Ling An found it amusing to hear it was Videl on the other side.
After all, this was Son Gohan's official partner. Could it be that the plot would try to correct itself as much as possible?
Normally, Son Gohan would be killed by the Androids, and this timeline would fall into utter despair until Trunks eliminated the Androids. Even if Videl survived in that timeline, there would be no chance for her to meet Son Gohan.
But now, Son Gohan had survived, and Videl hadn't died either. They had even met so coincidentally. This was quite interesting...
Ling An's eyes darted back and forth between Videl and Son Gohan. She was very curious. Now that Son Gohan and Videl had met, would they still end up together like in the other timelines?
"Thank you for your praise. I'm just doing what I can," Videl said modestly, feeling a little uncomfortable under Ling An's gaze.
"Ling An, since things are over here, let's leave first," Son Gohan suddenly said.
"Alright, but wait a moment." Ling An nodded, then went to the side of the injured, but not dead, resistance fighters, healing them one by one.
Seeing their critically injured comrades return to normal with Ling An's help shocked everyone again. Besides the shock, they were also extremely grateful. Ling An just waved his hand, indicating it was nothing.
It was true. After all, these people shouldn't have been injured or even died. The three of them had the ability to protect them, but they ultimately waited until some of the resistance fighters had sacrificed themselves before taking action. In this situation, healing them wasn't a big deal.
There was nothing Ling An could do for those who were killed. He could only revive them later with the Dragon Balls.
"Here's an address. If you want to become stronger, you can go to this address." Ling An went in front of Videl and handed her a piece of paper with Bulma's address written on it.
Videl received the note in a daze. After she got the note, she suddenly realized what was happening and said with great excitement, "Thank you!"
"You're welcome." Ling An waved his hand and then said to Son Gohan and Trunks, "Let's go!"
"Alright!"
Trunks and Son Gohan soared into the sky, watched by the entire resistance.
"Unbelievable. I've lived for decades, and this is the first time I've seen something so amazing."
"Are they... gods, perhaps?"
"I'm even more convinced now that they're the ones who'll defeat the Androids! Absolutely!"
The resistance members buzzed with excited chatter. It was understandable; for ordinary people to witness such a spectacle, not to be excited would have been strange.
Videl, standing nearby, paid no attention to her companions' discussion. She gazed at the three figures ascending into the distance, her hand clenching the note Ling An had given her.
Become stronger? Do I really... have a chance to become as powerful as them?
The three of them continued to fly through the air.
Son Gohan glanced at Ling An beside him and asked, "Ling An, why did you suddenly give that girl, Videl, Bulma's address? Do you really want to teach her to train?"
"Well... I think she's actually quite good. It wouldn't be bad to help her become stronger, right?"
Ling An smiled faintly, giving a vague answer. Naturally, she wouldn't tell Son Gohan that the reason she gave Videl the note was to see how the plot would be corrected. She wouldn't deliberately try to set them up, but she wanted to observe whether they could end up together.
If they really could, that would be a good thing. And if the two of them were together, Chi-Chi and Bulma wouldn't keep nagging her about Son Gohan.
She admitted Son Gohan was excellent, but the problem was she had no intention of dating or marrying a man.
That day, Ling An took Son Gohan and Trunks to various places to uphold justice. They passed through city after city, saw different landscapes and customs, and witnessed the different problems of different cities.
It had to be said that after the Androids' rampage, the order of the entire human society had almost collapsed. The surviving cities were not many. Although it wasn't as dire as Trunks had described, with only tens of thousands of people left, there weren't many cities left. Most cities had been destroyed, and those that the Androids hadn't visited yet were struggling to survive due to various problems.
This time, their appearance provided a sense of security to the precarious city, even though they didn't explicitly state the Androids had been eliminated. But people would imagine and fill in the gaps themselves.
Some would think that the Androids disappearing and the Great Saiyaman appearing meant the Androids had been defeated by the Great Saiyaman. Whether or not this was true, humans could convince themselves, and even influence others, with their own assumptions.
As they appeared, people would slowly begin to speculate along these lines. Coupled with the fact that the Androids had been gone for over six months, people would increasingly believe their assumptions. This would stabilize the precarious human society, which was an unexpected benefit of their heroic actions, even for Ling An.
For the humans, it eased their anxieties. For Trunks and Son Gohan, it was a novel experience. Especially Trunks, who gained a deeper understanding of the human race as he delved into human society.
Ling An was confident that unless Trunks had a serious brain injury, he would never go astray and become something like Zamasu.
Even though they hadn't stopped for a day, it wasn't high-intensity training. It was considered a rest for the three of them, so upon returning home, they resumed training the next day.
However, with the frequent use of the gravity training room, both Son Gohan and Trunks felt their progress wasn't as obvious as before, especially Son Gohan. Although he still made slow progress, it was nowhere near as rapid as before.
Facing this problem, Ling An suggested to Son Gohan, "Gohan, since your combat power has hit a bottleneck, why don't you try starting with the Super Saiyan state?"
"Starting with Super Saiyan?" Son Gohan blinked, hearing this.
"Yes, starting with Super Saiyan. Gohan, ever since you learned to transform into a Super Saiyan, haven't you felt that the multiplier is fixed?" Ling An asked.
Son Gohan frowned, pondering for a moment before slowly speaking. "I do think that way. That's why I've been constantly increasing my base power. If my base power is one, then a fifty-fold increase gives me fifty. If it's ten, then I get five hundred. You mean starting with Super Saiyan to get more than a fifty-fold increase without changing my base power?"
"Exactly. After all, you've hit a bottleneck in improving your base power, and you'll need to overcome it slowly. In that case, why not try making Super Saiyan stronger? If Super Saiyan went from a fifty-fold increase to a hundred-fold, even if your base power is still one, wouldn't you still get a power of one hundred after transforming into a Super Saiyan?" Ling An nodded slightly.
