified that this was your brother's space ship coming back home?" The other voice asked, his voice confused and idiotic. I would have laughed if I wasn't trying to fight through the pain and stand up.

"Shut up Brok. You're an idiot," A female voice chimed in. "Brussel meant that if her brother was truly this weak, she would disown him."

"Oh.."

"Which leads me back to my main point of interest," Brussel's voice was much closer than I would have liked. In the next moment, I was being lifted into the air by my hair. I considered fighting back, but the pain in my leg, arm, and lower back was immense. I did what I could, however, spitting a glob of green mucus into her face.

It didn't give the wanted reaction, however. Instead, the teenager smiled darkly for a brief second, before beginning to float into the air, dragging me by the hair as she did. I could hardly stop the process, but I at least managed to hold in my grunts of pain as strands of hair began to tear out from my scalp.

"You sure have a fiery spirit. It's a shame you don't have the body to match up with it," The woman said. "You think that clearing out a planet in 14 years is a job well done? I was back from my first mission when I was four and I've cleared out at least a dozen since then."

She must be lying, I thought to myself through the numb feeling that washed over me. There's no way that she could have purged a planet before she was four. That isn't possible!

"What? Are you realizing your powerlessness finally?" My apparent older sister mocked me with a grin. "Good. Remember this feeling. Remember it every time you wake up in the morning. Remember it when you eat and remember it when you sleep. Because if you don't, you'll remain weak forever."

My vision turned red at that moment, my fury erupting like a geyser. I opened my mouth and screamed, the biggest beam of energy I had ever let out exploding out of me with a force that could flatten cities. Orange energy completely swallowed my view, and I kept it up for as long as I could. My throat burned raw by the time I allowed the energy to die down.

That was when I noticed that the hand gripping my hair hadn't loosened. My eyes widened in shock at the revelation, before the light subsided and the sight in front of me struck fear into my very being.

She was completely unharmed. The lower part of her shirt was gone, revealing an immaculate muscular body, but that was the only proof that my attack ever existed. Not a scratch or scorch mark was present on her entire body. She just took my most powerful attack, amped up by my anger, and didn't take any damage...

Am I really that weak?

"I liked that attack, mind if I steal it?" Brussel asked with a raised eyebrow, before snickering. "Of course you won't, I'm going to kill you for even trying to attack me while I'm speaking."

The moment that her mouth opened, the heat forming from deep within her body made my skin feel as if it was peeling off. A bright purple light lit up the back of her throat, illuminating the entire area in violet light. My only good hand slid across her arm as I tried to free myself, but my sweaty palms couldn't get a good grip. My heart raced faster than it ever had before, the irate thumping beginning to hurt against my partially broken ribcage.

"Brussel, don't kill him!"

A powerful voice boomed from above us. Immediately the heat subsided and Brussel's eyes darted upwards. I was simply happy that the feeling of my skin sliding off of my bones had stopped.

"It's dishonorable to kill your flesh and blood, you should know that," The voice scolded, his voice deep and harsh. I managed to turn and look up at my savior, even as I was still being held up by my hair.

The new person was an adult. He had long, flowing red hair, with beady black eyes that matched Brussel's exactly. I tried to get a better look at him, but I was thrown forward, landing face-first in the dirt at the man's feet.

"But he's so weak. How can this thing be our flesh and blood?" Brussel grumbled loudly. "He's barely a Saiyan if you ask me."

"Have you checked his power level yet?" The adult asked.

"I forgot my scouter at home, but trust me, it isn't even worth your time," She replied quickly. I gritted my teeth at the notion, lifting my head and rolling onto my back so that I could look up at the man. I noticed a white object on his face, with a red-colored lense that stuck out of it. I hadn't seen it before, but it was obviously of some importance. The man tapped the object twice and the lense started to light up with color.

"A power level of 100?" The man's entire energy changed with the revelation. "This can't be right. He was born with a power level not far from 100."

"Maybe the system got messed up somehow. Are we sure this is even the right kid?" Brussel asked. The older man narrowed his eyes and stepped over to me, now glaring directly down into my eyes.

"What's your name, boy?" The man asked me.

"Sprout!" I replied without hesitation. The frown on his face deepened considerably as if he was now looking at a pile of waste.

"How disappointing," The man mumbled under his breath. He turned around and slowly began to walk off.

Why did that hurt so much? I lay on the ground with wide eyes, staring up at the sky above me. I've been lied to.

"Dad, what should I do with him?" Brussel asked from somewhere that felt infinitely far off.

"Leave him be. I'd never welcome him into our family with a power level like that. He's better of in the wilderness," The older man, who I realized was my Father, spoke dismissively. "Either he'll get eaten or he'll get stronger."

