That night, after digging his family’s bodies out from beneath the rubble and giving them a proper burial, Alvin got behind the wheel and drove toward Dimsum Town.
On the passenger seat lay a stack of information he had gathered on various martial artists.
“If only I could obtain even one Dragon Ball…” he thought as the highway stretched out before him.
“As long as I get one first, I can stop the old Demon King Piccolo from restoring his youth…
and preserve this year’s chance to use the Dragon Balls.”
The Dragon Balls had limits when it came to resurrection.
A person could only be revived if they had died within the previous year.
If Piccolo used the Dragon Balls to regain his youth, they would become inert for an entire year afterward.
By the time they became active again, Alvin would lose the chance to resurrect his family.
His knowledge of the original Dragon Ball wasn’t particularly deep.
He was far more familiar with the Dragon Ball Z era.
What he had never expected was that someone would actually destroy the Dragon Balls after making a wish—a selfish act akin to smashing the cooking pot after finishing the meal.
As Alvin drove while lost in thought, movement near the edge of the ruined city caught his attention.
More than a dozen escaped convicts in prison uniforms had surrounded two young people.
The pair—a handsome young man and a beautiful young woman who looked like siblings—were stylishly dressed and gripping steel pipes as improvised weapons.
Alvin had a gun in his car.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have much ammunition left.
Without hesitation, he grabbed a length of rebar from the roadside, floored the accelerator, and sped toward the group.
“Hey, brat!”
“Hand over your Capsule Corp capsules and all your money!”
“And you, sweetheart…” one of the convicts sneered at the young woman.
“Come have some fun with your big brothers.
Make us happy, and maybe we’ll let the two of you leave alive.”
“Don’t think the two of you can escape.”
The gang leader pointed toward a nearby streetlight.
“See that guy hanging over there?
He refused to cooperate.”
A corpse dangled limply from the lamp post like a slab of dried meat.
When Radish Town had suddenly descended into chaos, the prisoners had escaped from the local prison, looted several firearms along the way, and come here hoping to profit from the disaster.
They had already robbed a wealthy businessman fleeing the city.
Now, after seeing the attractive siblings, they had developed even darker intentions.
Their plan was to capture them and keep them as prisoners.
Alvin possessed the memories and maturity of two lifetimes.
There was no way he could stand by and watch innocent people be brutalized right in front of him.
Without a moment’s hesitation, he slammed the accelerator to the floor and drove straight into the criminals.
“Die!”
The convicts scattered in panic.
Not everyone was fast enough.
Two or three of the unlucky ones were sent flying as the speeding vehicle crashed into them.
Without giving the others time to raise their guns, Alvin snatched up his submachine gun and opened fire.
His first targets were the armed convicts.
Gunfire erupted across the deserted road.
The siblings stared at the scene in stunned disbelief, their eyes wide with shock.
“Protect your family!”
Alvin shouted as he continued firing, his voice ringing through the night.
After emptying the last two magazines he had left, Alvin tossed the submachine gun aside, gripped the steel rebar he’d picked up earlier, and charged forward.
He brought it crashing down on a heavily built convict who had already been badly injured, killing him instantly.
[Power Level +1]
The notification flashed through his mind without warning.
Alvin’s eyes lit up.
His grip tightened, and he swung the steel bar with even greater force.
Watching Alvin charge through the battlefield with an almost excited expression, the siblings exchanged a glance.
“Come on,” the young woman said.
“Let’s help him.”
Both of them had trained in hand-to-hand combat.
Armed with steel pipes, they coordinated with Alvin surprisingly well.
Whenever a convict tried to grab one of the guns scattered across the ground, all three immediately focused their attacks on that person.
“Spare us!”
“We won’t do it again!”
As the number of surviving convicts dwindled, desperate pleas for mercy echoed across the road.
“They’re not sorry,” Alvin said coldly.
“They’re just afraid they’re about to die.”
He had no intention of believing criminals like these had suddenly repented.
After personally killing seven convicts with the steel rebar, Alvin felt another transformation course through his body.
His power level had finally reached 15.
The increase wasn’t just a number.
He could clearly feel himself becoming stronger than he had been only minutes ago.
Suddenly—
A convict managed to snatch a rifle from the ground.
