It was only natural that Taro felt hungry. From the mont the three of them arrived in the Other World, to the Great King Kai's planet, waiting for the match to start, and then waiting for Taro to step into the ring and finish his battle, quite a bit of ti had passed.
Taro floated in, and little Tam was clutching his mother's pants, looking at her pitifully. King Kai had already noticed Taro's arrival and hurriedly said, "Finally, you've co! Go take care of your son!"
When Taro entered, Tam ran over and hugged his father's leg, calling out, "Dad..."
Hathaway sighed helplessly at her husband and shrugged. Taro bent down and scooped little Tam into his arms, asking, "Are you hungry, Tam?" His eyesight was exceptional, and his spiritual perception was incredibly sharp, which is how he noticed the disturbance on the arena and flew over.
"I'll tell you, there's probably nothing to eat on this planet. it's full of dead people, no one needs to eat here," King Kai reminded him.
"Where's the Great King Kai?" Hathaway asked curiously.
King Kai paused, "I can't just go over there and ask the Great King for food, can I."
Hathaway looked at her husband, who was holding their son.
Taro said, "I'll take Tam back to your mom, this tournant is probably going to last a while..." He glanced over at the large central arena, where two people with halos were fighting.
"Oh!" Little Tam cheered in Taro's arms.
Hathaway, glancing at her excited son, calmly added, "Also, bring the laptop. I need to use it..." Tam couldn't be kept away from the computer for long. Without his grandmother around, who spoiled him endlessly, he'd probably go wild without supervision.
On this Earth, there was no internet, and personal computers were unheard of. Terms like "internet addiction" or "computer addiction" were foreign to everyone. Hathaway's mother, even if she saw Tam constantly holding the laptop, probably wouldn't think much of it.
Tam imdiately drooped his head, looking dejected.
Taro chuckled, patting the little guy on the head, then walked over to Hathaway, gently running his hand through her soft, seaweed-like hair. "Let's go. You should eat sothing too."
Hathaway thought for a mont and nodded.
Whoosh. three figures vanished from the spot.
King Kai clicked his tongue and muttered, "Instant transmission, it really is convenient."
---
West City, Hathaway's parents' house.
Taro retrieved the laptop that he had left in Hathaway's room before they left. The al was already on the table, but Tam didn't go to eat. He was trailing behind his dad like a shadow, his eyes constantly glancing at the laptop in Taro's arms, looking pitiful.
"Let the kid play if he wants to," Hathaway's mother, Hanna, said from the doorway, unable to hold back.
"Mom, you always spoil him. You're going to spoil him rotten," Hathaway said, walking over with the power cable in hand. "He can't play all the ti. It's bad for his eyes."
Tam pouted at his mother, but Hathaway was unmoved.
Once the things were packed up, Hathaway also quickly ate a little. Taro wasn't particularly hungry, but he ate a bit of the food anyway. Since there was no reason not to, he didn't feel the need to act too independently. Hathaway's parents didn't know of Taro's many peculiarities and simply thought of him as a wealthy artist.
Before leaving, Hathaway reminded her son, "Behave while you're at Grandma's. Don't cause trouble, understand?"
Tam, sitting at the dining table, grumbled, "I heard, I heard." and then sullenly ate his food.
Seeing her grandson's lack of energy, Hanna gave up, telling the couple, "Alright, you two go ahead. We'll take good care of him." She figured that taking him to the amusent park tomorrow would cheer him up — children were easy to please.
"Okay, we'll be going then," Taro said as he closed the door and wrapped his arm around Hathaway's waist. As they turned, King Kai appeared right in front of them. In that motion of closing the door and turning around, Taro had already used instant transmission to bring Hathaway back to King Kai's seating area on the Great King Kai's planet.
After handing the laptop and power cable to Hathaway, Taro took off again, flying back to the large arena.
Hathaway looked at the power cable in her hand and suddenly rembered: there was no electricity here.
No electricity? It didn't matter. Hathaway set the power cable aside and opened the laptop. Checking the battery, it still had ninety-eight percent charge left. Of course, she had custom-built it with the best specs, including a battery that could last for several days.
Click clack...
Hathaway's fingers danced on the keyboard like butterflies, pulling up a self-made programming software. As her fingers moved, lines of code shot up the screen like a blur...
King Kai glanced back curiously but couldn't make sense of what she was doing. He then turned his attention back to the arena.
anwhile, Taro had returned to the side of the large arena and descended from the air.
Upon his return, the gathered contestants instinctively made way for him. The scene where Taro had defeated Mitsurugi was still fresh in their minds, and the contrast in power had been overwhelming. Mitsurugi's strength had been impressive, yet it was effortlessly dispelled by Taro's seemingly casual palm.