"Can I at least take his tail? He doesn't deserve to call himself a Saiyan with such a low power level."

The words created a primal panic in me. I forced myself onto my only good leg, before flying backward and away from the two. I noticed then that the rest of the teenagers were gone. Where had they gone?

My escape backward was halted by what felt like a wall. I turned in shock, to see that the group had not left. They were suddenly standing all around me. The big dumb one was the one that I'd bumped into.

"Where ya' going runt?" He chuckled. I didn't respond; trying to fly upwards instead.

"Brussel, catch!" A female voice above me called out. I looked up in time to see her leg arched backward. As I expected, her kick hit me before I could even hope to block it.

Brussel caught me by my tail, I could tell by my entire body shutting down immediately. My eyes were left permanently wide as I dangled from my sisters' grip. Pathetic.

Weak…

"No, leave his tail," My Dad's voice made my inner being rejoice, even if I couldn't express it physically. "Come along."

My older sister was hesitant in obeying' swinging me around for a few more seconds, before grunting and throwing me away from them all. Somehow, I had enough strength to lighten my fall so that I didn't die from the sheer impact.

I clenched my dirty, sweaty hands so tightly that my knuckles burned and paled a few shades lighter than my already pale complexion. I watched them fly away into the distance, to what looked like a small town with tall, metal gates that I couldn't see through. When they were out of sight, I screamed and punched the ground underneath me, cracking it in the shape of my fist.

This wasn't how things were supposed to go: but now that I stand, alone and broken, I wondered what I had really expected. My mind was blank in response to the question. The numbness in me quickly began transforming into something else.

I was not weak, and they would see that. All of them would. I didn't crawl, maim and kill the planet that raised me just to be called weak. I did not toil and struggle to become a God, just to be looked down upon like an insignificant bug. No, I was not weak. I was strong, and they'd see it. They all would. But first…

Darkness swept over my vision, and I collapsed.

I woke up to the smell of smoke and meat being cooked. When I opened my eyes, countless stars were before me, but at the corner of my sight, I saw tall things that reached out into the night sky like fingers with brown spikes sticking out of them. They swayed threateningly above me.

I jumped to my feet in alarm, fighting through the immense pain that ran through my left leg. I threw my available fist up at the closest thing, but even after a few seconds, it didn't attack me.

"Calm down, kid. Those trees are the least of your worries."

The pain and the barely moving tall things were immediately an afterthought. I shuffled around until I could see the source of the voice. A single man sat on a rock only a few feet from me, a large fire burning at his feet. He held in his hand two bones with large pieces of meat on them, slowly turning them over the fire.

His hair was black and spiked out in every direction. The most alarming of his features was the red headband that he wore around his forehead. It was distinct, and one sniff of the air gave me the impression that it was colored with blood.

Over the years, due to the almost pitch darkness of Planet X-32, my other senses were my main skill for hunting down the inhabitants. My sense of smell and hearing was incredible, and the smell of blood was a common scent. The blood of the Carvonian's smelt sweet, like meat, which was why I knew that the blood on the headband wasn't alien. It was Saiyan.

Is this man going to try to kill me? I wondered with my fist already up in a defensive posture. The longer I stared at him, though, the less threatening he seemed.

"Who are you?" I asked after a few moments of complete silence.

"A fellow Saiyan," The man replied simply. His voice was deep and rough, yet calm.

"Why is your headband colored with the blood of other Saiyans?" I asked in response. I kept my free arm up with my fist clenched.

"You can tell that, huh? You've got a good nose," The man said, before turning and looking at me. "It's the blood of my comrades."

"You killed them?" I asked with narrowed eyes.

"I couldn't save them, so I might as well have," The man said under his breath. I slowly dropped my fist but kept my distance. "Sit down while our meal cooks."

I hesitated for a few seconds, eyeing the man, before looking around us again at the surrounding tall enemies. They still didn't make a move.

"Those are just trees, they won't hurt you," The older man chuckled dryly at my confusion. "Well, unless they fall on you,"

"A tree?" I asked while looking up at them. The word sounded familiar, yet extremely foreign. It was likely apart of the education that my ship provided for me, but this was the first time that I was ever seeing one for myself.

"They're not alive like us. They're just another form of a plant."

"A plant…" I repeated slowly. I knew what those were, although no plant on Planet X-32 looked like these trees. The plants there were mainly at the deep layers of the ocean and were thin and flexible. They also tasted decently good when wrapped around a fish.

"You were sent to a planet without trees, huh," He realized. He turned the meat again, before saying, "Plants come in many forms. Seeing as you didn't know what a tree was, I'm going to assume that you didn't have grass either. These sharp blades underneath us are grass, which is also a plant. On other planets it's soft, but on here it's as hard as a rock."

