The Saiyan Gamer
The next morning took a painfully long time to arrive. The insomnia brought on by my nightmares wasn't the only thing that kept me up. The threat of invasion while I was unaware was even worse. I was caught off guard once, and I refused to be again.
"What do you think he'll have us do?" Rue asked as we all headed towards the large building where Nappa told us to meet him.
"Hopefully something fun," Root yawned.
"I doubt it," I mumbled under my breath. If the people I cared about weren't here, I'm sure that this situation would have felt much more exciting. With them there, all it did was build up unnecessary anxiety. "If Kizoku is right, Nappa's not doing anything to fight back."
"He sounds stupid. Everyone that I know is excited to get a crack at the Tuffles after what they did," He countered. I agreed; unable to process why Nappa was carrying on the way he was. I stayed silent and kept walking. Eventually, we reached the building, to find two people standing outside. They were both adults and immediately scowled at us as we got closer.
"What do you want?" One of them asked
"Nappa told us to come here in the morning," I told him, narrowing my eyes when they didn't seem to budge.
"Doubt it, kids! Get lost," The other barked.
"We're new an-"
"We don't have any food in here so fuck off!" One of them pushed me mid-sentence, causing me to stumble back ever so slightly. I stopped myself, and immediately my anger pulsed.
Before I could act on it, the door between the two guards opened and Nappa stumbled out. At both of his sides were women, who were dressed less than modestly. He was missing a shirt and looked like he had one too many drinks. A glance at his description confirmed it.
"Leave these kids alone, they're new," He waved them off, and they complied.
"Are you drunk?" Rue asked the general, who only chuckled in response. We all shared a brief look before I turned back to Nappa.
"We're here to be assigned duties," I explained.
"Oh," He slurred. He seemed genuinely confused for a few seconds before his eyes lit up. "Oh yeah! Uhh, how about you guys fetch water from the stream and bring it here. We're about to run out of our supply."
I looked at my mini-map and found that the stream ran through the city. However, that only made the task all the more irritating, because Nappa could do it himself.
"Are you sure there isn't anything more useful that we can do?" I asked.
He seemed to think for a second, and I had a little bit of hope until he shrugged his shoulders and said, "Nope."
"Are you serious?" Root groaned.
"You got a problem with that, kid?" Nappa asked, glaring down at Root, who simply rolled his eyes.
"Shouldn't we be attacking the Tuffles?" He asked.
"Of course," He narrowed his eyes. "But we can't attack if we're dehydrated now can we?"
Root backed down, but I could tell that he was not impressed. None of us were, but we listened anyway. Soon enough we found ourselves at the river that ran through the city
"This is bullshit," Root growled in frustration; a sentiment that we all shared. He sat at the edge of the river, not bothering to collect anything.
"I second that," Rue grumbled under his breath. In his hands, he held two buckets each that were formed using my crafting.
I turned to Zaria just as she turned to me, and felt as her presence slivered into my mind. Perhaps it was because of our deepening connection, but it felt as if I could feel her annoyance already.
'It looks like Kizoku was right,' She said through our link.
'Seems like it,' I replied. 'I wanted to avoid doing anything drastic if I could help it, but it's looking necessary.'
She nodded her head, and we went back to work. By the time it was approaching noon, there were hundreds of buckets of water in my inventory, enough so that everyone would have their bucket. But the more buckets I filled up, the more a strange feeling crept up inside of me.
If the Tuffles were going out of their way to starve the soldiers, then why didn't they block the river that went through the town? Biologically speaking, it would have made more sense to block off the water. The question scratched against my brain until I took a small sip.
I immediately spat it out, my eyes widening considerably. Everyone turned to face me, and Rue was the first to ask, "What's wrong?"
It was water, definitely, but something tasted off about it. It was ever so slight, but I noticed it. I couldn't put a finger to it, but I didn't need to when I could just use [Observe].
Infected Water
This water has been infected with a Tuffle virus further upstream. This virus is in a small dose, only enough to guarantee that a Saiyan will be overtaken upon death. This virus lasts in a Saiyan's body for 3 days if consumed.
"Fuck! The water is infected!" I yelled, before spitting several times in an attempt to get the rest of the water out of my mouth.
"Infected? With what?" Root asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"A Tuffle virus. It's the reason why those monster Saiyans exist," I explained. Now everything made a little more sense.
