“Interested in a chat?”
A voice suddenly broke the silence of the forest.
Android 17 froze.
He whipped around, only to find a young man standing just a few paces behind him.
He had absolutely no idea when this guy had even shown up.
A chill crept down 17’s spine.
If this stranger had hostile intentions and had decided to attack from his blind spot, 17 wouldn’t have even seen it coming.
The young man standing there was, of course, Alex.
Bracing himself, 17 instinctively tried to read the man’s energy.
To his utter shock, he felt absolutely nothing.
It was as if the guy standing in front of him was just an ordinary civilian without a single drop of ki.
But he knew better.
Normal civilians couldn’t just float in mid-air.
“Who are you?” 17 demanded, his guard up.
“Alex.”
Noticing the android’s tension, Alex smiled reassuringly.
“Relax.
I didn’t come here to start a fight.”
17 gave a curt nod.
He could tell the guy wasn’t radiating any killing intent.
If he were an enemy, he would have struck from the shadows instead of striking up a casual conversation.
When 17 didn’t say anything else, Alex wasn’t surprised.
He knew the android wasn’t exactly a chatterbox.
“Mind if we sit down at your cabin?” Alex asked.
17 stared at him for a moment before giving a single word of agreement.
“Fine.”
He turned and took off toward his home.
Alex followed close behind.
It didn’t take long for them to arrive.
The wooden cabin was incredibly rustic—just a simple, hand-built structure that looked like it would blow away in a strong storm.
But nestled deep within the dense forest canopy, the wind was never a real threat.
The massive ancient trees acted as a natural shield, reducing even the fiercest gales to a gentle breeze by the time they reached the clearing.
They stepped inside.
Alex pulled out a wooden chair and sat down, his demeanor calm and relaxed.
“Let me properly introduce myself, 17.
My name is Alex.
I’m a bit…
special.”
He didn’t elaborate on how special, mostly because he didn’t really know how to describe the system himself.
Hearing that, 17 immediately connected the dots.
‘No wonder I couldn’t sense his energy.
He’s a god.’ But that just raised more questions.
“What do you want with me?” 17 asked flatly.
If this guy was a deity, he probably wasn’t a villain.
So why seek out a park ranger?
Alex smiled faintly, choosing not to answer directly just yet.
“I know that over the years, you haven’t neglected your training.
In fact, you’ve made incredible progress.
You aren’t the same Android 17 from the Cell Games.”
His stellar performance in the future Tournament of Power would be solid proof of that.
17 was genuinely surprised that this stranger knew about his secret training routine.
But then again, if the guy was a god, having tabs on people wasn’t too out of the ordinary.
Still, it didn’t explain why he was here.
“Get to the point,” 17 said, crossing his arms.
“My point is that you could be improving much faster,” Alex laid his cards on the table.
“Take me as your master, and I can help your combat power skyrocket.”
Honestly, Alex wasn’t entirely sure if 17 would agree.
Unlike Goku and the others, 17 was a lone wolf, and his thought process was much harder to read.
But Alex knew he had to project absolute confidence if he wanted to win the android over.
17 stared at him for a few seconds.
“Take you as a master?”
“That’s right,” Alex replied smoothly.
“Do you think I’m not qualified?”
With that, Alex casually released a fraction of his Super Saiyan God aura.
An unimaginably terrifying pressure instantly swept across the entire planet.
Over at Capsule Corporation, Vegeta was sweating it out in the Gravity Room.
The moment the oppressive aura washed over him, a violent shudder wracked his body.
His legs nearly gave out, and he stumbled, almost crashing to the heavy metal floor.
He instantly recognized the ki signature.
It was Alex.
‘What kind of monster is this guy?!’ Vegeta thought, gritting his teeth.
Was this the true power of a god?
Every other deity he had ever met had been pathetically weak.
The faces of Dende, Supreme Kai, and Old Kai flashed through his mind.
‘Dammit!
I am the Prince of all Saiyans!
I refuse to submit to anyone!’ Vegeta roared internally.
‘I will defeat him!
Train!
I just need to train harder!’
Fueled by sheer wounded pride, he pushed himself back to his feet and cranked the gravity dial to its absolute maximum limit.
Vegeta wasn’t the only one who felt it.
Out on his secluded island, Master Roshi was busy using a pair of binoculars to spy on bikini-clad women lounging on a passing cruise ship.
When the pressure hit, he gasped, nearly dropping his binoculars into the sand.
He immediately recognized the horrifying weight of Alex’s aura.
At Kame House, Krillin and Android 18, who were enjoying a quiet moment together, both froze in terror.
Piccolo, Gohan, and the rest of the Z Fighters all felt the exact same suffocating dread locking their muscles in place.
As for the ordinary citizens of Earth, they didn’t understand what was happening.
They only felt an inexplicable wave of crushing anxiety, as if a terrifying disaster was looming just out of sight.
Anyone who had met Alex knew exactly where the pressure was coming from.
In the current universe, only he possessed an aura this horrifically dense.
Not even Goku in his Super Saiyan 3 form could project this kind of cosmic weight.
Back in the cabin, Alex locked eyes with 17, his gaze cool and unfathomable.
With his base power level having just spiked to 18 billion, the multiplicative effect of the Super Saiyan God form made his aura downright cataclysmic.
That was exactly why Vegeta and the others were currently sweating bullets.
Sitting directly across from Alex, Android 17 was bearing the absolute brunt of the pressure.
Cold sweat poured down his forehead, soaking his clothes.
He quickly flared his own internal energy reactor just to keep his bones from being crushed under the sheer gravitational weight of Alex’s ki.
Figuring he had made his point, Alex reined his aura back in.
In that split second, every living creature on Earth collectively let out a massive sigh of relief as the suffocating weight vanished into thin air.
“So, 17,” Alex said casually, as if he hadn’t just terrorized the entire planet.
“Have you made up your mind?
If you take me as your master, I will make you stronger than you could ever imagine.
But of course, if you aren’t interested, I won’t force you.”
17 didn’t answer right away.
He fell into a deep, tense silence, weighing his options.