Chapter 27 - Another Attack Pod
…
Two weeks passed, and they built the new spaceship. Bulma's intelligence impressed Yamcha. To know she was a genius and to see it in action were two different things.
If it weren't for the anxiousness that the next Frieza goon might just blow up the planet and be done with it, Yamcha would have seen this as a nice vacation.
At least he learned how much he could lift, which was a ridiculous amount.
'In my last world, there was a law of physics I can't exactly remember. Where it says, the force applied to a meter square had a limit. But this world skipped that page of physics too.' Yamcha thought.
Bulma was putting on the finishing touches. The delicate things he might mess up if he tried helping.
He lay atop one of the empty hills with his eyes closed and relaxing. Yamcha's eyes opened wide, and in less than a second stared into space, where he could sense something approaching. "What a shame. Seems like we couldn't get away without a fight."
The spacecraft landed a couple of hundred kilometers from them. The shockwave from his landing could be felt all the way here.
Who was it? Yamcha wondered whether the next attacker was bound to be stronger than Turles.
He was cautious. But at the same time, he was glad since this was the last goon Frieza would send. As soon as Bulma finishes the spaceship, they will be gone before anyone can be any wiser about it.
Yamcha cast a Magic Barrier around Bulma and flew off. Since he had the thing cast on her, he wouldn't be able to use Barrier Magic in the battle. But he didn't mind; a little drawback was better than Bulma dying by the aftershock of their battle.
He flew toward where he could sense the only other Power Level on this planet.
Yamcha was planning for the next fight, and this time the attacker didn't meet him at a half-point but exactly where they had landed with their attack pod.
A purple fish-like alien stood next to the open attack pod wearing Frieza-styled armor. "So you must be the man who beat that fool Turles? Is he dead?"
[Cui - Lvl 342] (PL: 18,000)
Yamcha landed two feet in front of Cui. The alien didn't seem to mind and kept a smirk on his face. "Why aren't you answering me? Too scared? Cat got your tongue?"
Cui threw a punch, which rippled the air with the power behind it, but Yamcha didn't move or even block.
The punch stopped right as it was about to touch his face. "Well, you're a brave one-"
Before the man could finish, Yamcha punched him in the chin, bursting his scouter, and sent the alien crashing into a rock formation.
Glancing at the attack pod, Yamcha knew the thing probably had a tracker. He didn't mind and just took the attack pod and directly put it in his inventory.
'Now they can't track shit.'
"You bastard!" Cui charged out of the rubble, flying at breakneck speeds from the rubble. "You dare sneak attack me?!"
'Jesus, this guy talks a lot. Are we debating or fighting here?' Yamcha clashed with Cui, and hundreds of hits in less than a second.
They backed off and got a good look at each other.
A bead of sweat rolled down Cui's forehead. But a smile slowly made its way onto the fish-like alien's face. "Turles was a low-class warrior and Cooler's dog, despite working for Frieza. He had a power level of 6000, but mine is three times that, at 18,000! You scared now?"
He didn't care about what Cui was saying. Yamcha knew it would have been a very different battle if it had been Turles during the Tree of Might Saga.
Yamcha wouldn't have been able to defeat the Saiyan if he had eaten one of the Tree of Might fruits.
Cui got in a fighting form again, and Yamcha decided to end this.
A Ki ball shot out from his palm and landed next to him, taking the form of a wolf that was big enough to reach Yamcha's hips.
"Oh? Some beast?" Cui chuckled. He seemed almost relaxed, and Yamcha wondered if this was a mind game his opponent was playing at. Because if it was a mind game, then Cui was the best actor he had ever seen.
There were no smart-ass quips, insults, or snide remarks. Yamcha just waited as the wolf charged toward Cui, who flew up.
But the wolf was made of Ki, so it ran up too.
"Oh? A homing move? As an elite warrior, I've dealt with my fair share of them," Cui shit a ki blast in front of Yamcha, causing a dust cloud to rise up.
'Good plan. If this were a remote-controlled attack, then it would have worked. As long as I wouldn't have been able to sense Ki too.' Thought Yamcha.