"Grass, huh?" I looked down at the small sharp blades that covered the ground around us. It didn't exist on Planet X-32. Well, neither did the trees. "What is the purpose of a plant?"

"Other than producing a disgusting, yet edible thing called fruit, trees can also be used for shade from the suns," He revealed. "It gets extremely hot at the peak of the day, and with a complexion like yours, you'll need all the shade you can get."

"Why do I need to hide from the suns?" I asked, although when I thought about it, I had an idea of the answer.

Although most of my concentration was on surviving that interaction when I first landed, I did notice that the moment I got out of my spacecraft, my skin tingled uncomfortably when directly under the sun's rays. My eyes had been in pain the moment that I'd seen the two suns.

"Stars are powerful sources of energy and heat. Planet Plant is close to two, so the surface is subject to intense heat and light," He replied. "Considering that you don't even know what plants are, I assume that your village sent you to a planet with a sun that reached the surface just enough to sustain life. Am I right?"

"Well, yes," I confirmed. "The clouds were thick and constant, except for one day in the yearly cycle."

"Because of that, your skin isn't used to solar energy. That isn't even considering that Planet Plant revolves around two," He continued. "You'll get used to it eventually, though, I'm sure of it. You're a Saiyan after all."

"I understand," I looked down at my pale body with a frown on my face. My body had a weakness? I didn't like that at all. "Is there any way to get rid of this weakness faster?"

"I've heard of people laying out in the sun for as long as they can endure each day, to build up a resistance," He told me. That sounded easy enough.

"Here, have some meat," He handed me one of the bones with meat. "You've been knocked out for hours."

"Why are you helping me?" I asked after taking the meat from his hand.

"Why not?" He retorted. "Most Saiyans believe purely in strength, but cast aside their other emotions as a result. Cruelty has become commonplace among our people, but that isn't how we always were."

"I follow the path of Yamoshi. He was the most powerful of all but he didn't become a hardened shell with no mercy, as our species has turned into," The man said in between bites.

"Aren't we supposed to show no mercy?" I asked. That was one of the first messages that the ship gave me when I found it.

"To our enemies, definitely," He smiled for the first time since we'd met, showcasing blood-stained teeth. "But not to everyone."

"How am I supposed to know who to show mercy to?" I asked curiously. The concept was interesting, I'd admit. Everyone on Planet X-32 was my enemy, so there was no need to distinguish between them.

"That's for you to find out," He said. That was when he stood up and began to dust himself off. "I'd better be off, then. I sent Radiz and Turles out to collect some extra meat, they're probably wondering where I am."

I simply watched the man as he stood up and stretched his back. I was used to being alone. Just because I was on a new planet didn't change that fact. I still had more questions for the helpful Saiyan, but I wouldn't beg him to stay. That would look like I couldn't handle myself. My face portrayed more than I intended because when he turned to me, he continued.

"If you have any more questions, we live at the top of the mountain," The man told me. I nodded my head in response, slowly taking a bite of the meat in my hand as I did.

"I'll keep that in mind," I responded truthfully. "My name is Sprout, by the way."

The man turned back to me with a sly smirk while also picking up a large bag from the ground. He started to float into the air, his back to me when he said, "Bardock. See you around, kid."

With that, he was gone, and I was alone. A part of me wondered if the man had ever really existed. It wouldn't be the first time that I conjured a person to speak to at my lowest points. However, the fire blazing in the middle of the clearing and the bone in my hand snuffed out that stray thought.

My next thoughts, concerning my now missing ship, were interrupted by the strangest thing that I'd ever witnessed. The crackling of the fire slowed to a pause, and the whistle of the wind stopped dramatically. One look up and I noticed that the trees had stopped swaying too. I reached forward and put my hand over the fire, yet it didn't burn me.

What's going on?

A sound similar to rolling lightning cracked above my head, despite there being no clouds anywhere in sight. I blinked several times, preparing to throw my bone at whatever came to attack me. Instead, the fire suddenly started moving again, but not in any natural formation. They lifted into the air and clumped together, forming what looked like words.

Intro Complete

Welcome to The Game of Life (Beta Edition Test Run)

Game Beginning!

Tutorial (Skipped)

3

2

1

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The world flourished back into motion as if none of it ever happened. I looked down at the bone in my hand, one thought going through my mind.

What the fuck was in that meat?

I'm back! For all of you who were fans of the original story, I'm sorry for deleting it completely out of nowhere. However, it gave me the chance to go back and change aspects of the story that I thought would work better. I hope you enjoy the new version of The Saiyan Gamer!