What puzzled the onlookers even more was that no one seed to recognize Taro, and yet he appeared to be an ordinary person despite having no halo above his head.
Mystery naturally breeds awe, and combined with Taro's unapproachable deanor, the crowd naturally avoided him.
The tournant continued smoothly, one round after another, without any rush or disruption.
When it was Bam's turn, Taro glanced up from the sidelines. His opponent was a tall, lean extraterrestrial with a power level of around five hundred thousand. Bam, at two hundred thousand, was struggling.
Sure enough, as the battle began, Bam imdiately found himself at a disadvantage.
The onlookers whispered to each other. It was clear that Bam's opponent was one of the powerful figures who had been training on the Great King Kai's planet. Many in the crowd recognized him and knew how formidable he was. It was no surprise that Bam was on the back foot, but what was surprising was that he hadn't been defeated yet, causing many to murmur in curiosity.
"Hmph..." King Kai, with his small round glasses, smiled to himself and muttered, "Is he not going to show his true abilities yet?"
Boom!
Bam barely blocked a punch, but the trendous force sent him flying, nearly sending him off the edge of the arena.
It's worth noting that the Other World Martial Arts Tournant didn't have the rule that fighters were disqualified for falling off the arena. For battles of this level, that rule seed sowhat absurd. The arena rely served as a venue for the fight, not a confinent.
The outco of the match was determined either when one fighter was knocked out of combat or when one surrendered. Additionally, if the power difference was so great that one fighter was clearly overwheld, even without being knocked out, the match could be called in favor of the stronger fighter — just like Taro's previous match with Mitsurugi.
"You can't beat ," Bam's opponent said, shaking his head. As a native of Heaven, he wasn't overflowing with righteous zeal, but he was a martial artist of high discipline, so he kindly advised, "You should surrender. I don't want anyone to get hurt."
Bam smiled. "So you think..." He clenched his fists at his sides, his energy gathering, and soon the muscles in his arms, chest, and neck swelled as his energy surged.
"Ha!" Bam shouted.
Boom!
A red, almost purple ki fla erupted from his body, blasting forward like a rocket!
"What!?" His opponent imdiately noticed the drastic increase in Bam's energy and was struck with shock.
"Be careful!" Bam shouted, his eyes burning with combat spirit as he transford into a red fireball, crashing toward his opponent like a teor!
"His power has increased several tis..." Jiam muttered, frowning, as she glanced sideways at Taro, who was standing among the crowd. She thought to herself, "These two have been together for a while. Could it be that he also knows a similar technique? If so, he might just be a worthy opponent."
"Heh, about three tis as much. Looks like he's still not using his full strength," Taro said, shaking his head with a smile as he watched from below the stage. He could tell that Bam hadn't unleashed the full power of his Kaio-ken just by looking at his current condition.
The Kaio-ken was a technique similar to the Eight Gates, one that could temporarily break the body's self-protection chanisms, rapidly unleashing the potential power within. This thod placed an enormous strain on the body, but due to the intricacy of the technique, even though it caused intense pain, the practitioner could remain conscious without passing out.
Watching Bam, who was already suppressing his opponent, it was clear that he wasn't yet at the point of unbearable pain. His movents hadn't faltered despite the triple increase in power and the pain throughout his body. This ant he still had room to spare.
Soon, Bam's opponent collapsed onto the stage.
The red ki flas gradually extinguished, and Bam took a deep breath before walking over and pulling his opponent up from the ground.
"Impressive..."
"Have you seen that technique?"
"To think he defeated Mappa, who was in the top sixteen in the last tournant. Are all the new fighters monsters now?"
The audience murmured among themselves as Bam and his opponent, Mappa, left the stage.
When the Grand Kai announced the next match, Bam walked over to Taro. "Not bad, much more solid than before," Taro comnted. Bam smiled. Even though he had used the Kaio-ken at three tis the normal strength, the strain was no joke, and he was still feeling sore.
anwhile, the Grand Kai, from the back of the podium, where he had only been announcing winners and the start of the next matches, he glanced at Bam as he left the stage and muttered to himself, "That technique from the King Kai... too many flaws. But for soone at this level, it's just about right."
The Grand Kai, an ancient figure with a long white beard, shook his head. He didn't think much of the King Kai's Kaio-ken technique. He then glanced at Taro, who was standing next to Bam, and smiled slightly. "And your technique, what could it be like? Let's see it soon."