Cui then shot a beam at the wolf, but the Ki beast dodged by moving its body in an unnatural manner.
"What?!" Cu's eyes widened, and he tried backing off. But it was too late, as the Ki wolf was now too close. He tried punching the beast, but the wolf moved like a snake, wrapped itself around Cui's arm like a python, and bit down at his midsection. "Ahhhh! Get this shit off me!"
Then the wolf's body shone brightly.
Boom!
The explosion rocked the ground and made a decent crater.
In the middle of the hole was Cui, armless, missing one leg, half his face, and half his torso. "Ah, help-"
Yamcha shot a Dondon Ray right through his eye and killed him. But since this was an alien, its head might not be a vital point in its body, so he blasted Cui's body to smithereens too.
'He talked too much. Didn't even have his guard up. Turles was a much better opponent.'
[You have killed: (Cui - Lvl 342)]
[You have gained one Level]
[You have gained one Level]
[You have gained one Level]
.
.
.
A row of text flew through Yamcha's eyes, his level rising crazily.
[Level 98]
[Level 99]
[Level 100]
.
.
.
[Level 129]
…
Two days later, when the spaceship was finished, Yamcha and Bulma, both with anxiousness, pressed the start button.
Unlike the previous one, this spaceship was a little more rapid and didn't have a gravity training room, but that was still better than nothing.
With Cui defeated, Yamcha knew that Frieza would likely send something like the Ginyu Force. It would be a Game Over if he met them. Except for Guldo and maybe Recoome if he acted as careless as he did against Vegeta in the original show, but the others would easily destroy him.
Yamcha's heart dropped. There was no sound from the ship. But he held back whatever swear word raised up his throat. The last thing he needed right now was to stress out Bulma.
The next second, the whole control room lit up.
"Yes!" Bulma jumped in his arms in happiness.
Then she quickly let go and went to control the ship, and they departed from the planet.
As the ship raised, with the planet getting further, Yamcha put a hand on Bulma's shoulder. "Stop on the atmosphere of the planet. I have something I need to do."
She nodded, and they stopped just outside the atmosphere of the small bronze-colored planet.
Yamcha's arms swam right through the spaceship walls, and he shot a blast at the planet. The space rock lit up like a flashlight and exploded into a million pieces. The explosion was loud, and pieces of rocks flew off violently. He had to create a barrier around the ship to protect it.
"Why did you do that?" Bulma asked, her mouth agape.
Yamcha realized this was the first time she had seen a planet blown up.
He kinda liked the feeling of this power too. However, he was a little worried how easy it was to blow up a planet.
"Because the enemy might have a tracking ability," Yamcha came to his senses.
She didn't ask any more questions or try to challenge his paranoia. The latter had saved them, and while Bulma was a stubborn woman, she wasn't stupid.
Yamcha was being extra cautious here, as he didn't want to pick fights yet.
His original plan had been to train in the Gravity Machine until he no longer could, but things had gone a little south down the road.
With Gods and abilities like Ginyu, Yamcha didn't think it would be weird for a tracking ability to exist too. He got rid of all the evidence he could.
Flying through space, they blitzed past planets and solar systems in minutes.
But such a travel speed didn't last for long as, at the half-hour mark, another ship about as fast as theirs started following along.
Yamcha got ready for another fight. Even if the enemy was stronger than him, if they couldn't survive in space, he was confident in his victory.
With Solid Swimming and Barriers, Yamcha could enter and resist space easily and go to the enemy ship, and he was about to do so when a call from the other ship came.
"{Hello, travelers. This is Jaco of the Galactic Patrol speaking.}"
Yamcha remembered Jaco from the original story. He also knew there was a Manga based on his called something like Jaco the Galactic Patrolman. The thing is, he never read it. If he could travel in time, Yamcha would have wiped the floor with his past self and made him read every DBZ anime and manga out there.
"Hi, I'm Bulma," she answered and added uncertainly. "From Earth."
"Oh! Bulma!" Jaco's voice rang from the other side, and there was a trace of recognition. "I remember you. Tights' sister, right? Last time I saw you, you were four."