They must have infected the water running into Omato village before they attacked. The day of the tournament was hot, so most, if not all of the people there would have drank from the river. When they died, they would have already had the virus in their system, which was why Saiyans that hadn't gotten bitten were still transforming after they died.
Suddenly, their plan made more sense. While they could have rushed in like in Omato Village, they'd been hanging back and cutting us off from everything. They planned to infect the soldiers and make them slowly starve to death. The more that died, the more allies they had and the quicker the Saiyans would die. In the end, they would win without even risking one of their soldiers' lives.
I growled at the thought, anger flaring up in me. How dare they?
"We need to speak with Nappa."
"Infected? Are you sure about that?"
We returned to Nappa's building as soon as we could, but in just the last few hours, it looked like he'd done nothing else but drink more alcohol. As he spoke, he grinned down at us. I pushed down my annoyance, before repeating what I'd learned. After hearing it again, he sighed and shrugged his shoulders.
"Yeah yeah. What time is it anyway?" He asked, to my confusion.
"Almost noon," Rue answered for me.
"Alright. Well, you guys ought to get inside. The daily bombardment is about to start," He warned us. As he did, he took a step back and already had a hand on the door.
"Wait, so what are you going to do about it?" Root asked, taking a step forward.
"About what?" Nappa raised an eyebrow.
"The water," Root stressed.
"Oh," Nappa hummed. "Don't worry about it. I've got it covered."
"How, though?" Root crossed his arms over his chest and pressed on. This time, Nappa got visibly annoyed, a brief scowl breaking out on his face.
"You guys ought to get that little one on a leash. He doesn't know how to obey his superiors," Nappa growled. "If your superior says he's got it covered, then he has it covered. Just shut your mouth and obey, got it?!"
Root took another step forward, but I put my arm out to stop him from attacking the giant. He looked up at me with gritted teeth, but I didn't let up until he took a step back and disengaged. Nappa smirked and looked down at us. "Good kids. Now, run along."
"That guy is a complete moron!" Root yelled in anger.
We'd retreated into one of the buildings nearby, just in time to avoid the explosives. I watched from a window as Tuffle ships came in waves, dropping small bombs all over the city. It was obvious to me now that it was all a show. The Tuffles had bombs capable of completely obliterating cities. In comparison, these were like pebbles.
They wanted to distract the Saiyans enough so that they wouldn't try to escape. If they thought that there was still a fight to be fought, they wouldn't leave until it was done. The more I examined the situation, the more my mindset drifted more and more towards Kizoku. Our last conversation with Nappa shifted me so heavily in that direction that it would take a miracle to bring me back.
"Sprout, I'm going to do something if you're not going to!" Root fumed as he paced the room.
"I will. I think Kizoku was right about Nappa, but even if he wasn't, I didn't come here just to sit around and collect water," I replied as I stared out the window.
"Do you have a plan?" Rue asked, moving to stand by my side. He was tense, his eyes darting to the window every time an explosion rang out.
"Not yet, but I'm working on it. I'll need more information before I move on, though," I admitted. "When the bombing is done, Zaria and I will go upstream to find where they are contaminating the water."
"To attack them?" Root popped back into the conversation, the excitement not hidden from his voice.
"Not yet. We're going to find out where they're contaminating it and just get clean water from behind that point," I explained. "I'll grab enough clean water for a few days so that the virus can get out of everyone's systems."
"We can sneak past them with my magic," Zaria caught on, and I nodded my head to confirm her statement.
"And THEN we can attack," Root said.
"And then, we need to find a way to get through their force fields. No point attacking it and leaving ourselves open if it's indestructible," I corrected him.
"Are we going to get Kizoku to join us?" Rue asked, curious.
"Oh, we're going to need a lot more than just Kizoku to join us," I looked back at him. "But for that, I have a plan."
"Holy shit, I didn't even notice that the water tasted different until now!"
Kizoku and Scalli both lifted cups of the infected water and took a sip, before spitting it out and drinking the clean water. I just nodded my head in agreement, as my eyes scanned the crowd of Saiyans in front of me. I didn't have time to explain to them personally why I'd taken away their water buckets and replaced them with my own, but word spread slowly through my friends.