Before he could even pull the trigger, Alvin hurled the steel rebar like a spear.
Whoosh!
The iron rod pierced straight through the man’s torso before pinning him to the ground.
The remaining four convicts made one last desperate charge.
Alvin met them head-on.
A punch.
A kick.
Another punch.
Each strike was powerful enough to end a life.
When the fighting finally ended, he glanced at the system panel.
Power Level: 19
A satisfied smile appeared on his face.
The wicked had paid for their crimes.
Their strength had become his.
Hopefully, they’d be better people in their next lives.
Only then did Alvin turn toward the siblings.
“Hello.
My name’s Alvin.”
“I’m the son of this town’s mayor.”
The young woman nodded politely.
“I’m Lazuli.”
She gestured toward the young man beside her.
“And this is my younger brother, Lapis.”
Alvin already knew exactly who they were.
Lazuli and Lapis…
The future Android 18 and Android 17.
No wonder they had seemed so familiar the moment he saw them.
Judging by their appearance, they were only around fifteen to eighteen years old.
If Dr.
Gero was destined to abduct and convert them into androids, it would probably happen within the next few years.
“The town’s gone,” Alvin said.
“I’m heading to Dimsum Town.”
“If you’re going somewhere nearby, I can give you a ride.”
The siblings exchanged another glance.
“We don’t have anywhere else to go.”
“We’ll come with you.”
Lazuli made the decision without hesitation.
With that settled, the three of them set off together.
Once inside the vehicle, Lapis—who clearly loved driving—immediately claimed the driver’s seat.
Alvin sat beside him in the passenger seat, while Lazuli settled into the back.
After driving for a while, Lapis finally broke the silence.
“You know who destroyed our town, don’t you?”
His voice trembled with suppressed rage.
“Our homes…
they’re all gone.”
“I know.”
Alvin closed his eyes for a moment, forcing the turbulent emotions back into his heart before speaking softly.
“But we’re no match for him.”
“We have to become stronger before we can even think about challenging him.”
Lazuli frowned and patted the submachine gun resting on her lap.
“We’ve got all these guns.”
“If that’s not enough, we can buy more.”
“When we reach Dimsum Town, I’ll withdraw money.”
“We’ll buy tanks.”
“We can even hire experienced mercenaries.”
She had never encountered someone with an overwhelming power level.
To her, no matter how strong someone was, surely bullets and artillery would still work.
Alvin slowly shook his head.
“It won’t make any difference.”
“The one who destroyed this town possesses overwhelming power.”
“Bullets and artillery can’t hurt him.”
“Only a truly powerful martial artist has any chance of defeating—or sealing—him.”
Seeing the disbelief written across their faces, Alvin began recounting the ancient legend of Demon King Piccolo.
“Centuries ago, Demon King Piccolo ravaged the entire planet.”
“Countless lives were lost.”
“Kingdoms united their armies against him, but neither he nor his demon offspring could be killed by conventional weapons.”
“In the end, according to history, his followers were eliminated by a great martial artist.”
“As for Demon King Piccolo himself, he was sealed away and later sunk to the bottom of the sea by that master’s disciple.”
“And yet…
after one or two hundred years, someone was foolish enough to break that seal.”
Although the events had happened centuries earlier, the records still existed for anyone willing to look.
Alvin remembered reading about Demon King Piccolo in the books kept at his family’s home.
Back then, he had dismissed them as myths.
Now, after inheriting both the original owner’s memories and his own knowledge from another world, he finally understood the truth.
Those stories hadn’t been legends.
They were history.
Lazuli clenched her fists.
“So…
does that mean we can never avenge our families?”
She found the story difficult to believe, but she had no reason to doubt Alvin.
After all, his family had been destroyed by Demon King Piccolo as well.
“Of course not.”
Alvin’s gaze hardened with determination.
“I’m going to challenge the strongest martial artists in the world.”
“Then I’ll climb Korin Tower.”
“Once I’ve surpassed Korin himself…”
“I’ll kill Demon King Piccolo.”
He looked out the windshield toward the road stretching into the darkness.
“The gap between us and him is only twenty to thirty times our current strength.”
“That isn’t an impossible distance to overcome.”