As he said this, his gaze shifted towards Jiam and the ever-cold Duan, who were observing from the sidelines. To defeat them, Taro would certainly need to use the technique he had once used against Frieza. The Grand Kai hadn't fully seen it at that ti, as they had fought across vast distances in space. Now, he wanted to observe it up close and see if it was truly as incredible as he imagined.
No one knew what the Grand Kai, the ancient figure above the four Kai's of the four galaxies, was truly thinking. His existence spanned more years than the four Kai's combined.
Before long...
The two-on-two battles between the 128 participants finally reached the last round. Ultimately, the first round concluded with a single punch deciding the winner, leaving 64 participants advancing.
The large square arena displayed a massive tournant chart, with 128 numbers extending upwards along 128 black lines, but only 64 of these lines turned red, continuing upwards.
Clearly... the 64 winners would need to face each other, match after match. The 64 red lines intertwined, determining the winners one by one.
Taro calculated the pace. This was taking quite a long ti, but there was no rush. All the dead participants had no complaints; only Taro, as the sole living person, felt the ti was being wasted. So, it would proceed slowly.
In the second round, the Grand Kai flew down and renumbered the 64 participants.
On the massive tournant chart, the black lines for the eliminated 64 contestants vanished, leaving only the 64 red lines with their corresponding numbers, now arranged in the order from 1 to 64.
"Now... the second round begins. Contestants 1 and 2, please step up," the Grand Kai announced as he completed the new chart and slowly floated back to his podium.
The tournant continued.
Taro's opponent this ti was an alien with a power level over 900,000, close to a million. The opponent, aware of Taro's peculiarities and noticing there was no halo above his head, understood that Taro was a living being. Therefore, the opponent used all of their strength and fought seriously.
But the outco was no different from the previous battle with Mitsurugi.
With a single punch, Taro sent his opponent flying off the stage. The opponent's limbs and bones nearly shattered, and they looked up at Taro, who stood silently with his fist retracted. The opponent sighed and conceded defeat.
The gap in power was too great. The opponent didn't even have ti to react before they were struck and sent into a painful state, with their ki swirling within them. Most importantly, the opponent had a strong intuition that Taro hadn't even used his full strength!
How could they continue fighting? The only choice was to concede.
The audience, including the contestants waiting to enter and those who had already been eliminated, was shocked. They thought Taro was strong, but they didn't realize just how strong he truly was...
There were only five individuals in the tournant whose power levels were comparable to Taro's. They were Jiam and Duan, two contestants with power levels in the ten-million range, and three others with power levels between one and five million; most of the remaining contestants have combat powers of only hundreds of thousands, and the largest number of people have powers ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.
It was no surprise that these power levels existed.
After all, even soone with just 10,000 in power would be considered a true expert across the universe.
Despite misconceptions from later in the Manga/Ani, a fighter with power levels in the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands could easily dominate entire galaxies. Frieza, with a power level of 500,000 in his base form, commanded an army of soldiers with levels in the tens of thousands and even lower, and still ruled the universe with an iron fist.
Look at the Ginyu Force, Frieza's strongest henchn, with only 120,000 power levels.
Yet, there were so many fighters here who could easily defeat Ginyu's level. this was truly impressive.
Taro easily defeated an opponent with a million in power level, which stunned everyone except for those five fighters who could sense his true strength.
They started to think that perhaps only those five could challenge Taro.
No one expected that a living being from the mortal realm would be so powerful.
"Master truly is unfathomable..." Bam sighed, though without any real surprise. He knew that if he faced Taro, he would have to use a Kaio-ken at five tis the usual power level. That would put a massive strain on his body, and even if he won, it would be a tough victory, especially with the remaining matches ahead.
However, when it was Bam's turn to face his opponent, he realized that the issue might not be about five tis at all, but the fact that he might not have any next match.
Because his opponent was none other than the runner-up from the previous tournant, Jiam!
Many in the audience shook their heads, especially the ones who had already been defeated. They sympathized with Bam, who had the misfortune of facing Jiam so early in the tournant.
"You're with that guy, aren't you?" Jiam casually asked, standing opposite Bam.
"So what if I am?" Bam replied bluntly.
"Does he know that technique you used earlier?" Jiam asked, ignoring Bam's tone.
"I don't know," Bam answered honestly, as he truly didn't know if Taro knew the Kaio-ken.
"Heh..." Jiam smiled, his expression turning cold. "Then let see just how far that technique of yours can go."
Bam took a deep breath, his muscles bulging and expanding rapidly, visibly growing in size. His eyes narrowed — if he was going to lose, he would at least go down with so dignity!
"Then bring it on!!"
Ten tis Kaio-ken!
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