Zero experiences a strange dream during his revival. A dream most peculiar and surreal. The dream shows the sad life of a boy, a human boy bound to his bed, sickly and pale. This boy suffered from a frail and weakened heart and could not experience activities that would strain his heart for fear that it would cause it to fail. The boy grew up mostly bedridden with the only things that could keep him occupied were the company of books, games, and shows he could watch on his tv or the internet. He knows that his life has a chance to abruptly end at any time, so instead of fearing the inevitable he chooses to drown himself in worlds not of his own. One particular series was favored by him the most.
That was the Dragon Ball series.
It wasn't that he was intrigued by the prospects of power that the warriors in the show could possess. He was more intrigued at the thought of living freely, going where ever they desire but flying, or even visiting other worlds just by using a technique like Instant Transmission. Even moving about while fighting opponent and not being bound to a bed sounded like a nice thought to the boy.
The boy watched through all of the series starting from the very beginning with Dragon ball, then he watched through Dragon ball Z, GT, the movies, and even as far as he could get in Super before finally succumbing to his condition and passing away. He even played most of the games possible. One of his favorites being Xenoverse. With it he was able to play through as his own character and correct the history the game's foes constantly attempt to disrupt. He engrossed himself in this series during his short life, it became his favorite. It was the only thing he could find joy in, for his parents rarely ever visited him. The only people who would visit over the years were the nurses hired to take care of his needs, so needless to say the boy died a very lonely and neglected death.
The next time the boy opens his eyes he finds himself resting in a strange pod surrounded by clear green liquid confused. but he closes his eyes then and there forgetting everything promptly.
Zero awakens in the resurrection pod confused. Were these dreams or were they real? His head is assaulted by a searing pain causing him to shout out and hold his head with both hands. The memories are harshly ingrained into his mind and over the course of the next five minutes continued non-stop. Finally when the assimilation of the memories finish he sighs out in relief, coming to a sudden realization.
"These were my memories..." He rubs his face with a relieved small while tears were pouring out. He was both sad and relieved, no longer suffering from his frailty and sorrowful isolation. "I am alive... and... a saiyan? Was I granted my deepest hidden wish at last?"
The resurrection pod drains and opens up allowing the now naked 10 years old boy to exit. Glancing around the room he frowns and remembers something else.
"This is Paradise? But I never heard of somewhere like this with numerous surviving saiyan children," He is unable to comprehend this situation he is in. Trapped within a world to fight, die, and grow until they can take their freedom in their own hands. He knew that nearly all of the saiyans but a rare few survived Frieza's purge, but excluding universe 6, the ones he had seen here resemble the more aggressive battle hungry saiyans from universe 7. Peeking at his appearance in the nearby mirror he is intrigued by his new life's appearance.
"Black hair, tail, and red eye color. I look drastically different from my memories of how they should look. Was this the result of having purity at 100%?"
He only thinks about it briefly before the computer interrupts his thoughts.
Young warrior Zero has successfully revived. Please retrieve equipment from the locker.
We walks over to a locker that had opened up for him automatically and finds the gear he wore before his first death, well in his case second if you count his short life as a human in an alternate reality. His battle suit, armor, scouter, and even gravity bracelet are inside. After equipping everything he admires himself in the mirror with a grin.
"I am not bound to my bed this time. Fate gave me a new chance in a place I wished to be in and I will enjoy it to my fullest!" He clenches his fist with the determination to live this new life his own way, however he must get stronger and escape this unending nightmare of a world. After stretching a bit he leaves the chamber and navigates his way through the facility before finding his way outside. He looks up at the building he respawned in and notices it is called the Warrior's Resting Grounds.
"An oddly ominous name for a respawn point."
He gets some strange looks as he leaves and makes his way back to the house assigned to him. Settling down on his bed he begins to plan his next course of action. He realized that his first bounty, although a success, could have been done much safer. But even so the thrill of danger and life threatening experiences drove him to aggressively pursue the bone marksman. At this point he realizes he needs to train more before heading back out into the field.
"I need a place to train..." As the thought crosses his mind a blip on his scouter's map appears. It is listed as training grounds that provide equipment and chambers for the warriors to train and improve themselves. He smiles at the convenience before realizing that each session of training in a chamber requires points as well, " Everything costs points! How much is a basic session?"
Prices are listed.
Basic: 50 points.
Intermediate: 100 points.
Advanced: 200 points.
Each session can last up to a maximum of 10 hours and equipment will be provided to get the most out a warrior's session.
"That's definitely interesting but the prices are steep. A hunt or two is definitely required for a new warrior to access the training rooms. Food is provided at 50 points in the mess hall, so a balance is needed for nutrition and exercise. Points need to be saved and used sparingly if someone wants to get stronger. Points are also needed for personal equipment and items that can assist warriors outside the city, while also leaving some to spare for medical treatment at the recovery center. I lacked to points required to heal my injuries and bled out. This world doesn't forgive those who can't earn points."