Son Gohan wasn't a fool; he understood immediately. The reason he hadn't thought of it before was simply because he was too involved in the situation. After all, no one had paved this path for him; he had to forge his own. And forging his own path was bound to be difficult.
"Although increasing your base power is the best method, your current growth is limited. It's natural to seek alternative approaches. As long as it can enhance your power, why not give it a try?"
At this point, Ling An suddenly looked at Son Gohan and said, "Gohan, do you remember when I asked you to maintain the Super Saiyan state during your daily life? Can you now control the Super Saiyan state I mentioned?"
"Of course." Mentioning this, Son Gohan's spirits lifted. He nodded, a bit proudly. "Although it was tough at first, after months of training, I can now easily enter the Super Saiyan state and maintain it for a long time without worrying about the consumption of stamina and energy."
"If we call your and Trunks' current transformation Super Saiyan, then you're now in the Full-Power Super Saiyan state. In this state, you can unleash almost the full power of Super Saiyan without worrying about the massive drain on your stamina and energy. Breaking through from Full-Power Super Saiyan to the next level can be called Super Saiyan 2!"
"Full-Power Super Saiyan... Super Saiyan 2." Son Gohan murmured to himself, repeating the words several times. Then, he looked at Ling An with some excitement: "Is there really a higher level of Super Saiyan above Super Saiyan?"
"Of course, Gohan. You can start from this direction. Since your combat power has reached a bottleneck, you don't need to worry about it. Start with the Super Saiyan state and see if you can become stronger within that state."
"I understand, Ling An. I will work hard."
Son Gohan clenched his fists and nodded at Ling An with utmost seriousness.
Seeing Son Gohan's confident look, Ling An felt that Super Saiyan 2 probably wouldn't be that simple. After all, it's already difficult to advance further in the Full-Power Super Saiyan state. Both Vegeta and Trunks had gone astray, but it wasn't impossible, since Son Gohan had basically reached Full-Power Super Saiyan.
The so-called Full-Power Super Saiyan doesn't mean the peak of Super Saiyan. After all, the second and third stages of Super Saiyan 1 have power increases of more than fifty times, but both of them sacrificed something to gain power, similar to Son Goku's Kaio-ken. Full-Power Super Saiyan means fully mastering the Super Saiyan transformation. Only by fully mastering Super Saiyan 1 can you enter Super Saiyan 2.
In any case, when your combat power can instantly increase by dozens or even hundreds of times, it is naturally better to have a stronger base combat power. For example, Ling An only has a twenty-times combat power increase card, but because her base combat power is strong, her twenty-times increase is still stronger than Son Gohan's fifty-times increase.
But Son Gohan wasn't Ling An. He didn't have a system that allowed him to increase his battle power every day. He needed to constantly train if he wanted to become stronger. Furthermore, training couldn't guarantee a continuous increase in battle power. Otherwise, the concept of a bottleneck wouldn't exist. Under the circumstances where his base battle power was improving slowly, researching how to become a Super Saiyan 2 was naturally a viable option.
Moreover, Super Saiyan had a certain degree of assistance to base battle power. If a person could be compared to a reservoir, Super Saiyan could expand that reservoir fiftyfold, along with fifty times more water. When the Super Saiyan state was canceled, the reservoir would return to its original size and water capacity. However, it had been stretched before, so it wouldn't be too difficult to expand it slightly. The fiftyfold power increase would still affect every part of the body, making the improvement of base battle power easier.
If he could break through to Super Saiyan 2, gaining a hundredfold increase to his base form, that would further accelerate the enhancement of his base battle power.
Therefore, after learning about Super Saiyan 2, which was beyond Super Saiyan, Son Gohan eagerly began his training.
For Son Gohan, training wasn't just about getting stronger; it was also about catching up to Ling An. If he could truly become a Super Saiyan 2, he could narrow the gap. Thus, Son Gohan was extremely diligent.
However, becoming a Super Saiyan 2 wasn't easy. Ling An estimated that by the time Bulma finished developing the Time Machine, Son Gohan might still not have reached Super Saiyan 2.
While Son Gohan was engrossed in researching Super Saiyan 2, Bulma's house welcomed a guest. It was Videl, who had rushed over after a long journey. She had bid farewell to her companions to become stronger.
Ling An also kept his word. After informing Bulma, he settled Videl in Bulma's house. After resting for a day, he began to teach Videl how to train.
Videl's strength was decent. With a battle power of several dozen, she'd be an elite monster in the first part of Dragon Ball. However, Videl could only utilize less than half of her power because her understanding of ki was quite rudimentary.
If she had this strength during peacetime, she could have joined a martial arts school like the Turtle School and learned how to use ki. But the Androids' rampage left her with no way to seek guidance.
The current Videl was stronger than the Videl in the main timeline who learned to fly. But this Videl couldn't even fire a Ki Blast, let alone fly. Therefore, Ling An's first lesson for Videl was how to use ki.
Videl's talent was very high among ordinary people. In the main timeline, she could sense ki and fly in a very short time after Son Gohan's guidance. This world's Videl was even stronger and could already use ki in a rudimentary way, so she quickly learned how to use it.
For Videl, she had never imagined that ki was such a magical thing. Although she had used ki before to make herself stronger and faster, that was all. She never thought that by using ki, she could achieve the same thing as the Androids: flying out of thin air, and also emitting Ki Blasts with more power than a rocket.
In just a few days, Videl was completely immersed in her training, unable to pull herself out.
....
Fully Completed English PDF of this fan-fic on my Patreon shop if you want to support and own the full fan-fic in one go. Just grab the PDF and binge the entire story from start to finish!
Patreon.com/AniFic