The journey to the point of contamination was much longer than I'd expected, and there was a mini-camp of 22 Tuffles. Zaria and I watched them for a few hours and the only thing that they did besides fooling around inside was periodically dumping what looked like dirt into the river. The virus.
Getting gallons upon gallons of fresh water back to the camp was easy, thanks to my inventory.
"So you told Nappa about this and he didn't do anything?" Scalli asked as he stood beside me.
"He said he had a plan for it but didn't tell us what that plan was," I told him. "But considering it's been weeks and nothing's changed, I doubt that's the case."
Scalli didn't look convinced, although I could tell his faith in Nappa was slightly shaken. As he walked off, Kizoku shuffled closer to me.
"So… You got any more of that food?" He asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
"Honestly, not much more," I told him. While I had killed a great number of Meta-Wolves, I'd been snacking on the meat for a while, and there were a lot of soldiers here.
"Shit," He groaned.
I wasn't prepared to let my friends starve to feed these soldiers, even if I needed them for the plan ahead. I'd think of another way to feed the rest, considering that Nappa seemingly wasn't interested in helping them for now.
"I'll think of something," I said.
"By the way, I've got to ask. What are you?" He asked.
I raised an eyebrow at him, before answering, "A Saiyan."
"Yeah, obviously, but you must be half or something, right?" He pressed. "Because I don't know any full-blooded Saiyans who can do that shit that you did yesterday."
I was silent for a few seconds, unsure of how to answer. Eventually, I settled to just shrug and say, "No clue. It's just something that I can do."
"Lucky," He folded his arms over his chest. "My only gimmick is a setback if anything."
"How so?" I asked.
"Well, I don't know how to explain it besides saying that my Ki is heavy," He explained. As he did, he put his palm out in front of him and a very dark blue Ki slowly lifted out of his skin, forming a ball in his hand. "It takes longer to draw out, and it's slower."
"Why?" I stared at the dense ball of Ki as it bounced in his palm.
"No idea. Both of my parents have normal Ki," He shrugged as the Ki dissipated. When it did, I used [Observe] again on him, only to find another anomaly.
"You have half the amount of Ki as you should have…" I realized once I was finished scanning his sheet.
"Yet another setback," He grumbled. "And how do you know that?"
"I just can tell that sort of thing," I said, before going back into thought. "Can you bring out your Ki again? I want to see something."
It took a few seconds for it to come back out, but when it did, the answer came to me.
Kizoku's Ki
Kizoku's Ki is super dense. While it takes twice the normal time to access and is twice as slow, it does four times the damage.
That's pretty impressive. I looked at him in a new light, with a new value that I'm sure he didn't even place on himself. "Your KI might be slower and heavier, but that isn't a bad thing. Your attacks are stronger than normal."
"Alright, now you're just pulling things out of your ass," He sighed, as his Ki was reabsorbed.
"No, I'm pretty sure that I'm right," I told him. He looked at his hand with narrowed eyes, unsure whether he believed me.
He stared at himself for a few seconds, before nodding his head slowly. "Alright… I'll be around if you need me."
I watched him leave, before sitting back down to think further on my plan. I had an idea, and it would be reckless, but if it worked, there was a chance that we could win this standoff. But first, I needed to find out how to get through those force fields.
It was the next day after the bombs dropped at noon when Zaria and I decided to venture close to the Tuffle's main camp. We were under the camouflage of her magic, and even despite it, I was slightly nervous that they'd spot us.
The area between the city and the Tuffle camp was littered with craters and bodies, entirely Saiyan. The craters weren't a fraction of the size of the bomb that hit us in Omato village, but still considerable. Not a soul dared to go that way, and we weren't stupid enough to think we'd be the exception.
That bomb that they used to attack Omato village must have been expensive, or else they'd be using it everywhere
It took longer, but we went all the way around, ending up behind the camp. With Zaria's invisibility, they couldn't detect our Ki, so we got there unharmed, and then we watched and gathered information.
The force field was completely invisible, only becoming slightly visible when I threw a rock at it and it ricocheted off. Tuffle Soldiers could travel in and out of the shield without any problem.
'Do you think the force shield only applies to people who are wearing Tuffle armor?' I asked Zaria through our mind link as she walked alongside me. 'Or is it only Tuffle DNA?'
'I'm not sure, but there's only one way to find out,' She replied, knowing that I'd understand what she meant. She didn't know that I was half-Tuffle, so her suggestion could only be one thing.
