The island had gone silent.
Too silent.
Smoke drifted slowly across the ruined ground, carried away by the sea breeze. What had once been a small, untouched island was now little more than a battlefield.
Trees had been flattened.
Cliffs had been torn apart.
Large pieces of rock were scattered across the shoreline, and several craters had been carved into the earth.
Radan stood in the middle of it all.
His clothes were covered in dust.
His remaining hand was still raised.
He stared at the notification floating inside his mind.
[Energy detected.]
[Attempting energy conversion...]
[Conversion successful.]
[Energy Points +1,200.]
he didn't move.
"...1,200?"
His eyes narrowed.
He looked at the enormous crater in front of him.
That attack had consumed a considerable amount of his energy.
Yet the system had only given him 1,200 points.
It was almost insulting.
Radan slowly lowered his hand.
"Again."
He didn't waste time thinking.
His remaining palm opened.
A golden aura erupted around his body.
The air began to tremble.
Dust rose from the ground and floated around him as golden light illuminated the island.
Radan concentrated his energy into his palm.
Then he fired.
BOOM!
A beam of golden energy tore across the island.
The ground split beneath it.
The sea itself seemed to be pushed away by the force of the blast.
Several seconds later, the beam disappeared beyond the horizon.
Silence returned.
Radan looked at the system.
[Energy detected.]
[Attempting energy conversion...]
[Conversion successful.]
[Energy Points +1,850.]
His expression didn't change.
"Still pathetic."
He wasn't disappointed because 1,850 points was useless.
He was disappointed because the numbers didn't make sense.
The amount of energy he had released was enormous.
The system should have been able to convert far more.
Unless...
his eyes narrowed.
"There's a limit."
He sat down on a broken piece of stone and began thinking.
When the system had first awakened inside his body, it had saved his life by absorbing surrounding energy.
That had been different.
The energy hadn't originated from him.
It had been external.
And when he had previously encountered powerful energy released by another fighter...
The system had reacted much more efficiently.
Then he slowly connected the pieces.
"External energy."
His voice was quiet.
"That's the difference."
He stood again.
There was only one way to confirm it.
Radan raised his hand.
Instead of releasing a large amount of energy, he produced a tiny sphere of ki.
It floated above his palm.
He stared at it for a moment.
Then he released it.
The sphere exploded against the ground.
[Energy detected.]
[Conversion successful.]
[Energy Points +73.]
Radan's eyebrow twitched.
"Seventy-three."
He increased the amount.
Another blast.
[Energy Points +112.]
Another.
[Energy Points +186.]
Another.
[Energy Points +240.]
Radan stopped.
He had enough data.
The system could absorb his own energy.
But its efficiency was extremely poor.
Most of the energy simply disappeared into the environment.
Only a tiny fraction became Energy Points.
Radan looked at his palm.
"So I can't cheat the system."
A faint smile appeared.
"Good."
He wasn't angry.
In fact, he preferred it this way.
A system that gave him unlimited points simply for firing attacks would destroy the entire meaning of training.
If he could generate Energy Points whenever he wanted, there would be no reason to fight.
No reason to risk his life.
No reason to become stronger.
He could simply stand on an empty planet and throw energy blasts into the sky until he became unstoppable.
That would be boring.
And more importantly...
It would make him careless.
Radan had already seen what happened when people became too confident in their own strength.
The Androids had destroyed Earth.
Entire cities had disappeared.
Millions of people had died.
And the warriors who once believed themselves capable of protecting the planet had fallen one after another.
Radan wasn't going to repeat their mistake.
He needed limits.
Limits created pressure.
Pressure created growth.
He turned his attention back to the system.
"Let's test something else."
Radan closed his eyes.
He concentrated.
His aura disappeared.
His breathing became slow.
He lowered his energy output until there was almost nothing left.
Then he gathered a small amount of ki into his palm.
This time, he didn't attack.
He simply held it there.
The system remained silent.
Radan waited.
Nothing happened.
He smiled.
"So it doesn't automatically steal everything."
That was important.
The system wasn't some parasite that constantly drained his strength.
It only reacted when energy was actually released or dispersed.
That meant he could control when the conversion occurred.
Radan dismissed the energy.
Then he looked toward the horizon.
The sun was beginning to descend.
The sky had turned orange.
For a moment, the ruined island almost looked peaceful.
Almost.
Radan's expression gradually became serious.
There was something else he needed to know.
If his own energy produced so little...
How much could the energy of another powerful being produce?
His mind immediately went to the Androids.
Android 17.
Android 18.
His eyes became cold.
Those two weren't ordinary opponents.
They had enough power to wipe out cities without effort.
Their energy reserves were practically inexhaustible.
And unlike ordinary warriors, they didn't seem to suffer from the same limitations of stamina.
If the system could absorb energy released by them...
Then the possibilities were enormous.
Gohan clenched his fist.
But he immediately rejected the thought.
"No."
Not yet.
He wasn't going to fight them just because he had discovered a potentially useful ability.
That would be stupidity.
He knew exactly how dangerous they were.
Even if his current power was enough to put them under pressure, he couldn't afford to underestimate them.
One mistake.
One unexpected attack.
One moment of carelessness.
That was all it would take.
He looked down at his missing arm.
His expression became colder.
He had already paid enough for one battle.
He wasn't going to pay again.
The system suddenly reacted.
[Host's energy level detected.]
[Current physical condition: Stable.]
[Combat power: 12,000,000.]
Gohan's eyes shifted toward the notification.
Twelve million.
That number still felt strange.
Only a few days ago, this body had been on the verge of death.
Now its strength had recovered to a level that would have been unimaginable to ordinary Earthlings.
And that wasn't even counting Super Saiyan.
Six hundred million.
Radan slowly exhaled.