Yamcha was surprised by that, just as much as Bulma. He never thought an alien before Goku would have known her. Yamcha glanced at his girl; her eyes were wide like headlights with confusion.
"I'm looking for a space hub," she winked at Yamcha.
He smiled. Bulma never mentioned him, and while it might seem like an innocent mistake to most. He knew Bulma better than most, and she wouldn't say something like that as a mistake. She was still cautious of Jaco.
He stays quiet and doesn't say a sound, even backing away from the glass in the spaceship, so Jaco can't see him.
"I know just the place!" Jaco dove his ship in front of them. "Follow me!"
Bulma glanced at Yamcha, and he nodded. Her mic was still on, so there was no need for communication by sound between them. Looking at each other's eyes, they could tell each other's mood. Well, Bulma had that ability, as Yamcha used Observe to see what mood she was in.
"By the way, remember when you were young? You were actually the one who helped fix my spaceship when I crash-landed on earth. At the time, I was in a little bit of a rush due to an attack pod shooting toward the planet. I was worried it might be a Saiyan…" Jaco explained the backstory of what happened over a decade and a half ago.
Yamcha kept his ears open and made mental notes of each piece of info. Because this wasn't something he had known about.
It doesn't take even half an hour for them to reach an asteroid with skyscrapers built on it. It was the most amazing thing Yamcha had seen before.
The whole place had a sci-fi and cyberpunk theme, with flying skateboards and boats with sails and jet engines on their back.
People below were stacked in numbers, walking about and busy with their everyday lives. It was amazing how hard it was to find human-looking people. Everyone looked different; some had horns, and others had red skin.
Following Jaco, they ended up in a parking lot. Or at least that's what it looked like. Jaco walked out of his ship, striking a pose a K-Pop idol would. But when instead of Bulma, Yamcha was there to greet him, the space policeman took out his pistol. "Who are you? Where is Bulma?"
Yamcha pointed behind with his thumb, and Bulma came out, looking around.
"Don't worry, he's with me and has saved my life multiple times already," Bulma walked amongst the other spaceships parked nearby, looking at them with such intensity Yamcha thought she might steal one or two of them.
'If she asked to steal alien cars, would I help her?' The answer came to Yamcha so fast that it was morally questionable. "Is there any place where I can register as a bounty hunter or mercenary around here?"
Jaco looked at Yamcha. His gaze wandered back at Bulma as if questioning her decision to keep company with such a man. "Well, yes. But have you thought about joining the Galactic Patrol? We have the best health insurance, and you get a laser gun-"
"No thanks," Yamcha would rather kill himself than spend another life wasting away at some company. He didn't doubt that the Galactic Patrol had a valid cause. But he knew that even charities weren't what they seemed. When getting down to the gritty details, the gross dark underbelly of any organization will show its ugly head. "I work better alone. You could say I work for Bulma."
Also, Yamcha didn't want to give himself another reason to become corrupt. In his last life was always obsessed with getting a higher position in this or that job, willing to do almost anything for it. But here, he didn't want the stress.
In the end, Jaco looked pitiful but quickly returned to his cheery mood. "How about we have a meal then? I want to tell Bulma here for all the misadventures I, Tights, and the old man had. You won't believe some of the things. There was this whole organization on earth after us…"
For this one, Yamcha zoned out most of the story and tried to sense everyone's power in this space rock. As far as he knew, unless aliens had some transformations or power-up methods, he would usually be at the top of the food chain with his power level. He noticed a couple of guys that were quite strong.
…
Bulma looked at the Cthulhu-looking thing on her plate. "What the hell is that?"
"Combro Massa, it's a delicacy around these parts," Jaco munched down on his food without a care.
Yamcha was grossed out a bit too. But unlike Bulma, he didn't show it and instead touched the creature with a fork.
The thing squirmed and squirted black ink from its mouth. 'Yeah, there's no fucking way I'm eating that.'
Though he was an adventurous soul who liked trying new things, there was also a line he wouldn't cross.
…
For the rest of his stay, Jaco showed them around and taught the local customs and a little common sense about the galaxy.