Studying as much about the facilities in town as possible, Zero absorbs the information patiently so he is not left in the dark about information he may need in the future as far as facilities are concerned. Glancing next to him on the bed he notices a very unusual and large black leathered book just resting there. Looking around he does not notice anyone else in the room and his door is closed tightly. Reaching for the book and touching it some information floods into his mind.
[Warrior's Compendium has been retrieved by it's selected host. Please drip a drop of blood upon the compendium to claim ownership.]
"Warrior's Compendium?" Curiously he bites into his thumb and drips a drop of blood upon the book and it flashes before darting into his body and vanishing.
[Compendium has been bound to host and cannot be separated for any reason. The compendium compiles techniques and abilities from throughout the Dragon Ball series, allowing the owner of the compendium to learn and master abilities throughout the series whether it be the manga, show, movies, or even the games.]
"Amazing! I can learn anything from the book?" When he notices the next message his excitement eases down a bit.
[Host can only learn a skill once the previously skill he learned achieves mastery. It is recommend that the host learns a skill that matches his current level of strength.]
"Sigh... that makes since."
[To commemorate gaining ownership of the Warrior's Compendium, the host is allowed to learn three abilities to begin with. Please select skills that match your level of strength.]
"Oh! Three of them? I hope I can gain access to some of my favorites!" He excitedly opens the book and glances at each of the abilities in the book, "There are two of them in particular I want that I can probably use with my current level of power. Even though moves like Kamehameha were a series favorite for most people mine was..."
[Riot Javelin and Tyrant Lancer has been selected. Choose one more move may be selected by the host.]
"I always found Bardock to be awesome. He did everything he could to see his son safely off the doomed planet so that he could one day in the future get revenge for their race's extermination. More than I can say about my dad back when I was alive back in my last life." He feels a bit sorrowful briefly before shaking his head and erasing those thoughts from his head, "I died so it doesn't matter anymore. I don't even remember what my mother and father's faces looked like in my human life."
Looking up at the ceiling he sighs, "What are my parents like in this reality? I know this Administrator captured us when we were very young and nurtured us until we were considered old enough to fight and set us loose on a world of his own design... They are probably dead along with all of the others from Planet Vegeta."
Putting the thoughts aside he pours through the book and examines each of the abilities recorded inside.
"Lets see... Atomic Buster, Blue Hurricane, Body Change I definitely will not select... Emperor's Blast, Special Beam Cannon, Saturday Crush, Super Ghost Kamikaze attack... Hm" The number of skills leaves him indecisive but he reads through each one until he stops on a specific one he recognizes from Xenoverse, "Energy Charge? No way can it be the same right?
He glances at the skill and reads the instructions and gets a surprise.
Energy Charge - Used to charge and restore consumed ki. Can be upgrade after using the skill for a certain amount of time. The upgrades are Full Power Charge, and Maximum Charge. Each upgrade gain increases the speed in which ki recharges.
"Sounds like it will be cheating if I can recharge my depleted ki in or outside of combat. I definitely cannot pass this one up!"
[Energy Charge has been selected. Information about the selected abilities will be directly implanted into the host's head. The process will be slightly uncomfortable and leave you incapable of movement. Please brace yourself.]
"Oh boy..." His head experiences a stinging sensation that leaves him stunned, unable to move as a series of information about the skills he chose flood into his head and teach him the abilities he has chosen. The process itself may have been comfortable, but it ended not long after it began and the skills have successfully been learned. Zero is no doubt excited but as he gets up he stumbles forward and nearly crash into the ground feeling light headed.
"Ha...ha. I need to slow down there. So dizzy!" He feels like there are stars circling his head for a moment but the sensation disappears and he recovers, "I want to test these skills out now and raise the proficiency!"
The book sends the skills he learned to a separate section and next to them is a percentage symbolizing skill proficiency. The higher the proficiency of a skill the more damage it can deal and faster it can be launched, ki cost is also lowered as well.
Zero cups his fist and bows with a smile, "Bardock, I am honored to learn your abilities and will use them to their full potential." After that he rushes out and runs quickly to the bounty center to select a bounty to test out his new abilities. A few people recognize him and are surprised to see him in perfect health, the smile on Zero's face seem to bring up the image of a battle crazy little warrior.
"How's that kid back already? Did you see the damage he had yesterday?" One baffled warrior asks.
"Yeah... Ah I see. He may have died not long after turning in his bounty, otherwise he wouldn't be fully healed with repaired armor." Another warrior commented.