The gap between his normal state and Super Saiyan was enormous.
But compared to what waited in the future...
It wasn't enough.
He knew that.
The Androids weren't the final enemy.
They were only the beginning.
Cell would eventually appear.
And Cell wasn't something he could simply ignore.
Then there was Majin Buu.
Dabura.
And beyond the events he remembered from Dragon Ball...
Black.
Zamasu.
Gods.
Angels.
Entire levels of power that existed far beyond what his current understanding of strength could reach.
Gohan's eyes became sharper.
He had knowledge of the future.
But knowledge alone wasn't power.
Knowing that a disaster was coming didn't mean he could stop it.
He needed strength.
Real strength.
The kind that didn't collapse the moment an enemy appeared who was stronger than expected.
Gohan looked at the destroyed island.
Then he looked at his system.
"Energy Points..."
He understood their real value now.
They weren't a substitute for training.
They were an accelerator.
A resource.
Something he could use to obtain abilities, techniques, items, and perhaps things that should never have existed in this universe.
But there was a price.
He had to obtain the energy first.
And that meant...
Enemies.
Powerful enemies.
Gohan's expression slowly changed.
A faint smile appeared.
"So that's the game."
His system wasn't going to hand him everything.
It wanted him to take it.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
He raised his hand again.
This time, he transformed.
Golden light erupted around him.
His black hair flashed upward and became golden.
His eyes turned turquoise.
The ground beneath his feet cracked.
The pressure alone caused the surrounding dust to explode outward.
Super Saiyan.
Gohan stood silently in the golden aura.
Six hundred million.
He could feel the difference immediately.
The world seemed slower.
The air seemed lighter.
His body felt like it could cross the island in an instant.
He stared at his hand.
Then he smiled.
"Let's see how much this gives."
Gohan gathered a tremendous amount of energy.
The aura around him grew brighter.
The island trembled.
He released the attack.
BOOOOOOM!
A massive explosion swallowed the battlefield.
The shockwave raced across the island.
Mountains of rock collapsed.
The sea erupted upward.
For several seconds, there was nothing except golden light.
Then the light faded.
Gohan stood at the center of the devastation.
He immediately checked the system.
[Energy detected.]
[Conversion successful.]
[Energy Points +14,700.]
Gohan stared.
Fourteen thousand seven hundred.
He looked at the destruction.
Then at the notification.
"...That's it?"
He almost laughed.
Even in Super Saiyan, the conversion was terrible.
He had released an enormous amount of energy.
Yet only a tiny portion had been converted.
Gohan's eyes narrowed.
Then he understood something even more important.
The system wasn't rewarding how much energy he could release.
It was rewarding how much usable external energy it could capture.
The distinction was enormous.
Gohan cancelled his transformation.
His golden aura disappeared.
He returned to his normal state.
He sat on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean.
The sun had almost disappeared.
For several minutes, he said nothing.
He simply thought.
The system had limits.
Good.
That meant he needed a strategy.
Training would increase his combat power.
Fighting powerful enemies would generate Energy Points.
Energy Points would give him access to things that training alone might never provide.
And the stronger he became, the stronger the enemies he could safely confront.
It was a cycle..
gohan remembered something else.
The system had once mentioned that Energy Points could be exchanged for various things.
Skills.
Items.
Techniques.
And potentially abilities that didn't originate from this world.
His eyes slowly sharpened.
If that information was true...
Then the system wasn't merely a Dragon Ball cheat.
It was something far more dangerous.
Something that could eventually allow him to step outside the normal rules of this universe.
But there was no reason to rush.
He wasn't going to waste his points on something useless.
Every point mattered.
Especially now that he knew how difficult they were to obtain.
gohan stood.
The wind blew through his hair.
Behind him was a ruined island.
In front of him was an endless ocean.
Somewhere beyond that ocean was the ruined Earth.
And somewhere on that ruined Earth were the two beings responsible for humanity's nightmare.
Android 17.
Android 18.
gohan's gaze became cold.
"Not today."
He turned away.
"I'll come for you when I'm ready."
Then he suddenly stopped.
A thought had crossed his mind.
If the system could absorb released energy...
And if the Androids possessed virtually unlimited reserves...
Then perhaps there was another possibility.
He could fight them.
Not to kill them.
Not yet.
He could fight them repeatedly.
Force them to release energy.
Let the system collect what it could.
Then retreat.
Train.
Return.
Repeat.
Gohan's eyes gleamed.
A normal warrior would see the Androids as monsters.
Gohan saw something else.
A wall meant to be broken...
And potentially the greatest source of Energy Points he had ever encountered.
But he knew better than to become greedy.
There was one rule he would never break.
Never enter a battle for profit if you aren't strong enough to survive the battle itself.
The Androids had already killed Trunks.
They had already destroyed Earth's defenders.
They had already turned this world into a graveyard.
Gohan wasn't going to become another corpse because he wanted a few extra system points.
He needed preparation.
First, the gravity training room.
Then controlled training.
Then recovery.
The Androids. which were his first wall since arriving on this world
He shall break them very soon
gohan looked toward the distant horizon one last time.
His expression was calm.
But beneath that calmness was something far more dangerous.
Resolve.
This future had been allowed to continue for too long.
The Original Gohan was supposed to die here.
The last Saiyan warrior was supposed to fall, leaving humanity with almost nothing.
But Here I was standing.
And now he had discovered something even more important than the system.
He had discovered its rule.
His own strength could make him powerful.
But the strength of his enemies could make the system powerful.
And eventually...
He intended to have both.
The wind swept across the ruined island.
Gohan turned towards the sky and disappeared
The battle against the Androids had not yet begun.
But for the first time since arriving in this broken future... he was thrilled that this wall will not last for long