"Also, no matter what you do, don't get involved with the Frieza Force!" Jaco waved at them from his flying saucer spaceship. "If you want to join the Galactic Patrol, our doors are always open."
Yamcha stared off into the distance, amazed by the ship's speed. His thoughts didn't wander for long as he had things to do.
Finding the Bounty Office was easy, and the inside was like an old wild west pub. Except there were no cowboys except weird alien creatures, some with eight arms, some looked like bugs, and others like normal humans.
"Can I inquire about becoming a Bounty Hunter?" Yamcha approached the bartender. He had a normal human body and the head of an octopus? Squid? Something like that.
The bartender looked him up and down and took a red scouter, touching the button to the side.
There were some beeping sounds for a couple of seconds before the bartender's eyes widened. "E -Eight thousand!"
Yamcha leaned closer and whispered. "Can you not say that out loud?"
"Sorry, sir. You can take the registration right away. I will just bring your card, sir." The bartender bowed down to his waist. "Do you need anything else, sir?"
"To stop calling me sir."
"Yes, si-. I mean…" the bartender looked like a deer caught in headlights. "I don't know your name, sir."
"Yamcha, you can write that on my plate too." Yamcha glanced at Bulma and noticed her looking around. She was nervous, and he didn't blame her.
While she might look okay on the outside, having felt the aftershocks and seen the aftermath of battles between Yamcha and opponents like Cui or Turles.
'We need to get her some parts to build the gravity machine. Certain generators were rare even on earth, but they shouldn't be in space.' Yamcha reasoned as his Bounty Hunter card was brought to him. It had a golden sheen and worked like a touchscreen phone.
Scrolling down, there were many Mercenary works and Bounties placed on many people. He recognized several faces, like Vegeta, Turles, Cui, Zarbon, etc.
Bounty Hunting was the line of work he chose to raise his player level, get money to build another gravity machine, and kill some tyrants. "By the way, what's with the western theme of this place? When everything else is so advanced?"
The bartender sweat nervously. "The boss likes it."
"He sounds like a cool dude," Yamcha felt like the guy was a kindred spirit. The bartender nodded.
Walking out, Yamcha checked out for any missions that sounded good. He found what he was looking for almost immediately. "Damn, this has offers where one could fight against Frieza's soldiers. That takes some guts?"
Frieza Force soldiers were the best in Yamcha's eyes. Due to killing whole civilizations, they had high levels themselves. So they were perfectly ripe for killing.
{Requirements: 5000+ Power Level}
{Reward: 230,000,000 Credits}
That reward was a lot of money from what Yamcha understood of space currency. With two hundred million credits, you could almost buy a small planet.
"Is that thing really safe?" Bulma pointed at the attack pod-looking spaceship. It was a bit bigger than the normal attack pod.
"Yeah, it's faster than our spaceship. You just need to wait here for me, and I will be back in a jiffy," Yamcha had already sold the spaceship that he and Bulma had built.
He had no space currency, and no matter how rich Bulma was on earth, it didn't matter around here. Even gold wasn't that special around these parts.
He wasn't too worried about himself since he didn't need more money than just buying this small spaceship. Also, taking Bulma on a mission was dangerous. While he could, to some degree ensure his own safety, the same couldn't be said for Bulma.
"I feel useless," she said just as Yamcha was about to get in the pod.
He turned to her one last, and shook his head. "Just remember what I told you. Read some info about alien technology. We both have different strengths."
Getting in the pod, he touched some buttons and selected the destination. It would take around one month to reach the destination, and he will be put into hibernation until then. Those were the systems he had deactivated immediately.
Hibernation was put in place, so the person in the pod consumed less energy. But he could train during that time. Yamcha didn't care about energy consumption, as his body didn't need to eat either way.
"See you later!" Bulma waved at him with teary eyes.
Yamcha thought she was slightly over dramatic, but he waved back and set off.
…
One month of traveling in endless space passed, and Yamcha finally caught sight of his destination. Even from such great distances, he could see the people down on land fighting with laser guns; some were even shooting beams.