'I'm not putting his armor on,' I replied without hesitation. 'Trust me, I've thought about how useful it could be, especially considering that it's much stronger than the rest, but I just can't do it.'
The thought of wearing the armor of the man who killed Gine made my stomach churn into knots. The armor was sitting in my inventory, where it would likely stay until the end of time. The same applied to the skill that he'd given me. I hadn't even looked at it past a glance.
'Understandable. But that isn't the only way to test out the theory,' She continued, thankfully not pressing the matter.
'You're right… They go out in groups of two to patrol the area and slowly expand their camp. I'll just take out two and steal their armor.'
She nodded her head and we fell into comfortable silence. I watched the camp as we kept walking and waiting, observing each building to identify what it was used for. My minimap showed me just how many people were in each room, and after taking a full lap around it, I had a proper grasp of how many enemies there were and the layout.
'There's about two hundred soldiers, and ten flying vehicles. They have bombs in the ships, but I'm not sure how many,' I told her as I observed. 'That building's where they sleep. That one is where they store their weapons and ships and that building in the center… I'm not sure what that building is actually.'
'Do you have any idea on how to destroy the forcefield?' Zaria asked, and I shook my head.
'Besides just hitting them as hard as we can? Not really,' I sighed. 'But I wonder…'
An idea came to mind and I immediately picked up several rocks. It took several attempts of me throwing the rocks at the shield, but eventually, I managed to use [Observe] on it just before it became invisible again.
Tuffle Generated Forcefield
HP: 1,000,000
This forcefield is generated by a mobile forcefield generator within the Tuffle base. This technology was invented by Professor Lychee, and is a miniature version of the forcefield surrounding the Tuffle territories.
'That forcefield would take a LOT to bring down, but it's not impossible. I'd probably try it, but I doubt that we'd get close enough before they started shooting at us,' I revealed to her. 'But I think there's another way.'
'What is it?' She asked.
'I'll explain it later. First, we need to prove our theory…'
"It looks like this area is clear," A metallic voice ahead of us not too long after, caught our attention. Two Tuffles were walking towards us, going further from the camp with every step.
'Alright… Here's what we're going to do…' I told Zaria my plan, and she nodded her head, before turning to face them.
She lifted both of her arms and her fingertips brightened with dark red energy. She narrowed her eyes as she focused, and from her left arm, the red energy became a purple mist, which floated towards the two Tuffles and surrounded them.
"Huh? What the fuck is that?" One of them tried to push the mist away, failing as it engulfed them. After a few seconds, their movements became drowsy and lethargic, and that's when I made my move.
I activated [Lightweight], blitzing behind them before they could react and lifting my sword high into the air. Energy condensed around my arms, and in one downward stabbing motion, I pierced one of them to the ground through the heart. The other turned to face me with sluggish movements, but I was already in motion.
'Wait!' Zaria stopped me mere centimeters before the blade would have cut through his throat. A second later, he collapsed to the ground, unconscious due to Zaria's sleeping spell.
'Why'd you stop me?' I asked as I quickly sealed away the first one's body, separating the armor from the body as I did.
'We can get information from him,'' She revealed her intentions as she picked up the unconscious one.
'I… I didn't even think of that,' I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly.
'You're so used to killing your opponents that it probably didn't even cross your mind,' She said. 'Try the armor and let's get back. My invisibility spell makes it so they're physically gone but someone is bound to notice that they're missing soon.'
I nodded my head before the Tuffle armor materialized around my body. It didn't give me any extra strength, which was odd considering that it made a normal Tuffle much stronger. Deciding that I'd figure it out later, I flew over to the barrier and hesitantly approached it. I reached out my hand slowly, but surely enough, it smoothly went through without resistance. Whether that was because of me being half-Tuffle or the armor, I wasn't sure. It wouldn't matter if my plan worked anyway.
'Alright, it worked. One more thing though,' I turned to her. 'Test out the armor, and then try to teleport through the barrier.'
She nodded her head. I put the armor around her and she put her hand through the armor with ease. A second later she disappeared, before reappearing on the other end of the barrier. Perfect.
They won't know what hit them.
I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter. The next chapter should be up relatively soon. All I need to do is edit it. Klldarkness, AzulSora, and I have a server! Feel free to join!
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