"That makes sense. Good thing he turned that hunt in or those rewards would have been permanently lost. Lucky kid." He nods his head impressed.
Zero glances at the list only briefly before picking up a hunt for a single rot warrior and dashes out of the city without wasting time leaving his dust behind. It didn't take long before he reaches the area where the zombified warriors roam around. This area certainly contains plenty of targets to choose from on this vast field of dying shrubbery. Humanoid creatures of different kinds that roam about with a rare few moving alone. These creatures remain here until they are either killed or kill any unfortunate soul that comes within their range. Zero quickly finds an isolated rot warrior and charges at it fearlessly.
"Die for my amusement you rotten freak!" Once he gets closer the rotting warrior notices him finally and groans loudly before launching a blast of ki from it's mouth. Stepping to the side Zero keeps moving and throws a punch at the dead warrior only for it to block his attack and counter attack with a swift kick which he leans back to avoid in surprise.
"Can zombies really fight like this?" He continues to go back and forth with the rot warrior. Punching, kicking, leaping, and blasting away at each other before Zero gains an opening on the rot warrior and smiles.
"Got you! Have a taste of Tyrant Lancer!" He charges energy into his right hand and punches forward with his fist wrapped in shining blue ki. Upon contact with the rot warrior's chest it explodes and sends it flying back and crashing into the ground hard. He charges ki into his left hand and throws a blast towards the downed rot warrior.
"And finally the encore, Riot Javelin!"
The riot javelin crashes into the downed rot warrior and explodes turning the undead warrior into a mix of dust and scattered bits of gore. Pumping his fist in satisfaction he can't help but laugh out in excitement, "Hahaha! This is great! I've never felt so alive!"
He notices that thanks to the Warrior's Compendium he can see his physical condition and ki as if it were a percentage bar.
Physical Condition: 83%.
Ki: 32%
"These two attacks together cost quite a bit of ki to use. Maybe the rise in proficiency will reduce the cost enough to be more efficient in battle." He starts charging up his ki with Energy Charge. An aura flares around him as his ki begins to rise slowly until it finally tops out a moment later. "It charged at a decent pace, perhaps its due to the fact that I'm still a low leveled warrior with a very low pool of ki."
After recovering his ki gets excited again once he notices another lone rot warrior and grins menacingly, "No need to just turn this in right?"
He charges a ki into his left hand and throws a riot javelin forward after dashing at the unsuspecting undead, but before it could react the blast already smashes into it's chest and sends it flying backwards. The rot warrior lost an arm in the blast but just as it manages to get to it's feet Zero is already on it and smashes his fist into it's face caving it in. Charging up ki within his right hand he uses Tyrant Lancer and strikes it. The resulting explosive punch tears the rot warrior into a gory mess of scattered and burnt limbs.
"This is so awesome!"
He charges up his ki and proceeds to hunt down even more isolated rot warriors with vigor. A number of saiyans that have come to hunt themselves were kinda scared to see the reckless hunting and slaughtering of rot warriors by the kid younger than them. He showed such aggression and bloodlust that made them re-evaluate themselves as warriors of the proud saiyan race. The kid's vigorous hunt pumps them up and motivates them into throwing aside all caution and strike out at their targets with increased courage.
"We are proud warriors of the saiyan race! Are we scared of a bunch of rotting insects?" One warrior shouts out.
"Hell no! If that kid can go nuts out here then so can we!" Another warrior responds and thrusts himself towards a rot warrior nearby without regards to whether it was alone or not. The other warrior charges at the one near it for himself and soon all kinds of warriors out to claim bounties join into the rampaging battlefield that appeared out of nowhere. Zero of course wasn't paying attention to those around him and hunted to his heart's content. This continued to go on until noon where he was forced to retreat as another rot warrior intruded into their fight and overwhelmed him, nearly killing him in the end. He smiles as he slowly makes his way back towards Necropolis. He spent the whole day fighting these rotting warriors and felt that he had gotten just a little overboard.
Physical Condition: 6%.
Ki: 29%.
"I really let myself go today. Hahaha!" As he goes through the gates into the city other saiyans look at the gravely injured kid and shuddered when they see his battered condition, laughing away carefree as if such injuries meant nothing to him. In fact, such injuries really meant nothing to him. He experienced 'Real' death once already so he doesn't fear it much when it comes to Paradise's endless death and resurrection. After turning in his bounty and earning that 100 points he heads into the recovery center to heal his injuries and repair his damaged saiyan armor. Due to no broken bones and injured vital organs, he is able to use basic recovery free of charge. Due to the volume of injury he is forced to go into a recovery chamber and rest as it heals his weary body.
"I should be able to get a zenkai boost thanks to this one." Once the adrenaline finally settles down he faints from his injuries, a smile still on his little face.