From what was said in the Mercenary Report, at most he had to battle against some middle-classed warriors. The person who had issued the mission was the planet's ruler, who refused to submit to Frieza. Yamcha would have praised the man's spirit if it wasn't for the naivety involved.
Also, while in Yamcha's eyes people with a power level of 5000 were chumps, they were actually rare in most of the galaxy. People who dominated their home planets.
As his ship got closer, it landed on the edge of the battlefield. Thousands of eyes turned toward him, both friendly and hostile. "Huh, I thought there would still be talks around."
Getting out, Yamcha took a whiff of fresh air, and he felt his lungs filled with clean oxygen, not recycled air.
There were two forces fighting, different races using battle armor, while the other was a strange race of one-horned and a minority of other alien races. Most of them didn't even have Ki, and the frog-tongued people had an average power level of 90.
"Which side are you on?!" Yelled out one of the Frieza soldiers.
Everyone seemed ready to attack him. Yamcha's heart beat like a drum. Excitement mixed in with adrenaline.
Before anyone could listen to what he said, a Frieza soldier that looked like a humanoid frog charged up and shot a beam at him. The resulting explosion engulfed Yamcha.
"What was that for?!" Asked one of the other Frieza soldiers.
"Look at his attack pod. It isn't one made by our scientists; it looks weird," answered the humanoid frog. "Also, his Power Level was only five. There's no way trash like that is in Lord Frieza's Army. Even our scientists are stronger."
A strong wind blew away the dust around Yamcha. He stood there unharmed, staring into the frogman's eyes as if peering into his soul. "It would be more efficient if you had laser guns instead of shooting weak Ki attacks like that and wasting your energy needlessly."
Veins popped into the frogman's forehead. "What did you say?! You think I'm some lowest-class warrior-"
His words got caught in his throat when his scooter beeped and showed Yamcha's power level rising. "F -Five thousand!"
Yamcha charged at the army, and no one was strong enough to see him move. Karate chopping the frogman's neck, the flesh gave away like butter to a hot knife, decapitating him in one move.
All Frieza soldiers backed off when they saw that and yelled at each other.
"Shoot at him!"
"Kill him!"
"Destroy his body!"
They shot beams down at Yamcha. Engulfing him in another explosion.
"Seems like you forgot about us!" One of the Resistance Force members shot a laser beam, and soon they shot at many Frieza soldiers from the sky.
The battle had paused due to Yamcha's landing, as the soldiers on both sides had been afraid of who had come here. But as if someone had pressed the un-pause button, the fighting continued.
Yamcha stood in the middle of that charm of dying aliens, with purple, red, yellow, and many other colors of blood spilling on the battlefield. It was true carnage as both sides fought.
Most resistance force fighters looked humanoid but had a horn coming from their forehead. Yamcha used Observe and saw they were the native inhabitants of the planet.
He powered up to 6000 and went causing chaos in the Frieza Forces. He was killing them like tofu and discovered that most of them had no martial arts training and just knew how to throw beams around.
There were some amongst them who had power levels of 2000 and 3000 but Yamcha ended them with punches through their chests and blasting them apart easily.
'If I were fighting someone like Goku, or Master Roshi with that Power Level, while mine was 5000 or 6000, they would be able to hold me back for quite a bit.' Yamcha thought. He sensed someone coming from underground.
He jumped up, and two claw hands popped up where his feet would have been.
The alien's hands looked like they belonged to a human-sized mole species.
Yamcha shoots a Ki blast at the ground, creating a huge explosion, which left only a chunk of the mole person's leg behind.
Ki beams rained down on Yamcha, with hundreds of them. If his Power Level had been only 6000, he might have been overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of enemies.
Or maybe not. He had Senzu Beans and Gamer's Body, so he wouldn't get tired any time soon.
Yamcha's mind wandered as he killed enemies left and right. They were much lower level than him, so he couldn't get a lot of Exp from them.
…
The fighting continued for hours, and the smell of blood permeated from the ground where they had fought. Frieza's Fighters ended up battling almost to their last breath, but in the end, some of them escaped.
After the battle, Yamcha calmly observed the corpses and carnage he had caused. None of the other Resistance Fighters approached him. Their eyes were filled with apprehension and reverence.
Yamcha didn't blame them, and he didn't necessarily care. He was more curious about something else.
The smell of blood was different from what he had experienced before. Usually, the blood smells coppery, but the aliens here had different blood colors that created a different odor.
'Can these different-colored blood creatures survive in empty space? Frieza has red blood, so he should be a creature that survives by breathing oxygen. But why can his body survive in space?' Yamcha wondered. It was small things like this that made the world amazing. No matter how long he lived or how hard he explored, Yamcha doubted he could see the whole universe.
"Lord Yamcha!" Someone from below called out to him. They were a Dumbledore-looking man with a horn like the natives, but his horn was bigger and golden colored. "You must be the mercenary that recently accepted our request. We are eternally grateful. I am the King of this planet. You can call me Squardo."
"Don't worry, there's no need to be so thankful to me," Yamcha waved off his gratitude. "Our goals coincide together, and I have decided to help your people regain their freedom."
The King smiled, and Yamcha read the old man's intentions like an open book.
"Then there will be a feast thrown in your honor! You have become our hero!" Yelled out King Squardo.
Yamcha smiled at the humble King and offered his hand. Squardo looked confused at first before Yamcha explained. "In my home planet, we shake hands as a sign of agreeing to work together and friendship."
The king smiled, and they shook hands. "That I can agree with!"
…
Two weeks passed, and another battle was over.
Yamcha stood in the middle of the battlefield, with Frieza Soldiers' corpses all around him. But not even a speck of blood was on him.
Some had already started running away. He made a finger gun and pointed it at their retreating backs. Gathering the Ki inside his body, Yamcha used his Ki Control to create a Ki Blast the size of a bullet and shot it out.
Like a machine gun, he headshot hundreds of retreating soldiers in less than a second. Normally Yamcha wouldn't have bothered going this far, but today's survivors would return as tomorrow's enemies.
Frieza Soldiers were a weird bunch. They would cry and beg for life but then try to backstab their savior when they got the chance. Maybe working for a galactic dictator made them see the crudity of being weak.
"Frieza's forces have been decimated for the twelfth time since you arrived here," King Squardo flew toward Yamcha. The latter had taught the King how to fly during these last couple of weeks.
In this last battle, the resistance had not suffered any casualties. So Squardo was in a good mood.
"But Frieza's Soldiers always like cockroaches," Yamcha stared intently at the sky. "Even now, hundreds of spaceships filled with millions of Power Levels in their early thousands are approaching."
He left unsaid that it would be only a matter of time before Frieza sent one of his main men here.
The King sighed. "True, we both know this won't end anytime soon. Yamcha, we have known each other for two weeks, but I would like to think that we are friends and what you've done for my people is something I will be eternally grateful for. But do you think we stand a chance against this enemy?"
"No. Even if you had a hundred people at my level," Yamcha answered truthfully. Frieza had monsters in his army, and even if all failed, Frieza could come here himself and destroy the whole planet just to make an example out of it.
King Squardo looked down and sighed before his eyes became resolute.
Yamcha felt his Mercenary badge shake, and he took it out. There was one message in there.
{Payment Received: 200,000,000 Credits}
{Mercenary Mission Completed}
"This… are you sure?" Yamcha asked. With his payment and mission complete, he could leave at any time.
"I and my people will die in our lands," Squardo smiled, but there was sadness in his eyes. "But taking an outsider with us wouldn't be right. Don't worry, it wasn't because of our friendship that you received the payment. Every other hired mercenary received theirs too."
"You really are something," Yamcha didn't know what to say. How could he console someone like this?
Suddenly, an angry howl rang through the air, and Yamcha's body tensed as he sensed an enormous power level approaching the planet. "Are you expecting someone?"
"No."
A bead of sweat rolled down Yamcha's face. "Then who is that?"
"Who's what?" Squardo asked, confused.
Yamcha pointed at the falling attack pod. Who even the king could see now.